Break Some Glass!

Welcome to our second day with my special guest -
Author and Speaker: DONDI SCUMACI!


My latest book Ready, Set…Grow invites you to pull from your life what doesn’t work, plant into it what does, so you can produce something extraordinary. The journey begins with what you believe. We all have self-limiting beliefs. They hold us back, and keep us from realizing our possibility. Here is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of “Grow.” I hope you enjoy it.

A root-bound plant has run out of room to grow. The life-giving root system becomes so confined and twisted that it cannot bring nutrients to the vine. The same can happen with our roots, which are the beliefs that bind us to our current condition and shape our future.

A story that illustrates this is of a farmer who plants a large field of pumpkins. Early in the season, he walks through the rows inspecting the new crop. The pumpkins are just beginning to appear on the vine.

Thrown off to the side of the rows is a glass jar. As an experiment, he places one of the tiny pumpkins (still on the vine) inside the jar. When he returns a few weeks later, the crop is flourishing! The pumpkins have grown so much . . . with the exception of one. The pumpkin inside the jar has grown to fill the glass. It has completely conformed to this prison and simply run out of room to grow.

What happened to that pumpkin also happens to people. What we believe about ourselves, others, our future, and even our past will shape our growth and influence our results. If we want to grow, we must learn to break the glass of self-limiting beliefs.

If what we believe about ourselves and what we believe about our future possibility are contained in a vessel that will not allow us to stretch and grow, we become root-bound.

Picture yourself holding a glass jar containing your current life—a life conformed within that glass jar of your own beliefs about . . .

Yourself and your abilities
Your future and your possibilities
Other people
Life situations and events

As you continue reading you will learn to break the jar of self-limiting beliefs and free the roots of your potential.

It is easy for the roots of belief to become twisted and tangled. When they do, our relationships and results suffer. Unbinding the roots is a four-step process:

1. Identify the beliefs that limit you.
2. Understand how those beliefs are impacting your results and relationships.
(Understanding the impact will motivate you to make the changes necessary.)
3. Exchange self-limiting beliefs for empowering ones.
4. Identify beliefs you want to add to yourself. These are possibilities you may not have considered until now, but they are possibilities. (And they can be yours.)

I encourage you to break some glass today, because you were Designed for Success and built to Grow!

Dondi


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THANK YOU Dondi for being my guest this week and for sharing with us words and wisdom that can radically change a person's lifestyle!

It is my prayer that everyone who reads this blog - as well as those that hear you speak or read your book - will think upon these things and make necessary changes to break the very thing that confines and limits them!

These are words of knowledge that we should never stop strengthening and growing in our lives!

I am so excited to announce that today we are giving away a copy of Dondi's book -
READY, SET...GROW!
Leave your comments or questions on the blog by clicking on the "comment" word below...you can post as annonymous if you do not have a blog name.

Come back here tomorrow when we will announce the winner!

Visit Dondi's blog for more great reading!!
www.dondiscumaci.com/blog

Dondi will be speaking this Thursday in the San Antonio area.
May 14th, 2009
7:00 pm
Cornerstone Church in the Chapel

Hope you can join us!

Live Inspired,

Vern


Have nothing to do with fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them!
Ephesians 5:11


WINNERS UPDATE
I will combine the comments from this weeks posts and facebook responses to select the Winner's of Dondi's books...Come back on Saturday to see who won!!

I Could Have Missed This!

This past weekend I was in the Houston, Texas area speaking at Crosspoint Fellowship in Pearland.  HELLOOO to all my new friends in that area and the awesome team that organized and put their special touches into that wonderful day!!!  The Lord was magnified through you!

I took a few pictures that I will have to post later due to computer problems...so come back and check them out later in the week!

After each event I like to pause and spend time with God and thank Him for His provision's and review with Him the details of the ministry event.   At times the review of it all can be so overwhelming!!  Especially when I realize - I could have missed meeting these wonderful ladies...I could have missed this time in His presence...I could have missed the words He speaks to me in the midst of all the preparation and delivery...I could have missed watching Him transform lives...I could have missed all of this and more!!  

