Month: June 2021

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Side note: I have a new Author Newsletter that I would love it if you signed up for http://www.tinyletter.com/Author_JCCarpenter

And if any of you would like to buy me a coffee and donate to my creative endeavors then please feel free to https://ko-fi.com/authorjccarpenter

Trust In His Plans and His Timing

June 21, 2021 jcladyluv

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” ~ Jeremiah 29:11

This may shock you but I am not an optimistic person by nature. It is my natural inclination to always be waiting for the other shoe to drop, for bad luck to strike, just for something to go wrong on a grand scale. I had a traumatic childhood with virtually no one who was supportive of anything I wanted to do except for the few friends that I had, the few people that didn’t bully me and make my life miserable at school too. So when I say I have come a long way in how I see things, on my shift in perspectives, I am not being melodramatic or overstating things. For a long time I had no reason to see anything good about my life, accept for my writing.

Writing saved me in so many ways. When I was six I knew that writing was what I wanted to do but I didn’t actually start writing (aside from the very short picture book that I wrote after my revelation that I was going to become a writer in which I gifted to my then best friend lol) until I was ten years old. I started writing poetry to cope with the abuse I suffered at home and all of the feelings of hopelessness that I felt but couldn’t tell anyone about. I wrote to escape and enter into a world that I wanted to be in and more often than not a world I wanted to stay in. I don’t see things as bleak as I once did and I have to say it is much better to see the brighter side of things than having that dreaded feeling that nothing will ever get better.

I’ve only recently, well within the last five years anyway, been able to shift my perspective and see that sometimes it’s not about my plans for my career and what I want my writing to do for others, but rather God’s plan. I like to keep the phrase in mind that when we plan, God laughs because it’s as if He’s up there saying “oh you think that’s how things are going to go but you don’t know what I’ve got planned for you.” This is why we have to trust the plan, and not our plans mind you, but His plans.

I just don’t know if, back when I was in a depression so deep that most days I didn’t know how I would climb out of it, or when I knew I had this dream and this passion for writing but I wasn’t really sure how to use it to help people, I don’t know that if God had given me the clear vision I have now, that I would’ve been able to do what He wanted me to do with it. Back then I didn’t see a brighter side to anything so I wouldn’t have known what to do with the purpose God was sowing into me.

God’s timing truly is perfect because I think without all of the abuse I experienced (physical, emotional, mental, and psychological) and all of the other experiences I had that went along with all of that, I wouldn’t be who I am, I wouldn’t have built up what was needed inside for me to go to the next levels that He is preparing for me ahead of time.

If we don’t show Him that we trust His vision for our lives and that we know that His plans are to better us and further enrich us, why would He then trust us with the ability to see His vision through? If you are in a phase of doubt when it comes to your dreams or whatever is going on in your life, sometimes you have to just let things be whatever they are going to be. Sometimes you just have to throw your hands up and literally let go and let God.

Until next time… #BeEncouraged #BeEmpowered #BeinFaith

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPU35EkFSbuxgekCp4LfI5g

Side note: I have a new Author Newsletter that I would love it if you signed up for http://www.tinyletter.com/Author_JCCarpenter

And if any of you would like to buy me a coffee and donate to my creative endeavors then please feel free to https://ko-fi.com/authorjccarpenter

Don’t Let Someone Else’s Disbelief In You Become Your Reality

June 14, 2021June 14, 2021 jcladyluv

There are so many people who have big dreams and visions for their lives and they never even try to accomplish them. They essentially give up before they even begin. What’s more surprising about that is that the reason they don’t try is not because they don’t have the passion to do so, but rather because someone else told them that they wouldn’t achieve it. I don’t have to imagine how someone can let someone else’s predictions for their lives become their reality because I was almost that person.

I had a mother who constantly told me that I would never accomplish anything that I dreamed of doing and who did her best to keep me down in terms of my goals and my vision and for a really long time I allowed her to keep me from trying at my full potential. Mind you, there was never a time that I wasn’t trying (because the calling to write was just too strong) but I know that I held back on the level of try that I had because I believed what she said about me.

There was a lot of things I had to go through and realizations that I had which made me come to terms with the toxic person that my mother is and made me understand that I just would never really have her support and that was okay because I knew what I was meant to do and what my dreams and goals are and only I am responsible for the level of tenacity I have.

