Are You Ready to Change?

 

Are you...

Stuck in a pattern you want to get out of?

Reaching for goals but need help overvcoming "road" blocks?

Wanting to find or reclaim the joy in your life?

Loving your spouse and wanting a richer connection?

*The road to help and healing begins with words like "actually, I'm not okay..."

*Jesus is described as being a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He's not quoted as saying He's okay, He's quoted as saying "..if it's possible, remove this cup from me.." 

*It's okay NOT to be okay. It's okay to ask for the burden to be lifted, as long as in the end we say "Thy will be done."and commend ourselves to God.

If you're willing to look at yourself and make changes,

 if you're willing to do better, not just feel better, 

if you are willing to change your life (your marriage, your home, your circumstances), 

I'm here to help you.

With a foundation in Jesus Christ, with His word as the source and His definitions as our aim we will work together to recover lost joy, lost connections, and work to build strong ones in Him.

What have some people said?

"There was a time I was feeling alot of self doubt and unworthiness, nothing particularly new to me. Usually I have been able to work through it but I was feeling it heavy this time. I was feeling stuck in my current venture and opportunity, I wasn't seeing or feeling the success I desired. I was trying to walk through some basic fears and was not having alot of success. Liz took me back to simplicity...the simplicity of the core of who I am. I was brought back in touch with my young inner self, the purest part of me. I was able to visualize this and all of the unlimited potential I have as a loved Child of GOD. Since that day, I have been able to realize dreams and goals outside of my comfort zone. I love Liz and her ability to get to the core of the issue quickly."-Debi Salmons, Vero Beach, FL

"Liz Bradley has been such a huge blessing in my life. There are so many things that she has helped me with in the short time we have known each other........ BREATH. One day I was having a very hard time with motherhood, and remembered that she told me I could call and chat if I wanted/needed too and I sure did need the extra help. She first helped me to calm down by doing a simple "breath in, breath out" technique. I was amazed at how much that actually helped!! ...... I was having body image issues, and she helped me to be more positive about my body. Now instead of being mean to my body, I compliment myself and I can already FEEL and SEE a difference. I feel so much happier and mostly just being there to listen to my struggles of past experiences and learning that I didn't have control over the issue and that I need to focus on ME and what I need to do to be better."-Lisa Kendall, Grovetown, GA

"Liz helped me identify and clear limiting beliefs that I wasn’t even aware of.  She continually guided my thoughts and heart to the Savior as the source of all healing. I have had some very profound experiences working with her over the years that I still ponder on and cherish."-Jan Podris

"The coaching I have received from Liz has helped me break through doubts and uncertainty, have courage to make changes and stretch outside my previous comfort zone.  She has a gift for intuitively knowing the right questions to help a person access the truth that is inside already that they couldn't see before.  Her unique life experiences have prepared her to strengthen families and individuals to overcome any challenge or past trauma through principles of faith and agency.  She helps people move from victim to victor and access the healing power that is available to all - through trust in the Lord.  "-Alysia L. Humphries

"Working with Liz has been amazing. I love that her work is Christ centered and that she helps guide you to a point of complete peace and comfort. She has helped me through many things ranging from marriage problems to getting over or past self persecution. She also has helped me see myself as God sees me and to truly feel its ok to be me. That it truly is ok to not be perfect and it is ok to seek help."-Jessica Crane

“That was more meaningful then the last 2 years of marital counseling.”-Charity Davis

"Liz, just wanted to tell you that your private…session with me was so life changing. I have felt much lighter, more free, and much more confident. That feeling of being "stuck" on what we talked about is gone. Every point that you addressed was so right on. Even my thoughts are better! I can't wait to have you work with my clients! They need you, I need you and the world needs you! Thank you!"-Stacie Mansell

I would recommend coaching with Liz Bradley to anyone who would like to make a lasting change in their life. She gives inspired guidance and brings clarity to help one discover solutions. She is compassionate and shares of her own experience. I was suffering from depression and uncertainty about which way I should go. She helped me by sharing inspired advice and affirmations that made my situation more clear. She asked great questions to help me get clarity on what I was feeling and what I'd like to feel, and how I could feel that way more often. She has a gift for helping people out of the holes that they dig for themselves, by helping them see their own accountability and power to make choices. She helps others see the power they have to change. She is inspiring!-Shelley Cramer Shumway, Shelley, ID

 One on one coaching sessions have a very personal touch~ 

~We'll work together to bring more light into whatever challenge you're facing so you can face it confidently, release the pain and keep the lesson. 

~The focus will stay on you and God and how you can overcome your challenges through Him.  It's time to release the baggage of the past, it's time to learn new things so you can overcome old problems.

Schedule a Time with Me

~

Coaching for Couples and small Groups

The key to happy marriages is not halves who trust in each other, but those made whole by God who trust in Him.  With God at the center as the deciding voice in all things -as He speaks to each person individually and through scripture, and the redeeming and healing power of Jesus Christ that He offers we will work together to find solutions that bring hope, healing, and connection to your family relationships. 

Schedule a Time With Me

 

The key to healing and unifying is faith in Jesus Christ and Father in Heaven because without them, the results are very limited. 

 If you don't believe in them, I invite you to ask yourself, "What if it IS true?" and if you believe it's possible that your life could be better for believing it, ask God that if He is real He will reveal Himself to you, and if you are truly willing to change your life based on the answer, I truly believe He will manifest Himself to you through the Holy Spirit.

When Choosing Happy Doesn’t Work

 What do you do when you choose happy, and can’t shake the sad, when you work for change and you’re still a mess?

What do you do when your bootstraps wear out, from pulling them ALL the time?

What do you do when your  big girl panties seem to have shredded from all the pulling on?