This particular weekend was huge on the scale of thanking God for what He did in arranging this event on my calendar, as well as what He allowed me to witness with my eyes and soak in my soul...and to think...

If I had not believed...I could have missed it!

If I had not surrendered...I could have missed it!

I I had not opened & studied His Word...I could have missed it!

If I had not trusted...I could be have missed it!

If I had not prayed...I could have missed it!

If I had not prepared...I could have missed it!

I praise Him for His revelation in my life and His endurance with me!

I sing for Joy because of the Freedom I am experiencing in Christ and the Peace he provides in the steps I take along the journey.  

May we all walk in greater knowledge and awareness of His purpose for us each day.  

Not filling it with meaningless - time consuming excursions and thoughts.

And especially not missing out on what He wants us to see, hear, experience and live out!!

I pray these words over you today.

I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.  I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Ephesians 1:16-22 

He Inspires Me,

Vern

Not my will...

What began years ago as a a nudge that I tried to ignore and push away...has turned into an ache and a burden that I have begun to organize my life around!!

For over 16 years I fought God on the calling to go into ministry. Pitiful I know.

I tried to communicate back to Him that He had the wrong person.
I reminded Him of all my wrong choices...where I had been and what I had done and thought...I explained to Him that I had nothing to offer! I gave Him a list of allllll my inadequacies...my weaknesses and so much more!

He responded by taking me on a journey.

After each excuse I gave Him, He took me through a season that taught me so much about His character. My understanding of His love & kindness has expanded to a capacity that makes me weak in my knees!

I am not saying it was an easy thing to discover that this calling is not about me but I am grateful for His patience with me...sometimes I am a little slow!

He continued by teaching me so much through His word.

Mark 8:34
If anyone intends to come after Me, let him deny himself and...cleave steadfastly to Me.

Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

2 Corinthians 5:7
For we walk by faith not by sight.

Psalm 119:105
Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path.

I came to the point that I did not just hear and learn the following things, but I began to acknowledge and truly make application to live it out.

I had to stop believing the lies that played in my head.
Forget my past
Ignore the reminders of guilt.
Forgive many.
Love and pray for all...even those that are difficult and cause you undeserved pain.
I had to lose sight of my wordly interests and instead invest in things of eternal value.
Live a life of thanks and praise.

As I began to grow in the knowledge of the Word of God, I noticed the burden in my heart led me to change.

My appetite changed.
My lifestyle changed.
My interests changed.
My will changed.
My discipline changed.


The next thing that occurred was my burden turned into a vision...a strong knowing came over me that I could no longer ignore it!!

In the past my ignorance had kept me wandering and wondering.
It kept me distracted with busyness and delayed with fear and hesitation.

Not anymore!!

Philippians 3:13
...I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of for me.
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind me and straining toward what is ahead.

In 2006 the Lord provided in miraculous ways the opportunity to attend the Proverbs 31 Ministries, She Speaks Conference. It was there that I began a relationship with an amazing ministry and an amazing group of women who are the real deal. Through my experiences with them I have caught and been taught invaluable knowledge in moving forward with this passion that has begun to expand my heart and vision.

Recently, I invited my friend, Lysa Terkeurst, of Proverbs 31, to be my special guest for a special evening of ministry and kingdom purpose.

This evening was the result of an amazing journey with the Lord and a life that has truly begun to say "YES" to the Lord and His Will.

JANUARY 23, 2009

A Night of Inspired Hope!

Lysa Terkeurst ~ Vern ~ Holly Good

"YES" GIRLS!



My wonderful Husband praying over the team before the event begins.




Lysa praying and commissioning me into ministry...gulp!
There was an amazing presence in the room...I cried like a baby!!




Those in attendance joined with me in prayer for the women of the San Antonio area.
This is one of my passions...reaching the women of our area.


Stephen and Sarah...Worship Warriors!
To have great friends join efforts with me in ministry was the BEST!



New Friend ~ Chuck...He was awesome!



My dear friend Mark...being Mark...he be jammin for Jesus!

