Day 3 Devotions: Blessings...count them one by one:

Day 3: Blessings...count them one by one:

Stop right now and consider the blessings you have just today (share your thoughts or your list) but stop and think, sometimes it’s so hard to remember the blessings as we go about living in this crazy world we live in, the negative headlines, the sickness, the accidents and the list can go on, but let’s stop and start counting our blessings. Naming them one by one - each child, each laugh, your daily food, your senses in which to take in His great beauty, even as I write this my heart is overwhelmed with His great love for me. I hope you have that feeling the LOVE HE HAS FOR YOU! Don’t let the trivial things keep you from the joy’s of the Lord, we have so much to be thankful for that I want you to refuse to fall into the trap of having a “bad day” many people in the bible had “bad days” we’ve all had those days too. The lesson we need to learn is how they seeked wisdom and clung to God’s promises while proclaiming His holiness and faithfulness. Job is one I think speaks to me he had horrible days of losing everything  mostly testing of his faith, but because he was faithful throughout it all God blessed him more than ever and he did lose everything: is family, wealth, his friends he lost everything but his breath and faith in God.

Verse: Psalm 103:1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!

Isaiah 25:1

Proverbs 10:22

Job 5:17

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, I’ll be the first to say Thank you for blessing my life even when I know I don’t deserve any of it, thank you for the love you show each of us, may we see it and feel you close to use in good times and bad and help us to always keep our eyes on your blessings given to us. We ask that you guide us in using our blessings to bring glory and honor to you. We pray that we choose to live wholeheartedly for you and your kingdom. Amen

Joy Bracero: Daily Devotions for Women- Aligning Your Everyday Life According to His Plan and Design

Day 2 Devotions: Seeking WISDOM

Day 2: Seeking WISDOM

Oh Wise one where are you! Let’s take time to think about life, have you ever thought I shouldn't have done that or I knew better?  Am I the only one that has more of those thoughts than the feeling of wisdom. Wisdom does accumulate with age, experiences and life lessons but wisdom does not just evolve. True wisdom as to living a life according to His will means us asking for Him to guide, lead and direct us. So many times when in trouble or at a fork in the road of our life, we go to a friend, google it or ask what would you do on Facebook or simply stress out or worse make the wrong decision out of pride and fear, when our first response should be praying for Wisdom in all things.

God wants us to have Him as our first responder our 911 call not just sometimes but everyday of our life in every situation, how much greater would your life be if you first prayed before acting. Wisdom means having a clear insight and understanding, it means knowing how to apply that in all situations. making right choices, turning back from a dangerous edge, learning to listen to the voice that already knows the path before you and learning to walk that path is made possible through daily choices of connecting and seeking God’s great council.

How we gain Wisdom:

1. Be in the Word Proverbs 2:1-5, 5
2. Pray for wisdom James 1:5
3. Acknowledge Him Proverbs 3:5-6
4. Be humble Proverbs 11:2
5. Seek His wisdom  1 Corinthians 1:20-21

Verse: Psalm 25:4-5 Show me your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. Lead me into Your Truth and teach me. For You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you that you see the whole picture and you have the directions for our lives already mapped out, teach us to stop and seek You first. Please guide us today as we take on our daily duties and help us seek Your will before even opening our mouths. Thank you for loving us even when we wander to those edges You’ve warned us about and the situations we should have learned our lessons from and for those of us still struggling with the same issues may today be the day that you seek your wisdom and when we seek it from You and Your Word our path becomes less bumpy and more joyful no matter what else is going on. Amen.

Joy Bracero: Daily Devotions for Women- Aligning Your Everyday Life According to His Plan and Design

Day 1 Devotion: PRIDE is it good or bad?

Day 1 - PRIDE is it good or bad?

