Sometimes, we think we are too dirty, messed up, or broken to be loved by Jesus. But that is the furthest from the truth. Jesus is our shepherd, which means he is qualified, willing, and desires to sit in the mess with us.
Before writing this blog, I’ve always associated biblical shepherding with farming. I had a picture of a farmer who worked in the day, checked on the animals, worked the land, and then went back home at night.
Biblical Shepherds
Historically, shepherds did not live like farmers. They lived off the land with their sheep. For months, they slept outside, on the dirt, covered by filth. Shepherds were often muddy, bloody, and smelled like animals and poop.
Their days and nights looked like this:
Caring for and protecting the flock.
Fighting off other animals.
Healing the wounded sheep.
Rescuing stray sheep.
Directing sheep to the right paths.
A shepherd was willing to sacrifice time, get in the dirt, and chase after their flock. This is an image of our God.
OUR Shepherd
Our God loves us deeply in the middle of our storms, shame, and fear. When he looks at us, he doesn’t judge our current state but sees who we will be. He’s not afraid to get in the mud with us. He is willing to get dirty so that we can get clean. He isn’t disgusted by the mud, manure, or blood. He doesn’t belittle, beat, or judge us.
Instead, he embraces us, longs for us, and chases after us when we are far away. You will never be too broken, too messed up, or too dirty for God. He is a good shepherd.
So, today, I want to encourage you to let God shepherd you. Let him be who he is, a good shepherd.
Let God Shepherd You.
Let God be what you need him to be.
Let God be a protector if you feel unsafe.
Let him be a fighter if you need to fight.
Let him be a healer if you feel broken. Let him be a cleaner if you feel dirty.
Let him be a shame remover if you feel shameful.
And finally, let him be your sacrificial lamb if you feel like a sinner because He’s already paid the price. Receive it.
God is a good shepherd and trustworthy.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am a good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:10-11 NIV
Did this blog touch your heart? I wanna know. Please like, share, and comment. Thank you for being here! 💖
Feeling unaligned is a part of the process. Let me repeat myself- feeling unaligned is a part of the process.
The uncomfortable feeling of being behind, being afraid, and something just not being right is a part of the process.
It sucks, but it’s a part of the process.
The biggest lies of the enemy when you are going through a process of realigning is:
You’ve messed up
You’re stuck
You’re always going to be stuck
You’re always going to keep messing up.
🧠 But what if I told you that feeling unaligned is less about you and more about God calling you to a higher level?
The uncomfortable feeling is the birthplace of a new level.
Today, I dare you to start seeing the uncomfortable differently, not as a reason to run and hide but as a starting point for development and growth.
🗻God is not punishing you. He’s taking you up.
So how do you realign?
You eliminate distractions, seek God, give yourself grace, and slow down.
Here is what I am doing as I realign:
😌 Eliminating distractions:
It’s hard to hear God’s voice when you’re focused on the voices of others and drowning in your mind, fears, and anxiety
✨Seeking God:
I can’t do this without God. I need his vision to go forth.
💖Giving myself grace:
I am in a sensitive spot, so I am treating myself that way, which may look like a little less or more sleep, giving myself space to cry and grace to be less together.
💐Slowing Down:
It’s hard to lead when you don’t know where you’re going. I am refraining from making big decisions and giving myself space to hear from God before I lead my team forward.
welcome to a new level of glory!💖
I know you currently feel like you’re in a barren and hopeless place, but I am here to tell you that you’re standing in the birthplace of God’s glory in this chapter of your life.
You will survive here. I will survive here. But more importantly, we will seek and depend on God like never before, because he is here, ready, and waiting to take us to a new level of glory.
In the meantime here is a prayer for you 💖:
God, I thank you that you are a good guide. I thank you that I can have confidence that this is working for my good. Please lead, guide, and comfort me, Jesus. In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.
Honestly, things have been crazy. In May/June, I really struggled mentally, emotionally, and physically.
⛈ Health Challenges:
I never would have thought that I would struggle with chronic pain, but I have. Leading up to my surgery for the removal of my ovarian dermoid cyst in April 2024, I was in pain and popping pills almost every single day, couldn’t lift anything, and struggled with bad fatigue.
The only thing exciting about my ovarian surgery was the idea of pain relief. Sounds ironic, right? Having a painful surgery to remove chronic pain 😭.
👀 However, I didn’t expect my PCOS to flare up, imitating the same pain I was in before the surgery. Nor did I expect fatigue, emotional imbalances, and so much brain fog.
So, I spent May and early June – Angry. Depressed. And like a victim.
Angry – I still couldn’t wear the jeans I love so much (still can’t)
Depressed – because I couldn’t wear the clothes that made me feel confident.
