Master of Destiny

Happy Tuesday evening,

How is everyone doing on this amazing Tuesday? Good I hope. The countdown has officially begun. One more day before Thanksgiving.

I do hope and pray if you’re traveling to get to family and friends you have safe travels. The roads are getting busier and busier each day as we get closer to celebrating what we’re grateful for.

I feel ahead of schedule this year. I have my shopping done. Thanksgiving cards all mailed out which I completed middle of last week. I have half my house clean and tonight after we’re done catching up I’ll work on another room or two. Tomorrow I’ll do some baking and kitchen cleaning. Tomorrow evening I’ll get the tables and chairs all set up and hopefully come Thursday, all I’ll have to do is stuff the bird and cook him. We have a 25.5 pound turkey to serve up along with so many more trimmings.

I would love to hear all about your upcoming celebration to-do’s and whom you might be spending the holiday with. Shoot me a text or drop me a comment. You always brighten my day when I hear from you.

Below is a photo of my mantel. I know I shared it with you last week but tonight, it’s more complete. I have a fire going.

Oh how I love a fire. I told John I don’t think I could live without a fireplace.

As excited as I am to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends, I’m equally excited to get our home decorated for Christmas. John and I have been collaborating ideas and boy am I excited to decorate with a super fun theme. More on that later.

Tonight I wanted to share with you all something that I’m finding to be very true in my own life. I’ve been talking with a friend the last few days and it looks like we might venture out into the podcast world together. We come from very different backgrounds, however, in some weird way, we see ourselves in each others stories. If we do launch, I’ll be sure and share our site with you. With the support I get from you guys with my blog, I know I’ll get the same with the podcast and I know you’ll always give me your feedback. I appreciate you all so much for always giving me an honest opinion. You’ve helped me grow as a person and as a writer and hopefully one day author.

I wanted to talk to you this evening about becoming the masters of our own destiny’s. You see in my previous life I had no voice. I had no opinions that I could openly share. I was a wife, a mother and a Jehovah’s Witness. Those were my titles and those were who I was. My identity, minus my likes, dislikes, passions and dreams. I’m not even sure I knew what those were back then.

With living life by the standards of a title I don’t think you can truly know who you are at least what I found to be true in my own case. I had no clue of who I truly was. It wasn’t until I began learning and accepting other ideas and opinions then deciding what I liked and didn’t like I began my journey to becoming the master of my own destiny.

I didn’t want to simply live life anymore being told what to do. What to think. How to feel. Who I could and couldn’t be friends with. I hated not being allowed to associate with family members simply because they weren’t JW’s. I missed out on so many amazing stories and life events with my family. I can’t get that time back, but I can most certainly embrace every minute moving forward.

I think the thing I hate most is knowing my kids missed out on things other kids were doing, especially their “worldly” friends.

When I woke up and decided to improve and grow as a person my life took some radical changes.

In a matter of months I lost my marriage, my home, my job, my kids (for a short time), my money, my car and to top it off, I was in an accident that has cost me nearly 8 years of my life. All this because I woke up and chose a different path over being a JW.

No regrets though. I am grateful for the lessons I learned along the way. I’m stronger for those lessons and the best part is I found John and he found me.

A friend recently told me I should share my love story in my blog with you and I think I might do that soon. It truly is a story every woman dreams of. My friend said my love story makes her envious in a good way. She said she was told not to be jealous of someone, but envious. I need to ponder on that thought a bit longer. One thing I know is, my dear sweet friend said how lucky I am to have a man like John and how lucky he is to have me. She said our love story would be one others would enjoy reading.

Becoming the master of my own destiny cost me so much. At the beginning anyway, however, in the end, I’ve gained even stronger relationships with my sons, my daughter in law, my daughter in law to be. My daughter in laws mama, my future daughter in laws parents and I’ve built friendships like I never had before.

I fell in love and someone actually fell in love with me. Someone loves me for me and not for a title. He sees me, he knows me inside and out and he still chooses me.

While my road was bumpy at times and there were times I felt like I fell over a cliff. Even during those times I wanted to give up, there was something deep inside me that kept me going. Perhaps it was my dad’s strong will passed down to me. Maybe it was God seeing something in me I didn’t know I had. I’d like to believe in some small way, the Universe was guiding John and I to merge paths because we have one heck of an amazing relationship.

One day I found the strength to walk away from my previous life and walk towards becoming a person with thoughts and feelings that mattered. I walked towards a life of freedom from being completely controlled by not only my husband but by a cult/religion. God has led me to see a vision for what I want my life to look like in the future and what I want to do with it.

I want to help others and I want to be successful in His eyes. I want to share my mistakes with others in hopes of helping them in anyway I can.

“The more you insist on IMPROVING who and what you are, the more you become MASTER of your DESTINY.”-Rod Stryker.

I believe my destiny is to make a mark in this world and help others. I believe there is something in my story that will perhaps assist someone on their own path.

Whatever my destiny looks like, I’m moving towards it one step at a time. I just hope I don’t miss His signs and if I do, I have no doubt he’ll correct my steps.

Well guys I want to thank you for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read today’s blog.

Enjoy the rest of your night and until next time, sleep tight and Love Life++ Hugs.