Do you take time out of your day to sit quietly and reflect on life’s events?

I’m learning how to sit quietly and ask God to direct my path.

How often do you ask God to guide you in your personal life or business?

It’s easy to forget to seek God’s guidance when we’re attempting to accomplish our daily activities, but it must be done. God has positioned us in our situation to prepare us for our purpose. In knowing this, we must ask him for direction to fulfill his plan. He will make sure that our needs are met and our desires are satisfied if we allow him to take control.

Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

God knows the steps we need to take to make our personal lives and businesses prosperous. We just have to remember that everything will bloom according to its season. He tests us before he blesses us. God will poor us out a blessing we have room not to receive once he knows that we can handle it.

I’ve come to find out that consulting God before I make a decision provides a sense of assurance. Before I learned to consult God, I hindered myself from receiving my blessings. I wanted to become successful my way, but my decisions always put me in unfortunate circumstances. It is for this reason that I let God orchestrate my steps because there is no wisdom greater than that of the Lord.

Today, I would like to challenge you to seek God first. Before you make a decision, ask God what he would like for you to do. God is ready to provide direction in your life; he’s just waiting for you to ask for it. So, while you are sitting there just take a moment and reflect on the things that you have desired and dream to do for years. Let go of the fear, anxiety and worry and say to God. I need your help to accomplish this desire and dream that I have in my head. Can you help me to move forward and stop focusing on my fear, anxiety and worry that’s keeping me from my destiny and purpose you have for my life?

It only takes these little words to say to God. It doesn’t have to be dressed up pretty. God is just looking for you to ask and for you to have a willing heart to receive his blessing for you.

We are giving out scholarship for students from PreK to College with our nonprofit organization called Kids On the Move for Success. If you know of any student who is looking for an educational opportunity inform them to visit our website www.kidsonthemoveforsuccess.org. This was a desire and dream for me for years and now I am able to change the lives of children all over the world.

Hello, and Merry Christmas to you all! May the peace of God bring you every Christmas blessing this year!

This is my second Christmas since the incident with the gunman at R. E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in August 2013. For this reason, I am looking at the holiday in a different way because I realize I am lucky to even be here to celebrate it. I feel more blessed than ever, and I appreciate the true meaning of Christmas more than I ever did before.

When I was young, Christmas was not about getting a lot of gifts — it was about getting one gift. You see, my mother raised me and my two older brothers, Timothy and John, by herself without a whole lot of money. She worked very hard, but nearly every dime she earned went to feeding and clothing her kids. Nevertheless when Christmas rolled around, my mother asked each of her children which present we wanted for Christmas. Then she found a way to buy us each a present, wrap it, and put it under the Christmas tree. Growing up, I never saw a bunch of wrapped presents under the tree for me. All that I saw was there — one gift.

That one present was more than enough for me. I can still remember the joy I felt when I ripped off the wrapping paper and found just what I’d asked for. One year I asked for a Baby Alive toy doll. Sure enough, there she was waiting for me on Christmas day in her little pink dress with her big, giant eyes. That was a magical moment! All these years later I still remember that cute little doll and the feeling of hugging her tight on Christmas Day.

For us, the real fun of Christmas happened soon after we opened our gifts. My mother could not buy us a lot of fancy toys, but she sure could cook up a storm! Each Christmas, she would cook a big ham, chitlins, greens and macaroni and cheese—and for desert, a big chocolate cake we kids looked forward to all year. The four of us would sit down for our big meal, say grace and thank God for His many blessings. We would laugh and joke as we piled food on our plates and enjoy the specialness of the day. I still get a warm feeling when I think about those long ago Christmas meals.

If we were missing out on something because we only got one gift each, we sure didn’t know it at the time. In fact, we thought we were the luckiest kids around.

When I grew up and had my own children, Christmas changed. I wanted my kids to have more than I did when I was young, a desire most parents share. I let them look through magazines and pick out things they liked throughout the year. Though we did not have a lot of money, I would do my best to get them what they asked for. I hid their presents in the closets and wrapped them on Christmas Eve after the kids went to bed. And when they got up and raced to the living room, they saw a big, beautiful Christmas tree with a whole lot of presents underneath. I never tired of seeing their happy faces as they opened each one.

