#livelife

Embrace Today…

~ authorlasharnda ~ Leave a comment

If you are like me and can look back over the last two years and say you are still happy & peaceful, I do not think we should only say we are grateful, but we must live our lives like we are. I have always been a hopeful person, but more than ever, I feel the need to live today because God has blessed me with it.

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The older I get, the more aware I am of how much time I might have left on this earth. However, the last two years brought it home. Not only did we live in isolation the first year, thinking by the end of the year we would emerge happy and healthy, but we also entered a second year with the same challenges that kept us guarded and somewhat isolated as the year before. Then, just when we thought we were coming out of a pandemic, variations of a virus, we all came to know as COVID-19 began to show up in the form of Delta and Omicron. Our lives started to unravel again as we had to go back to measures that had already exhausted us.


In addition to the pandemic, we had to deal with other issues of life that could have quickly taken away our hope. For me, the last year brought about traumatic matters to my life. Friends who I loved and cared about deeply, without any warning, were no longer here. How could that be? Angel was only 28; Melanie was not even 50! Mike was still playing music and maybe 60! The loss of these precious friends and unique relationships caused the realness of how uncertain our time here is to set in. I still don’t think I have recovered yet. Anytime I experience a series of losses, I start to reflect on my mortality. I wonder if you also do. Mortality is hard to face, yet we all must meet it someday.

grateful for today

As we enter this New Year, I do not want to do so with a sad and depressing message. Instead, I want to offer hope. I want to remind you that today is yours if you are blessed to see it. Tomorrow is not promised, and we never know when it may be our last. And no matter what tomorrow holds, just be assured that God has tomorrow. He also offers hope. Despite all that happened during the previous two years, what I remember most are the beautiful things that happened in my life. I got a new job, another degree, a new home, and new friends. See? Even when we go through stuff that makes us feel helpless, we have to look for the other things God sends along the way. I bet you will find that you experienced as many beautiful things as you did of the other.


Whenever you need to lift yourself out of a funk in the new year, turn to the one source that offers hope to the hopeless, peace to the unsettled, and joy amid sadness. Do not look to your surroundings to be joyful; you will be lost. Look to God. Psalm 42:5-6 reads, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.” The Psalmist is saying, “I don’t care what state I find myself in, and right now it is in total despair; God is still my hope.”


For any challenges you face in the New Year, hold on to scripture that gives you hope. Tell yourself today is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad. Be intentional in the way you embrace the day. Someone may need you to lift them. May our God of peace fill your heart with love, joy, peace, and confidence that today is a day you choose to bless Him and others.

Live Your Life!

~ authorlasharnda ~ Leave a comment

live your life

Recently I was thinking about all that had occurred during 2020. I indeed can find a lot to look back on with dread. Like you, I can regret all the things that took place, whether personal grief, political anxiety, or professional and career halts due to the pandemic. I can complain, or I can be thankful for what did not happen. There were times during the year that I must confess; I did not know what to do. I just took one day at a time, refused to let fear control me, kept trying to do my responsible part, and continued to live my life..

As we end the first month of the new year, I think about things that I have said to myself since I was young. I think about the books I have written, and what has struck me most was the title of one of those books: It’s Your Life, Own It. No blame. No Excuses is one that I reflect on most because never has a title meant more to me this past year.

At the beginning of 2020, a few months before the pandemic hit, I knew that 2020 would be a year of change for me. I loved my job but not the environment. I realized no matter how much I tried; my values did not align with others. I decided that I could stay and become more miserable every day or leave at a good place on my own terms. I decided to do the latter, even though I did not know what I would do next. By the way, I had just sold my house and moved into a lease that would keep me in the area for one year. Almost immediately after I resigned, I went home, and the state went into lockdown. So, talk about uncertainty and second-guessing myself. During that month in quarantine, I read a lot, played on the Internet, and rested. Also, during that month, my mind played games with me—did I make the right decision? What now? Maybe I should have given it more time, etc. Do you know what I did when that would happen? I would remind myself that I had prayed about my life, I had thoroughly thought through my decision, I had made a decision, and I had to own it—the end.

