Monday’s Marinade is provided to you as a means of “soaking yourself” in the hope-filled Word of God at the beginning of your week. Start your week by meditating (thinking and muttering to yourself) on this Word.
Rest in knowing that God’s love is always for you and never against you. Let His love wash over you today! Be sure to marinate your week with hope and a confident expectation of good things happening!
I subscribe to a number of emailed newsletters that help me become a better author, a better business woman, and especially, a better person. I recently received one from life coach, Valorie Burton. In it, she shared exciting and encouraging news—along with her struggles of conceiving over the age of 40 and a miscarriage. This is her personal story of how her dream to become a mommy has come true. I share it, with her permission, because I think it will encourage you to not give up hope, even if adoption is is not the path to parenthood that you choose.
My lifelong dream has come true. Our lives have changed dramatically and beautifully in the last month. Since marrying my husband in 2013, I’ve been a “bonus” mom to two sweet, energetic, loving little girls. And now, God has seen fit to expand our family with a beautiful baby boy we’ve been privileged to adopt! That’s right. I’ve become a mommy.
If you’ve read my books or followed me for a while, you know this has been a dream deferred, but I have never given up on the vision I’ve sensed deep in my spirit for marriage and family. At times, I have felt frustrated, helpless, and discouraged, but I refused to give up hope. I could not. To give up hope would be to give up on God. As I stand in the midst of this vision of love that has unfolded, I feel led to share my lessons learned so I can encourage you to persevere towards your own vision – whatever that vision might be:
A Call to Action for you: Don’t give up on God (Genesis 18:14). Stay connected to Him through His promises found in His Word. Hear His quiet voice within you giving you wisdom about how to proceed along your path. You can find more encouragement in A Seed of Hope: God’s Promises of Fertility.
Monday’s Marinade is provided to you as a means of “soaking yourself” in the hope-filled Word of God at the beginning of your week. Start your week by meditating (thinking and muttering to yourself) these words from the Bible.
It’s my pleasure to have Kamilah Browning Giraud as a guest on my blog today. I’ve known Kamilah a long time– since she was a baby! Recently, she has experienced a very challenging time with the illness of her mother. She shared with our church how she had to use “thought stopping” to get through that life-threatening time so that she could depend more on God’s Word than she did on the doctors’ diagnoses of her mother’s condition. I hope her words encourage you to “STRIKE” out your negative thoughts and live with the hope, positivity, and power that God’s Word brings!
How many times do you go through a day and have “random” thoughts that are completely unrelated to your job, or to the task at hand? I’m sure there are some statistics that give an average, but I can even share with you that in the few minutes it has taken me to sit down and share the first few sentences with you, I have already thought about; how cute my co-worker’s shirt is (as she walked by my door), whether or not I will eat the salad I brought to work, or go to the cafeteria (as my stomach growled), and I even thought about what color I should get my nails painted next (as I looked down at the keyboard while typing). Now as trivial and harmless as these “random” thoughts may be, they all still served the same purpose–taking my focus away from what it is I have set out to do.
While some may perceive these “mental vacations” as healthy breaks, others might find them as nuisances. I tend to ignore them most of the time because if I gave those thoughts much thought, then I would not have time for anything else. This scenario can be a little entertaining, but what about more disturbing thoughts that sound like, “Why bother running, you’ll always be fat”, or “It’s too hard to save money and pay my bills, so I’m probably never going to buy a house.” And what about the thought that comes up that sounds like “Why keep trying? It hasn’t happened yet. I am fooling myself.”
These less trivial, less mundane, and certainly less entertaining thought can so easily surface throughout the course of the day and yes… they too serve the same purpose of taking your focus off that which you have set out to do. So then what type of recourse do we have against these thoughts? Well a good friend of mine name Paul, (whom I have actually never met) was imprisoned and wrote some most amazing letters that reflected how in spite of being in a place of true suffering, we can still choose joy. Even though I never met my friend Paul, and although his letters might originally been written in about 62 A.D, you cannot tell me that he didn’t address me directly in his letters too!
