Four years ago this week, we were packing up our life into a uhaul truck and a buick lucerne. We weren't exactly sure where we would live, we just believed what God told us. "I'm preparing a place for you." Nobody I knew then would pack up 3 children under the age of 12 and relocate 400+ miles away the way we did. We hadn't signed a lease yet.  We hadn't seen the apartment we would move in to yet. I know people do, I just don't know their stories.  God was the One we knew a

I'm not there yet. But I'm working on it.  These short lines from 3 short poems is the evidence. I had to play catch up today. No time for shame because I didn't blog the last 2 days.  No time to beat myself up because I had to pour my time and efforts into a different bowl.  With the time we have let's use it to get to work. Hope these short lines below help you to be encouraged,  hopeful and empowered to be disciplined #courage #discipline #hope #poetry #poems #shortpoems #

This week starts our 12 week bible study plan concerning RATCHET FAITH and today concludes our 21 days of reviewing scriptures that encourage our faith. Ratchet Faith is the kind of faith God marvels over.  I find that there are moments in biblical history where Jesus was taken aback by someone's faith.  It appears that when He marveled it was in response to a different level of faith.  As if it to suggest that there is faith and there is FAITH. Faith that is gritty, unapolog

God help me be the one who believes! The one who believes regardless of what my past reports back to me. The one who believes despite what I see currently. The one who believes because that's just what I was made to do! Ratchet Faith requires belief. The belief that what is actively happening in my world, environment, home, life, work place does not have to be the end of the story. There is an after this for each of us! After the divorce, after the government shutdown, after

Impossible is a real word - but with God the impossible is possible. The scary things are possible! The difficult things are possible! The things that remind you of your past! The things that "they" told us we could not do! The things that we failed at previously! ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH GOD! Let's do all those things that we may not want or are scared to do. Those things that give God pleasure and glory, let's do them with God! This devotional is based on Luke 1:37. #Ra

We are bombarded with messaging all day long! Every person, company, agency, and artist is trying to get our attention. If we aren't careful we will be stuck in a cycle of listening to everyone and everything else but God. Romans 10:17 teaches us that in order to have faith and grow faith we must hear the Word of God. There is no other way to have faith in God unless we are engaging God's word. You can't inherit faith in God from your momma 'nem. You can be a witness to their

hope is contagious, powerful and resourceful. hope can shake a bad attitude. hope can remind us why we have to keep going. hope often is the sound that pushes us out of the bed. but we need more than hope. we need to pray. today spend some time praying for the things, character traits, gifts, collaborations, and kinds of relationships you desire, hope for and/or need. #RatchetFaith #faith #hope #love #motherhoodunplugged #blog #21days #21DayPlan #changeyourmind #changeyourlif

the money ain't adding up. the discouraging emails keep coming in. the eviction notice. the not being able to get home for funerals or family gatherings. the car breaking down. the children locked up. the oppression. the rejections. the not sure which way to go. the tears that won't stop falling. the underemployment. the flood waters rising. the doubt creeping in. the final notices. the lay off. the house fire. the homelessness. the we're not hiring. the what else could possi

this is motherhood. but it's not the same for every mother. some of us burried our children. some of us can't post bail. some of us. some of us never got to foster their dreams. some of us can't stand what came out of us. some of us hope. some of us pray with our eyes open. some of us are at the gym. some of us are on tour. some of us. some of us worked a double. some of us are writing sermons. some of us are in the streets looking for ours. some of us are listening. some of

Lord God Almighty. We are not living the life you promised. Help us to fully accept YOUR abundant life. We've been existing. Waiting for the next opportunity to relish in everything temporary. Lord you have a blueprint. For each of us. Please reveal to us in YOUR WORD the strategy, resources, and the empowerment so that we can abandon our way so that we can bind up our way so that we can trash our way so that we can surrender our way Because YOUR WAY is peace is abundant is e

#TheDarkRoom is a collaborative with blog series purposegirlpower.com that highlights the lives of people who are answering God's call to minister. My husband and I, like most people, wanted to be financially stable. Before we got married, we set our minds on a course to achieve that goal. During the early years of our marriage, we had been a part of many businesses, which gave little to no returns on our investment. We didn’t give up hope. We decided to get into real-estat

There is still time for us to do something with ourselves that maybe we've been too intimidated, afraid or FEELING stuck to do! For me it's sticking to an exercise routine and being disciplined and consistent in that thing! This month's scripture writing challenge was all about DISCIPLINE. I refuse to let what I read, wrote and believed abput discipline to be good of action! Discipline now produces a great reward later! If I can stay disciplined now I don't have to be discipl

Living in poverty has shifted how I think about ourselves & how we think about about those we serve. I believe we now serve people as friends that are experiencing hardships and no longer as strangers that are struggling, because that's what Jesus is teaching us. "Jesus is way more faithful to me than i could ever be to Him!" - Che Burgess People are struggling and it's time to change the narrative. The evidence of God being a blessing is not someone’s abundant finances, big

So you're going home for the holidays. But home is where you reunite annually with the person or persons that abused, misused, and/or manipulated you. This blog is for you! A few things to consider if you're going home and home is where the perpetrator(s) is. 1. It's ok not to go. If you decide at the last minute or very early on that you are safer where you are and you can, then stay put. 2. You survived and other people may not think that is a reason to celebrate but we cel

Our experience with poverty has led me to seek God for everything. Beyond having food & housing insecurities – my soul has been insecure. My soul has been insecure not because of my bank account balance but due to sin and all the damage that sin produces like doubt, fear, and anxiety. Now, I can say with confidence that I know who my Provider is. My Provider is no longer the organization I work for, myself, husband, my gifts/talents, our ministry, or our parents! God uses oth

I define #RatchetFaith as a reckless kind of faith. It has no boundaries. It is nitty gritty, grungy, and abandons intellect just to exercise what it believes of God rooted in His written Word (The Holy Bible). It's the kind of faith that shows evidence that it (hope of the unseen) is all you have, you don't know if you'll have enough for tomorrow but you spend it all anyway on each moment and every opportunity found in this day. Some time around July or August (2017) I start

A devotional written by Alexis A. Goring “God takes the broken pieces that Satan leaves behind and makes MASTERPIECES.” ~Pastor Pranitha Fielder. Shattered. Broken. Devastated. We’ve all been there or will be there at one point in our lifetime. If you manage to go through life without ever experiencing pain then that is not normal. Just like a character said in the movie “The Shack”, if you’re looking for a pain-free life, you’re not going to find one. We live in a pain-fille

This is a two-part series on following God. Part 2 will be posted July 6, 2017. OK! Sometimes we are wrong. But when we surrender ourselves to God and things go wrong in the process it doesn't always mean we are wrong. God has a way of charting our course in ways that make absolutely no sense to us. Sometimes the Lord allows us the opportunity to have experiences vs. experiencing the BIG event. For instance, I remember applying for a position that I thought was amazing at a p

This is about the moment when you really want to give in to doubt but you push a little further, you cry a little louder, you seek God a lit

Been there, tried that. Experienced success and have certainly failed. Heard "no" enough times that doubt is second nature. Walking through enough valleys of failure that it is ridiculously easy to lace up the tennis shoes of doubt. But doubt like fear are not characteristics that come from God. Doubt is a trap that faith can & has a history of dismantling such an ugly and worthless trap. Faith says to doubt THIS IS NOT OVER. Doubt responds OH REALLY? Faith shuts it down with