Tag: Inspiration

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Somewhere Hidden In the Scraps

April 16, 2012 jcladyluv

“Miracles always begin with recognition of what you have; if you don’t recognize what you have, you can never multiply what you have not recognized.”

~Bishop T.D. Jakes

There are some writers that will always tell other aspiring writers that they are never supposed to throw anything away. That whatever you create should be held onto. There are those scraps of paper that you set to the side whenever your idea doesn’t pan out the way you thought it would.

There’s that opening scene that you decided that you weren’t crazy about once you had completed it. Even the novel that you, for some unknown reason, stopped working on halfway through it and have just set to the side never to be seen again for years, possibly decades. I firmly believe in never throwing things away but not just for the sake of holding onto things and not being able to let go but because you never know what treasures lie in those scraps of paper that you are thinking about throwing away.

Those scraps of paper may not have been right for what you initially intended it for but they might be perfect for some other project down the line. That scene may not have fit that particular story but could find a home in the next one. That unfinished novel that is still sitting and collecting dust may just be waiting for the right time for you to be ready to finish it and it could be the next great novel the world is waiting to read.

Last week I wrote a post that mentioned some segments from a sermon given by Bishop T.D. Jakes that was featured on a particular episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter. I had only captured certain pieces of that sermon on the show but this morning I went back and listened to it in its entirety and got so much more out of it then I did before. His specific message was on saving the scraps (our past burdens) and it was centered around a passage from the bible taken from Mark6:42-52.

In his sermon he said that “The miracle is not in what you lost, the miracle is not in what you have consumed previously, your best days are not your yesterdays, your miracles are in what you have left. If you discard it, ignore it, don’t use it, don’t value it, don’t learn from it, don’t understand it, you will lose the battle before you because you did not learn from the battle behind you. – That which remains is more valuable than that which was lost.”

He talked about us taking our scraps and using them to enable us to power through and forge ahead. To use them as our learning tools that eventually become our blessings. “Your power is not in where you are, your power is in where you’ve been” and if you don’t recognize and hold onto the place that you were once at you can not truly appreciate the place where you are now.

Bishop T.D. Jakes closed his sermon by saying to those who have been broken, that the problem is that you have not considered the scraps that God has given you. If you had considered the scraps then you would already know and trust that you are safe. That it is not what you go through, but rather how you perceive what you go through.

I am very aware of the fact that I need to learn how to appreciate the scraps of my life instead of continuing to try and bury them. True gratitude comes in the appreciation of the fact that those scraps have been the reason for more than my fair share of blessings. Like it or not those scraps are what makes me who I am. They’re what make you who you are too.

When you look back at the things that you have been through and on the lows that you have been in, you have to know that God would not have put you through those things if he did not have a plan to bring you to higher ground. Your blessings are hidden in what you’ve already experienced and been through, in the lessons that life has already been teaching you. Your blessings are hidden in the scraps of it all.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

Banishing the Age Old Excuse

April 6, 2012 jcladyluv

“Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born.”

~Dale E. Turner

This morning as I was watching the news they started talking about baseball (which is my least favorite sport, next to golf) and I started to go into my usual mode whenever I heard baseball mentioned, ignore mode. But this time something caught my attention, enough to actually make me sit and listen.

They were discussing the oldest major league pitcher to have ever played baseball. Jamie Moyer is a 49 year old pitcher who is now playing with the Colorado Rockies after suffering an elbow injury in 2010 that caused him to lose an entire season of playtime. The injury required him to have reconstructive surgery (Tommy John Surgery) with an estimated recovery time of at least a year.

The word throughout the sports world was that his career was most likely over because this was not his first injury. However, Jamie Moyer had other things in mind then letting go of his career, although his career has already surpassed many of the people he came into the league with and he was now playing with men of the next generation of baseball.

All he wanted was the chance to prove to all of the people who said he was too old or that he didn’t throw hard enough anymore that he could in fact do this once again. They gave him his chance and he proved them wrong and now he could potentially be making history as the oldest major league baseball pitcher to ever win a game.

It got me to thinking about all of the times that I doubted continuing my efforts as a writer because I was starting to feel as though maybe I was getting too old to be starting out in this career. I mean in my mind I should’ve already done so many great things within my career by now and I have, instead, been stuck going around in circles. Watching that story on the news this morning taught me something. The age factor is only in my mind, not anyone else’s.

Jamie Moyer commented that “as long as you have an opportunity you can succeed, but you have to be willing to put the time and the effort into it.” Essentially as long as the opportunities keep presenting themselves to me, I don’t have a reason (or rather an excuse) to not go after them.

People often tell me that I waste a lot of time watching TV and watching the news, but I never listen to that because I know what I get out of it. I get inspiration and I get motivated. I hear other people’s stories and experiences and I receive the wisdom and lessons that they try to impart to those that are watching and listening.

Today, just in those five minutes that I watched that news piece I saw someone who wouldn’t let people tell him he was too old to continue on with his dream. I saw someone who didn’t use his age as an excuse to just give up. I heard something that motivated me to give up my last excuse for not going after every single opportunity that comes my way, especially the ones that are a pathway to my dreams.

