Happy Self-Love Sunday!

I wanted to write about a number of topics today. So many things have been running through my mind that I felt would be great blog content. I planned on waking up this morning, typing my blog, and posting it before church started. However, God literally had other plans. As I was getting ready this morning, I had an epiphany while having a discussion with a friend. This epiphany, that my friend has no idea occurred, led to me wanting to write about a particular topic. I then decided to write the blog after church. At church, I received several confirmations about this topic that I will be sharing with you all today. God confirmed that this is what HE wanted me to write about and share. So here’s to another self-love Sunday, enjoy!

I experienced a revelation in the midst of talking to my friend this morning as I got ready. Really, the revelation came as I analyzed our conversation. I realized that I’ve been in a weird stage in my life for a while now. And ultimately, this stage has involved me attempting to figure things out. Up until now, I thought that I was figuring things out in my life. However, I realized that MY figuring things out involved what I thought was either best for me or what I deemed as a solution, but NOT what God has planned for me. So safe to say, figuring it out hasn’t been going the best for me lol.

During church, I received confirmation that I should write this topic today. During praise and worship, one of the song’s discussed how the battle is the Lord’s. Then, the sermon for today discussed what do I do for my next and your personal story. This sermon literally touched my heart in so many ways. I could just relate. As Pastor Johnson Bowie began to share his personal story he said, “I don’t know if you’ve ever had a plan for your life and then that door closes and now you’re like, who am I?” And I felt these words along with almost EVERY word he and his wife preached went so well with how I wanted to discuss, figuring things out.

I am a planner. Always have been. Therefore, I had a plan for my life. Or what I thought would be the plan for my life. My junior year and senior year of college, God took what I thought was the end-all be-all plan for my life and threw it away. Thus, invoking the question, “who am I?” See, he knew that the plans I had weren’t what he had planned for me, but I didn’t. I thought my plan came from God, but it came from me. And if your plan isn’t of him and from him, it may last temporarily, but don’t expect it to be the permanent plan for your life. When we become comfortable or so focused on what we want that we no longer move forward, God has to make us so uncomfortable that we begin to walk again. And he cleans our ears out, so that they can be tuned to him. It’s up to us to make the choice to listen or not. And if you don’t listen, the cycle will just continue until you do. Trust me, I know.

I entered into my senior year of college so broken. I tried to suppress my feelings and keep it moving because so many people were dependent on me for so many things. After months of brokenness, right before graduation, God placed a plan before me for life after college. I thought with this newfound plan that I needed to be completely whole to succeed. So I attempted to put my pieces back together BUT as Pastor Johnson also mentioned in church today, “we are incapable of putting our broken pieces together again to make something beautiful, only God can.” The epiphany I had this morning was in regards to me figuring things out for my life, but when I went to church I realized that I’ve really been trying to put my own broken pieces together. And things haven’t been working out, because I haven’t let GOD put my pieces back together. I haven’t fully admitted to all of the emotions and feelings that I have felt and currently feel so that I can allow him to heal me. After praise and worship, God spoke to me. During the sermon, he spoke to me. And when the sermon was over and we were praying, God spoke to me and the tears just fell from my face. I am sharing all of this to say, that you do not have to have it all figured out.  You certainly can not figure it all out on your own. Allow God to work in your life. Allow him to put you back together if you need. Allow him to have his way. Today, I am challenging myself to let God put my pieces back together again.

Figuring things out isn’t a linear process and it involves someone greater than ourselves. Waiting for God’s word and timing is not easy! It won’t happen like you want nor will it happen when you want. But, that is why faith is so important. Have faith knowing that it will happen. Remain faithful in the waiting. Good things take time. You couldn’t graduate from college until you completed elementary, middle school, high school (or received a GED), and your college curriculum. There’s always a process and order. We just may not see this process or understand it, but I truly believe God knows what is best and is working it all out for our good. Today, I challenge you all to listen to God and let him move in your life. I’m letting go of my pride and letting my guard down, to let God put my pieces back together. Will you let him work in your life, too?

Happy Self-Love Sunday!

I hope this past week has been amazing for you. And if you felt this week wasn’t all that, then I hope you make this upcoming week better! I hope you all enjoyed A Word Wednesday. I am so excited to share this journey with you all. If you weren’t able to check it out, reference my last post or visit my Instagram (@unveilingjannaalane). I have so much content prepared, and I hope that it will positively impact you all the way I know it’s going to impact me. So now you all have two reasons to visit my blog each week, what a joy (right?)! Anyways, today’s topic came to me late last night. It hit me so hard that I would not be doing myself or you all justice if I don’t share. So happy self-love Sunday & I hope you all enjoy! 

How do we heal from hurt? It is such a relevant question. But also, a question I feel we will be asking ourselves and others until the end of time. Hurt can appear in numerous forms and in numerous periods of our life. Each hurt will look and feel different. Therefore, how we overcome each situation will be different as well. I wish there was a magic book that discussed every form of hurt and how to overcome it, that would be perfect. But we don’t live in a perfect world and that is NOT realistic. Even though there’s no one solution fixes all, you can change your mindset in relation to how you view hurt. And even though this won’t completely cause healing immediately, it’s a step. One step in moving forward and healing is better than no steps at all.

Merriam-Webster defines hurt in various ways. Some of the definitions are: to inflict with physical pain; to do substantial or material harm; to cause emotional pain or anguish to; to be detrimental to; and the list continues.

Sometimes emotional pain can sting and cause damage just as much as physical pain can. Throughout my life, I’ve been hurt so many times by so many different people in so many different ways. Physically, mentally and emotionally. I’ve been hurt by family members, friends, former friends and significant others. And I wish I could say the hurt got easier to deal with as I got older, but that wouldn’t be true. This isn’t true because each circumstance was different. And no matter how cruel this world can be, my heart is what it is. I care for people and love hard, and though this has its ups and downs, I can not and will never change that. Therefore, I’m still learning to heal from my hurt each and every day and this starts by changing my mindset.

