Born to Teach

The title sums it up.

I believe God has graced me with the ability to teach. From tackling homeschooling both my daughters, the youngest from 1st grade through 11th, yes she graduated a year early, to my job for 10 years as a Corporate Trainer and Senior Training Specialist to now heading up my own home based business, including managing and supporting a group of incredibly talented ladies in my wreath making private group.

I love not only just teaching a new skill to women, but to encourage and nourish their souls with the right dose of encouragement. I love doing that because I believe as women, we get beat up a lot, put our own needs on the back burner for awhile and also we serve so much, we often don't hear words of encouragement that would refill our emotional bank accounts. We are so busy all the time, that we fail to see what greatness we bring to our families, our jobs and even in our own life.

Isn't that the truth about our lives ladies?

Don't we just grow in the sunshine with just the smallest dose of praise?

I know I do.

There are those times when you just feel like a dying plant waiting for a drop of moisture so you can grow and thrive again. I know how much I adore that feeling of getting kudos for a job well done. Just the smallest dose goes such a long way and can pick you up when you're feeling blue and melancholy. I believe that not just women need it too, but also the men in our lives. The ones who work so hard at keeping us financially afloat could use that same praise for anything they do. They get beat up all day by people not appreciating them for what they do, because it is expected, yet I find that often times, praise and appreciation go further than a bigger paycheck. I know there are jobs that I look back on and I LOVED doing them because most days I got instant appreciation. From a floundering student who suddenly excels at something they've been struggling with, to a new employee who believes they're not cut out for the job, only to shine with just the smallest dose of encouragement and some time helping them where they're frustrated, to women who believe they're not cut out to do anything now that they believe their lives are growing to a close.

I believe if you're still breathing, God has you here today for a plan and a purpose and He doesn't make mistakes, In fact, throughout the Bible, God has used countless, "nobodies" to become major somebodies when He is finished. I mean if the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth thinks you're something special, shouldn't that be good enough? Yet it sure does something to us when we hear it! My challenge for you today is to find 3 people and encourage them, compliment them or find a way to show them, they're special. The interesting thing is that it does something for you as well by taking that time and making it something sincere.

Hope that you'll share how it went with me below with a comment. 

Oh yes, the wreath pictured at the top of this page is for sale. You can find out more about it on my Etsy store Etsy.com/shop/KatsCreations777 or messaging me at KatsCreations777@gmail.com

Moving Forward

Instruction that is wrapped with encouragement really works. No one cares how much you know until they know just how much you care. I have heard it said that advice and instruction are like snow. The softer they fall—the deeper they stick. Sensitive instruction is encouragement.

I LOVE both encouragement and being the one to encourage. I hate it when I see the benefits of using encouragement to help motivate someone and instead they offer silence or criticism instead. I mean it may get them to do what you want, but they won't be happy doing it. Sure it accomplishes the task but the result isn't a long lasting one.

I have seen evidence of this in play in my own life, working for incredible leaders, co-workers and even fellow employees and I can always say that people will give more than 100% for a person they can respect and value. I know because this is how I felt. I would always be willing to pitch in, help out and go above and beyond for people I respected because of their values, their ethics, their reputation and more. I believe I know what it takes to be a great leader and what doesn't. The best part of being an small business owner is that my customers are not just the ones who buy home decor from me, but they are also in a small Facebook group I lead and encourage every single day. They are also in the people who I haven't met yet. Those are the people I love living for, working for and most importantly who I serve for.

You have to be willing each day to get up, despite how you may feel and choose your attitude. I know this is possible because we can all change our attitude on a dime. Meaning that if you are in a foul mood and someone unexpected shows up at your front door, you can instantly turn on the charm. So don't tell me you can't do it. Choose today if it is going to be a great day or a bad one. You are the only one who can make that determination. Sure things can influence whether things will go towards one or the other, but the final choice is yours. Choose today. Choose right this very minute. Put away all your 'what if's" and 'what abouts,' move forward today in a positive, can do, attitude. Stop being weighed down by everyone else and stop giving them all the control to dictate how you will be.

