From the Abundance

Dear Pastor Chaconna, In lieu of coming to you directly I wanted to take this opportunity to offer you a few friendly reminders for your call and appointment.  First let me start by saying, I know it's not the easiest thing in the world to walk in the calling that God has placed on your life.  I know you had plans and things you wanted to do with your life and probably even some dreams and goals you'd set for yourself as a young girl.  Nevertheless you chose to answer God's call.  I can't say that everything will be peaches and cream, heck you may not even see any of those hopes and dreams you had for yourself come to pass, but know this... the plan (Jeremiah 29:11) He lined up for you is greater than anything you could have imagined. You'll have to compromise much of what you thought was normal and completely switch your way of thinking... church to kingdom... I know it's crazy but you'll never get it right until you can do this.  Trying to figure ou

Since everyone has decided to jump on this bandwagon of 30 Days of Thanks for November I decided to do something a little different.  So I'm going to give you my list but with a twist... it's things I haven't always been thankful for (in no particular order of importance, just as they come to me).  So here goes.. 1.  I haven't always been thankful for my intelligence.  I know that may seem arrogant or strange but let me tell you why... when I was in Kindergarten we were placed in reading groups.  The groups were identified by the color of yarn necklace we wore.  Mine was ALWAYS green and I never knew why.  I HATED that green yarn necklace.  I wanted to have different colors like everybody else and to change colors like my friends.  One day I cried and cried because my necklace was always green and FINALLY my teacher explained to me that it was a good thing to have a green necklace because it meant that I was a good reader. 2. My crazy and sometimes embarrassing f

There's nothing better than the warmth and comfort of a soft fuzzy blanket on a cold night.  You can't wait to pull it up high under your chin and tuck it all around you so no cold air can get to you.  Well this morning as I felt the cool air in my room hit the back of my leg I realized a few things... 1. when you're outside the covering you get hit with the sneak attack 2. sometimes when you leave, it's hard to get back underneath like you were because you're so tangled up 3.when it's really bad you have to stop everything and focus on that task for a while until you get it right 4. sometimes you have to change positions to get it right I hope y'all are with me in the spirit... you can look at this a couple ways..Look at that warm fuzzy blanket as God's covering... sometimes we get out of His will, and way without even realizing it until we get hit with a sneak attack. Then we feel just like that cold foot that's hanging out from under the

Most of us have probably heard the story of the prodigal son, some of us have probably been that son. For those of you who may not have heard it let me share it with you.. I'll paraphrase & summarize but you can find the story in Luke 15:11-32. There's a father with two sons, the younger son asks the father for his part of the inheritance (which he wasn't entitled to until after the father died).  The father gives him his share and he gathers up everything he has and goes off to a foreign land. He foolishly spends everything he has on wild living.  In other words he said #turnup! and went ham. Well after he'd wasted everything, there was a famine in the land and there he was with nothing.  So he goes and hooks up with some locals and take a job feeding the pigs.  Well this might not seem like a big deal but he was Jewish, so he shouldn't have been anywhere near the pigs let alone feeding them and down in the mudhole slinging slop.  He was so hungry tha

So I've been absent from my blog for about a month now and I truly do apologize for those of you who read regularly.  Thank you for thinking what I write about it important enough to read and share.It was not my intention to be away for so long, and I did have some post finished that I was ready to share but I soon learned those posts were just for me.  Sometimes I write something I think I'll be sharing with you guys and God just won't let me share at the time... So to that end let me tell you what's been going on and why I haven't been posting anything... and I pray this helps somebody else stay in the race and press on Some of you know and some do not, but a few months ago I made a huge leap and left my church.  Before you even ask...I didn't just leave because I felt like it. lol  The decision really wasn't even mine, the act of obedience was the requirement.  Nevertheless... I left.  This wasn't just my church home, it was the place where I had g

There's a lot of talk about being transparent and real and what not these days in the kingdom but a lot of people are more like a stained glass mosaic than truly transparent... they let you see through the areas they want you to but hide most of the truth.  Well today let me help somebody out by being real  transparent... I'm 33, I have two degrees ( a B.S. in Apparel Design & Merchandising and A Master of Social Work), I live alone, pay my own bills (with the Lord's help), I'm gifted, talented and anointed to do a lot of things.  I have great friends, a wonderful family and a pretty decent boyfriend.  I have a small image consulting business on the side, I'm building a ministry and I'm writing blogs, books, and several other things...I'm usually a pretty upbeat and positive person.... People usually tend to think I have it all together, ask me how I do it, how I did this and that or whatever The thing is... I'm extremely frustrated,

I was watching an episode of the Carrie Diaries where she and her friends were having a conversation about the mentality of the people in Manhattan.  She was smitten with the luxe and glamour of NY and how everyone was so posh and had exciting lives. But her friend pointed out that in Manhattan everyone was their own little individual island... trying to keep up, outdo, and make the other little islands jealous..it was lonely being an island. Over the past few weeks I've found myself extremely irritated with this spirit of selfishness and self-exhalation that seems to be running rampant these days.  NO I am not about to get on my soapbox and just rant out of frustration but I am about to share some biblical truths with you concerning this foolishness right here... what I have termed Me Me Island Syndrome... There are times when we all have a lapse in judgement and think we don't need anybody else, we can do everything on our own, or that this show is all about us.  Wel

