When A Woman Finds Her Voice: Community and the Wall

I am privileged to be part of Jo Ann Fore’s launch team for her soon-to-be-released book entitled: “When A Woman Finds Her Voice”.  In addition, I also have the privilege of being part of Mary DeMuth’s launch team for her upcoming book, “The Wall Around Your Heart: How Jesus Heals You When Others Hurt You”. 

Both of these books, excellent reads, seem to go hand-in-hand. They compliment each other beautifully.

Community can be a tricky thing – at times, it can be what hurts you, other times it is what helps you. Something that I read in Everything by Mary DeMuth, is that at times, God asks we heal by walking into the very thing that wounded us. When we hurt, naturally we want to shrink back, nurse our wounds and keep to ourselves. This is exactly what the enemy wants is to keep us isolated. Community is so important!

In When A Woman Finds Her Voice, Jo Ann shares that, “God designed us for intimate community with each other. He wants us to do life together, sharing both our successes and our struggles.” 

You might be thinking that I’m crazy, (and maybe that we’re all crazy) with the thought that, “so you want me to walk right back into what hurt me?!” Yes and No. As Mary says in “The Wall Around Your Heart”: “Community does not always represent heartache. God uses people to heal us, to be agents of reconciliation. Finding true community can be amazing.” Years ago I was hurt by a group of people I saw as my friends. We shared many ups and downs and dreams. But eventually I was left in the dust. Then a few years ago when I went to school, I found a group of people that helped me to see that there is such a thing as true community. It was there that I found healing for what I thought was lost years prior. And even after leaving school and all of us going our separate ways, there is still a love that we found for each other. Many of us keep in touch, and although not all of us do, we still couldn’t have done without each other for those years.

Which brings me to something that Jo Ann wrote in, When A Woman Finds Her Voice – “Hiding won’t protect our hearts forever. No matter how high our walls, someone will eventually find us.” 

When you’re hurt by people, trust doesn’t come easy. But it is true. Eventually, someone will find you. Opening up in true community brings healing.

Check out Jo Anne’s book here: When A Woman Finds Her Voice

and Mary’s book here: The Wall Around Your Heart

You will be blessed!

Success is…

This is a response inspired by Mary DeMuth’s post on measuring success. Mary’s post made me think about what my definition of success is. This is what I came up with:

Success is: knowing that at the end of the day, what you exchanged a day of your life for made a difference in the Kingdom.

That picture is from my first missions trip a few years back to New York City. I went expecting to change and to bless lives; I came back changed and blessed. Something that really hit me while in New York was the stark contrast between the rich city life and just a few blocks away the poor neighborhoods. There is basically no middle class. You either have or you don’t.

The girl in the picture touched my heart in such a way I can’t express. Our first day on the streets we got to spend with a group of kids in an extremely run-down neighborhood.  The kids were so excited when our group came. We spent the whole day with them. I wish it could have been the whole week. It took just moments to fall in love with these kids! Many of them cried when we had to leave.

This is where I learned just how love makes all the difference in the world. This girl, Breanna, she touched my heart – even now, I still pray for her. I know that my day with her made a difference in her life – it made a difference in the Kingdom.

How do you define success? Can you tell of a time when you  have you been successful?

 

Everything it Takes to Move Foward

I feel like so often we hear that in order to move forward, we have to forget the past and let it go. I do not believe that is always true. Sometimes you have to go back in order to move forward.

An example of this is found in the Old Testament in the calling of Elisha. God sent Elijah to pass his mantle to Elisha. In 1 Kings 19:19-21 we read:

¹⁹ So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. ²⁰ Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.”

“Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?”

²¹ So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.

Elisha was called out of where He was for the purposes of God.

But before Elisha could walk out in that anointing and in that calling, he knew he first had to go back and burn the things that would be a temptation for him to go back. Take note of verse 21.

He went back.

He burned his past.

And then he set out to follow the call.

In Everything, Mary DeMuth writes:

“Whether our past was amazing or tragic, God calls us onward and upward, beckoning us away from past tense to present tense.”

Burn the things that weigh you down from going forward. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. Sometimes, its not the bad things in life that keep us from the good things of God. It’s the good things in life that keep us from God’s best.

But for those of you who have a hard past of which you have to let go:

Sometimes we have to go back in order to move forward.

What in your life do you need to burn to move forward and embrace everything that God has for you?

Until Tuesday, October 23rd, Mary is offering a bonus gift of up to $246.90 with the purchase of her book.
Here are some online places to purchase:

• Amazon.
• Barnes and Noble.
• Christian Book Distributors.
• Parable.

Or stop by at your favorite book store!

Then just send the receipt to EverythingPromo@ThomasNelson.com for the bonus materials.

