Looking For Love?

 We pray that the Lord will cause you to feel God’s love and remember Christ’s patient endurance. –2 Thessalonians 3:5 (ERV)

When  you are lonely  and feeling  unloved it really  dims your outlook on life. There can be  people  around you that you know love you but  depression can  cloud your  thoughts  and  you may  still  “feel” isolated and alone. In these instances we need to  desperately  press into  God’s presence  and ask that He would help you to feel His love.  As much as we love  our  friends and family there  is no other love like the Lord’s.

Consider this, perhaps that  tugging at your  heart  is God  drawing you nearer , encouraging you to spend time with Him so that He call fill you up. So before you  seek out a significant other  as great as they  are and before you call a friend as great as they are  I  want to encourage you  to seek the Lord first!  Pray that the Lord fills  the gaps in your life so that  you don’t have to rely  on the fickleness of  people because through  the confidence that  you now  have in  God you know that His love has no boundaries nor is it contingent of your circumstances, His love is unconditional.

Love, Lesli

The Human Condition

Everyone is seeking a variation of the  same thing  in life. We are all seeking to find the piece of the puzzle that connects us  to our purpose. For many of us, we have been searching for some time now  for where we belong, who we are and someone who “get’s” us.

This is definitely true for myself  I’ve  yet to  come across someone that  get’s  my  lesli-ism’s…lol. Being such a introvert with a dash of  only child syndrome, it’s   understandably  hard  for some to figure me out  or even  realize that  it’s not  about them or  even about  how  I feel about them and that the  truth is  I really just  need time to recharge. In spite of the truth I  find that  being this way  comes off as being indifferent or  uninterested but this isn’t the case.( well,not all the time)

Over the years I’ve experienced a lot of one sided friendships and I haven’t been that great of a friend over last few years either, I pushed  people away  a lot. I’m going to keep it real ,  I am a bit jaded and it “seemed” less stressful to just isolate myself. But  more than ever what I’ve learned this year  is the value in having  a solid circle of friends.  Going through the process of being unemployed and my mother’s illness and so much more; It would’ve meant the world to me to have a circle of friends to vent to, pray with  me, to laugh with or  just to hang out  to take my mind off of things.   I’ve definitely learned to NEVER take for granted friendship.

⁹ Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. ¹⁰ If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. ¹¹ Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? ¹² A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. Ecclesiastes 4:9( NLT)

As  believers  we need each other life get’s  hard and it  is  vital to have  a support system in your life so you don’t lose  your mind  trying to go it alone. Moving forward my prayer  is for discernment in making friends and the heart to  allow  people to befriend and  love me.

Love, Lesli

How I am Battling Anxiety (triggers)

In  keeping with my  desire to be more transparent  with this blog as oppose to just doling  out devotional/advice  I want to share a bit of current and past  experience with  anxiety attacks.  So let’s start  from the beginning.

I remember the  first time that I experience  an anxiety  attack. I was   making my  way back to  Atlanta  after my  grandmother’s funeral and   out  of  nowhere I felt a intense  sense of  panic /anxiety.   In my  case  my anxiety attacks also  affect me  physically  and can sometimes be uncomfortable or  a bit  painful.  So experiencing this for the first time where my muscles were  tensing up and my breathing was labored coupled with  the panic,  to say the least it  freaked me out.  We ended up  pulling  over to a  Wendy’s and I got out the car  walked  to  the restroom to  calm myself down. At that  point  I knew what it was to be nervous or  depressed but  a  full blown anxiety attack was a whole new ball game.

In 2007 I lost my  father and  aunt to cancer, my  grandfather passed suddenly and  several other family passed on as well.  Now  tack on to that  the stress of moving to a different city and  it was just  A LOT!  It was  one of the hardest  years of  my life.

Now  fast forward to where I am currently  in my life at this point with being unemployed, my  mom being  diagnosed with breast cancer and everything that  comes along with that,  I’ve been feeling  overwhelmed.The good news is  I’ve experienced something similar  and  I’ve learned over the years what to do when I am experiencing an  anxiety attack and  how  to   reduce the frequency of  them happening and I  want to share a few tips with you.

So how do I push through my  Anxiety Attacks?….

1.  Prayer: This is my  first and BEST line of  defense.  Find a space that is  quiet, do whatever you have to do to get there and  spend some time  with God.  If you need to  go to a  restroom, another room in your  house or even sit in your  car  take that time to  pour your heart out to  the Lord.
2. Exercise: This has  been  one  of THE  key things that has  reduced the frequency of  my  anxiety attacks. You can  google the  specifics of why working out  regularly  helps.  For   me  it has  been an tremendous  tool in  battling anxiety attacks because working out energizes me and elevates my  mood.
3. Breathe: While you’re experiencing an attack breath in deeply through your nose and out slowly through your mouth.  For me this  helps  me  refocus  and push through some of the physical effects of  anxiety attacks that I experience
4. Diet:  Try to steer  clear of  overindulging in a lot of  processed and  fatty  foods. The food  practices these days  aren’t the  best   so it  is  better overall  that your diet is  cleaner and  filled with whole foods that  build your body up
5. Talk about it: Find someone who  you feel comfortable with and  tell them what you are going through. The last thing you need to do is  isolate yourself and  hold all of  your anxiety  inside.
6. Caffeine: Yes caffeine, It winds you up and can trigger anxiety so avoid sodas with caffeine and switch to decaf coffee; Yes decaf you’ll be fine. If you are looking for  boost in the morning to take the place of the jolt of  caffeine  try swapping it for  a green smoothie.

Lastly  remember that you are not alone  and you WILL get through this.  God  knows where you are  and is  eager to get you through this  so  lean on Him and He  will  give you all the  tools you need to  win this  battle. Don’t ever  give up our breakthrough is  on the  way so keep fighting!

Love, Lesli

Counter-Culture

all pictures are taken by Lesli Does Life unless otherwise stated

Let’s  be  honest living a life  counter-culture takes  courage  and it  can be  uncomfortable when  what you believe isn’t popular opinion.  As a Christian being  obedient  to the  will of  God means standing out and  not  being willing to digest everything the culture tries to feed us; Remember you have the right  to think freely and respectfully disagree. As believers we have this stigma  of  being oppressive and judgmental  and the  truth is a lot  of  fit this description exactly! So it’s no wonder people are  creating their own truth, redefining what marriage is , looking for acceptance,  or wavering between the worlds  view and  Gods  plan.

We must do better and  drop the front of having everything together. Often times people are looking for someone who can be transparent and that they can relate to.  Some of us  have been to  busy condemning  others that we  haven’t begun to love them. Let’s get one thing  straight, as a  believer I stand  by Gods  plan  and although I don’t subscribe to the worlds view it doesn’t mean that  I  will disrespect, intentionally  hurt or treat anyone  with anything less the respect that I would expect  for myself. I will to the best of my abilities mirror Gods love without adopting the worlds truth or denying my personal beliefs.

Love, Lesli