In an instanteverything changed.

It was at home on a typical evening It was past midnight, I was writing in my journal, sleepy, and afraid …yet excited… about what the future held when it dawned on me. This wasnt just another job or just another business to start, it was a calling. An unshakable feeling down to the very last cell in my body that I had to share my passion for healing with the world. I had no idea, at that moment, that my life would change forever. Or even more shockingly, just how much it would change.

I’ve had a job in marketing for the past fifteen years. It was a good job that I loved the idea of you know how corporate America is, the job itself and the people are amazing but the bureaucracy and micromanaging make it. challenging. I was comfortable. I knew it wasn’t where I was going to stay, but until I knew exactly what the next step was going to be there was no way I was going to leave the security of that job. I was provided for. I had health insurance. I knew when and how much my next check was going to be. In March 2020, when businesses were asked to close for two weeks no one could have ever imagined what was coming next. When I found out I was getting laid off from my job I went from shocked, to terrified, to excited, within minutes. The responsible, single mom in me was shaking in fear, but at the same time, my spirit was filled with joy and anticipation for what was to come. It’s been an inner battle between fear, faith, and excitement ever since.

It’s taken me a long time to get to a place of having total faith in God and to know Him well enough to know that if He allows His children to go through loss, pain or suffering, there is a lesson, a test, and a story of redemption that follows. 

In this world we live in there are life circumstances that are out of our control. Sometimes God leads us right to them to be tested and to prepare us for the next season. Sometimes the trials are just unfortunate life circumstances that just happened and we happened to be in the path of it. Sometimes our circumstances were caused by our fallen nature and we have to face the consequences of our action (or lack of action). And sometimes the enemy has come into our life to make a mess of it to attempt to kill, steal or destroy us through our circumstances. No matter the reason for our unfortunate situation we find ourselves in, it’s important to remember that no matter what, God is always good. 

In my case, it was just one of those unfortunate events completely out of my control. When life happens, God either miraculously protects us or He allows the thing to happen to us because He has plans to use it for our good. Despite what you may have heard, sometimes He does allow things to happen to us that we can’t handle on our own because He wants us to rely on Him and not ourselves (or our comfortable job and income) to get us through. 

I had no idea what I was going to do next, but I knew that God knew, and He gave me peace about it beyond my understanding. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been scared or worried about the future or had my moments of trying to fix it all on my own, but when I do have those moments, I reconnect with God, dust my skirt off, keep moving forward, and just hold tight in knowing deep down that everything is going to be okay.I got to a place where I believed God was going to lead me into the next season of my life and I had faith that everything was going to be okay. To get a more clear vision, between Easter and Passover I did a ten day fast and that’s when a friend commented on one of my posts that I should be a life coach. Until then the thought had never crossed my mind but the moment I read those words, it just felt right. I started praying and learning more about what a coach even was. I contacted my pastor and some prayer warrior friends and asked them to pray about it with me. It wasn’t long before I knew what to do next but in order for me to take the required steps I had to go through the process of learning to fully trust God first.

I learned that trust and having faith or believing in Him are completely different. As a visual, one day driving down the street I saw a young woman on the back of a motorcycle. She had on shorts, a tank top, and flip flops. I cringed a little. As a mother, I worried for her safety and said a little prayer for her. When I did, God showed me that she could say all day long that she had faith and believed in the driver to keep her safe but trust is getting on the back of that bike and going for a ride and He was asking me if I was prepared to go for a ride with Him.

I said yes.

For so many years I’ve had different parts of my life that have remained separated. I have been on a journey of healing and health of my own. It started eighteen years ago when I got my first autoimmune diagnosis. Over the years I have been learning to heal my body naturally with food, supplements, essential oils, mindset, and prayer. I’ve struggled with negative self talk, self-esteem, self-worth, weight gain, and weight loss most of my adult life. I finally figured out, after trying every diet out there, that there isn’t a magic cure. It took a lot of research and learning what worked for my body…and I finally found something that works for me. I’ve lost over fifty pounds and am still losing. I became passionate about helping others achieve their health goals, too. I also knew that I had been called to serve women of faith but didn’t know how yet. I’ve also had a side gig selling essential oils for the past six and a half years and quickly became passionate about helping others find their own healing stories through using oils. I also have experience in and love writing, branding and marketing. Most importantly, I’m passionate about encouraging, empowering, inspiring, and helping people. In my last job I was most satisfied when I was helping my clients not just meet, but surpass their goals. All of these are things that I’m passionate about and who knew that there was a career out there where I could combine all of the things that I love the most?

God knew.

Last fall a friend prayed for me and said that God was going to connect all the dots that felt all over the place for me. And that’s exactly what He did. It wasn’t long before I decided that life and health coaching had to be combined because my story included both life changes and health changes. I also knew that in order to help others find the same freedoms I have found, that faith had to play a role in it too. I won’t turn down helping someone who isn’t a Christian but I wouldn’t be where I am today without my relationship with Jesus. I knew that my coaching practice had to include all of those pieces so that I can effectively coach women who feel stuck to get unstuck.

There is so much more to my story of healing and redemption but this is how I got started on the path of becoming a holistic life and health coach. This is my calling. This is where Im supposed to be. In the months to come, I’ll share more of my story but for now, I want you to remember this if you find yourself facing life-changing circumstances because this is what I know for sure God is good. All the time. And if the story isn’t good, the story isn’t over.