Renewed and transformed

Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2).  This scripture makes me think about HGTV.  The network where they are always renovating houses.  I think of our brain as a house that contains many rooms.  We have all these areas of our brains that are responsible for different functions.  Our different emotional responses even lie in our minds.  When I think of the scripture above.  It makes me think of the rooms in our brain being redecorated and renovated.  That's what I feel like God is showing me right now.  God changes our lives through this process.  He changes our perspective and how we view and respond to life.  There are times where a mental shift is necessary in order for us to continue to move forward in our walk with God.  That is not to say that your old mindset was bad.  I think we have this tendency to think that just because something needs to change in our lives, it always means there was something "wrong" with our previous way.  That's not always the case.  "Renewal" is a lifelong process that God will take us through over and over again until we leave this earth. "Mental shifts" are part of that renewal.  I'm kind of getting excited as I think of the "mental makeover" that God is giving me.  Who doesn't get excited over redecorating a room in their house?  How refreshing is it to transform your surroundings into something new and fresh?  Well, God can do that with your mind.  He can give you something new and refreshing to lay your eyes on.  He can renew your thoughts so you can focus on new things, new endeavers.  He can give you new inspiration and motivation.  We have to cooperate with the process.  God will set up the infrastructure with which He will provide everything you need to cooperate, but you have to respond to the infrastructure/help that He gives you to do that.  That's an issue I struggle with.  God will give me everything I need to cooperate with Him but I  don't always seize the opportunity.  I allow myself to be stuck in old patterns.  Sometimes, even though we want change and need change, it's still easier to stay in our own old patterns than it is to allow God to establish new patterns.  But I would encourage myself and others to embrace the "new" that God is trying to bring into your life right now, even if it means making some adjustments you are not use to.  If you know that this is what God is wanting to do in your life and you recognize the help that He has sent in order for you to be able to do it, ake advantage of it!

Receive the "quiet" before the noise

Let me start by saying that "Whatever you are lacking in your life, God is fully capable of getting you there"  God is fully capable of positioning you for blessing.  Don't worry about trying to positioning yourself because you cannot.  Trust God to do it.  I have had a heavy change going on in my life and spirit.  I had been having nudges from the Holy Spirit to make some changes in my life and be more committed to the tasks that have been assigned to me.  That nudge from the Holy Spirit got stronger and stronger, soon God started to speak to me about why I needed to be committed to what He had assigned to me.  Let me say that, I had already been committed to my marriage, to my kids, to being a stay-at-home mom.  I have been doing it for almost 8 years.  But God was not speaking about my natural roles, He was speaking about my "assignments" beyond that.  There are things that God has assigned me to do, late at night when my kids have gone to bed.  I work with a Christian organization online and even though I had a schedule, I would allow my tiredness to get to me at the end of the day and I wouldn't get online to coach.  That' s what I do with the organization, I am a Christian, spiritual coach.  I am suppose to coach Mon - Wed between 10:00 and 12am.  I had been skipping days just because I was tired after being at home with a toddler all day and taking care of my family in the evening.  What was happening is that I started to become very tired during the day as well, even when I skipped getting online to coach the night before.  It seems the more rest I tried to get, the more fustrated I became because I was still tired.  Then I started hearing inside my heart that "If I needed more, to give more".  I believe God was saying to me that if I need more rest than I need to be more committed to staying up to do His work at night.  It still took me awhile to actually start doing that.  God started speaking to me about how my supply was in the roles I had beyond my natural roles and how my power was there.  He started to show me how being committed to the coaching would give me power in other areas of my life and supply me with what I needed to be effective in my natural roles (mother, wife, etc.).  Finally, after God spoke to me about that, I started coaching the 3 nights I was suppose to instead of taking off because I was tired.  God was right, I started to have more energy then when I was taking time off, from coaching, to rest.  Then I started to sense another nudging from the Holy Spirit about my getting up earlier than everybody else to get with God in the morning.  This too, took a awhile for me.  The nudging was persistent, then God started to speak to me about how "What you do in secret, will give you power in the daytime".  I also sensed I was being led to dedicate a private space to God. God was not only asking for my time but physical territory to be dedicated to Him.  As God was speaking to me about this, I was starting to find that I was getting fustrated in the mornings because I just started to feel I wasn't getting the time I needed with God, while my son watched his shows.  It just wasn't enough.  I started to sense a lack of direction in my days.  While, at the same time God is making some big changes in my life and expanding certain areas of my life.  Needless to say, I really did not see that I had a choice in the matter.  I had to start getting with God in the morning.  It seems the way I have been doing things for years is no longer adequate.  There is a greater demand now and it requires greater supply.   Now that I have started to spend time with God, it's been hit and miss a little bit, but God is still pushing for consistency, because what I keep hearing today in my spirit is that if I don't do it early in the morning; when the day starts it's too late.  If I don't meet with God in the morning before everybody gets up, it will be too late for me to get what I need from God to ,ove forward in my day with a strong sense of direction in the decisions I make.   The great news is that I get to start all over tomorrow, but I know what I'm hearing is that