Keep up with the Everything Blog Tour! Check out the daily posts about the book October 16-31st! Find the blogs here: http://www.marydemuth.com/everythingthebook/blog-tour/

 

When “Everything” Means So Much More…

I can’t say that I have arrived, but I did believe at some point that I had learned what it meant for Jesus to be my everything. That is, until I read Everything by Mary DeMuth, of which I am privileged to be part of the launch team. (Everything released TODAY, October 16th!)

What does it really mean to have Jesus as your everything? I thought I was doing a pretty good job. I trusted Him when things weren’t going right that He would see it all through. If I lacked anything, I didn’t “need” it because I was okay so long as I had Jesus. There was something I didn’t realize was part of Jesus being everything — that is CONTROL.

That’s right, control.

Mary writes in Everything how control actually hurts our growth.She says, “Control is the inner disease of those who need stability and order to function.”

I do NOT do well when I’m not in control. Control gives me stability and I find it to be calming. Little did I realize that it can be an idol.

Everything reads:

“Control keeps us distant from our hearts, our pet sins, and those things we hide. We forget how big God’s reach is, that He can see right past our spiritual facades into our hearts.”

I am so guilty of that. Letting go of control is probably one of the hardest things I had to do, and it is a daily choice to let it go. Daily I have to say, “Lord, have your way. I’m letting go.” When you let go of control, can you really say that He is everything?

It can be scary letting go. But I have found it to be the best way to grow.

When it comes down to this, you realize that “everything” means so much more than the THINGS of this world, it also means cutting loose the strings. Jesus can only be our everything when we don’t hold on to anything else. 

Do you have to let go of control today? Or is there something else you need to lay down to make Jesus your everything?

~~~~~

The anticipated release day is finally here! Woot! What does it mean to you? Now the book is available for purchase and if you do it so within a week you will get free stuff worth of $246.90! Here’s how it works:

So from today, October 16 until Tuesday October 23, all you need to do is purchase the book however you want (yep, even in a bookstore). Send us a copy of the receipt (you can take a pic of store receipts), send it to  EverythingPromo@ThomasNelson.com and we’ll send you the free e-products worth $246.90, many offered by my awesome friends (thanks friends!).

But what about if you already pre-ordered your book and got LESS freebies? Simple. If that’s you, simply re-email your receipt to EverythingPromo@ThomasNelson.com during October 16-23. We’ll give you the extra free stuff. Cool!

HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL GET:

• How to publish your e-book or physical book. ($1.99 value) This is an e-guide written by yours truly. If you’ve ever wanted to be a published author and you have a book you’d like to hold in your hands (or on your e-reader), this will help demystify the process.
• A brand new perspective on the past. ($35 value) My “Get past the past” audio healing retreat in six handy downloads. If you’ve struggled in putting the past behind you, this will encourage you.
• Jeff Goins, writer coach extraordinaire, is offering hisWriters Studio Deluxe ($35 value) including his e-book You Are a Writer and six audio sessions that will help you grow your writing. Jeff has a straightforward, winsome, and instructive way about him.
• The 11 Secrets of Getting Published (ebook). ($4.99 value) This is my magnum opus about publishing–every. single. thing. I know about publishing, writing, and marketing.
• Personalized Fitness Coaching. ($99 value). If you’re a runner or a couch potato, you don’t want to miss this opportunity to be coached by an amazing running coach. Corinne Baur, running coach and author of Running by THE BOOK: becoming physically and spiritually fit, is offering 4 free weeks of online fitness coaching. This offer, worth $99.99, includes a personalized 4-week walking/running training plan based on your current fitness ability/goals and once a week email interaction. For details, please visit www.runningbythebook.com and click on online coaching under “visit our store.”
• A free month to the Bestseller Society Mastermind membership. ($55 value). This is like getting a writers conference in a box, all in one blessed place, for free. If you’ve not been able to afford a conference, the Bestseller Society will fill that need. There’s hundreds of hours of instruction offered (video, audio, downloads) for nonfiction, fiction and marketing.
• Souper Duper–($2.99 value) a cookbook by Raquel Haggard. This e-cookbook has 160 stew, chili and soup recipes. Perfect for Fall cooking!
• Let’s Get Purse-onal--($9.95 value) an inspiring audio by Cheri Gregory of the Purse-onality Challenge.
• 30 Days ‘Til Christ by Paula Whidden ($.99 value). A 30-day preparation devotional to get your heart ready for Christmas.

Here are some online places to purchase:

• Amazon.
• Barnes and Noble.
• Christian Book Distributors.
• Parable.

Or stop by at your favorite book store!

Keep up with the Everything Blog Tour! Check out the daily posts about the book October 16-31st!  Find the blogs here: http://www.marydemuth.com/everythingthebook/blog-tour/