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Here Comes the Builder

Published on November 23, 2016 by Roshonda B2 Comments

I was honored to be asked to be a guest blogger for shanaeartis.com – check out her site. Just wanted to share what was written – Do you know any Builders, could you be one?

Here Comes the Builder

By Roshonda N. Blackmon a.k.a JustsumInspiration

builder-pic

I was talking to a girlfriend recently and she began to talk about most women’s main conversation “MEN” – she began to go on and on about how she wanted someone in her life and how she would just like to go out on a date every once in a while with someone. My conversation back to her was a little different as I began to express how afraid I was of dating; I mean let’s face it, at this point in my life I’m afraid of MEN! PERIOD!!

I guess it’s because I’ve had my share of failed relationships and have experienced un-fulfillment in each one of them. I went on to tell her how, I too would love to be in a decent relationship but for some reason; every relationship I’ve encountered; the men have always came to…

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LORD, I need your Help – I Think?

Published on November 11, 2016 by Roshonda B3 Comments

Portrait above is by artist Debi Starr – entitled ‘Uncertain’.

When I was 20 years old (which seems like only yesterday = ) – I started working in a nursing facility, I always loved helping people and always had a heart for the elderly; even at a young age. I used to love hanging out with my Aunt Sally and Great Grandmother growing up because they had so much wisdom; I loved staying at their house although the 100 degree furnace going on the midst of what seemed like 200 degree Arkansas heat was not always good; but I adjusted all because I wanted to spend time with them. So when the Lord blessed me to the Nursing Assistant job working with the elderly, it was a good fit for me. Within the year and a half of working there, I learned so much. Each resident had their own specific agenda in what you had to do to care for them. Some were easy as they could partially help themselves, while others were a challenge. While most people had help on their halls, I sometimes was left alone on mine. But I prayed and God came to my rescue every time I called on him. From the smallest patient to the heaviest, God always gave me the strength and the patience to take care of them; from picking them up to putting them in the bed or giving me the strength to be patient with them when they weren’t in the mind frame to be that way with me. I had one resident whom liked to be in the middle of the bed; most nights I stayed in her room for over an hour trying to make sure she got her wish. I learned a lot of patience in those days.

After a little over a year, I decided that while the experience was great – I wanted to further my career in the office world and never looked back on those days but the valuable things that I learned during that time, never left me. Years later; my mom took very ill and those same skills that God blessed me to learn; came in handy for me as I have used those skills and talents to take care of my terminally ill mother. But most recently I found myself forgetting those tools when my mom was put in the hospital; this was not her first rodeo to the emergency room. My mom is bed bound, and is unable to walk and depends heavily on the care of the family to take care of her. Since she’s been in the hospital the nurses have alleviated some of the work; they come in when they can to assist but lately I’ve noticed they’ve been very short staffed and when my mom goes to the bathroom on herself she has to sit there until someone decides to come in and change her. This past Saturday, the inevitable happened and mama needed to be changed – I called the nurse’s desk and they said they would come but 45 min later and they still hadn’t come to assist. My mom was getting agitated because she didn’t want to keep sitting in urine and feces and who would…

As I stepped out the room to go and get the nurses’ – I was told “Well, she’ll have to wait” because they were short staffed (again). As I went back in the room and looked at my mom’s disfigured and stressful face; I began to pray to the Lord to perform a miracle and gather up some nurses from somewhere because I couldn’t change my mom by myself she’s extremely heavy and I just couldn’t see a way of me doing it all alone. As I got my towels and garments ready to change her, I kept looking at the door – hoping that the nurses would suddenly appear – But they didn’t….What do I do??????, How am I going to do this??????And that’s when the Lord had to remind me of the position I had so many years ago as a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) – I watched God during that time, help and give me the strength Samson to do things that people still today wonder how I did – all alone. The same God that came to my rescue then, was the same faithful God that was ready to come to my rescue now; you see I was standing there in a panic asking God to send help for something that he had already equipped me to do a long time ago. It was there all the time, I just had to activate it. Once I calmed my mind and asked God to assist me, I turned my mom over with no problems and cleaned her up; by the time I got finished and got her positioned – The Nurses came in. Sometimes God wants us to use what we got – I had a friend on this week to say “God has already equipped us with talents and gifts – we just have to use them”. The jobs we work on (present or past) and the things we go through in life are all experiences for us to help someone or even improve our own life. It’s okay to ask God for help, but God also wants us to tap into the resources and gifts that he has already placed in us – Your help is there on the inside of you and most times God won’t come in until you begin to use the gift that he has placed inside of you. Yes, I needed to call on God for help but he had already equipped me for the journey, a journey in which he knew I would need the experience he allowed me to go through all those years ago.