I will only be too old when I can’t write anymore and my fingers can’t translate the words from my mind onto paper (or computer screen). As long as I have ideas in my head and the ability to convey them, I will never be too old. Hell even in my senior years (I mean really old-80’s old), I can still dictate my thoughts into a tape recorder and (if the arthritis has really set in) have someone else type up my work. Age really is just a number, not a dream killer!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

A Moment to Pray

March 7, 2012 jcladyluv

I am still not feeling much like writing (or doing much of anything else) lately. I thought that I might be coming out of my funk this morning when I woke up but somewhere throughout the course of the day that same mood crept back in. I’m not going to lie, I gave into it today. But I really am trying here to pull myself out of whatever this feeling is that suddenly came over me. So in an effort to try and re-motivate myself I have been trying to read uplifting and motivating things and I came upon a book that I was given a few years ago called ‘Dear God, It’s Me and It’s Urgent: Prayers for every season of a woman’s life’ by Marion Stroud. I look through it from time to time and some days it helps. Tonight I was looking through it and came across this one prayer that I just wanted to share a part of.

Thank you, Lord, that you provide this belt of truth.

Please help me to discern the half truths and the lies hurled at me by the enemy.

And when they scream for entry at the doorway of my mind,

Help me to refuse, both to receive them or believe them.

Thank you for the breastplate that protects my heart and my emotions.

Keeping me from being wounded by the jibes of others,

Or being bound by the fear of the reactions of those

Whose good opinion is so important to me.

Banish compromise please Lord,

Enabling me to do what’s right-consistently.

And as I wear these running shoes of the readiness to share your love,

Keep me from being sidetracked, Lord,

or from avoiding the stony paths.

Help me to be ready to go wherever you may send me,

and prepared to set out at a moment’s notice.

The prayer goes on for another page or so but I just wanted to share the part that struck me the most. There was also a scripture in the book that accompanied the prayer.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

– Ephesians 6:10-11, NIV

I just wanted to share this with all of you and I hope that these words help someone else beside me today.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

Just Something I Wanted To Share With You

February 25, 2012February 25, 2012 jcladyluv

I don’t really have much to say today but I saw this somewhere and it was really helpful for me and I hope that it will help someone else out there as well.

In Happy Moments….Praise God

In Difficult Moments….Seek God

In Quiet Moments….Worship God

In Painful Moments….Trust God

Every Moment…..Thank God

–Author Unknown

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

At A Loss for Words

February 20, 2012 jcladyluv

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”

~Robert Louis Stevenson

Tonight I am at a loss for words. I have had certain inspirations come to me and I have notes written down but they haven’t completely formulated into complete posts for me yet. But I promised that I would write and post no matter what so even though the words won’t come tonight (not completely anyway) I still had to put myself out there in some way, shape, or form.

So while I promise that tomorrow the words will be much more profound, and much more inspiring and hopefully motivational, tonight these are all the words that I have to offer. It may not be much but it’s something and it’s the effort that counts. Until tomorrow…I hope your words come easy for you but know that if they don’t just put in the effort anyway and something beautiful will come.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

The Questions We Ask Ourselves, and God (Part 1): Why Me?

February 13, 2012 jcladyluv

“I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders.”

~ Jewish Proverb

I have a ton of questions that I asks’ God on a regular basis. These are questions that I probably know the answer to already but for some reason I never listen to that voice inside of myself until I go to him. All he does is amplify that voice inside of me so that I actually start paying attention to it. Have any of you ever found yourself asking God question after question and then wonder when you’re going to get any of the answers you’re waiting for? I’m discovering that maybe the answers to our questions are already answered but we just aren’t paying close enough attention.

The most common question that I find myself asking is why me? There is so much that we go through in life and sometimes it starts to weigh you down. Naturally the first thing you want to know is why do you have to go through this. Why is this happening to you? It just seems sometimes that things get really hard really fast and they take a really long time to get better. It makes it even more difficult when the person next to you (figuratively) seems to have everything falling right into place just so neatly. But their story is not your story.

God puts us through things, not just for the sake of doing so, but to strengthen us. He gives us tests so that we have testimonies to share so that we can be an example for others. If you think about it you will realize that you already know the answer to why me. It is because without your experiences, without those trials that you have been put through, your life story wouldn’t be the same. You wouldn’t be the same person that you are without those moments that made you stronger. You might not be as appreciative of your successes if you didn’t have all of the obstacles thrown in your way just to get to them.

I’m not going to sit here and say that when I have a rough day, or a rough week, or even a rough month, that I won’t ask why me again. However, I think that I won’t be waiting as long for the answer because I know why me. I know that my story, my struggle, has a more profound meaning. I know that my experiences will eventually be able to help someone else cope with their struggle and that I will be proof that for those that have been broken down, it was only so that you be built back up.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

Make a Pledge To Yourself Today

January 26, 2012 jcladyluv

Okay so I wasn’t really sure what I was going to post about tonight but then as luck would have it I came across something that someone had given me a long time ago. It was a pledge that they had made up for themselves to remind themselves of the goals they have and that they should never give up on them and to strive to better the next day and the day after that. I believe I was having one of those days where I was doubting everything about me and my dreams and my capability of making them happen. So they passed this on to me to lift my spirits and so that I can be reminded by looking at these words every time that I needed to be reminded. So I decided that I would pass these same words along to you. I hope that you get at much out of these words as I have gotten.