Like a victim – because it felt like my life was spinning and things were out of control.
Overnight, it felt like the miracle of God saving my ovaries turned into a burden, fear, and so much insecurity. I literally just spent time crying, feeling lost, and feeling ugly.
😭 It felt like God had done so much. He healed my PCOS symptoms in 2023 for it all to come crumbling down in 2024.
⛅️Overcoming Victimhood
But in mid-June, I decided I was done with being a victim of my circumstances. Obviously, God wants to teach me something here, or I wouldn’t be here.
👏🏾I decided that I would not be captive to something I could not change because the reality is that whether my PCOS is flaring or not:
I have periods that I didn’t have in 2022.
I have ovaries that I almost lost twice.
I have evidence that God heals and restores PCOS (ME!!)!
💐More than that, I realized that the love of my jeans was a result of God teaching me how to style them. SOOO -if God did it before, he can do it again.
The devil tried to tell me that God was a one-trick pony and that I was stuck.
Stuck:
hating my clothes
in pain
with the idea that PCOS symptoms would be my life
You can count on the consistency of God!
☀️Victory!
But I am here to report that I recently bought an outfit I loved, I’m no longer experiencing chronic pain, and I have a plan to knock these PCOS symptoms out once again.
✨Listen, God is the same as yesterday and forever more. Therefore, if we decide to embrace where we are, God can do so much more.
The devil is a liar AND you are not a victim. This is just an opportunity for God to teach you another lesson and for you to get another victory lap.
You have to decide to embrace this season.
👀 It’s Your Turn
SO HERE’S MY QUESTION FOR YOU: What are you fighting that God wants you to embrace?
HERE’S MY PRAYER FOR YOU:
Lord Jesus, your daughter needs you. Right now, the devil is trying to convince her that she is a victim of her circumstances.
But right, I declare by your power that she is healed from every lie of the enemy, every infirmity, and every false status of victimhood. Open her eyes and heart to you, Jesus. In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray Amen.
A lot of times, when we are struggling in life, we hear things like:
God is close to the brokenhearted.
Lay your head at the feet of Jesus.
Cast your anxiety on Jesus because he cares about you.
Yet, when we need God the most, we often feel so alone, broken, and far from God. 😩
Instead of God being our resting place, we reside in brokenness, fear, and depression because we fail to go to God.😩
Instead, we go to things that promise peace and restbut really elevate our stress.
📱We run to things that numb our emotions like:
social media 🎥
sex/porn
shopping 🛍
comfort food
wine or weed 🍷
gaming, books, etc.
overworking & cleaning 🧼
gossiping, talking to others, etc.
They give us hits of dopamine in the moment, but unresolved things will ALWAYS resurface.
🌑✨Que, my Grandma Hazel, “What’s done in the dark will always come to the light.” In this case, what you try to shove down will always come back times 10.
✍️ Write it Out: What do you use to numb your emotions?
A Meeting Place With Jesus
But let me tell you something: God intentionally wired us to feel deeply and have emotions because our emotions are a meeting place with him.
God IS near to the brokenhearted. He is literally there waiting for us to tap him in so that he can give us revelation and victory. 💖
Distractions feel so good at the moment but often steal our victories.
✨ God intentionally wired us to feel deeply!
👀So, what happens when we run to distractions (social media, gossip, sex, weed, wine, and other things) that numb our emotions instead of running to Jesus?
RULED BY UNHAPPINESS: We struggle with gratitude and feeling discontent. So, we wander the earth aimlessly.
CAN’T HEAR GOD 🎧: God’s voice gets smaller and smaller until we can barely hear him, while the voices of social media and naysayers get louder.
MENTAL STRUGGLES: We wrestle with depression, paralyzing anxiety, and make bad decisions.
HEALTH ISSUES: 😴We struggle with sleeping, fatigue, and other health issues.
See, God wants to be the place you run to. Yet, a lot of times we struggle to hear from God because we’re not going under his wing.
🏃♀️You will not hear from God by running in the opposite direction.
By eliminating distractions, aka the things you run to when you’re struggling, you literally create space to hear from God.
✨You will not hear from God by running in the opposite direction.
LIVING IT OUT
Today, I would encourage you to:
Think about the things you’re running to.
Intentionally create boundaries so you won’t run to them.
Trust that when you’re at your weakest, God is close and ready to speak.
✨ EXAMPLES:
I do not drink wine when I am sad, struggling emotionally, or stressed. I will not use liquor to numb my emotions.
I try to be aware of my mind and set boundaries around what I do when my emotions are high.
In high-stress weeks/months, I limit social media, TV, books, and other things I will use to numb instead of handling my business.
✍️Write it Out: What do you run to instead of running to God? How are you going to intentionally run to God instead?
Hey! I hope that something in this letter speaks to your heart, ministers to your spirit, and gives you the victory you deserve.
Happy ten years of being obedient,
It all started ten years ago when you made the choice to finally call the police on Donnie. At that moment, you decided that you deserved more: more love and more protection.
For months leading up to the call:
God showed you that the love you received from your family wasn’t enough.
God showed you that if you stayed in that house, you would die.
God showed you that there was a standard of love, and then you decided to answer the door.
✍️Write It Out: What has God been showing you for months?
✨ You didn’t make a choice in naivety. You made a choice knowing that there would be repercussions. You made a choice knowing that you would NOT be chosen. You knew your family would NOT decide to choose you, but you chose you.
✍️Write It Out: What consequences are you afraid to face?
More than that, you chose God. You decided to listen to him, trust him, and say yes.
You didn’t know it, but that one choice CHANGED everything.
✅ Choosing God
From there, you constantly made other choices. You decided to believe God when he promised that you would go to college, that you would graduate, and that you would be great. Not only great in standing but great in impact.
And baby, you did it. 🥳
2-3 JOBS: You worked two jobs in high school and three in college, stayed obedient, and impacted many people.
HOMELESS TO FOOD PANTRY: You dealt with homelessness in college yet decided that you would make things better for others and started a food pantry. That food pantry is still standing and will be impacting students for years to come. Congratulations. 🎉
THERAPY: You went to therapy and still do therapy because you decided your trauma and pain wouldn’t hold you back or go to the next generation.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP: You trusted God enough NOT to go into corporate America, turned in your car early, and made the hard decision to trust God even when you didn’t make any money.
You have spent the last 10 years serving God wholeheartedly, obeying even when it was hard, and choosing to have faith in God during the hard times. 💖
✨When we decide to choose God, everything changes.
✅ Choosing Myself
As you enter this next season of your life, I hope you know that I am so proud of you. I am proud of your dedication, hard work, and yes. I’m proud of your heart. I’m proud of the way you conduct yourself with integrity. I’m proud of who you are today, not because of what you do, but because of who you are.
💐I want you to know that if no one sees you, I see you. If no one knows how hard you’ve worked, I know. If no one knows the tears you’ve cried, the giants you’ve slayed, or the mountains you’ve moved, I know.
💐Thank you for deciding that you would be obedient to God and leave the rest to him. Thank you for choosing me. Thank you for protecting me.
💐Thank you for creating a standard of love. Thank you for deciding to heal. Thank you for not letting your pain destroy you.
💐More than that, thank you for deciding that you would believe God, no matter what.
💐Thank you for trusting God and showing up when it felt impossible.
✍️Write It Out: What are three things you are proud of?
✅ Choosing to Remember
As you enter this new season, I hope you know that you deserve it ALL. You have paid the cost. You deserve EVERYTHING that the Lord has given you and will give you. Do not apologize for the victory, blessings, or favor in your life. Do not belittle, criticize, or mock yourself.
🥊You deserve it all. Do not roll over. Fight. Fight for your victory. Fight for your family, and fight for women.
I know that sometimes you feel that your obedience doesn’t matter, but it does. Your consistent yes to God matters. It matters to your family, friends, and community, but more than that, it matters to God.
Your yes to God matters!
Things to remember:
You are worthy.
God is with you.
You are equipped and prepared.
God would never let you enter a season he hasn’t prepared you for.
📣 I want you to know that you can try again. I know that as a little girl, you lost some of your voice, self-esteem, and belief in yourself, but you are safe. It’s time to explore, find your voice, and bask in the protection that God has given you.
You do not have to perfect, put on a strong front, or be put together. God rests in your messiness and calls you forth. Be strong, be courageous, be you. You are worthy, resilient, and exactly who you are supposed to be.
As a child, the devil tried to take your gifts, voice, and confidence. But baby, you’re still standing. What the devil meant for evil, was a stepping stool for you to become the woman God called you to be.
🥳 Congratulations on believing in God, congratulations on surviving, and congratulations on this new season.
Welcome to a new era of using your voice and sharing your lessons! Welcome to The Daily Way!
👀 Letter To The Reader:
Hey girl! I know that this is a letter to myself, but I want you to know that you should be proud of yourself.
You may not be who you want to be yet, but you’ve had to overcome obstacles to be who you are today. Bask, in your greatness. You have survived. You are trying to be better.
Be proud of yourself. You deserve it. 💖
✍️Write It Out: What are three things you are proud of?
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