Flying before you have wings

One of the hardest challenges facing me is watching young people try to fly before their wings are developed. The overall influences that this young generation is presented with on a daily basis outweigh anything most of us faced as a young person.

The heaviness of my heart tonight is the dire direction I see so many of our young women headed towards. Most of them have grown up without fathers in the home or any male role model to affirm them. In their pursuit of love in all the wrong places they spiral down a path of heartbreak and brokenness. When men don’t affirm their daughters they are vulnerable to all kinds of negative controls.

It pains me to watch my own daughter and some of her girlfriends who now find themselves unwed mother’s and still susceptible to the very influences that have now made them a statistic. It hurts me to my core to hear the lyrics to the music they listen to and now my granddaughter is subjected to.

I find myself at a cross road of allowing my young child to fly before her wings are developed. Having sheltered her until I released her to college only to have the enemy waiting to whisper the words never released into her spirit. Even though her father was active in her life the low self esteem signs were not dealt with until they were broken off. Women there is a definite reason God made it so it takes a man and a woman to conceive a child. There is a deposit that the man has to make into his daughter’s life.

I’m sure there will be those of you who say, “well my daughter didn’t have her father in her life and neither did I and we turned out great.” Well, maybe you’re not an unwed mother and neither was I. Yet, the ramifications of not being affirmed by my father showed up in other areas of my life. I see it with my adult women friend’s and colleague’s everyday. It may not show up for years but keep living it will show up and you will have to deal with it.

We can’t continue to sit back and watch our young women make temporary emotional decisions that will affect the rest of their lives. We’ve got to start to give voice to the babies that are being born to babies. Correct the language that is spoken over them and make sure they understand in no uncertain terms that it’s not okay to be called a bitch or a whore in a song. That tattoos and body piercing today will be a mess tomorrow. We must boldly proclaim that choosing to have a baby out of wedlock changes the game for you no matter what your age.

Tonight, I’m like the mama bird watching her baby bird as it tries to take off out of the nest but keeps falling down….her wings are not yet developed.

All the doors are OPEN

It’s about 3:30 am on my birthday and I am wide awake. I spent most of my day basking in the glory and overflow of a powerful revelation spoken over our congregation on Sunday. Bishop Tudor Bismarck from Zimbabwe brought a powerful apostolic word straight from the throne room of God and it moved in my spirit like quick fire. A stirring so powerful in my spirit and mind that I am in awe of God’s love an unable to sleep. He released that all the doors were now open.

The possibilities of what is about to unfold in my life is the culmination of a season of brokenness, stripping and refining for the work ahead. Just last week, I realized for the last 3 years I have desperately been trying to put the finishing pieces on my own puzzle. And not only mine but my children as well. In the end coming to the realization that I was not holding the final missing piece. It was never in my power to mold me into what I am destined to be. Yet, as I surrendered all of me and asked the Lord to make me over until I pleased him was the final corners refined.

I am humbled because of His loving-kindness and all I want to do not is pour out my love on Him. It has taken me all these years to learn to enjoy the journey and I promise I only received the grace for it a few weeks ago. I was bought with a price and when the word says you must take up your cross and follow Him…I get it.

Many of you know I ventured out on my own again (this is my third and final time-death, burial and resurrection) in November and it has been nothing short of overwhelming. Nothing that I thought would happen for my business has taken place. Yet, this hard place was meant to teach me that my sole dependency was to be in God and not in man.

My faith has grown and matured to new levels as I rest in His grace- God’s enabling power. I don’t know what doors will open first but I know that every one that has been closed is open to me now. I know new doors are forming even as I write my closing words and announce that I win-watch out world. I know there are many people tied to my destiny and have been waiting for me to get it together. If any doors were closed to you before I encourage you to go back and see again…take another look. Call forth all the doors that were closed to be open and walk through them. See you on the other side of the door.

Remembering a King

The past week’s extraordinary earthquake in Haiti has been the focus of most of us in the modern world that care about something outside of ourselves. The magnitude of this catastrophe and the sufferings of the people has been nothing short of heart breaking. I’ve felt helpless watching the imagines of people trapped in the rubble and the thousands of bodies strewn in mass graves.

Today, I watched as Wyclef defended himself in the midst of all he is doing for his country and its people against false accusation of mismanagement of donations. As the tears streamed down his face I felt his heartbreak from Haiti and thought just how far we AMERICA have moved from the true and living God. How in the midst of a natural disaster that could easily have befallen America one of our own would say that Haiti “made a pact with the devil.” While yet another, berated our president for sending relief because "our tax dollars have done enough."