Strange how a word such as pride can have 2 very different definitions or connotations, what was the first thing that came to your mind? I often think of the pride comes before the fall, but there is another kind of pride, the pride that we can take in our motivations, self-respect and dignity, the pride that can motivate us to take care of our health and appreciate of our personal talents and strengths. Then there is the flipside the pride that I know I often think about first, the pride that leads to our fault, containing self-centeredness and boasting in ourselves, rather than building us up we tend to pave a path of destruction for ourselves with arrogance, egotism and conceit.

I”ll remind you of another word that has 2 connotations in our daily life and that is diet, do you see diet as a restriction of food or simply the daily food you put into your body. This word controls so many individuals and much like pride you can choose to see the word diet for what it is; fueling your body with nutritious food or you can choose to allow diet to guilt you into feeling bad about yourself and your food choices. Much like pride depending on the way to use it, sometimes diets build up your health and others diets tear it down. Diets can lead to your downfall and rob you of true happiness.

Verse: 2 Chronicle 26:16 But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall

Focus: What do you take a healthy pride in? your job, children, abilities and talents? turning our feelings of pride into feelings of being truly humble is going to be our focus today, how do we cultivate the right kind of pride in our lives? similar to deciding to choose a healthy diet and the right balance of food, we must choose to look for ways to choose humility with the right relationship with God. We must choose to see the wonderful gifts He has given us, we must choose to cultivate healthy pride not in ourselves but in Him who has given them to us.

Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. 2. Corinthians 10:17

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for allowing us to dig into your word daily and draw closer to you. I ask that you bring each women here into your arms of comfort and peace today. Please help us seek your will with the talents and blessings you have given us. Guide each women here to choose to be humble and only boast in your name. I also pray for our earthly bodies that we learn to use our words and choices wisely and would honor you with our diets, our activities and our words so we can humbly come to you more energized, more focused and ready to be filled each day with your word and blessings,. Amen.

Joy Bracero: Daily Devotions for Women- Aligning Your Everyday Life According to His Plan and Design

Ever try to "change" your spouse, to make them become better or different how'd that go?

Ever try to "change" your spouse, to make them become better or different how'd that go? 

After sitting in a conference last week listening to Chalene Johnson speak, I had so many stories come to mind about my own marriage and me trying to leap into my dreams and leaving my husband behind after 10 years of marriage and 14 years together our communication is great but sometimes I'm the only one talking...not that he doesn't want to, I just have a hard time staying quiet long enough for him to voice his opinion. 

Well, I have learned from many years of my own marriage and coaching many women that if we keep trying to do things different or wanting to see a change in their lives, health, job, finances, family dynamics etc. that we often experience pain and give up, the let down and devastation when one goes after a goal without bringing their spouse along is devastating to not only the person wanting to do things but the spouse that feels left behind.

When making a change in your own self and future you need to think of how your spouse perceives your desire for change, you taking the steps to change yourself, can be just as scary to them as you trying to change them, the thought that you might change or become different and not desire them anymore is a real threat to any marriage, so we sit in unhappiness instead of communicating our desires out of fear.  And so I encourage you to have a real heart to heart with your spouse about your reasons for taking on a personal development course, a fitness class or nutrition challenge or simple wanting to be more than you are now. Not to be a different you but to be the real you, the one you feel is on the inside waiting to come out and live. 

Take the time reduce the fears for both of you and gain the support you need from within your home and relationship. Growth in one person and not the other can be scary and can cause separation of you and your spouse or family but guess what it doesn't have to. I guarantee if you talk things out share your goals genuinely and ask for your spouse to join you or invite him or her to think about something they'd like to do so you can support them on that adventure.
communicating and working together makes your relationship so much better in all areas if you know what I mean.  

Life begins when you give yourself permission to be the real you. 

Coach Joy 

Action step: plan a date night this week with your spouse, share your heart in a positive way and see what happens. don't try changing them but bring them along with you. 

Chalene's note: Bring the other along from "Mine to Ours" and watch not only your life change but your marriage get stronger than ever.

I would love to hear about your goals and your date night click here to share your best tips for a happy marriage

My best friend for life