Live. Love. Lead.

     I just finished my 3rd year in an official leadership position. I love it. Every day I experience the cycle of success, defeat, frustration, illumination, exhaustion, second wind, stuckness, alertness, "in my zone", no where near my "comfort zone" and everything (if there's anything left) in between. It's coming to a time when I am getting a lot of questions on what my next move is going to be. Are you ready for the next level?      I struggle with this because I often feel there is much still to be learned in the chapter I am living. I struggle with what the "next level" will require of me? What will it require of the family I seek to have one day? How can I find my rhythm between all the roles I carry?      As a woman who strives to live faithfully to God, I struggle to know how there can be room for public leadership, eventual entrepreneurship, health + fitness, beauty, education, family (when that time comes), and faith? Oh and sle...

     Mission. Purpose. Know your calling. To me, those words and phrases mean something. The fact is, every single one of us want to know why we are here. For, what purpose are we where we are? Then, let's go a step further. I submit that for us to know why we are here (our calling/purpose/mission); we must also be in tune with who we are (our identity). It is the "who" and the "for what" that so often eludes individuals, families, organizations; you name it. So often when we and others are confronted with this question of purpose we say or think things like, "to make the world a better place" or "to leave this earth better than I found it." Those are helpful sayings, but lack the specificity and the uniqueness each of us long to actualize.      As I was thinking about this age-old enigma, I also "happened" to be studying through the book of Judges. One of my all-time favs is the work God did on Gideon. Gideon is such the picture...

     Guaranteed success?--Who does not want to walk into every meeting, event, date, relationship, etc with the mindset of "I KNOW I've got this!"      For this post success is defined as the "accomplishment of a purpose" (Google) and I would suggest "the accomplishment of His purpose."      I have recently been meditating on Numbers 13 & 14.  The quick context is God is about to take the Children of Israel into His promise.  They had been victorious over slavery and were beginning to find their freedom.  They were experiencing a physical manifestation of God's leading with the pillar of fire and cloud.  Now, God was positioning them to fully embrace His promise of the land.  The spies came back with a bad report, with the exception of two, that accentuated all the reasons why the people would not be successful in this venture.      Then Caleb speaks up, "Do not rebel against the Lord! You should...

     How many conversations have we had with our lady friends asking that same question, "Girl, how do I know if he likes me?" As soon as the question comes out, we begin to dissect his actions, looks, second or third glances, the way he hugged us, the ambiguous and random texts, what we thought we heard him say, the way he spoke about us, and the list truly goes on and on.  We analyze, diagnose, and try desperately to catch a glimpse into his heart about us.  Then after the conversation, we internally grapple with the question.  And when we see him again we look for more clues to add to our quest for an answer.  Perhaps I am one of few women who have lived and re-lived this process...but I doubt it.      After some reflection, much prayer, and honestly frustration, God is working me through a process that addresses "how do I deal when I find the man, I thought was His choice, does not like me?"      Currently, part of m...

     Today was a day where the Lord's kindness was so evident.  It truly resembled the verse that states, "Let me hear Your kindness in the morning for in You I have placed my trust..." (Psalm 143:8).  In some very critical situations today the Lord graciously and so kindly gave me courage in some challenging situations.  And I had to ponder the question? Why do we lack the courage that we need to speak with intention and purpose, to lead with clarity and vision, and to initiate with courage?  Sometimes we are weighted with fear of rejection or perhaps even more so the gravity of imperfection.  Often the keen awareness of our own shortcomings will force us into silence and it is then that we must dig into our Heavenly Father's grace that indeed makes all things new! He has conquered all that enslaved us like: sin, fear, guilt, shame, and much more.  He freed us so we can run this race with endurance with our eyes ever toward Him. He is our li...

     An advisor once told me, "If you focus on everything then you're focused on nothing." Over the past year and half I have thought about that statement...a lot.       Many times it is easy for us to get caught up in so many dreams of how to make things better.  In and of themselves those dreams are not bad, but they can become problematic if we lose our focus on the G-D who created and empowers us to fulfill a purpose that He lovingly made for us.      The L-RD is working His plan via all the people, circumstances, struggles, and triumphs that He intentionally places in our lives in order to instigate transformation. Yet, all too often we lose focus when we zone in on all the things around us to such the degree that we analyze them as individual events; rather than significant strands of a unified cord called----purpose.       There is nothing random that happens in life; every spec of our existence is uniq...