Sharing Our Stories: A Bible-based Message for the Hearts of Strong Black Women

Breathe, Martha, Breathe!
A guest post by Amber Hoopengarner

The Lord answered her, “Martha, my beloved Martha. Why are you upset and troubled, pulled away by all these many distractions? Mary has discovered the one thing most important by choosing to sit at my feet. She is undistracted, and I won’t take this privilege from her.”

— Luke 10:41-42 (TPT)

Am I strong because I have been able to live through circumstances that should have caused me to lose my mind, or did I just not have a choice? Black women are known for being strong, right?

For years, we have been known for carrying all the burdens of our lives and those around us and still smile and be supportive of those who we love and serve. Rarely do you hear us admit we do not know if we can go on any further or that we just want to give up. We have been known for doing the work no matter what the circumstance.

I found myself crying to God the other day after a situation combined with other situations caused me to feel helpless and for a day or so, a bit hopeless if I am being honest. As a Black mother and wife, I have the added stress of looking at the news and seeing the headlines of a Georgia mom who claims the school she wanted her daughter to go to is being segregated, or how the right to vote could potentially be taken away from those whose skin color is anything but White, or the countless number of stories where police took extreme measures against people of color in situations that did not warrant it.

The real issue is that we have been too busy being labeled as Martha when we should consider ourselves and live our lives as Mary. The world’s issues of race and politics in addition to our everyday life stressors, is enough to make you go crazy and lose focus on the person at the center of our lives who is Jesus Christ.

Jesus knew that worries and cares of Martha. Yet he explained that they were not going anywhere. He said that the focus still needed to be on Him, and the time spent in His presence.

Jesus knows that we are in historical times in our country (especially as people of color), but He does not want us to ever get away from the fact that He is what truly matters. Doing things His way, that fighting His way and defending His way is what we are called to do.

The world will continue to have race debates and discrimination until the day Jesus returns. Therefore, we should continue putting our hands to the plow and forging our way forward as long as we remember who we are doing it for (it’s all for Jesus).

Let’s Pray: Dear God, we come to you humbly and boldly, repenting of our sins and asking for forgiveness. Help us to stay focused on you as we stand up against racial discrimination. Let us remember to keep You, Your words, and Your ways as our main focal point. We never want to get so wrapped up in all around us that we miss what You want to impart in us in our intimate time with You. Thank you, God, for loving us and reminding us of what matters. In Jesus’s Name we pray. Amen.

~*~
Author Bio:

Amber Hoopengarner is a writer and self-published author who is also a Certified Life Coach working with women who suffer from PMADs and children who suffer from mental health disorders. 

She is a Maternal Mental Health Advocate and works to help raise awareness within the church of mental health disorders especially among BIPOC women.

Amber graduated in 2016 from the University of Phoenix with an Associates in Human Services Management and is currently in the process of obtaining her bachelor’s in psychology. She also has certificates in Mental Health Coaching, Bibliotherapy and CBT as well as in Perinatal Mood Anxiety Disorders.

Amber loves God and people! She enjoys making a difference through bringing up issues and challenges that sometimes would not otherwise be addressed. Amber believes that God wants His people to be loved where right where they are while they are working on who He has called them to become.

Sharing Our Stories: Strong Enough to Know When to Stop and Protect Your Health

Strength, Self-Care, and A Life Lesson for Black Women
A guest post by Kai A. Pineda

A few weeks ago Simone Biles, an American artistic gymnast who has won 32 Olympic and World Championship medals, did something most of us have never had the courage to do. What many called selfish, stupid and wrong I saw as bravery.

While the entire world was watching, Simone unapologetically made a decision to choose something more important than a gold medal—she decided to choose herself. According to CNN, Biles withdrew from the women’s team gymnastics final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, citing mental health concerns as she attempts to protect “her body and mind.”

The choice Biles made to put her health first resonates me in a deeply profound way because in the African American community, Black women historically have been raised to put everyone and everything before themselves. From the time they are born the idea surrounding their value is steeped in what they can do or have, and not around who they are.

They are trained to give to the point of exhaustion and hold everyone else as more important. This misinterpretation of selflessness has been detrimental to the Black woman for centuries.