Are you calling on God for Help For Something that He has already given you the ability and the tools to accomplish? Look real close, because he just may be waiting on you to use it before he sends help.

When God Hears & Blesses: But we’re still Blinded By It.

Published on October 24, 2016 by Roshonda B6 Comments

Are you making the Best use of the resources that God has blessed you with? Most of us have asked God for things and as the bible tells us, If our ways are pleasing in his sight then no good thing will he withhold from us (paraphrasing) but you can read it for yourself (Psalms 84:11).

God rejoices when we ‘do right’ and is willing to give us our hearts desire, but what about the times when we ask and don’t receive? Now I know some things that we ask for are not received because we ask ‘amiss’ meaning; James 4:3 (NLT) says – And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. So that’s the reasoning why most of us (including myself) don’t get most of the blessings we pray for because we are asking for them with the wrong ‘motives’ in mind.

Outside of those types of ‘missed’ blessings, there are blessings that God does allow us to receive and he gives them to us but if you’re not looking closely, following specific directions or reading the right signs, the blessing could be sitting right in front of you but because it’s not wrapped in shiny wrapping paper with a bow as you were looking for it too You’ve become blinded to that blessings and begin to think that God didn’t hear you at all. He Blessed you with it, but you just don’t realize it.

Being blinded makes us miss on the smallest details concerning the blessing that God has for us due to the fact that the blessing may come with resources that’s intended to help us before the BIG Blessing arrives. For Instance; About a year ago I got the epiphany to start my own magazine company, It was something that I felt so strong in my spirit to do but had ‘NO’ magazine experience to the first. Yes, I’ve always loved to write but have never been published or recognized in any format for it. Well, in order to have a magazine company you first have to work for a magazine or have some type of experience in that area; I on the other hand wanted to shoot straight for the stars. So I began to pray and tell God what I wanted to do.

About a month later, sitting at home; I got the urgency to browse for jobs – the urgency was not to not browse for jobs within my current career field but I felt a push to apply for writing jobs; in which felt really weird to me because it was definitely out of my comfort zone – as I began to type things into the search engine, I came across an ad that was looking for interns to write for a magazine, so to make a long story short after applying and completing a ‘writers resume’ (something I’ve never done before – Thank God for Google!) I submitted it, within a day got a call and the following week there I was writing for a magazine. God is Good! But what if I had been blinded to the nudge within my spirit to take that chance all because it didn’t feel right or was out of my comfort zone. What I came to find out is that the nudge was God providing a resource for me, God knew that I wouldn’t be able to start a company without first having some experience – in which we all need in order to move to our next level. If I had allowed blindness to take over, I would have missed out on the resource that God was providing in order to get me to the next level. He’s even blessed me to partner with another site and do some writing, Ultimately we have to believe that ‘All things work together for our Good’ (Rom 8:28).

You see, a lot of times when we pray for something we look for God to bring it already equipped for us to just walk into it; not realizing that we have to do a couple of things first in order to per-fect it. A person that’s looking to start a business, may not be business savvy at first, but God heard you and sent ‘out of the blue’ a free business event to town that will give you the basics of the how’s, to’s and what’s of a business – but due to blindness you overlook that and continue to pray that God allow you to start the business. The blessing provided was the event in which God sent to town in order to brush you up on a couple of skills so that way he can bless you to the business that you desire (Do you see where I’m coming from?)

Don’t become blinded to the small details of the blessing that God has in store for you. Sometimes we have to crawl before we walk. If you feel you may be blinded to the things that God has already laid out before you; then starting today ask him to open your eyes to see what resources and/or blessings you’ve not yet discovered due to blinded eyes and take advantage of the resources that God sends first to prepare you for the real Blessing to come.

