Tag: happiness

Life

Under God’s Protection

Shaun Bradford

Last night, my daughter and I were discussing timing and how we can now see that if things would have worked out according to our timetables, we would not have been properly prepared to handle the things that came along with them. That was when it dawned on me that we were and are being protected.

If things have not happened yet, accept that it’s not time, and that you are being protected. Stay under God’s protection.♥️ ~Shaun

Stay protected.

On another note (gonna try to make this short by using screenshots where I can)…

So, a couple of days ago I forgot to check my Facebook Memories. Y’all, I rarely forget. It’s like part of my morning routine. Well, sometime Thursday evening a memory popped up that prompted me to check my other memories. When I tell you God is always on time! Here’s what I shared based on one of the memories:

Facebook Post: July 27, 2023

Can’t believe I am just now looking at my Facebook Memories from July 27th. I usually look at them first thing in the morning, but for some reason I didn’t today. Had forgotten all about them. Thankfully a story I shared last year popped up and jogged my memory. I needed to see this particular post today. When I reshared it in 2019, I shared it with Tyler Perry’s quote, “When you pray, believe.” Back then, that quote was relevant for where I was.

Today, another quote taken from his caption has resonated with me. It is a question he asked himself, “God, why would you put all of these dreams inside of me and not show me a way to accomplish them.” Y’all, I feel him on this. I have so many dreams. Some would probably say I have too many. That I need to narrow them down, but I can’t. I want to accomplish them all.🤷🏽‍♀️😢

As Mr. Perry did, I am going to continue to work towards them until something happens. I know God is working behind the scenes. I KNOW that one day everything will happen. In today’s blog I wrote the following:

“Here is what I have learned and am still learning – my job is to lean into God, allow Him to lead, move when He says move and be still when He says be still. AND I must do ALL of this while operating from a space of peace. Talk about challenging, but if He believes I am capable of doing it, then I can do it.”

I will continue to stay in prayer while waiting and listening for my next moves.♥️

That was two days ago. Here are a few screenshots from today’s Facebook memories.

“I love who I am Becoming,” July 29, 2022
July 29, 2022–Response to the next screenshot originally shared on July 29, 2018.
July 29, 2018

Y’all, I can’t help but tear up. I’m doing exactly what I set out to do. Yes, I have a lot of dreams, and guess what – I’m achieving them ALL! AND I have many, many more to achieve.

Listen, if God has put dreams in your heart, please don’t allow others’ success or progress make you feel like you are:

Behind – Girl, you’re 50 and just now getting started.

On the wrong track – You should be doing XYZ and making money.

Your goals are unattainable or unrealistic – Girl, you are nowhere near qualified for what you want and where you want to be, and never will be. Get your head out of the clouds.

Block distractions and silence those voices (yours specifically) that tell you your dreams are too big, unrealistic or impossible. For we know, and must remember, that with God ALL things are possible.

That’s all I have to share today. I know it was a lot. Praying you have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for reading.♥️

Life

The Journey Continues

Shaun Bradford

I’m not sure what I want to write about today so just follow along as I figure out.

So, first thing this morning I attempted to finish a drawing I had been working on. However, the more I worked on it the uglier it became. So I set it aside. Right now I’m really contemplating whether or not I should hit the delete button and start over or work on it later. I named it “Salvage.” Because is it worth salvaging?

Recently… like last week… (by the way, today I have been 50 for exactly ONE month – woohoo!)…

Anyhoo… Last week it dawned on me that as much as I wanted to close the door on so many things associated with the last 50 years, I couldn’t – and boy did I try. Y’all, I was almost there, then my heart, and definitely the Holy Spirit, kicked in. One of the things I could not do was bring the baggage of “unfinished business,” “shutting down,” and “I don’t give a … care,” into my fifties. Honestly, I truly thought closing those doors would give me a fresh start, but I was wrong. Closing those doors only prevented me from feeling every single emotion I needed to feel – specifically the pain of hurts and disappointments.

Last night I received a call from one of my older cousins (actually my mom’s cousin). During our conversation, he began telling me how he always looked up to me. Said I always had my stuff together so he was shocked when he heard I had gotten a divorce. He said that for as far back as he could remember, I had had my life planned out. And he was right, I did. I had everything planned right down to when I would get married and how that marriage would flow. I had written the perfect story. Then life happened. You see, he knew the teenage Shaun. The Shaun who had been hurt but not really hurt. The Shaun who was determined to achieve every single thing she set out to achieve. However, as I mentioned, life happened. One blow to my plan led to another, then another. Pretty soon I no longer had a plan nor confidence.

Eventually, the way I dealt with it was to shutdown emotionally. I believed that the way to get my life back on track and make the most of it was to write another story and control the narrative. One thing I was dead set on was leaving my heart out of it. The goal was to not feel anything, not even anger or sadness. Any time I could feel those feelings creeping up, I would suppress them. Then my forties happened. Y’all, my forties hit and I felt everything! From anger to love, I felt it all.

Now, here I am at the beginning of Year50. If you have been following my journey you know that I tried to close the doors to my past. I wanted to shutdown and do a hard reset, but couldn’t. At the beginning of my forties I was searching for ME, well, last week I actually saw ME. It was like this book of my life was opened and I could see ALL of me including the disappointments and hurts I tried to bury.

