Setting The Trajectory

Posted on Categories:Anxiety, Control, Encouragement, Faith, Fear, Hope, Mental Health, Peace, Struggle, Worry, Worth

Setting The Trajectory

Kevin Phillips

Have you ever asked yourself, “where am I going in life, what’s my purpose, what do I want to accomplish, what kind of person do I want to be or become?” Growing up I always marveled at people who somehow inherently knew what they wanted to do in life. My daughter for example has known since she was in elementary school that she wanted to be an elementary school teacher. In high school I could never relate to other students who knew what they wanted to do and what they wanted to study in college. I felt like I was on the outside looking in. I didn’t understand why I had no idea what to do in life. It was so frustrating and at times I kind of felt like a loser. I really didn’t know that my calling was to be a therapist/counselor until my late 30’s, wow talk about a late bloomer. But after I reflected on this meandering way of settling upon a profession, I realized that all my frustrations and confusion and life experiences gave me the ability to become a better, more effective, real therapist that could relate to people. Then I started to realize that as individuals we need to set a trajectory for ourselves. If not, where are we flying to, where are we going, what do we stand for, what’s the purpose?

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Anger Is Not Necessarily Bad

Posted on Categories:Encouragement, Hope, Mental Health, Struggle

Anger Is Not Necessarily Bad

Kevin Phillips

The following is a quote from T.D Jakes in his book entitled, Let It Go, “Often anger helps us to confront what we would otherwise ignore. Occasionally, I hear people teach others to simply move on from an offense and forget it. But the truth of the matter is it’s difficult to move on when you haven’t had your say. The lack of closure can become a sticking point that keeps you attached to an incident from which you need to be free”. Anger is a natural emotion, an emotion that can either be bad and destructive or good and constructive depending on how one expresses it and acts upon it. Let’s be honest for a minute; if we have lived a few years, we have probably seen ourselves use anger in a right and constructive way and we have probably seen ourselves use anger is not so good ways. Hopefully in our lives the good greatly out-weighs the bad. It only takes seconds for anger to get the best of us. Anger can move us to do and say some pretty stupid things and create great pain. Anger can destroy parent/child relationships, rob marriages, zap work-place camaraderie, create drama. Anger can destroy sports teams, organizations and just about everything else man puts his hands too. Anger is often borne out of our trauma, broken relationships, from our parents’ neglect and craziness, failed opportunities, people cheating on us and otherwise letting us down. It becomes apparent, as we mature and gain insight and perspective, that we as individuals deserve and need to eradicate unhealthy, painful and destructive anger out of our character before, like Covid, it infects everything around us. If we’re not careful, we’ll wake up one day and discover that our unhealthy anger has destroyed the better parts of what we long for.

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Choose Your Course

Posted on Categories:Anxiety, Control, Depression, Difficulty, Dispare, Fear, Grief, Interpersonal Issues, Intimidation, Manipulation, Rage, Struggle, Worry, Worth 

Written by Kevin J. Phillips
Founder of Encouragement Now Ministries

“That’s what the Christian life is all about, isn’t it? Going, yet not knowing.

As followers of our Lord, we believe He leads us in a certain direction, or in pursuit of a precise goal.”

~ Charles R. Swindoll

 

Have you ever contemplated: “What is my life’s purpose? What do I want to accomplish, and who do I want to become?” I used to be in awe of folks who just knew what they wanted to do with their lives. For instance, my daughter has known she wanted to be a teacher ever since elementary school. But I was never able to connect with others who were certain about what they wanted to do or study in college.

I felt like an outsider, and that was frustrating since I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t know what to do with my life. Until I was in my late 30s, I had no idea I wanted to be a counselor. 

Yet, after giving it some thought, I saw that all of my struggles, difficulties, and experiences had prepared me to become a better, more capable counselor who could connect and relate to his patients. I concluded that each of us needs to determine our life course. 

