In this week's episode, I am talking to Crystal Daye.  Crystal helps women of faith to maximize their impact by becoming authors and building profitable brands.  Hailing from Kingston Jamaica, she is a Minister, International Certified Christian Life Coach, Inspirational Speaker, Award-Winning 2 times Best- Selling Author, Dynamic Entrepreneur, Mother and an all-around Jesus girl which is the power and passion that drives her life and has caused her to have a strong desire to see other women live life on purpose and experience all God has for them.

Growing up in the ghettos and sometimes violent streets of Kingston, Crystal was the oldest child  in her family.  Although she grew up in a loving home that valued education, that did not shield Crystal from promiscuity, sexual abuse and abortion.   

Crystal very transparently shares her struggles to forgive herself following an abortion.  "Whatever you hide, guilt grows" and she recognized that her unforgiveness towards herself was hindering her calling.  However, after having her heart broken by two different men, she was able to receive the Love of God through Jesus Christ and let go of the guilt and shame caused by sexual abuse and abortion.  Now, she shares her calling and her story to help uplift others.

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Listen in as I speak to Denise Taylor, author, speaker, corporate professional and Founder of The First Wives Club which exists to develop a community for wives to be able to be supported and connect.  She was watching her talented beautiful, professionally proven, strong friends  struggle in their marriages.  She soon came to the realization that there was a need for authentic support .  So, she decided to first open her home to a circle of married women to simply connect and the response was favorable.  Presently, the reach is both nationwide and internationally.

Married for 26 years to her college sweetheart and growing up in Dayton, OH, Denise flirted with sex and drugs because of the pain she felt after sexual abuse, being teased about her dark skin color and craving the attention of both of her parents.  She shares how those things affected her and how she transformed all those obstacles to ultimately forgive her offender.   

She triumphantly shares one of her favorite quotes, "My baggage is not designer bags" and despite her many professional achievements, they all pale in comparison to her role as Chuck Taylor’s wife and Chanise and  Ciera Taylor’s mom.  The Taylors reside in Charlotte, NC.  

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Listen and enjoy the story of Lisa Kirk, aka, Lisa Sunshine as she epitomizes grace shown to a mother who also was a trigger for her.  She is a southern girl to the core, a creative, speaker, author and most importantly, a Hope dealer.  She’s endured  many of life’s punches that have knocked her flat on her face.  She has overcome childhood abuse, poverty, teen pregnancy, domestic violence, homelessness and the loss of her  17 year old son, Kalen, in 2016. Her purpose in life is to help people get out of their funk and ignite a fire in their soul! 

She shares the fact that forgiveness has levels to it and how learning your triggers can help you manage relationships in a healthy way.  How therapy helped her and how she gained wisdom in how to help and encourage the powerful corporate woman who looks good on the outside, but very broken on the inside.  

She also cautions how 'sweeping things under the rug' and 'keeping things on the back burner' will delay our healing, but also our happiness and fulfillment in life.  And also how family can mean so many things to different people especially in instances of abuse.

To connect with Lisa Sunshine head over to shareyoursunshine.com where you can her services and check out her unique and one of a kind sunshine eyewear.

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Join me in this very transparent story of me speaking my truth as I utilize my P.R.E.S.S. mindset  (Submission) of The Mindset of Freedom.  It is a mindset that you need to adopt to live a lifestyle of freedom through forgiveness.  I share how God prompted me to cease communication with a dear male friend for no apparent (to me) reason and how I processed that decision.

I share how my story relates to Abraham's story of obedience and trusting God, the only one who is completely trustworthy.  I also share the steps to grieve and make peace with obeying God when you don't know the reason. 

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The first interview of Season 4 is fire!  Listen in as I speak to Jennifer Bell, a former elementary school principal who always told herself that when the joy of what she was doing was gone, she’ll do something else.  One day, in her school’s parking lot she cried because she didn’t want to go into the building.  She was tired of being exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally and having no time freedom.  Giving the BEST of herself to her job, and family getting the leftovers.   SOMETHING HAD TO CHANGE…and it did!  She chose FAITH over FEAR, resigned from her job and started focusing on creating options.  Now she is a podcast host, speaker and servant of women.

Jennifer authentically and transparently shares her story of breaking a 40-year silence and secret that literally has mushroomed her life and she is poised to finally become all that God wants her to be. 

She shares that although she grew up in a two-parent household and  raised in the church - something happened in her childhood that silenced her and made her feel unseen. 

This story is for any woman, but particularly Christian women, who have been told all their lives that they just need to put it under the blood and pray about it, all the while masking pain and suffering from the shame of what happened.