Whew! Doing what I did could be somewhat disturbing and certainly anxiety-ridden for anyone. However, what could I have done about the decision I had already made? I could not reverse it, so I had to live with it. I could do one or two things: sit and sweat it, dread what I had done, and worry about a choice I had made. Thereby ensuring I would live in a state of negativity each day. Or I could embrace my decision. I could look to the future, believe that I had done the right thing, and be open to what was next. Thereby ensuring that I would probably attract positive things to myself. The latter is what happened.

Amid a lockdown, the most perfectly suited position just showed up. In the middle of quarantine, opportunities were still there. At least three came my way, and I chose the perfect one.

just live

I share my story not to brag on me, but to help you see that your life is yours and attitude means everything. Do not allow what the crowd may say about the economy, stop you. Do not let what your family may tell you about your limitations limit you. Please do not allow what you tell yourself about how others see or treat you, become your self-talk. Believe that your future is yours. Trust that you have what it takes and take the steps you need to achieve what you desire.

Never forget God along your life’s journey. I have never stopped believing that He has a plan and purpose for me. It would be best if you did not forget that either.

Only So Much Time…

~ authorlasharnda ~ Leave a comment

 

reflectionsA few days ago, I was walking to the park, letting the breeze hit my face. (This is something I do a lot of the time. I do it as my second exercise of the day, but also to talk to God). When the wind brushes against my face, I have a habit of saying “Lord, I feel You in the wind.” Just a little thing between God and me.

Anyway, as I was walking, a thought occurred to me; “one minute you are 5 years old and before you know it, if you’re lucky, you are 55 or maybe 65.”  It is wonderful to be alive, isn’t it? My mom died at 28 years old, so I’d always feared that I would die before I made it to 28.  I am still alive and far pass the wonderful tender age of 28 and I am so grateful.

Still, I have been thinking about my mortality lately, especially since several people I’d worked with over the years recently passed.

The reality that there is more life behind me than what is in front of me, is daunting.  The reality of my humanness causes me to either push the thoughts out of my mlifeisshortind or I sit and contemplate what’s next. The latter can cause stress because, let’s face it, I want to live forever. Don’t you? Maybe I will feel differently at 90 or 100, but I don’t feel like leaving this world anytime soon.

In fact, I dread the thought of leaving this world. Not because I don’t know what is on the other side, I just don’t think in my humanness, I cannot accept that I will no longer be here in the thick of things.

Listen, I sure don’t want this blog to be a downer, so let’s talk about the time we do have on they earth.  What will I do with the time I have?

I want to make every day matter. I want to get up each day and get going. I want to do things that will make an impact on others and on me!  I just do. I can’t imagine not going after my dreams, whether that means trying to run my own business or trying my hand at a new job. It is traveling to places I have never been, experiencing people and things I have never experienced. I want to tell people about Jesus, but I also want to show people Jesus through acts of kindness. I want to offer hope to others and I want to share in the joy other people experience as they learn how to make their own dreams come true. I want to get up each day and run. I want to write books and articles and I want to speak to the masses. That’s a lot!

What about you? What is it that you have always wanted to do and just didn’t feel that you were qualified to do?  Or maybe you just felt scared. There is no better time than now. There is no better reason than you simply want to try.

life-is-so-short-1-728Occasionally, I remind myself that tomorrow isn’t promised and I then ask myself, what is it that you want to do? I then turn to the scriptures and try to hear what God has to say to me because it’s what He says that matters; not what other people “think” I should do.  How about you?

First and foremost, what should matter is your relationship with Jesus;  never forget that.  I make plans for tomorrow, but I also know full well that I may plan, but it is God who determines my steps (Proverbs 16:9). Knowing this also keeps me humble as I pursue my goals. Seek Him first in all things (Matthew 6:33).

James writes (4:13-14a), “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.”

Life is short. What will you do with the time you have been given? Make it matter.