One thing about Christmas did not change from my childhood to when I became a mother, and that was going to church to celebrate the birth of our Lord. Nothing happened – not the gifts or the meal – until after we dressed up in our finest to congregate with our neighbors and sing the praises of God at Christmas service. It did not matter if there were presents under the tree—Christmas was about thanking God for what you had and not worrying about what you did not have.

Then on August 20, a gunman entered R. E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur, Georgia, with enough ammunition to kill hundreds of children. By the sheer grace of God, I was able to talk the gunman into putting down his weapon, and no one died at the school that day. But Lord knows, coming so close to tragedy changed me, and I suspect it changed every parent who had a child there.

Coming so close to losing everything makes each moment spent with loved ones more valuable and precious. Because every hug, every smile, every laugh, every giggle, every silly dance, every grumpy outburst, every living, breathing moment — these are the real gifts we get to unwrap not just on Christmas but every day we are blessed to be alive. Even the hard stuff – the setbacks, troubles, challenges and just plain awful days -are precious gifts, because they are all part of God’s plan for us. Everything God gives us helps prepare us for our purpose on earth. We can be assured that every good gift and every perfect gift is “coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).

As you open your presents this Christmas and reflect on the previous year, be thankful not just for the material gifts but for the heavenly gift God gives us. To celebrate God’s gift each day is the true meaning of Christmas. It’s a chance to reflect on all the wondrous gifts God puts under your tree so that you can rip them open and enjoy them each and every day. It’s a reminder to feel happy and joyful for being so very blessed.

May the peace of God be in your heart, mind and soul. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

When you woke up this morning, did you have a smile on your face or did the stress of today’s activities instantly overwhelm you? It’s common for us, as people, to wake up with a million things running through our minds. Typically we are stressed before the sun rises, and with our to-do list growing longer by noon, we are even more stressed when the sun sets.

The stress we encounter each morning could come from several things. It could be school, work, marriage, being single or making sure your bills are paid. The key to dealing with the stress of these situations is asking God for wisdom and peace. As a married couple, you have to put God first in your marriage, talk with each other, help each other and walk each other through difficult times. As a single person, you have to spend time with God, study his word and He will give you the answers and direction you need to carry out his plan for you.

For me, a mother of two children and three jobs, my stress most often came from trying to support my kids monetarily while also attending school functions. I wanted my children to have everything they needed, wanted and desired, but the most important necessity for a child is a supportive parent—and that is what I still am determined to remain. When you become a parent, your children become your number one priority. You must commit to and then convey to them that you will be there no matter what you have to sacrifice. As a mother, I need my children to know that they are loved unconditionally. Even with my son who has multiple disabilities, I want him to know that no matter what physical limitations he may have, his mind is great and he has to push past the pain to walk into his destiny and purpose.

What challenges are your children facing in their lives, and how are you helping them with those challenges? Remember that you do not have to figure out the answers alone. No matter if you are a married or single parent, we as parents have to bring back some of the things our parents did to make us successful. Today, it still takes a community (or a village) to raise children to stay on the right path and pursue their destinies.

To join us in our effort, visit our website www.kidsonthemoveforsuccess.org. Learn more about me, my struggles and how relying on God has strengthened me, visit www.antoinettetuff.com. You can also connect with us on social media at @antoinettetuff.

Are you in the midst of a situation that seems to be more than you can bare? Have you prayed to God, and asked for his grace and mercy to overshadow the pain, stress, and/or frustration you are experiencing right now? After you prayed, did you continue to let the feelings of your situation overtake you, or did you rejoice?

One of the most difficult things to do is praise God in problematic situations. Yes, we know that according to his timing- God will make a way for us, but that doesn’t make it any easier to praise him. Our spirit stead fast on God’s word, but our flesh causes us to be impatient.