With mental health discussions on the rise, many who’ve battled with mental illness or mental and emotional stresses in the Church, have been told they can pray it away or told, “You need more faith!” These words have caused some to reject therapy and or medication. Within the African community, counseling or therapy was seen as taboo. Even the Black church in time passed turned their noses up to the idea of help beyond praying and traveling.

I know this personally as a close friend of mine for years avoided a diagnosis because the ministry she attended told her to trust God. After years of back and forth stays at hospitals and a final episode where she went missing for days, she let wisdom through the Holy Spirit lead her to find a Christian psychologist who prescribed her what she needed.

We as the Bride of Christ must understand there are spiritual and natural sides to everything. To ignore one is dangerous. Jesus Christ lived on this Earth and dealt with evil spirits and the worries of men. He was moved with compassion knowing the complexities of humanity and our deep need for saving. God has always been our protector and provider. In all things we must get understanding and use wisdom. Seeing a doctor, having surgery, or taking medicine doesn’t make you faithless.

As an African-American woman, I have felt unseen and devalued constantly. I know the pressures to be perfect and to stand out amongst a crowd who doesn’t always think you matter. This can be a heavy weight too carry alone. And though we have the Holy Spirit to help us, God has also prepared people to walk with us through releasing trauma and facing our own fears and fragility. God cares about our physical and spiritual health.

In closing, I’d like for you to read this message from God found in 3 John 1:2 (TPT), which says, “Beloved friend, I pray that you are prospering in every way and that you continually enjoy good health, just as your soul is prospering.”

Let’s Pray: Dear God, thank you for caring about all aspects of our health (mental, emotional, physical and spiritual). Thank you for always understanding our fragility and being there for us no matter what we face in this life here on Earth. Please continue to equip us to walk the path You’ve set for us. When we feel weary and like we cannot move forward, strengthen us and carry us until we’re strong enough to walk on our own two feet with You by our side. Thank You that you will never leave us. Please help us to trust You. In Jesus’s Name I pray. Amen.

~*~
Author Bio:

I am a fire-starter and a passionate student of the Bible who helps others discover their identity and the beauty within the Body of Christ by leading them into an encounter with the Word of God.

I am married to a man I am madly in like with and love more than I can explain. Together we plant home fellowships within the U.S. and abroad.

I am an author who released her first book, Dear Church: Vol 1: The Beauty of The Body, in 2019. The second volume will be released in 2021.

I have recorded two praise and worship albums and love to travel.

I am an introvert who loves her family, people, rainy days, a chai latte from Starbucks, and my Maltipoo McLovin.

I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, nor challenging people to live lives based on a biblical standard and not personal preferences.

~*~
Connect with Kai:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kai.a.pineda
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamkaiapineda/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kai_A_Pineda
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/92920689-kai-pineda

Sharing Our Stories: A Call to Open Your Eyes

Open Your Eyes
A guest post by Amber Hoopengarner

Jesus told them, “If you would acknowledge your blindness, then your sin would be removed. But now that you claim to see, your sin remains with you!” – John 9:41 (TPT)

Reading over this scripture above I cannot help but wonder how many Christians today are blinded and have no idea or worse yet, think they see everything clearly and are really stuck in sin because of it. Sure, they do not attack those of other cultures or ethnicities, and they do not treat them as less than, but they do not get involved in making change either.

In a time where there is major shift happening in the world and where Christians and the church should be the first to stand up, they are not. If we, as disciples of Jesus Christ, could start having real conversations about what we do not know and do not understand then we could have major impact and create unity like we have never seen before. The time is up for the church to be divided for there to be “White church” or “Black church”. We need the body of Christ to rise and be “The Church”!

I need my Caucasian church partners to ask questions if they do not understand. I need the African American church to be open to answering those questions. We all need to start embracing other cultures in the faith so that we can encourage and empower one another. There is no more time to walk around thinking we are seeing clearly when we are really missing the whole picture altogether. Something powerful can and will happen when believers in Christ get together and start decreeing the goodness of God and sharing their testimonies.

Jesus Christ did not come to save one race of people. He came to save all humankind! Jesus loves us all like we are His best friend, brother or sister. It is time that the men and women of God who claim to be His disciples stand up and do the same.

Let’s Pray: Dear God, I ask that you bless the one who is reading these words right no. Please touch their heart God and do a supernatural work. If they have been blinded, touch them and help them to truly see. God, forgive us for the times we allowed what we thought we knew to block us from learning your truth. Let us walk hand in hand with other churches of other cultures and races so that we can help build your Kingdom the way you called us too. In Jesus’s Name I pray, Amen.

