I ran across this quote recently and totally fell in love with it. It perfectly summarizes the journey that I have been on over the past year – and what a journey it has been!

For the better part of the past two years I have felt God calling me to take a step GIANT LEAP onto a completely different life path, but I couldn’t move from where I was because fear and doubt had me stuck. And with that stuckness (is that a word?), came discontentment, bitterness, and frustration. You can image the JOY that I was to live with!

Midway through last year, I finally became so fed up with myself that I just had to do something. So what did I do?

1.       I Cheated On My Fears. For the longest time I kept waiting for my fears to go away. I thought, “once I’m not afraid anymore, then I’ll do . . .” But what I came to realize was that the fear doesn’t ever really go away. It has a highly vested interest in keeping you & me from our purpose and God’s plan for our life. So it hangs on for dear life. So instead of waiting for the fear to go away, I just did “it” afraid! Instead of remaining faithful to the relationship that I had had with fear for so long, I decided to step out on him and chase after my purpose and passion.

 2.     I Broke Up With My Doubts. Doubt had been telling me that if I did dare to cheat on fear and do the big thing that I was called to do, that I would certainly fail. Doubt had me second-guessing and walking in uncertainty about everything. I doubted if I was good enough. I questioned whether I had a message to share. I was skeptical about my ability to make an impact. I had misgivings about being able to run my own business and ministry. I had reservations about whether or not I was truly hearing from God. Yes. Doubt and his every sneaky relative were aggressively courting me. And I bet they are trying to woo you away from your purpose-filled life,too. Instead of just sitting around listening to their negativity, I just cut them off completely. Every time I began to engage in what I call “stinkin’ thinkin’”, I simply refused to listen. I changed the dialogue in my head. I reminded myself of the gifts, talents, skills, love, and support that I had. I decided that I’d rather try and fail then live the rest of my life married to fear, doubt and regret.

 3.      I Got Engaged To My Faith. I have been a Christian for over 20 years, but just like everyone else, I have times when God’s plan for me just seems too big for me to take on. In those moments I have to make a choice, am I going to walk by sight or am I going to walk by faith? Sometime around October 2013, I decided that it was time to “engage” my faith like never before. I had spent months & months trying to carefully arrange and control every aspect of this new life path. I was relying completely on myself and not at all on God. And nothing was working out in my favor. Finally, I let go and decided to trust God completely. I put my faith in the One who has promised me that His plans for me are good. And He proved Himself to be equally (if not more so) faithful back to me. During this time, I learned a valuable lesson – God is not moved by our need; He is moved by our faith. And when we engage our faith, He certainly moves in greater ways than we could ever imagine.

And now, I am married to my dreams! As I sit here on this 4^th day of January, I am overwhelmed with gratitude, love, and awe! In this past year, I have: adopted a young boy from Jamaica, become certified as a life coach, started an education consulting business, launched a ministry focused on serving women through coaching, teaching and speaking, left my job as a school administrator, and self-published a book. I am indeed married to my dreams and I have no intentions of breaking up!

I don’t know what it is God is calling you to do. But I do know that whatever it is, NOW is the time to do it! Don’t be like me, wasting years in bad relationships with fear and doubt. Accept faith’s proposal for a life filled with hope, joy, peace, and abundance and get married to YOUR dreams!