Your Second Christmas Gift | Showers’ Blessing Inspires

The “True Love” mentioned in the song doesn’t refer to an earthly suitor, but it refers to God Himself. The “me” who receives the presents refers to every baptized person. The two turtle doves represent the Old and New Testaments, which together bear witness to God’s self-revelation in history and the creation of a people to tell the Story of God to the world. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments. Psalms 119:105-106 (KJV)

God’s Instructions for Life

I was talking with a cousin, and he stated, “I wish life came with instructions.” I replied, “It does. It is called the Bible.” I went on to explain to him that everything we need is within the Old and New Testaments. Some refer to it as Basic Instructions Before Living Earth—BIBLE. That sounds like a book of instructions that enables you to live a victoriously successful life.

In Joshua, it lets us know that as we mediate on God’s Word day and night to do what it says, we will be prosperous and experience good success. The more we allow the Word to be a lamp for our feet and light for our path, we embrace His abundance of blessings.

The beauty of God’s Word is that it is forever evolving as we evolve. It is dynamic. No matter what we encounter in life, the Word of God provides us precise instructions for us to experience success. The more I talked with my cousin, he also began to see it as well because he never viewed the Bible as instructions for his life.

How many people, just like my cousin, feel as though they don’t know how to meander through life and do not look at the Bible as instructions for their lives. There is nothing that God did not think about for us to live victoriously in our sojourn here on earth. He has mapped out a strategy for success for us spiritually, physically, personally, relationally, professionally, environmentally, and more.

That is what God has done. He has given us the tools we need to win in life, but it is up to us to use them. Every day we must devour the Word of God searching out God’s instructions and applying them to our lives. It is the only way that we can truly determine the path for our life and live the abundant life God envisioned for us.

I do hope that you enjoy this gift of love on the second day of Christmas. It is my desire that these words of encouragement will propel you further down your path of success.

Enjoy Your Gift!

Jacqui Showers

The Bold Encourager
Business Encouragement Coach

Special thanks to Dennis Bratcher, CRI/Voice, Institute for excerpts. Visit this site for more in-depth information.

Your First Christmas Gift | Showers’ Blessing Inspires

The “True Love” mentioned in the song doesn’t refer to an earthly suitor, but it refers to God Himself. The “me” who receives the presents refers to every baptized person. The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, whose birthday we celebrate on December 25, the first day of Christmas. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge that feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, recalling the expression of Christ’s sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: “Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered you under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but you would not have it so . . . .” (Luke 13:34)

I Am that I Am

My mother gave me a priceless gift to love God and to love others. Her instructions were simplistic, yet expansive, “Love one another.” I believe everything hinges on that humongous powerful four letter word — L-O-V-E.

God wants us to understand the magnitude of the role he plays within each of us, but he also wants us to understand the magnitude of the role we play in each other’s lives. Living out the greatest two commandments to love God with all our mind, body, and soul and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. I believe these two commandments, when kept at the forefront of our lives, keeps us grounded to serve and love one another.

Many times we want to feel that we are in this alone. When we isolate ourselves we become more consumed with what others can do for us and lose sight of what we can do for others. Self-serving attitudes and actions only lead to destructiveness and limitation. I AM—God within us—connects us and unifies us. God is love. We are united in His love. Together we exemplify unity in all of its nuances to achieve much more than we could ever achieve alone. Our actions and behaviors have a direct consequence on each other because when one is affected everyone is affected.

When we allow the I AM power dwelling in each of us to be our guiding force, the veil that prevents us from understanding our purpose is lifted. Allowing God, I Am That I Am, to guide and lead us to our expected purpose, we come up against mental strongholds that try to prevent us from experiencing all God has for our lives, which is directly connected to all God has for others’ lives.

Each of us may not want to fulfill our responsibility for the welfare and well-being of others, but we have no choice. It is rooted in the two greatest commandments. We are responsible for banning together and making things happen. God provides the purpose, but He also provides us the wisdom to know collectively we can do much more.

