For the Lord is GOOD

Do you ever feel like having a pity party?  Like one of those days where everything seems to go wrong and things are just NOT working out how you want them to?

The other day I seriously was giving myself a big pity party and complaining to God about this and about that.  I was like, "Why can't I have the desires and goals of my heart???  WahWahWah!"
Yeah, it was pretty ridiculous...but at the time it didn't feel that way.  I was recounting ALL the things that made me MAD, disappointed, and seemed unfair.

Then, God had me open my Bible to this passage.  I felt Him telling me to list out all that I was thankful for and to list out all that God was to me in my heart and life.  I mean, did I really BELIEVE He was good and that His love endures forever...or am I just reading the words to feel good about myself that I at least read it?

As I made my list in my prayer journal, I realized my ridiculousness in my pity party.  It's embarrassing to even write that I was feeling that way, because right now, I am filled with remembrance of so many ways God has proved His love to me in my life - not just with material blessings, but ways He has given me peace and freedom...and more and more!

Join me in the next time we feel that pity party coming on - let's instead list out - either on paper or even in our minds - the many ways we can thank God and praise Him.  HE fills us and changes our hearts, and for that we are so thankful!

Love & Blessings,
Allison

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How to Pray When You're Nervous, Fearful, or Anxious

I think a lot of us women deal with feeling nervous, fearful or anxious.  We're thinkers, analyzers, worriers, emotional, and we lead with our hearts.  But although we can feel nervous, fearful, or anxious initially, we don't have to stay there.  We can learn to trust God with whatever is giving us that knot in our stomach, whatever is keeping us awake at night, whatever makes us start to feel out of control.

October is Prayer Month on my Blog!

I realized that there will always be something in this life that we will make us feel fearful.  We can't take that away, but we can learn day by day, moment by moment to give our fears over to God.  We can learn to trust Him with our hearts and our very lives.  He promises in His Word that we can trust Him.  It's in these fearful times that our faith becomes REAL, or it is just something we do on Sunday mornings.  Do we BELIEVE Him and trust Him?  

2 ways I switch my mind from fear to trusting Him:

1. I will grab my journal and write at the top - "God, I trust you with...".
   Then I just list out everything on my mind that I'm nervous about.  I really try to think - WHY am I feeling nervous?  And then I write it out and pray over each thing saying, "God I trust you with ___."  Sometimes throughout the day the fear over that issue that I already prayed about comes BACK!  :/  So I state my prayer again, "God I trust you with _____."  I state this prayer over and over until I've let it go.

2.  I will open Psalms and read through His promises about trusting Him.  

I have a ton of these verses underlined in my Bible.  I have many of them written on the front and back covers of my journal.  I re-write them and re-read them many times - I LOVE these verses!  It reminds me of the truth - that I can trust God without wavering!  I wrote out a few of my favorite verses about trusting God for any of you that would like to print this off and use these verse for yourself!

Thanks for reading and I would love to hear what helps you to turn and trust God during fearful moments or seasons of your life!  God is real and He helps us with the real issues in our lives!

Love & Blessings,
Allison

Other Posts About Prayer:

How to Pray About a Big Decision

A Simple, Daily Prayer To Start Your Day

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How to Pray About a Big Decision

What is God's will?  What is the right decision?
Have you ever wondered that and fretted over those questions?  

When I'm praying and needing to make a decision, I have learned to do the following few things:

1- Pray alone.
I like to wake up before anyone else in the house is up to pray!  

2- Pray for an extended period of time.

Not a quick, before you eat type of prayer.  Like sit down and spend some time with God.