Philippians 4:8 says “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Paul understood how these “random” thoughts can come to steal your peace. See, I can bet while he was imprisoned he had more than a few thoughts that popped up serving the sole purpose of stealing his focus off of spreading the gospel.
Paul said to fix your thoughts, which to me implies the need to replace “broken” thoughts. Broken thoughts are the ones that shatter your dreams, and distort your promises. Broken thoughts are lies from the enemy, and broken thoughts are contrary to the truth. So let’s do what my friend Paul urges. Let’s fix those broken thoughts by using thought stopping, or what I call the STRIKE method.
Stop the Thought
Replace it with God’s word
Imagine what it looks like
Keep seeing it
Embrace the truth
As the broken thoughts begin to surface you can stop the thought. Many times that is an internal stop, but I have had to audibly say “Stop” in order to refrain from repeating the broken thought in my head.
As soon as you “stop the thought”, you need to replace it with God’s word. The truth–those thoughts that are honorable, right and pure. Replace it with things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
As you think on those things, imagine it and see yourself in the manifestation of it.
Keep visualizing the thoughts and keep seeing it. This is a faith walk, and we cannot be moved by what we see in the natural, so allow yourself to keep seeing through the eyes of Christ, and know that He sees His promises.
Embrace the truth! God’s word is true. As believers, we are not exempt from the suffering that’s inherent to human existence, but the good news is our faith gives us a 
different and hopeful perspective that is based on the truth. God is forever faithful and the truth is that He has plans for you to prosper and not to harm you. He has plans to give you hope and a future. That is the truth and you can embrace it.
Our thoughts may or may not respond to 3 STRIKES and be “out”, but if the negative thought comes to bat again, just as sure as a pitcher’s form and speed improves with practice, yours can too. All you need to do is throw another STRIKE.
Sometimes i
t’s hard to trust and have confidence in the plans of someone else regarding the impact of their plans on YOUR life. If someone asked you whether you agree with whatever God has said and planned about your situation, what would be your response? Would you express sincere confidence in His plans for you? Confidence is always followed by action. Consider what actions you’ve recently taken to express your confidence in God’s promises and His love for you.
Maybe David of the Bible can be our example of how to be in agreement with God. David, a man who so openly loved and exuded confidence in God, knew the power of speaking the Word of God. He said in Psalm 17:4, “…By the word of Your lips, I have kept away from the paths of the destroyer.” Similarly, we must speak the Word of God to keep us off of Satan’s paths that are lined with his burdens and devices of deception. Most importantly, speaking the Word helps us to keep our eyes and mind focused on Jesus’ love for us, which enables us to agree with His plans and receive the victory over infertility or any other trying circumstance you may be facing today..
Be encouraged, speak the Word to increase your trust in God’s promises, and stay hope-filled!
Psalm 121 [NKJV] opens by asking, “Where does my help come from?”
There were countless times when I wondered who was available to help me during my struggle with infertility. Doctors could only do so much in their role as a medical professional. Friends could sympathize but they couldn’t truly understand what I was going through.They had not experienced falling into the pit of infertility. Family members were supportive but couldn’t identify with the struggle either. My husband, even though he was kind and loving toward me, was also in the struggle and therefore looking for support as well.
It seemed no matter where I looked, there was no one in my sphere of influence that could be the principal source of help that I needed. But, I learned that when looking for help, the quickest way to get it was to look to Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). He could identify with my physical and emotional pain. He was my Savior. He was my Champion.
He was the one who could do something about my problems— when I stopped looking at the problems and fixed my focus on Him.
Have you ever had a day when it felt as if no one could understand the pain and the struggle you’re experiencing? It may have felt like you’re all alone in your own world laden with sorrow, shame and feelings of inferiority. You probably wondered if anyone anywhere is praying for you?
When this loneliness seems to overwhelm you, be assured, you’re not alone in having those feelings. But even better, know that Someone, who’s everywhere, is praying for you. That Someone is Jesus. He’s sympathetic to your situation. He’s full of compassion. He knows the heartache you’re experiencing. He’s the one who wants to change it.
