Devotionals

How to get your Joy Back

How to get your Joy Back

Chile, this week has been a lot!

Like seriously…

Recently, I talked about the fact that faith increases our capacity to succeed

Click here if you missed that, sis!

But did you know that you have other capacities too?

For example:

A) Mental capacity

The ability to make your own decisions

B) Emotional capacity

The ability to overcome limiting beliefs, your ease in adapting to challenging situations, and the quality of your relationships

C) Physical capacity

The ability to perform a variety of physical tasks

In the wake of such trying times, we run the risk of running low in one or more of these capacities

Which will then have knock-on effects on our ability to walk in purpose because…

As the saying goes, “you can’t pour from an empty cup” and this is really clearly illustrated in 2nd Kings 4:1-7

in which the woman literally took empty vessels, poured oil into them until they were full and then distributed the oil for profit.

2nd Timothy 2:21 says that we are “vessels of honour” so, like the widow did with hers, we need to make sure to fill ourselves up before we pour out to others. Here are 20 ways that I have been doing that this week:

Apart from the typical advice of praying and reading the Bible, in between, work, I have been doing one or more of the following each day:

3 disempowering life and business Beliefs

3 disempowering life and business Beliefs

Last week, we talked about the fact that lack of faith decreases our capacity to succeed

Remember that, sis?

The most obvious way that lack of faith shows up is through unbelief or lack of faith in God

which, according to The Parable of the sower, usually happens because of “the cares of the world” (Matthew 13:22)

But another way that it shows up is through a lack of belief in ourselves

For example-

When the woman approached Elisha to appeal to him for (divine) help in her situation (2nd Kings 4:1-7), I don’t think that she expected to be the answer to her own question or the solution to her own problem

Why?

Because she came to him talking more about the problem than what she might have or be able to do to solve it

In fact, it was not until Elisha asked her what she had in her house, that she even took inventory of what she had at all (2nd Kings 4:1-2)

As soon as she did take stock of what she had (a jar of oil), this precipitated the action that she took to activate her miracle

i.e. borrowing vessels from her neighbours, filling them up and selling them to the point that she could pay off her debts and “live on the rest” with her sons (2nd Kings 4:3-7)

So often, as modern women, we do the same thing

Cue edge snatching moment…

How to not Grow Weary of Doing Good

How to not Grow Weary of Doing Good

Last week, we talked about how to increase our capacity to succeed and the vital role that faith plays in allowing us to do this

Because:

  1. Faith increases our capacity to receive from God,

  2. The bigger your life, business or visibility goals- the bigger your faith will need to be

If that’s true, it follows that lack of faith decreases our capacity to succeed.

The most obvious way that lack of faith shows up is through unbelief or lack of faith in God.

According to The Parable of the sower, this usually happens because of “the cares of the world” (Matthew 13:22).

For the widow in 2nd Kings 4:1-7, it would have been easy- even expected- for her to lose faith in God

I mean, not only had her husband died- he left her with huge debt and creditors ready to make her sons slaves if she was unable to pay it off!

But she didn’t…

Why nice girls finish last

Why nice girls finish last

Not only does girls’ socialisation impact their ability to promote themselves and be visible, it can have negative repercussions for them when they do

For example according to The Harvard Business Review article, "Nice Girls Don’t Ask”:

“Women who assertively pursue their own ambitions and promote their own interests may be labelled as bitchy or pushy”

This means that “They frequently see their work devalued and find themselves ostracised or excluded…”

“More typically [these responses] are a product of society’s ingrained expectations about how women should act”

Meaning that women can be impacted by societal expectations and gender norms:

The answer?

How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome

How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome

Through their video, “If Cinderella were a Guy,” Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo (of Rebelgirls.co) highlight the fact that women are impacted by misogyny as early as childhood

Which, to summarise a previous post, is because of:

This then gives way to confidence issues by the time most girls reach primary or elementary school

(More so than boys)

Which manifests into issues such as imposter syndrome by the time that these girls become women

According to Cate Luzio’s Forbes article, “A Missing Factor in Women’s Leadership: Confidence“:

“The constant second guessing and self-reflection on what we [as women] can or cannot do and our fear of self-promotion has a significant impact on our ability to advance our careers”

She also adds that “although there are various factors missing in women’s leadership, [she] would argue that confidence is one of the most pressing”

One of the things that I love about Mahlah and her 4 sisters (Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah), though, is their show of confidence

For example

Lessons from Mahlah and her sisters on How to overcome Limiting Beliefs caused by Gender Norms

Lessons from Mahlah and her sisters on How to overcome Limiting Beliefs caused by Gender Norms

Last week we discussed how legalistic religious beliefs within the church can stop women from walking in their purpose and fully showing up

Click here if you missed that, sis

This is important because it plays into culture

(which is the behaviours and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic or age group)

especially in terms of how girls are socialised which, in turn, has knock-on effects on our ability to show up, be visible and therefore make impact as women

For, as one of my favourite authors, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche said:

“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller, we say to girls, ‘You can have ambition, but not too much.’ ‘You should aim to be successful, but not too successful…’”

which is why, according to research, women feel less at ease with promoting themselves than men- which in turn means that they're less likely to do it.

However…

Mahlah and her 4 sisters (Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah) teach us that the best way to overcome this is to:

Lessons from Mahlah and her sisters on the first step to self-advocacy

Lessons from Mahlah and her sisters on the first step to self-advocacy

In August 2017 I wrote an article called “Lessons from 5 Rebel Girls of the Bible”

Which you can access here, sis

Among those that got an honourable mention were Mahlah and her 4 sisters- Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah

To summarise Numbers 27:1-11, they were the daughters of Zelophehad and when he died they advocated for themselves regarding their inheritance

by standing

“before Moses, before Eleazar the priest, and before the leaders and all the congregation, by the doorway of the tabernacle of meeting, saying: 'Our father died in the wilderness...and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be removed from among his family because he had no son? Give us a possession among our father’s brothers'"

Causing God to instruct Moses to give it to them

Like it literally says that, when Moses brought their case before the Lord, He spoke to him saying:

“The daughters of Zelophehad speak what is right; you shall surely give them a possession of inheritance among their father’s brothers, and cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them."

Which shows that God is an advocate of women's rights, equality and leadership- despite what we may have traditionally been taught

Lessons from Esther on how to get on the radar of influencers in your industry/niche

Lessons from Esther on how to get on the radar of influencers in your industry/niche

There are some seats at the table that you have to be invited to rather than create yourself

This is known as vertical networking. For example, Esther would not have been able to get her audience with the king and save her people if she hadn’t first gotten on his radar as described in Esther 5:1-2:

“Now it happened on the third day [of her fast] that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, across from the king’s house, while the king sat on his royal throne... So it was, when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, that she found favour in his sight, and… Esther went near [to speak to him]”

But how do we get close enough to the influencers within our industries to get on their radars in this new digital age?

How do we get to their inner courts, so to speak?

By being an asset to them and/or they’re community through: