So Much More Than Just A Dream!

Over the previous years, I spent a lot of time talking and writing to you and others on the topics of “Rediscovering or resurrecting your God given dreams”, being “Created by Greatness for Greatness”, as well as reminding you to “Transform your thoughts, transform your life”. While those topics will always be interwoven into everything I speak and write, I don’t want you to get caught up or excited about the catch phrases but never step out and into the real you.

Week after week many people leave churches, temples, motivational conferences, leadership workshops, and “Be All You Can Be” events excited. They buy all the DVDs, CDs, and books but rarely make the lasting changes or take the necessary steps that lead them to living their authentic and abundant life. I don’t want to write or speak to groups for the applause or to tickle your ears. I don’t want you to just discover your dream. Don’t get your feelings all worked up over the idea of a dream and of faith but never exercise that faith. I want you to actively step out, take leaps of faith, let the real you emerge, and watch your dreams unfold into a reality that will change the world around you.

I had a dream the other night. I awakened in the middle of it and then went back to sleep. We often do the same thing with our lives. We dream a little and then go back to sleep. We become comfortable with just having a dream or a revelation of who we are- something to talk about- but often fell to act upon our dreams and desires and fail to allow ourselves to become who we really are! We have to become accountable to that which we know, responsive to the desires God placed on the inside of us, and have the guts to be who we really are.

Often it really isn’t the lack of resources, time, investors, or support that is hindering us. Instead it is usually a impoverished mindset and the lack of guts due to plain old fear. “Oh no she didn’t just say…” Oh yes, I did. Now don’t get angry with me. I can say that because I know what I’m talking about. There were times I didn’t step out because of fear- fear I’d fail, fear of what my family would think, fear I’d have to leave some folks behind, fear I didn’t look the part… I covered up those fears with excuses. “I don’t have enough money”, “I don’t have enough support”,… Even more dangerous and wasted were the times I downplayed who I was out of some false sense of guilt or due to the insecurities of other people. Foolishness I tell you! Foolishness!! I had to ask myself, “Where is that gutsy little girl who believed anything was possible- the girl who refused to let anything crush her spirit or her dreams? Where is that girl who would look at you as if you were “all kinds of crazy” if you told her she couldn’t have, do, or be something?” Oh, here I am baby… right here! I may have appeared hidden for a moment but by faith I emerge and step confidently and courageously into the future- bringing everything God gave me with me! Faith not fear must be our modus operandi. Oh, I could tell you plenty of stories about times I should have been scared but ran through that fear like a bulldozer. I can’t stop now and neither can you.

I want to challenge you to awaken and be proactive. Don’t go back to sleep. Your life is significant. You are so much more than just a dream. Be sold on who God made you to be! Be sold on what God is doing in your life! Wake up to who you are and have the guts to actually live your dreams. Take some time this week to outline steps you can and will immediately take in the direction of your dreams and living your authentic life. Find an accountability partner who will support you, push you, not fall for your excuses, and challenge any stinking thinking you may exhibit (Remember the way you think directly relates to how you respond to life.)- someone who won’t allow you to compromise your God-given greatness!

Email me at WendyInspires@gmail.com to let me know what steps you are taking and whom you chose to be your accountability partner. We can also connect and do the same thing on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Wendymreynolds. Follow me and I’ll follow you back. Just let me know you read this article. Let’s support one another. Not another day will we just dream a great dream and talk a good talk. No, today and from now on, we awaken, we arise, and we walk it out! Come on and shine. I see you. Let’s go!

Happy Resurrection Day!

Smiling

I woke up today with a smile.  That might not mean anything to you, but to be able (in these days and times) to greet the day- to say hello to life with a smile… Umm, Huge!  I’m filled with hope, gratitude, and great expectations. My mind is at peace.  I feel good about who I am. I feel good about the place that I’m in. I feel great about what’s ahead. “But, what about… Explain yourself Wendy.” No, not today and maybe not even tomorrow.  I don’t feel a need to- Nothing to explain and nothing to prove. Incredible.