So today is the first day of Summer and I don't know about anybody else, but I feel great!  I'm a few days closer to moving and a few steps closer to releasing some of this purpose.  I don't know what it is about summer that just makes me happy.. It's hot and humid and my hair is usually a frizzball but I love it nonetheless. There's nothing like sunshine and warmth on your skin, a good BBQ or  picnic, a popsicle, and swimming pool! The only thing that can make it better is a gallon or two of Chic-fil-A lemonade that's ice cold... Now that's the business!! Today as the seasons officially change I just wanted to take time to remind somebody that even though the season has changed, God has not changed His mind about you.  His promises haven't changed, the plans He has for your life haven't changed, His love hasn't changed, and neither have His grace, mercy, or willingness to forgive. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. H

I had an ah ha moment yesterday while I was out taking one of my clients to get her monthly commodities.  The line is always super long so I usually let her out at the door and find a parking space.  As I was letting my client out of the car someone knocked on my window.  To my surprise, I turned to see my cousin Joe standing there with a huge smile on his face.  He calls me Dah Ha (don't ask me why, but he has since I was little).  So I roll down the window and he's asking me about getting my Master's Degree, work, ministry and a bunch of other stuff.  He says "well Dr. Dah Ha you're just everything aren't you?  Getting my masters.. oh no that wasn't hard, it was just a test... That's that genius stuff" I just laughed and went to park the car.  When I cam back I sat on the steps of the church waiting for my client and my cousin came back to talk to me some more. This time he was asking me about the details of what I'm working on, what I

Alright folks this is just a quick post to support my awesome brother in Christ and the ministry God has poured out through him... it's his first EP and guess what.... it's FREE! That's right, he's blessing the people freely as God has blessed him.. BUT!say  BUT.. that doesn't mean you shouldn't take the time to sow into his ministry.  This is authentic, God given and inspired music ministry at it's finest...  So please check it out, download it, share the link with your friends and sow into this Man of God's ministry!!  DOWNLOAD IT HERE!!!

                                     Several years ago when I started blogging I had no Idea I would still be blogging 10+ years later.  Although the address and the platform have changed, my love for writing has only grown.  I am so blessed and amazed every time I sit down to write.  I'll be honest and admit that I got a little discouraged when I was writing and writing and noticed that nobody was responding or commenting but then the strangest thing started happening.... I would run into one of my mom's friends or a person I met on Facebook telling me something about what they had read on my blog.  I said wow, people are reading!  So I said ok, maybe the comments don't matter so much as long as someone is reading and the seeds are being planted. A few months later I was fooling around in the control panel of the blog and saw the stats section.  So being the curious person I am... I start clicking buttons and playing around only to find that Google was tracking visitor

Every day we walk past people in the hallways at work or school, we drive and ride past others in cars on our way home, greet people in the aisles at the grocery store or smile and nod at a stranger passing. Have you ever wondered what that person's life is like? What they believe? Who are they really? Do they even believe in God? Are they married? Or if you're like me, I love hearing people's stories.... stories of struggles turned to victory, defeat turned to triumph, and the impossible manifest in miracles. My momma always tells me that I don't meet any strangers and that I know everybody... I for one take pride in not meeting strangers. What can I say, I'm a people person. To that end, each month I will be featuring an untold story. Some will be people I know well, others will be people I've met along the way. So here goes.. I frequently visit the Dollar Tree behind my house and I know most of the cashiers and managers by name. I told you, I'm

Every now and then, an artist needs a blank canvas.  Sometimes that blank canvas comes out of a fresh package, other times it's made by hand, and even still there are times when a blank canvas is created by sanding and painting over an old canvas with Gesso.  Well... this is where I am right now.. God is sanding me and has begun painting over the old painting to create something new. There are times in life when everything around us seems to come crashing down around us and everything we knew to be true is ashes.  The good thing about that is God already said He would give us beauty for our ashes (Isaiah 61:3) . The process of reworking a canvas amazes me but also expresses exactly where I am right now.  Imagine this... you're a canvas that's had a picture drawn on it and as you've walked through life that drawing has been filled with color and texture... brush strokes, flicks of the artists brush, scrapes of a painter's knife, and even some thinn

                    Lately I've been having dreams about prison and jail but I know for sure that they have nothing to do with a natural jail or prison.  The thing about spiritual bondage is the fact that it can have so many faces, facets and sources.  Think of those pretty winding topiary bushes that form animals, zig zag shapes, words, or even people.  On the surface they look like one big bush or tree, but in reality they can have several sets of roots that end up growing together to create the fullness of the bush.  The same thing happens with spiritual bondage.  I can't say that all bondage is of the devil and all imprisonment is ungodly because Paul declared himself a bond-servant of Christ. First let's look at what bondage means: 1.  slavery   or   involuntary   servitude;   serfdom. 2. the   state   of   being   bound   by   or   subjected   to   some   external  power   or   control . 3. the   state   or   practice   of   being   physically   restrained,  

So here we are in week two of spring and it still feels like the winter..well Don't panic!!  We're just getting started.  Every end marks a new beginning and with every new beginning there is a transition phase...   Well now the seasons all kind of run together but there's still a transition.  We don't go to bed in winter and wake up in summer... Let's look at this a little bit... In winter everything is dead, lying dormant, or hibernating.  The trees are bare, the animals are mostly in hiding, the grass is frozen, crunchy and covered with snow, and there aren't many birds singing songs of praise... but underneath allll that, there's life! What appears to be dead is really just going through a transition... the bare trees are producing buds, the hibernating animals are sleeping and burning off added layers of fat, the birds are down south for the winter, the ants are eating stored up food and digging tunnels underground, and the flowers are tak