She also shares that even though she had the loving support of her husband, her life didn't change until she was watching the R Kelly documentary and it finally convinced her that she needed help. 

It helped her realize that even with her background of being a school administrator, all those titles did not heal her.  She also discovered how holding her secret negatively affected her relationship with her children.   She realized that she had to forgive not just with her lips, but from her heart.  God, through therapy, did surgery on her from the inside and allowed her to heal so that she could get beauty for her ashes.  Now she shows up how God sees her.

 Jennifer’s story will give you courage to heal so that you can tell your story and be all that God has for you too! 

You're invited to get a free copy of my mini book titled The Mindset of Freedom in which you can allow God to help you make your mindset shift.  Go to freed2love.com/minibook to get your copy. 

Forgiveness is a daily conscious choice - you’re worth it!

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I am so excited to be baaaaack!  Pandemic what!?  I'm energized and refocused on the exciting things that have happened since last season and what God has in store not only for me personally, but my decision to take everything off the table EXCEPT the big dreams.  

And I want that for you too!

Begin to shift your mind by grabbing your free copy of my new mini book The Mindset of Freedom, which will help you position your heart to have peace, eliminate worry and reframe your thoughts and feelings so you will go from merely surviving to thriving.  Get it at www.freed2love.com/minibook.

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After a sabbatical, The Freed 2 Love Podcast is coming back for Season 4!  But before we launch, we wanted to offer a look back at 2020.  
Here are some of the highlights:

• Desirae King started us out by telling us to F-those people
• How important your Yes is and raggedy brokenness
• Breakthroughs
• Empty chair experience
• My why
• The Souls of Black People
• That and more...

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Keturah Rosato is a mental health practitioner, faith based women’s empowerment expert, and founder of Momentum Woman, a movement that helps women discover and activate their potential so they can create a beautiful life from the inside out.  

At the core of our rich conversation was the fact that racism and its affects on a person has to do with identity.  She also has a very insightful definition of racism and has a unique perspective on the topic as she is married to a white man.

She also explains how she was the first person to be racist against herself and how we can avoid putting ourselves in difficult positions in terms of race.

Hear her answer to my question when I ask her if her attraction to white men have anything to do with her upbringing in St. Lucia.

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Listen in as I chat with 21-year-old Jael Kerandi, a senior majoring in finance and marketing at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, the city that caught the attention of the world when protesters took to the streets to demand justice for George Floyd who was killed by police on May 25 — approximately 15 minutes away from the University of Minnesota’s campus.

I first learned about Jael's letter on Instagram via her roommate.  The demand for action in 24 hours is what caught my eye.  Jael wrote a passionate letter to university president Joan Gabel calling for the university to completely terminate its relationship with Minneapolis Police Department.

“The Minneapolis Police Department has repeatedly demonstrated with their actions that Black bodies are expendable to them,” Kerandi wrote. “This is a norm that we have been desensitized to due to its frequency. Black people have been killed by the Minneapolis Police Department at 13.2 times the rate of white people. It is disgusting and it is unacceptable. A part of the Twin Cities campus is embedded within the confines of Minneapolis and students often are under the jurisdiction of the Minneapolis Police Department, a dubious status for any person of color. MPD has continually shown disregard for the welfare and rights of people of color on our campus.” She signed the letter, “With deep loss, disgust, and exhaustion, Jael Kerandi, a Black woman. The Undergraduate Student Body President.”

Kerandi gave Gabel and the university 24 hours to respond to her request. The next day, Gabel responded with a letter of her own—saying the University of Minnesota would stop contracting with MPD for support during large campus events or for specialized services. 

This swift action, in my opinion is what I believe reignited the Black Lives Matter movement and its spread across the world.  This was definitely different and people took notice because we could not deny or ignore any longer since we were all sheltering-at-home and watching.

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"It's been a long time comin', but I know, I know, a change gon come" 

I wept bitterly after reading the Facebook post of Lauren Parlette. (https://www.facebook.com/8911483/posts/10102920406254340/?extid=v4pbEwnetTjN9GwM&d=n)

For years, as a Christian, I’d been hurt by some white Christians.  I could never understand why and how I was treated differently because I was taught that as far as identity is concerned, you are Christian first and your racial identity second.

Well, I came to EXPERIENCE that that is true EXCEPT when you’re black.  It hurt deeply because I know that way is not acceptable in Gods eyes. 

My white sister in Christ, Lauren Nicole Parlette healed a part of my heart by her words in her post.  HEALED ME!

They are words that I’ve said.  Things I’ve thought.  Issues I’ve grappled with.  Confusion that I’ve experienced, she articulated.

There is a reason Lauren feels the way she does and the point of view she has.  Listen in to discover.

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