Wendy M. Reynolds

“Transform your thoughts, Transform your life!”  ~WR

My Prayer (Because sometimes you just have to pray for yourself)

Lord, thank You for being who You are and thank You for my life. I am Your daughter- not a servant or a friend, but a daughter! In You I live, move, and have my being.  As I go throughout the day, let me stay in Your presence and be overcome by Your Joy. Let Your voice be the voice I give ear to. Let Your words of life saturate my heart and mind. Let Your praises forever be in my mouth. Let me stay reminded of the fact that I am loved, valued, and appreciated. Keep me reminded that the life You’ve given me is significant- that I was created by Greatness for greatness! Therefore I respect my life and live it intently with passion, with purpose, and with a grateful attitude!

Surround me with Your angels, protection, favor, and with good people. Remind me that everything that concerns me concerns You- every aspect of my life! You are in control and I trust You to handle that which concerns me.  I thank You that all of my needs are met. I lack in absolutely nothing. You take pleasure in my prosperity- in my wholeness. Therefore, I speak wholeness to me spiritually, to my emotions, to my physical body, to my financial life and to my social life. I also declare healing of EVERY broken area of my life and of EVERY wound inflicted upon me from infancy to adulthood. What the enemy thought would kill me, You use to build me. I bind up the enemy and speak death to his plans. I condemn every lie and every tongue that has risen up against me. Enlarge my territory! Rise up in me God and let the enemies scatter. I will not be stopped. I will not be silenced! I will fulfill Your call on my life.

God, You know Your thoughts & plans for me- thoughts of peace- plans to prosper me and to give me an expected end! I believe Your word. I take hold of Your promises knowing You will perfect that which concerns me and bring Your plan to fruition- knowing that You will not and cannot go back on Your word. Move the roadblocks and hindrances- those seen and unseen. Destroy the gates and enemies that attempt to keep me from walking in my promised place. I bind up faulty thinking and declare I have the mind of Christ. I bind up shame, pride, fear, selfishness, false humility, the negative effects of past failures & mistakes, as well as the influences of false friends and hurtful family members.

I declare and receive the release of resources, favor, & divine connections needed to bring the God ideas of my heart to pass. Change my life and the world around me for the better with those God ideals. As I release my God-given gifts, God ideals, and God-given revelations let them cause astonishment across the world. Bring them and me across the eyes, ears, minds, and hearts of great people. Let us be highly sought after and esteemed.

I speak to the Spiritual Giant and Queen in me- come forth and take your rightful place without guilt, shame, condemnation, or hesitation. I will not compromise who I am! I will BE who I am! I will walk in my authentic identity- in my predestined life. I will not settle for an alternative or counterfeit life. Incredible, confident, and amazing Woman of God that I am, break forth! I am blessed and divinely favored of God- blessed to be a blessing. Woman of influence, Woman of power, and Woman of faith that I am, come forth in all of my fullness. There is need of me. Let my light no longer be hidden but let it emerge and shine so others can see it and glorify God.

Lord, I say yes and amen to what You have said. I know that You are faithful to Your covenant with me. I expect You to do exceeding abundantly above all that I can ask or think. My expectations are through the roof. Thank You for doing the impossible, the incredible, and the spectacular in my personal and professional life.  Let a flood of profitable opportunities break forth for me and let a flood of opportunities for me to provide opportunities and invest in others break forth.  Thank You for releasing grace, favor, power, healing, peace, finances, mercy, protection, forgiveness, kindness, divine revelation, joy, and love upon me. I pray and declare these things over myself in Jesus’ name. It is so and I praise You!

Wendy M. Reynolds

You are more than enough! Embrace Victory!