Surrender

-Not to the pain, not to the fear, not to the anger, not to the cause, not to the doubt, worry and torment. 

 

Surrender to God. 

 Let go, stop trying to be okay, and just surrender. 

Stop telling yourself you’re okay. 

Stop telling yourself it’s fine.

Stop telling yourself you’re “happy, strong, brilliant, powerful, enough, strong, etc. “ 

John 9:41 

"Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth."  If you admit you have need, you will be helped, if you pretend you are okay, you'll stay as you are.

We can come to God, broken down and a mess and say:

“I’m deaf, blind, weak, foolish, and depressed and I need your vision, guidance, wisdom, strength, peace, joy, charity, power, and blessings. I’m willful and rebellious and need your forgiveness and redirection. I’m angry and selfish and need Jesus' submissive and loving spirit. I’m beyond what I can do and need your grace. Open my closed mind (set in my own ideas), soften my hard heart ( resentful to you and others for not giving me what *I* want, what *I* think I need) and fill me with a knowledge of THY will and the power to carry it out with my whole heart. 

If it’s meant to be, it’s up to thee. I’ll do my part, please fill my heart with THY will. 

If it’s not thy will, stop me and change my heart against it. 

If it’s not thy plan, change my view to see it. 

If it’s right, comfort me and strengthen me to do it no matter the cost. 

Bless me with a receptive heart and mind, a heart easy for you to move but immoveable from thy will. Anchor me firmly in truth, I give you the key to turn me when I’m wrong. 

Wash me daily with thy righteousness, cut off from me what’s corrupt or decayed, and plant in me new life, restore to me what’s good and was lost. 

Hold me close when I have to see the darkness I’m allowing in my heart, mind and soul and strengthen me to admit my failures and shortcomings, fill me with thy love, reassure me of thy power, will, and ability to save me, cleanse me, change me, and redeem me- lest THe Enemy come and tear me away and rob me of faith and hope.  Hold me close while I face the pain and weakness in myself, hold me and heal me, anchor me in thy love, power, righteousness and light. 

I am broken and worth healing. I am flawed and worth fixing. I’m dirty and worth cleansing. I’m incomplete and worth finishing. I’ve fallen apart and  worth repairing. There’s nothing so broken or so disarrayed that you can’t restore, renew, redeem or resurrect. 

I want your will, I want your way, I need your strength, I need your vision, I choose you and I surrender my ideas, my will, my plans, my desires, my passions, my thoughts, feelings, my appetites and everything else to you. 

Not my will or my plan or my heart and mind, but yours for me and my life. 

My heart, mind, soul, life, past present and future I give to you. 

Change me, replace me with thee, I am yours.

Please take me as thine own, in Jesus Name, amen."

Then just obey. It’s not your job to make it work, it’s your job to heed His voice (take the steps He gives) and trust Him to do His will (what’s right for you and everyone else). Trust and let Him prevail.

#consecrateyourself #trustHim #letHimwin #letHimin #letHimprevail #HEisworthy #Heisgood #letGodprevail #comelordjesuscome #surrender

Are we defining Love as God Defines it?

 

He is the source of light and truth and IS love.  So if we define it other than His way, we have accepted a lie. 

God manifested His love in the offering of His son.  Love is manifest as sacrifice.  Sacrifice is giving of something good for something sacred.  Heathen sacrifice, was not only a distortion of God's law of sacrifice, the very act of defining what was done was a deception and was calling what was evil sacred and what was sacred, only good.  Human life, as a representation of God (being in His image), is sacred.  Jesus gave his infinite life for all of us to have the opportunity for the same. One infinite life, for many-to do the will of The Father.  He shows us that there is nothing more sacred than doing the will of the Father, Giving our lives for Him.

In family life (I do not say "traditional", for God defined the family the biblical definition is the real one) we are called upon to give our lives for others.  A woman walks through the valley of the shadow of death to bring a child into this world, and in a true sense, if she is not neglectful her life is given for the child.  Unless she takes extreme measures, her heart and soul will be interconnected with the well-being of her children for all of her life. A father sacrifices himself for the family too. His heart and desires are turned to the care and protection of them.

We are indoctrinated in stories, music, commercials, etc. from our earliest years to believe that love is the butterflies in our tummies, the tingles on our spines, the tightening of our gut that comes with attraction.  Perhaps dependence on these fleeting sensations is why divorce has become almost as common as marriage. These feelings can fade easily and be provoked by someone we are not married to, can depend on tiredness, hunger, fatigue, our environment.  But true love is something we actually have a lot more control over.  It is lived through commitment, discipline, gratitude, forgiveness, service, kindness, compassion, looking to the welfare of others, patient and long-suffering.  Love is manifest in caring for others to the same degree or more than we care for ourselves and there is no danger in this, unless you are in a relationship with one who is seeking only their own interests.  Then the suffering is truly long....and is not kind. We need to be asking ourselves: Am I seeking the welfare of those I believe I love to the same or greater degree than I am seeking my own? Am I causing a need for another's long-suffering?

In a way, love is the opposite of our natural feelings, it is the constant and conscious decision to be loyal and submit our own wills and pleasures to the will of the Lord in service to others. Loving Him first allows us to learn from Him how best to love others.  I submit that the scriptures were given to us for such a purpose: that we may learn the love and charracter of God, so we might now HOW God loves and desires us to love others.  The fleeting emotions and chemical/hormonal responses of our bodies, are not love but can be a by product of it if we are diligent.  Those feelings were designed for a purpose, to aid us in building strong relationships, but the strength is in the choice to serve, help, care for, and protect those we are responsible for (God made us responsible for each other by commanding us to love one another), especially our spouses and children.  The experience of those feelings cannot be our goal, it may be a by product of living in love, but when feeling good is the priority, we often forget DOING good because doing good is hard work.