Preparing for this event was one of the greatest and most challenging times of my life.
It was evident that this experience was bigger than me and what I could do in my own ability.
Obviously God was at work and it was through His great power and provision that I experienced victory over personalities and road blocks that came across my pathway.

I dedicate this blog post to all those that somewhere along the way joined me on this journey.

To my family...Thank you for your reflection of His love and grace in the midst of it all! You inspire me! Rick...I will never forget the day you spoke prophetically to me that "It was time to get out of the incubator!"
Dear friends...near & far and new & old...Thank you for taking risks! Thank you for your spiritual muscles! And especially for sharing your abilities unselfishly!
Your wisdom, prayers and dedication to the things of the Lord have had a huge affect on my life!!

Thank you all for your testimonies, your witness and love!

The Lord has a vision and plan for us all.
I hope that you are confidently walking in obedience with His plan right now in your life. Do not let anything stand in the way of the dream and vision he birthed in you!

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him - but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2:9 -10

Believe and Be Inspired By Him!!

Vern

Happy New Years!

Happy New Years Everyone!

The kids are back in school and everything is starting to get back to normal...Right?

NO!

I still have my indoor Christmas decorations up...and I am still unpacking from our Christmas trip. As I drive around my area I feel a little better because there are still people that have Christmas lights and lawn decorations out at their houses. I wish I could be like some of my friends that get their stuff put up right after Christmas...it just doesn't happen that way with me.
Especially since we have been out of town and still getting over the yucky cold and cough that we passed around our household.

OH Well ~ Life and the New Year have moved into motion and great things are ahead of us!
Time once again for ending the past and beginning a new.

For me I have already been amazed at the New Year.

This New Year is full of great change for me.

I have recently stepped down from serving with our Womens Ministry and confidently stepping out with the calling and vision the Lord has been stirring in me for sometime.

In great measures the Lord is stretching me but at the same time He is confirming things and bringing things to fruition.

What about you?

Is there something you should be doing? (Serving, Ministering, Trusting,Giving, Loving, Living on Purpose!)
Is there something you should not be doing? (Cheating, Lying, Worrying, Disobeying, Not Completing, Overcommiting)

I will share some of my heart and discoveries over the next few weeks as I study for myself and dig into the word for guidance into His plan this year for me. I pray you will do the same for your life.

This year I pray we see a great harvest of people coming to acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and peoples lives displaying a great bundle of fruit!

May it begin with me!

Be Inspired,

Vern

PS ~ OH an Check out the new additions to my blog! Thanks to my blog designers Stephanie and Stacy at Blogalicious I will be able to add some great new items and information!

There is also the button with information about my upcoming event on January 23 ~ Check it out!

Lots To Share!

So much going on and lots to share!

Since Thanksgiving I have been busy preparing to put on a Market Days event at our church.
The event was last Saturday. It was crazy and fun!

We had around 40 vendors with a variety of great items.
I had a booth with all my Inspired Looks Accessories on display and for sale.
This is one of my favorite shows to do throughout the year because I get to see so many friends and customers that shop every year at this event. It is always nice to hug and catch up a little with these friends that I do not get to see so often.

The Mug N Muffin team, my daughters & some of my girlfriends helped to make that day such a success! I could not have done it without them! THANKS GIRLS!!

I wish I had pictures to show - but never had time to stop and snap any...like I said it was crazy!
I would love to show you what our church looked like...all decked out with decoration for the season, with people everywhere, vendors with their amazing items. Most of all I would like to have shown you the Christmas spirit that was everywhere...people shopping and having a good time with friends and family, families getting Christmas photo's taken by the large display of trees, folks enjoying the live Christmas music that was being performed by my friend Tina Wilson (She RockS!) and in the midst of all that hustle and bustle there was sweet ministry that took place in many different fashions.

A HUGE Thank You to all the vendors and their families for participating in this event with us.
What a special day you helped us deliver!
Praise The Lord for the many people that shopped and helped us raise around $5000. dollars to
benefit the single parents during the Christmas season!

Onto other updates...

CATY MAYER ~

During the week of Thanksgiving Caty had many tests done and received GREAT reports!
On Wednesday we received a text message that announced "The Doctor looked over the scans and said the tumor is gone! Happy Thanksgiving! Praise GOD!"