"If you don't get what you need first thing in the morning, it will be to late for that day". I'm not saying this is for everybody, but this is what God is telling me.  God is telling me that everything I need for that day will be supplied during my quiet time with Him in the morning.  It's the only way.

What do you crave?.............

Hunger?  Is it good or bad?............................It depends on what you are hungering for, right.  The bible says that "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled."  I wonder if there is anybody reading this who feels "empty" right now?  I wonder...............


There are many appetites of the world, are there not?  Many different appeals to our pallets.  The question is, how do we develop an appetite for "righteousness"?  For many of us it's already there, we just need to feed it so it can grow.  For others, who don't have that "acquired taste" for righteousness yet, all you need is for someone to give you a little taste of the Lord and you will see that He is good, and you'll want more.  All you need is a taste, to begin to develop and appetite for righteousness.  The bible says "Taste and see that the Lord is good".  The question I asked today is "How do I grow my hunger and thirst for God?.  I can't help but believe that it is by pursuing those things that leave you wanting more time with God.   There are activities in one's life that will feed a hunger and thirst for God, now those "activities" are different for each individual.  I would dare you, if you know what those things are for yourself,  to pursue more of those things to grow your appetite for God.  The bible says that if you want to feel "full", in your life, to hunger and thirst for righteousness.  I will be the first to confess, that I have been scared to pursue more of what feeds my hunger for God, because it's almost like it would be too good to be true, too much of a good thing you know.  We live in a skeptical culture, we tend to deny ourselves the very things that God wants us to indulge in the most.  The reason that I used the word "dare",when I said "I dare you to pursue those things" that feed your appetite for God", is because it is a daring thing, the reason why it is a daring thing, is because we don't know what will happen if we really taste the goodness of God, I mean really taste it, what will happen if we really start feeding our Godly appetites?  Where will it take us?  Where will this take us?  I believe that question has held me back.  Has it held you back?  If you're like me, you run on empty then full.........empty then full.  Your tank never stays full and the more you fill it up, the bigger the "emptiness gets when you hit empty again".  What happens is, that when we grow our appetite for God, and we don't keep the nourishment up with the pace in which our appetite is growing, the empty times get more and more difficult, placing a demand on us by our spirit to "stay filled".  I don't fault myself or others for this yoyo affect in our lives, because it is just part of the process of the Holy Spirit, to get you to a point where you are consistently filled

"The Times" for women

I'm Getting better at recognizing what "times" and "season" mean and how we should respond to them.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 -To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:

This verse is so powerful to me because it tells me that everything in life has it's time.  As a women, I have been guilty of trying to "do it all at one time".  I believe many of us, as women, have fellowship in this issue.  But learning everything has it's own time assigned to it, is helping me to keep things in perspective and it's keeping me from beating myself up so much. It also helps me to look for, wait for, and honor God's timing.  When women are on their menstrual cycle, that indicates that it's a time of the month to focus on some things concerning ourselves.  Cleansing,  our menstrual cycle should be a time of cleansing for us as it requires as to be particularly mindful of the cleansing of our bodies, and I believe that what is happening outwardly should also produce an expectation of a spiritual cleansing, shedding, and making anew.  Each time a woman bleeds the inner lining of her uterus is shedding and it will be replaced every month, anew. Many women want to get rid of their menstrual cycle all together, and thepharmaceutical  companies are producing products that are doing just that, in the form of "birth control".  You know what they tell you:  "You don't even need your menstrual cycle every month". Really????? Because God put it there and He says everything has a purpose.  When doctors tell you that you don't need something that God put there, especially as it pertains to being a woman, you should always lend yourself to question that.  Our cycles are just as much spiritual as they are physical.  You have shedding, you have renewal, and you have preparation.   Our monthly keeps our bodies prepared to house new life.  Understand, that does not just mean physically but also spiritually.  Women are very special in that way.  God made us to receive, carry, nourish and birth.  Our cycle should be a monthly reminder of our uniqueness as women, the way we carry God's image in the earth as women, and what our purpose is in daily life.  I also want to talk about the hormones and the mood changes.  For me, I find that it's hard for me to be as focused on my responsibilities during that time of month.  I'm more sensitive, but it's not really something I am in control of, which forces me to really build my trust in Jesus.  When there are things happening in our bodies that we have no control over, it is a grand opportunity to trust Jesus with your life, the outcome of your days, and the outcome of your children, and everything else.   You're cycle will teach you a lot about your uniqueness as a woman, spiritually.  Are you ready to listen?

Power is necessity

I'm learning more and more that there is this place that we all need to get to on a daily basis, but it is so difficult.  Life fights us getting there.  So many things work against it.  Maybe I should use the word "fight" against it.  This place is the "secret place".  God is showing me that "the secret place" is the most important place in my life.  I use to think, the secret place was inside me, but it is a outer, geographical place that will cultivate a "secret place" on the inside of us.

Psalm 91:1 - He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

God is showing me that it is vital that I get alone with Him, daily.  He is showing me that my power in the daytime comes from what I do in "secret".  I just sense this urgency and a growing importance inside of me that I need to start getting up early in the morning and meeting with God.  I just have this feeling that everything I need is there in that physical place that I choose to meet God every morning before "my world" wakes up.  I sense my "power" going to come out of that place, "my peace" is going to come out of that place and "my supply" is going to come out of that place.  I sense God telling me that I need to prepare that place somewhere in my home.  That I need to make "preparing" this place a priority.  It needs to be ready to receive me, because it's a fight to get there and it needs to be prepared so I will in fact "go" there.  I believe there are invisible forces that keep us from prioritizing this in our lives.  I believe there is serious "resistance" in place to keep us from getting alone with God.  I believe the devil knows that our power lies in this "secret place"

We just don't prioritize our quiet time with God, and I'm starting to believe that this "secret place" is actually the most important place in the life of a believer and we need to treat it as such. I haven't been doing that, but God is telling me that it's time to cultivate this in my life.  That means I have to put it before all the "natural" roles in my life.  Again, I thought "before" just meant an inward prioritizing.  But God is showing me that it is an outward "physical" order that needs to take place in my life and putting Him "first" does literally mean that you get with Him before you do anything else with your day.  Again, I use to think that it was enough to just acknowledge Him before I did anything else, but now I realize He wants me to come to Him as if He has prepared a table for me and He wants me to sit down and eat with Him.  It's so much more than acknowledging Him.  He wants to feed me, comfort me, He wants to talk to me about my day, about my  life, about my purpose, about my peace, about my joy, about the world around me. And He wants more of a place, a physical place in my life.  He wants to expand in my life.  God lets you know when He wants "physical territory" in your life.

Your "higher" calling

There is a consistency that will come into your life as you begin to discover the clarity of the voice that God gave you.  I believe we all exercise a variety of "voices" in our lives before we find our "true" voice, the voice that God gave us to speak to the "world".  I believe our "true" voice is the sum of our experiences, our unique God-given personality, and how God wants to use us to reach the world.  I believe every Christian has something with which God wants to reach the world.  See many of us never reach beyond our families.  But I don't think that's the pattern that Jesus sets for us.  He reached His family, but He was called to save the whole world .  What if Jesus was only willing to die for people in His family?  Where than would you and I be?  He does not overlook His family, because he had a role to play in his own family too, but those natural roles were too small, God always pulls you towards the "world"

"Performance" got you captive?

