The mind is a powerful tool. In my mind I can convince myself to workout or not, to eat desserts or not, to have prayer time or not or to fellowship or not. In my mind, I can do any and all things, but I never truly realized and understood the power of my mind until I was challenged physically. There were times that I was in the gym working out and in my mind I was tired and because I was thinking about quitting and rationalizing it I would quit. But other times when I was tired, I told myself that I wasn’t and my energy levels increased tremendously. I learned that my thoughts controlled my actions and the minute I think and rationalize fear, insecurities, and other demeaning things that are not uplifting, I become whatever I was thinking. Our minds are powerful so we must keep it focused on things that are positive and true. A positive mind brings your body and spirit in line and gets the job done. What’s on your mind?

Lesson 3: My mind does matter!

Growing up my annoyance level was really high. Small things such as smacking on gum or making noise would irritate me. As I got older I learned how to deal with these minor nuisances. But then I became annoyed about bigger things. My husband is always so cool and calm. The things that annoy me don’t even bother him. When we were dating he shared with me that he was apart of 911 at the Pentagon and almost lost his life. After that occurrence he realized that the small things didn’t matter. Just earlier today I was in a car accident that totaled my brand new car, but by the grace of God, my husband and I walked away with minor scratches. This reminded me that the small things really don’t matter. Whether someone smacks on gum, it really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of life. Time is so precious and those moments should be focused on spending time with you love ones and enjoying the time God has given us on earth.

Lesson #2: The small things don’t matter so please enjoy each and every moment. Time is precious.

One of the hardest but most freeing lessons that I have learned is forgiveness. I have experienced heartbreak, betrayal, slander, backlash and many other things that have cause me to bring experience unwanted emotions. Some would say that some of the offenses were unforgivable. My hardest moment of forgiveness I remember like yesterday. I felt like my heart had literally been broken into two pieces. The lie and betrayal had brought me to a place of anger and sadness that I had never been before. I felt in that moment that I never wanted to see or hear from this person again. The anger caused me to carry the hurt inside of me and replay the story to anyone that would listen. The more I told the story, the more I relived that event and it was definitely unhealthy for me. Meanwhile, the person that offended me had moved on and I was still left holding the offense. At that point I had a choice to make. Either I continue to relive the hurt or I can get up, pray, and forgive the offender. Once I forgave the offender I never bought it up the offense again and I was able to function in the presence of the offender without holding malice in my heart.

This lesson in forgiveness taught me that forgiveness it not to excuse the offense or diminish what happened but forgiveness is really about healing the wounds inside of me. Forgiving doesn’t mean that the offense didn’t happen or charge anyone as right or wrong but forgiveness means that the sting of the offense is working to be erased. As a Christian, I had to ask myself how could I pray and ask God to forgive me if I am not forgiving those around me. If we proclaim to be Christ like we must strive to live our lives as Christ would and that would be to forgive.

Lesson 1 of my 20s: Forgiveness is for me and not the offender.

Hello my ladies of SOAR!!! It’s been a while. Since I last blogged I have been working to complete my Masters and it has kept me on my toes. I am almost done and ready to do a praise dance right now. On June 14 I will leave my twenties behind and journey into my thirties. Some of you may say man you are still so young and guess what……….. YOU ARE RIGHT!!!!! I feel like I learned so much about myself in my twenties. I have experienced the spectrum of emotions and pushed the limits. I would love to share with you my experiences over the next thirty days with a series called Thirty Things My Twenties Taught Me. This blog for me will be therapeutic and in the process I hope it will remind you of some of the lessons you learned and perhaps give you little nuggets that you hadn’t considered. I hope you will journey with me and even leave feedback or comments. This shift in my life is exciting and I am overjoyed for you to go on this journey with me.