I am really enjoying this vlogging thing.  I posted another vlog at Newbaby.com today.  Check it out here.

Also, if you aren’t already following me on Twitter I’d love for you to. Here is my personal Twitter account, and today I created one for my ministry too. You can find that one here.

By the way, in case you’re a new reader and aren’t aware of my ministry. I have a ministry to tween and teen girls and their moms called Beauty by Design Ministries, my mission is “turning the hearts of girls towards God”.

So, if you’re a mom of a girl then you should sign up for my ezine by going to the website and filling out the subscription form in the box at the top right.  You won’t regret it.  I promise.  I only send out 1 email per week in the form of an ezine.

I am planning to get back to podcasting too here very soon.  My podcast is for moms of girls too.  This is my passion, turning girls towards God that is and connecting moms and daughters. It is because of my strong relationship with my mother that I learned so much about God and I have such a strong relationship with Christ.  That is why I promote that relationship so much.

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It is my hope that this post does not get interpreted the wrong way.  However, I am writing it more for my own sake than for the sake of others.  Its topic is something that I just need to get off of my chest more than anything.

The thing is I am wishing, hoping, desiring more in my life.  It is not that I can’t be content with what I have, yes I do believe I have many things going well in my life, it is full of many blessings, but my inner desires, my deep down ambitions long for more.  Even more so I am very specific about the “more” that I am longing for, it is unlike you might imagine, in that it is NOT more money, no I do not believe that money could satisfy the desire for more that I have.  It is not more success even, though that might play a part, it is rather more “opportunities to serve”.  I want to seek my passion I want to live my life on purpose and with passion and because I get bogged down in the day to day I fear that I do not do that often enough.

I have been guilty of being driven by money, rather than living my life “purpose-driven” as I should. I am a Christian and therefore I am a “follower of Christ” and a servant of the Lord. I serve and worship a BIG GOD a God so big that I know He can do anything.  He is a God that can accomplish anything that He wants in and through me but I must submit to Him. I must realize as Rick Warren stated in his bestselling book, The Purpose Driven Life, that it is “not about me, but all about Him (Him being God).”  It is all about bringing glory to God not to myself.

Another thing that I do fear is that there are going to be things in my life that I must give up in order to truly “follow Him”.  That is most likely inevitable.  In order to go with God I must leave something behind.  What, I’m not entirely certain, quite possibly old habits, my own desires, but nonetheless and regardless of that I still want to go.  I still long to go to wherever God is leading.

Therefore, as I sum up this post, I want to declare that I desire to be more purpose driven, follow me on my journey, as I seek to get to where I need to be.

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I’m a planner, so why didn’t’ I have a plan?  Well,  I guess the reality is, I thought I did.  I truly believed that I had a “marketing’ plan in mind when I started my ministry back in 2005.  However, the one thing I didn’t do was write it down, thoroughly and well.  Sure, I jotted notes and ideas down randomly and crazily. I had dozens and dozens of ideas and I have a WHOLE 3″ binder full of notes to prove it.  But, in reality, the plan wasn’t the real deal.  It wasn’t a serious, know what you’re going to do and HOW you’re going to do it type plan. 

That all changed yesterday.  After 3 almost 4 years of super hard work on my part I believe I’m taking a turn for the better.  Sure, I have booked speaking events, I have executed speaking events, I have seen girls get excited, I have written ebooks, I have sold ebooks, on and on the list goes of things I have accomplished, but the truth is “I am not finished.”  I am not finished and I do not want to be, because as the old saying goes, “God ain’t finished with me yet.”

A couple of days ago, I was chatting with a PR expert,  who I quite obviously could not afford to pay, however, she willingly chatted with me for a few moments and then decided she’d better refer me elsewhere to someone I could “afford”.  Smart move on her part I might add.  Lucky for me within a matter of a few hours I was on the phone with a precious lady who was quite obviously a “God connection” for me.  God sent her to me, no doubt in my mind.

You see, this lady, well she has been in my shoes, I”m almost certain.  No, she may not have had a ministry like mine or struggled at age 25 to get it off the ground, but she has been a young mom with a dream I’m quite sure and to beat it all, she was a “southern young mom with a dream”.

I’m from the south YA’LL and if you’re not then, well quite frankly you have a hard time understanding us.  So, I felt as if angels had pushed her into my path as we laughed and chatted about the fact that I live in a cow pasture, I’m Southern Baptist to the core and even better, she said to me as we parted our ways via phone line, “Now go take care of those youngins’”.  Who else but a fellow southerner would tell you that?

What’s better than that is by the next morning, bright and early, I had a proposal from her in my inbox and a clear, thorough, thought out PLAN for marketing my ministry lay before my eyes.  Sure, at first it seemed like Greek to me, but after reading over it several times and speaking with her once again via telephone I feel certain it is the plan I need.

Also, I am pumped, excited and a bit overwhelmed, but I know that this is yet another GOD given opportunity for me to take just another step towards my success.  God may only give me one step at a time, but He never leaves my side.

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Yesterday, as I blogged about here, I attended a webinar by Lynn Terry of Clicknewz.com for mom bloggers. I do consider myself a mom blogger, but as I stated yesterday I was an online business owner before I was a mom blogger so I see things a little differently than some. Nevertheless, one of the things we were challenged to determine from yesterday’s webinar is what our goal is for our mom blog. As well as where we see our blog in 5 years. So, I wanted to share some of my thoughts.

Though I may have started my blogs for different reasons I believe my ultimate goal is connecting. In my ministry, Beauty By Design Ministries, I desire to connect moms with their daughters who in turn will help their daughters to connect with God. I notice here on my mom blog that I blog mostly about God, ministry and family. Sure I have stints where I blog about working from home, or organizing, or frugal living, but ultimately I am all about ministry. That is my focus, my heart. I want to use my mom blog as a means by which to connect with other moms who desire to connect with their children (my focus is girls) and help to turn their hearts towards God. So, ultimately for me, its all about connections. My connection with other Christian moms and their connection with their daughters, and all of our connections with God, because ultimately that’s what I want for myself and others, a valuable, intimate connection with God.

As for five years from now, I hope this will only get easier to do as my own daughter grows I can share real life stories of how I connect with her. But, for now I use my own experiences from my past and present of connecting with my own mom.

Be sure to check back here on Monday as we are participating in next week’s Bloggy Giveaways, you will want to be sure to enter to win a 30 Day Journaling Guide from Beauty by Design Ministries.

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The last few days I have felt this overwhelming feeling of anxiety.  It was a feeling I just could not shake.  Now, I am normally an anxious person, having suffered from an anxiety disorder most of my life, however I have generally learned how to handle it and therefore don’t really have to deal with it too often. So, it has bothered me that I couldnt’ shake it.

Mostly, my anxiety as probably 99% of Americans may be having these days is over money.  I worry about the debt we have, the money we don’t have, etc. etc.  However, I felt there was more to it than just that. I felt that God wanted me to take some type action and I was unsure of what that action was.  Until today, when I kept getting this overwhelming urge to cut up my credit cards and to handle my overdue credit card bill.  I did both!  Cut up the cards and made payment arrangements on the bill.  It was a huge relief, but that wasn’t the best part.

photo credit: °FlorianThe best part came when I went to check the mail.  In the mailbox was a large white envelope, and inside was an offer from a publisher to publish my book idea.  The note was handwritten.  To me it was as if God himself wrote it because it was confirmation that I had done what God was leading me to do in cutting up the cards. I am on His path.  He is listening to me, He is speaking to me and yes, I am listening!

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