How to Bear Fruit in the Wilderness

In the past 3 years I have been through one of the most stressful seasons in my life… Not the worst, but not far from it. Sometimes in life, we find ourselves in places that I like to call the wilderness. The wilderness are places or situations we find ourselves in that we don’t want to be. This can be mentally, physically, financially, relationships, you name it. In the past 3 years, this is where I have found myself in just about every area of my life. It has not been until recently that I have FINALLY been able to come out that place. Everybody handles situations differently, but in some cases we can come out of these situations and see positive changes in ourselves. If we are really intuitive each storm in life we go through can teach us something about ourselves, good or bad that we didn’t know before. The one thing that I learned about myself, is that I can bear fruit in the wilderness.

What does that mean….. it means having the ability to press forward even when you repeatedly don’t get what you want in life. So often when we go through difficult times depending on the situation, our lives just stop. We didn’t get the job we wanted so we stop looking, break up with a boyfriend and stop working on your business. Go through a financial hardship, and bury ourselves deeper into debt.

Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes in life we need to pause. But pause is the optimal word, not STOP. These past three years I have been burdened with debt, loneliness, career frustration, stained relationships, delayed goals. You name it and it has happened to me in the past 3 years of my life. There were times that everything I attempted failed. I had to watch friends and coworkers OVER and OVER get the very things I was praying for right in my face. I’ve lost some friends, had to walk away from some relationships and do my best to just let somethings go. And believe me it was NOT easy. Somethings I still struggle with. But the amazing thing is throughout this journey, I have still managed to travel, start a new career and launch a new business.

One thing that I am learning about me, as I get older is that despite the fact that I get discouraged EXTREMELY easily, I always bounce back. It may take me 6 months lol but I get there. I believe we all have a inner strength that Life is meant to SHOW us that we have. So you may be wondering, how did I do this?…. I had to discover a new Purpose, Persevere through adversity, and remain Productive.

1. The first thing I had to do was to look beyond the COMPLETE disaster that was my life. I had to realize I couldn’t change what was present at the time, but there was an opportunity to create something so much better. So I first had to decide and affirm what I wanted. Who did I want to become, what did I want my life to look like.

2. Because dreams don’t work unless you do. A thought or desire wasn’t enough, I needed a plan. I needed to develop a practical blueprint to help me achieve my desired goals.

3. I had to make up in my mind, the harder it got, the harder I had to WORK. Even if I had to pause, I could not stop.

It didn’t come overnight, in fact it took several months. After a LOT of self-reflection, and removing the limits off of what I thought was possible, I did it. I had created/ imagined a WHOLE new life for myself. And not only did I conceive it, but I actually began to believe it. I had convinced myself that as crazy as this idea was, it was absolutely possible.

Then I developed a plan. I set goals, I did research. I tried a few things, figured out what worked and what didn’t, learned from it and kept moving. Although these past 3 years have been rough, I had some good moments in there, I did my best to enjoy what parts of the journey that I could.

And lastly, girl I had to push…. There were soooo many moments where I wanted to give up and at times I did. But I found there was always something beautiful for me waiting once I got on the other side of the hurdle I was facing. So my take home message is in every situation in life there is an opportunity to produce, to create, and become. This is how I bared fruit in the wilderness! Keep walking through the rain, you will find your Reign-bow