“Therefore He [Jesus] is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through Him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.” ~Hebrews 7:25 NLT
Rest in the truth that you are wholeheartedly loved by God, the Creator of the universe. Find peace in knowing that even if it seems no one else on earth understands your pain or you think no one else is praying for you, there is Someone who does. When you trust Him as your Advocate and Intercessor, Jesus is the One who can turn “one of those days” into a day of heaven on earth.
“My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” ~ Psalm 121:2
God said He wants men and women to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28). His desire is for humanity to produce godly, prosperous families. He loves us all so much and He wants to bless us abundantly. One of His many blessings includes having children.
Many times, when infertility (“barrenness” as it is called in the Bible) strikes a husband and wife, the couple’s focus tends to only be on their inability to reproduce. Proverbs 23:7 declares that what a person continually thinks about is what he/she becomes. This means what we put our attention to, or what we focus on the most will expand in our lives. What you think about, over and over and over again is what will manifest in your life. This suggests that focusing on your present inability to conceive will not change it.
That’s why it’s imperative that you focus on God and not on the problem of infertility. In the Bible’s account of Abraham and Sarah, Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say, “It’s hopeless. This hundred year old body could never father a child.” Nor was he discouraged by Sarah’s decades of infertility and completely give up on the hope of having a child with her. He focused on God’s promise to him, confident that God would make good on what He had said.
Think and meditate with confidence on His promise in Deuteronomy 7:14. Have confidence in God’s unconditional love for you. Barrenness is not what God desires for His children. Trust His Word and His love for you. Have confidence that He wants you to be fruitful. Focus on that!
“You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female barren among you or among your cattle.” Deuteronomy 7:14 NASB
Looking for freedom? For independence from things that have kept a darkness hovering over your life?
Today, in America, we are celebrating our country’s independence from being ruled by another entity. On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress, declaring that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent of the British Empire. The people of these colonies formed a new nation—the United States of America. The price for their freedom was paid by others whose blood was shed on the battlefield.
Our lives as believers in Jesus Christ are much like this. After having lived under the sovereignty of Satan, we make a declaration of independence from his rule, choosing instead to be under the sovereignty of Jesus. We transition from a kingdom of heavy and burdensome darkness into one of beautiful life-filled light. We regard ourselves as independent of the enemy of our lives. We choose to be dependent upon the One who loves us with an unfailing love. His love removes burdens and brings light and a lightness to our lives because He’s the One who keeps all His promises about doing us good.
Jesus is the One who wants us to be free of every influence of darkness in our body, mind, and spirit.
For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son. Colossians 1:13
Experience independence on a deeper level today, knowing that the price for your freedom was paid by another— Jesus. He gives you freedom from every bondage, addiction, and disease, because the price for it has already been paid…on the cross.
Celebrate your independence!
As a trustee at my church, I sometimes go to unlock the property so that a contractor can get in and make repairs. Recently, a contractor lost his keys to his truck and got frustrated that he couldn’t find them. He retraced his steps over and over, trying to see where he had set them down while he had done his work. Finally his frustration came to its tipping point because of fear of not finding the keys. What came out of his mouth shocked me. No, he didn’t start cussing. He started calling himself a loser, a dummy, and an idiot. The negative self-talk that came out of his mouth grieved me. What must this 50-year-old man have been told about himself growing up that he would say those things to himself? It’s sad that someone thinks of himself in that way. How could he have gotten so comfortable with thinking and speaking negative words to himself that he would say those thoughts out loud in front of a stranger?
Ever found yourself thinking and saying negative things about yourself, even jokingly calling yourself a loser in some way? Watch this video then read Romans 8:31 (below) to focus on God’s love for you.
Romans 8:31-39 (The Message Bible)
“So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.”
In case you’re wondering, the contractor found his keys…they had fallen under the rear bumper of his truck. They were right there all along.
Under what circumstances do you find typically negative self talk coming out of your mouth?
Is fear the trigger?