Maybe it is like trees and seeds.  I love peaches, sweet, juicy, somewhat soft: delicious.  If I live for the taste of the peach, I might eat them all up without taking the time to plant and nurture the growth of the tree needed to grow them in abundance.  If I focus on the planting and nurturing, I'll get the peach eventually, and MANY of them.  But if I was only focussed on tasting the fruit, I will squander the opportunity to give and provide an abundance of it. I have felt good, without doing good. I believe that is part of the trouble we face in our world, people want to feel good without having to do good. Are we planting orchards or devouring peaches without thought for what God would have us create?

The Saviour set the example.  With all the power there is at His disposal He wore out his life, giving it-in FACT-in service to God and in serving God saving His fellow-men.  Are we defining love as feeling good, or sacrifice? Are we wrapped up in a deception or are we defining things as they really are, in accordance with the LORD's definition?  

Whom can I serve?

What need I do?

How can I help?

Are these, in fact, the questions of love? of Peace? Of citizenship in God's Kingdom?

Finding Courage to Forgive, Finding Courage to Heal

Gratitude, the path to Humility

When we re looking to improve, especially in relationships, there is a mountain of accountability to swallow, it's overwhelming sometimes. How can we find the courage and strength to face it? The prayer with the 5 phrases helped me. It reminded me of what I am in need of forgiveness for and who can help me do it. So the short answer is: prayer. The longer answer is: we ask God to fill us and surround us in His love so we can rely on the perfection of Christ and the strength of God's love. When we stop trying on our own perfection, the realization of our guilt is not so overpowering because we are letting the Saviour bear the load only He can carry.God's perfection is what makes His love so pure. Our love is tainted by blame because we seek, even subconsciously, to excuse our sins and that taints the way we see others, including God. Coming to Him in true contrition and gratitude brings us into real humility, and humility is the threshold to a change of heart. 

No Way to God Without Humility

When we want to come to God, we have to go through the porch of humility to knock on the doorway of Christ. We can't even lift the knocker of the door without having gone through humility that brings us to the truth that we are not capable of carrying the burden of our own perfection. Letting go of that belief, letting go of our sins and letting Jesus carry and dissolve them in His perfection and His love and redeeming power, frees our strength to be put into seeking God.
Picture yourself coming up to the door carrying on both arms 5-6 gallons of milk -your sins- you can't reach up to the knocker unless you put down the bags. In this case, Jesus is there saying "Cast your burdens on me." He takes the milk and makes cheese, whey, yogurt, butter, whipping cream, and sticks them in your room in God's house. 

Casting off Our Burdens Gives us Strength

We cannot even knock on the door of God unless we have let go of the burdens we're carrying. We can say the words, and there is a point to saying them even when you're not sincere yet, but we aren't completely open until we've cast the burdens of our sins, everything and anything that make us reluctant or doubtful towards God and His desire and intention to bless us. Resentment, fear, blame, anger, hatred, etc. are sins becuase a sin is anything that keeps us from connection with God.
Jesus took upon himself our sins (all of humanity's) to make forgiveness and redemption possible, to make it possible for us to forgive others and for them to forgive us so we can let go of resentment, fear, anger, blame, etc. and have the courage and strength to knock on the door of Heaven and receive all the blessings God has already prepared for us. 

Overcoming the Terror of Change and the Anguish of Loss

My last two childbirths were vaginal births after cesarian.  My first two births were good and I learned a lot about the strength of my body, of my womb.  My third baby was born cesarian because my obstetrician was unwilling to help me help the baby move, though she was head down but slightly at the wrong angle.  My next birth experience was okay, until my uterus simply stopped functioning in the middle of pushing.  Terror swept through me as I did not know my own body.  I felt betrayed by it.  Maybe it felt betrayed by me for not insisting my doctor help me avoid a c-section (every doctor who reviewed the conditions of the c-section afterwards said it was unnecessary).  But when I use the word terror, it isn't lightly.  It was like driving a tank into battle and realizing you were in a minivan and you had your kids on board. Thankfully, by God's literal grace, I birthed my last two children, I literally asked God to bring the babies out and that is how they were born.  My body had quit.  It lasted less than an hour (the final stage).  It took me years to get confidence back in my body.

As I've faced severe adrenal and thyroid fatigue with severe anemia these last few years, it's been a bit like that labor experience.  My body has not been what it was, it's been simply incapable of what I "normally" do.  In some ways it's been like going through puberty all over again with my body changing and not feeling at all the same, only this time it was losing abilities, not gaining them.  In both situations, I had to cry out to God to deliver and heal me.  He did it in His time, but He did it.  I've improved so much that now I have many consistently good energy days and I recover much quicker, this happened in about half the time it "should" have.  Only this time, it wasn't an hour, it was a few years, but like the delivery, I had no idea there was something wrong until I was in the "thick" of it.

In my pride and arrogance, I had retaliated against God for all I saw had been done to me.  The passing of my mother was the last straw....I made it the last straw.  In the highest of arrogance, stubbornness, and self-will I behaved as if God had taken her from me, rather than remembering God had leant her to me and she had returned from whence she came and to whom she loved to be with, and where it was time for her to be.  This was a far harder pit to dig out of, for with the trauma of the birth I had leaned into God, not away.  This time, I had leaned away, it was much harder to come back from. I believe the fatigue would not have been as severe had I leaned into God instead of away.  Who knows?  Only God.

• What could have been better in my life?
• How could it have blessed my children if I had held fast to God?
• How much more healing could I have experienced and what mysteries could God have unfolded to me?

Why do these questions matter, how can they be productive? 
They help me, and hopefully you, to remember that blaming only makes it harder and I never want to go there again and miss all the blessings open to me as I lean in, not Away.

How can I recover now?
Lean in, not away. 

