Life is like that! It’s complicated and can only be what we make it. So, since love is a part of life, it too can be complicated and somewhat messy. We can’t take the complicated out of life, but we can include the Lord in the complicated, and He will help us to navigate the course.

We live in an era when choices may seem confusing or overwhelming. We may think it’s hard to know who to trust, especially as we choose our future leadership.

There are times when small indicators help us to make choices, and at other times, we have to rely on history to inspire us. Juneteenth is the eleventh American federal holiday and the first to obtain legal observance as a federal holiday since Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was designated in 1983.

Have you ever felt as though you somehow seemed to get it all wrong? You missed the mark? Do you swallow hard, and pretend that it’s all good?

When I was growing up, I tried to do everything right, but I still seemed to fall short. Oh, I was smart, but even then, I seemed to get it wrong. As I sit here now, I am thinking about all the things that I have failed at.

How long has it been since you just stepped out there and took a chance? You pushed aside those feelings of inadequacy and went for it!

 “Love God with your heart by living a loving, faith-filled, and purpose-driven life. This requires letting God lead the way. It means living each day in close connection with Him so we can recognize our calling. Once we do this, once we let Him lead, lives will be changed.” (North Star.church).

Let’s just take a moment here to define the godlike love. “Since we are discussing Jesus, we will limit our definitions to the two primary Greek words used for “love” in the New Testament. The first is philia. This refers to a brotherly love or to a close association with another person. If conditions change, so can this love.

I hope that you are encouraged to love yourself more. I was watching a documentary one evening when all at once I had an ah-ha moment! Do I really love myself or am I waiting for that someone to validate me! Really!! Do I even like me? What a sobering thought that was. How do I even see me?

As I sat in my bed this morning, a thought occurred to me. This is a new day, one that I’ve not lived before. Yes, it’s a day, much like other days where the sun has risen at a certain time, and will set at a certain time, but different. How is that! Well, I had to ponder that one. Then it came—that thought. Whatever happens today, belongs only to this day, and it will not repeat itself.

As I sat in meditation today, it occurred to me that each morning I say a litany of things for which I am grateful. But then I had to pause. Yes, I am grateful, but how much of it is just ritual. I read this quote by Max Lucado, and I am compelled to share it with you.

“Gratitude lifts our eyes off the things that we lack so we might see the blessings we possess.”

As I pondered what I could say as we come closer to the end of another year, I simply bowed my head and said, “thank you, Lord.” It has been a tumultuous year in many ways. The wars, the crooked politics, the devastating acts of nature, the killing, just to mention a few, have left us reeling. We have tried in many ways to get our footing only to have them slip from under us again and again.

Why are we so angry? It seems that each day we hear more and more of how man’s anger toward another has caused someone harm or death. We’re afraid to change lanes in traffic, or pass someone on the road, or maybe we even stopped because the light was turning red and someone behind us was in a hurry. Shoot, we may have even looked in their direction and they took offense.

Mark 11:24 says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (NIV)

In college I joined a sorority and that would put me on a trajectory of duality until I was 40 years old. There were many wonderful areas of growth that came out of joining a sorority, but this is when I started to look at myself in a very different way and I did not handle it well. Just like the education system, I am not singling out the one sorority I joined but would acknowledge the social system of Greek life as a place that can be very beneficial in certain aspects, but also be a system that focuses on conformity and comparison, and for me that really put me on a path of hiding the real Jackie for a very long time. 

“Two roads’ diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both. And be one traveler, long I stood; and looked down one as fas as I could…, then took the other, as just as fair, and having, perhaps the better claim…Two road’s diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” (Robert Frost)

Life is but a journey to wherever. It all depends on which road we choose. Do we take the one that is wide, where we can veer off the path, or do we take the one that is narrow where we have to walk straight? Life is such a precious gift, a gift that grants that we can, by our choices, live on in eternity.

When I was young, I was full of light. As I entered elementary school the light started to dim. I immediately felt judgement, and "other" because of my quirky sense of humor, I did not feel smart, and I saw myself as overly emotional. I was bullied in middle school and never truly felt like I fit in. I dimmed my light in order to fit into the "normal" social circles. I would often have friends and bullies steal my light in order to increase their own. I felt numb.

How is your mental health? Are you struggling with your inner critic? Feeling depressed? Don’t know if you should cry or laugh? I get it. I have been there. Depression has been something that I have kept to myself for a VERY long time. Do you know the saying, “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind.”

Well, hello again friends and fellow readers. Yes, it’s me back to share another nugget to encourage you. Who is your best friend, or maybe you have more than one? How much do you trust them with?

Ecclesiastes 4:12 distinctly says, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Man was not meant to dwell alone, although many of us often find ourselves in that position whether by choice or by circumstance.

So, for that long-term goal that you have, that you are procrastinating on, or the one you can’t seem to figure out how to get started, just say ‘yes.’ We sing a song that says, “God wants a yes, Oh yes. Yes, to His will, yes to His way. When the cares of life weigh you down, just know that He’s making you. He’s molding you. Come what may it’s still ‘yes’ yesss.”

One day I put pen to paper to write a simple piece to calm my angst. At the time it was suppose to be one of those moments when one writes to get their feelings out and garner a little self encouragement. “But David encouraged himself in the Lord.” —1 Samuel 30:6. Right then I thought nothing of it. I just knew that I could write it out better than I could speak it out. That’s how it all started. It began to extend beyond me. It was bigger than just me.