By Miriam O. Ezenwa, PhD, RN, FAAN

Introduction:

Greetings, my people! In my previous post, “Forgiveness: The Key to Unlocking your Creativity and Dreams,” I asked that we forgive ourselves for “letting fear of the unknown swallow our greatest assets — free will.”

Then, I declared my intention to reclaim my will, to pursue my vision and live my dreams aloud, and to step into my greatness.

I invited you to do the same and come along with me on this journey. I am grateful for all your responses and your willingness to walk with me hand-in-hand as we learn together.

I am not sharing my story with you because I have answers to your questions. I am sharing them with you because I believe that I need you, you need, and we need one another, to inspire and empower ourselves as we take this journey called life.

I am sharing my story with you to stir your soul, so you can ask yourself the right questions and find the right answers to them by the way you choose to live your life from this day forward? It is called, “CHANGE.”

You see, I would not be where I am in life today, if it were left up to people to decide my fate. I was that little girl who grew up in the poor, unsafe neighborhood where I experienced lack of security and endured childhood poverty. I grew up believing it was unfair that my family had to suffer so much when the world was full of abundance.

I was that teenager who spent years struggling to understand the wisdom of God.

As a child who was raised in the church and was in training to become a Catholic nun, I began to believe that the curse of poverty and the many other ungodly adversities that inflicted me were inconsistent with my belief that God would always protect and provide abundantly for those who obeyed and worshipped Him. I erroneously believed that God had not kept His end of the covenant I had with Him. I also doubted the power of the tongue that God used to create the world. I doubted that I could ever create a destiny I wanted for myself through the power of my tongue.

I was that young women who spent years wallowing in low self-confidence and telling myself that I was not good enough or not smart enough to become that which I knew I could be.

UNTIL! Until, I heeded that quiet sweet voice that told me, “Listen, Omy! You may be broken but you are not defeated.”

Therefore, I declared myself undefeated and pressed on.

No one gave me the permission to get up in the morning, look in the mirror, and tell myself, “This is the day that the Lord has made. Rejoice, be glad in it, and a take full advantage of its opportunities.”

I had to give myself permission to turn my life around despite adversities and obstacles. I had to give myself the permission to leverage the lessons poverty taught me. I call them the gifts of adversity. I gave myself permission to turn my gifts of adversity into magnets for success.

So, can you!

In a series of posts, I will share with you some of the strategies I used to strengthen my core and my “will” that helped me to turn my life around.

First on the list is, “Silence”: The Language of God. Here, we will discuss the importance of staying still to identify the deepest longings of our hearts—our individual and collective purposes.

I will connect with you again soon.

I wish you strength, always!

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Please Stay Tuned …