Serving the Same God, But Walking a Different Path.

Published on October 5, 2016October 5, 2016 by Roshonda B7 Comments

About 5 years ago, the Lord put it in my spirit to read the whole book of Proverbs; At that time, I had determined in my mind that I was going to read a chapter a day until I finished the whole book. But I felt this was sort of odd; why would God want me to read the whole book of Proverbs?

I mean, I like the book as it was written by King Solomon, the son of David. I was familiar with quite a few scriptures in the book such as Proverbs 3:5-6 (Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.) This happens to be one of my favorites and/or Proverbs 15:1 (A soft answer turns away wrath but grievous words stir up anger) another favorite. And who can forget the Virtuous Woman in Proverbs 31.

But why would God be leading me to read this whole book?, I mean outside of the scriptures I just named, I really hadn’t thought about dwelling on the book less known the verses. When I was given this instruction, I followed through for a couple of nights – in between dozing off and on, I quickly put it aside. During that week, I remember telling a couple of associates how I felt like God was leading me to read this whole book “Well, you have to be convinced of that yourself.” One of them said, but then I began to look at their lives and while they were in the church and followed God as I did, they didn’t have any instructions or orders from God telling them to do anything, that is when I began to feel really odd; like maybe God really didn’t tell me to do it – Maybe it was just me trying to convince my own self that God was setting me aside for whatever reason.

So, because God had not “called” my associates out to do something unordinary – I felt as if he really wasn’t calling me out to do anything either…I was totally wrong!!

When I didn’t obey the word of God, it seemed like everything but the kitchen sink was coming my way; every time I turned around some life crisis was happening or taking shape in my life – There were many things that came before me in which I surely needed council and wisdom to know how to handle, but because I disobeyed God and took the path of my associates – I was made to suffer the consequences for my “epic” fail.

Once I did a little research on what the book of Proverbs was all about, I found out that the book of Proverbs was a book of instruction, guidance and wisdom in which we all need in order to make major life decisions, it’s also a book in which I believe God wants us to read in order to live a life of purpose, structure and success. Although the verses may seem very ancient – their meanings and life lessons will help us navigate our own life into the ordered life in which God would like for us to have.

You see? God doesn’t allow you to take the same path as others. Each of us have something different that we need to work on and only God knows what that truly is. He may need you to read the book of Proverbs to build your wisdom skills while your friend or someone else may be going through a totally different process, God may have them in the book of Galatians – studying the Fruits of the Spirit because he knows that is what they need. When it comes to our lives, God is the only one whom truly knows what each of us will face and come in counter with, when he puts things in our spirits to do or to say, trust that it’s for a particular reason – After all, Father knows Best.

I have the bible app on my phone and within it contains reading plans – I usually do these because they keep me motivated and in tune with God and his word. As a matter of fact, I’m just about to finish a plan called Wait and See by Wendy Pope in which you can see here. It’s a 7 day plan in which I’m about finished with; so as I scrolled around to check on other plans I could indulge in – You wouldn’t guess what bible plan I just happened to stumble upon, Yes! “The Book Of Proverbs” – Okay, so five years later and God is still trying to get my attention with this book! So, my next plan is to read the book of Proverbs in which I’ve just recently started. So as you can see, if you fail the first time God has a way of bringing it right back around for you to complete the make-up test.

Just remember, your process is not going to be like someone else’s, Yes; we all may have the same experiences but we all follow different paths in how we go through those circumstances. Don’t become side-tracked if God didn’t tell your friend to volunteer at the local shelter but put it in your spirit to do so or God may be calling you to do something extraordinary that no one else is currently doing, The bible says “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”(Hebrews 4:7 NLT) don’t sit on what he has called you to do because it seems weird or unusual. God chose you and picked you out to carry through on a task that he knows your friends and/or your family is not equipped to do. He trusts you and he’s counting on you to make a difference. Not THEM, but YOU!

JustsumInspiration Guest Blogger series presents: The Power of Influence and The Importance of Your Circle. By Shanae Artis

Published on September 19, 2016 by Roshonda B2 Comments

If you don’t mind I’m going to be transparent for a few and chat with my sisters about the power of influence.

