I think I’ve been one all my life. I just didn’t have a name for it. In elementary school, I was usually the first one with my hand up when the teacher asked a question. I’d be finished with my assignment while everybody else was still working. That could sound competitive if you only looked at the outside of it. But that wasn’t really what was happening. I was curious. I wanted to know. I wanted to figure things out. And I was always watching people, too. I remember coming h

Sometimes the hardest thing to get rid of isn't the person. It's what the person left you believing. You can walk away from a relationship and still carry its language with you. Not their actual words. The things you began saying to yourself because of what happened. I can't trust anybody. I must not be enough. I have to watch people closely. If somebody gets too close, I'm going to get hurt. And here's where we have to be careful. Because everybody new is not everybody old.

Ever crossed paths with someone who has a smile pasted on their face 24/7 and thought, “What’s the real deal behind that smile? There’s no way they can be that happy.” I understand why you might wonder. But I quickly learned that your smile is your weapon. Not because you are pretending everything is perfect, but because sometimes a smile is a quiet declaration that what tried to steal your joy did not win. Psalm 34:5 says, “Those who look to Him are radiant with joy.” I do s

There is life after the pain. Not just a life where you learn to tolerate what happened or carry it more gracefully. A real life. A life where you laugh again. Dream again. Create again. Trust yourself again. A life where you begin to recognize your own voice and remember the things that make you feel alive. You may not be able to see that life from where you are right now, but that doesn't mean it isn't there. For a long time, I thought what happened to me had taken pieces o

1. Yes, I am your mother, however, you came through me, you are not me. Sweetheart, God made you to be an individual. Even though I carried you for 9 months and birthed you into this world, there is a purpose that you have to fulfill while you are on this earth that has nothing to do with me. You have been fearfully and wonderfully made. Go and be. 2. Know how to carry yourself when I’m not around. Honey, I love that you honor me by not acting foolish or making unwise choices

No really. I need you to sit with that for a second. Not your worth as somebody's girlfriend. Not your worth as somebody's mama. Not your worth as the strong one, the dependable one, the one everybody calls when things fall apart. You. Just you. By yourself. What are you worth? Because somewhere between trying to keep everybody happy and trying to hold everything together — a lot of us lost the answer to that question. And some of us never knew it to begin with. The World Has

There comes a moment after an emotionally unhealthy relationship where you look in the mirror and realize the deepest loss was never just the relationship itself. It was the distance that formed between you and yourself. Coming home to yourself is a gentle remembering. It is about finding your way back to the woman you were always meant to be. Somewhere between trying to keep the peace, trying to be understanding, trying to hold everything together, you slowly stopped hearing

In the heart of every family, there lies a sea of emotions waiting to be woven together. Our journey through life is an intricate blend...

You remember Dorothy, don't you. Swept up in a storm she didn't ask for. Dropped into a world she didn't recognize. Surrounded by noise and chaos and people telling her which way to go... spending the whole movie searching for somebody powerful enough to send her back home. And at the very end, Glinda leans in close and says words that should have made Dorothy holler: "You've always had the power, my dear. You've had it all along." Chile, she had been wearing the answer on he

Healing from unhealthy patterns is a unique and personal journey that most of us will have to face in order to become whole. Here are...

Kashmire Kay If you have a hole in your soul, it does not mean you are a broken person. It means there is a place inside you that has been waiting to be tended to. Sometimes that place has been there so long you don't even remember when it began. Maybe you learned as a child that being loved meant being good. Maybe you learned to be quiet when you were hurting because somebody else's feelings always seemed to matter more than yours. Maybe nobody taught you how to receive tend

If you really want to heal, there comes a point when you have to stop looking only at what happened and start looking at what it taught you. Not to blame yourself. Not to dig through your childhood looking for somebody to blame. And certainly not to convince yourself that you somehow caused the narcissistic relationship. You didn't. But there is something powerful about understanding the dots that connect your past to the relationships you found yourself in as an adult. Becau

I sometimes forget that we as Christians are in a spiritual battle, daily. What is before me is not what is BE-FORE me…Jesus is. We receive numerous amounts of reminders (“God-Winks” I call them) and crystal, clear instructions from the bible on how we are to rest. I have heard this evangelical message preached from umpteen sermons and discussed on various platforms but just could not grasp what resting in the finished works of what God has already done truly means. I’m still