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God’s Grace

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Knowing that God has Blessed us WAY beyond measure, I’ve cried a lot this past week, although my immediate family is safe & healthy. God has had to keep reminding me that He had the solution before there was a problem(s). So I’m TRUSTING Him with my whole heart and leaning not on my understanding (reasoning), Acknowledging Him in ALL my ways and He’s directing my paths (my decisions) and Ordering my Steps! I know that although it may not be easy right now, I’m listening to the Holy Spirit and will continue to seek Him for Grace, Comfort and Direction to walk as God would have us to walk! I believe that God is miraculously parting the waters and we will walk across on dry land….

god-grace-Ram in the Bush

DeClutter Your Mind

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Last year, Order Your Steps hosted an absolutely AWESOME workshop entitled “DeClutter Your Mind” and as I was going through our videos, this particular message “Silencing the Noise” by Jewelle Daquin is so appropriate to help us to cope with our challenges of today.

(Please note:  We are not videographers, so you may have to turn up the volume. )

My Grown Daughters Conspired with the Governor of Maryland

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I pray that all are safe and healthy!

Disclaimer:  Before you judge me for being reckless and irresponsible please read the whole story.  😀

My story begins about a month ago.  The crisis of the Coronavirus was in the news and like many people, my fear that  I had contracted the disease was very real.  I contacted my doctor via text and shared my symptoms.  Since there was no fever or cough, she put me a ease but said that I should stay home because I’m over 60.  In the meantime, my grown daughters were saying “Mom, Stay Home!”.  I didn’t know tat the time that they were plotting to put me on House Arrest (remember that movie) and lock me in the basement until I came to my senses!  :-/

So when did I find out about the conspiracy… Wait, I’m getting to that.  A week later, I contacted my doctor again and scheduled an appointment, in hopes of being able to continue to work.  As a professional organizer, my sessions are one on one and very seldom are other people in the house.  Interestingly, the Lord kept opening doors and more clients were coming in.  In my heart of hearts, I knew that the Lord would protect me and close the doors when necessary.  Ultimately, my doctor gave me the ok to continue working, with specific precautionary measures to be in place, which I followed.  However, this wasn’t good enough for my daughters.

Understanding that my daughters love me and were very concerned about me, I decided to take off the week of March 30 for vacation, to appease them, I thought?!  But guess what happened, on that very same day, the Governor of Maryland announced the Stay at Home Order for the state.  Coincidence? I think not!   My daughters conspired with the governor and yes, I’ve been home every since.  It has definitely been an adjustment and I still have moments of uncertainty, especially with regards to our financial situation, but the Lord has always taken care of us.

Easter concept 2020. Vase with birch tree branches with Easter eggs and frame with slogan - Stay at Home, Save Lives.

In all seriousness, we must maintain our spiritual health -and- our physical health.  We will continue to pray for this world and all those families that are affected by this disease. A Special Prayer for our health care professionals, first responders, law enforcement, etc. We must follow the instructions and directions of the Center on Disease Control (CDC) and our state officials in order to safeguard our physical health and that of our families.

From a spiritual perspective, I’m reminded that when it seemed impossible, the children of Israel crossed a great body of water, first the Red Sea and then the Jordan River, ON DRY LAND!  Our situation looks bleak right now, with seemingly no end in sight, but I believe that the Lord is going to part the waters and we are going to emerge on the other side of this, even better that we were when we began this extremely difficult journey in the wilderness.

And there they stood; those priests carrying the Chest of the Covenant stood firmly planted on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground. Finally the whole nation was across the Jordan, and not one wet foot.  Joshua 3:17 MSG

He is risen.

Stay Tuned for my next post when I talk about growing “older” with grown daughters and how our responsibilities change.

The Birth Your Dream Event Series Backstory

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MP FB event cover 505x266As you may or may not know, the Lord has had me in a season of obedience, since 2018.  In May, I hosted my first Ordering Your Steps (OYS) women’s workshop, entitled “A Mother’s Perspective”.  I must admit that it was a struggle initially, because being who I am, I wanted to control all the details and I had my own expectation of the outcome.  However, my lesson in obedience required just the opposite.  I had to listen to the Lord’s direction and allow Him again to Order My Steps!  Let’s just stay that the event was very interesting.  In my eyes, I can’t honestly say it was successful, but I am confident that it was just what God had planned.   In September of the same year, I began writing Order, Organize & Obedience, another very interesting experience, one I’ll never forget.  Ultimately, what God revealed to me, had nothing to do with the book itself.

DYM graphic 800x800-02In 2019, my 2nd Annual OYS event, “DeClutter Your Mind” was absolutely AMAZING!!  This time, I found it much, much easier, just to let God do what He does best.  He orchestrated every moment, from the idea to the event itself.   The Lord began to show me more and more about how the overall mission of Order Your Steps is evolving into more than just the opportunity to minister to individuals one on one, but to have the opportunity to reach women in many other areas of life.

