Had forgotten about the theme I had chosen for this year, “Present and at peace.” Life started happening and my focus shifted from drawing from my inner peace to focusing on things happening around me. And about a good 90 percent of those things were someone else’s problems. My daughter says I internalize other people’s problems. She says it’s okay to empathize with them but their problems are theirs. And she’s absolutely right. I’m listening.
So today, I am once again choosing to stay present – only focusing on what’s in front of me – and at peace. Praying you do likewise. Have a wonderful day!♥️ ~Shaun
Staying present isn’t easy but it is so necessary to remain at peace.
I’m not sure what’s going on with me waking up around 3:00/3:30 AM nowadays. Like, I’m wide awake. Then around 5:30/6:00 AM, I find myself falling back to sleep. At first it was annoying, but now I just start everything two hours earlier, then take a nap before officially getting up. Anyhoo…
After waking up with Marvin Winans’ song, Draw Me Close to You/Thy Will Be Done, playing over and over in my head, and much needed prayer time with God, I received my answers. I know what’s wrong. Not going to go into details because those revelations were just for me. Now that I understand what the problems are, I can deal with them. Now, how I choose to do it is totally up to me.
Here’s what I’ll call one of the “solutions” to the revelations. Listen, it had me shaking my head and smiling at the same time. Y’all God is so good. It’s an excerpt from one of my journal entries from this date. Debating whether or not to share the entire entry. Will let you know what I actually decided before I hit publish.
Shaun’s Journal Entry: August 4, 2014
So I’ve decided not to fight it any longer. I may as well give in and just let things be. No, I’m not happy, but as I’ve told others many times before, make yourself happy. So life has given me a barrel of lemons & grapefruit. Time to make sour punch (sounds gross huh?). Oh well…
God will work it out. Turn it over to Jesus, he will work it out! He can, he can, work it out. You won’t even have to touch it. Hallelujah!!
Although that entry was about something completely unrelated to what I am currently going through, I believe it was written for this very moment. Nine years ago, God already knew exactly what I would need to get through this time. So yes, I’m smiling and now tearing up. I needed those words of encouragement. I’m turning everything over to God. I won’t have to lift a finger or touch a thing. He will work it out. Amen
By the way, I shared the entire entry. All of it was relevant. I keep telling y’all God loves me. Smiling
Praying you have a blessed weekend. Thanks for reading. Love you!♥️
Already up reading past journal entries so I may as well write. This particular message is a brief summary of what I wrote eight years ago, August 2, 2015.
Message…
Your blessings will find you. You won’t have to seek them out, God will deliver them to you. Remain faithful.
Eight years ago, I was at one of my lowest points in life. I had recently separated from my ex; car was breaking down every other day; house was going into foreclosure; and I didn’t know if I would get the raise that I so badly needed. That was eight years ago. In that same journal entry I wrote –
“I feel like the world is weighing down on me. This load is very heavy, but I thank God for helping me make it daily. The steps forward are very small, but I do know I’m moving forward.”
Despite what I was going through, I knew deep down I was moving forward. Later on that same evening, I had received an email from the department chair saying that they had petitioned for me to receive an even larger increase in my salary from what we had discussed. I didn’t even have to lift a finger. God intervened on my behalf.
Since then, I have been up and I have been down, but never that far down. Even with setbacks I have constantly moved forward. I was listening to a message yesterday where the young lady said your setbacks have made you stronger. And she was right, each setback did make me stronger. What would’ve taken me out eight years ago seems like child’s play today. God is good!
That’s all for today. I haven’t been drawing like I used to. Feel like I’m running out of flowers to draw. Maybe I need to really focus on drawing one thing and perfecting it. I’ll let you know how that works. Until I draw something new, I will reshare from my Facebook memories. Here’s what I shared last year. Be blessed.♥️ ~ Shaun
It’s a new month, a new week and a new day. Today’s the PERFECT day to give that project, goal, dream or relationship that didn’t work out before, another try. Yes.. Try Again!
Wishing you a wonderful month!
If it’s something you truly want to achieve, don’t give up, try again.
This message is so timely. Lately, I have circled back to a few things I had given up on. Things that I felt were too challenging and/or time consuming to achieve at the time. Said I would give them one more try before completely giving up and moving on. One day I’ll share… probably after they are achieved or well established. Trying to stop over sharing but remain transparent.
Anyhoo… That’s all I have for you today. Wishing you a fabulous month! Remember to take care of yourself and enjoy life. Love you!♥️
Being obedient is not always easy, but necessary. Spiritually, I have struggled with being obedient for some time. Although the struggle has became easier since intentionally allowing God to lead, I still struggle with it. I still question whether the moves are right for me, especially when those moves cause uncomfortable shifts. So yeah, I am still working on being obedient. With that being said, I can also proudly say that I am becoming better at listening and complying. Yes… patting myself on the back.
Yesterday, Bishop T.D. Jakes said the following during his sermon – “Your gift will get you there, but your obedience will keep you there.” If I want to stay where I’m going, I must be obedient. Period.
This morning I was scrolling through my Facebook memories and there was the word, “Obedience,” again. This time it was associated with last year’s blog, Hello Sunday July 31, 2022. That particular blog was about me logging off one of my main Twitter (X) accounts.
For several years, I had been struggling with the value I had placed on that account. Basically, it was my life. At first, it allowed me to get away when life became a little too much, but it did not stop there. Later it became my obsession (being very transparent). Sadly, I did not see it at the time – you know it’s hard to see things when you’re right in the middle of it. Y’all, I was obsessed and addicted to it. I was addicted to the interactions and feedback and impressions (yes, I’m a numbers person and Twitter analytics was my best friend). Well, God told me I needed to let it go (I explain all of this in last year’s Hello Sunday). I was never told to deactivate the account, nor delete it, I was simply asked to log off. To log off so that I could get my priorities and focus right. Listen, the way I reacted you would’ve thought He had asked me to throw away my entire life. Y’all, my priorities were not right. All of the glory and praise I should have been giving Him was going elsewhere.
Over the past year, I have logged off, logged on, logged off again, then logged back on… currently, I am logged on. This time I logged back on because I was instructed to do so. I was obedient. Won’t go into detail but the account wasn’t the problem, my obsession and addiction to it was. Until I had learned how to properly handle it, I could not log back on.
Y’all, I am so grateful God loves me. He loves me so much that He even protects me from myself. Honestly, I would not be where I am today had I not been obedient. I would’ve still been stuck where I was, doing the same things and getting nowhere. I’m so glad I listened and obeyed.
I am so much stronger and better equipped because I listened and obeyed.
It’s Shaun’s World 
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