Blessings – A Blog, A Magazine. It's JustsumInspiration!

Sunday’s Thought: A $20 Bill and A Spot in the Shade…

Published on December 3, 2017December 1, 2017 by Roshonda B6 Comments

I’m the type of person that believe in miracles, I believe in the unexpected. I’m very optimistic, I believe that anything is possible. However; I usually have this type of belief when it comes to other people, never for myself…lol. When unexpected miracles and blessings happen for people, I get SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited, I act as if what they’ve just experienced has also just happened to me as well. I’ve never been the type of person that gets jealous or become envious when nice things happen to people, I guess deep down inside of me, I feel as though being happy for them will in someway improve the…for lack of a better word – “karma” in my own life, but I guess the happier you are doesn’t always necessarily mean that, that same fortune will follow you or at least that’s what I thought, until last Wednesday happened….

Last Wednesday (29th), made one year that my mom has been deceased. I have to say, I really wasn’t looking forward to that day although I knew it was coming, no matter what I felt or thought – that time last year, I was at work when I got the news from my sister that my mom had slipped peacefully away from us. She had been in the hospital for well over a month and the doctors were coming in like every other day, not to give us good news concerning her condition – but worse news. First they told us, she had 6 months, in which quickly turned into 2 weeks and before we could try to adjust ourselves to that news, they announced “We don’t think she’ll make it to Thanksgiving” talk in which at that time was less than a week away; needless to say, she lived 5 days after Thanksgiving. So this year has been a really tough first year without her; getting through mother’s day was the hardest day of my life. But, here I was now facing the one year mark and thinking of how I was going to spend the day. I wanted to do something simple – yet – carefree for the day. I didn’t want to do social media and I didn’t, I sort of unplugged that day to reflect.

It was such a beautiful day last Wednesday, the weather was so perfect, it was almost like one of those days that the movies could only create, I remember thanking God for such a beautiful day, as last year it was rainy and cold on the very same day. I wanted to stay home but then I thought, what good would that do (an idle mind is the devil’s workshop). So I packed my lunch, went to New Bern and spent time with a dear friend. We walked and looked at shops and suddenly decided to go to the park to eat our lunch. Upon parking and getting out of the car to find a place to sit, I noticed two benches; one looked as if the sun was shining right on it and the other which was further away, looked a little shadier, as it was located near a tree. “Let’s go over there” I stated, once we walked over we began to eat our lunch and talk, when all of a sudden out the corner of my right eye, I noticed this lady fastly approaching us. As she came closer, I began to get a little paranoid; people just randomly walking up to you is not as innocent as it used to be and with so much going on now, you have to be careful. As she approached, I heard her say “Hi, I know you don’t know me and I don’t know you” I have to be honest, the first thing I thought was – “Okay, is she going to ask for cash?” – “What story is she coming over here with.” I mean, it is closer to the holidays and people are trying to get something for their children or themselves; I mean, it is the season of giving, right?

Now she was standing on the side of the table repeating her earlier sentence “I know you don’t know me and I don’t know you, but God just blessed me and I wanted to pass that blessing on to someone else” Immediately, I was stunned…mainly because I had already put up a defense guard but when she said that, I felt that guard slowly letting down. “I just want to bless you,” she said and she put a twenty-dollar bill in my hand and my good friends hand. “I just wanted to be a blessing to someone,” she said. I was so shocked and stunned by what she did and her act of “receive a blessing, pass a blessing” until I almost let her walk off without giving her a huge hug, in which I did when I snapped out of my trance. I thanked her again and again and again….”You’re welcome, Be Blessed” was all she said as she quickly walked to her car, I watched her as she drove away. WOWWWW!!!! was the only word all me and my friend could say. I suddenly raised my hands to God and gave him a big thank you!

Her act of kindness was something that I seen happen many times over to other people, but never thought that it would ever happen to me. Now I know you must be saying “Well, it was just $20.00, but it was a true blessing to me as I went to my mom’s home town with little to no gas and was wondering how I was going to get back home, but didn’t really think about it much – so it was a right on time blessing and she didn’t even know about it, she just felt compelled to bless someone that day because she had been blessed and what a tremendous blessing it was!

