“Love God with your heart by living a loving, faith-filled, and purpose-driven life. This requires letting God lead the way. It means living each day in close connection with Him so we can recognize our calling. Once we do this, once we let Him lead, lives will be changed.” (North Star.church).

Let’s just take a moment here to define the godlike love. “Since we are discussing Jesus, we will limit our definitions to the two primary Greek words used for “love” in the New Testament. The first is philia. This refers to a brotherly love or to a close association with another person. If conditions change, so can this love.

I hope that you are encouraged to love yourself more. I was watching a documentary one evening when all at once I had an ah-ha moment! Do I really love myself or am I waiting for that someone to validate me! Really!! Do I even like me? What a sobering thought that was. How do I even see me?

As I sat in my bed this morning, a thought occurred to me. This is a new day, one that I’ve not lived before. Yes, it’s a day, much like other days where the sun has risen at a certain time, and will set at a certain time, but different. How is that! Well, I had to ponder that one. Then it came—that thought. Whatever happens today, belongs only to this day, and it will not repeat itself.

As I sat in meditation today, it occurred to me that each morning I say a litany of things for which I am grateful. But then I had to pause. Yes, I am grateful, but how much of it is just ritual. I read this quote by Max Lucado, and I am compelled to share it with you.

“Gratitude lifts our eyes off the things that we lack so we might see the blessings we possess.”

As I pondered what I could say as we come closer to the end of another year, I simply bowed my head and said, “thank you, Lord.” It has been a tumultuous year in many ways. The wars, the crooked politics, the devastating acts of nature, the killing, just to mention a few, have left us reeling. We have tried in many ways to get our footing only to have them slip from under us again and again.

Why are we so angry? It seems that each day we hear more and more of how man’s anger toward another has caused someone harm or death. We’re afraid to change lanes in traffic, or pass someone on the road, or maybe we even stopped because the light was turning red and someone behind us was in a hurry. Shoot, we may have even looked in their direction and they took offense.

Mark 11:24 says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (NIV)

In college I joined a sorority and that would put me on a trajectory of duality until I was 40 years old. There were many wonderful areas of growth that came out of joining a sorority, but this is when I started to look at myself in a very different way and I did not handle it well. Just like the education system, I am not singling out the one sorority I joined but would acknowledge the social system of Greek life as a place that can be very beneficial in certain aspects, but also be a system that focuses on conformity and comparison, and for me that really put me on a path of hiding the real Jackie for a very long time. 

“Two roads’ diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both. And be one traveler, long I stood; and looked down one as fas as I could…, then took the other, as just as fair, and having, perhaps the better claim…Two road’s diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” (Robert Frost)

Life is but a journey to wherever. It all depends on which road we choose. Do we take the one that is wide, where we can veer off the path, or do we take the one that is narrow where we have to walk straight? Life is such a precious gift, a gift that grants that we can, by our choices, live on in eternity.

When I was young, I was full of light. As I entered elementary school the light started to dim. I immediately felt judgement, and "other" because of my quirky sense of humor, I did not feel smart, and I saw myself as overly emotional. I was bullied in middle school and never truly felt like I fit in. I dimmed my light in order to fit into the "normal" social circles. I would often have friends and bullies steal my light in order to increase their own. I felt numb.

How is your mental health? Are you struggling with your inner critic? Feeling depressed? Don’t know if you should cry or laugh? I get it. I have been there. Depression has been something that I have kept to myself for a VERY long time. Do you know the saying, “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind.”

Well, hello again friends and fellow readers. Yes, it’s me back to share another nugget to encourage you. Who is your best friend, or maybe you have more than one? How much do you trust them with?

Ecclesiastes 4:12 distinctly says, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Man was not meant to dwell alone, although many of us often find ourselves in that position whether by choice or by circumstance.

So, for that long-term goal that you have, that you are procrastinating on, or the one you can’t seem to figure out how to get started, just say ‘yes.’ We sing a song that says, “God wants a yes, Oh yes. Yes, to His will, yes to His way. When the cares of life weigh you down, just know that He’s making you. He’s molding you. Come what may it’s still ‘yes’ yesss.”

One day I put pen to paper to write a simple piece to calm my angst. At the time it was suppose to be one of those moments when one writes to get their feelings out and garner a little self encouragement. “But David encouraged himself in the Lord.” —1 Samuel 30:6. Right then I thought nothing of it. I just knew that I could write it out better than I could speak it out. That’s how it all started. It began to extend beyond me. It was bigger than just me.

Well, hello once again friends and fellow readers. I’m back and so happy and excited to share another nugget with you. The other day in conversation the question was raised: When you read the passage of scripture that says, “Whatsoever you’ve done for the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you’ve done it as unto me.” (Matthew 25:40)

Well hello friends and fellow readers! I am so happy to be able to share another nugget with you! I was just thinking about the changes that occur in our everyday lives. One day we may appear one way, and at another time we look totally different. That caused me to think about transformers. Yes, transformers. You are a transformer. Had you ever considered that. When we accept Christ into our lives, we become transformed, but we also become transformers.

I get a little edgy when I travel. I seem to have a fear of all that could happen. Oh, I’m not saying that I don’t like to go places and do things, it’s just the in between that worries me. I know! Just doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it? For sometimes the getting there is the most scenic. “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.”

Sometimes I sit back and think about our world. Many of our young people today are traveling down a road that is leading them on a journey to where, they know not. God is looking for them, but they will not hear. That’s where we come in, because we were once lost, and Jesus found us. We didn’t have to be perfect, we just had to believe. You see, no soul is not worth searching for, so God does not stop searching, and when it is found it is deemed as important as those who have already been found.

The greenway is my happy place here in Tennessee. Now, if we were talking about Florida, you would find me in Destin with my feet in the sand. Let me get back on track, cause as you can see the beach is calling my name. So, I enjoy walking the greenway, becoming one with nature and all that God has created. Listening to the sounds and viewing the beautiful water. Also, God likes to speak to me during my greenway walks and I always have a listening ear towards my Father.