Working together we experience progress. We must respect the enterprising spirit inherent in each of us. If we don’t respect each other and support our respective dreams and aspirations, we will never excel to the heights God envisioned. Such a small word with illimitable power that not only transforms our lives, but enables us to love others in transforming their lives as well.

The Spirit of I Am answers the questions looming in our lives. His purpose is for us to be prosperous. His purpose is for us to be protected and safe. His purpose is for us to have the desires of our hearts. His purpose is for us to have power and a sound mind, not to be controlled by the limitations of this world, but to be controlled and guided by divine peace, joy, love and the Spirit of I AM.

1. At the core of God’s Spirit is love, which He gave to us when He gave us His only begotten Son, Jesus, for us to have eternal life and an abundant life in the earth.

This is your first gift of the 12 days of Christmas.

Enjoy Your Gift!

Jacqui Showers

The Bold Encourager
Business Encouragement Coach

Special thanks to Dennis Bratcher, CRI/Voice, Institute for excerpts. Visit this site for more in-depth information.

If you would like to receive the Twelve Days of Christmas Gift of Inspiration, subscribe here.

Merry Christmas! Accept My Gift to You | Showers’ Blessing Inspires

Greetings,

I love Christmas! I have more decorations than I almost have a place to put them. Over the years Christmas has meant more than just decorations for me. It is a time to celebrate Jesus’ birth with family and friends and pour out love to everyone. When I think about Christmases gone by, I can’t help but reminisce about how much fun my family enjoyed. We’d kick it off on Christmas Eve and celebrate every day until New Year’s Day.

The celebration included singing the Twelve Days of Christmas. Everyone loved singing the song since my sister Portia introduced it to us decades ago. In essence, each person is given a card with four of the gifts randomly chosen for them to sing at their respective time. That is what makes it so much fun!

As you move through the Twelve Days of Christmas, each person stands up and sings the portion of the song that is listed on their card. We are jumping up and down, singing, laughing, and just having a great time.

One year, I wanted to know more about the Twelve Days of Christmas and exactly what we were singing. To my amazement, it was more than a nonsensical song, but was a way for Catholics in England to practice their faith during a period when they were prohibited from doing so in public and in private. They were able to teach their children about Christmas and Christ using the symbols of each day. I was interestingly intrigued that the twelve days did not come before Christmas but started on Christmas evening and ended the evening of January 6. Over the years, the Twelve Days of Christmas have come to represent more than just a nonsensical song to me.

Oftentimes, at the end of one year and the beginning of another, we are always in a place of expectation. Celebrating Christmas this year, the significance of the Twelve Days of Christmas means giving gifts that propel others to fulfill their dreams and live out their purpose.

For twelve days, beginning on Christmas evening and culminating on January 6, expect a gift of encouragement. It is my way of saying thank you for your support for The Showers Group Ministries, The ME Place, Kingdom Marketplace Connection, Showers’ Blessing Inspires, 11:59 A Minute ’til Midnight Marketplace Prayer Bootcamp, JASSAI Publishing, The ME Place, and my family during the loss of my beloved sister Shirley Lee Holmes Mallette. It is my prayer and hope these gifts of inspiration will continue to propel you in this year, the next year, and years to come as you become all God envisioned so you can experience what God SAWW, Spiritual, Abundance, Wholeness, and Wealth.

Enjoy A Merry Christmas!

Jacqui Showers

The Bold Encourager
Business Encouragement Coach

If you would like to receive the Twelve Days of Christmas Gift of Inspiration, subscribe here.

Celebrate Memorial Day In Remembering Our War Heroes!

Greetings,

After May 2013, Memorial Day has never been the same for me. My sincere celebration of the holiday has taken on new meaning. Before I  celebrated Memorial Day more for the time with family than truly honoring the millions of fallen soldiers who gave their lives so we as Americans can enjoy freedom as no other nation. Now, I truly have an American Hero to celebrate.

