Cue Infomercial

“Are you prepared to embark on a glassy smooth sailing sea, kind of adventure; a joyful journey with a group of amazing and oh so peaceful people, sharing their own special gifts in a fun, uplifting, inspirational and encouraging community”? “

How would you like to go from being stressed to blessed”?

I know what my answer would be, “YES”!

These are just a few of the questions that I have pondered for half a century. In my search for the answers, I admit that as much as I am a fact checker and data sleuth, deep inside I have always known that there had to be such an experience because it is instinctually where I have been heading for as long as I can remember.

Wait a minute! WHAT? ONLY 31% of the World’s population are Christians?

What happened to,”Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” – Genesis 28:14

Once while speaking in a Collegiate Lecturing Class with the subject matter being Utopia: I remember how difficult it was to speak about a place and state of mind that wasn’t factual. I wondered why I was able to believe in God, The Bible, Christ, when I had never actually seen them. Yet I have faith, and unconditional love knowing that The Word is real.

For the sake of myself and my children, I must ask the hard questions, gather facts and stories, diving deeper, yet without becoming overwhelmed? How to convey that digging deeper into The Word, can release joyful and shareable experiences with an understanding; the kind that can leave an impression, and last a lifetime. Sometimes it knocks me down a few pegs when I realize…

How do I justly instill the importance while sharing these thoughts with my children?

With the realization that we are not alone, and each one of us has amazing gifts and perspectives to share, and we can do so with kindness and christian theologian absolutism. What a gift! Thank you, GOD!

Meet Kimberly!

Kimberly strives to walk with peace, love and joy, through faith in Christ. She is a passionate mother of 3, and is grateful for the friendships with her church family, a strong foundation built from the love of Christ. She has been asked to provide a few thoughts on this inspirational blog, because she is one blessed momma!

Kimberly would best be described as a wildflower, growing wherever she may be, especially at the beach, and most always with her children and pups. She enjoys nature and through the years has been wonderfully blessed by living and working in and outside of the USA. Her most memorable family activities include camping, biking, hiking, rafting, skiing (both snow and water), swimming, kayaking, canoeing, all the while and on a daily basis, being completely in awe and humbled by God’s creations in the world around us.

She loves helping others uncover their potential, their inner joy and sense of fulfillment in their daily tasks, and has done so in the home with her children, as well as serving in the community, while finding examples and ways to continue growing and maturing in faith. Kimberly is a by-line writer, restaurant review critic, and her advanced studies in college included Early Childhood Education and Medical Laboratory Sciences with a specialty in Microbiology. She enjoys writing about life lessons, has an entrepreneurial spirit, and hopes that her life experiences help provide guidance for other mom’s to go from living a stressed life to having a blessed one!

Hello beautiful blessed mommas!

My son, Benaiah (pronounced Ben-I-ah), will be one year old next month! I can’t believe how fast he has grown! A little bit about me and my family, my name is Mikayla Cogburn, (yes like Rooster Cogburn) I’m 25 years old, I live in a very small town in beautiful Southwest Colorado. I’ve been married to my best friend for almost 4 years now and together we have the cutest baby boy in the whole world! (I may be a little biased.) I am a doula and a childbirth educator as well as a mom, wife, auntie, and sister.

After my son was born, I felt like a rockstar, like I could conquer absolutely anything, climb any mountain, overcome any obstacle.

Basically I was sitting on top of the world!

I thought, this is one thing I’m supposed to be able to do, what’s wrong with me? I felt totally worthless, and I know I asked God over and over again to just help me be able to nurse my baby. But God didn’t answer my prayer the way I wanted.

I couldn’t breastfeed my baby exclusively the way I wanted to, the way I planned to, the way I made.

But God sometimes makes a way where we didn’t think to look at first.

My midwife and friends came through with lots of donor milk for Benaiah, and gifting us formula when God knew we didn’t have any money for it. My son never went hungry and he continued to gain weight at great rates, going from the 17th percentile to the 34th in his first 3 days on a bottle, and now, 11 months later, my chunky little boy weighs 25 pounds, is more than 30 inches tall, and is wearing 18 month clothes. I think he’s getting plenty to eat, and his growth is definitely not stunted!

God provided, God made a way for me.

Motherhood is messy, life is messy. So often all we see is the mess we are in, and not God’s Way through the mess.

How can we possibly see the way He has made in the middle of the mess we are in?

The answer is to talk to God about our mess and surrender it to Him, to look to his word for guidance and Hope, and then to be still and listen; waiting for the peace of God to come, and to allow ourselves to focus on that peace, rather than the mess all around us.

John 16:33 says that we are guaranteed to have trouble, but that Jesus himself is already conquered it all, he paved the way and that way is him.

In the Gospels, there is an account of Jesus walking on water towards the boat His disciples were in. Walking on water is a feat in and of itself! But the water was rough, waves crashing all around the boat, lightning flashing, and rain pouring down. The circumstances couldn’t have been worse. And yet, Peter, a zealous disciple of Jesus, got out of the boat, the only safety human eyes could see, and he walked on the water towards Jesus.

Good ending right? Well, as most of you know, that’s not the end to the story. Just like us, Peter got distracted, he started noticing that he was walking through choppy, rough water, he started feeling how heavy the rain was, his eyes caught the lightning, and suddenly he was no longer walking on the water towards Jesus, he was in the middle of an unforgiving sea struggling not to drown.

Jesus walked over, took him by the hand, and pulled him out of the water.

Jesus is calling us to walk in his way, to walk on top of storm, not to be overwhelmed by it. The only way to do that, is to never take our eyes off of Him, and to keep putting one foot in front of the other until, one day, we reach his waiting arms. And when we get distracted by the mess around us, He is waiting to catch us, wipe our tears, and help us to keep on walking.

Meet Mikayla!

I am Mikayla. Mommy to my adorable 11 month old baby boy, wife to my incredible firefighter hubby, birth worker and aspiring doula. I love my saviour and my family and am very passionate about helping women to feel empowered during their pregnancy, birth and postpartum. My goal is to be an encouragement to the mommas in my life through sharing my experiences and offering a loving and supportive place for them to share their stories and be heard. God bless you in this season of life and may His perfect peace rule your hearts. 

Colossians 3:14-15 “And above all these things put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”