Now, imagine for a moment that you are launching a rocket to the moon. Many engineers would be required to manage all the details for such a mission. Your job is to enter the correct coordinates for the rocket. If the coordinates are off by even 1/2 a degree, the mission would be a failure since that one mistake repeated over and over again would cause the rocket to veer and miss the moon by thousands of miles. Even a small mistake gets bigger the longer it goes uncorrected. To reach our goals or to achieve anything in life—we must have the proper trajectory set in place. But first, we must decide where we’re heading before setting the coordinates.

 

-What are your objectives and goals in life?-What sort of person do you want to be?
-What direction is your life currently going in, and does it need to change?

 

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Neurodivergent: Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder

Posted on Categories:ADHD, Hope, Mental Health 

Written by Bianca Gurciullo
Executive Assistant of Encouragement Now Ministries

“The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail.”

~ Charles R. Swindoll

 

Growing up, many of us never heard about or knew there were neurodivergences such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). Those who suffered from this attention deficit were just told to pay attention and settle down or face consequences. I know because I was an excellent example of an ADHDer’s ability to mask my symptoms. I used to think of myself as a chameleon when I realized how good I was at hiding my problems and being what people expected me to be. 

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Soldiers Hope

Posted on Categories:Encouragement, Faith, Fear, Hope 

Written by Kevin J. Phillips
Founder of Encouragement Now Ministries

“Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”

~ Helen Keller

 

Amid a vast forest, a battle was going on between two armies. One army was outnumbered, but the General of the smaller army decided to launch an attack because he was confident they could win the battle. 

He called his Lieutenant and told him to get their soldiers to prepare for a fight. The Lieutenant informed the soldiers about their plan of attack on the enemy army. The soldiers were ready to battle but had fears and doubts as they knew they were low in numbers compared to the enemy army. 

The day for battle came, and the General knew about the doubts of his soldiers, so when they were on the way to the battlefield, the General told all his soldiers to halt at a shrine for prayer. After the prayer, the General stood in front of his soldiers with a coin in hand and said, “With faith in destiny, I will now toss this coin, if it’s heads, we will win, and if its tails we will lose.”

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Resting In Hope

Posted on Categories:Anxiety, Hope, Peace 

Written by Bianca Gurciullo
Executive Assistant of Encouragement Now Ministries

“Rest time is not a waste of time. It is economy to gather fresh strength…In the long run, we shall do more by sometimes doing less.”

~ Charles Spurgeon

 

Rest is the opposite of anxiety, and we can find hope in that rest. Hope can get us through the hard times, but without rest, hope is hard to find. The question is: what are we hoping for? Is it strong enough to lead us to rest? Also, what are we putting our hope in, and will it cause us additional frustration?

 

Psalm 16:9        
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope.

 

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The Captain of Encouragement

Posted on Categories:Encouragement, Mental Health 

Written by Kevin J. Phillips
Founder of Encouragement Now Ministries 

“Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”

~ Helen Keller

 

I remember playing sports growing up until I blew out my knee skating. At times we were losing and knew we were done for. But there were always a few team members who had unbelievable, never-give-up attitudes and radiated positivity. They always carried an aura of, “We can do this!”

No matter what the scoreboard read, they would come into the huddle and everyone started to feel better, and more confident. The impossible would feel possible. Within a few plays or a couple of good defensive stops, their can-do attitudes started to spread like wildfire to the other team members. All of a sudden, we had a rally going. We began scoring again. The more we scored, the more encouraged and energetic we got. I think about my team members a few decades later, and it still inspires me today. 

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Discouragement is a Liar

Posted on Categories:Encouragement, Mental Health 

Written by Bianca Gurciullo
Executive Assistant of Encouragement Now Ministries

“Depression begins with disappointment. When disappointment festers in our soul, it leads to discouragement.”
~ Joyce Meyer

 

We all get discouraged, don’t we? Life often ebbs and flows; many find themselves on the mountaintop one day and in a valley the next! We don’t want to get discouraged and don’t like how this inconsistency makes us feel, but we are all susceptible to it because of our flawed and fallen human nature. 

We’ve also inherited discouragement tendencies from people in our lives. It’s a fact that life’s circumstances can shape our mindsets, but as children of God, we are told not to be discouraged, so how do we not allow it to overtake us?

 

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