L.V. Jones's Blog: "Strength Under Fire- The Needy & The Greedy"- part 3

Happy New Year my Sisters! I am so blessed to have made it to 2019 in good health, with a stable mind & a desire to do and be better. I have this crazy habit that at the start of a new year, I take out my previous year’s agenda and review past events and goals achieved. As I flipped through, I was a bit elated yet disappointed at the same time. Elated because many of the items on my 2018 list that I deemed as impossible came to fruition such as putting on my first women’s workshop (YAY ME)! Y...

Hi there my Sisters! I pray you are enjoying the cooler temperatures and are gearing up for all the wonderful events that autumn brings. Although very brief, I relish the coziness and festivity of the season.This month I would like to talk about empathy. It seems in this day and age that we not only lack peace with one another but we passionately pursue offense. If someone fails to tell us 'Good Morning' or passes us without acknowledging our presence we assume they are being rude or have an...

Oh Happy Day Everyone! I pray you are enjoying the close of yet another adventurous summer. This month I would like to be transparent & touch on mental illness. Please understand that I am not a doctor or psychiatrist nor do I claim to be certified in either. But like many of you I have warred with mental & emotional illness personally. Various family members on both sides of my family tree have suffered with depression, Psychosis, Bipolar, Cyclothymia & Schizophrenia just to name a few. Year...

Continuing in our discussion on relationships I figured talking about submission is going to be a doozy to say the least! I know that many of us are strong, independent & can think for ourselves. Many of us have had no choice but to do life on our own. Perhaps we come from a line of profound, powerful matriarchs that just got things done instead of ‘waiting on him to do it’. Maybe you have been so damaged by past relationships, that you simply do not ‘need’ a man to do anything. Your money is...

I was somewhat reluctant about tackling relationships, dating, marriage and well, in a word—MEN! But since it is a topic of much apprehension and longing for many, I decided to share my heart not only as a sister but as a married woman of over 20 years. Now I know you may say, “What can she POSSIBLY tell me as a married woman?” Well I wasn’t always married and to be honest I didn’t listen to many warning signs that God gave me in the beginning. In my ‘rush’ to be married the first 10 years w...

Hi ladies! This month's topic is a weighty yet unavoidable experience--one so traumatic that I felt compelled to discuss it. I'm talking about betrayal.Betrayal is an abandonment and violation of trust by someone in which you allowed yourself to be vulnerable. Even Jesus experienced this gut wrenching pain from a friend named Judas. What makes betrayal so potent is that it was unexpected. Had we seen it coming, we would have braced ourselves for the tsunami of emotions & questions it conceive...

Happy February ladies! Since we are ending the 'love' month, I thought it only fitting that we celebrate the number one individual in our lives that is more than worthy of unconditional love. I'm talking about YOU!I wanted to address self love because we often find reasons to NOT love ourselves: we can't move past mistakes we made, we think a man will complete us, we accept what others say about us as truth or we don't accept that we are simply different and that being different is ok. We adv...

We have often heard the quote, “Laughter is good food for the soul”. The Bible even tells us in Proverbs 15:13 “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.” I have noticed that we have become so busy “adulting” that we have lost the joy & freedom that laughter brings.When my dad had gotten laid off from his job things were rough for us financially. It placed a heaviness on everyone especially my parents. Trying to feed five kids wasn’t easy. H...

As we depart 2017 & enter into the mystery that is 2018, I would like to impart a few nuggets of encouragement. When I began to jot down my plans for the upcoming year, a myriad of emotions tackled me all at once. I thought on the things that I didn't accomplish this year-- professionally, personally & spiritually. My mind replayed outstanding victories by family & close friends while I wrestled with feelings of defeat & inadequacy that sought to swallow me up all the while chanting, "Why eve...

Have you ever felt as though there are times that you need to cover up the best in you to make others comfortable? I did this for many years because I was worried & afraid that I would come off as being conceited. I have been in situations where I knew I could make a positive difference but I held back. I hid on the sidelines because I felt others were better & bolder than I was. I was stressed about being misunderstood. But guess what? It happened anyway! Part of this was due to my lack of c...