Have you ever been compelled to do something out of the extraordinary and did it?

Roshonda N. Blackmon – Creator of A Blog, A Magazine. It’s JustsumInspiration, Author, Speaker & Encourager

Let’s Live Well, Laugh Loud, Inspire More & Love Harder!

November Vibes

Published on November 1, 2017January 8, 2021 by Roshonda B9 Comments

Well, Ya’ll – November is officially here – One more month until the end of the year and soon it’ll be 2018!!! Wow can you believe it? While this year has definitely been a roller-coaster ride of fun, emotional turmoils, second-guessing situations and myself and just trying to find “purpose” in the smallest of things, I’ve always kept a positive attitude in regards to the many “seen” and “unforeseen” blessings that God has bestowed upon me, my family, friends and even people I don’t know – I’m happy when good things happen for people and I take pleasure in seeing people smile. That smile bumps up a notch especially when I see children doing big things such as the post of little Sunshine Oelfke and how she took her allowance money to help an unfortunate friend, in which her donation ended up helping her whole class. I smile even wider when I see un-ordinary people doing extraordinary things for others, such as Franz Jacob; the barber who goes out of his way to cut his 6yr old autistic client’s hair.

So, what are you talking about Roshonda – you may ask? I’m talking about having an Attitude of Gratitude.

Why should we wait until November to be thankful, when there are so many positive stories around us that are happening each and everyday – stories that bring us hope, encouragement, inspiration and a grateful heart towards others. While I’m not naive’ to the many “negative” aspects that the news may bring – stories of hurt, pain, disappointment, heartache and disgust and yes, they all make me very sad, sometimes to the point of crying in which makes my mind wonder – “What’s the point of life?” But instead of focusing on the negative, I “choose” to focus on something so much greater and that’s the positive side of things – I can’t help what other people may or may not do, but I can and am responsible for my actions and the choices that I make in the process.

There are so many things to be thankful for and this month – I want to focus on us being thankful for the small things – it’s easy to look at negative things as they are so easy to find; but in order to have/live a happy fulfilled life – we have to fill ourselves with positive notes and “choose” to see things in a different light, a light that may not always be so easy to find. Every other day for the month of November, I am going to be sharing some “gratitude” statements with you. Each statement (which will be posted every Monday and Wednesday of this month) will be questions in which will help us see things in a different way, including ourselves – they’ll be questions where you may have to dig deep in order to answer them, but in the end – my hope is that you will feel more empowered and begin to see yourself and even your life differently and not just for the month of November – but for every month of the year.

In the midst of the the Q&A’s, I’ll also be posting a couple of blog posts on Thursday’s (except for the 23rd – Thanksgiving) that will give you tips on how to be happier and more thankful. So be on the lookout for those. I’ve had quite a few people in life to ask me “Why do you smile so much” I mean do you ever get sad?. I’ve even had some people that have tried to dull that smile on many occasions and almost succeeded but My answer to that question is always “OF COURSE, I’m Human!!” but the secret is:

My Faith.
I “choose” to allow what I let in and what I don’t.
I love the feeling of being positive and displaying a good attitude. (Makes the day go by quicker..lol)

We all have a choice, I just choose to see things differently than someone else looking at the exact same thing and that’s it. I hope you join me this month in answering the questions and hey, you might even want make you a gratitude jar and put in the things that you are grateful for, so when you’re having a bad day you can pull out something positive and reflect on it, it might seem cheesy but it’ll give you a new perspective on looking at your life and situation in a whole new way. Trust Me!

So, let’s get this month started shall we?

Roshonda N. Blackmon – Creator of A Blog, A Magazine. It’s JustsumInspiration, Author, Speaker & Encourager

Let’s Live Well, Laugh Loud, Inspire Often & Love Hard!

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.