Only Human?

When the devil says "you're only human" don't worry, He did something similar with Christ.  He said: "If thou be the Son of God..." As if there was any question or need to prove it, and what did Christ say? Matthew 4:7 "Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." He quoted Him SCRIPTURE!!!!!!! "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created he them."~Genesis 1:27 "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:"~Romans 8:16 Have you ever considered that believing you are worthless, hopeless, defeated, a biological result of two people who happened to have sex, etc. is actually a temptation to deny God's word, a temptation to deny the truth?

Without losing any reverence at all for the divinity of God, when I kneel before His throne, I am a daughter, not a peasant. I am at once lowly and elevated, lowly because of what I am not and elevated because of whose I am (His). Kneeling before His throne intimate not austere, He is my Father, He is still God He is still exaulted, yes, far above me, and yet He is accessible to me because Jesus atoned for me, the "what I am not" becomes absorbed to the whose I am and what Christ is, and what He did for me. When I am lost, it is the infinite and eternal magnet of His love that pulls me back from the abyss of pride, failure, doubt, despair, fear and hopelessness. It is His love that steadies my heart and soul in the midst of perplexing puzzles and turmoils of the soul. His love doesn't require less of me, it requires and inspires more. It doesn't wipe out the admonition to do better, it reminds me I am capable of so much more because I have Him as my guard and guide. I would rather kneel before God than stand in the presence of a king on earth. Kneeling before God is like standing by the ocean, it makes me feel small, but oh So significant to Him. 

With a few things that have been said about right to life, abortions performed to "prevent children being born who would have not much of a life" etc. I have so many thoughts. Here are a few. First, there are enough cases where these children have been born with what we would term as "normal" and healthy formation, there is reason to give them a chance to prove the tests wrong. Next, for those that are born with significant birth "defects" that cause a shortened life I know first hand that it is not the doing that makes a person viable. It is the being. What we do matters, it matters that we do all we CAN because that is how we show who we ARE, but the doing comes from the being. 

I learned from my nephew who only lived 3 years and never developed past the abilities of a one month old and my mother who suffered with ALS (Lou Gherig's Disease) and finally died after she had lived a long, full and very active life of service and love and work that it wasn't the doing that gave them value, it was the being. From many who can do but little we learn the true value of the soul. If it had not been for the misery my mother would have lived in, being fully aware and unable to communicate anything I would have loved for her to continue living, even if literally all she could do was breath. It was not her doing that I loved, but her being, the place where her doing came from. People are sacred, our souls are sacred, we have no right to determine worth, value, and lifespan by ability.

A Willing Follower of Christ

You know when you have a personal trainer, and you love/hate them because they are causing you to do things that are painful, but you KNOW they are helping you? Why is it that we want to deny that God (and this is according to His own words) wounds us, and heals us. We go to surgeons and have them cut us open (wound us) and let them sew us up, but we want to pretend that God would never, effectually cut us open, fix what is wrong and heal us up. We let a surgeon cut and sew, but we think God should be strictly for comfort and condolence.

Yes, there is a difference between a wound we cause by sin or one caused by sins against us. But, if we believe the scripture is God's word, we must admit that God DOES wound us, AND that he heals us.

I know I have been wounded by God, it is not always easy and comforting to hear his words, many times they sear through us, dividing our errors and fallacies from truth. There are wounds, we feel like we have been cut open and chunks cut out and we want to turn from HIm. But if we stay, if we turn INTO Him, we are healed, and we find that the missing chunks were never part of who we really are.....we were just very used to them.

We cling to our sins, our justifications, our will....but God often takes from us the very things we think elevate us, and reminds us that He is God. It's never for the sake of boasting, but because without relying on Him, there is no hope for us.

He wounds, and he heals, he kills and makes alive, and NO-ONE can take us from Him (except we choose to leave), and no-one can escape His judgements. But in the end, all will be revealed and when it is, we will all know that His was the right way.

I WANT Him to kill in me what is killing me, I want Him to heal in me what is sick-whether in sin or pain. I want Him to make me truly alive. I want Him to cling to me with all of HIS strength, because -as strong as I am- it is HIS strength that will carry my through this life and into His arms in the next.

Too Afraid to Live

When fear is your master, life is your prison.


Fear doesn't have to be the enemy, fear becomes the servant when you face it with truth and courage. So many of us live our lives either in the clutches of fear or in avoidance of it. The fear will come, become it's master and your progress is accelerated, avoid it and it is still YOUR master. Every time you face fear with the truth you grow stronger, more clear. FEAR can be your Servant instead of your enemy or your master.

Courage has the power to overcome fear, because courage comes from love.


Liz King Bradley

In His Grace Confidence, for Life and Relationships

I have a grandfather, who is now departed, who taught me about in-His-grace confidence. He was a quiet man, and never said much about grace or confidence. I learned it from being in his presence. He never said much about what he believed, but you KNEW what he believed.

There is a deep and stabilizing power in a person who is founding their life in God. When you are in the presence of such a person, you may not be able to articulate what it is about them, but you feel comfortable with them and somehow see yourself better in their eyes. As they talk with you, the only discomfort is the realization that they see who you are and you are far more than you thought you were. However, the discomfort is overcome simultaneously by their easy love and acceptance.

These people are able to give such love because they have first obtained it. They not only know it and feel it, it is in them; part of them, it comes to us through them, but not from them. They have become purer conduits for God's love.

How? I think this is something we overcomplicate. They finally decide to accept the fulfillment of God's Word, let go of preconceived expectations, and let the Light dissolve the darkness. They chose to trust that God is in their life, guiding their steps, supporting their best interests, and making up for what they couldn't do, be , or overcome on their own. They let go of the need to "do it myself", "make it work", and learn to "do it in Him", and LET Him work.

