From the Abundance

Photo by  ANDRIK LANGFIELD PETRIDES  on  Unsplash I do a post every year for my birthday reflecting on the things I've learned, what I hope for moving forward, and just where I am in life.  This year I had a different kind of birthday so I wrote a different kind of post.  Hope it still blesses somebody!  Sometimes when you're wired to give and pour out and nurture others you can feel invisible.  Most days I spend my day taking care of other people, helping families, and  keeping children from being removed from their families.  I take crisis calls, ims, and emails all day and try to be a listening ear for friends and family when needed.  Sometimes I feel like I've disappeared and all people see is the gifts, the talents, the benefit of having me around. I love that I can be and do all of those things but at times I feel like screaming , "Hey I'm human too ya know!"   "I need someone to support and encourage me."  "It ...

I know I usually blog and try to give you guys great content on Tuesdays and Thursdays but today is a very special day!  My first writing baby was published and made available for sale!! I am so nervous and excited all at the same time! So don't mind me if this isn't my best blog.  This is just the beginning of my published works.. I have a lot more on the way in various formats, for different ages and tons of topics.  So be on the look out. Simple Sayings By Chaconna Downs Now let me do what I came to do... Encourage someone! This book along with many of the others I've been working on have been in progress for years.. and I do mean YEARS.. The next book I plan to publish has been a work in progress for at least 5 years and I've scrapped it and started over at least 8 times. Sometimes getting your thoughts out on paper isn't an easy task. It's like stripping in front of a bunch of people or baring your soul to strangers. You have so m...

The past few days I've had a lot of time to reflect and really think about what's been going on in my life and where I am right now.  I thought about Adam and how in Genesis 2:7 God created him from the dust.  When I think about how intricate and complex the human body is and the fact that it was all sculpted out of dust... that's mind blowing!! I think sometimes we don't really think about how amazing and absolutely breathtaking our God really is.  His creativity alone leaves me speechless... So I'm thinking about this dirt and I wondered if God stopped and started over at any time while he was making Adam... just questions I ask when reading and studying. I like to look at the details that are included and the ones that are left out.. You never know what God might reveal. So I thought about that dirt and how it's like us now. Isaiah 64:8 says that we are the clay, He is the potter and we're the work of His hand.  So I began to to think about the pro...

It's been a little over a week since I moved to my new place in Daytona Beach, but it already feels like home.  As I've been out and about taking care of business I'm asked the same question over and over again.. so what made you move to Daytona?  My Answer is always the same, God sent me here.  It's been really amazing to see how He's already made provision for me in this new place.  I'm excited about what's coming but also excited about what this means. Since stepping into my call of ministry this will be my first time in "foreign" land.  Everything I've done other than blogging was done in Lexington and Louisville.  At times I felt like Jesus, needing to shake the dust off my feet and carry on to a place where I would be better received.  I'm not knocking Lexington but the truth is, sometimes your home isn't the place for your gift.  Proverbs 18:16 says that a man's gift will make room for him and bring him before great men....

It's been so long since I've taken the time to sit down and write, I should really be ashamed of myself.  That's what happens when you let go of the things you love. This blog isn't about the love between two people, but about the things you love and how easily they can get lost in the wind.  A lot of times things slip right through our fingers without us even realizing it.   When I started this blog it was a way for me to share my excitement about what God was doing, the experiences I was having, my trials and victories. all the things that might help encourage somebody else.  But this year I seemed to have lost that zeal and passion for writing.  SO many things have happened, and so quickly, that it just kind of knocked the wind out of my sails.  I shut down and I allowed the enemy to take away my voice for a while.  I felt like Ariel when the Ursula had her voice in a shell.  There was a lot that I wanted to say but I just couldn't ...

I haven't posted anything in a while but I've been busy!  I've been planning ministry events and outreach projects for 2015.  The official launch of Loved Right Ministries will happen in January but some tidbits will be released in the next couple of weeks... I don't know about anybody else but doing Kingdom work always gets me excited!  I did something today that I haven't done in a long while, creative writing.  Someone reminded me that I used to write poetry and that I hadn't in a long time. So when I pulled out my creative writing exercise for today the task was to write a poem beginning with Emily Dickinson’s “Bring me the sunset in a cup”.  So here are my results, I hope it inspires somebody else to pick up a gift that you may have set aside for a while. Bring me the sunset in a cup And I’ll show the beauty of God’s grace The unimaginable detail with which He painted each face. I’ll show you the lines of laughter and Moist tear stained che...