Tag: Pray

When Life Throws You Too Many Battles at Once

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It’s hard not to get discouraged when everything seems to be working against you. Lately every time I think things are about to turn around and they start to get a little better for a moment, then yet another obstacle is thrown at me. I know that you’re supposed to be battle tested on the journey to prove you’re worthy of the reward and take whatever life just happens to throw at you but just how many tests are there. More importantly, when does someone let me know what the requirements are in order to be able to say that I passed the tests?

These past couple of days I have felt so defeated. I feel like no matter what I do or how hard I try nothing seems to matter and the end goal still never gets met. It’s either that I’m not trying hard enough or that I’m trying all of the wrong things which results in me running around in circles. I sometimes feel like my constant pushing against every obstacle is pointless and just results in me having a lot of scars from bruises that I’ve collected in my battles.

I know that there is a saying that the difference between a successful person and one who doesn’t become successful is only in the fact that the person who isn’t successful quit right before the breakthrough came. I am in no way, shape, or form, a quitter. I believe in my dreams and I know that I am going to accomplish them just as long as I don’t quit. It’s just not always easy to see that light waiting for you at the end of the tunnel. You start to wonder at certain moments if it’s even there at all and if you’re working towards nothing but more darkness and unknown outcomes.

I am working hard to stay in an optimistic frame of mind and a part of that process is me getting the way I’m feeling down on paper and out into the world. The other part is to just settle my mind and remain hopeful, pray and have faith. I know that better is coming and I just have to be ready when it does. Thank you for being a sounding board when things get a little tough and I hope that you have a process that works to help you push through the difficult times. Until next time… #BeVulnerable #BePersistent #BeinFaith

 

Jimmetta Carpenter 

Writer/Editor 

https://write-2-be.com/

http://write2bemagazine.com/

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

https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine

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Becoming a Vehicle for the Message

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Delivering the message 3

I love to watch Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday for that extra sense of creative inspiration. Oprah always seems to have guests who are truly inspiring and motivate me that much more towards my goals and my destiny. The past two Sunday’s she had Elizabeth Gilbert, the Author of Eat, Pray, Love, on her show and while I didn’t watch them the precise moment that they were on, I recorded them on my DVR to be watched later (I love being able to forward through the commercials). So this morning to get my creative juices flowing and get some inspiration for my blog posts this week I sat down and watched both episodes (only intending to watch one today). While I admittedly have not read the book Eat, Pray, Love (although I fully intend to, I promise) every time I watch Elizabeth Gilbert speak or do an interview I feel like she always makes me realize something new that I had never realized before.

This morning as I watched the clips from her speaking at Oprah’s “Live the life you want tour” (which I so desperately wanted to attend but could not afford) and her interview with Oprah I found myself hoping that I could inspire people someday the way she does to the millions of people that she inspires. Now I have a lot of things that I want to do with this Write 2 Be brand, and the message that I want to share with this blog, my magazine, my books, this company in general, I feel, is so vital and important, and the way in which I want to deliver this message is steadily growing. As I put all of the parts of this vehicle together I realize more and more each day that the vehicle seemed to have always been missing a little something and I could never usually put my finger on it until today.

I have never been one for public speaking. In fact in grade school I used to take F’s as grades for not doing oral reports in front of the class until the teachers realized just how real my stage fright was and started letting me just do longer written reports. However, over the years I have become much better at voicing myself in front of people and more importantly speaking to people about my message of being authentic and being imperfectly perfect in whoever you were meant to be. My message is beginning to fall even more in line with the message of anti-bullying and in making sure that children are encouraged to be themselves despite whatever people have to say about them. I am beginning to realize that that message needs to be voiced even more and that there can never be enough people (because I ruled out my becoming active about it because there are already so many “important” people doing so) to get this message across to the world.

Now of course I am realistic enough to know that I can’t just miraculously become a public speaker and activist for anti-bullying and self-acceptance overnight.  But I know that I want to expressly make sure that I am promoting the message of individualism and authenticity and of people being okay with who they are and more importantly of being okay to not fit in. I want to make sure that what I am doing with my company and with the direction that I want the Write 2 Be brand to go in compliments that message in every single facet possible.

I admittedly have my work cut out for me. I have a lot of excuses I’ve been making that I need to stop making. I have a lot of work on my current books that should’ve been done that I haven’t been doing for one reason or another. I have a few projects that don’t necessarily involve me writing anything that I have to get the ball rolling on (one’s that tie into this message by the way) and haven’t even the first idea of where to begin. I have some research to do on some things I am trying to put together. But I know that the icing on the cake of all that I have to do and all that I am determined to get accomplished is this message that I must deliver.