My sister and best friend, Major Patricia Holmes-Ellison, led a command of soldiers, 273rd Military Police Company, in the 1991 Gulf War–having been one of the few women allowed to maintain leadership of a coed squad in combat. Early morning on May 14, 2013, she succumbed to lingering wounds from Desert Storm. She was a soldier’s soldier. Through her life, commitment to this country and death, I realized that these soldiers, even those who lost their lives, would fight again if given the opportunity. That is not to say that our country has always honored their efforts, commitment and ultimate sacrifice. I witnessed my sister fight for benefits that were rightfully hers being forced to prove that she was ever in combat.

Our patriotism for those who fight and sacrifice so much, even their lives, for us is grossly under celebrated. Not long ago I can remember the patriotism of America for those who had given their lives. Flags hung from houses as we were proud Americans honoring our war dead. In school we learned the battle and celebratory songs of this country in celebration of our country and those who gallantly served this country with honor and dignity. We recited the Pledge of Allegiance with pride knowing it united us not just as a nation, but as a country committed to God.

Today, most of our children don’t know those songs because of cuts from our music departments and we don’t sing them at home like we once did either. The majority of them don’t know the Pledge of Allegiance because God is mentioned and we are more concerned about offending rather than uniting in a corporate commitment to our country and our freedom.

Many of Americans are clueless about why we celebrate Memorial Day. Most of them feel it is another day off work; when in actuality it is a time for us to celebrate our war dead. These are the women and men who unselfishly gave of themselves and sacrificed the ultimate in battle, their lives, so we can have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Join me this Memorial Day to celebrate the millions of women and men who gave their lives so we as Americans can enjoy freedoms unlike any other nation. Pray for the strength of their families who lost their loved ones, some during battle and others later from wounds acquired during battle. Let us join together with pride knowing that their efforts and sacrifice will never be forgotten and they will never be in vain. We salute each of them throughout the history of America for their bravery, their courage and their sacrifice for us to be one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Enjoy a blessed momentous Memorial Day

Jacqui Showers

The Bold Encourager
Chief Encouragement Officer

Waiting is No Longer an Option |Showers’ Blessing PicSpire | Jacqui Showers

Several years ago, my church, House of Prayer & Praise Ministries, released a CD project entitled, Expectancy. One of the tracks bellows out, “We cannot wait.” As I reflected on those words, it took me back to a book written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. entitled, “Why We Can’t Wait.”

The book outlines the plight of the Negro since arriving in America. Because of the injustices and inhumanity endured from the shores of Africa to the horrible middle passage, to slavery itself and to Jim-Crow, it meticulously outlined why the Negro could no longer wait to experience the same rights and privileges afforded their Caucasian counterparts. The literary work emphatically illustrates that the Negro was no longer going to wait but was ready to act and embrace all the promises as a citizen of the United States.

We still stand on the threshold of full equality in a nation that continues to want to relegate us to a subpar existence. As I think about the impending Voting Rights Act authored by the late Congressman John Lewis and civil rights leader and how there are those who still do not want us to exercise our full rights as citizens of this country, I unequivocally know that we cannot wait. The same things that were happening when Dr. King authored this book, are still prevalent today. In recent years, it has become even more overt.

We can no longer sit idly by while people who do not have our best interest, make decisions about our destiny. Last year, we frightened them to resort back to their “Jim Crow” antics and enact laws to create obstacles and barriers to prevent us from exercising our right to vote. Just like we voted and made a difference, we must have that same tenacity and crowd-power in every election. It is our crowd-power as African Americans that made a difference. It is our crowd-power as African Americans, who caused them to enact laws directly following that election. It is our crowd-power as African Americans where we will overcome any obstacles or barriers and exercise our rights and privileges. No, we cannot wait and are not waiting any more.

Each of us must be committed and dedicated to ensuring that every African American vote. It is our crowd-power that will make the difference. We have an obligation not to wait because of those who gave their lives for us. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and so many others who paid the ultimate price for us to be free. We must honor Dr. King’s legacy by ensuring that we take advantage of our God-given rights and privileges.

We all reach a threshold where we can no longer wait as well. Many have not exercised their privileges and rights. The ugly face of racism prevented African Americans from experiencing the fullness of citizenship in a country they helped to build through their sweat, blood, and tears.

