Unleashed

I'm kinda bouncing places in this post. Sunday's sermon was by a guest and I took a lot of notes but also thinking a lot about when I heard a song on Friday.


I heard a song again the other day called Friends Forever. That was a song that I heard during my senior year of high school. Brought back so many memories..... I wasn't popular by any means but I had more friends then and friends that wanted me to do things with them then I do now. I was an extrovert then. I am much more introverted now.

The song talks about all the changes and fears of graduation and after. Where will we be when we turn 25 and all of that. Year wise, my senior year was the best. I was right where I wanted to be in the top band, I had lunch period where I had friends and we all played euchre, talked band and a best friend who I could tell anything to.

I graduated and reality hit. I have seen one friend since high school that I went to school with. My best friend and I had a falling out when I got proof that my then boyfriend was indeed cheating on me with her. He didn't treat me right anyway.... We reconnected later but I have not talked to her in a while. I realized college for what I really wanted to get a career in would never happen, I was lucky to afford the loans for the community college. Yet even that career didn't happen.

I had a lot to learn.....

So often in life, we plan one way and something else becomes.

Yet in that something else, another chapter began in my story.

I have stories to share but what legacy do I have? That was the point of Sunday's sermon.

How did you celebrate holidays as a kid? Time with family? Kids today lose that. We still can prove our faith by our stories. How did you come to know Jesus? How has God proven Himself in your life? Share those stories! Well God has proven himself in many ways. I defied the odds that so many put on me for one. My children are alive and thriving. We are making the bills, we are not homeless, my story has touched others, I have helped others who are starting the medical journey, and more.

We only have so much time to tell our stories, to share how God touched each part of our lives. I regret not sharing more time with my maternal grandpa. I may not have been able to see him as much as I wanted but I failed to write much while in my last group home.... Then the day came where I learned he passed. No more stories, no more flute lessons, no more music talk, no more fishing, no more Christmas..... 20 years later I still wish I had done better but yet I know that even though I couldn't become a music teacher like he was, I am still continuing the music legacy. And now my daughter is too.

We only have so much time before the clock loses it's tock and from there, it's only memories and silence. 

Our job as parents is to raise our children up while we still have time. Teach them up to rise up and take the baton. They will live what we teach them. Not always but we WE parents have the largest impact on our children. If we didn't have that as children, it is up to US, not those around us to break that curse. I was abused and neglected as a child. That doesn't mean I will nor have done that to my children. I made the choice to break that curse, those chains. We are not, especially as adults to turn around and make the world feel sorry for us, to expect everyone else to do things for us or to have everyone enable us. No! We need to grow up, put on our armor and go to war ourselves. Sometimes we have to be wounded before we see that we have to fight back.

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Deuteronomy 6:5-9
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.

If you want to leave a spiritual legacy, don't just have accomplishments that are just titles but testimonies, what you did with life. How you impact others. Yet you won't accomplish anything without God. Try all you might, you will get burned out. We have to lead our children and grandchildren to have a heart for God. Are we going to brand our children and grandchildren that they belong to God like a farmer heats a branding iron and marks his cattle as his? Not literally burning our kids but are we going to put a burning fire, a passion in their hearts?

I may not have had positive influences most of my life, and indeed it did affect me but I MAKE THE CHOICE to continue that or not. Same foe you. Just because nobody showed you how to love, how to have mercy, how to share Jesus, doesn't mean you can't.

With that in mind, why can't we receive the hurting, the abused, the homeless, the dirty, the poor like Jesus did? Fear? Now I'm not saying don't take people you don't know into your home. Indeed that could be dangerous. Why not go where they are to show them Jesus? Serve and love on the homeless at the shelter, at a domestic violence shelter, at a children's home.

If church had not been offered to us girls at the last group home, I probably would not have accepted Christ at 14. If we didn't have BACA come in at the shelter for children I used to work at, some of those kids would have never had a father figure or a mother figure play ball with them, cook for them, craft with them, etc. If God had not intervened when I was 12, I would be dead. If I had not gone to my last group home, I don't think I would have ever been seen for the potential I was. It was thanks to two teachers at that school that I finally was seen for something other than worthless. If I had not survived all I did, I would not be as strong of a fighter as I am now. I would not be assertive in what my kids need, and so much more. 

Share your stories! Use the times you have been stuck in your own prison to reflect and grow and therefore break free to help others do the same. Especially the next generation!!

How many moments do we have in life with those around us that we can use as teachable moments? Find something every single day. Wisdom helps others grow.

"Without pain, how could we feel joy? Without regret, how could we cherish pride? Without sadness, there's no use in being happy. Without death, what value is a life lived?"

~ Unknown ~

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Share the big and little God moments in your life. Share those with the world, no matter the reactions you get. Those stories are what show others proof of God. The darker your past was or the darker some moments have been, the brighter those God moments can shine. It may have taken some time to heal. In some ways, the healing never stops, the memories do not go away, the scars will forever remain but it is in HOW you wear those battle scars that tells your story in a good way or a bad way. Letting go is NOT giving up. Letting go is freeing yourself from the bondage holding you back. 

What are you going to do? 

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Rip that leash off, break those chains. Unlock the prison gates and be free. Step out of that dark dungeon of bondage and soul torture. Break out of yours so you can embrace those around you that do finally break free. Guide them, help them learn. You can't have the light shine without some darkness and the light can't be seen as bright without any darkness. A candle shines brighter when surrounded by darkness then it does surrounded by light.

That is how you truly heal.

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BE UNLEASHED!!! BE HEARD!!! BE BOLD!!



DON'T BE AFRAID...... GO ROAR!!!









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Blessings!

~ Special Momma ~