My Testimony

Welcome back!

I was just talking with my new intern at A Writer for Hire and she was sharing with me that I could learn more about her by reading  her testimony, she then shared the link with me.  She really has an amazing testimony and I like her tend to think mine is nothing earth-shattering but reading hers led me to share mine.  I already had it typed up from using it at an event about oh a little over a year ago so the dates may be a bit old, but here it is:

I have to begin at the beginning as they say.  I grew up in a Christian home; I was saved at the age of eight and was very fortunate to be one of the kids that was at church every time the doors were open.   During my teen years I was involved in everything the church offered from Youth Choir to serving on the Youth Council to attending Church camp and going on mission trips in the summers.  Growing up in Winona, I lived a pretty sheltered life.  Therefore, I did not realize that others out there didn’t have the same situation that is until I attended Modeling School in Memphis.  There I met girls from many different backgrounds and lifestyles.  Some of them came from homes drugs were present.  The situations were as different as they were numerous, and they were all very eye opening for me.

After attending Modeling school, I was chosen to attend an international modeling competition in Miami, FL to represent Memphis. There I saw and met even more people from very different situations than myself.  I was also put in the situation where I had to choose how I would present myself, The girls in line with me at the competition were all wearing what appeared to be tube tops for both their top and their bottom, revealing was more than true!  There I stood in line with these girls clothed from head to toe in my flare legged suit and boots.  I was stylish but I was completely covered!

Ok, you may be wondering, what does this have to do with ministry?  Well, a lot,  I realized through these experiences that I was fortunate and that I was different.  My experiences growing up in Church had made me who I was at 17 years old.  I was a confident, bold, Christian who didn’t mind telling those girls about my faith or why I had on more clothes than they did!  I understood that being a Christian meant being like Christ, honoring God with my body and my actions.  This began a passion within me to help other girls to understand why it was important to be modest, and to make Christ a part of their lives and their decisions for their future.  I had seen so many girls that were going down the wrong road that I wanted them to realize that they could choose a different path.

The girls I attended modeling school with looked at beauty much differently than the Bible speaks of beauty; they also found their self worth in a much different place than I was taught to find mine, in Christ.  I wanted them to have the relationship with God that I did and the hope for my future that I knew could be theirs.

A ministry for girls became a dream of mine way back then.  I also began sensing a call of God on my life back around that time, and even before that time.  In December of 1998, at a youth service I committed my life to full time Christian service.  At that time, I was unsure of what God was calling me to do.  I just continued to follow God’s guidance.  In 2002, after I was married and had moved to Carrollton two years prior I received the opportunity to do youth/children’s ministry with Carrollton Baptist, as many of you know I served there for over 4 ½  years.   God truly stretched me and grew me in this position and I developed an even great love for ministry, for teenagers and for children as I served there.

There came a time in my heart that I knew the girls ministry was what God was calling me to do.  BBDM was actually born in January of 2005 when I began pursuing speaking opportunities to speak to girls and their moms on my favorite topics of beauty, etiquette, modesty, fashion, etc.  I only did a couple of speaking engagements that year but God continued to inspire me with ideas.  One of which was to make the topics hands on  where the girls would not only hear me speak on a topic such as beauty from a Biblical viewpoint but also be shown how to properly apply makeup so that she could look great without overdoing it.  I also created a pampering session, a fashion show, a tea party, each paired with a topic.

The next January 2006, God blessed me even more.  He gave me the opportunity to have a website created and send out flyers to churches to let them know about my ministry.  This created more opportunities and in 06 I spoke 6 times.  During that year, God created in me a desire to do this full time.  I did not know how God was going to make it happen, but I had the strong feeling that he would.  In March, my pastor at our church resigned, and I began questioning whether I should stay on staff.  I prayed more in those months surrounding his resignation than I think I have ever prayed in my life.

During that time, I read the book “If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat”, I began to realize that my “boat” or comfort zone in my life was my job at the church.  I knew God was calling me to be like Peter and step out of my boat on faith.  However, I didn’t do it immediately.  Even though I was unsure of my position at the church, I still hung on to it.  I went through the days in a fog, constantly wondering what God was doing and what I should do next.  I pursued other ministry positions in other churches, even in other towns, only to find dead ends.  I had at this point forgotten about my girls ministry because I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do it.

It was over in the fall before I began to think about girl’s ministry anymore.  It was at the Women’s Conference held every September at my church.  Becky Brown of Little Brown Light Ministries was the speaker.  I had prayed to God that through her speaking her would speak to me and show me what I was suppose to be doing.  God answered my prayer.  Anyway, through her speaking that Saturday and my thoughts and prayers I realize that God was saying, “Alyssa, you’re not prepared.” I began spending more time studying God’s word as a result.  God continued to pull at my heart, giving me a longing to speak and minister to girls and their moms.  He also gave me the inspiration to write and to create products.

During a sermon on the first Sunday of January, that our interim pastor preached on change I knew God was saying, “you have to make a change, you have to trust me and step out on faith.”  That day I told my pastor of my plans to resign after my baby who was due in March was born.  It felt as if a weight was lifted off me, God continued to bless.  He began filling my calendar with speaking opportunities and he inspired me to write.  Since January, I have been able to write countless articles, as well as a prayer journal devotional guide for teens.

