All posts tagged: Monday Motivation

Say Cheese: Choosing to Be Lighthearted in the Season of Love

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“Cheese is my love language.” ~BRIANA LASSITER February. Few things come to mind in our world, especially in the western hemisphere concerning this month, beyond the thought of Valentine’s Day, love, and relationship. From preteen clear up to senior citizens, people scramble to not only find the perfect gift for their special someone but to actually have a designated ‘someone’ with whom to share the day with. This rush begins amid the new year’s scramble of weight loss plans, fasting for the future, and of course resolutions for a better you which often means a not-single-you. But more times than not, many of us do remain single during this time. And can I be bold enough to say that is MORE than okay? “I’d rather be single and satisfied than boo-ed up and burdened, or married and miserable.” ~CANDICE COATES There are so many reasons to be joyful not just during this month, but every day, yet it seems during this month of love many seem to struggle with it. When we start off each …

Taking Hold of Greatness: Being Willing to Take Steps Backward

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“Sometimes doing great work requires taking several steps backward.”         ~CANDICE COATES I don’t know of a single human being throughout the span of time who has not desired some level of success and greatness. I am not talking about the greatness that world conquers sought, the empty success that only leaves you with an insatiable high for more in all the wrong ways, the kind that leaves victims wounded, and bloodied in your wake. I am talking about the great work of authentic meaning and self-expression. I am talking about that work that comes from an honest and sincere heart, that one that you can whisper to God with a smile and say, “We did good, eh?” Be it your art, your writing, your marriage, your conquering of the daily grind whereas you force yourself to say, “This is the day the Lord has made, and I will rejoice and be glad in it! I will do well today no matter the odds, no matter the discomfort.” This is the great work I …

How to Make Waves in Life: Stepping into New Seasons

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“If you don’t dive in, you’re not going to make any waves.” ~Somebody Awesome Let’s be honest, basking in the presence of something beautiful is a wonderful thing, but being fully submerged within it can be so much more fulfilling and exhilarating. It’s similar to being at the pool, or the ocean on a hot summer’s day. You’re never truly refreshed until you have taken the dive in! The same is true for us and any advancement that we would like to have in life. Talking about an idea or a plan is a wonderful thing, but until you take a dive and actually start implementing the things you are talking about, you are only basking in its beauty. “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.” ~PSALM 34:8 Consider that this truth is relevant in every area of our lives, especially in our walks with Christ. The deeper we go in Him the sweeter we find Him to be, the more we realize how awesome and …

Waging War with the Right Tools: A Word on Effective Advancement

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“There are many plans in a man’s heart, but the Lord’s counsel will prevail.” ~PROVERBS 19:21 Idon’t know what to do. I seriously don’t know what to do.” These were the words I recited more than a few times during the 2019 year. I don’t know about you, but last year was a year and season of gaining new territory, creatively, physically, mentally, relationally, and spiritually. These are all great places to take possession of land but I also felt like, not only was the year truly moving at an accelerated pace but that some of the difficulties, trials, and tests I was facing were far out of my realm of knowledge or understanding. My head was spinning. Though joyful and often times happy, I was overwhelmed. I was anxious. I was out of my element. None of my usual ‘go-to’s for success an any of the aforementioned categories were working. I literally told the Lord I didn’t know what to do and He was basically like, “Of course not. This is new territory AND …

Preparing to Prosper in What Looks Like a Drought

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Scrolling through the Stories feed on my author’s Instagram account, @candicecoateswrites, I came across a comedic meme that read, “So in the middle of the Civil War, someone was like “You know what this country needs? A delicious steak sauce.“.” If you are not familiar with what steak sauce I am talking about, it is good ole’ A1 Steak Sauce. Now here is the thing, the sauce, which started to get more widely known in 1862, was actually created by a European chef in Europe and wasn’t even introduced to America until 1895.** Although not American in origin, and actually created three decades before the Civil War, the idea and even deeper truth behind the comedic meme still stands.** What is that meaning? That we must be willing to create and pursue our vision even in the midst of tremulous times. We must have the faith to plan beyond the drought. NOT HINDERED BY THE MOUNTAINS A beautiful example of this can be found in the life and love story of Black American Nurse in …

