November 2021 | Mysite

November 27, 2021

Good afternoon everyone! I pray that you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday and were able to get some rest. This time of year can be so many things. It can be exciting because of all the fun decorations, family, giving, and so much more. But at the exact same time, the holidays can also cause stress, anxiety, worry, or guilt. And not two single people feel the same way about it. I know for me, the holidays are a time of nonstop going. Between all the celebrations, shopping, family gatherings, etc. I often forget to find that time for myself. Now I know this can sound so selfish but honestly, you cannot care for someone else if you don’t take care of yourself first. I don’t know if you are like me, but I am the first person to put my cares and needs to the side to focus on another persons. Which is a great trait to have but when you find yourself consumed with all these jobs for others and leave no time for yourself, I can guarantee you will get burnout. Which then leaves nobody to care for anybody.

We must find that balance between personal care and caring for others. Just think of it like a Thanksgiving table. If the sweet tea pitcher is full, it can be split amongst everyone at the table, however if it is empty, nobody gets any. We have to be sure that our personal lives are sustainable and we are being sure to watch our selves before we freely devote our entire lives to the care of another person.

As Christmas gets closer, I encourage you to ask yourself if you are in the right state of mind before giving all your spare time to someone else. Is your physical health good? How about your mental state? Are you worried, stressed, or overwhelmed? If so, are you getting the care you need for these things. Whether it be seeing your doctor, counselor, therapist, or simply doing self care activities?

After you do a personal evaluation, it is now a good time to see if you have extra room on your plate. If your plate of tasks is full and has barely any room, the “extras” will fall off. Leaving not only you disappointed but also those relying on you. You have to make room by taking care of yourself first and then go on to help someone else. You are part of God’s battle force, He is not going to leave you alone, and He wants us to take care of our temples. Therefore, we can help those in need.

I love each of you so much and really hope this lesson will help you to see where your priorities lay. Please let me know if I can help you with anything. Have a great week and I will see you all next Sunday!

November 21, 2021

Good morning! I am so grateful you came back to read this weeks update! This week, my goal is to be 100% honest with myself as well as those around me. Let’s be real, the upcoming weeks are some of the most challenging weeks for many people. Since the holidays are approaching, we tend to think about the loss of loved ones, separation of family members, or missing of a close person. It can be extremely difficult to find peace, rest, joy, and thankfulness when we are so focused on other things. However, I am here to tell you that this suffering is happening for a reason. God is not going to waste a millisecond of our hurt or trials, instead He is going to use it for the better. This can be so hard to believe when in the midst of our challenges but we must trust Christ and His flawless process.

God is going to use these times to create even greater strength and resilience inside of you. He is going to challenge you to use this for His glory, therefore, don’t super focus on the disheartening times of the holidays. Enjoy what you do have and be thankful for what God has provided. We are not going to grow stronger without being worn down first. You are strong enough and God knows you have the power with Him to overcome this battle.

Satan is going to try and consume you with overwhelming thoughts of anger and bitterness, fear and doubt but we have to use this to boost you and me into fervent prayer. Ask and God will give you the strength to get though the situation. Lysa Terkeurst says, “Satan knows what consumes us controls us.” Don’t let this be true. Use the negative thoughts to give you strength.

God’s grace is sufficent. He will be with you through every step of this process. Lay all you have down to Him and follow. Don’t get caught up in trying to take care of yourself, God’s got you. He is never going to leave or forsake you even when it feels as if you have done so much wrong. We are sinners and we have doubts, but God promises to be by our side every step of the way.

I love you all so much and will be praying for you this holiday season. I hope each of you have a blessed Thanksgiving and come back next week for another post. Stay strong because I know God has amazing plans in store for you.

