Choose Your Life

February 15, 2025February 15, 2025 / Kelly Bea / Leave a comment

Picture it–Gatlinburg in January! A spectacular cabin in the stunning snowy mountains. A cabin full of God’s girls connecting, growing and loving on each other. This cabin, the coziness and the views only drew us closer to God.

That is where I meet this beautiful soul. Jill has this light about her. She was quiet, but also had this spark that was ready burst out of her. She reminded me of myself at my first retreat. We have to take a step back, take it all in and slowly come out of our shell.

I know for myself Big Life taught me how to live like a child again. Fearlessly stepping into each day and soaking up all God had available. Being grateful for the little things and living without fear of what others think of you.

Back to Jill, God was taking her story and blowing it up! It’s a redemption story that she was holding close to the vest, but God had other plans. He knew she was ready to illuminate the world with her spark. A spark that shines bright for living life with Jesus and free of addiction.

You see Jill has been sober for a year and she loves her some Jesus! Jesus nudged her into sharing her story. Last week she was telling us how God is showing off. Multiple people have reached out to her about how she inspired them and they are now on a journey to sobriety.

There was this one little sentence she said that completely blew my mind! Seriously, I read it multiple times and wrote it on a sticky note. She said they decided to choose their life over alcohol! Such a simple statement yet it hit me so hard.

What are you choosing over your life?!?! That statement wouldn’t leave my mind. Its why I am writing this right now. What worldly things do we put above living our lives the way God intended. We have this one life that God has given us.

Are we living it wisely? Are we fully living? Are we walking with Him or are we distracted? Seriously consider where you spend most of your time. Are you scrolling social media? Are you addicted to working? Are you devoted to alcohol? Are you consumed with your next snack? Are you thinking about your next high? Are you glued to a TV or computer screen?

Take a moment to do a inventory of where you spend your time. Are you living life to the full or does something have a hold on you? Are you living little because of an addiction or are you walking in alignment with God fully living?

If am being totally honest I would say that my two biggest distractions from living are getting stuck binge watching a tv show or mindlessly scrolling. This tends to be worse during these cold and yucky winter months. Still its no excuse for wasting my life watching TV and scrolling on my phone. I checked myself and was shocked to see my screen time daily average. Have you checked that setting on your phone recently? Maybe you should. It might light a fire to stop wasting life and get out there and live life. Ask yourself do you want to watch other people live or get busy living your life!

I am choosing to end some TV subscriptions today. I am removing some apps from my phone as well. In their place I am going to be outside more. I am going to sit on my porch and soak up the sunshine and nature. I am going to date my husband. I am going to connect more with my family and friends. I am going to go for walks and talk to God more. I am going to sit with Him and my Bible. I am going to following His promptings to better living.

Ask yourself what you are choosing over living? Pay attention to the first thing(s) that pops in your head when you honestly ask yourself that question! Lets make some changes and get busy living this one life God has granted us.

Mighty Warrior

January 6, 2025January 6, 2025 / Kelly Bea / Leave a comment

The lord is with you mighty warrior! Judges 6:12

Do you know this story? Its a good one! The angle of the Lord appears to Gideon and tells him he is mighty warrior and that he will deliver Israel from the Midianites. Gideon replies back that his family is the weakest in the land. The Lord says BUT I am with you and you will strike down Midianites.

Gideon asked not once, but twice for a sign that he really is God. Our God, ever so patient gave him the two signs. Then he asked Gideon to drop his army to 300 men to take down the Midianites. He trusted God– did what he said and they defeated the Midianites.

I relate to this story so much right now. I was drawn into a battle I wasn’t expecting. I had to seek understanding from God. I had to ask Him if I was doing the right thing. And I have to trust Him completely with something I have no control over.

Over the past 25 months God has done a work in me. I learned to stay steadfast no matter what got thrown at us and I learned to flourish in difficult times. Now He is telling me, “stay strong mighty warrior I am preparing the way”.

My name is Kelly Beatrice, but most everyone knows me as Kelly Bea. A couple months ago I was looking up the meanings of my boys names. As I was doing this it reminded me of the Precious Moments bookmark I use to have with my name and meaning of my name on it. Showing my age mentioning Precious Moments. I remember something about being mighty, but couldn’t exactly remember the meanings so I looked up mine and Kevin’s, too.

Kelly is an Irish name that means bright-headed; war and one who frequents churches. I do work at a church! Biblically my name means solider or warrior. Beatrice means bringer of joy and blessings.

Mid-November my name meaning kept popping back up randomly. I told my friend, Pamela I believe God is giving me my word already. Soon as I told her she was in full agreement. Despite feeling I had it I still went through the steps of finding my word and mantra in December. That is when God said “Kelly Bea you are my JOYFUL WARRIOR, lets prepare for battle!”