Today I just want to remind you to embrace victory!  I know in many ways many of us are still struggling.  However, we have to see more than the struggle.  When we can see beyond the struggle, we will recognize that we’re actually walking in extraordinary times. Don’t be afraid to embrace extraordinary even if you have yet to experience it with your natural eyes. Don’t be afraid to step out on faith onto unfamiliar ground.   Go ahead and start the adoption process for the child you’ve been considering adopting. Submit the song you wrote to the publishing companies.  Reach out to that person who is on your “Top 10 people I want to meet” list. Register your business name.  And that cutie that caught your eye- yeah, go ahead and make a lunch date.

Although it may not look like it or feel like it, a shift has occurred in favor of those who will have the guts to believe and walk in the fullness of who they are. Embrace the thought that you were made for this time. Embrace the thought that life is about to be incredible. Embrace the thought that the God-given ideal you have will revolutionize your life and the world.  Why not you? Why not now? Start living life from a stance of victory. Understand the struggles but expect and embrace victory.  Will you dare? If you don’t give yourself a chance to experience victory, what else if there left to experience? If you don’t allow yourself to experience the goodness, greatness, and possibilities of God, what will you experience?

There is something I have been wanting to do for a while.  The actual action is sort of simple but the impact (whether it is successful or not) would be huge. It is such a major foundation of who I believe I am and what I believe I’m called to do.  I’ve shot at targets near it- danced all around it for years- always coming up with an excuse not to directly tackle “this” thing- because success or failure in this area would truly be noticed! So while I have had some great successes in life, I knew (even if no one else did) I was still compromising who I was and the dream of my heart. I couldn’t blame it on anyone else but me. Something inside of me would only allow to have partial victory- live half a dream. Full victory- complete wholeness was too much right? I was thinking too lofty… right? What if I couldn’t handle it? A failure here would be earth shattering, life altering, and heartbreaking or would it? Ugh!  Listen, living half of a dream is not living the dream.

Why was I even dwelling on the negative possibilities? I wasn’t embracing the possibility of total victory. I wasn’t embracing the thought that just being the “ME” who God created was more than enough to be- more than enough to do.  I wasn’t embracing the thought that at the end of the day the depths of my struggles wouldn’t be able to compare with the heights of my victories- that the chatter of folks who didn’t believe in me would be no comparison to the impact on the lives of folks whom God would allow me to encounter.  That compromise kept me in the midst of a life draining struggle. It kept me  from being totally fulfilled. In my heart I always knew that there was a part of me left untapped- a part of me that I had allowed to be trapped in my own inner prison constructed of fear. Why did it seem so much easier to hold on to the struggle than embrace the ideal of victory? Geez! Well, I’m glad to say that I finally did the simple thing and while the results are yet to be seen, my expectations are great and I feel liberated Yeah, I feel like my “inner awesomeness” has been freed. Woohoo! Hahaha.

We are told that the struggles of life are so important. They help us develop into who we are. While this is true, you have to be careful not to get caught up in, get stuck in, or create unnecessary struggles. And those necessary struggles- well, let them help develop you but never let them define you! You are so much more than your struggle.  You won’t even begin to understand the amazing you that God created or the incredible impact your life is to have on the world around you until you see beyond your struggles.  It’s time. 

With all that said, what about you? What are you doing?  What are some steps you can and need to take?  No really- identify them!  Write them down. Commit to them. Are you doing more talking than walking? Are you doing more hiding- hiding from your own self and desires? Are you embracing the struggle but not the idea of victory? Are you and your dreams stuck behind a prison wall of fears? Liberate your own inner awesomeness. Give yourself permission be who you are.  Don’t compromise the real you! Unleash the fullness of who you are. Take great leaps of faith. Give yourself permission to shine. Give yourself the opportunity to expect, experience and embrace victory! Aaaahhh!

Let’s go!

Wendy M. Reynolds

Living Me and Moving Forward!