A Pledge To Myself

Today I pledge

To be the best possible me

No matter how good I am

I know that I can become better

Today I pledge

To build up the work of yesterday

Which will lead me into

The rewards of tomorrow

Today I pledge

To feed my mind knowledge

My body strength,

And my spirit faith

Today I pledge

To reach new goals,

New challenges

And new horizons

Today I pledge

To listen to the beat of my drummer

Who leads me onward in search of my dreams

Today I pledge to believe in ME

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

Planting One Seed At a Time

January 25, 2012 jcladyluv

“Most of the time multitasking is an illusion. You think you are multitasking, but in reality you’re actually wasting time switching from one task to another.”

~ Bosco Tjan

There always seems to be a message of inspiration for me in some part of every day. Whether it’s in the conversations that I have with Ms. L. (which frankly always hold some source of inspiration), or something that is being said by someone in the gym I go to or on TV, or even if it’s sent in an email. Yesterday there so happened to be an email that I felt spoke directly to me. It was one of Tyler Perry’s Inspirational Corner Messages that he sends out to everyone who is on his email listing. It was a message on how to become successful. It was right on the money and exactly what I needed to hear.

He spoke about his success being due to the grace of God. He spoke about narrowing your focus and planting your seeds. He essentially said that when it comes to the success that we want out of life for ourselves, all we can do is plant the seed in the ground, water it, and believe. He advised that to be successful one must narrow their focus and concentrate on one thing at a time, one idea. That one idea, once made a success, will give birth to all of your other ideas. If you spend time spreading water over too many seeds you don’t have as much water for one seed, that one seed that you feel is most important to bloom.

I realized then the reason why I have been feeling so lost lately within my writing. Ever since this year has started, I have felt so much pressure (that I placed on myself) to tackle everything on my goal list. Trying to figure out how I am going to work on all of these different projects that I want to get done over the course of this year all essentially at one time. The rational response is that of course I can’t work on all of my projects at once but the overachiever that lives inside of me wants so badly for it to be possible. I’ve been wasting so much time trying to work out a plan in my head to make it happen which has resulted in me getting nothing done at all.

I must narrow my focus. I must take what is the most important thing to me and concentrate on how I can make that work and make that successful. Once I thought about concentrating on that one thing, I didn’t feel so lost anymore. My direction became a little clearer. If I focus on becoming the well known author that I was meant to be and acquire the agent that I am seeking to find for my next novel, then all of my other ideas will come to fruition.

I always thought that if I could be really good at multitasking than I could get everything accomplished relatively at once. However, it hasn’t been working that way so I must shift my efforts to something different, something that is going to work. Multitasking, I think works for those who have already reached that level of success that they strived to get to. When you are just trying to get to that level of success you must narrow your focus. I must narrow my focus and plant one seed at a time and give each individual seed a chance to bloom in their own time. Until tomorrow…Focus on that one seed and the rest will eventually bloom!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

Knowing is Half the Battle

January 21, 2012January 21, 2012 jcladyluv

One of the things I struggle most with when it comes to writing is my consistence in the art of procrastination. As much as I want other writers out there to buckle down and plant their butts in a chair and as much as I tell myself the same thing, lately it seems like any minor distraction can deter me from writing, mostly the TV.

I think I might be addicted to television. I mean even if I turn the sound down on the TV it doesn’t help but if I turn the TV off then it’s too quiet and I can’t focus when it is too quiet, I need some modicum of sound. And it’s not as if I watch TV for the sheer enjoyment of watching it (at least not most of the shows I watch) but rather I watch it from the standpoint of a writer. I watch the storylines and pay close attention to the dialogue and analyze it in my head as to what I, as a writer, could bring to that TV show or movie.

I am going into detail about the distraction of TV because although I have many other distractions that just come with everyday life and being a mom, the TV is basically my kryptonite and sometimes (not all the time) it weakens my desire to write. Well now that I’ve been honest with myself and you, hopefully I can take the proper steps to resolve the issue of that distraction.

I think when I used to go to Borders to do my writing it got me away from the TV and I felt inspired sitting in the bookstore surrounded by all of these great writers (I mean of the books on the shelves) and it just made me want to work harder. Ever since they closed down Borders I haven’t had anywhere to retreat to get away from the distractions of being home with the TV. I guess I have to find another place now where I can get away and still feel inspired.

I suppose this means I’m not one of those writers who can do my work 100% from the comfort of my home. I guess getting out of my home office will also help me to network with other writers as well. Now that I figured out why I haven’t been writing much lately I know exactly what I need to do to fix it. Well knowing is half of the battle isn’t it? Until tomorrow…It’s good to know your flaws and your weaknesses, because if you don’t know what they are you can’t fix them.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”