JOYFUL WARRIOR

Today I start on my knees in prayer and rise up in the full armor of God. Faith is my shield and His love is my armor. I know who I am because I know who He is. I am full of spark and passionate praise for I know the battle is already won! I walk in alignment with God slaying my day like the JOYFUL WARRIOR he created me to be!

Golly Gee I am in love with my word and mantra this year! The emotion overflows when I say it to myself. When I get up in the morning, hit my knees in prayer and rise up to start my day I feel His armor coming over me! I walk in confidence knowing He has already prepared the way for me. I just need to keep my focus on Him and slaying that enemy who tries so hard to steal, kill and destroy.

While going through the process of finding my word and writing my mantra I found a lot of Bible verses and song lyrics that hit just right.

1 Thessalonians 5:16 reminds us to always be joyful. Zephaniah 3:17 tells us the Lord is a mighty warrior who is always with us. Proverbs 17:22 says a joyful heart is good medicine. Ephesians 6 of courses tells of us the armor of God. Psalms 28:7 in the passion translation blew me away, “God is my strength and my wraparound shield. When I fully trust in you, help is on the way. I jump for joy and burst forth with ecstatic passionate praise”.

Some of the songs that have made my Joyful Warrior playlist are The Truth Song by Megan Woods, Battle Belongs by Phil Whickham, Take it Back by Tauren Wells, Warrior by Hannah Kerr, Raise a Hallelujah by Bethel, The Joy of the Lord by Rend Collective, The Joy Song by Motion Worship, Desperate by Jamie MacDonald and Won’t Back Down by Fearless Soul.

Part of Big Life Mentoring is living a BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE! Pamela has an amazing goal writing system that works when you do the work. After getting my word, mantra and doing my year end review I was ready to write goals for 2025. Our goals are broken down into six areas: Spiritual, Health, Relationships, Mind-Happiness, Home-Money-Career and Fun! Once you have your goals for the year you break them down into monthly, weekly and daily goals using the Big Life Digital Planner. At the end of the year if you work the system you have done some living and accomplished your goals.

As if getting your word, mantra and goals written weren’t enough fun next I got to make a vision board. A daily visible reminder of who I am, whose I am and the plans we have. Remember goals are just dreams until you do something. Having this visual daily reminder will keep me focused on living big! I don’t just want to have big dreams. I want a big life! I want to grab up all God has available for me. In 52 years when I get to heaven I want to be able to say I lived to the full and have nothing left. And yes that would make me 103! I have a goal of living a full, happy and healthy 100+ years! I want to still be out gardening and tending to my chickens when the good Lord takes me home.

Oh my WORD!

November 6, 2024November 14, 2024 / Kelly Bea / 1 Comment

I want to tell you a story about how a single word can change the trajectory of your life.

2019 was the year of Hurricane Dorrian and Notre Dame burning. For me, it was a year of change.

My oldest son had moved out and my youngest son had one foot out the door. Those two amazing humans have been my purpose since I became a mama in 1998.

For the first time in my life I had a career not just a job. I went from working a job in the school system on my boys schedule to government contract work. Life was shifting, but it was good. Still something just felt off and I couldn’t put my finger on it.

During my drive to work I had started listening to a podcast called, Big Life Daily Devotional and this peppy speaker seemed to be fueled by Jesus and caffeine.

She had me taking notes and reaching for my Bible. That’s when I began to realize it was God that was missing from my life. Being that we were between churches my Bible had gotten put down and that led to spending less and less time with God.

Pamela Crim, the Big Life Podcast Host, had begun talking about a mentoring program she offered. I laughed and said, “I don’t need a mentor,” but that voice in my head started giving me a nudge. Maybe I did.

In February 2020 I joined Big Life Mentoring. One of the things we are encouraged to do is pick a word for the year. Pamela actually does a workshop to help us come up with our word. The first thing we do is pray! Next we ask ourselves a few questions. One of them being what do you want for the year ahead. From that you begin to look for words that stick out and so on.

I went through the steps of finding my word. Through prayer and answering those questions it was clear to me that I needed to return to God. My relationship with Him needed to be repaired. In order to fully live the life He has for me I needed to bring him back to the forefront and keep him there. Which is why I chose RESTORE!

1 Peter 5:10 says “In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation”

I wasn’t going to church like I should have. I wasn’t spending time in the word or in prayer. I was not my happy go lucky self and I couldn’t figure out why. I was lost and searching in 2019.

Through finding Big Life Daily Devotional, God was already restoring me, but it wasn’t until I dove into mentoring that I realized what was missing was my relationship with Him.

Throughout 2020 when the world was falling apart, I got my spark back. I found a church online that I loved. I was reading my Bible and spending time in prayer with Him. I was truly happy and living my best life.

I signed up for my first marathon and stuck to my training program. Running became another way for me to spend time with God. I would go to the greenway at the nature preserve, put in my Christian music and just go. I loved being out in nature, soaking up the sun (or the rain) and just spending time with him. I was actually running faster than I ever had.