It’s in me and it’s something I have dealt with personally as a child (the bullying and lack of self-acceptance) and it’s something I see my child and so many other children that I currently interact with struggling with now, and I know that I bring something special and experienced to this platform. I bring something worth sharing with the world to this message and I want to add my vehicle to the many other vehicles that are out there driving this message home. My vehicle is different but it is definitely worth the ride.

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

My Write 2 Be is…

CEO/Writer/Editor

Write 2 Be Media/Write 2 Be Magazine

https://write-2-be.com/

http://write2bemagazine.com/

https://twitter.com/write2bemag

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A Moment to Pray

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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”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

What I Learned From Elizabeth Gilbert, Author of Eat, Pray, Love

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I was watching Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday yesterday morning and she had Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, on for a portion of the show.  I got a lot of things from listening to her story or self-discovery.  She talked about moments of stillness and being able to listen to that voice inside ourselves that we tend to keep ignoring.  But one of the things that I was not expecting to hear was her discussing the power of saying no.  

So many times you hear people advise others that we say no too often and we end up shutting ourselves off to many opportunities that we weren’t receptive too.  But on the flip side, there are those of us who spend so much time taking care of everyone else, and being there for everyone else, that we end up taking ourselves for granted.  Elizabeth Gilbert spoke about having to learn how to say No to people and learning how to not feel guilty about it.  

We all have experienced having those around us that just literally suck the life out of us.  They probably don’t do it intentionally (although some do) but their constant need to lean on you and their constant expectation that you will always be there no matter what can drain you emotionally and eventually physically.  Sometimes we really do need to just stand up for our own emotional health and say no when we need to.  That’s not saying that we can’t ever be there for the people who need us again.  That’s saying that you have to be there for you first.  Until tomorrow…Take some time out for you and don’t feel guilty about the no’s you will have to say in order to do it.    

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

The Stigma Behind Creating Greatness

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“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.”

~ Marianne Williamson 

I was listening to a clip the other day of a speech that author of Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert gave discussing the need to nurture creativity and to dismiss the automatic assumption that all writers, or creative types in general, are tortured souls.  I hadn’t realized until I watched this clip just how much I had always bought into that myth in the past and in some ways had fueled my creative ability behind it.  

Now it’s not that I would be any less of a writer if I didn’t have a terrible childhood where I grew up with no father and a very angry and all around abusive mother.  In my case I think that my bad childhood was indeed the fuel behind my early beginnings as a writer.  But I think that sometimes I got it into my head that if I wasn’t going through hard times and struggling to find my footing then I wasn’t a true writer.  However, I’ve realized that in the most recent years, when it comes to my writing, pain and suffering actually stifles my creativity rather than enhances it.  I feel more of a fluid movement of words when I am optimistic about things and when things seem to be going in the right direction.  

It’s always been projected that writers, artists’, and creative like minded people have this angst and anguish, this pain that lies behind their genius.  So does that mean that these creative people can not produce greatness without their individual tragedies?  You hear of great writers and poets like Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, Virginia Woolfe, Edgar Allan Poe, and so many others who have had such tragic lives and their own demons to deal with and they dealt with them through their art.  However, if they were truly meant to be artists’ would it have mattered if their lives were happy and filled with never-ending promise?  

You write something today that’s a fictional story of tragedy and suffering and undoubtedly one of the first questions that someone will ask you is “Is this a true story.”  It’s as if our minds can not possibly come up with a story that is brilliant and filled with drama and tragic events that is not our own actual reality.  They do after all call it fiction for a reason.  

My daughter has a great talent brewing for writing and my best friend’s son is a movie director in the making who also has a great love for writing and they are not tortured souls.  They don’t have some tragic incident that has happened to them to suddenly make them begin to use writing as their source for directing the pain.  Why can’t there be writer’s who have come from a happy childhood and have experienced wonderful experiences throughout their whole lives?  

Why can’t writer’s, or any creative individual for that matter, not have that label of alcoholic, or drug addict, or suicidal that can be placed on them at any point in their career?  Why must writers, past, present, or future, be afraid of being doomed simply because they are doing what they feel they were put on this earth to do?  I would like to think that our future generations of artists don’t have to have that cloud of darkness hanging over their head simply because they wanted to explore their creativity.  Are we really only as great as our greatest tragedies or could it be possible that our tragedies are what strengthen the talent that is to be our greatness?  Until next time…don’t ever allow yourself to feel doomed for doing what God put you hear to do!  

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress