Tag: Joel Osteen

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That Inner Voice Is Telling Me Something Different

April 29, 2014 jcladyluv

I stumbled upon a Joel Osteen sermon the other day and he talked about listening to that little voice or that little feeling inside us that is guiding us to what we should be doing. You know that voice. The voice that tells you when something isn’t right or the one that tells you when you should be leery of someone or a certain situation. Sometimes we ignore that voice because we think we’re just being paranoid or we just don’t want to listen to is. Well often times we don’t even realize that that little voice we hear or that feeling of uneasiness that we get that can’t be explained is God guiding us to where he wants us to go.

When I watched this message it came a day or two after a friend of mine advising me that I should basically go against what I know to be right for me so that I can be comfortable for the moment and not be in so much struggle. It came from a place of love (I hope) and not wanting to see me struggle but I keep getting this subtle feeling that that advice just isn’t what is best for me.

Yes it would make things much easier right now. It would give me some solid footing while I still tackled my end goal but in all honestly I think that comfortableness that I would then settle myself into would eventually distract me from my end game. I would get comfortable with being in that ease and that steadiness and then little by little my end goal would get further and further away. It wouldn’t disappear because it is my purpose in this world but it would become faint and a bit of a whisper.

I know myself and while I hate to struggle and would love to get to that place where I can see where all my efforts have gone to, where I can see the fruits of my labor, I need the discomfort to push me the end goal. If I were comfortable in some day to day my dreams would be pushed to the side. I know that they would because it has happened before. It was almost to the point where I never even worked on my dream because I was just trying to stay in that place of being comfortable. I can’t do that again. If I did I am almost positive that my dreams would die and I refuse to let that happen.

That little voice, that little feeling, is what is telling me that the answer to my problems is not to take the easy route, but to tough it out and persevere because the reward for my perseverance is coming. Too many times I have ignored that voice, and the consequences were great. I’m not going to ignore that voice this time. I’m toughing it out and I’m going all in. What has your inner voice been telling you? Are you listening?

Jimmetta Carpenter

My Write 2 Be is…

CEO/Writer/Editor

Write 2 Be Media/Write 2 Be Magazine

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Expecting What Is Deserved

February 10, 2014 jcladyluv

Today is going to be my day. This year is going to be my year. No really I mean it this time. I have said that with the passing of each New Year. That it was going to be my year. For the couple of years it had turned out not to be my year. While I sat back and wondered why the year didn’t turn out how I imagined it would I was completely missing the bigger picture. Now granted I know that last year wasn’t my year because I just threw in the towel but that’s no excuse either.

Watching Joel Osteen yesterday talk about expectancy and true, unwaivering faith in the things that God can bestow upon our lives it hit me. Every time I claimed that my day was going to be a good one and every year when I proclaimed it would be my year, I didn’t really believe what I was saying. I wanted to believe it was true but I was so full of despair and doubt that I only halfway believed it. But if you want God to give you what you expect out of life, what you deserve, and what he wants you to ask for, you can’t halfway believe in his power. You have to have complete and total faith that God has got you and that what he has for you is yours and yours alone.

So I say today is my day this morning and that this year is my year, totally believing in God’s power and having faith in his plan for me. However, I also say that with the knowledge that I can’t just expect that everything that is for me is going to just come to me with putting in the work to earn it.

I am working on a couple of projects, one being an ebook series that I will be releasing soon (really soon) and I can’t just expect outstanding results without putting in the work to get them. So today, for all of you out there who are still struggling with self-doubt and self-sabotage (ebook series on how to work past this coming soon) claim today to be your day, say it with conviction and complete faith. You have to start somewhere!

Jimmetta Carpenter

My Write 2 Be is…

CEO/Writer/Editor

Write 2 Be Media/Write 2 Be Magazine

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I’m Not Sitting Out This Quarter

February 6, 2014 jcladyluv

“Sometimes in life you have to play in pain.”

~Joel Osteen

I’ve learned (the hard way) that you can’t stop pressing forward for every scrape, every bruise, every hurt ankle. Yes you may slow down a bit but you have to keep moving or you will never get to where it is you are going. I hadn’t realized until recently that last year when I just stopped moving and gave up it was as if I was saying that I don’t want to play the game anymore and made myself a bench warmer.