My husband and I found we enjoyed being empty nesters. We totally took advantage at working from home together and creating fun ways to date while the world was shutdown.

I joined an accountability group through Big Life. These girls became my prayer partners, my workout sisters and cheer squad.

I even got brave enough to go on a Big Life Retreat with 41 strangers. One of the best decisions of my life. I ended up going on a 2nd retreat a few months later. It took me to beautiful Northern California. My first time visiting the state. I absolutely loved the ocean, the giant trees and vineyards. Exploring Glass Beach was one of the coolest experiences. I have now been on 11 retreats and am signed up to do two more!

God restored me in spite of all that was going wrong! He helped me see my purpose. He showed me that when I put Him first, life is just better, even in the hard.

As 2020 was coming to end God was continuing His work in mine and my husband, Kevin’s life. Little did we know He was restoring us in preparation for something big!

The here and now

September 22, 2021September 22, 2021 / Kelly Bea / Leave a comment

Holly Balls! Life went from a sprint to a marathon since arriving in Kentucky. We were going 90 to nothing trying to get everything done. We were excited, but overwhelmed with how fast everything was happening. On September 3rd we closed on our house in Alabama and drove to Clay, Kentucky and everything changed. We didn’t have a home, jobs or any of the little comforts were were use to. Even our sweet dogs lost the freedom of coming and going as they please–no doggy door and fenced backyard here. Even though we unpacked a few boxes and took over part of my mother-in-law’s house it still felt like we were just visiting the first week or so. Time seems to fly by, too. Why is it when you are at work 8 hours is an eternity and when you are home you blink and its supper time!

I thought we would get up here and the next part of our plan would be revealed to us. I thought God would show us what’s next–how can we use this farm for our future. So far its been crickets. I don’t like crickets. I don’t like the unknown. I am a planner and I am not sure what I am supposed to be planning for. I continue to pray and talk to Kevin about all our dreams. We wonder if our dreams will align with God’s plan. What’s He got in store for us? What does the future hold for us over at the farm?

This is our third week in Kentucky and I was really starting to feel uneasy. Uneasy about the unknown, the future and why God is being silent. He laughs at me I am sure! Why? Because He is never silent. If we are talking to Him, He is talking to us. Sometimes we are only listening for the answer we want instead of the one He is giving us. 😉

For the 3rd Sunday since we being in Kentucky I got up, listened to church and planned my week out in my digital planner. I decided no more being lazy its time to get my tail up at 5:45 and get back to my morning routine that always seemed to help me live my best life.

That is just what I did, too! Monday morning at the lovely hour of 5:45 AM my alarm went off and I rolled out of bed and started my day. By 6 I was on live chat with my 6AM Hottie Kim chatting away. After a few minutes catching up we did our workout and I was done just in time for live devotion with Pamela. No one else in the house was up yet. I grabbed my headphones, iPad and a cup of coffee and joined live devotion just in time for our morning routine and Big Life Devotional.

Little did I know God was about to talk to me loud and clear through Pamela! He knew I was in a quiet place focused on her words–words that He gave her. He knew I would be really listening. Monday’s Big Life Devotion was titled “The Roundabout Way” and she read to us from Exodus 13: 17-18. Its about Pharaoh letting the people go and God NOT taking them on the main road, which was the shortest route, but leading them on a roundabout way. He took them the long way around to avoid a battle. He knew they weren’t ready for that battle. Pamela mentioned that God had a purpose in this, just as He has a purpose for everything He does in our lives. We need to trust Him and His route for our lives.

LIGHT BULB MOMENT!!!

We are exactly where we are supposed to be on our journey! A movie of our journey played in my head! How six months ago we never would of brought up moving to Kentucky, that night in May when everything changed and we decided to try and get to Kentucky by May 2022. How God changed our timeline and got us here in three months. Just in time to be available for Betty as she battles this cancer. Every morning Kevin makes breakfast and every evening I make supper. She is eating better than she has in months. Our sweet little dogs just love to sit and snuggle with her. Lollie loves playing ball with her. Kevin was able to take his mom to her first chemo treatment. We are here with her every step of the way. She might want a break from us. 😀

But that movie playing in my head showed me much more than just being available for Betty. We have been here for so much in this short. During this time I have been waiting for God to reveal what’s next I was living it! I was so busy looking for what’s next I almost missed the here and now. I have been able to go to Nadya’s soccer games and cheer on the Lady Tigers. Nadya asked me to go with her for her senior pictures and we had the best time. Her pictures are going to be amazing. We have also got to spend lots of time with Emmy and Sadie. We have had time with my parents, Faye, Linda, Lori, Jason, Joy, Margaret and Rodney. I have got to see 2nd cousins I normally never get to see. Kevin’s had friends stop by and see him. My uncle Rodney is building our house. Thank you God, I love it. You are so so sweet! I trust the journey you have us on and your timing.