When exhaustion wins, dear sister, you can get your life back! Truly your soul finds rest in God [Psalm 62:1] Remember how Jesus did it and being born in His image, begin the baby steps of recovering from fatigue, tiredness, hurry, exhaustion. Your soul finds rest in God through His Word. 

Three Thoughts

• 1. Eliminating hurry, or breaking free from exhaustion is more than behavior modification and coping mechanisms. It requires you to be honest with yourself and acknowledge your willingness to change from what you may be striving for. I won’t say that all striving is bad. Our natural instinct is to strive, that is to try to achieve a result… you try earnestly and persistently. Sometimes you strive to get good grades, you strive to get yourself or your family the best health care, you strive to break the glass ceiling… And this is what I love about the Holy Spirit. At some point, He whispers, enough striving, now let's look at the goal again and this time, I want you to persist steadfastly, that is persevere. See it as a journey, a task or a goal and work at it diligently and with careful thought to how you get it done. So no, all striving is not bad. We are naturally wired to try to do something.  

• 2. Oftentimes to be spiritually filled, we must address physical and mental symptoms or problems first. Going to God for wisdom will be a wise start to know your next steps. If your symptoms are overwhelming you, please seek immediate attention. I love it when we pray and wait, but then we don’t give God enough time to talk back. Prayer, a conversation. A conversation requires feedback. Are you waiting for God’s feedback? He definitely will say something to you. In Proverbs 1, wisdom is found where rebuke is embraced. When we pray and the response is conviction, lean in. Right there is wisdom knocking at the doors of your heart. 

• 3. Most disciples are not discipling these days, we are simply deciphering what we “feel” and what we want to do. To disciple is to obediently do even when we feel it is uncomfortable, it doesn’t make sense, or it is not the norm in the culture around you. In our newsletter this month, I share with our readers heart healing habits that can be practiced to help your heart heal from ‘racing through life’. Hint: go to iamfreewoman.org to sign-up so you receive these intimate Heart Healing Habits quality time newsletters from me.    

Connect with us: Instagram

@iamfreewomanministries

@chiefjoyactivator

Today, I have Lori Ann Wood with me to discuss her life altering yet thriving journey when she was diagnosed with heart failure. Imagine functioning on just 6% heart capacity? Lori Ann Wood lives in an empty nest in beautiful Bentonville, Arkansas, with her husband, the love of her life whom she found in 9th grade. Having discovered a serious heart condition almost too late, Lori Ann writes to encourage others to explore their difficult faith questions along the detours of life. You can read more from her at loriannwood.com. Lori’s newly released book [released on February 21st] is available now for order on Amazon and trending as number one new release in Christian and spiritual growth! Congratulations Lori!

Dear sister, I want you to lean in because Lori’s story will have you feeling her breaths as she walks you through three important questions you need to ask when you find yourself on an unexpected life detour. As you listen, here are a few takeaways:

• Whatever plan you have in life, remember that plan can be disrupted at any moment. 
• Learn a whole lot as you walk the new path and keep asking questions.
• Pay attention to the unusual physical symptoms and warning signs, they hold the clues to an impending detour.
• Checking the box with God can make you experience a faith crisis. Heads up, go beyond the check mark and actually sit with Him. 
• If you wait to be grateful, you will still be waiting. Gratitude and grief can co-exists within you. 
• The three questions you need to ask on your detour offer a chance for you to build your faith, acknowledge your doubts, and embrace the fact that you are not in control, and that's OK. 
• Giving yourself grace is the pace you need. Pacing yourself is the grace you need. 

We had a great conversation which I know you will enjoy too. 

Connect with us:

Instagram: @iamfreewomanministries | @chiefjoyactivator

Website: www.iamfreewoman.org | www.chiefjoyactivator.com

Connect with Lori Ann Wood:

Instagram: Loriannwood

Website to grab a copy of 5 Prayers & Promises When You Can’t Talk to God: https://loriannwood.com/hope/

Amanda and Julio have been married seven years and in those seven years faced one of the most trying marital challenges any couple could endure… walking a fertility journey. A journey filled with preparation, active faith, unwavering hope, patience and so much more! I know their story will inspire you. As you listen, here are a few takeaways:

• Love is patient and in praying for patience, pray for grace
• Every family has a story, every couple has a story and sometimes that story has a story writer. Know who your story writer is and trust the process.
• Observe and know the generational dysfunctions and curses in your families. This will inform how you begin to heal and break such curses from manifesting as intergenerational patterns.
• Love and respect is a mutual bond that fuels healthy relationships; know your relational boundaries, understand each other’s lived experiences and remember, you cannot change your partner’s personality.
• When it comes to challenges in life, you can see them as preparation, perspiration, and persecution; so lean into the story writer who can lead you on a different path.
• Your preparation in the waiting period can be a healthy combination of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, and relational factors such as faith, hope, peace, patience, love, realistic thinking, and growth mindset.

Follow us, Rate, Review, Subscribe:

Instagram| @chiefjoyactivator @iamfreewomanministries

Having the mindset to live out your tasks in a way that sparks interest, ignites excitement and although required to live, you feel fully alive when you get them done! Now that is the adulting we all desire and deserve to have. Join Kate and friends and glean from their wisdom on adulting well, a laid back live conversations that speaks to the everyday woman. Enjoy!

Three Thoughts

1. Adulting is more of a mindset than an age to focus on, however, depending on the culture and familial influences, you may take on the mindset of adulting quicker in life than your biological age of development. The key here is being taught life values, principles that you can employ throughout your life. The value of being ‘responsible’ is a core factor in adulting. Responsible for both the mundane as well as the exciting parts of life. 

2. Master your life! Embrace life challenges and set your mindset to win! Embracing challenges helps you become a better version of yourself. Resisting the challenges only exacerbates your suffering and disappointments. Learn to process and regulate your emotions. Remember adulting comes in stages so don’t try to figure everything out now. Learn to be flexible with yourself!

3. You do have freedom as an adult. This freedom can be lived in well but you will need to unlearn/unfreeze some things you may pick up along the way, be mindful in the growing pains and processing of unlearning, and be hopeful as you discover new things about yourself and life. Be patient with yourself and others and take the scenic route as you ‘adult!’

Follow the team:

Ministry: @iamfreewomanministries on Instagram, YouTube, FB

Kate: @chiefjoyactivator on Instagram

Willkenia: @wilka_napo on Instagram

Meri: @11tawawili11 on Instagram

Thank you for listening!

February is the month of love! The best healing medicine there is - love.

"Love shouldn’t hurt. But then it does… sometimes. That is the human in all of us. Like the loss of a loved one, or the disrespect of a child, or the disappointment from a friend, or the rejection from a partner. That hurt is a signal that you are human. When love hurts, there is a place where love can also heal." Here are 16 ways to do just that!

Three Thoughts

1. Life is ever moving and so are the relationships around us. When you put in the effort, the love you give to others can only grow… when it is watered. The essence of what love is rests in your decision to choose love and open your heart to its miraculous possibilities. Receiving love spiritually allows you to give it effortlessly relationally [mentally + physically + emotionally…] 

2. When you want to know what love is, try God’s way first. Start with simply the first statement/way “love is patient”. In what ways do you see and experience patience everyday? Take that kindness and share it with someone else. Let good love multiply in your heart and through you. 

3. Embrace the possibility of being loved and loving God. This kind of love is not child’s play because as a grown woman, all childish love has been put away. This is not time for hide and seek, this is the time to seek until you find. But it is not passive seeking, it is actively seeking with your whole heart! That's when you will find this love.    

Connect with us:

Kate on IG| @chiefjoyactivator

Ministry IG| @iamfreewomanministries

Inconvenienced by Love: Season 1 Episode 9

Link to register for Dear Sister summits: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckf-qrrjMqGdOxOfklF4NXZ4mpuGboVLTY

Today’s friend is someone I attended high school with and over the years we have reconnected and gotten closer as sisters in Christ. Her compelling story is one of bravery, surrender, heart of worship, and victory.

Not everyone who was deported from another country gets to return to that country and make lemonade out of lemons. You need to listen because you will be blessed and your heart will thank you. As you listen to the conversation, bear this in mind:

• Allow the lessons to be taught.
• Go through challenging seasons and not be broken by them.
• Don’t take God out of the equation when searching for answers. 
• You are never too spiritual to call yourself a child of God.
• Decide and choose God everyday.
• Fellowshipping with God is where you start to believe. 
• Get past the conflict of the body, soul and spirit. 
• When God interrupts, lean forward not backward.
• Feed your spirit with the Word of God everyday. 