I think that we get so consumed in being busy and working hard that we forget to calmly take steps and trust in His outcome. We can never accept that we are enough until we have checked everything off the social/religious checklist of the "perfect"...whatever. God can tell us it's enough, and we accept it only until we get on FaceBook and see what all the other people are doing...suddenly our "enough" seems NOT enough.

The In His Grace Confidence comes from allowing God to make us enough and LETTING our ENOUGHNESS flow from us. We can't help but spread goodness and truth when we have fully accepted it, but as long as we are seeking it in desperation we are pushing it away. (Think of the person in the water flailing around desperately who keeps the help they need away in their fear of not being safe.)

I loved this video today and thought it was a great bridge to In His Grace Confidence. :) (it won't embed, you have to go to the page...sorry)



Liz King Bradley

Resurrection and Rebirth

This is one of my favorite topics.  When we talk about the word resurrection, we usually think of the scriptural references to the resurrection of the body after death, the reunification of spirit and body.  Yet the power of resurrection is not limited to the resurrection from physical death.  Each of us have experienced a death of something possibly as difficult than physical death.  We have experienced the death of hopes, dreams, desires, relationships, etc.  

*Christ has said that if we come to him, he will heal us and that all things are possible for him.  

The death of our hopes and dreams comes not because the realization has become impossible, but because we believe them to have become so.    We stop turning to God for solutions, and instead seek consolation, and I believe that there are times He gives us what we ask for instead of what He could give us if we had the courage to seek it.  

Yet, when that flame of hope, love, faith, etc. has gone out, we still need a spark to relight it.  The fuel of possibilities is still there, but the light has gone out.....sometimes the fuel is burned up too and we need a total refill or recharge.  But most often what we need is that flicker or glimmer of hope that we get as we remember and are grateful for the many blessings we already have. As we remember these blessings space is created for the Savior to come in and resurrect our joy, and even to enlarge our capacity for it.

What is THE hardest Pit to Get out of?

Without a doubt the WORSTE predicament I have ever found myself in is SELF PITty.  It is that place where everything in life is happening to me, I am simply coping with what has come instead of actively using my ability and gift to chose to create things in my life.  It is that place where I am such a "good sport".  I can really "make due".  I am "doing my best with the hand I've been given".  There is a big difference between "I am using all the resources I posses to create the resources I lack and to further create what I want." and "Well, I just have to do the best with what I've got."  as if what I've got has nothing to do with my own choices, as if I have not choice or power to do something else.

  The idea of making the best of what I have is a GREAT place to start, it's WAY better than the idea that since I believe all my issues were thrust upon me I will do nothing to create a solution. Yet, it is a serious trap.  Isn't that what it really means to believe we are prewired genetically, and there is no epigenetic solution?

If I were only a body, that could be true, but since I am a spirit within a body, I have epigenetic control.  I don't have to be a slave to my biology.  That's why it matters that I am a daughter of God.  It means I have choices and I'm not stuck with all the hands I've been dealt.  Obviously, I do not know how to grow new limbs, etc.  But when it comes to many physical issues, I have a lot more control, just my making better choices for myself.

God has the keys that unlock the power to change my life. He uses them in my behalf, I have to ask, seek them out, and walk through the doors when He opens them.

-Healing: It’s Not ONLY About Desire, It’s About Faith

Have you ever felt like....you didn't get an answer to prayer that you really needed? You felt like you should have gotten the answer, because the DESIRE was real? But God's requirement is not desire, but intent. Intent is what you are going to do with what you learn, if the answer He has for you requires you to do something you are not willing to do, you might not get the answer, not because He is not willing, but because you are not willing.


Healing is similar, healing requires more than desire, it requires faith. Faith means, whatever you have to do to get the healing, whatever God tells you, including just let go of the boundaries you've put on God's ability to heal, you'll do trusting that God will do for you what you cannot. Sometimes, getting healing means feeding faith and identifying the barriers that WE have put on healing that really have no relevance to what God can and WANTS to do.


The desire is necessary, it is part of the agency God doesn't violate. We need to identify the ways we are actually holding onto our weaknesses, pain, sickness, anger, etc. What are we using those things to excuse? (I may have mentioned this before.) But still, desire isn't enough. We need faith. What blocks us from getting the healing we want, we need, and God wants us to have?

Here's what I've found in me and in others I work with:


*I believe my sickness -or whatever you want to name it- is making me special, important, valued, remembered, etc.


*I believe I can only rest if I am sick in some way.


*I believe God can only heal me as far and as much as science, medicine, my psychologist, friends, etc. says I can.


*I have lived with it so long, I am afraid to live without it.


*I have made it my identity.


*I use it to excuse living courageously, passionately, or fully. I use it so I don't have to grow or to do hard things.


Accessing faith for healing often means getting to a level of amazing honesty that many have never It means feeding faith through immersing ourselves in the truth of the Gospel (the GOOD NEWS), and the reasons we CAN heal. It means that we sometimes do not believe in Christ as we think or say we do. It means coming to the place where we say "Lord, help THOU my unbelief". When miracles cease, it is because faith has ceased or because of wickedness. Biblical accounts of divinely ordained illness specified that it was SO they can be healed as a witness to the glory and power of God. (some examples)


Submitting to God's will often makes healing possible, it's the state of being that is most helpful to healing. Submitting to God is the state of being where we have let go of our own ideas about how it "ought" to be. There is a difference between assuming that YOUR illness, hardship, pain, etc. is God's will and finding out that it is. There is a difference between submitting to God and submitting to "illness". There are bitter cups that we have to drink, but those serve a purpose, they help us or others, they are not meant to be consignment to misery, a life sentence to suffering. Jesus suffered that we might not. His cross is not the suffering, but what that cross did, what it gave to us and taking it up means to take it to others and to deny ourselves of all ungodliness, only suffering for Christ's sake ....not for illness' not to suffer for the sake of suffering's sake.


