Yes I know, heard it all before and it sounds corney. It’s true though … I try to remember something I can be grateful for on a daily basis.

It’s so easy to focus on prayers that need answering, the things we need and want and forget that we have life, food to eat, a home, a car, our children etc. And what I’ve personally experienced is that the more I give God thanks for something, the more I grow to appreciate it’s value.

So, if there is something you want to value more, but struggling to give it (or someone) the respect it deserves, just start thanking God for it and see the mainfestation of what you speak unfold.

Maybe it’s something as seemingly trivial as your time … start thanking God for time and notice how much more of it you gain within the 24 hours He has given you … or your husband … start thanking God for the man you’d like him to be … or your children … start thanking God for who they are growing up to become.

I can hear some of you saying now … “I aint giving God thanks for my husband, he’s the worse thing that ever happened to me!” Or, “Trish, if you knew my child you would be asking me to rue the day he or she was born.”

Well, my message is simple … God’s Word is true and the things God says about your husband and your child and every other circumstance in your life is true so start thanking God on the basis of His Word.

When you wake up tomorrow, when it’s no longer Thanksgiving try starting the day with “BLESS THE LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits …” Psalm 103: 1-2

Your baby wasn’t created a drug user or your husband a control freak … God created all things good and so try and find promises (truths) of God to match your situation and I promise you that you will see your situation changing around you.

This is all a part of renewing the mind … seeing what God sees and saying what God says … about your time, yourself, your situation.

I’m grateful to all of my readers for the encouraging emails, the prayers and the support and though shorter than usual, I hope this post will encourage you to get passionate about gratefullness, tomorrow, the next day and the day after that … each miracle will motivate you to become more thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Related posts:

1. BLESS THE Lord, O my soul!
2. Learning To Love Yourself …
3. What Are You Grateful For?

Proverbs 23:7 says:

For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

Naturally, this applies to women as well as men but it really does clear up one thing, that “luck” has nothing to do with what you get in life and certainly who you become, but rather it’s what thoughts you given birth to in your mind.

T.D.Jakes in his Women Thou Art Loosed Bible, speaks about the fact that we must purge our thoughts and clean out low self-esteem, pride arrogance, hidden jealousy etc. He says …

“To use a medical metaphor, the mind is the “placenta” of the spirit man. It holds and nurtures the seeds it has been impregnated with until the time of delivery. If you have the seed of a thought in your mind and you don’t want the child that that seed will produce, your only recourse is to abort it before it is carried to full term.”

In other words, your thoughts have led you to where you are today. You thought it, mediated it and then manifested or gave birth to it.

So, if you don’t like who your are or your situation, it’s time to change the way you think about yourself, others and life, so you don’t keep reproducing the same kind of “child” as T.D.Jakes put it.

And I for one know just how difficult that can be at times, especially when you can’t see your way clear out of a situation. But you have to ask yourself, are my negative thoughts going to bring me joy and peace? Am I helping myself or those around me by rehearsing the same stories of yesterday and will my current thoughts bring me what I really want in life?

Any dream is possible if you can conceive it first in your mind and, if you don’t like the way your life is now, change what you’re thinking and by doing so, you can literally abort your self depreciating thoughts and immediately conceive new thoughts that will bring you joy and peace now and in the future.

Seeing yourself the way God sees you and speaking what you want your life to look is far more powerful than complaining and whining about the way things are. And, I’m speaking from personal experience here.

I remember going through a really bad period at work a few years ago and looking back, I tell my husband how much I now feel sorry for him. I drive and he doesn’t and so I would take him to work and pick him up again and I’m telling you, all I spoke about for months whilst this thing was hanging over my head was the situation. It was eating me up and no doubt others around me too.

At the time, I told my HR manager that if it took three years, the truth would come out. It did take three years and ironically, it was when I stopped focusing on the problem … when I stopped talking about it and feeding myself and others with the negative aspects of the situation.

You see, whilst I was desperate for that episode in my life to be over, I was prolonging the situation by feeding on it day and night. I was speaking about the situation and how wrong things were instead of focusing on “living life” and, what that looked like for me.

It was a real lesson for me and I’ve had to learn to “live” through difficult times and let the joy of the Lord be my strength.

Now, I understand that we are continually manifesting all the time and so it makes more sense to think and speak what you want to happen as opposed to the fears and worries or, what you dislike about you, your life and other people.

What goes in, must come out and so if you want to change your thougts and your life, it’s time to get into the Word and believe those things that God said about you. His Words are the most positive things you will ever read about yourself and His plans for you are good (Jeremiah 29:11). It’s time to check out His plans for your life and put a stop to living the plans other people have put in place for you.