Picture This!: Capturing 2020 with 20/20

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Twenty-nineteen is almost at its end. And if we are honest, we can say that this year has gone by with a flash! Like with years past, we prepare to tackle the holiday season with knives and forks as if this will be our last indulgence before the clock strikes midnight for the last time on this side of the calendar year. For then, then we must set our goals, put on our workout gear and run ourselves to the gym with the single purpose of being beach-ready several warm months from now. For those of us who are focused on pursuing our creative callings, our goals tend to involve a different kind of exercise with a completely different destination in mind. “Success is not one size fits all and therefore requires a unique pattern.” For me, the goals that I have in the crosshairs are goals that I have been striving toward for several years now. But as I set out to take hold of them this year I am doing so while letting …

Thanks in Everything: The Art of Thanks Giving by Briana Lassiter

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Lately, the Lord has really been dealing with me on thanksgiving. Really it’s been about a straight year of Him actively teaching me about this topic and I kind of thought I had the hang of it until a couple weeks ago when He asked me to start thanking Him for the things that are not in my life. As a child of God there are things that God daily keeps from entering your life and harming you. In Psalms 91 He says that He gives His angels charge over you lest you strike your feet on a stone. He also says again in Psalms 121 that He is your keeper, He keeps your life and He keeps you from all evil. Sometimes it’s really easy to focus our prayers on the facts that we aren’t where we want to be yet or we still have healing to receive in certain areas that are causing us pain, and we forget to thank Him for the things that He has kept or removed from us. Whether …

Claim Your Outcome: Choose Your Own Adventure pt 3

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The choice is yours’. We’ve heard that in many different scenarios but often times we tend to shun away from that conceptual truth when it comes to our faith-walks. Yes, we as children of God, creatives seeking His divine purpose for our lives, have surrendered our lives and eternity to Him. Yes, we like Christ Jesus, should daily be in submission to His plan with a not our wills but Yours ever on our lips. In short, His will should always be our will…but we do have a choice. THE CHOICE TO TRIUMPH “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil,  in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.” ~DUETERONMY 30:15-16 From the onset of creation, our Heavenly Father has given us choices, choices that would dictate the course of our lives. It is never …

Change Your Response: Choose Your Own Adventure pt 2

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It was a kneejerk reaction!” “I did it subconsciously.” “It was muscle memory.” I am sure that all of us have used these phrases more times than we can possibly count. They are the things that we say when we are able to, for the good or the bad, give a response or reaction in any given moment without thought. It’s what we do by rote. We’ve done it so much that our flesh knows what to do without even being told to do so. Having worked in retail, I had gotten to a place, that without thinking, or even looking, I could easily push in the computer function for a credit card payment. On the one hand, being able to do so was very efficient. On the other, it was a hindrance especially if I had asked the customer what for of tender they were using to pay and their choice was not credit. Still, without fail, my fingers would jump ahead and punch in the function for credit and I would have to …

Change Your Mind: Choose Your Own Adventure pt 1

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“…I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life…” ~DEUTERONOMY 30:19b Remember back in the day when you were in elementary school and you got to go to the school library and pick out a few books to take home and read? Back when I was a child, that was one of the highlights of the week, going to the school library, and nothing brought more joy than getting my hands on the latest Choose Your Own Adventure novel. Those books were fantastic in that within the limitations of maybe one-hundred and thirty or so pages of medium-sized print, seemed to be an infinite amount of unique stories that came to life simply by skipping from one section of the book to another. Choose your own adventure. To see what happens if Sally falls in the well, skip to page sixty-four. To have Sally leap over the well to safety, go to page fifty-seven, to see what happens next from here, keep reading. Some of these stories always had the same …