I let all the pain I was feeling and the emotional heaviness stop me cold in my tracks. At the time I would’ve never admitted to myself that I was doing that but now I am ready to get back in there. I am ready to play this game whether I am hurt or not, whether I go along limping or skipping, whether I have to cry through the process or smile through it. One thing is for sure, I am not a bench warmer. I don’t enjoy watching as things happen right in front of me and even more so I hate when something is happening that I know I am supposed to be a part of and I’m not.

Even when you have those moments where you need to take a five minute rest and collect your thoughts, prepare your next move in your head first, you still have to have the mindset that this is just a break and not a complete stand still. Watching other people accomplish the things that you want to achieve is what happens when you take too long of a break in your journey. You have to keep moving, you have to press on and get off of the bench.

Don’t get me wrong, bench warmers are important. There is always a need for the second string players and they have their purpose but if you know that you are not one, if you know that you belong in that starting position, then don’t sit on that bench and watch while someone else takes the spot that is yours. Trust me, you will hate every second of seeing someone else live the life that should be yours. So if you are over there sitting on that bench and you know you are supposed to be starting, then now (not tomorrow, and not a week from now) is the time to take your position back. It was your position all along, claim it!

Jimmetta Carpenter

My Write 2 Be is…

CEO/Writer/Editor

Write 2 Be Media/Write 2 Be Magazine

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Picking the Battles That Matter

January 27, 2014 jcladyluv

Ever had that question in the back of your mind of why when all you are doing is trying to follow through with your purpose, make your dreams a reality, is that it seems every curveball you can possibly think of is thrown at you. It almost seems like right when you are about to reach the peak of your journey up the mountain that an avalanche of obstacles falls right in your path.

It’s almost enough to make you want to stop and rethink the journey and whether or not it is the one that you are truly supposed to be on. You second guess yourself a lot when the challenges seem to be so daunting and never-ending. However, when you look at some of the most successful people in life and go examine the journey that they took to get where they are, it would appear that the one’s with the most difficult challenges on the road to their destiny were the ones who achieved the biggest rewards for their efforts.

I admit that I get thrown off course a lot of the times by the enormity of my struggles and also by people that surround me that don’t always seem to be for me. Oddly enough these aren’t even people in my inner circle, they are people who just always seem to have something to say against what it is I’m trying to do and I let it get to me. Sometimes it makes the struggles feel even more insurmountable because no one seems to understand my vision or what I’m really all about.

I was watching something yesterday and it reminded me that not everyone is going to like me, not everyone is going to understand me or what it is I’m trying to do, but that is because it is not for everyone to understand. I keep getting lured off track trying to somehow prove that I am worthy, that I am important, that what I’m trying to do is important and that it matters. It is said that the enemy (those that are against you) always fights us the hardest when we are the closest to our victories.

As it pertains to my struggles, Joel Osteen once said in his messages that you cannot expect ordinary problems if you are an extraordinary person, a history maker, so to speak. I definitely know that I am not an ordinary person and that I intend to be a history maker so I suppose that means I better get ready for some even more challenging battles ahead.

In life, when you are trying to accomplish so much, there just simply isn’t any time to waste energy on things or people that just don’t matter. That’s not to say that we should be unfeeling or cold towards people in general. It’s just that when you know what you’re purpose is you have to know which battles to choose before wasting energy on the battles that don’t matter.

If the people you are surrounding yourself with aren’t for you and aren’t going to help you along your journey then that’s a battle that you need to let go of. So start letting go of unnecessary baggage today because you’re journey.

Jimmetta Carpenter

My Write 2 Be is…

CEO/Writer/Editor

Write 2 Be Media/Write 2 Be Magazine

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Don’t Fight the Challenges That Are Meant to Prepare You for Your Purpose

June 11, 2013 jcladyluv

“Since the Lord is directing our steps, why do we try to figure out everything that happens along the way?”

