Not the divorce. Not the diagnosis. Not the bank account. Not the child who is giving you everything they have and none of it is good right now. Not the job you lost. Not the relationship that fell apart. Not the season that has lasted so long you have started to forget what the other side feels like. None of it. Not one single circumstance that has happened to you, around you, or because of you has the authority to rewrite who God said you are. We were never taught the difference between our identity and our circumstances. We were taught that what happens to us IS us. So when things fall apart we fall apart with them. When the situation looks broken we start to believe WE are broken. When the season is hard we decide we are the problem. And we walk around introducing ourselves by our wounds instead of our worth. I am a single mom. I am going through a divorce. I am struggling with my mental health. I am a parent who is failing. I am somebody who can never get it right. And the enemy loves it. Because the moment you accept a circumstance as your identity he does not have to do anything else. You will limit yourself for him. You will shrink yourself for him. You will disqualify yourself for him. All without him lifting a finger. When God called Moses he was in the wilderness tending someone else's flock. His situation said... fugitive. Failure. Forgotten. But God said.... deliverer. When God called Gideon he was hiding in a winepress threshing wheat because he was afraid of the enemy. His situation said.... coward. Nobody. Least of his father's house. But God said... mighty man of valor. When God called David he was in a field nobody thought to invite him in from. His situation said... overlooked. Unqualified. Too young. But God said....king. Not one of them looked like what God called them. Not one of them felt like what God called them. But God does not call based on what He sees in your situation. He calls based on what He placed in you before your situation ever existed.

I want to make sure nobody in here is sitting on something they don't know they have. Every class in this community is free. All of them — kids, teens, and adults. Head to the classroom section and look around. You don't need to ask me for access. You don't need to wait on anything. It's already yours. Go get in it. Love y'all, Ms. Ashley

There was a season in my life where I did not look like everybody else. While other people were living it up, going out, fitting in, doing what everyone around them was doing I was planting. And I did not always understand it. Because planting is not glamorous. Planting is quiet. Planting is early mornings and late nights and sacrifice that nobody sees and choices that do not make sense to the people watching you. Planting looks like you are missing out. Planting looks like you are behind. Planting looks like everybody else is living and you are stuck in a field doing something that has not produced anything yet. And I remember begging God to let me be like everybody else. Little did I know. Because there comes a moment and it always comes when the season shifts. And the people who were living it up start scrambling for seeds. And the people who were planting quietly in their weird season? They are in harvest. They are resting safely in what they built while everyone else is just now getting serious. That is the story of my life. And I believe it is the story God is writing for some of you right now. Your season does not look like everybody else's. You are planting when the world says this is not the time to plant. You are sacrificing when the world says you deserve to enjoy yourself. You are building something that has not produced visible fruit yet and the enemy keeps whispering...see? Nothing is happening. You are wasting your time. Do not stop planting. Because the harvest is coming. And when it does you will not have to scramble. You will already be standing in it. Now let me talk to you as a parent. Because this is not just about your life. It is about what you are planting in your children RIGHT NOW. Proverbs 22:6 says train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. But here is what I want you to notice. When he is OLD. Not when he is ten. Not when he is still under your roof. Not when it is convenient or when you can see the fruit immediately.

I need to share something personal with you today. My mother passed away when I was eight years old. And when I sit down and try to remember what she taught me what she actually poured into me that I carried with me I come up with three things. Three. She taught me how to properly wash my body. She told me not to have sex until I was twenty five. And she taught me that when I had a bad dream I could wake up and pray and God would let me go back to sleep. That is it. Not because she was a bad mother. But because she ran out of time before she could give me more. And I have spent a significant portion of my life wishing she had more time. Wishing there were more lessons. More conversations. More of her voice in my head when I needed it most. She did not know she was running out of time. None of us do. So I want to ask you something today and I need you to sit with it. If today was your last day Did you do a good job? Not a perfect job. Not a Pinterest job. Not a "my kids are well behaved in public" job. A real job. Did your child know today that they were loved by you specifically? Did they know what you believe about God? Did they know what you expect from them and why? Did they know what to do when they have a bad dream? When they feel afraid? When the world feels too heavy and they need somewhere to go? Did you have the conversation you have been putting off because they are too young? Did you discipline the behavior you have been ignoring because you thought you had more time? Did you tell them the thing you have been meaning to say? We put off the important things because we believe in the illusion of later. Later I will talk to them about that. Later I will address that behavior. Later I will have the hard conversation. Later I will tell them I love them in that specific way they need to hear it. Later I will pray with them. Later I will teach them. But my mother did not have a later. And neither might you. And neither might I. I am not saying this to put fear in you.

Dear single Mothers. The one who woke up this morning as the first and last line of defense for your children. The one who makes every decision alone. The one who carries the discipline AND the comfort. The bedtime prayers AND the bill payments. The school meetings AND the Saturday morning pancakes. And some days it feels like just you against the whole world. God never called you single. He called you CHOSEN. A chosen parent. Handpicked. Set apart. Trusted with children that He knew would need exactly who YOU are not a two parent home, not a picture perfect situation, YOU. The real you. The tired you. The still standing you. And He did not send you out here alone. He went with you. He is the father to the fatherless. The covering where covering was removed. The provider where provision ran out. The peace where chaos moved in. You are not a single parent. You are a chosen parent with an unseen partner who never clocks out, never checks out, and never leaves. Come prove it with me. Join me on the YouVersion Bible App and let's find it together. Chapter by chapter. Day by day. Let God show you in His own Word that you were never doing this alone. Link below. 👇🏽 https://bible.com/reading-plans/74231/together/81645498/invitation?token=DFgpd-rOkSguTPPEN7gZ0w&source=share Come as you are. Tired and all. He already knows. And He already showed up. 🤍 Until next time, stay positive. 🧡