Often times we try to write our hurt off immediately and keep things moving like we’re A okay. We don’t allow ourselves to feel the hurt and heal from this emotion. I’ve been guilty of this myself. At some points in my life, my hurt has had me questioning if it was valid. I questioned if I had the right to hurt and feel the way that I did. So, I tried to keep living like I did before the hurt occurred. Essentially, I tried to ignore it. However, in the late hours of the night, when I was alone, or when I really started to think, of course hurt crept its little way into my life. I didn’t realize that I needed to accept and process the hurt in order to heal. But I did, and I still do, and so do you.  I’ve learned that processing my hurt can also provide revelation in my life.  These revelations can lead to healing. You can’t heal from hurt by just writing it off, that only allows it to manifest and cause more damage than good.

Alexandra Elle said it best on Instagram the other day, she literally said it so perfectly that I couldn’t say it any better (picture above). You can be positive and still have bad days! Meaning you can be positive and happy but still be dealing with hurt. She also said that you don’t have to pretend or be perfect. Honestly, I think that is what keeps us from healing from our hurt. We feel we have to pretend everything is good EVERY second of the day or that we are perfect. We don’t have to pretend or be perfect, I repeat, we do not. This is what hinders our healing. We can have a good moment with friends or loved ones, but still be suffering from hurt and pain. But we MUST acknowledge and feel our feelings. This won’t be the best feeling in the world; however, it is SO necessary to healing and growth.

Today, I challenge you to change your mindset in regard to your hurt. Don’t let the things that hurt you in the past control your future. Reflect, acknowledge what happened and also acknowledge how you grew and overcame from it. And if you’re still healing, acknowledge that too! Take some time to yourself to allow yourself to feel. Don’t hold it all in or stuff it in one place. I promise in the grand scheme of things, you’ll be happy you allowed yourself time to feel and begin your healing process. Remember, this isn’t the one and only way to heal from hurt, but it’s a start!

Happy Self-Love Sunday!
It’s Labor Day weekend! Happy early Labor Day. I wonder if you all have been patiently waiting for this weekend like I have. Working an 8 am – 5 pm is NO joke, so any and every break is appealing lol. But don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my job. Anyways, I am thoroughly excited for this week because I have something exciting coming. I will be posting on Wednesday, so make sure you check back in! And this exciting thing has given me much reason to smile & I hope it does the same for you.

How many of you have had moments when you could literally find no reason to smile? When it seems as if all the joy and happiness was sucked out of your life? Well, I promise you are not alone. We have all had moments where it seems as if all odds are against us. But these are the moments in which we need to embrace our happiness and joy even more. Because there are so many more reasons to SMILE than to succumb to any and every thing else.

On Saturday, I was listening to my gospel playlist as I cleaned my apartment. Jonathan McReynold’s – Smile began to play. This is a song that I love, but often I skip over it in the car because I’m not in the mood for it. However, I let it play this time and it was like I was listening to it for the first time. The words hit me on another level. The bridge and chorus really struck me the most this time. The lyrics are as follows:
I can’t help but smile
Cause I realize what You’ve done for me
All those battles You’ve won for me
And that someday soon You will come for me

I can’t help but sing
Cause you already gave me the victory
And no pain, and no hurt and no misery
Can take away my smile
(Yeah, yeah, yeah)
No pain, no hurt, and no misery can take away my smile. Whew! How many of y’all felt those words just now?

Recently, it feels like I’ve been succumbing to every reason to not smile. Instead of being optimistic and hopeful, I have been just rolling with the punches, even if that means losing my smile. And yes, of course I’ve had moments in which I’ve embraced happiness. But realistically, my smile hasn’t been like it should or used to be. It hasn’t been reflective of me. And what is truly mind blowing is that I am so thankful and grateful for so many things and these things all give me reason to smile. However, it’s like all these wonderful things drift out of my mind the moment a “crisis” or situation occurs.

I’ve been spending more and more time with God and I feel like this song couldn’t have been more on time than it was! Friday, I went to my alma mater and ran into so many of my friends, which was lovely. And as I drove back to my new side of town, I had plenty of time to think. I’ve been allowing myself to focus on negativities instead of the positive. I’ve been so busy with work and adjusting to my work schedule, I haven’t had time to just be still. So as I drove, I was completely still. My mind was free and reflective. I reminisced on beautiful memories, blessings, and the opportunities to come. It’s all scary, unfamiliar, and exciting! But somehow, the scary and unfamiliar have consumed my thoughts. I know that all things will work out the way that they should and need to according to God’s will. However, when life hits you fast, it can be hard to remember that. I am choosing to stop trying to be in control and put my trust in the man above. So I am ready to be free and smile at any and every thing I can, every opportunity I get. 

You never know how much your smile could make someone’s day. It could literally be a small act of kindness that helps them get through a terrible time or remind them that not all people suck.

Today, I challenge you all to be still and smile. Things may be bad, but they could be worse. There are people in way worse conditions than us. I know people say that all the time, but it’s so true. And even though there may be 100 reasons to not smile or be happy, there are 101 and more to smile and embrace happiness. Which are you choosing today? Will you let this world define how you feel? Or will you take control and choose happiness? Will you choose to be a light in a sometimes dim and dark world? Because I want my smile to be so contagious that so many others are influenced to smile and overcome whatever is bothering them. Let your faith cause you to do nothing else but smile, in spite of every circumstance. It’s your choice & I hope you choose to smile today!