In my own experience I have had things God healed directly, with no intermediate helper, and things He said I had to get healing from through other people's help and the skills He'd lead them to develop, like doctors, surgeon's, therapists. But if my trust had been in them, the healing could only go as far as those skills could take me, and with God's help I have been able to surpass it. My story includes a hysterectomy at 27 to remove a completely dead and prolapsed uterus AND a thriving happy sexlife with my husband having received the healing from sexual trauma that makes deep, loving connection possible despite sexual abuse. Interestingly, the "experts" and specialists in psychology said healing was impossible, but coping was available. In the case of my surgery, there were other issues besides my uterus that were healed and helped and further surgery was prevented. My healing in all these cases came from God, though at times it came through other people with training and skills God didn't bless me with or lead me to develop.


There were so many things I learned about trusting God and about who I really am, what defines me by NOT being healed without medical help. I learned that when I pray for it, God can get through to medical minds, any mind, the things they need in order to go the right direction for highest good. I learned that my ability to have children, though the most enriching part of my life, did not define me. I learned that my ability to "push through things" didn't define me or make me valuable, and worthwhile as a human being. I learned that singing didn't make me valuable, important, worthy, etc. I learned my value is inherent because I am God's daughter and Jesus Christ died for me. I learned that who I am is so much deeper than what I could or could not do for myself or others. I also learned that releasing emotional trauma released physical damage and sickness too, but most importantly I learned to be fully in tuned to God and His will for me, and that it ALWAYS works out better than my own plans.


Healing, the ability to heal and the purpose of it is not something any other person can define for you or tell you the limits of, it is a deeply personal intelligence between you and God, but DON'T give up!!!! Don't let it go! Don't SETTLE. (see my FB rant here) Submit to God, but not to "illness". Do what God says and trust Him. You may need a combination of science and spirit to heal. You may need to abstain from chemicals and cling to the promises given us based on our faith in order to heal. You may need psychologists and energy therapists. You may need any combination of things to assist you, or nothing but you and God! My invitation to you is: KEEP Hope, KEEP Faith, KEEP Trust, KEEP God and His promises, never settle or give up. Submit to God, not to limits.

Am I a Failure?

A Failure is someone who fails....so, I guess I am a failure. The good news is not that we are NOT failures but that God already planned for the times we'd fail. As a mom, I find two polar opposite reactions to my struggles. I find that people either want to criticize my parenting or they want to tell me that whatever I do is okay. The problem is that the criticism rarely comes with any real investigation into what I have actually done when they weren't watching and the justification goes against my knowledge of right and wrong. When you are SCREAMING at a toddler for doing a normal toddler thing, you are failing. When you slap your teenager, you are failing. When you are swearing at your kids you are failing. When you are too anxious to do things you feel you should, you are failing. I am a failure. I have done all of those things. But I'm not giving in and I'm not giving up.
The good news is that I am not judged by God on a permanent basis for what I am right now, but on what I am becoming and to what degree I trust Him and turn to Him in my failures.


I guess I am not all one thing, I want to be all good and all success, but I am not. The truth is that life is sometimes hard and sometimes I don't step up to it. I believe there is always a way to do it better, especially when you are failing. I don't need to believe that it was the only thing I could do or that it was even my best, I just need to know that I can change, be changed, and be forgiven. Experiencing failure is inevitable, remaining a failure is a choice.


Love for God and my family urges me to be better everyday. God's love for me makes it possible. Jesus sacrifice makes it attainable. The only way to fail permanently is to give up, and I get to make choices about that.

Don't you give up either!

Can *I* be Healed?

For over a year, since I had my breakdown (did you know that? It was in December of 2014) I have struggled and felt my very being was under attack. I've known for a long time that the thoughts and beliefs in my heart and mind cause me more pain than anything anyone could say or do to me. When the data that surfaces is the loathing you have for yourself, underneath all the positive affirmations, when you come to grips with the reality that YOU are your biggest threat....it's (well at least for me) crushing. I was never lieing to myself or to others, I did love myself...the parts I was conscious of..or I believed I did.


When it comes to a point where you realize that your ralationships are broken, all the ones that mean most because YOU are broken It’s..HARD… There can be shame associated with that idea, but really, that realization is the birthplace of the healing that you need. No one seeks The Healer until they recognise they need Him and what for. Coming to the end of your hope, the end of your personal ability to change is -sometimes- the only way to find The Healer. He is there all along, but it seems, we sometimes don't open our eyes until we are at the end of our understanding and when all our “tools" have seemed to fail. Love of self is important, but love of God is vital.


The tools I used before that time are and were effective for accessing His grace, the love that surrounds me, but when my little crack became a rift with added pressure of grief and single/married motherhood of teens.....the tools were trite patronizing answers to a fathomless pit of questions and despair. I felt as if my soul had been ripped apart and the very fabric of my eternal being was decimated. It wasn't really because my mother died, it was because I was already dying and in the moment I should have turned to God most, I turned my heart against Him....much like a child that doesn't get their way, I threw a tantrum.


I didn't dare to hope. You see, a religious conference talk that seemed to give so many people peace, really ripped my hope apart. As I listened to a man who I believe speaks as a mouthpiece for God, I heard a limited God, a limited promise, a limited Saviour. My emotional and spiritual life has been saved time and again by holding to the promise of scriptures that assure God's strength, power and desire to help me, and this talk seemed to me to say "You'll just have to tough it out until the next life...." I am not claiming that what I heard was the intended message of the speaker.