Now what I really want others to realize and see for themselves is that they can’t let other people’s ideas of what your life is supposed to look like affect what you want your life to look like. Their perception of your aspirations is not your problem nor should it ever become your reality. If you are still struggling to figure out what your purpose and vision is for your life I encourage you to sit down with yourself and God, with some paper and pen and really think about what it is you want and then put a plan of action into place to go after it.

If you already know what you want but you are grappling with others opinions, stop! Their opinions don’t matter. God and you are the only two opinions that matter and in all honesty, truly it’s only God’s opinion and purpose He has for your life because sometimes what He has planned for us isn’t even what we planned for ourselves. Make your own path and don’t let the outside noise cloud your focus.

Until next time… #BeBold #BeFearless #BeEmpowered

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPU35EkFSbuxgekCp4LfI5g

Side note: I have a new Author Newsletter that I would love it if you signed up for http://www.tinyletter.com/Author_JCCarpenter

And if any of you would like to buy me a coffee and donate to my creative endeavors then please feel free to https://ko-fi.com/authorjccarpenter

Laying the Groundwork

June 7, 2021 jcladyluv

So I’m about to have another birthday on Thursday and I’ll be turning 41 and thinking about really crossing further into the forties has me thinking about whether or not I’m satisfied with the direction that my life is going. I mean of course I had plans when I was younger of what my forty year old self would be doing in life and where I would be in my career and on the ladder of success.

However, when I was younger I was naïve to the reality of adulthood and what having all of those things that I want would take in terms of effort and sheer willpower after getting repeatedly knocked down and having to pry myself off the ground to get back up and keep pushing forward. Honestly if you had asked me when I was younger if I thought I had the tenacity and strength to have to keep pushing through all of the obstacles that have been thrown at me I would have said no, I can’t do it, I’m just not that strong. I’m glad to say that I would have been wrong because you never truly know how strong you are until you have to be.

So what have I learned in these 41 years of living? I suppose I would say the biggest thing that I’ve learned about myself, and that I continue to learn as I move forward in my career goals, is that I have never lost my passion for what it is I know I am supposed to do with my life. Even though I’m not sure how I knew writing was my purpose back when I was just six years old (at six I wouldn’t have known anything about the use of the word purpose lol) I have never wavered from that dream. Sure I thought I would be where I desired to be by now but again, that was the naiveté of a child dreaming that just assumed if you’re talented and wanted it bad enough it would happen easily.

I know a lot of people who think writing is nothing special and that it’s an easy thing to do. I often get those that think I don’t do anything at all because I’m “just a writer” they say and that’s “not that hard to do” which is infuriating because this is not a career for the feint of heart. I have literally dedicated my entire life to this craft and it is who I am, not just what I do. At 41 I’m not on any New York Time’s Bestsellers list (as I hoped I would be at this point) and frankly I am just now in the process of re-releasing my first novel and a couple of poetry books this year but I have put in years of article writing and blogging here on this blog, creating a newsletter first, and then magazine, to make sure that I do my part to highlight other authors to the best of my ability, and now I even have a YouTube channel in which I talk about my writing life and that is not nothing.

A couple of years ago, in the mindset I was in then, I would have been sulking and further depressed about where I wasn’t in my life, only focused on what I haven’t been able to accomplish. Today, because I have been working on my spiritual journey, my mindset has drastically shifted to where I don’t see it quite that way anymore. I see all that I have been able to accomplish as me laying the groundwork for all of the victorious things that I know are to come. I have been getting prepared for my dreams to come to fruition and I think I needed that preparation.

Just because things don’t happen on the timetable that we want them to, doesn’t mean they won’t happen. In fact it may be better for them not to happen when we want them because I find that oftentimes when we think we are ready for things, more than likely we aren’t ready at all. If you haven’t gotten to where you want in life just yet, don’t let that get you down. Just think of it as you laying the groundwork for all that is to come and keep pushing, keep working, and you will get there. God wouldn’t give you the vision and the dream if He hadn’t prepared a way for you to have it when He’s ready for you to.

Until next time #BePatient #BePersistent #BeReady

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310