Do you ever feel like your life is just totally out of balance? Right now I’m really striving to find that body, soul, & spirit balance. Branon told me about an awesome body, soul, & spirit series that I have only just listened to the first one. I’m learning so much spiritually. I am seeking the Lord, and he is revealing himself to me, and it is such an awesome feeling.

Physically, well, I’m still working on it.

I’m starting a 90 day challenge next week! I’m going to eat much more vegetables/fruits and less processed foods, as well as exercise 5 days a week. I am so excited to take a huge step in being healthier. It’s going to be tough, but it will be so worth it in the end once I am in shape & healthy!

I’ve been preparing this week by incorporating most of the meals into my diet; I was planning on starting this week but I realized that I am going to need to prepare them on Sundays for the rest of the work week. I don’t really have enough time to make the meals everyday.

My goal is to run a half marathon next spring. Once I complete the 90 day challenge, I will be ready to start training for the half marathon at the beginning of next year. I know this is totally unrelated to this nonprofit organization, and if I feel so called to do so I may start a separate blog. Honestly, right now I do not.

I do want this nonprofit to encourage healthy choices, not just for children but also for parents. Exercising as a parent is beneficial not only for you but also for your children! You have to take care of yourself in order to take care of others.

On that note, I’m starting a mom’s group! It will be geared for younger moms to give them a chance to connect with other moms in their age range while the babies/kids play. I think it’s really important for a mother’s well-being to have dependable friends & a good support system.

I’m really excited about this because the majority of my friends are not parents yet, and that makes it hard to get together with some of them. Sometimes this is simply due to the fact every choice I make now revolves around Isaac. I still love them all the same, but my lifestyle is much different now. Plus, mamas need to have hang out time with other mamas.

So, I will be brainstorming some ideas for the get together’s, and I need to get a list of people who are interested. So if you live in Knoxville and you are mom, then please let me know if you are interested in joining! And if you aren’t, then let me know if you know anyone that would be!

One of the things I’m learning is friendships are important in our faith journey. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, and we need each other to complete the tasks at hand to advance God’s kingdom.

We have an enemy out there that wants to keep us from being fruitful, and one way he does this is by keeping us isolated. He tells us lies when we have a need or a problem to keep us from reaching out to others.

Lies such as “They won’t understand” or “They are too busy to care.” Then we make an agreement with this lie and a stronghold is formed, and we keep all of our problems bottled up in side.

We need others to actually love us, support us, encourage us, & pray for us in our time of need. That’s what the church is for. And I’m not talking about a building. I’m talking about the body of Christ. Let’s try to be like Romans 14:17-19 instructs,

17 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too. 19 So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.

We are all parents; what I’m learning is that everyone is a parent to someone whether it be physically or figuratively. We all have people who learn how to live life by the way we live ours. Let’s be there for each other so we can help break down all strongholds for the glory of our Abba Father.

Are we willing to do what ever it may take to breakdown strongholds that are holding us back from our full potential?

Branon, my husband, has a ridiculous anointing on his life. Seriously. I don’t really know how to explain it, but just trust me when I say he does. God brought us together for a reason, and I have no doubt in my heart that God will use us together to spread the love of Christ to many and bring glory to his name.

We are so perfect for each other. He understands me so completely, he brings out the best in me, and I’m just really not eloquent enough to explain my unconditional love for him.

At the end of August, Branon started a year long Christian Rehab program in Cullman, AL called The Foundry Farm. This is spiritual warfare guys! Ephesians 6:12 tell us,  “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

It’s definitely deeper than anyone could ever realize, even us. What I do know is  this: the devil is scared of him. Scared of his fruitfulness. Scared of our fruitfulness.

We both had to make some really difficult sacrifices in order for us to reach our full potential. We are humbling ourselves before the Lord, and seeking him wholeheartedly. We are standing on his promises. That’s one of them in Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”

I know that God is using this time to teach us to depend on him, and him alone. He has to be our first priority, our first love.

We have been communicating mostly only by letter so far. But day by day I am falling more and more in love with my Abba; I am falling more and more in love with my husband.

I am confident that we will look back on this time and say, “Oh, so THAT’s what you were doing during that time, Lord!” and it will all make sense. But it’s hard right now. This our story, and you can follow along our journey and watch our testimony in action. I hope it brings you encouragement. I hope that our transparency will build relationships and credibility with the people that this nonprofit is being formed to serve.

So let’s just try to remember that everyone has a story; let’s show genuine love and compassion to each other. I want to challenge you to pick a few people and commit to checking on them the rest of this year. You can come back here and share your stories with me of how the Lord grows those friendships! And if there is no fruit that you see, just remember that you are planting seeds, and it is the Holy Spirit who makes them grow.