'November 14, 2021

Good morning! I want to start by saying that God has really laid it on my heart this week to be lifting each and everyone of you reading today in prayer. I do this just about every week but something was different about this week. I felt as if we all needed a little extra support. I think as we approach the holidays, more and more people get stressed out. Whether it is about providing a Thanksgiving or Christmas for their family, splitting time amongst family members, or maybe even having to see someone you haven’t seen in a while. I know that all of these things can bring us unwanted anxiety and worry. For me, I get anxious when I think about having to be thrown off schedule. Now for some this may seem like a silly obsession but I am extremely OCD about a lot of things and one of those being planned. However, I must remind myself that if I sit and let my mind run with the fact of being stressed then that is all I will feel for the next couple months. Instead I have to put my focus on the good things about the upcoming holidays. Spending time with my family, getting out of school, eating good food, etc. There is so much to be grateful for despite the stressors, we just have to look for them.

This week instead of posting a lesson, I want to show you all an essay I wrote at school this past week. I wrote this not only for myself but also for people like you. I want everyone that reads this (including myself) to understand the idea of what God wants each of us to do with our lives. Now I am not saying that God has finished using me because by all means I know He is nowhere close to done. God has big plans and I know you will look back on this day and be so very thankful you faced the trials you did and came out on the other side stronger than before. Also, remember I did not write this, I simply typed it. God is the one that made this story a testimony:

When one is faced with a hard time, it is so common to begin asking God the question; why? As humans we are faced with trials on a daily basis. Trials that leave us wondering why a perfect God would place us in such a tough situation. It can be so tiresome to try and find answers to the unanswerable. However, I am here to tell you that we must move away from this focus on the why and look into a much more important question.

During the summer of my 6th grade year of middle school, I believed me and my entire family were on top of the world. Life couldn’t have been better, I had just made the cheerleading squad, my family was in a great place, and we were going ninety to nothing on summer vibes. It wasn’t until our life came to a screaming halt that I realized everyone in this world will go through a time when they are left hopeless begging God for an answer.

As summer continued, I slowly began obsessing over my outer appearance. Being in middle school and a cheerleader I started to place all of my worth on my weight. Was I small enough? Did I look fat? Without makeup was I ugly? I battled these questions every single morning when I woke up to find myself crying as I looked in the mirror and scrunched up the skin on my stomach. Everything felt out of control. I was getting uglier and fatter by the day, and there was a voice in my head telling me just that. I wasn’t enough, nobody liked me, I was a waste of time and energy. While I was reaching all around for something to grab control of, the only thing I could find was my body and the way I looked. Little did I know this would leave me sitting eye to eye with the biggest battle of my life, anorexia nervosa.

As weeks passed and summer was coming to a close, I was dropping weight by the day. My parents knew I needed help so they decided to make the difficult decision to take me to the hospital. When we arrived we were shocked to find out I weighed only 60 lbs and my heart rate was in the low thirties. After being admitted for two weeks where the doctors were left with no choice but to put me on a feeding tube, I was discharged and sent to a residential treatment facility in Atlanta Georgia. It was not until I laid my head down that night, alone and scared, I began wailing. Why would God put me through this? What did I do wrong to deserve this? I questioned God with every hour that passed that night. Was I ever going to escape this demon in my head telling me I wasn’t enough?

Then that following morning the sun rays shined through the blinds in my room and suddenly realized what I was here for. God had placed me here in this situation for a purpose. I didn’t know what that purpose was exactly, however I was going to do all I could to recover from this debilitating disorder and use this story for His glory. And that is just what I did. After nine long, tiring, restless weeks in residential treatment, I was discharged and able to see the warming sights of my home for the first time in 84 days. I felt on top of the world once again. I had just completed treatment for an eating disorder as a thirteen year old and had finally put my worth on who I was in Christ rather than the world. Little did I know that just two months later I would be getting ready to go through another mental health trial that would take another big toll on me and my family.