Then around the middle of last year, I was asked to accept the position of president of our Business and Professional Women’s Federation (BPWF) for the DC Jurisdiction of our church.  The mission of the BPWF is to strive to provide business minded women with an opportunity to put their professional abilities to work to achieve their dreams and God-given purpose.  This was right in line with what the Lord has shown me as He expands my role as owner of Order Your Steps, to reach even more women.

door lightIt was shortly after my appointment that I was listening to a message by Bishop T.D. Jakes.  He was talking about how the Lord will show us our dream or purpose, but we must do the work to achieve it.  “The Door is Open but You Gotta PUSH”!  He used the analogy of a woman giving birth and although the womb in open, we must push really hard to birth our baby.  By the same token, we must push really hard to birth our dream.  The Lord continued to impress upon me to share with my audience, who are primarily women, the idea of putting forth all of our efforts, through the pain, frustration or disappointments, to birth what He has put in us.

BirthDream-01

As a result of the Lord’s prompting, in April, we will host our 3rd Annual Ordering Your Steps Women’s Workshop, entitled “Birth Your Dream”.  This workshop will focus on tapping into our God Given gifts and talents that just waiting to burst through, those things that God has put in us that are waiting to be birthed.  Whether a promotion, a thriving ministry, starting a new business, etc., we must acknowledge the Lord as the true owner of our career, business or ministry and view ourselves as just a steward over it.   We want this event to spar and ignite the participants to take at least one step closer to their goal, dream and purpose.

In January, 2020, I was reading my daily devotional from the Spirit of Prophecy bulletins by Marsha Burns and this is what it said:

Expansion is the order of this season.  You can reach higher, go deeper and search wider to know Me more intimately and to accomplish that what is set before you, says the Lord.  Refuse to allow a sense of not being capable to cripple your efforts.  Go forth with courage and expectation.

Isaiah 54:2 “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.”

Once I read this, I soon realized that what began as one event, would become a three-event series.  Again, the Lord has orchestraed every moment according to His plan.  Therefore, in the works is a July 18th “Live Your Dream” networking event, which will be an opportunity for all current and potential entrepreneurs to get to know each other.  This will be a chance for us to share our successes and lessons learned.  It is critical that we support each other and not compete with one another. We are much better together!  Then on October 10, we will host the BPWF Women’s Conference entitled “Pursue Your Dream”.  Stay tuned for the AMAZING details that are evolving as we speak

We are sooooo super excited about what the Lord is doing through us.  We will keep you posted as we proceed.  Tickets for our Birth Your Dream April event will go on sale on February 15th, in only two more days.  You don’t want to miss it!  We hope to see you there…

Order, Organize & Obedience Launches Today!

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Start up concept

It’s Official!  Today is the Day that my first eBook is available to the public.  My true testimony is not in the box itself, it’s what the Lord taught me through the experience of writing the book.  I pray that you find something that will touch you and bless you in some small way.  Here’s another small excerpt… I hope you enjoy!

Chapter Two:  LIFE IN CORPORATE AMERICA con’t.

Xerox pic

Me and Brother Dominique (Xerox mascot, year ? )

In the midst of my personal challenges, life at Xerox continued.  Officially, I was a customer service representative and I spent all day on the phone taking requests for service manually, with pencil and paper.  We were rated on our neatness and accuracy, which was right up my alley.  I was really good at my job, but within 18 months, I was hit from behind by technology.  But why, I asked? Things were fine just the way they are.  I won’t take you through the gory details of what it took to maneuver from a strictly paper process into this new world of computers, but it was not pleasant.   It was just not fair my life was now turned upside down.  I can’t do this, I thought to myself.  Don’t they know how disruptive this is… it’s hard to breathe! I can’t function in this chaos of change.   But ultimately, I discovered that I was not going to let this wave of new technology get the best of me. I was still young and I should be able do this.  It just may be a little different from what I’m used to.  Well, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  Now, as if that wasn’t traumatic enough, as I was making this transition into this new world of technology, I found myself on the fast track into the realm of management.  Was I destined to be a “them”?  There were tons and tons of manuals of policies and procedures to read that were very interesting, not really. At the time, I really didn’t know what being a manager really meant. For the moment, it would be more money and more responsibilities.  But I found that it was even more than that.  I’d have an opportunity to develop my own plan on how my team would operate. I would be able to strategize and maximize the talents of my employees to achieve the success of my team, my way, I thought.  I would be able to establish order in the chaos.  All I had to do, by definition, was “to get the people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively.  This was again right up my alley. These were mature adults that I had worked with already and they know how to do the job.  I thought to myself that this is going to be fun, again so I thought.

Within two years, I was a manager, but what I quickly discovered was that people don’t always do what they are supposed to do, even when they know how to do it.  One day, my manager’s manager called me in the office and I knew immediately that there was a problem.  Apparently, 2nd level management felt that I was “too defensive” with regards to justifying my actions and those of my team, among other things.   I was devastated!  I wanted to scream or yell.  I really just wanted to cry.  I must admit that I really didn’t like feeling as though I’d failed.  Were they supposed to be smarter than me, just because they had more experience than I?  Or was it simply that they were better at creating chaos?  At least, that’s what I thought at the time.  As I look back, God knew better and my demotion was in order, even if I didn’t know it at the time.

Let’s skip ahead to the year 1984 and I’m in the midst of my own real life of chaos and disorder and I’m about to get married, which added a whole new dimension to the equation. We’ll talk more about that little later. In the midst of the turmoil of this period of growing and maturing, I began to discover that sometimes our steps are ordered in a way that we don’t always understand.  We have to take a step and He will order the next.  Little did I know this revelation would play a huge part of my future?

Visit:  Order, Organize & Obedience  to purchase this book to continue reading.

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