After last night’s conversation with my cousin, I realized there was more things I needed to address. One was my desire to control everything to include timing. In one of last week’s blog I wrote about how whatever didn’t happen before 50 was basically a lost cause. Had written another story. Even though I was saying I trusted God’s timing, I really had given Him a time limit, and since He had not met it, I was about to do me. Ha! The joke was on me. You see, while I was going through all of those feelings and emotions during my forties, I was actually building a stronger relationship with God. So although I wanted to do me, I couldn’t and can’t. I belong to God. Period.

As you can see, a lot has already happened on this side of 50 – all good things, things I need for growth. I am so grateful for the wake up call. Looking forward to continuing this journey with God. My focus is finally where it needs to be, on Him and the calling He has for my life.

Before I end, I am also celebrating 800 consecutive days of blogging – 200 to go!

Thanks for reading my real first random rambling from this side of fifty. Praying you have a wonderful week!♥️

Shaun

Facebook Memory: July 24, 2017

It’s uncomfortable but necessary.
Life

Step Into Your Calling

Shaun Bradford

You already know what you have been called to do. You have seen the vision and it is very plain. However, you are hesitant to move forward because it will take you completely out of your comfort zone; you feel like there are too many uncertainties to take the risk. Believe me, I understand. I am right there with you. But now is the time for us to step into our callings. No more excuses. No more delays. Those who need what we have to offer need it now… TODAY. Let’s do this!♥️ ~Shaun

It’s time!

Side Note: This consecration time with God that Bishop Jakes suggested Sunday is THE TRUTH! Listen, I thought I was already spending time with God and following His guidance, but clearly I wasn’t. Over these past few days, things that I thought I had handled resurfaced and I had a choice to either bury them again or face them head on. Well, I decided to face them. Listen, if you want to KNOW about yourself, spend a little time with God, real time with God and I guarantee He will show you who you really are. Y’all, it was not easy, but it was so necessary. Grateful

Life

I Am God’s Child

Shaun Bradford

Hey Y’all!

I promise you this is my final blog for today. If you have been following my blog for a while then you know I believe in transparency. When I began blogging, one of the things that really bothered me was the lack of transparency with people. This was one of the issues I had with social media and people always sharing their ups but never their downs. Well, since I wanted transparency, transparency was what I decided to give.

Overall, I am a very positive and happy person, no lie. I really do get excited about the tiniest things that happen. I can see a butterfly and be like God sent it my way just to see me smile, you know, because He just loves me so much. Smiling. That’s really me 90-95% of the time. Honestly, I used to believe something was wrong with me because I could not stay mad very long nor could I wish anyone bad, even after being done wrong.

Recently, I started paying attention to different scriptures about God rewarding us in the presence of our enemies. I have heard them all of my life but somehow those scriptures never resonated with me because I never believed I had enemies. Call me naive, but y’all, I never even thought anyone would want to wish me bad or see me hurt. I hear people saying things about other people, but never believed I could ever be included in someone’s ill thoughts. Well, I finally realize that everyone is not like me. That there are people out there who would love to see me fail or hurt.

Well, I’m not going to fail because God does love me and He loves blessing me. Yes, I may stumble, may even hurt at times, but I will ALWAYS bounce back. I am God’s child, and He loves seeing me smile and making me happy. THIS I KNOW to be true. So whatever weapon that has been formed against me will NEVER prosper or stop me from prospering. Amen

God’s got me!♥️

Good Night

Shaun

Life

Give It To God

Shaun Bradford

You know better than I do what “it” means to you. So whatever “it” is, give it to God. Release it. Let it go. Let Him handle it.♥️ ~Shaun

“I Told The Storm” by Greg O’Quin & Joyful Noize

Side Note:

When God has a message for you, you best believe He will make sure you receive it. Now whether or not you obey it is on you.

Funny story… or more like a transparent moment… guess I have been feeling Year50 a little too much. I’m not going to lie, I have been like, “if it did not happen on that side of 50 I’m moving on.” Every time these moments happened I would hear God ask if I had consulted Him. Well, I would tune Him out. I didn’t want hear anything about consulting Him because I felt like I had been consulting with Him long enough on issues I could clearly handle on my own. Told you I’m being very transparent.

Well, this morning we had a meeting and I had to let go of a few hurts and disappointments, hurts and disappointments stemming from things not happening in my time, or the time limit I had placed on Him (God)–everything had to happen before 50. My mind and mouth said I was okay with His timing, but my heart and soul were not okay. Until this morning, I had not allowed myself to feel the pain of those hurts. I wanted to leave everything behind. But as we all know, whatever we don’t fully address will always be lurking in the background just waiting for the opportunity to resurface.

Here’s the message I received this morning, and get this… I wrote it. Must have written it specifically for this moment–gotta love God’s timing!

Facebook Memory: July 18, 2022

Like God didn’t see what I was doing. Baby, I was busted. He saw me and He knows me better than anyone else, even myself at times. My job is to be still, wait, and follow His lead. Y’all, I cannot move without Him because His plan IS the best plan.

Enjoy your day!