Linking up with Lisa Jo again this week to participate in Five Minute Friday. I love this because it is just a commitment of five minutes of unedited writing….we can all do that can’t we?? So if you haven’t started this series yet…today’s the day!

Today’s word is AGAIN – ready, set go –

I love the idea that you can start your day over again at any time….

Have you ever considered that? That despite the things that come at you throughout the day…that they don’t have to determine what the remainder of your day will be like?

I am a negative girl by nature. I don’t know why but life has a way of stressing me out. It can be little things like the kids being too crazy in the morning, or feeling rushed as we get ready….it will be 8am and I am feeling overwhelmed.

But my loving husband will will remind me that my mornings don’t have shape what that rest of my day will be like. I have the opportunity to start my day over again.

Such a simple idea, but one that I think we don’t utilize often enough. You see, I have high expectations of myself in all things. When I fail (and let me be clear…usually only I think I have failed) I get frustrated…and frustration turns into being harsh with those I love. #fail.

BUT, by using this simple idea, of starting my day over again, I am given the chance to apologize for my shortcomings, accept the grace that is always offered to me…and start my day, at any time, over again.

Thank God for that gift in my life. So wherever you are today, if it isn’t a good place – remember that it can be. Just choose to start again.

I am so excited for you all to meet a wonderful new friend of mine. We are both part of the “dream team” and are also “buddies”. It has been so much fun getting to know Jenn over the past few weeks and I am in love with her heart for God and others!  I asked her if she would be willing to come and share about herself a little here because I know once you meet her you will all love her like I do! And while you are at it please stop over and “like” her FB page so you can keep updated on new things as they come!

What an honor to write a guest post for my new friend and cheerleader Kristin.

She offered me the chance to come on over to her beautiful space and share a little bit about me and my ministry. What a joy!

Well I am off the chart extrovert, scoring 100 percent in the extrovert category so I have no problem finding words to share with you. J  Actually though, if you had known me up until after high school, I was quiet and shy.  That was mainly a mixture of some painful insecurities that came from those” mean girls” who gave mean labels. But once Jesus began to show me who I was in Him, slowly building up God-fidence in me, I started to break out of my shy shell.  So let’s pretend like we are sitting in Starbucks having coffee together.

First I want to hear about you and your dreams. How can I dream right along with you?

Then I would love to share with you about how I am living out mine. See I was called into missions and ministry at a young age. I remember forcing my friends to go to Bible club on the playground when I was in elementary school. I would teach them from my little precious moments Bible.  No swinging or kickball for me.

After I went on my first mission trip in 7^th grade I also was hooked on this thing called missions. I just knew I wanted to do it.

After college God surprised me and called me to go to grad school (that is a whole other story) After getting a master s in Christian psychological studies God surprised me again.  He called me to give up everything and go live as a missionary in Nepal.  I thought for life.  So I did. I said goodbye to everything and everyone I knew and love to follow a call of a God who I loved more than anything and who gave away everything (HIS OWN SON) to love me!

So I spent two amazing years in Nepal. Away from every comfort possible, learning to live alive in the comfort of the arms of the Lord. It was a mixture of the hardest days and most wonderful days of my life.  While there I truly learned to Come alive.

Then I began feeling God  whispering to my heart I have more Jenn, I have a calling to impact ladies all over the world.  So I had to say yes to God.  Which meant in 2009 saying no to living in Nepal for the rest of my life and returning back to America, unsure of what this new call would look like.

When I returned back to America I noticed something that broke my heart.  In Nepal I was surrounded by people worshipping dead gods all around me. I came back to the Bible belt of the south and saw people who said they knew the One true God, Jesus Christ, and yet were dead and numb inside.

So God birthed a new calling inside of me, that had to start in me.  Live alive every day in Christ.  Continually find what makes you comes alive and do it.  And then encourage and challenge others to come alive in Christ. Provide an invitation for them to come alive Jenn.

So coming alive ministries was birthed.  And I am having a blast living out this calling. It could mean anything from inviting you to come sit in my counseling office in Chattanooga and let me get the sacred honor of hearing you share your heart.  Or it could be a coaching session where I cheer you into where you feel God leading you.  Or it could be taking a coming alive women’s conference to Haiti and loving on the woman and orphans there at an orphanage.  Or it can be when we got to host a missionary conference last year and provide a weekend of pampering for 8 missionaries on furlough from very difficult places.  Or it could be pulling off on a shoestring budget or Bloom conferences which reached over 450 woman last year.