One morning, while getting a ride from my friend to work, as we were chatting I was scrolling through FB and I saw the word ZEN. So I said “Drik, what exactly does Zen mean?” She said meditating or something like that. I said “oh”… and I as I sat there and thought about Zen a thought jumped in my mind and it sounded like “As Christians we don’t believe in that”. Immediately I realized that that was an idea I had always thought because that’s what I was told. The very next thing that came to mind were a few other beliefs I had and how those too were things I believed because it’s what I was told. Instantly I started to get a little uneasy because several ideas and views that I had adopted played in my mind and they all had 1 thing in common… They were all views I had because of what I was told.

So I got to work and it was still heavy on my heart because now, I’ve realized that not only could I have been living a lie but I recognized that a lot of my ideas and views up until that moment had been created through the influences in my life and whether or not it was true it was true to them and had been true to me because I believed it and didn’t even attempt to challenge its validity. So I’m at work listening to my favorite worship music and I felt it in my spirit…. The power of influence and the importance of your circle. As I felt that, thoughts started to come and I made a decision right there that something had to change!!

I realized that my views about life, my life and other people all stemmed from the opinions and thoughts of others. I began to see how although I KNEW God had greater plans for me and that there was more to life for me I allowed myself to be stuck. I was stuck in someone else’s “box”. Handicapped from moving forward in my own truth because I was too stuck in theirs. See the truth is those that I surrounded myself with didn’t have the same dreams as me. They didn’t see what I saw, feel what I felt or even believe what I believed. I believed there was more for me…. They couldn’t see that for themselves.

See when I was ready to move forward in my dream those influences would say things like “Girl you know they say” and in my mind I’d wonder who was they?? And why did I care what they had to say? Because the truth is I only care about what HE says. But those “They say Nay-Sayers” had a hold on me and what I believed.

That day in the car I had a revelation and it all began with the word Zen… Zen led me to see the power of influences, the need to release my mind from them and to the importance of my circle. As I sat there at my desk I wrote “surround yourself with people that influence you to be you. People that encourage you to think for yourself and foster your own opinions. People that challenge you and hold you accountable. Not the “They say Nay-Sayers” Why does what they say matter?? Pray for discernment and revelation.”

So my sister.. I ask you.. Who have you allowed to influence you? Who are the “They say Nay-Sayers” in your life?? Surround yourself with people that influence you to be you. People that encourage you to think for yourself and foster your own opinions. People that challenge you and hold you accountable. Not the “They say Nay-Sayers” Honestly, why does what they say matter??

Pray for discernment and revelation.

Ask God to reveal any negative influences to you, and then ask for the strength to release your mind from “their box.” Your circle is important to the next level in your life and your destiny awaits you.

Be BOLD

Be BEAUTIFUL

Be YOU

-Shanae

Shanae Artis: Makeup Artist Beauty, Educator and owner of SAM Image Consulting Co. is committed to influencing change in the lives of every woman she encounters. Through personal experience, Shanae recognizes there is a need for women to know the importance of having a positive self-image and presenting themselves in a way that promotes a successful lifestyle. Shanae has a genuine heart to motivate and educate. Through her gifts, creativity and down to earth personality Shanae is inspiring women to act on their desire for a better lifestyle starting with transforming how they see and present themselves.

SAM Image Consulting Co. is a lifestyle brand, promoting confidence and capability. Shanae believes as women, the way we carry ourselves speaks to how we feel about ourselves. Also, as women, we are all capable of putting forth our best effort. She understands when we look good, we feel good and we do great. SAM is teaching real women how to do their own makeup in simple, easy to follow and time efficient ways.

Whether you need an encouraging word, make-up tips or a beauty consultation; Shanae is your one stop shop!! – You can Follow Shanae via the contact information below:

Website: www.Shanaeartis.com Email: Shanae@shanaeartis.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/samimageconsultingco YouTube: SAM ImageCo Instagram: SAMImageCo

If you would like to be a part of the guest blogger series for JustsumInspiration, complete the contact form on this site or email justsuminspiration@gmail.com for more info.