Oftentimes we find ourselves existing below our privilege because we have not tapped into the reservoir of resources that God has given us. No, it was never God’s intention for us to fret over the uncertainty of this world, but to walk in complete victory as we become all He created us to be. For centuries, African Americans were not allowed to experience the privileges inherent in citizenship because of the label of inferiority placed on them. In many instances, we are not experiencing all our rights and privileges, because of inferior labels inflicted on us by either ourselves or others.

There comes a time when you have to say I can no longer wait for change to take place, because I am going to be an active participant in making change happen. There comes a time when you can no longer idly watch life passing you by without developing and exercising your God-given gifts and talents. There comes a time when you no longer allow outside stimulus to prohibit you from tapping into an infinite reservoir of overflowing opportunities. There comes a time when you no longer live as a second-class citizen, and you begin to expect more because you know you are a first-class citizen. There comes a time when you say enough is enough. I am taking back everything that has been withheld from me.

This is the time for you to move from idleness to expectancy. You see expectancy involves action. Expectancy involves forward deliberate motion. When you expect something more, you no longer are immobilized by fear; and “no” and “I can’t” no longer has a place in the lexicon of your life. Your mindset has elevated to expect “yes” and “I can.”

Even when all around you is a raging storm of uncertainty, you realize that you dwell in the heart of the storm where there is abundant life. You come to realize that outward circumstances have no dominion over your inner peace. It is this inner peace and joy that propels you to steadfastly move with an expectation unimaginable. You move from limitation, to the unlimited potential inherent in you from the day you were born. What begins to happen is that the fragments of famine and negativity no longer can skew your vision, because your vision causes them to become a micro dot on the landscape of your life and they no longer control your destiny. Nothing and no one can prevent you from living out everything God envisioned for you.

Change your mindset! Expect more! Take action! Because you cannot afford to wait anymore!

Are you ready to take action? Are you ready to stop waiting, and be the change that makes things happen?

#MartinLutherKingDay #excellenceinservice #showersblessing

Safely Enjoy Your Christmas!

This year has been extreme! As we continue to be shuttered away from celebrating with family and friends in person, we learn to improvise in our celebrations. Last evening, I had a great time celebrating with my family via Zoom in our traditional Christmas Eve Gift Exchange.

Last year we were shuttered away from family and friends because of the pandemic. I recall not missing a beat when it came to coming together with my family. We celebrated our beloved holidays, not being together, yet we were together. Thank God for technology that affords us the ability to still connect with family.

After almost two years of uncertainty, we find ourselves still battling an invisible foe. It seems as though when we think that it is just about winding down, it rears its ugly head again. Most of us thought that we would be enjoying our families without trepidation of a killer virus that has taken so many. Yet, we continue to be in that place. Unlike last year, we are not shuttered away. Unfortunately, the numbers of those being afflicted by the virus, and even succumbing to it is on the increase.

As we celebrate this holiday season, let us remember why we do it. It is because a loving God gifted us with His only son, Jesus Christ. In an unselfish display of love, God gave His only begotten son that we would have eternal life and experience an abundant life here on earth. I believe beyond belief, that abundant life included us uniting together in the face of adversity. We are facing one of the worse adversities of my lifetime. A pandemic that appears to be relentless.

We have to be just as relentless and vigilant in our efforts to ensure a different outcome for Christmas 2022. It begins with each of us exhibiting that same unselfish love God demonstrated. It begins when we love each other enough to do what is right for ourselves and others. I continue to wear my love mask, even though I have been vaccinated and received the booster. These are love gestures in my commitment to living the two greatest commandments—to love God and to love my neighbor as I love myself.

You see, I want everyone to experience an awesome Christmas with their loved ones. It is my desire that there will not be an empty place at the table when families sit down because their loved one was snatched away by COVID. It is my hope and desire that our children will be able to attend school mask-free, without fear of catching a virus that they can potentially take home. I look forward to the day when we can gather together without fear of events becoming super spreaders.

Every time, I put my mask on, I envision the day when I won’t have to wear it. Until then, my love gift is to put it on so others and myself can live. During this holiday season, let’s continue to demonstrate love by doing what is necessary to annihilate this disease.