I just realized that "performance" has kept me captive for many years.  When I say "performance" I mean in the sense of "living life to get applause".  What's funny is, that living life this way doesn't mean you live life as a better person, it just means you hide all the "ugly" sides of you.  Living for "applause" causes you to go into "hiding" and you don't really get to be who you really are in the light, with the "good", "bad" and the "ugly".  Some people actually believe that you should hide those not so good, not so holy, not so pure aspects of yourself.  But what happens in "hiding" is that that those "not so good" aspects of yourself grow more dark, and more evil and worst in the darkness of hiding.  In the darkness of hiding they form bondages and strongholds in your life.  When we don't have to hide all that we really are, freedom is the result.  In the "light" of freedom you grow more like Christ in every area, but it requires you to be comfortable with every part of yourself no matter what other people think.  You can never become like Christ, in the area's of life, that you feel like you have to hide.  Those areas of our lives cannot be healed in hiding, those areas of life cannot be redeemed in hiding, You cannot experience true love from anyone when you feel like you can't be you "true self".  When you feel like you can only show people one side of you, you don't give people a chance to love and appreciate who you really are as a whole and that further puts you in darkness, because the more people love that "one side" of you that you allow them to see, the more you feel like you can't show them "other sides" of you.  There is "light" in freedom there is "darkness" in hiding.

"Supernatural" vs "natural"

I have this whole thing in mind with the "natural" vs "supernatural".  Is one superior to the other?  Should one take priority over the other?  Do we gravitate more towards one than the other in our hearts?  I say this because to me there is always a inward pull towards the supernatural.  I'm exploring this.  I'm exploring this because I think many times, we do not feed our spirit what it needs.  We actually yearn to feed who we are on the inside.  But I think we end up feeding more of what you can see on the outside.  What's on the outside of me?  Well, I'm a mother so my I have my kids to take care of.  I'm a wife, so I have that, I help my husband with our business, so I have that.These are all things you can see and really these are "natural" roles in my life.  A mother naturally wants to feed her family and be there for them.  There are moms who are unable to do that, because of sickness or addiction but the desire is there.  It is a very natural desire.  It doesn't surprise people when a mother feeds her children.  It doesn't surprise people when they see a mother taking care of her family and home.  These are natural desires.  They are given to us by God, but I am starting to believe that if we want to live the "abundant" life that Jesus speaks about in John 10:10,  we have to begin to prioritize the "supernatural" ahead of the "natural".  Does that mean that we don't take care of our families and the other areas of our lives? No, it means that believers have the Holy Spirit living inside of them and that means there is a supernatural source inside of you and you  need to feed that more than anything else in your life.  Feeding your spirit, takes time, and it takes you totally going against the "natural" at times in order to produce the "abundant" life of Jesus in our lives.  I think sometimes, we deny ourselves the wrong things, especially as women.  What did Jesus mean in Luke 9:23 when He said to "deny" ourselves "take up our cross" and follow Him.  I always wondered what Jesus meant by this .  I felt like it was always explained in the churches I attended as if if was a "suffering" thing.  But I'm starting think our "cross" is that inner yearning to share our gifts with the world and to bring Jesus to lost, hopeless people through our gifts.  To do this refreshes us and gives us something to look forward to everyday,  out of your heart will flow rivers of living water.  There is an "abundant life" already living on the inside of us, but we have feed that life in order to see it produced on the outside.  Many of us have a special yearning on the inside of us and, many times, in that special yearning lies your very life.

So what do you do with all the "natural" stuff you have to do and provide for?  Do it out of an "abundant life" source, let it flow out of that.  For many of us our source is a depleted source

It's never enough

Have you ever felt like, the more you try to preserve something, the more it slips away.  Or the more you try to protect your time to rest, or your time to yourself, the more you seem to loose.  Has there ever been a time in your life where you have had some type of physical need and you tried to address the need by natural means and it seemed to get worst and not better.  Like have you ever been sleepy, but getting more sleep just made it worst?  Have you ever been hungry, but eating more food didn't seem to satisfy?  Have you ever felt something was missing from your life, yet every hobby and recreational activity you tried, left you feeling the same way?.  There are times when what we need goes beyond the natural.  Not all the time, but there are times where the need is "spiritual" but it's just being expressed through something natural.   I say that because of what God has had on my heart lately.  I know that the bible says it is better to give then to receive.  I also know that the bible says that we are to be cheerful givers.  What I didn't realize was, that there are many different forms that giving can take on in our lives. 

