The Bible tells us that God will comfort those who grieve, as "the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit." (Psalm 34:18) 4 things to do when you feel ready to move forward after the loss of a child. You can find more about my personal story of walking through shaken baby syndrome and the loss of my 3 year old in my book Going Through Trials with God on Amazon or Audible.

Sometimes a shift in mindset is necessary to move forward in life. Don't stay stuck. Surrender it to God. Let Him take it and make something beautiful. 

In this episode, I’m going to talk about one of the worst days of my life, my first wedding anniversary. It also happened to be the same day my daughter Christa was placed on hospice care, and the night my husband deeply betrayed me by viewing pornography. I’m going to give you 3 things that helped me heal from it, in case you are going through this as well, or maybe someone you know is. First, I want to mention a statistic. According to restoring hearts counseling, 77% of Christian men between 18-30 years old look at pornography at least monthly. 36% of those men view it on a daily basis. Reading that hurts my heart. If you’re going through an issue with your spouse involving pornography, I hope that helps you see it’s not just your spouse. Don’t take his viewing pornography personally. It’s not your fault. It doesn’t make it right, but our culture has normalized viewing pornography, and most men started viewing it at a young age. The problem with pornography being normalized is by the time someone wakes up to the fact that it’s wrong, they’ve already become addicted. Most likely, your spouse won’t be able to quit and change overnight. After years of viewing that stuff, the neural pathways in his brain have been changed. The good news is, that they CAN be changed, so there is hope for overcoming the addiction.

Link for book: https://www.audible.com/pd/Going-Through-Trials-with-God-Audiobook/B0B4V1G933?qid=1661392586&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=1W8W3NZ077AFWT5E77EV Link for Instagram, Other Books, Products I Recommend: https://linktr.ee/sierracooke

In this episode, I’m going to talk about my personal story of going through court to take rights away from my children’s biological father, and give them to my current husband, their step-father. I believe this will help encourage and inspire you to ask God for a miracle and ask God to make a way for something you desire, even if you have to pray about it for a long time.

I’m going to tell you a quick story about a time I was feeling sorry for myself in the surgery waiting room waiting for my daughter Christa who was having work done on her GI tract. In this story, I was feeling sorry for myself, and complaining about it to God. He was trying to use that man as an answer to my prayer, and I was almost blinded by my feelings. I almost turned God’s answer away. I can’t help but wonder what I would’ve felt if I had stayed in that negative mindset. God sent me a volunteer at the hospital to help me turn my mood around and to uplift my spirit. I had to be open to receive God’s blessing though. Can you think of any stories in your life like this? Where you were feeling down and out and in those moments someone helped you get out of the funk you felt stuck in? If you find yourself feeling down and out, ask God to send someone or something to help you. And after you ask, you have to be open to His way of answering that prayer. In the story I shared, I didn’t Feel like talking to anyone, but it’s how God wanted to fill the void I felt. It was my Choice to accept it or not. God can use someone you least expect to brighten your day or to supply a need you have. Don’t put God in a box and don’t close yourself off to His way of doing things to help you. A big cause of self-pity is when we focus so much on what is not there, that we can’t see what IS there. Feeling sorry for yourself can produce harmful results. Here are a few ways you can help yourself defeat self-pity: -You have to become aware of it. Evaluate your thoughts. When you start feeling down, notice when your thoughts start to negatively spiral downward. Catch yourself before you go so far that you get stuck in a cycle of self-pity. -Remind yourself of who you are in Christ. Stop focusing so much on yourself and other people, and pivot your focus to be on God. Self pity is very tempting, but you Can overcome it through Jesus’ power. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 -If you’re going through a trial and feel like you need encouragement & strategies to help you get through it, my book Going Through Trials with God : 7 Lessons Learned Through SBS will give you just that. You can find it on Amazon and Audible.

1st Samuel talks a lot about how Samuel was a man who lived by his convictions. If we allow Him to, God can use our circumstances to get our attention, and He will convict us when we need to make a change. Being open to this can transform our lives. I want to encourage you to be someone who lives by their convictions. My husband Canyon helped me tell the story of Hannah, and how God used her circumstances for so much good. You can find us on Instagram at sierra.marie.cooke where I post about faith and mindset daily. 

Enough time has passed in dwelling or survival mode. Shift your focus to learning how to break free from the chains and get into winning mode. What you’ve been through, you can leverage. You can’t go back and change it, but you Can use it to motivate you. Use the pain, anger, and hurt from your past and maybe even your present, for good.Think about how many others are feeling what you have felt. Think about how many people need you to step up and allow God to break your chains, so they can see it’s possible and rise up to do the same in their lives.

Speaking positive affirmations help you  reprogram your subconscious mind.They can also help you stay focused, change negative thought patterns into positive ones, they help release fear & worry, and they can help raise your belief in yourself.

You may have heard this quote before, “don’t despise the day of small beginnings”.When you are first starting out in something, for you this may be you just  got your 1st 1 bedroom apartment, you just started a business that is serving only 1 or 2 people, you just got married & are living paycheck to paycheck, you just started paying off debt and are only able to pay off a very small amount each month, or maybe you just started a relationship with God and are feeling like you know very little about living a Godly life, when you first start out, it can be easy to feel down about the small beginning. I want to give you some encouragement to help you get through this season.