Category: Prophetic

The holidays are a great time to create traditions with friends and loved ones that can last decades. They become memories that we cherish throughout the year and inspire us. This year, we’ve listed some ideas that can be implemented not only during the holidays, but anytime we want to connect with loved ones.  The key to the holidays is to create traditions that are meaningful to you. This year, I’ve listed some suggestions to get your creative juices flowing but feel free to add your own ideas.

• Pie Day! This is a great tradition for the bakers in your circle. Pick a day before Thanksgiving, and have friends and family bring a cake or pie recipe. The idea is to create your masterpiece among other bakers, try everyone’s offering and decide if you’d like to recreate it for your holiday dessert. This activity is a way to bond over a shared passion and learn more about the bakers in your life. Serving some hot cider, treats and playing holiday music adds to the festive mood. In addition, you can also use this time to address hand written Christmas cards to send to far away loved ones to enhance the experience and add a bit of nostalgia to the day.
  
• Don’t forget to hide the pickle! This tradition, which began in the United States in the late 19^th century (although some sources say it started in Germany) is also a fun tradition to start while doing your holiday decorating. While putting up your Christmas tree, you hide a pickle ornament and challenge loved ones to find it. Once finding it, that person can receive a special gift. It’s good to set a timer, so each participant only has anywhere from twenty seconds to one minute to find the pickle.
  
• Prophetic Letters! This is a great way to encourage your loved ones to celebrate milestones in their lives while creating lasting memories. Encourage each participant to write down five things they desire to achieve by next Christmas. Then place the letters in an envelope and the host holds them until the following year, then they are read aloud to those who attended the previous year. This is a great way to put goals in writing, speak over your own life and share the joy with others.
  
• Ugly Sweater Gathering! Serve hot cocoa to your friends and family for this one. Get those ugly sweaters out of the closet. Encourage guests to not just buy a sweater but create one with old sweatshirts, sweaters or long sleeved tee shirts they may already own. This way, the personality of the guest shines through. The more hideous the better. Have everyone anonymously vote for a winner. Create a blue ribbon out of construction paper and post your winner on social media.
  
• Holiday Home Concerts! Do you have any singers, musicians, Dancers, worshippers or other artists in your circle? How about a pop up concert show casing the talents of those among you. Invite loved ones over to have an intimate evening. If you live in a warm climate, you can host this event in your backyard. Live stream the event to your social media and zoom if you have out of town relatives or military members who may not make it home for Christmas.
  
• Adopt an adult! Yep, there is always someone in our sphere that may have just relocated from another city or state that has no family in the area. Invite them over to share a meal or a cup of coffee with your family. The holidays can be a particularly lonely time for a new transplant and for those who are widowed, never married, and single and have no children. It’s an ideal way to fellowship with someone new and share the joy of the holidays with them.
  
• Connect with Christ! As believers we must remember that Jesus is still the reason for the season. We have to keep our eyes on Jesus and focus on staying connected to the vine. Prayer, fasting, worship services and prayerful meditation help us navigate through any season.

Whatever you decide, remember to keep the focus of the season on the values you hold dear. The holidays shouldn’t inspire us to get together once a year; it should spark a desire to make and keep bonds with those we love. Have a wonderful holiday season!

We made it to the calendar year 2027! Every year feels like a clean slate, and that fresh start feeling seems to dominate our thoughts in the early part of the year. However, once the routine of life sets in and the holidays are over, it’s often more difficult to keep that holiday magic in the forefront of our minds.

The decorations come down, the Christmas music fades away, vacation days come to an end, and the familiar responsibilities of everyday life return. Work, family obligations, bills, appointments, children and the unexpected challenges we face quickly remind us that although another year is upon us, life itself has not necessarily changed with it. But maybe we can change our perspective which can be a real opportunity of a new year.

A new year does not guarantee every life challenge will suddenly become easier. It does, however, open an opportunity for us to pause, reflect, reset, and decide how we want to approach the days ahead. We can face the New Year with a different strategy that can help us pause, reflect and implement some steps that will make our lives easier.

• Declutter! Over the holidays we may have received the gift of new apparel. Most of us already have too many items in our closets. The New Year is a great time to wade through the wardrobe and decide what needs to be donated, destroyed or reimagined. Most centers that receive donations like Goodwill will often issue you a receipt for tax purposes.
  
• Social Media Fast. Another great idea to relieve stress is to set a boundary for yourself regarding social media. The images, memes, and videos can be overwhelming and the flood of information can overload our senses. Take time to wind down in the evening and limit social media interactions. This one action can assist with relaxing for the evening and fostering a more restful sleep.
  
• Spending Fast! This will help establish a discipline regarding spending and actually help build wealth by saving money. For the first quarter of the New Year, make a conscious decision to only buy necessities. No impulse buying or trips. It resets your financial position post holidays and helps with building a budget for the coming year.
  
• Save, Save, and Save! Make a realistic budget for the year, and with each paycheck make room to save. The amount is not as important as it is to establish a routine to save. Start with just ten percent of your take home. You’ll be surprised at how quickly the savings adds up.
  
• Audit Your Career. Is your professional life satisfying to you? Did the promotion happen? Are you closer to the goals you set when you took the job? Ask yourself these questions and decide if it’s time to ask for a raise, seek a promotion or even move on. Prepare yourself and focus on what you came to this position to do and if it no longer serves you, explore something new.
  
• Your Support Network. Place yourself among those who are ambitious, edifying and passionate about their lives. A circle of support will applaud your accomplishments and encourage you to keep pursuing your dreams when challenges arise. Negative people will only become a burden to manage, and you’ll lose focus. Evaluate who is on your path and distance yourself from those who are an albatross. We can still love our network, but not everyone should have access to the vault of our dreams.

For many people a New Year doesn’t bring excitement, it can make them feel pressured. 2027 doesn’t mean you have to become a completely different person, but it can inspire you to become more intentional about the phenomenal person you are already. Changes that are meaningful to starts with simple tasks. You may think getting more organized, reconnecting with your faith, take better care of yourself or just dealing with something you’ve long put off is just a little thing but over time, it can make a huge difference in your life.

Enjoy the New Year but more importantly, embrace the New You!

Find joy with those you love most this holiday season.

It’s nearly Thanksgiving and before you know it Christmas will be on the horizon. There is nothing like the holidays! Time with family, friends, good food and making lasting memories is what this time of year is for. The best thing about the holiday season is you can create a legacy of joy with loved ones. However, to enjoy the holidays to the fullest, it’s a good idea to slow down and make the most of life’s little moments. It’s in the everyday that we can find those tender moments that will stay with us long after the last ornament is boxed away. Continue reading “Growing and Glowing This Holiday Season”

First Love Yourself…

Back in the day when I was growing up, it was cool to be FLY! Fly at that time was a slang term that meant you were sharp, cool, cute and ready to take on the world. We used that word the way younger people nowadays use the world SLAY. I guess every generation has its own style of slang communication but I still use Fly from time to time.

As I’ve grown up, I’ve embraced a new acronym for the slang term FLY. Continue reading “Let’s Just Learn How to F.L.Y.”