Serenity by the Sea

This past week I was blessed with the opportunity to spend a few days in Destin, FL at a hotel that was on beach front property... God knew just what I needed and as always He provided!

I started my mornings with 5:00 AM prayer as usual... But with this breathtaking view....

At 6 AM after prayer... I walked along the beach admiring the masterpieces painted by our Creator....

After a brisk walk... I began my day.... Refreshed, renewed and revitalized...  No stress, no worries, no rinnging phones and dinging email alerts... Just me and God!

And in the midst of this breaktaking beauty, I began to reflect on the Serenity Prayer:

God grant me the serenity  to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;  Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him

Forever in the next.

Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

That day I embraced the strength of serenity and I did so by the sea.... The waves of the sea; helped me to get back to where God purposed for me to be!
 

 
Until next time!
 
M'Shonta

Keeping the Faith to Endure in Troubled Times: My Personal Testimony Part III

So where was I? Oh yes, now I remember....

I was so engulfed with helping God's people that I forgot all about the 100 applications that I had on the job market. I was so engulfed with helping God's people that forgot all about me, my problems and my situation. It was all about the people of God!

And in that I had also found joy, peace, happiness and a sense of fulfillment that I had never felt before. I was really content with my life and with doing kingdom business...

All of sudden, I received a call from a major food and beverage corporation concerning a training supervisor position. I was ecstatic! I said within myself, if this is for me God, you will make it happen! I felt so peaceful about the opportunity.

The company that I was working for made several counter offers; some of which were VERY hard for me to refuse. But in the end I chose purpose over immediate financial pleasures. And what a wise decision that was... {If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him~James 1:5}.

I landed a better paying job, that was closer to home with stellar benefits in a career that I loved!!! I give God all the glory, the praise and the honor to Him because it is in this economy that He blessed me with a new opportunity to fuel my passion and to fulfill my purpose in life!

I hope that my testimony will encourage you to keep your faith in troubled times!

Keeping the Faith to Endure in Troubled Times: My Personal Testimony Part I

In 2009, I had several major challenges that I faced that really *shook* the core of my faith. One of those things was being affected by the RIF {reduction in workforce} that my company had implemented.

I can remember it like was yesterday... It was a beautiful, sunny Friday afternoon and I had just finished my last training session. The location at which I was training was less than an hour away and I was on the way back home. It was going to be a great weekend... That is... until the phone rang...

They wanted me to come by the office which was an hour in the opposite direction in which I was currently traveling... So, I made a U-turn and perhaps one of the longest trips that I had *ever* made in my life...

I knew that it was not going to be good, but somehow I had this assurance that everything was going to be okay. My company had been riffing for the past year and somehow they always managed to do it on a Friday. Their reasoning was that it was statistically proven that lay-offs and terminations were always better to do at the end of the work week. I am not sure as to who was responsible for those stats, however, I was seriously consider finding someone else to do that job... What a way to spoil someone's weekend!!!!!

After what seemed to be a 15 hour drive; I arrived at the office. Inside the HR manager awaited me armed with a severance package and an option to take a lower paying job that I knew that I would not enjoy nearly as much as I loved training. I was devastated! They assured me that it was not performance related and of all the riff's that had taken place that day; I was the only one who had received a counter offer... I immediately thanked God for thank opportunity and listened to the rest of their spill that really sounded like whomp, whomp, whomp to me at the time...

Now my beautiful, sunny day did not seem so sunny and bright now... The weekend that was initially going to be filled with fun, shopping and good food would now become a weekend filled with decisions, decisions and more decisions. They gave me a week to make a final decision.

So after much fasting, praying and seeking spiritual guidance from my leaders I decided to humble myself and take the lower paying job...

{to be continued}