~*~
Author Bio:

Amber Hoopengarner is a writer and self-published author who is also a Certified Life Coach working with women who suffer from PMADs and children who suffer from mental health disorders.  

She is a Maternal Mental Health Advocate and works to help raise awareness within the church of mental health disorders especially among BIPOC women.

Amber graduated in 2016 from the University of Phoenix with an Associates in Human Services Management and is currently in the process of obtaining her bachelor’s in psychology. She also has certificates in Mental Health Coaching, Bibliotherapy and CBT as well as in Perinatal Mood Anxiety Disorders.

Amber loves God and people! She enjoys making a difference through bringing up issues and challenges that sometimes would not otherwise be addressed. Amber believes that God wants His people to be loved where right where they are while they are working on who He has called them to become.

~*~
Connect with Amber:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/amberwha35/

Sharing Our Stories: Thoughts on being perfect

Complete and Christlike
A guest post by Amber Hoopengarner

“Since you are children of a perfect Father in heaven, become perfect like him.”

– Matthew 5:48 (TPT)

Reading through scriptures one serene morning. I stumbled upon the above verse and as I pondered the wording, I thought surely no one can be perfect like Jesus.

So, true to my nature I began to search Google and read through Bible commentaries to see what it meant, as you can see Jesus was not saying be perfect as only, He can be, we know that is not a task any human can accomplish. If you look at the news and read the paper and follow the world events for even just a moment or two, it is evident as to why Jesus stated that we are to be “perfect” (all-inclusive, well rounded, and spiritually mature).

This last year has indicated to us that there is still so much work to be done within the body of Christ when it comes to racial differences. We profess to love others but choose not to share in each other’s burdens, we say we will suffer with our struggling brothers and sisters but then choose to respond with ignorance and claims of not seeing color. However, Jesus tells us to be well rounded meaning to see, hear, and seek to understand how life is experienced from other’s perspectives and to love them while we inquire about their struggles and hardships.

All-inclusive and spiritually mature means to embrace all believer’s battles and not justify sweeping them under the rug for sake of keeping the peace, but to address it in love and compassion that is the way to do it as a spiritually mature Christian. God has not commanded us to overlook the racial injustices of this world but to speak on them, in fact as we can see from this verse, he has called us to inform ourselves, to get all the knowledge we can about all our brothers and sisters in Christ those who look like us and those who do not so that we can better represent him and pattern ourselves after his character.

We as Christians have a mandate from Jesus himself to care about the underdogs, the misrepresented, and those who are suffering persecution.

As you go throughout your day, I encourage you to ask yourself in what way are you helping these minority groups? I ask that you look deep within your heart of hearts and evaluate if you have been ignorantly breezing through life without trying to put yourselves in another’s shoes? If so, how can you begin to take steps to broaden your horizons and change your mindset?

When you wake up, beloved, how do you want to represent Christ? What legacy to do you want to leave on this world? When you meet the Savior of the world face to face, what do you want Him to say? When is your life examined by God, what deeds do you want to be acknowledged for?

I want to know I did all I could for those who could not do it for themselves, in a way that was complete and Christlike.

Let's Pray: God, as we look at the world around us, let us practice compassion and love for those not like us. You said God that we are all one body, yet we see so much division. Please bring complete maturity into your body so we can be light in this dark world. In the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

~*~
Author Bio:

Amber Hoopengarner is a writer and self-published author who is also a Certified Life Coach working with women who suffer from PMADs and children who suffer from mental health disorders. 

She is a Maternal Mental Health Advocate and works to help raise awareness within the church of mental health disorders especially among BIPOC women.

Amber graduated in 2016 from the University of Phoenix with an Associates in Human Services Management and is currently in the process of obtaining her bachelor’s in psychology. She also has certificates in Mental Health Coaching, Bibliotherapy and CBT as well as in Perinatal Mood Anxiety Disorders.

Amber loves God and people! She enjoys making a difference through bringing up issues and challenges that sometimes would not otherwise be addressed. Amber believes that God wants His people to be loved where right where they are while they are working on who He has called them to become.

~*~
Connect with Amber:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/amberwha35/