~Proverbs 20:24

So last week was not one of my better weeks. I will even admit that things were going so much in the opposite direction of the way I wanted them to go that I had gotten a little bit angry with God (crazy I know, but I can’t be the only one that has) for not allowing things to happen the way that I had expected them to. Of course it didn’t take long for me to realize that that was the wrong attitude to have and to remember that God would never give me more than he thought I could handle.

When I was watching Joel Osteen on Sunday morning (and I did not intend to watch it, it was on a channel that it normally doesn’t even come on) he delivered a message that, once again, was right on time for me and that put everything into perspective. He essentially said that in worrying about your struggles and in getting frustrated about your circumstances you are not trusting God and the fact that he knows what he is doing and that he has already mapped out your entire life, bumps and bruises included. Sometimes God uses our struggles and our tough times to strengthen us and to prepare us for the next level of what he has planned for our lives, for our purpose.

Our wanting to be comfortable and have nothing but constant victory is unrealistic and when I think about it, is probably not for the best. Our struggles and our bad times, that’s what builds character in us. Those are the times when God shows us what we are made of and where sometimes we even surprise ourselves on how well things turn out once you’ve come out on the other side. If we keep fighting the circumstances that make us uncomfortable and that seem impossible to get through we just might miss all of the wonderful things that can happen along the way as a result of those challenges.

We pray for things and when our prayers don’t get answered we get so frustrated and discouraged (this very much includes me) but I have been thinking lately, especially since watching Joel Osteen, maybe those prayers that don’t get answered are God showing us just how much he loves us. There are things that are just not meant for us to have or to experience and God, being the one who sees everything in our future, just might be protecting us by not answering our prayers to begin with.

So while my situation has not yet improved, I am going to start embracing where I am now, and just be grateful for the moment that I am in. I am going to try to remember that sometimes having to be outside of my comfort zone can be a really good thing and it can also be preparing me for the next phase in my life. Don’t fight the divine delays that God is using to prepare you for your destiny. Live where you are, not where you feel you should be!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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Waiting For All of the Right Ingredients to Come Together

May 28, 2013 jcladyluv

“I have pitched my tent in the land of hope.”

~Acts 2:26

I happened to tune into another Joel Osteen sermon (you can view it at the bottom of the post) on Sunday and once again it was exactly the right message at exactly the right time that I needed to hear it. He spoke to people who are having setbacks and feeling discouraged and who are, in a sense, questioning “why do these things keep happening to me” or “why isn’t what I’m doing enough”. It was how I have been feeling for the last week and a half now and I have to say that what Joel Osteen spoke about made a lot of sense.

He said that you can’t isolate all of the different moments in your life and dissect what was wrong in each moment because separately they will look unfair and they will look like some of the worst moments in your life. However, collectively, once all of the pieces have come together, it will all somehow make sense. He used the example of the different moments we go through, good or bad, being the ingredients in the overall recipe for our lives.

Just as with baking a cake or cookies, separately the ingredients are just plain ingredients that don’t seem like they would taste like much on their own, but once they are all mixed together, they make something wonderful. If you think about it, a cookie mix, without the baking soda to make it rise, just comes out flat because there is an ingredient missing that was necessary for everything to make sense. When I think of it like that it somehow makes all of the pieces fit. With all of the experiences that we go through in life, we have to know that they are somehow necessary in order for you to get to the next level of your destined path.

Osteen said “God is the master chef and the recipe for your life has already been established. God has planned your days for good from beginning to end and he knows exactly what to add and when to add it. He’s going to put in just the right amount at just the right time so that you can become everything that he has created you to be. God has ingredients coming your way that are going to thrusts you to a new level and he has ingredients that are going to cause everything to make sense.”

When he said that he referenced it to that bad childhood, that opportunity that didn’t come to fruition, that loved one that walked out of your life right when you needed them (or so you thought), that job you lost that you thought was going to be the answer to you prayers, that bad break-up that you are still not quite over, the money that you were counting on that didn’t come through at the time that you really needed it the most. All of these “bad breaks” don’t make sense on their own and they are down right frustrating, but once you do achieve the purpose that you are destined to fulfill, it will somehow all make sense.