I saw going back to school as a leap, and a step towards recovery yet instead it resulted in an overflow of stress, anxiety, and judgement. I felt as if I stood out like a sore thumb and I had convinced myself that everyone looked at me differently. So then again, when all else felt out of control, I began restricting food and abusing exercise again . My weight once again started dropping and this time my parents immediately took me to the physiatrist. He then proceeded to tell me that if I wasn’t better in two weeks that residential treatment was back in my range. When he said the words residential again , I instantly had a change of view.

No longer was I living for the world, I was now living for Christ. The only explanation to this astounding turning point is God. I came to the realization that God wanted me to stop begging for a why. The why wasn’t important anymore, instead God wanted me to ask Him What? What does He want me to do with this amazing testimony? And in what ways can I bring others closer to Him? After months of prayer Christ answered this question of what for me. On August 17, 2019 I launched my very first blog post on my recovery website Bouncebackbeautifully.com.

Since this day, I have been running with this gift of openness, desire, and drive God has blessed me with to tell others about the Greatness of God. I truly believe God walked with my family through this trial so that I could come out on the other side as a changed person. I wouldn’t change my story for the world and I cannot wait to see when God takes me from here. We must stop asking God for a why and instead ask Him what!

November 7, 2021

Good morning! I’m so glad your here! I had something happen this week that really inspired me for todays message. On Wednesday morning, I woke up at five and was having a great morning. I had swim practice, ate a good breakfast, went to my school club meeting, and was overall feeling a very positive day ahead of me. Then as I was sitting in first period and realized it was just not my day. I had forgotten my drink, had a lot of assignments due, needed to study for a geometry test, and I got a really bad headache. Then take all of this and add some rain to the mix, a fairly bad day to say the least. It’s simply inescapable, all people are prone to have bad days here and there! That can leave us feeling like all hope is lost. So today let’s talk about how to turn a bad day into a win!

I have five ways I personally like to take my mind off and release the steam from a not so great day. If you know me personally and honestly just by reading about me, you can probably tell I am not good at being still. My mind is always running and I constantly like to have something to do. I do not do very well with down time even though it would really help me mental wellness. My family would joke that I am the “second mom” of the house because when at home I enjoy having tasks to complete. Whether it be laundry, dishes, vacuuming or organizing, my OCD feeds into my constant need to be doing something. In order for me to achieve my goal of really spending time for myself takes a lot of focus. Different techniques work for different people but below are the five that work best for me.

Being thankful for the small things : This is something we often loose sight of. We become so consumed with the big things we forget about the small things God provides on a daily basis. Just because you spill coffee down your shirt, fail a test, end a relationship, etc. There is still so much to be thankful for. Food, water, breath, clothes, waking up, and so much more.
Keeping a positives journal - Some people find this a difficult task but after trying it out for myself, I came to the realization its isn’t at hard and it really helps. Simply start by writing two positives of every day in a notebook/journal/ or even your phone. When your not having the best day, look back on these notes and remember all God has given you.
Interact with friends - People are here for you. You are never alone and I can guarantee your not the only one having a bad day. Call or text or even FaceTime your friends or supporter. Nobody can say that don’t have one because you all have me. However, I know this can be a hard or uncomfortable one for certain people because let’s be honest some people are not the type to have human interaction 24/7 so if that’s you spend some time with your pets, outside, or bolting out to music.
Care for yourself - Take advantage of those days you are not feeling well about yourself, use them to better YOU. Go for a walk, sleep in, eat a healthy breakfast, get a warm bath. Whatever brings you joy, do it and put some peace and rest into your stressful day.
Do something for someone else - This is so important to me and probably the skill I use most often. Doing things for others makes me feel so much better about myself. It could be cooking dinner for a sick family or even as small as holding the door for someone. Whatever it may be, do it with a smile on your face and bring one to theirs as well.

I really hope you can use some of these skills and possibly find some of your own. If you do create some, post them on social media and tag Bounceback Beautifully. I love you all so so much and please let me know what I can do for you. Have an amazing week!