HAVE YOU WRITTEN YOUR EULOGY?

Eulogy- A speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly, typically someone who has just died.

Have you ever sat and thought about your eulogy? No, I’m not trying to be morbid and yes, I’m being serious. 

I was listening to a sermon on podcast a few weeks ago and this pastor was talking about funerals. How some eulogies are beautiful with the words that are spoken of the person that has passed and others it’s very sad with the words said or the lack of words being said.

It really impacted me because at the end of his sermon he challenged everyone to sit and think about what we would want said and to then sit and think about if that’s what WOULD be said about us.

So, have you ever really thought about it. Would what you want to be said about you actually be what’s said about you? 

So many of us spend so much time striving to achieve monetary greatness or top of our career greatness or how many people like us greatness or how much ‘stuff’ we have greatness. We measure our wins and success by these things and by how many friends and likes we have on social media, by the vehicle we drive or by our appearance and by how we think we appear to others. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying we shouldn’t want nice things or try our very best to achieve goals and dreams. What I am saying though is when these things consume your entire life........ Is that REALLY what you want said about you at your funeral or celebration of life?

I’ve heard it said many times that when people get to the end of there life they don’t regret not getting a job promotion and they don’t regret not having enough ‘stuff’. They regret not living life. Not spending time with family and friends. They regret not having connections with loved ones.

I don’t know about you, but I want my eulogy to be more about how I left people feeling loved. I want my eulogy to be about how I was as a Christ follower and how I lived my life for others verses people saying what ‘things’ I had. I want my children to beam with pride talking about how loved they felt by me and how I led them by being a great example. I want my family to say they knew I loved them. I want family and friends to say I was loving. Joyful, I brought peace, I helped people  and gave back, that I broke generational curses so my kids would have a better life, that I lived a life of courage and strength and that I helped others live a life of courage and strength. I want it said that I was an encourager and that I helped others believe in themselves. I want it said that I was patient and kind. 

Speaking for myself I have work to do. Life is short and precious. Reality is we aren’t promised our next breathe. Over the last couple of years I’ve known so many people all of sudden gone. Like, here one moment and then gone. It wasn’t expected, they didn’t know it was going to happen and certainly their loved ones didn’t see it coming. It’s really made me stop and think. It’s opened my eyes to just how short life is. How we shouldn’t go a day without telling people you love that you love them. I’m not saying we should love in fear or in a bubble. Quite the opposite actually. I think it should make us more aware and more purposeful in our walk in this life.

It’s opened my eyes even more to the fact of life isn’t a game. God created all of us. Each of us has our individual purpose for being here. Your calling in this life  is hand picked by God. That makes it unique. Makes EACH of us unique! You don’t know how much time you have. So why are we wasting time with games? With not living out our purpose? With living in fear of opinions of others or trying to impress others? Why are we wasting time NOT being present with our kids and loved ones? Why are we living a life solely based on monetary gains and selfishness instead of leaving a strong legacy for our kids?

With the start of 2020 I want to challenge myself and you..... 
Be bold and brave, write out the eulogy you WANT your children, family and friends to say THEN write out what they WOULD say. Do both match each other? Or are you like me and have work to do. My words that I believe God laid on my heart for this new year is VICTORIOUS and PURPOSEFUL. Those two words go along with what I want said about me as a person. There’s no time like right now to look deep in ourselves and start making those changes that will ultimately leave a lasting wonderful legacy from you. 

So start today. Tell people you love them. Stop playing games with your life and others. Be intentional with how you raise your kids and how you live your life.

My intention  with this blog post isn’t to depress you but to impress on your/my heart just how precious life is. For us to not take it for granted. To love this life with meaning and to get to the end of this life fulfilled and with peace. I want to hear God tell me when I get to heaven Well done. That I ran my race and Well Done!

Much Love,
Anne

SURVIVING THE HOLIDAY’S SINGLE

SURVIVING THE HOLIDAY’S SINGLE

Where’s My Single Women?

If you would have asked me in my 20’s if I thought in my mid 40’s I would be a single woman/mom my response would have been a big NO!
To be honest when I married the first time in my early 20’s, like many I thought that would be my only marriage. That I would be the one to break the generational curse of divorce. That wasn’t the course that my life took. 

I found myself divorced in my late 20’s and searching for ALL the wrong things. 

I had low self worth, hardly any self confidence or self esteem and zero boundaries. I couldn’t stand to sit home alone so I felt as I needed to be with someone to fill those lonely moments. I wanted desperately for someone to want me because well, then it made me feel better about myself, for the moment. THEN... throw the holidays into my dysfunction and I hated my life and totally hated the holidays. 