I hope you choose to make it a great day. It can definitely be filled with the unexpected surprises you didn't see coming your way. Let me know how it goes. I'd love to hear about it. 

If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes

Being a corporate trainer for more than 10 years has led me through many changes both with the customers I worked with, the company I worked for and the employees I had the chance to encourage during my time there. It was one of my favorite jobs in my work history. It also led me through changes, some I was fine with and others that challenged me not to rebel but to move through them so things would settle down again.

Change is like trying to resist the waves. No matter how hard you try, it's still going to happen. You can try as hard as you like, but more than likely, you'll eventually find yourself tossed back to the shore. You're goal in life is to find the positive in that change. Whether it is the lose of a job that brings you to the point of wondering how it will all work out without money coming in, a medical diagnosis that brings you to your knees and to tears, the loss of a close family member, friend or pet, life is going to happen whether you join in or not.

One of the things that people who are close to me, hear me say a lot, when faced with that change is that, 'if nothing changes, nothing changes." I guess I remember hearing a message from Joyce Meyers that conveyed the Israelite's journey in the wilderness for 40 years. Did you know that it was only a 40-day journey to get to where they were eventually going to go? So why the longevity of a journey? Didn't someone ask,"Hey, haven't we been here before?" What was the point of such a long detour?

It's because they weren't willing to accept the changes God had in store for them. Sure they were all ready to give up a live of slavery in Egypt, and embrace that promise of a land filled with milk and honey, but it was because their hearts weren't in the right place. After all they had seen God do during that time of wandering, they still begged to question, "Why God?" Wouldn't life had been better in Egypt where things were comfortable, normal, no change to face. We knew what was expected, even though we hated it, still all they seemed to do is complain.

So that long detour is what we all face when we come across a change we're not ready for. I call them Life Tests from God. If you don't rise up to the challenge and figure out a way through that challenge, God sends you back on another journey round the desert again, until you finally stop your complaining and move through the test. God never leaves you, He is always by your side even when you can't feel it. Just like He never left His people in the desert. They walked away from Him.

So if you are facing an uncertainty in your life right now, I would ask you, how can you get through this with God's help? Have you prayed about it? Where is God in your day? Are you hoping to get through your 'To Do" list to finally set aside some time to pray and maybe read your devotions? Carve out just 15-minutes of your mornings and pray, read your Bible and see if your day doesn't go better. See if your attitude needs its own adjustment and remember what I say, "If nothing changes, NOTHING Changes!"

A Little Help From Your Friends

The job I adored and love doing was both managing a service team in Southern California back in the days when there were only 2 cell phone service providers LA Cellular and Air Touch. I had a small group of about 8 people but I loved helping them achieve their own levels of success no matter what that was. I was fiercely protective of them like there were part of my family and even taking that a step further when I was a Corporate Training Specialist for another 5 years, I loved encouraging people to believe in themselves when they didn't.

I loved taking the time to just show them how much I cared about them both as a person and a valued employee. In fact, I keep a book of those emails and letters from those one on one encounters that show me a little about what God has challenged me to keep on doing in my life. To encourage, motivate, and cheer those people on whom God places in my path. I love watching them achieve that next level of success in their life, even if it is just managing to make it into work day after day.

Don't we all need more cheer leaders in our lives today? I'm not talking about the fake ones you tell you what you want to hear just to keep you going, but those that really take the time to listen to your struggles, to get down to where you're at, to value you for simply being in their life as well. Those are the people I'm talking about, the real legitimate ones. The ones that are leading you through life, by being at the head of the line and pulling your forward, not the ones being pulled and barking orders to move faster because they are the boss.

I LOVE working with my small business group, both in the public Facebook forum and the Private Group of about 45 people who want to take that next step with someone who will have their back. Who will motivate and believe in them. Who will take the time to ensure no one gets left behind. I am that person and I get so much joy that it motivates me more each day I can encourage someone or give them the encouragement they need to step out in faith and share what I believe God's called them to do. I believe those are the people who impact us so much, we can never forget them. I can look back and see how God's been building me up to do just that both in my employment history but also in the things I volunteer to do like reviewing books or blogging! From leading a women's group of 40 Somethings through weight loss but even more by becoming their best friend in the process. Those are the relationships I can look back on and see how wonderful God's fingerprints have been along the way.