3- Write out your prayer in a journal.  Make a list of what your worried about.  Write out Bible verses.  Just get it off your mind, onto the paper, and over to God!
I will write at the top of my prayer journal - "God, I trust you with..." and then I'll list everything out that I'm anxious about or need to make a decision about.  I also love journaling because you can go back and literately see answered prayers! .
4- Read the Bible.  Ask God to speak to you through His Word.  
If I'm not sure what to read, I turn to Psalms and just focus on praising Him, remembering His promises, and reminding myself of God's loving character...Psalms always helps me with this!  
5- Sometimes God asks us to just take a step of action first.  He doesn't always give us "signs".
I hear girls say that all the time - "OH!  I think it's a sign!".  But often times God withholds the signs because he's wanting you to take a step of FAITH.  He wants to grow you faith in Him and grow your ability to hear Him...both are done without SEEING.  Asking for a sign means you have to see it before you'll do it.  That's not faith!  (I'm not saying asking for a sign is wrong, just don't only ask for signs...make sense?)
6- Get advice from someone who is wise, Godly, and leads a life you admire.
For something important that I'm making a decision over, I will talk to only people who I trust will give me wise, Godly advice.  So not anyone or everyone. I don't post my question on Facebook or Twitter.  I don't take a poll.  I don't go to people who are just going to tell me what I want to hear.  Instead, I go to a wise mentor, or usually I go to my husband because he is wise and discerning and knows me inside and out.  He also seeks God, so I trust what He tells me.  Often, He will point me back to God and encourage me to pray and just follow God.
7- Have someone Godly pray for you.Sometimes all I need is just that confidence and encouragement from another Christian that God hears me and will answer.  
8- Sometimes the only thing I can do is pray that I will TRUST God that He will lead me.  I'll pray this verse:  But I trust You, O LORD, my times are in Your Hands - Psalm 31:14-15a.
I don't always know God's will right away.  I don't always have a perfectly clear answer from Him.  But I do KNOW that He will lead me.  I do KNOW that I can trust Him.  I can put my heart in His hands.  I don't have to hold back, try to control, or try to push things.  He won't let me go down the wrong path if I'm following Him!  

Think it over:
- What decision are you worrying/thinking about?
- What is holding you back from giving it to God?
- Do you need to pray about it? Is there someone you can ask to pray with you?
- Is God asking you to take a step of faith first?
- What Bible verse could you write out and keep with you to remind you that you can trust Him?








Thank you for letting me share.  This post today is very near to my heart and right-now experience - I hope it's helpful to others! xoxo

Love & Blessings,
Allison

Other Posts from October Prayer Month:

A Daily Prayer to Start Your Day

How to Pray When You're Nervous, Fearful, or Anxious

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A Simple D.A.I.L.Y. Prayer

I'm naming October official "PRAYER MONTH" for my blog!  This past year has been life changing for me, and a major reason is because of prayer and all that praying big and praying with determined hope and belief does inside of a person!  Personally, I don't pray solely for what God can give me (although He loves to give His children great blessings!).  I mostly pray  because He fills me and I love Him.  I want so badly to be close to Him!  Prayer has changed me.

So this month I will be sharing a lot of my personal testimony about prayer, as well as just practical tips on how to pray, prayer routines, etc. Would that be helpful to anyone?  I'm always open to hearing your testimonies and tips too!  We're in this together!

Today I'm sharing with you a great daily prayer that my Pastor taught us.  I keep this on a white index card in my Bible and pray it every morning.  I love it! It's super simple, but gets me immediately focused on JESUS and not just my requests.  I love this little prayer because I feel like it's opening my heart up to Him - and I almost always do my prayer time in the morning so I start my day filled and focused on Jesus.  I can't recommend this enough (praying in the morning), it makes a HUGE difference in my attitude for the remainder of the day! :)

Here is the simple prayer using the DAILY acronym, so it's easy to remember!

Although this is a short and simple prayer list, I really try to focus on the words and not mindlessly recite them.  I want them to mean something, to not just do it like a checklist.

Also, as I pray, I specifically name anything that is directly applicable to each letter.  For example, when I get to the letter I, (the prayer is, "Jesus, I'll try") part, I specifically name something that I feel like God is leading me to try or do.

Or the when I get to the letter Y, (the prayer is "Jesus, I'll trust you,") part, I will list (usually in a journal) specific things that I'm worried or anxious about, or specific decisions I need guidance with. And then I say it over and over throughout the day as those anxious thoughts pop back up in my mind, "Jesus, I'll trust you,".