We made it to the last day of 2012. I’m not as reflective as I have been in times past- probably because I’ve been so reflective throughout the year. For me, it’s now about continually moving forward, embracing God’s grace, purpose, & victory, impacting lives, and living me- no excuses, no apologies! “Well, Wendy, that sounds good and all but what in the heck does that really mean?” Listen, something I had to come into grips with in 2012 was that you may not know what that means for me.  You need to know what “continuing forward” means for you.

I spent way too much time in times past wrestling with how do I get people to embrace, to see, to understand, to support, …etc. People who have known us for a while often have one image of us and trust me it’s not the complete image. It’s difficult for them to see us as anything other than what they think they know to be true.  They might even get a little nervous or panic when we step out of their comfort zone of who they believe we are or when they don’t see us responding to certain situations as they believe we should. I don’t blame them.  That’s how people are and spending lots of time trying to convince them just keeps us from moving forward- no one to blame but ourselves.  We have to remember that we are not responsible for the beliefs and thoughts of others. However, we are responsible for being us, for living us as God reveals us to us.

To some I’ve been known as the counselor, the consistent and dependable friend who gets along with everyone, the preacher, the rescuer, the behind the scenes problem solver, never making waves (well, at least some people thought that), the peacemaker, the (uh oh) level-headed one. Those are good things, right? Cool, but that’s not all of me.  There’s more inside of me which continues to reveal itself to the world around me as I journey forward.

Certain areas or periods in my life are forever gone, over, dead and every day (not just on New Years), I’m stepping into my future. My moving forward may look different from yours. Don’t judge my journey by your journey or even by my previous road trip.  I’ve moved away from the old things, the dead things, and just as important, the tomb- that thing that keeps me connected to those things. I encourage you to do the same!

I find it interesting how after Jesus’ death, Mary came to the tomb bringing spices, perhaps to finalize the burial process. The Angel of the Lord said to her ”Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not there.  He is risen (See Luke 24).” Notice that Jesus Himself hadn’t stuck around the tomb to explain- to tell folks he was alive and well.  He wasn’t leaning against the tomb wall telling Mary, ”See, what had happened was…”  No,  He was gone on being who He was and getting ready for what was about to happen in His life.  When word got out that Jesus was no longer in the tomb, the religious folks (who by the way, had previously hung Him up on the cross) panicked and started telling lies. When Jesus encountered people, some folks didn’t recognize Him and some others doubted Him. Many of these were the same folks He walked with, ate with, or perhaps did miracles for.  I supposed that didn’t bother Him.  He stayed in peace. How do I know? Because He is peace. He continued to journey forward while preparing to go higher.

So hey, in the words of Tupac (Oh no she didn’t just say Tupac! LOL), “I ain’t mad at cha” if you don’t recognize me, doubt me, see my forward movement, or whatever. Keep your spices to yourself. Hang out at the tomb if you want.  As for me, well, someone will eventually let you know that the barriers that once blocked me or kept me confined have been moved. I already left. I’m living me! I’m journeying forward, preparing to go higher, and choosing to love every minute of it! Let’s go.

Walking in Extraordinary Times!

Wendy M. Reynolds

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(Hurricane Sandy) Peace, be STILL

We are praying for everyone affected by Hurricane Sandy, which left half the East Coast under water.   We pray for no more loss of life, continued safety, quick rescues, restored power, restored services, restored hope, wisdom, and cooperation amongst all people, States, and agencies!   We understand that many people have lost loved ones, homes, and have been traumatized and devastated.  We pray that the God of peace, the Alpha and the Omega, the One who restores and heals will comfort the hearts and minds of the people, give them strength,  give them courage, and restore their hope and their goods as only He can do!  Show us Lord how to be helpful- how to sow our love, our resources, and Your word to all who need it. Teach us how to look to You always.  Thank You for Your mercy, Your grace, and Your greatness. Thank You for ever being mindful of us. Thank You for always being a present help and the continual source of strength, hope, and love.

~Wendy M. Reynolds

(Love Ya Andre!)