So, I'll be honest, if my only option in this life is to suffer through it, I'll take death...today. In the excruciating moments of torture of mind and soul, it is the promise of healing and comfort IN THIS LIFE that have kept me from the unthinkable. It has been devastating to me that when I have born a witness of that promise, I have been met with the hatred and judgement of people who told me that because of that conference talk I was apostate, or "unChristlike", judgemental, hateful, uncompassionate, etc. But really, having been in that deep despair, having been to the edge of the cliff of suicide, I know the forces that pull over the edge and the ones that bring back. The force that pulls to the cliff is the belief there is no way out except in death. The promise of Christ's Grace, of His love and healing, His sustaining power and influence in my life pulls me from the despair of pain and grief. I have healed from things my Christian psychologist said I could only hope to cope with. I have overcome things that many believe to be permanently damaging, I have been able to help others through their despair and grief too.


I have some things in my life that God chose not to heal. I had a hysterectomy instead of being healed. I understand that sometimes the healing comes in a direct way and sometimes in a way less appealing or pleasing. I had that hysterectomy after an answer from God that it was the path He wanted me to take. I am not adverse to going the medical route for healing, but I would have lost more than my uterus and more than my mind if I had not learned early on to seek healing and guidance from God. For those who need healing and hope, who are facing that despair of depression, anxiety, shame the answer may be a path through medical science and psychology, but the guidance of the Holy Ghost and the power of The Healer (Jesus Christ) is what will make the difference between the darkness overcoming you and the light of Christ enlivening you.


There is no compassion or Charity in validating an illness rather than validating a person. There is no kindness in reaffirming permanent brokenness rather than extending hope for healing. One thing I know for sure is that a person who gives up on healing gets less of it than the person who holds onto the hope for it. I’d rather extend a voice of hope than reaffirm the voice of fear and despair.


Jesus said over and over that with faith we could do all things, that even mountains could move, depression is a mountain, surely He can move it, anxiety is a mountain, surely He can move it. Pain is a mountain, He can move it. When He ministered on the earth, the record shows that He healed all that came to him with willingness and faith. Learning to assess to truth of my faith helped me to accept more healing into my life. Learning to recognize my lack of faith was the preparation I needed to put my heart and ind to strengthening my faith through prayer and study of scripture. So this is my witness: Jesus Lives and because He lives there is hope. He lives and because He lives there is healing. He took upon himself our sin and our anguish that we might not suffer if we turn to Him. He loves each of us just as much as He loved those He came into contact with in His ministry on earth and His power to heal has not diminished in as much as He is infinite and eternal as is His sacrifice and victory. In Him I trust. In Him I place my faith and my life. To Him I give my heart and all my pain, in Him I am healed.

Christ is the Way

There is a LIGHT in each of us, Re-ignite your SPARK!


>>> It' time to make changes that will make your life happy, fulfilling, and rewarding. It's time to learn how to find joy in any circumstance. It's time to break free!


I believe:

There is a God. In His hands we are powerful. He loves me, and everyone else. I am a messenger, He is the healer. He is the light, I am a torch. I am responsible for the life and all of the gifts He gave me. I am accountable for my life. I am a powerful creator in my own life as I follow God. Forgiveness is liberating. Change is beautiful. God can do for me what I cannot do for myself. I organize my life from my deepest beliefs and out of that comes my results. I chose to believe that God is working in life for my best good. The way I feel about what others say about me reflects my own beliefs back to me. When I am angry it is about me, not another person. A challenge is a great opportunity for growth. Everyone has a purpose for living.


My intention:

My intention is to show up as my whole self. When we coach together, there's something important for you to know: I will try always to focus on you. That means that when you start talking about another person I will turn the conversation back to you. We are going to work together most powerfully as we focus on the only people we can change: OURSELVES!

Through the principles and practices I apply with you, I've been able to recover from abuse, low self esteem, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and emotional divorce. I have successfully helped others to do the same. Gratitude, Forgiveness, Love, Trust, and Acceptance are some of the tools I can teach you how to reclaim and how to use. Learn how to use the tools you were born with to overcome the problems you're hampered with.


True Power:

The day I decided to forgive myself and others for all mistakes of the past, present, or future was one of the most liberating of my life. EVERYTHING we have experienced in life IS for our best interest and will be to our great benefit if we shed the blinders of guilt, blame, resentment, and shame. The only thing holding us back from living free and full lives is our own beliefs.


Why It Works:

I believe that whether healing comes directly through prayer or through any type of practitioner it coms from Christ. Because of Christ all of us can be free of pain, because of Christ all of us can know and fulfill the purpose for our being, because of Christ ALL our wounds can heal. I’d like to help you clear out the “something” in your way, and help you access more of His healing, light, and guidance.

The Most Loving Mothers

The most loving mothers in the world....

INSIST kids do chores

because doing it themselves is easier, but teaching kids empowers them and builds within them the pattern of creation: taking chaos and bringing order.


...and because when life smacks you down and you feel like a failure, being able to return to the basic things and accomplish something reminds you that YOU CAN. (Conquering small things like cleaning the toilet, organizing a room, etc. can remind you your not the worthless piece of trash you feel like when something like unemployment or other major set backs occur. While being unable to do simple things without someone telling you step by step how to do them can lead to feeling utterly useless...feeling confident in basic skills can set the foundation for building complex ones that help you navigate adult life with competence and certainty.)


AND they are not just happy with whatever kids do, they do quality control because they believe in their BEST even when they want to do their least. They may say it kindly, but they will say "Go back and make it shine!" <3


Why are mom's with high expectations the greatest blessing there is?


Because moms' with high expectations are constantly saying "You are more than you think you are and I want to help you manifest your fullness, your greatness."

