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MAY! I Interest You in a Few Topics?

Published on May 4, 2017 by Roshonda B9 Comments

MAY IS HERE AND THE HOT TOPICS ARE TOO!!

Doesn’t it seem as though April just came in like a whirlwind and left without even saying “Goodbye?” It came and went so fast, I feel as if I got whiplash….Oh April, April where didst thou Go?? Well, as we say Bon-Voyage to April – We have now greeted May whom seemed to have just popped into our lives from no where.

But, the good thing is at least the sun is shining, the weather is getting back to normal and everyone seems to be enjoying that. Speaking of enjoying, Self-Help April’s Blog Posts gained such a success in readership, that I thought I would drive that train right on into May. So, starting next Thursday 5/11/17 and every Thursday morning after that, I’ll be posting more topics and tips. Since no post will be posted this week, the last post will be posted on Sunday 5/28/17.

So, as we pray that May slows down enough for us to catch our breath – Take a Peek Below at the topics we will be discussing during the month!

TOPIC FOR 5/11/17: WHOSE CREDIT?, THAT’S NOT MY CREDIT!

I have always been afraid and or avoided looking at my credit score, that senseless act has not helped my situation but has worsened it over the years. In this post, I’ll help you get out of denial with reviewing your own score and face the truths in reviewing your own credit report. I’ll also give links to sites that can help you manage your score.

TOPIC FOR 5/18/17: OH SNAP!, LOOK WHO’S A LEADER…

Not many of us like to take the lead, but did you know that we were all born to lead in some capacity or another. A Leader is not characterized by how you look but in how you act. I’ll share my experiences on leadership and offer you tips to be the best leader, you can be.

TOPIC FOR 5/25/17: TRUSTING YOUR HEAD, GUT OR YOUR HEART

Sometimes its hard to distinguish which body part is saying what; especially when it comes to our emotions. We don’t know if our heart, head or gut is leading us in the right direction. We’ll discuss tips on this subject and how to distinguish one from the other.

TOPIC FOR 5/28/17: KEEPING GOD AT THE “BAE” LEVEL

Who is your #1 BAE right now?, But, what does BAE even mean? Well, if your BAE is anyone else other than God then we might need to switch some things around. We’ll discuss what the word really means and give tips on how to keep your true BAE First, no matter whom you’re rolling with at the moment!

So Here We Go Again! Come back each Thursday and see the full post, get tips and suggestions. Feel free to share any post, comment, like and subscribe.

LET’S LIVE, WALK & BE INSPIRED TOGETHER!!!

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.

DADDY! I want it ALL ~

Published on August 9, 2016 by Roshonda BLeave a comment

This past Sunday before I journeyed off to take my usual trip to see my family, I decided to stop in Big Lots; I’m in the process of decorating my bedroom and decided to go with the “Fleur-de-lis a.k.a Paris” theme again, they have so many things out now that relates to Paris; so many of the small and big stores are now carrying things that display the beauty and history of the city. Although my fascination of the country began way before it’s very tragic events, It’s still a “places I must visit” on my bucket list.

But there’s a specific picture I’m actually looking for, so I decided to stop in there and take a look around before the trip home; while in there, they indeed had quite a few things but didn’t necessarily have what I was looking for – instead of leaving right away, I decided to peruse the rest of the store and see what else they had. I ended up in the back of the store where they had all of this nice furniture, as I began to test out couches and chairs my eyes took notice of this young lady, whom was acting very anxious – I watched as she hurriedly went back and forward from this lady and man in which turned out to be her parents “I just talked to mom and dad” she began to say to the younger guy whom was with them. As I made my way over to look at the beds and dresser sets; her mom told the store clerk that they wanted to purchase this nicely finished 5-drawer dresser. “Sure” he said, if you all would go over to the service desk, I’ll be with you in a minute. He then made his way through these big doors which led to the back of the store.

As her mom, dad and the young guy made their way over to the desk; the young lady began to look over the purchase again – slightly rubbing her hand across the finished look of the dresser, “I love this whole set,” she stated; as she looked over to the matching bed, chest and nightstand to go with it. I love this – “Daddy, I want it All” she said, I want the whole set! Her dad looked at her with pleasure, as if he was just waiting on her to ask. As she walked away and traveled over to the service desk; I could imagine she got everything her heart desired and then some, all because she asked her daddy for it all.

The first thing I thought when I saw this exchange and how pleased her daddy looked; just to give her what she asked for was “I wish I had a daddy to do that for me”…she’s a blessed girl, I thought to myself – But then I realized, while I may not have had a “natural” daddy that could’ve given me everything my heart desired – I have a spiritual daddy whom loves, cherishes and cares for me; and he too is just waiting on me to say “Daddy, I want it All” because he delights in giving us the desires of our heart…….under one condition.

The bible says “Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalms 37:4 (NASB)

it also says:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Matthew 7:7

As any parent will tell you, they are apt to give their children anything their hearts desire, while some parents give to their children even in their disobedience – 90% of parents are eager to do more for their children when their kids have proven or shown them that they can be responsible and complete necessary tasks without having to be told or chastised about doing them, this makes a parent feel good; knowing that the items or things they are purchasing for their children have been rightfully earned.

This is the same concept that our Daddy (God) takes with us, while the bible says God is a God of no respecter of person’s as he rains on the just (good) as well as the unjust (not so good) – He delights in his children seeking his face and doing the right things; parents dislike when their children use them just to get what they want only to later disrespect them when their asked to do something. Our Daddy (heavenly father) feels the same way. God doesn’t mind blessing us, but it really makes it so much easier when we’re obedient to him first, because as Chris Tomlin states he’s a “Good, Good Father” (click link to listen)

I don’t know if the young lady in the store had to do anything good to get what she received and it really doesn’t matter, because my daddy too; is waiting to give me the desires of my heart. Because where I used to only “wish” for parents that had it good enough to give me everything I ever wanted, I learned to be content with my parents and their financial standing because I have a spiritual Father whom, If my ways are pleasing in his sight and I do exactly what he wants me do – I too can say “Daddy, I want It ALL!!” and just like that; If it’s something that won’t harm or hinder me – My daddy too, will look at me with such pleasure in his eyes and give me exactly what I ask for.

Be encouraged and know that from this day forward; while your natural parents may not have been able to give you everything you ever wanted, you have a heavenly father whose standing by in the wings with a pen and pad; ready to write up every request you have. Now that’s A GOOD DADDY!