Beauty by Design Ministries is off to a fabulous start.  God is doing what I knew he would do if I took that step of faith and that is he is paving the way.  He is giving me opportunities to minister to girls and their moms from a Biblical perspective on things that they enjoy but also maybe some topic that they struggle with.  Today’s society has a much different view of such topics as beauty, modesty, and abstinence than the Bible teaches.  My programs teach these topics from a Biblical perspective while giving participants the opportunity to have hands on fun in the activities that they love.  Each of my programs has a theme and topic that go together. I’ve had the opportunity to do Mother Daughter nights and retreats, girl’s nights and retreats as well as be the guest speaker at community events.

I am blessed to be able to use the Internet to reach an even broader market. I publish my articles online to many places visited frequently by moms, and I offer a weekly newsletter moms can receive via email with articles, devotions, tips and encouragement.

I am blessed to daily stay home with my children, but to also do what I love and that is speaking, writing and ministering.  I can truly say that I am where God wants me to be.

Yes, It’s Real

Yes, it’s all real. Sometimes people ask, “How real are you on your blog?” or “Are you the same person in real life as in online /blog life?” To which I must answer a resounding “YES”. This is me, the real me. My life is an open book. I am not hiding anything, not running from anything, not trying to escape anything when I blog. I blog because I love it. It is fun, it allows me to write without having to worry about grammatical errors or being right or wrong or if it sounds right, it’s just my thoughts that is all it is.

I also continue to blog because I LOVE the blogging community. Never before have I made so many connections with so many people. Moms, momprenuers, WAHMs, SAHMS, others, all who blog and have this as our sometimes only connection but its amazing to see. I’ve met moms who are Christian but I’ve also met some who claim to have no religion yet I still connect with them. It’s awesome and I love it.

I feel it’s a great way to share and you know what every single testimony I share and blessing that I tell about is real. God is working in my life just like I’m telling you. I am struggling with the issues I blog about I am not making them up. I do set the goals I set, I don’t just put those up here to look good. This is real and I am loving every minute of being real with you.

How about you, is your blog real, do you love blogging, do you enjoy the mom blog and other blog communities you are a part of, is the online world as much a part of your life as the offline…. how do you feel? Tell me about it here or blog about it and return here to post the link in the comments. I want to hear from you!

He Keeps Getting Me Here

It’s true, He keeps getting me here, to the point I am now. God continually moves in our lives to get us to the point where we stand today. It is hard to believe that there are people out there who do not believe in his divine power. I see divine inspiration and divine appointments in my daily life. They are too numerous to count, to amazing too miss. But, yet, some people go throughout life, day after day missing them all. Sad, but true.

I thought I’d continue “my story”. As I realized after copying and pasting the testimony I had written last July to the blog yesterday as part of telling my “testimony” that there was more to the story. My testimony is ever going, ever growing, never ending. Each day God adds more to it. Isn’t that awesome?

So, where I left off yesterday in the testimony was in July 2007 at the point I was giving the testimony to a group of ladies at my mother-in-law’s church. I was sharing with them that God was blessing my ministry efforts and that I was blessed to be able to do ministry and stay home with my children. I was content.

Of course, like most folks, I didn’t remain content. I had been home since March 2007, when my baby girl was born and thing had gone pretty smoothly for the time being, that is until the money began to dwindle. I was accustomed to a paycheck every month without fail from my youth-children’s ministry position, and that pay check was gone.

Being the one who takes care of the money in our family I began to stress. I crunched numbers, pinched pennies, made lists, tried to save and scrimp but the money was just not there and I was stressing. This was sometime towards the beginning of fall just as my son was starting preschool. Well, not being one to just “give up” i prayed and I searched online and everywhere for ideas.

I thought about getting a part time job, even checked into waitressing, something I had never done, but thought hey I can do it. Obviously, this wasn’t meant to be because it never came to fruition. In fact, that too was in God’s divine plan as it wasn’t long until I found out I was expecting baby #3. I know there are probably people who do it every single day, but waitressing pregnant isn’t something I’d choose to want to experience.

So, as I said God had other plans anyway. In October, I receive a phone call from a fellow Work at Home Mom. She had heard my desperate plea online for finding something to do to make extra money and she was familiar with me. She said she had read some of my articles and knew I could write. She wanted to hire me to write some articles for her, and agreed to pay me. So, of course, I agreed to write. I began the very next few days, then, decided hey, this is something I could definitely do to make money. Writing that is. So I set up a website, A Writer for HIre, and began pursing clients. God placed them one by one in my lap.

Then, I set some income goals and watched as month after month those goals were blown out of the water. In addition the bookings for Beauty by Design speaking opportunities kept a coming. I was doing both things that I had always wanted to do, speaking AND writing. It felt too good to be true, but apparently for once it is not, because today I am still doing both.

This year, in 2008, to date I have spoken 7 times already. My goal each year since I began this ministry has been to do 12 events per year. At this rate I should accomplish that, this year. Last year, in 2007, I got really close doing 11 events. Each a huge blessing and stepping stone to the next thing God had in store.

In February, I stumbled upon Proverbs 31 Ministries and began communicating with those ladies, signing up for the She Speaks conference and realizing what a God thing it was to begin talking with them. I am now writing devotions for them and have hopes for becoming more involved in their ministry.

I know there is probably more I could share as through the past few months I feel I have received many divine appointments and opportunities. I see God moving in miraculous ways daily in my life, and for that I am grateful. I can’t wait to see what He has in store.

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