I would look at others who were married or had someone to spend the holidays with and I would find myself jealous, envious, not realizing my own blessings or doing what I just mentioned above to fill that added void of the holiday seasons. 

In trying to fill that XXL hole in my heart I made some huge mistakes! I settled for people in my life that shouldn’t have been there. I searched for the wrong people. With zero boundaries I allowed the wrong tribe to be in my inner circle that only caused more heart damage and made me lose myself even more. See, in the moment you choose to not see anything past the moment. It’s the holiday’s + your lonely= This person is filling a void. That void won’t continue to be filled. If you chose to keep filling it with the wrong it honesty keeps you in a destructive pattern and that void only gets worse. 

There’s that saying.... Wherever you go, you take YOU with you. The only person who can fill that void is God. The one who created you. The one who knows you better than you know you. The one who at any given moment knows how many strands of hair you have. The one who knows what and WHO you need. The one and only one who loves you unconditionally and has no hidden agenda except to love you and wants the absolute BEST for you. 

This holiday season if you find yourself single let me urge you to not do what I’ve done years ago. Don’t fill a void with a warm body. Do better for yourself. Your not being fair to you or even to that other person. Don’t settle for less than what your valued at. I promise you in God’s eyes your worth isn’t measurable. Being single isn’t a curse and certainly isn’t a life sentence. This is a season. Yes, your season may be longer than someone else’s but remember comparison gets us in trouble. Walk through your season with your head up. Find joy around you. I promise it’s in many places. Volunteer. Give back to your community. Giving to others immediately gets your focus off of you and onto others that you can help. Pour into God, let him love on you. Let him show you the areas in your life where you need to grow and learn. By doing that your going to grow stronger as a person on the inside which in turn will impact your future spouse, ORDAINED BY GOD. You’ll be whole without anyone and healthy for yourself and that future spouse. Chose joy! Chose contentment! Chose to smile!

Be intentional with your kids, family and friends. Intentional with creating lasting moments with your kids during the holidays. Focus on being intentional with surrounding yourself with family and friends who truly have your best interest at heart. Love on them and let them love on you. Laugh, ALOT! 

Your worth every ounce of hard work you are doing on you. Which makes you worth praying and waiting for that right person to walk beside you in this life! Don’t let the holidays steal that from you.

LOVE YOU enough to be selfish and not give into the wrong person to fill a void. Stand tall, brush yourself off, adjust that gorgeous crown and CHOSE to enjoy he holidays!!

Much Love!

Launch Day

So today I launch this blog! With it comes all the feels. You know excitement but nervousness, bold but fearful confident but yet insecure. 

Anyone else ever feel that way in life? 

That’s actually why I’m doing this. I’m definitely no expert by educational schooling but I do feel as I’ve walked through many things in my 44years that could help someone else. Many seasons I’ve handled them like a champ and then there’s been those seasons where it took walking through the wilderness to get out the other side. 

Our struggles, failures, hard seasons, obstacles, low and high points can be a testimony for others. 

I feel like women have this weight on there shoulders these days to not show weakness. To not admit they don’t have it all together. They feel judged to say they’re exhausted, tired, struggling emotionally and physically. There’s this stigma that we have to appear to have it all together all the time. They don’t feel “safe” to open up and share insecurities with other women because of judgement and feeling weak. Trust me when I say I’m writing right now about myself also!! 

I’m a single momma with 3 boys who are currently 19,12 and 3. My middle child was born with Down Syndrome and I run my own business. That’s just a few of the things I have going on daily in my life beyond normal life moments, extra life moments, insecurities, healing from past mistakes, exhaustion and the lists go on and on........ 

I want to use this platform to share my stories in hopes that it helps another woman. To help her see she isn’t alone. To give maybe a glimmer of hope in a time where she doesn’t see any. To maybe make someone laugh in the silliness of our crazy thoughts and actions. To show another woman going through something that she’s valuable and that she can overcome! 

I want to tackle many things with this. Single parenting as a mom. Single women. Parenting a child with different abilities. Insecurities. Fear. People pleasing. Divorce. Empowerment. Inner strength. Feeling less than. Learning and believing who God says you are. Finding the right tribe. Parenting a child now adult. Walking through the wilderness and just everyday life!!! I want this to maybe open up the door for women to see it’s ok to not be ok. That it’s ok to be HUMAN! 

To grab yourself a cup of coffee, sit down to read the weekly blog and feel connected!

With all of that said, I’m putting aside my own fear of judgment and here’s to the first blog being published and many more to come. Here’s to building community with many of you and connecting with laughter, experiences and some tears shed along the way. 

Much Love!