I screamed - YES! - when I read that!

I wanted to share this update with you since many of you have been praying for Caty and her family. This is a great report and we are rejoicing!

The Doctor says that she will continue with the scheduled plan of treatments even though the tumor has been killed and the bone is restructuring itself. Apparently this type of cancer (Ewings Sarcoma) is known to aggressively return.

Her next session of Chemo treatments begin this Friday - December, 12th.
On Monday - December 15th she will add radiation to her treatments.

Please pray for her as she begins this new phase of her treatments.
They are praying that she will be well enough to enjoy Christmas at home and not at the hospital or be banned from family participation due to low counts and immune system.

She continues to be a courageous young warrior and shares her story often to encourage others!

We enjoyed a night out with their family last weekend...it was a great evening and a rarity since she became ill.


SHARLET LYNN ~

Sharlet is another good friend that battled cancer.
I had her and Caty come be my guest at a ladies event I did at our church.
You can check out her story on my blog from my October posting called - "WOW!".

I wanted to share with you this exciting opportunity she had.
Recently she was featured in Newsweek magazine regarding her cancer journey and the use of the caring bridge website.
Read more about it by going here...NEWSWEEK. If it does not open to that page click on the Health page and look for the story titled - " Fighting on Two Fronts".


We are busy trying to get Christmas decoration up, attend the girls dance performances, attend Christmas parties, Open houses, Graduation, and help with our friends wedding.

Oh and I have something really special I am working on...Next week I will have all the details to announce it!

All I can say is Ladies ~ Save the Date of JANUARY 23rd, 2009!


Be Inspired!

Veronica

I AM BACK!

The past several weeks I have taken a break from blogging...but I am back!

Here is what I have been up to...

* Staying in my pj's till afternoon! I am not kidding!

* Seeking God for wisdom and guidance regarding the remainder of this year and the upcoming year.

* Praying for upcoming events and speaking engagements.

* I performed with Ali Bug during a halftime show featuring the dancers and their moms. That was hillarious and sweet!!

* Rick and I went to the Neil Diamond concert. It was part of our Anniversary celebration. The girls had given us a gift certificate to a nice Italian Restaurant on our anniversary so we thought it would be good to use it before we headed to the concert. The evening was so wonderful!
We loved the place we ate at and the concert was really good. One song that we loved was - Man of God, Man of Faith. His older classics were great but this song was our overall favorite.
Have you ever heard it? Tell me what you think and if you know anything about his beliefs.

* On the 15th I spoke at Community Bible Church - Wed Ladies Bible Study. I have prepared for this speaking engagement the past couple of months and looked forward to this message. They have been doing a study on the Psalms and Worship. My topic specifically was about Giving Thanks. I love the Psalms and talking about Worship - plus I have a lot to give thanks about so this was something I really loved preparing for and participating in.
When I arrived at the church and set up for the message I could not find my folder and immediately remembered I had it out to write something I thought of that morning and did not put it back in my bag. I did not panic - which is not typically my nature! It was cool because God had His way for sure! I had no notes and just let the Lord flow with what was planted in me and what He spoke to me as I stood on that stage. My dear friend Allison covered me in prayer and even though it did not go the way I had thought, the results of the Ladies sharing their testimonies at the end was evidence the Lord was taking care of what He purposed that day.
I thank the Lord for His creative idea He led me to do for the open and close of the message. The card board testimonies were really powerful and freeing!
I thought my original message was just for me but I am thinking now that it was purposed for another time. Maybe it will appear on this very blog...or at a church near you!

* Celebrated Caty's 14th Birthday!! A Big Thank You to Dr L., who rescheduled Caty's 5th round of chemo so she could have a party. We also celebrated that she is Kickin The Cancer in the butt! The kids all had a great time laughing, dancing and playing goofy games! It was a great time that we all will never forget! Watching her have this great time made us all forget she even had that stuff!

That is all I got for you today...but I AM BACK!!
You all take care and hope to hear from you soon!

Be Inspired!
Vern