I have this passion (aside from writing of course) to find a way to do something about the bullying epidemic that has gotten out of control in society over the last decade or so. But had I not gone through the bullying that I went through in school or even the bullying and abuse that I had to endure from my own mother at home, I might not find myself headed in that direction and feeling the need to be an agent of change in that area. It is because of those experiences that I went through that make me want to do so much to change this world and to be a part of making it better. They didn’t make sense at the time that I was going through them, but they are all starting to make much more sense now.

Each moment is like the ingredient to the recipe of our lives. They can often be discouraging and disheartening but that is because we keep isolating them instead of mixing them all together and looking at the dish as a whole. Some people are bitter on life because they have not waited for all of the ingredients to come together. Final word from Joel Osteen, “God always ends on all is well” so if all is not well in your life that means that it is not the end, keep moving forward, there’s another ingredient coming.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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We Have To Be Aware of What We Are Inviting Into Our Lives

March 4, 2013 jcladyluv

“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a disciplined mind.”

~ 2 Timothy 1:7

It’s a new week and I am starting off this week feeling inspired. I was watching Joel Osteen again yesterday (another one of those instances where I accidentally turned to the channel) and the topic of his message was fear, specifically activating faith instead of activating fear. Obviously this is an issue that I have within myself because I have been known to miss a lot of opportunities due to my fear for one thing or another.

However, this message wasn’t just discussing how fear holds you back but rather about how dwelling on our fears is giving those fears power and essentially when we are fearful we are coming into agreement with whatever it is that we are afraid of, therefore giving it a right to become a reality. There were so many things that Joel Osteen spoke about in his message that struck a chord with me and I really wanted to share them with those of you out there who feel like they are constantly fearful of whatever might happen and who increasingly worry about being defeated and failing. Below I have listed the things that had the most impact on me and maybe they can impact your life as well:

Whatever you meditate on is what is going to take root.
Fear and faith have something in common; they both ask us to believe something is going to happen that we can not see.
Fear is using your faith in the wrong direction.
The first place that we lose the battle is in our own thinking.
When you go around dwelling on your fears, expecting the worst to happen, you are inviting the worst into your life.
By worrying you are saying that you do not have faith in what God has in store for you.
When the enemy is placing negative thoughts in your mind and you agree with those negative thoughts, you are coming into agreement with that negativity; Pay attention to what you are coming into agreement with.
Fear always presents itself to look much bigger than it really is.
Fear can create a barrier; wrong thinking can keep you from God’s best.
Don’t agree with what the fear says about you, agree with what God says about you.

In the end of his message Joel Osteen asked two really important questions. How many times do we kill our own dreams with our thoughts and how many times have we stopped God’s blessings and his favor because we are dwelling on the fear? We give the fear we have way too much power and by giving it that power we in a sense agree with whatever our fear tells us is going to happen.

Fear has become something that the majority of us deal with on a pretty consistent basis (I feel like I am attacked by it most times) but watching Joel Osteen yesterday I started to realize that the key to dealing with fear is not to face it head on, but rather to not even invite it in your life to begin with. Instead of worrying about all of the things that can or have gone wrong, take note of all of the things that have not gone wrong and trust in the fact that God would never put anything on your path that was meant to harm you or to keep you from the destiny that he has prepared for you.

Rather than inviting fear and defeat (or bad luck) into your everyday life, invite victory and realize that with every obstacle that we face and every hurdle that we jump over, we are becoming even more victorious in reaching the life we were destined to have. Have you been unknowingly inviting all of the things that you are afraid of into your life? Don’t activate fear, activate faith! When fear knocks, let faith answer the door.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

Beware of the False Negatives

February 21, 2013 jcladyluv

I think that sometimes people, particularly artists, have a hard time trusting ourselves. I’ve noticed that with myself at least. I know I’ve shared with all of you in the past that I constantly second guess myself and then when I decide on something, I rethink it and wonder if I made the right choice. I wonder if I’m good enough. Sometimes I even think that when I have confidence in something that I might be getting too far ahead of myself because maybe, just maybe, I shouldn’t be nearly as confident as I am.