Recently, I had started to notice that I was tired a lot.  I started to try to get more sleep and I just got more tired.  3 nights a week I do  Christian, spiritual coaching online and I had began to not do that as much because I was tired, but I kept hearing in my heart "If you're tired, give more".  I have been hearing it for awhile.  Instead of doing less coaching at night when I'm sleepy, I kept up the coaching at night, and even though I was up later, I was less tired.  It seems that every time I let my natural needs pull me away from something God has me doing, it has a negative impact.  Sometimes the thing that God would have you to do seems like it would take more away from you, but it ends up adding to you.  I have also been praying about some financial things and I keep hearing "Give more".  I'm working up to it, but I think God wants me to give more of my time to what He has given me to do. He has given us all something different to do.  For me, He is not asking me to go find something new, He is asking me to give more in the areas where He already has me serving.  For me that might mean coaching 4 nights/week instead of 3.  What does it mean for you?  Is there anywhere in your life, where God has you serving and He wants you to give more? In the bible, all 4 gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) tell us that Jesus wants us to lose our lives for His sake and in losing our lives we will gain our lives. 

Matthew 16:25
²⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Since this is contained in all 4 gospels, I think God is pretty serious about his.  God is also letting me know that when I'm trying to hold onto my life in such a way that it is hindering me in moving forward in something He wants me to do, I will lose whatever it is I am trying to hold on to.  Keep in mind, God doesn't just want you to loose your life for your job, or your spouse, or your children, or material things, or your hobbies.  He says for His sake.  He will guide you in this. God bless. 

Journey beyond "right" and "wrong"

It's very uncomfortable right now, things are changing and I have a feeling there is no turning back.  Being stretched, challenged and pushed, the only relief I have is to not fight it and not try to figure it out and not try to make it feel like something I'm familiar with.  For the first time in my life, I'm not trying to make anything feel "right"

 I feel like I have always been a person that liked to be strategic and have a plan for each day and I feel like I have kind of always needed some kind of barometer to measure how I'm doing in certain areas of life.  Even as a mom, in the past, I have implemented routines that I thought would ensure that I was doing what I thought I was suppose to be doing as a mom and a wife.  When I was in high school, I was always eager to know how I did on a test before the grade came out, matter-a-fact I would agonize over the test right after I took it, to evaluate how I thought I did and come to a conclusion before we even got the test back. As a young adult, I never waited for performance reviews from my employers.  I always wanted to know how I was doing before the reviews came out.  I would approach them and ask them if there is anything I need to work on?  Some people might read this and think it's a "good" thing or that I'm bragging, but I'm not.   I really don't think it was "right" or "wrong", "good" or "bad".  It was just "what it was".  But this type of thinking can hold you back at times and become a barrier to where God is taking you.  I believe I was living under God's grace even within this way of thinking, but God is moving me to a destination where these instruments of evaluation are no longer effective in conveying "how I'm doing".  It has caused me to have to forsake some routines that were once very healthy in my life.  Right now, I really don't know what I'm doing.  I have no instruments to evaluate anything, I have no more "points of reference" other than God, Himself.  I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing and how to do it.  I am slowly becoming comfortable with that.  I have always been the girl that tried to figure everything out.  But God's grace is not on me right now to figure anything out, it's on me to be comfortable and at peace without having much figured out anymore at all.   I always say that the Holy Spirit does not work in every area of your life at the same time, I believe grace is at work in different areas of your life at different seasons.  It's so important to be sensitive to what area the Holy Spirit is working in, during every season of life, so you can dwell under the wings of God's grace

Psalm 91:1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 

When we are troubled................

Have you have let the challenges you face, become a distraction for you?  I have! Matter-a-fact, I'm going through it now.  I hate it when I do that, because when you begin to let your heart become troubled about something, it's not long before fear begins to creeps in as well.    Then I feel like it gets hard to focus on the other things you need to focus on, and it's hard to enjoy the blessings that you have.  There is such a ripple effect when you let challenges trouble you.  It leads to distraction, then, fear, then it starts to rob you of your peace, your joy and if you let it, it can completely consume you.  God tells us to guard our hearts with all diligence.  There are 2 things in the bible that God tells us to guard:  Our hearts and our mouths.  We have to watch what we let come into our hearts and we have to watch what we allow to proceed from our mouths.  Even though we don't ignore challenges, it's important we don't let them take up residence in our hearts.  Jesus says in John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  The word I want to focus on is "troubled".  I often times wonder what God means when He says certain things, especially when it appears as if I have a responsibility in it.  I looked up the word "troubled" as it's used in the context of this scripture.  The greek translation is below:

The greek word for troubled as used in the scripture above is  tarássō  – properly, put in motion (to agitate back-and-forth, shake to-and-fro); (figuratively) to set in motion what needs to remain still (at ease); to "trouble" ("agitate"), causing inner perplexity (emotional agitation) from getting too stirred up inside ("upset").

