God has smiled on me he has set me free.
-Mary Mary
I remember being a small child singing the vacation Bible school version of this song. Of course that was way back in the day and it has been remade several times since then. As my friend said years ago when Mary Mary burst onto the scene, "they do some good hollerin." I'll admit for a season I had to pull away from the group because I felt the imagery, some things said on social media, and their show was not expedient to believers and was not based in love. Looking back now I realize it perhaps signaled to some struggles about my own identity in Christ as a woman and a minister at the time.
But what I do know is God uses whom He chooses and He is smarter than you and me. Each and every day it is His great pleasure to bring us His kingdom. His desire is to make us to display His kingdom before a watching world. And it's not up to us how or through whom He does that. Now I'm a preacher so I am trying to resist turning this into whole Bible study, but I will encourage you to head over to Google or your nearest concordance to look up promises in the Bible and things that God says about you. You have no excuse whatsoever living below His blessed place for you. God has great things in store for you and He wants to pull greatness out of you. This is why it is so important that you speak highly to yourself and affirm yourself. Remind yourself of your future. Remind yourself of your purpose. Remind yourself of your power. Really ignite your passion.
I want to share a few things that I say to myself on a daily basis. Over time this list has changed as roles and responsibilities in my life pull on me in different ways. Here is the current set:
I am beautiful
I am brilliant
I am blessed
I am strong
I am free
I lack nothing
Wealth and riches are in my house Wealth and riches are in my hands
I am refreshed because I refresh others
I am healed
I am whole
I always win
I have victory in Jesus
This takes me back to my first published work and my becoming the kingdom entrepreneur and faith-based business woman that you know today. My first book Journal For Your Journey was the book I never intended to write. From a young age I fancied myself a future novelist receiving awards for my writings. I just never imagined that I would write a book solely based on prayer and affirmations. But actually doing it wasn't a far stretch at all. Prayer and affirmations are a huge part of my daily life. It actually makes me smile and I believe God smiles when I do it. I'm a conversationalist and I was uniquely crafted by the Creator of the world so He and I chat often. He even instructed me to say things aloud to myself. Before it got popular on social media and the talk shows He told me that was what I needed to do. I obeyed. Paying more attention to what I was saying to Him and how that was impacting my life and health was amazing. So I had to share it with the world.
I'm still so grateful that I get to speak to Him openly and honestly about the things that bother me and the things that I need help with. I can tell Him things that hurt me and things that I'm ashamed of and He still smiles in my direction. His opinion of me does not change. He doesn't repeat the things that I say to Him. He makes sure that I don't believe the lies that my nagging inner self-critic and the enemy of my soul try to tell me. His smile lights up my heart. His smile gives me liberty. His smile makes me okay. His smile makes everything okay. All of my walls come down when He smiles. All of my insecurities go out the window when He smiles. I am more myself when He smiles than when anyone does or says anything at all. His smile is simply all that I need. atb

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