As you can see in these examples, I always try to get as specific as possible - it helps me to not just "recite" prayer, but instead, to apply it to my here and now situations.  I want to connect my faith and prayer to whatever is going on in my life.  We want our faith to not only be a "church thing", but to become an every-day part of who we are.  Daily prayer and communication with God is a KEY to this...and this simple D.A.I.L.Y. acronym is a great way to start!

 I hope this is helpful!  Feel free to print off or save to your phone so you can pray D.A.I.L.Y. too! :)

Love & Blessings,
Allison

PS - Be sure to check back this month for more posts on prayer!  Anything you'd like to read about with this topic, or have questions about, please comment below!  Thanks! :)
Other Posts from October Prayer Month:

How to Pray When You're Nervous, Fearful, or Anxious

How to Pray About a Big Decision

 

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A Time to Share: Why I Started A Blog

Hi Friends!  So, yes, I've started a blog!  Well I actually started it several months back, but am just now getting a clear grasp on what God is leading me to write about AND the courage to share it with you.  So yes, now....Now it's time to actually follow through and share.

Plain and simple, I started this blog because I have a burden on my heart from God to do it.  To share what He has taught me through my weaknesses and struggles, and through this, I hope to encourage women from a Christian perspective to LIVE out our faith in Jesus.  Day in, day out - to LIVE IT out.  

Many of you know one of my biggest life difficulties - that is infertility.  But what the Enemy meant for harm and pain, God has used this for amazing good and HOPE.  Many of you don't know that I recently came through the darkest, but most refining seasons of my 35 years - a season filled with anxiety and heaviness. God has seriously brought me up out of this and out of my disappointments to PROVE that He is faithful and can be trusted with our whole hearts.

So, I can't fully explain it except to say that I feel God put things, such as these, on my heart to share and it truly burdens me until I share it - I actually feel a burden right now as I'm writing share this TODAY.  And I don't mind sharing. I don't mind telling others my heartaches, my weaknesses, my faults, my lessons learned.  I mean seriously, we all know none of us are perfect, so why would I try to act like I am?  How is acting and appearing perfect helpful to anyone and how does that glorify God?  Doesn't God get noticed when we show others how He has helped and changed us?  I hope to be "real" and to encourage others to put our trust in God.

Many of my struggles are common to other women, and if I can model and share how God has helped, strengthened, changed, and grown me through them - then it's all worth it.  I want to encourage women to LIVE OUT their Christian faith - Let's stop just attending church or only feeling inspired about "God-things"...let's actually live it in the normal, every-day, ins-and-outs of our lives.  Let's make a true difference for God and in the legacy we leave!  Yes! I'm pumped!

Now to totally lighten things up - I also really love to have fun and be goofy!  So, I'll also add posts about  my family, my favorite hobby - fashion and makeup, and just life stuff!

Upcoming "Weekly Posts": 
- My goal is to have a post every Friday that is just FUN and based on my favorite things I did that week and makeup and products I'm currently into - that post will be called "Friday Favorites"!
-My other "weekly post" goal is on Wednesdays - called "Word of God Wednesday" and will feature a devotional and Bible Verse print about something I have been learning from the Word of God that week!
*So check back each week on Wednesday and Friday for those posts, if you're interested! :)  

Other Future Topics:  

-I will also be writing out my children's adoption stories - they are definitely GOD STORIES!  Many of you were a part of these stories because you were prayer warriors for me and my husband!

- I also really want to write out my husband and I's dating journey because we actually broke up once and almost broke up a 2nd time because of my hubby's "commitment issues".  Lol.  It's kinda funny now... but it wasn't at the time. And I have girls ask me advice on this often due to my personal experience, so I'd like to write about that at some point.

Lastly, if you are a part of my business in any way, I'm super excited to share a part of who I am with you outside of business!  My faith is WHO I am and drives every other decision and desire, so my prayer is that I can model that (not perfectly!) through this blog for you.  

Thanks for reading!  Pray for me please and let me know how I can pray for YOU!

Love & Blessings,

Allison

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