What stood out to me in the definition is "to set in motion what needs to remain still (at ease)"
.  I feel like God is saying that He doesn't want anything to stir me up on the inside.  He wants me to inwardly remain steady and consistent.  My "inside" should always feel peace and have a stillness.  Even good things can stir us up too much on the inside upsetting the peace on the inside of us.  I have learned it can go both ways.  Exercising a little indifference to certain things, that come into our lives, might be essential to peace.  

You want to produce "something". But how?

The reward of "no reaction".  Many times in life, when things get rough, or we get uncomfortable, or we have a bad day, we go into "fight or flight" mode.  This can be dangerous when there is no real threat.  "Having a rough day" does not mean you are in danger.  Being uncomfortable with the current season of your life does not mean you are in danger.  I say this because I believe we are so conditioned to react.  We are a culture that wants to medicate everything.  We don't just medicate with medicine, but we medicate with "alchohol", we medicate with "shopping", we medicate with "eating", we medicate with "television", we medicate with "drug abuse".  There are so many things that we medicate ourselves with.  I don't "blame" anyone for that, I'm just saying that it's a toxic cycle.  The fight or flight mechanism in all of us, is there to respond to an immediate threat to us or someone else.  But some of us live out of our "fight or flight" mechanism.  We are always, running avoiding, medicating.  I believe learning to sit through discomfort and rough days, without reacting to the difficulty has alot of value in certain seasons of life.  I believe there are things that we try to avoid that we shouldn't and areas where we try to make ourselves more comfortable, where we shouldn't.  The bible  tells us that there is profit from trials.  It tells us that it will produce patience, which will produce "completeness" in our lives and "supply" in our lives.  I believe many of us lack wholeness and supply in our lives because we refuse to sit in the "uncomfortable" places.  I believe because we are always medicating our trials, we never really produce what we are suppose to produce and we keep going through the same thing over and over and over again.  There are some struggles like that in my life.  These are cyclical struggles, but now it seems like the breaks that I once had from these struggles are getting shorter and shorter.  Like when a women is getting ready to have a baby and the contractions get closer together.  That means that her "break" between the contractions gets shorter and shorter.  I don't know if you have ever experienced something in your life whereas you struggle with it, but it's not a constant struggle, it just pops up here and there.  It seems to calm down and you can go about your life. But then you notice that it's starting to emerge alot more.  Then you are at a place where you feel like you barely get a chance to get back in the swing of things again and that battle is popping up again.  Then you realize that you are not able to just slip back into your normal routine because the battle is front and center and every method you have used, in the past to fight it, is not working.  Guess what?  That means it's time to sit in the battle and rejoice in it because God is about to produce something in you, through it!  And that something is going to lead to greater wholeness in your life and greater supply in your life for every need.  Many of us are trying to produce something in our lives, that "something" can include a variety of things, depending on the person.  But everybody is trying to produce "something".  Producing something means we are being "productive" right?  I think we all, as human beings, have an innate desire to be "productive".  Many times we are trying to produce "something" and it's not happening and we don't know how to make it happen.  Well, if you want to start producing something worthwhile in your life than it's time to start seeing our challenges as "good".  For the first in my life today, I can say that I believe challenges are "good" and trials are "good".  It's taken many years for my heart to get lined up with God on this matter.  The Holy Spirit had to work in my heart.  I always knew challenges were going to come, and I knew God would use them to my advantage but I never really believed in my heart that the were a "good thing" until now.  When you start to see something as a "good thing" rather then something that you just need to "go through" it changes how you respond to challenges in your life. You stop trying to run from them, get out of them, or simply avoid them.  You embrace them.  Lean in, don't lean away.  Hug your challenge today.  Don't try to get away from it, get closer to it.  Get as close as you can.