It took me years to realise why it was so important for me to read my Bible. I was always led to believe that I had to read my Bible every day because that’s what I had to do to become a “good” Christian. It wasn’t until a few years ago during a discussion time with my husband that it hit me …

God keeps emphasising the importance of meditating and speaking His Word because we keep forgetting what He says about us and take more notice of the opinions of others and then we replay the negative video tape over and over with our own silent and negative confessions.

It really is time to start thinking about what you’re thinking about. As one author once said, “thoughts are things … what are you thinking about?”

The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 to be transformed by renewing your mind but it’s impossible to be totally transformed without adhering to verse 1:

I beseech you therefore, brethren by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

Notice how verse two begins with “And.”

This is the reason I state that you can’t do verse two without adhering to verse one first … verse two is a continuation of verse one.

So, what does it mean to “present your bodies a living sacrifice?”

The answer to this and much more will be covered in the upcoming series.

Until then, take some time out to read the Word. Don’t let the enemy rob you of your blessing because you don’t know the promises of God for your life.

Until next time, Blessings,

Related posts:

1. BLESS THE Lord, O my soul!
2. Power of the Third Influence
3. Before You Were Formed … I Knew You

Can you imagine the director of a movie shouting “Lights!” “camera!” … and then just stopping there?

What’s missing and what would be the result?

There would be no action and therefore, there would be no movie!

I’m not a huge movie fan but for you movie fans out there, I know you’d be distraught. But guess what … too many of us are living our lives on the “lights, camera” and no action scenario.

Many of you may have read my inspiring story which may even have compelled you to sign up for The Influential Woman Newsletter which, is great but in order for me to change some things in my life, I had to take some serious action.

Without the action, I would still be reading, and praying, and waiting.

And guess, what? Nothing would have happened. Actually, it would, I would just have had to live on the emotional rollercoaster of feeling low every time my past decided to present itself so vividly in my mind. But I’m grateful that even at the age of 15, after the death of my Nan (Grandmother), whilst I had no idea how it worked, I grasped the concept of the power of perspective.

In my own childish way, I understood that by framing in my mind how I wanted my future to look, it would make me feel better here and now. With that new perspective on life, I’d be able to think more clearly and take appropriate action toward the life that I so desperately wanted.

And, I would surround myself with friends who would cheer me up when I was down- the great thing is, these guys I used to hang around with at School, didn’t even have to try! They were just naturally funny and I’m grateful to God for such great friends in those days.

I learned I had to read things that challenged my thinking and the ways of doing things I’d become accustomed to and I would have loved back then to have had daily inspiration via a PC or mobile phone to keep me motivated when I occasionally got down … I know, I’m showing my age now.

And this brings me to a serious point and I’ll use a real life example to illustrate:

I remember once I received an email from one of my subscribers to say that she had unsubscribed from my newsletter because “I didn’t expect to receive so many emails!”

Those were the days when I was sensitive to “unsubscribe emails,” forutnately, not anymore.

But I had to remind my readers that change is not like playing a game of Monopoly! If I send you something and it’s not for you, just pass go and still collect your £200 – or $200 if you’re in the US. since I’m sure you don’t read every article in you’re daily newspaper – like the sports section for many of us women – but you still read what’s relevant to you and pass on the rest.

We have to remember not to throw the baby out with the bathwater!

Jim Rohn, motivational speaker, taught me, “always be a gatherer of good ideas.” Even if you don’t like the preacher, teacher or whoever, if they’re speaking truth, listen to what they have to say since in amongst everything you don’t like, might be the pearl that could change your life forever.

My mission is to inspire you to take some action! The kind of action that’s going to move you from where you are today, to where you want to be tomorrow.

So remember,

“It’s not the lights and the camera that completes the movie, the final cut is in the action”

I love you all!

Have a blessed day,

Related posts:

1. Learning To Love Yourself …
2. My Baby’s First Day At School!
3. You Are What You Think

Remember Whitney Houston’s Song … “The Greatest Love of All?”

It’s one of my favorite songs which actually made me appreciate why it is that some women love who they are whilst others dislike who they are, despite the compliments from others about their looks, their figure, their beautiful skin and hair.

Whitney Houston sings …
“I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way,
show them all the beauty they possess inside…”

Well, this is where the building of our self-esteem and self-image begins … as children!

I believe it’s so easy to forget when we look at our little bundle of joy or our toddler or our teenager and remember that these children are the men and women of tomorrow. So, the words we speak into their lives will have far reaching effects into the future. Nonetheless, it’s not our children I want to speak about now, it’s us!

The first commandment in the Bible is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and ‘your neighbour as yourself.” Luke 10:27

So, let me ask you … “how much do you love yourself?” I hope it’s a lot and I hope you’re not too afraid or ashamed to say so.

Related posts:

1. Power of the Third Influence
2. “Lights!” “Camera!” ….
3. I’m Thankful …