Have an awesome Merry Christmas as you safely enjoy your family and friends!

Jacqui Showers

The Bold Encourager
Business Encouragement Coach

Celebrate Memorial Day!

Greetings,

Every Memorial Day I remember my sister, Major Patricia Holmes Ellison, and her bravery, courage, and sacrifice. I witnessed a long painful process of sickness and disease from wounds when she served and was the only woman to lead a coed command in Desert Storm that ultimately caused her death.

Join me today and every Memorial Day as I remember, salute, and honor my sister and the countless women and men who gave their lives. These are the women and men who unselfishly gave of themselves and sacrificed the ultimate in battle, their lives, so we can have the right to the pursuit of happiness, liberty, and justice for all.

Let us pray for the strength of their families who lost their loved ones, some during the battle and some years later from wounds inflicted during the battle. Let us join with pride knowing that their efforts and sacrifice will never be forgotten. Today celebrate them for their bravery, their courage, and their sacrifice.

Enjoy a blessed momentous Memorial Day

Jacqui Showers

The Bold Encourager
Chief Encouragement Officer

Happy Mother’s Day!

Celebrate Loving Your Mother!

We pour out our love in all the accoutrements associated with Mother’s Day—cards, gifts, dinners and more. Nothing compares to the present of our presence and our enduring love for our mothers. These two Mother’s Day where we have not been able to participate in the traditional celebrations, it causes you to truly reflect on this day.

For me, it is remembering my Mother’s love for each of her bunch of kids—as she referred to the 10 of us. For those of us whose Mother has transitioned from this word to eternity, our memories have become our priceless companions. For those whose mothers are still with you, love on your Mother every day as if the very heartbeat of your life depends on it. In many ways, it does.

Celebrate Loving your Mother every day of your life!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Jacqui Showers

The Bold Encourager
Chief Encouragement Officer

15 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Excellence in Service Quotes|Showers’ Blessing Picspire | Jacqui Showers

Today we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was a man committed to serving others with excellence. As you kick-off your week in celebration of Dr. King’s life and legacy, be committed to having a dream to serve others with excellence in everything you do.

1. “Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
2. If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’
3. “the time is always right to do the right thing”
4. “On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right? There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right.”
5. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?”
6. “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
7. “The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But…the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
8. “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
9. “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way”
10. “If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.”
11. “Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.”
12. “You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be. And one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid…. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer…. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab you, or shoot at you or bomb your house; so you refuse to take the stand. Well, you may go on and live until you are 90, but you’re just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.”
13. “The question is not if we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.”
14. “Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.”
15. “The end of life is not to be happy, nor to achieve pleasure and avoid pain, but to do the will of God, come what may.”

#MartinLutherKingDay #excellenceinservice #showersblessing

Embracing a New Year!

Happy New Year!

Even as we enter 2021 there is still a lot of uncertainty, but there is so much optimism that at the cessation of 2021 we will have moved closer to the normalcy we once knew and will have experienced awesome success in each of our endeavors. Normalcy in 2020 has been redefined. As much as we may long to resume our lives before COVID, we will never fully embrace that normalcy again.

There is a normalcy that each of us experience every day in some capacity. Even though sometimes we feel that it is not there. The love of God is always a part of our existence. Even amid the adversities and chaos of life, His love for us is forever present. No doubt God and His love will also be there with us throughout 2021. Regardless of what the vicissitudes of life my bring, God and His unconditional love is the greatest constant of our lives. The same constant of His love for us, each of us must be committed to that consistency of love for each other.

We awakened this morning in a new year. Some of the same issues are confronting us. Together, in love, we can conquer them. As we move further from the holidays, incorporating love, compassion, and grace into our lives becomes even more paramount. I am committed to love God, others, and myself in bringing about some semblance of normalcy as we knew it. I do hope you join me in that commitment as we face another year united together with love as our cornerstone to increase our faith and hope for a prosperous and successful year.

Have a Happy Blessed New Year!

Jacqui Showers

The Bold Encourager
Chief Encouragement Officer