Connect with Kate and the Ministry:

IG| @chiefjoyactivator FB & IG|@iamfreewomanministries

Dr. Gladys Childs is a speaker, author, church leader, professor, pastor's wife, and mother. Her passion is to meet people at the intersection of life and faith to provide relevant understanding of and hope in God. No stranger to heartache herself, she grew up in a non-church-going family with an alcoholic mother and came to know Christ at age 14.

A survivor of trauma, she firmly believes in God’s ability to overcome life’s traumas. She has on her website - www.gladyschilds.com a section where you can submit questions and I read a question that someone submitted. The question is “How do I call God ‘Father’ after sexual abuse by dad?” I want you, dear sister, to go and read her response! Spot on! Here are some nuggets from our conversation:

• Have the mindset of being open with your journey with God.
• Focus on the stillness instead of giving up when practicing spiritual disciplines. It is about what you are gaining, not what you are giving up.
• Always turn to God no matter what.
• You are less of a mess today than you were yesterday and you will be better tomorrow.
• Finding meaning frames your thoughts.
• When you are bored with your devotions, go to the next level.
• Do the acts that God would have you do not what people expect you to be.

Remember to follow us on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook

@chiefjoyactivator @iamfreewomanministries

"God can use anyone who has a willing heart of obedience”. You and I have been called to do something and in that process become and then do more of what we are becoming. God knows the plans he has for you, as he shows you the plan, write it down and make it plain. In this episode, you will learn how to live a God-directed plan. Here are three thoughts:

Three Thoughts

1. God burdens our hearts for a purpose. Learn and lean into the voice of God to show you the plan He has for you in the steps and stages in which He knows best. And if for some reason you detour from the plan, do not give up, go back to the drawing board with God and He will show you.   

2. You will experience many highs and lows working a God-directed plan because your soul will want to do its own thing. Your personality might be speaking a different language than what the spirit tells you. Remember, Jesus left us the Holy Spirit for a reason. Allow your heart the privilege to receive what it needs from God, your soul will thrive and your heart will thank you. 

3. Experiencing anxiety, worry, depression, confusion, uncertainty, fear is normal when embarking on a journey. The choice you have is you either get to go alone and do it all by yourself, or you get to go with your heavenly Father and trust Him and his heart towards you. When you seek God, you will find Him, when you seek Him with your whole heart. When the emotional and mental burdens kick-in, run to his Word, talk through and with someone, and allow His love to fill those spaces that fear would try to creep in.   

Remember to follow us on Instagram and YouTube:

@chiefjoyactivator @iamfreewomanministries

To kick-off the year and as most of us embark on some form of a fast I invited my friend and momma in Christ join me on my virtual couch for a conversation. As a lady Reverend, she lets down her hair for some sisterly/motherly conversation.

As you listen to the conversation with Rev. Julia Oji, in 2023, whenever you are at the threshold of faith and fear remember these:

• Relax in God.
• Make God your friend.
• Discern the voice of God.
• If you want to have your peace of mind, know who you are supposed to reveal your vision to because they may not have the capacity to handle it. 
• Look toward the win that is at the end of your journey.
• Never entertain fear because fear is a torment.
• The only constant in your life journey is the love of God in the midst of your transformation.
• Allow God to direct you.
• Get to God by His Word and though conversations with Him.
• Just obey what you know God is asking you to do.
• Stop trying to figure out how ‘it’ will end.
• Get excited about life!

Enjoy the show!

Follow Kate on IG | @chiefjoyactivator

Follow IAFW on IG and Facebook | @iamfreewomanministries

Kate wraps up season 1 by sharing her 7 practices that kept her heart well throughout 2022 and why she is taking them into 2023. She also shares words of encouragement and wisdom for the wellbeing of your heart and mind.

Three Thoughts

1. Learn to suffer well: momentary, that's what it is.  Better is one day in God’s courts than a thousand elsewhere, especially when you have knowledge of what he can do. Give Him time to work for you and on your behalf. Lamenting is great but do not put on the spirit of grief and live with it like a best friend. In time, let your joy light shine. 

2. Learn to appreciate time by maximizing your gifts. Focus on the priorities that actually give you a return on investment. Celebrate milestones and be ready to celebrate for others too.

3. Learn to listen quickly, be slow to respond and slow to get angry. Practice understanding, your heart will thank you.         

Follow Kate on IG: @chiefjoyactivator

Follow I am FREE Woman Org on IG and FB: @iamfreewomanministries

Thank you all for an amazing time in Season 1 and I look forward to Season 2! I love you much!