I am having a ball coming alive.  Now what makes you come alive?

See – what did I say…isn’t she awesome?! Thank you Jenn for sharing your heart….and next time you plan a mission trip to Haiti let me know…..I may have to find a way to come along! 🙂

I can still remember those football games….

We were young, 7th and 8th grade I think…. I grew up on a block with several other girls that were all the same age/grade as I was. And with 2 sets of twins. Oh how I always wanted to be a twin…but that is another story!

The twins had an older sister who was a cheerleader. She was beautiful, had long hair, was thin and popular…and she was one of those girls that led the crowd at football games. So even before we were in high school ourselves we started going to games.

I think I have always felt like there was something “more” to life, and somehow I just hadn’t gotten the message on what that was….or how to get it. But this girl…this cheerleader – she had it all together.

So when I started high school I knew that if I was finally going to get the “it” that I was seeking….the best place to start was to be the part. The cheerleader.

I really took the practices serious. I wanted to learn the cheers and do them perfectly. I just knew THIS was what I needed to be popular myself. I prayed about it all the time. God knew how important this was to me and I was sure that because I was praying about it….that He would make my dream come true.

Tryout day came and I did my very best. The jumps, the cheers…I gave it my all. I’ll admit, I wasn’t the best. I have very tight hamstrings which make it very difficult to touch my toes and do the spits etc. Don’t even get me started on the V-sit and reach…that portion of the Presidential Fitness program was a nightmare for me! 🙂  So I knew I had work to do, but I had prayed about it and tried so hard…..so God would reward that wouldn’t He?

Then came the “reveal” day.  We all knew that at the end of the day the varsity cheerleaders would be coming to the classrooms with a balloon and a bear and the girl(s) chosen would be getting one.  I was so nervous, the door opened and I was holding my breath.

But the balloon and the bear weren’t for me. And I was heartbroken. God hadn’t answered my prayers. I struggled with this for a long time….

Fast forward several years. Those few years in high school are long unimportant. The disappointment of my non-popularity is no longer a priority. But interestingly, it seems that once-dream of being a cheerleader is coming true today…

Just not in the way that I ever thought. You see one of my “gifts” is encouragement. I like to find out how others are doing, follow up with them and pray for them….encouraging them along their journeys.

Being a “cheerleader” for others seems to come naturally for me!  As our group of dreamers continues to explore all that God has planned for us, we have paired up with a few other dreamers in the hopes to be an encouragement to them.

None of us need to walk this path alone!

Don’t you love how God works? He doesn’t promise that just because you pray He will “give you what you want”…..but He does hear every prayer….and sometimes He has something more rewarding planned.

I have been paired with 2 beautiful women, Margie and Jenn, and I can’t wait to have you “meet” them…in fact (they don’t know this yet) but I am hoping they would both guest post here later this week and share a little bit about who they are and the beautiful ministries they are both a part of….you will love it I promise!!

Do you have a “buddy”, someone who encourages you as you journey?? Brag about them here!! 🙂

Linking up with Lisa Jo again this week to participate in Five Minute Friday. I love this because it is just a commitment of five minutes of unedited writing….we can all do that can’t we?? So if you haven’t started this series yet…today’s the day!

Today’s word is CHERISHED – ready, set go –

I forget so often that I am a cherished daughter of the King.

I tend to focus on all of my shortcomings….the impatience I showed to my sweet children, the harsh words/tone I used towards my husband.

So many failures in a day’s time.

But that can’t be my focus. Sure, I am broken….but isn’t that the very reason that God sent His only Son for me…for you?

Because I am broken, sin-filled….yet in spite of me, He cherished me, and so much that He gave the ultimate sacrifice for me.

Humbling isn’t it? But such a gift to be loved like this.

While I am sure that I will continue to make mistakes, continue to act in a way unbecoming of this  gift – it is comforting to know that I can return to the foot of the cross and find forgiveness.

I don’t know where you find yourself this morning. Maybe you feel that the weight of your past is just too much to be forgiven.

Maybe you have given up all hope that God could forgive “someone like you”.

Please hear me friends on this. I have been there. My list of disappointments and failures is long….and for a long time I believed it was those things that were keeping me from God’s love.

But that was so far from the truth. It was my own shame and pride that kept God at arms length from me. He was always there…I just wasn’t always ready to receive His love.

Accept His covering this morning.

Find yourself at the foot of the cross He prepared for you and be free of any failures, and shame….

Know that where you are – right at this moment – you are cherished.