It's never been high expectations that have robed us of joy, only our lack of mercy when we fall short. High expectations + determination and mercy = The GREATEST Possible Fulfillment. Whereas low expectations + excuses = mediocrity, depression and unfulfillment...to say nothing of a predisposition toward addiction as they seek to fill the void left by the unmet potential.


I think the greatest thing we can do for our kids when they tell us their least is their best is remind them that they are more than they think they are by insisting they take it a step up. Is it really compassion to believe a persons excuse for failure? Or is that really just another way of saying "You're right, you're impotent and cannot possibly be expected to succeed."


Isn't it more empowering and LOVING to insist our children keep moving forward and not buy into their feelings of being less adequate?


Liz King Bradley

Lightening Our Burdens

I let go of the idea, years ago, that in oder to be beautiful I had to be skinny. I let go of the idea that in order to be lovable I had to weight a certain small weight. I let go of the idea that my happiness depended on a low weight. But the truth is that the exa weight I carry is an unnecessary and heavy burden on my organs. It is a form of self hatred and punishment to carry extra weight. It is a form of self muzzling to stuff emotions, feelings, thoughts, etc. with food. In some ways eating in ways that cause weight gain or the retention of extra weight are a slow suicide. No one needs to be thin to be loved, but removing excess weight is a LIBERATING form of self love and self respect.


One thing that has surprised me is the amount of things I had forgotten that I used to do before I was too heavy. I know that I could have more joy in my life and be a greater support to my family's joy if I shed the extra weight I am carrying. I also know that it will be a great blessing to myself..just to be free of the extra, unneeded mass.


I love the term, "releasing weight" or "releasing mass". I own the weight I carry right now, but I am re-leasing it to God. I am signing it over to Him. and now, my job is to be open to what He says is the best way for me to reclaim a healthy body and keep my thoughts and feelings clear of beliefs that will keep me from letting God empower me in this endeavor.


With that goal in mind I have created this audio of beliefs to integrate into myself to help me allow the weight and mass to leave me and embrace the joy and freedom of my healthy body.



If you want help tuning your mind, thoughts, feelings, and emotions into your success and freeing up your body for more activities, more joys and more possibilities, enjoy the following MP3!


Weight and Mass Re-Lease Declarations (Email rob_lizbradley@hotmail.com for the link)


Liz King Bradley

Money is One of God's Blessings

The love of money is the root of many evils, but the reverence for it as a gift from God is the key accepting it into your life. Gratitude to God for it is as important as gratitude for everything else He's blessed us with. But when we want money, don't we really want what money can provide?  The sentence to complete may be "I want money so I can........" If we look at the real goal that we want that is behind money it may be easier to recognize if/when God sends those blessings in some other way.


The ideas we have about money determine if and how much we allow of it into our lives. If we think we don't deserve it or think it is bad we will reject it on a continual basis and believe we are righteous for doing so. Yet, money, of itself is only a tool and throughout the bible there are stories of how God blessed his servants with richness, Job, Abraham, Israel as a nation.


Loving money as a gift from God is called : gratitude. If you are struggling with money, or success in business and life, consider the idea that you might be missing opportunities to bring abundance into your life and your family's life because you believe money is bad. Food, clothing, shelter, family vacations, charitable contributions, etc. are all good and money is usually the resource exchanged for these things, so money can be good. Money is as good or as bad as what we use it for.


Money, like a spoon, shovel, pencil, computer, freeway, vehicle, etc. is a tool and is as good or as bad as the person using it.

Allow God to bless you with abundance in your life and be a conduit for good.



Liz King Bradley

Strawberries and Mommies

I don't think I know any women who don't feel pulled in many directions.


Mother

Friend

Spouse

Coworker

Business woman,

Mentor

etc.


As I pulled weeds and dug around the strawberry plants in my dad's yard I thought how very like that plant we are.


If allowed to just grow and grow, without maintenance, the strawberry plant will put on lots of leaves and vines, and very little, if any, fruit....but FRUIT is what the plant is for. In order to produce fruit, the superfluous leaves and shoots must be cut back.


There are so many worthy things we must do. Sometimes, we need to allow our capacity to grow in order to accommodate everything.


Sometimes, in order to allow ourselves to increase in capacity we need to trim out the superfluous. How do we determine what is essential and what is superfluous? There is first and foremost: Prayer. Yet, there is also, knowing the purpose of your being.


When you know your purpose is to bear fruit, and not to grow as big as you can, you know what to cut and what to leave, or when to let grow and when to cut back. What is the purpose?


I am going to be bold and say the purpose is family. If I have a life filled with worthy persuits, but my family is not bearing fruit....my life is still unfulfilling and unfulfilled. What do I mean "bearing fruit"? In previous posts I have outlined the difference between checking off boxes, and making lasting connections. Building family ties takes more than the completion of tasks, it takes time, being still, eye contact, doing chores together-for the purpose of talking together, it takes kindness when kindness is inconvenient, etc.


Sometimes, don't we forget that we are here to bear fruit...not just to grow leaves and shoots? I know I do. I am trying SO hard to allow my heart and mind to be remodeled to more fully understand what this means for me personally. I know one thing, it means that if I sacrifice a career for my marriage and family, I'm still fulfilling my purpose. Yet, I know God has a purpose for me in serving other people too.


So, everyday, I am looking for guidance from God in what to prune, and what to grow because some what I do to help outside my family helps my family fruit too. I have been learning this and I know that when I feel pulled, it's good to chose home, and let God take care of some of those branches for me. I know this because He's been showing me that already. He's multiplied the amount of people I've been able to empower with tools for happiness in their relationships, while preserving my time with my family.


For more about embracing motherhood and ALL God has for you, try this MP3 download designed to reaffirm and empower you to make the best choices for you and your family.


Mom is a Mission Too (e-mail me for the link rob_lizbradley@hotmail.com)



Liz King Bradley