While I may never personally meet these people, I truly care about each and every one of them. Even though my small group is more intimate and gives me greater insight into how I can help these women, to the larger group of more than 3000 followers. I thank YOU God for the life you've given me and I only hope I can bring honor and glory to YOU, to point others to YOU and to have their courage and faith to take on the world! 

The World Needs More Hope!

I had the most amazing time this weekend! I truly wanted to go to the movies, just for something to do, and to share a big bucket of popcorn with my incredible husband Steve. Since there wasn't much playing in the way of family friendly movies, we opted to go see Tomorrowland with George Clooney and Hugh Laurie. If you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend it. 100% family friendly and much better than the trailer would lead you to think.

In it, a young girl is fascinated with the stars and what lies beyond what we can see. Her father, Tim McGraw, is a NASA engineer who is tearing down Cape Canaveral since the space program has ended and once that is done he will not have any more work. He is struggling to find his way and support his family which is out of his control. His daughter, Cassie, believes that if she can forestall the dismantling, her father will stay optimistic. She is the force holding her family together and thus the reason she is chosen to receive the "Tomorrowland" pin. It is a way to garner interest to help save the future of Earth. She is selected because she has hope where others see nothing good.

Even George Clooney's character has lost his ability to think anything good will come of the earth and is simply buying his time, waiting for doomsday. Funny when you look around it seems as though those in the world have lost hope as well.

Turn on the news, take a look at your social media feed, look at television or movies or just take a gander around in the world, and you see things spiraling out of control. It made me wonder if perhaps that is Satan's plan for the world to lose hope. To lose faith. To lose our ability to love, like Jesus loves.

What if that was the whole plan all along? What if the things we see are simply manipulated forms of propaganda given to us to lead our world to destruction instead of hope. What if these images and stories are fabricated to lead us to believe there isn't anything left for us but to get what we can while we are still here?

Why is it, that according to the Bible, in 1 Corinthians 13:13 ~ "And now these three remain, faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (NIV).

What would happen if we simply applied these to our lives every single day. To hope for the best, to do nothing but post positive things that would cause people to believe in the possibility for a better day today. Doesn't the world need more cheerleaders, more builders, more dreamers in the world?
More people to encourage, to inspire, to build people up, but in genuine ways. Wouldn't you gravitate towards that over the alternative? Imagine what the world would be like, if we stopped believing all the negativity and the despair and the lose of hope, and just accepted that nothing will get any better.

It would inspire us to fix things that are broken, to care for people who are hurting, to help those who need it, to love those who are without. This is the world I believe Jesus wanted. Not a world of acceptance, but a world where hope, faith and love are present over everything else.

But we live in a fallen world, where the outcome is destruction of everyone and everything, that God holds dear and that my friend, is you and me and the very world we live in. We are called to spread the good news, the gospel because it contains hope! It contains so much love that the Creator of everything sent His Son to die for us, to restore that blessed hope that we can be saved, changed, forgiven and loved and more so, to spread that to others.

Why have we lost hope?

Where do you find discouragement, despair, hate, anger, isolation, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, sadness, and more? What do you do when the dreams you have for today don't work out like you have planned? Do you offer up thanks to God? Perhaps in a cynical manner, but not as a genuine, thanks because it wasn't meant to be.

We know what really LOVE looks like because the Bible tells us.

"Love is patient.

Love is Kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always perseveres. 

Love never fails." ~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV).

I would encourage you to consider what God's purpose is for you today. I would hope and pray it would be to be an encourager, a dreamer, a builder, to inspire hope and faith in others, and most importantly to love like only God can love, and to fill you with that love so we can completely and utterly change the world, through a life lived out for Jesus!

We know our "Tomorrowland" exists, that one day, we will return to Heaven, but until that time, let us share the good news that is Jesus Christ to the world in a bold new way!