I tend to give advice to others about trusting their gut and doing what they know if right for them and trust that God will not steer them wrong or allow them to get too far off course. I give good advice that I never seem to be able to take myself. I seem to have no problem filling my head with all of these false negatives, I’m not good enough, I’m not smart enough, I’m not strong enough, I didn’t work hard enough, I didn’t try enough, but the odd thing is that deep down inside I know those to be false statements and yet they are so much easier to believe then the truth. Why do we do that?

We tell ourselves the worst, perhaps trying to not allow ourselves to get big headed or to get overly confident or to get our hopes up, but why shouldn’t we be all of those things? Why shouldn’t we be confident and why shouldn’t our hopes be raised? Joel Osteen said something in one of his sermons that stuck with me. He said “you can’t have faith if you don’t first have hope”. We’re always so worried about the other shoe dropping from somewhere out of the sky to make everything around us crumble.

The fact is that so many things can go wrong that we don’t need to add to it by standing by and waiting for what we presume might be the inevitable. Instead of worrying about this invisible shoe from some unknown place and filling our heads with all of these false negatives that we like to tell ourselves about our own abilities, why don’t we just chose to act now. Act on those instincts, don’t second guess, don’t over think, don’t wonder if you’re good enough, don’t question all that might go wrong, just take action.

Think of all of the opportunities you’re walking right pass while you are worrying and waiting for that other shoe that just might never drop. It’s a false expectation that helps to foster all of those false negatives that you have come to rely on to be true. Sometimes the lies we tell ourselves can end up being the death of all of our dreams.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

A Shift in Your Favor

February 5, 2013 jcladyluv

Last week was a week of doubts and second guessing myself. I have those every once and a while and I try not to have moments like those too often because it interrupts the progress that I do make when I get sidetracked by my own doubts. As usual, when I am in the need of some extra guidance and I am feeling doubtful God seems to put the right message in my ear that I need, at just the right time.

I was flipping through channels late the other night (about 2 am) and I stumbled upon a Joel Osteen program. I was actually getting ready to turn to something completely different but something told me to keep it right there on that channel. So I kept it on that channel and I watched and the first several words that I heard was him talking about 2013 being the year of the shift, when everything is going to start shifting in your favor.

Right then I knew what that something was that told me not to turn that channel. Joel Osteen continued his message, saying that while you (the audience) might feel that you have been struggling a little longer then you thought you were going to, and as if it may be too late to accomplish your dreams, and like the obstacles that are in your way are just too big to get past, don’t give up because God is about to shift things in your favor. I felt as if he was talking directly to me (even though I know there are a lot of people who need that message as well) and it gave me that drive back again and even a little more hope.

He reminded me of something that I should make sure to never forget and that is that even the things that seem like they are not even in the realm of possibility, are possible when God moves it into your path and when he places things in your favor. What God has created for you, is for you no matter what because he is not going to allow anyone to keep you from your destiny.

Even when we do receive the blessings that we ask for, we tend to question it, feeling as though sometimes we don’t deserve it or as if we didn’t rightfully earn it. In Joel Osteen’s message he made sure to address that as well by simply saying “don’t question God’s favor and the blessings he has given you on purpose.” Some things just sound so much simpler when you hear it out of someone else’s mouth. Why wouldn’t we deserve the blessings that we have asked for and what really constitutes earning it. Really all you need to do is have hope and faith that when you go to God, he will answer you back favorably if it is meant for you.

I have said it since the beginning of this year that I really feel like this year is going to be different. I feel like this year is somehow the time when things are going to move around for me and start working in my favor. I feel like all of the goals and dreams I have been moving toward accomplishing are finally going to begin coming into fruition. I have spoken all of things that I aspire towards into existence for so long that I believe they are finally going to start becoming a reality.

I know that I have my moments where I am doubtful of what I am doing, I think we all do. However, one thing is for sure, I will never allow myself to give up because to me that would suggest that I don’t believe that God wants all of the best for me. God wants the best for all of us. There is no one that he wants to fail. We fail when we don’t believe in the power of God’s favor. So this year, let’s start speaking the good things that are meant for us into existence. Let’s embrace the shift that is going to come our way this year and the God is always working in our favor.

I Have the Write 2 Be Hopeful… What is Your Write 2 Be?

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”