Tonight, I quietly thought on the eve of Dr. King’s birthday holiday what he would think of this America today. This America that so loathes the realization that a Black man is president that no subject or person is off limits when it comes to criticizing him. Today racism no longer hides behind a hood but dresses up every day in a suit and tie. And those who spew division and hatred have more airtime that any other voice in the county. An America who witnessed the poorest country in the western hemisphere losing its people and its land –have borderline compassion.

What would he think of this America where the majority of young African American’s have no idea of the struggle he and others endured for the privileges we now enjoy? America- where the face of those whose equality he fought so hard for are killing each other daily in unprecedented numbers. In all of his dreaming, I’m sure his America never had the majority of black men occupying beds in prisons rather than as heads of the family.

I believe Dr. Martin Luther King would say to America it’s time we turned our hearts back to our first love the true and living God. It’s time we remember that at the end of the day all human beings no matter what the color of their skin are more alike than they are different. It’s time we stopped focusing on the minor "what I want" and start decreeing "what we need." At the end of the day, I believe we will all find out that it was never about YOU…but your fellow man. It’s the only way we will every truly be free..when we have love for one another.

Putting order into our lives

It occurred to me today as I finished up my daily devotionals that many of us entered this new decade with our lives out of order. Most of us stopped making New Year resolutions because we found ourselves not committed to keeping them but for a short time. Yet, have we moved beyond that point and put together a solid plan for the future? Most of us have not written the plan down on paper so that we can plainly see it, believe in it and then run with it.

All of my communication networks are filled with New Year clinches and sound bits about how great 2010 is going to be. I truly believe we entered into the New Year with a clean slate for our lives. Old things have passed away and a new day is dawning upon us. But, with that new day comes the real work of getting our lives in order. For me that mean's anything that still looks like yesterday’s stuff is packing up and moving out.

Yesterday, I got rid of two old friends that have been hanging around for longer than I could remember. The first was self pity which would allow me on occasion to have a pity party and condemn myself for past mistakes or decisions. Then I dropped kicked the Enabler who no matter what happened in my family or friend’s lives had me raising my hands to fix it. Even when I knew in my heart of heart that it wasn’t for me to handle or get involved I did it anyway. I feel like I lost 50 pounds as I loosed the bondage and weigh of spirits that do not live hear anymore.

Yes, I did enter into the New Year with a solid plan for 2010, the next three years and beyond. Yet, 10 days into it I could see the plan was only working marginally in my favor. Why, you ask? Because I had not rid myself of self defeating patterns that had managed to hang on for the ride. You cannot put new wine in old wineskin…it will burst.

All of us are eligible to exchange out-of-order lives on the altar of God’s Love; we are eligible to receive in exchange His gift of redemption—rightly ordered lives: “He forgives all my iniquities (inherited sin), heals all our diseases and redeems our life from destruction.” (Ps 103:3-4)

The prophesied blessing is Paul’s powerful benediction: “Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (New American Standard Version, Ephesians 3:14-21)

Never on the bottom again

Almost four years ago I moved to Midtown Atlanta to a historic building where my sun room view is Piedmont Park. We left the suburbs and all the trappings of a big house and settled into condominium living. I must admit it took a little getting use to as I watched the inter city dwellers lifestyle unfold before my very eyes. I love people and for me the more the merrier. Watching all the different kinds of people pass my window has been nothing short of interesting. I've seen all kinds of runs for charity, festivals, outrageous dress or not and even a parade or two.

Living here has made me appreciate the much diversity of things a neighborhood can offer. I love walking to dinner, Caribou for coffee, (even though I'm a card holding Starbucks member) Sushi and for groceries. Admittedly, strolls in the park just before sunset has become one of my most favorite past times. I’ve even started riding the rapid rails system for jaunts to the airport.

I know you’re thinking this chick has found a total utopia in urban life and I only wish that were true. What has been a thorn in my side to the point of daily confession of how I'm moving is my upstairs neighbor. He owns two condos and converted them into one big house. (I ain't mad at him) In his quest to have the home of the century he took up the carpet and put down wood floors. Supposedly with some special insulation so we wouldn’t be able to hear him...Not

Not only can we hear his almost every move but I hear the dog rolling what sounds like a steal ball across the floor, the toilet flushing, the massager that came with his new $5k bed, the house music, the guest, the vacuum…I’m sure you get it. What is most amazing is literally whatever time I awake in the middle of the night he’s up doing something. I will never subject myself to living or working on the bottom of anyone’s establishment not matter how great the view or neighborhood. For sale!