Throughout my life, I have been in situations that have made me forget to praise God. When my divorce was finalized, I was so stressed out about affording life’s necessities on my own, that I forgot to praise God for always providing me with the things I needed. After I realized God would provide all of my needs, I was so pained by the idea of living alone that I forgot to thank God for never forsaking me. Have you never been in a situation that frustrated you and in the midst of it you forgot to thank God for always letting the Holy Spirit orchestrate your steps. Life will always present us with struggles, but we must remember to always praise God while we are in the situation.

Did you know that every moment you let the feelings of your situations overtake you? You are keeping yourself from your purpose. God can’t bring peace into your life or the situation until you allow him to be in control. God is waiting on you to praise him for making a way, so he can show you that he’s capable of doing the impossible. God is waiting on you to have faith, so you can watch him move. God is waiting on you to rejoice, and let go.

Philippians 4:4 says “ rejoice in The Lord always and again I say rejoice”.

The question for you today is: Are you rejoicing or are you allowing your situations to overwhelm you?

Everyone goes through something in life. Our problems are the foundation in building a strong faith. We trust in God to guide us along the right path, as he said in Psalm 23. However, what happens when God doesn’t move as quickly as we would like him to, when our problems seem as if they are never ending and when we start questioning God’s promises. Our relationship with God is weakened, and we lose hope.

I’ve been there before. When my husband left me, I had not the slightest idea about how I was going to survive. When I was told my son had a lifelong disability, I didn’t know how I was going to show him how to make the best of it. There have been situations in my life that have caused me to wonder “why me”, but God is always faithful and on time for every situation and difficulties that we may face in our lives. There were so many greater opportunities in my life, I just had to let go of the past, and walk into my new purpose.

Did you know that every question you ask against God’s word is a moment wasted in receiving your purpose? God lets us go through things to strengthen our faith. If God didn’t allow us to suffer, how would we know his word is true? It’s the realization that God will do as he has promised that makes our faith immutable.

During our new beginning, we must not let our faith alter because we don’t see a way out of our situations. We must pray, and ask for the strength to push pass the pain of hard times. We must believe that everything will be ok if we allow God to take control. Sometimes, you have to trust in the unknown to get a sense of peace. In every situation, we must realize that God’s plan even if it’s unknown is the best plan for our lives.

Matthew 6:34 says “Don’t worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will bring its own worries.” Don’t allow your worries to affect your relationship with God today. In everything you go through, always remember that God will be there to provide and guide you into your new purpose. Don’t let stress or depression overcome you. Trust in God, and know that through his word everything will be a new beginning for you.

Now, put a smile on your face, hold your head up high and go walk into your new purpose.

Sometimes we forget to live in our todays. Instead we live in our yesterdays, or in our tomorrows. We begin to believe that both the past and future are more important than the present. We forget that the most precious thing of all is the miracle of each new moment that unfolds in our lives.

I have certainly found myself living in the past. I have been afraid to let go of people and places and things that kept me chained to an old way of life. But that is not how God wants me to live. It is not how He wants any of us to live. God wants us to appreciate the great gift He has given us all — the freedom to live our lives today.

“Allow God’s purpose to prevail in your life today,” it says in Proverbs 19:21. That means that we must try to find God’s glory in everything that happens and everything we do. We must be thankful for every new day, every new hour, every new moment, because these things are God’s greatest blessings to us. We mustn’t be afraid to live in the present or allow ourselves to be chained to the past — with God’s help, and in His glory, we must find the courage to live bold and Godly lives each and every day. As it says in John 8:36: “Remember that God set you free to live in freedom today.”

As I said, it was not always easy for me to live this way. For a long time, I was stuck in the past —and I allowed all my old burdens and insecurities to keep me there. I allowed fear to take away my freedom. But that changed when I began to listen — really listen — to the word of God as it is found in the Bible. Those words took away my fears, and opened my life up to freedom. And in that freedom I found God’s purpose for me. I heeded the advice in Proverbs 19:21: “Allow God’s purpose to prevail in your life today.”

And so I begin each and every morning by letting the word of God fill my mind and my heart and my soul. God’s words, I found, are stronger than any steel they use to make chains. If you find yourself living in your yesterdays, or hoping for better tomorrows, do what I did — trust in the power of God’s love for you.” Allow God to control your life today,” it says in Romans 8:6, “so that you can have peace.”