MY VICTORY VOYAGE || A Surrendered Celebration

In MY VICTORY VOYAGE I’m sharing various trials I’ve faced and how God’s faithfulness has carried me through. Join me on the 2nd Friday of each month in 2025 as we reflect on His restoration and grace.

You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. — Psalm 56:8 (NLT)

Preface: This post comes from a deep place in my personal journey. I write it with humility—not to accuse or expose, but to process what God is teaching me about love, surrender, and the long road of restoration. If you’re carrying heartbreak of your own, I pray my story gives you courage to keep walking with Jesus—especially when the path is painful.

Turning 68 this month feels… surreal. Gratitude and grief swirl together in my heart as I reflect on the road I’ve traveled. I’ve lived a full life—one filled with sacrifice, joy, mistakes, forgiveness, and deep, enduring love. But there’s a silent pain that rises in me as this birthday approaches: the estrangement of adult children.

For years, all our children were distant. By God’s grace, one has come back to us. Their perspective, now shaped by the responsibilities of adulthood and parenting, has brought a gentler understanding to the years we labored to raise them well. They know now how hard it is—how easy it is to fall short, and how much love can live in the same heart that sometimes gets things wrong. But others still remain estranged with no children of their own.

This past Mother’s Day carried a quiet ache. When your role as a mother goes unacknowledged, especially by those you gave everything for, it can feel like being erased. I held my peace that day—but not because I wasn’t hurting. I was. It’s because I believe healing comes from the Lord, not from social media.

Some days, the ache feels unbearable. I made mistakes. I own them. But I also gave my life to raise my children with everything I had, doing the best I knew how to at the time. I set aside a college education, a career, and in almost ten years of homeschooling I poured myself into motherhood. I sacrificed my body, my dreams, and countless nights of sleep. I loved them fiercely. I still do.

And yet… here we are.

Even so, I return to the altar. Again, and again. I lay my children down with trembling hands and say, “Lord, they are Yours.” I ask Him to do what only He can do: bring salvation, correction, and restoration in His time.

Even in my sorrow, I am held.
Even in heartbreak, I walk in victory.
Not because everything is right, but because God is still good.
He has kept me. He is not finished.

As I reflected on the ache of estrangement and the quiet faith it takes to keep surrendering my children to God, this song became a balm to my soul.

Rescue by Lauren Daigle is a reminder that even in our darkest valleys, we are never alone. God sees. He hears. He comes for us. If you’re walking through heartbreak of your own, may these lyrics wrap around your heart like a blanket of truth and comfort. Remember:

You are not forgotten. You are not hopeless. You are deeply loved. 💛

MY VICTORY VOYAGE || Breaking Barriers: Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

In MY VICTORY VOYAGE I’m sharing the trials I’ve faced and how God’s faithfulness carried me through. Join me on the 2nd Friday of each month in 2025 as we reflect on His restoration and grace.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. ~ 2 Corinthians 10:4–5 (NIV)

What if the Real Barrier Is What I Believe?

For years I believed lies like: I’m not good enough. I’m not smart. No one likes me. I can’t do anything right. It wasn’t until 2007 that I began to reprogram my brain—not just with positive affirmations, but by confessing God’s Word over myself and my life.

So many women live under these same lies. These limiting beliefs become invisible barriers, creating a self-imposed ceiling that keeps us from living freely—simply because we’ve believed something that isn’t true.


Limiting Beliefs: The Invisible Chains

Limiting beliefs are false narratives we believe about ourselves, others, or even God. They often take root in childhood wounds, painful experiences, or cultural pressures.

And while they’re not true, they feel true—because we live from them as if they were reality.

In The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks calls this the Upper Limit Problem—when we subconsciously believe we’ve reached the highest point we’re allowed to go. But what if those ceilings are just lies dressed up as protection?

Scripture calls them strongholds—entrenched thought patterns rooted in fear, shame, and unworthiness. The good news? God’s truth has divine power to demolish them.


The Biblical Diagnosis: Strongholds of the Mind

2 Corinthians 10:4–5 gives us God’s battle plan for overcoming these mental strongholds. Lies become mental fortresses when we repeat them to ourselves day after day. Eventually, they freeze us in fear—keeping us from stepping into healing, purpose, and freedom.


Tracing the Root

One of the most powerful things I’ve done is simply ask the Lord: Where did this lie come from? Why do I still believe it?

Over the years, He’s gently revealed the roots—where the lie began and how I can begin to uproot it with truth.


God’s Word Sets Us Free

In The Answer to Anxiety, Joyce Meyer writes:

“Satan’s number one weapon against believers is deception. When we are deceived, we believe lies. Even though they are lies, they become realities to us if we believe them, and we cannot move past them until we learn the truth. God’s Word is truth, and if we discipline ourselves to learn it and meditate on it regularly, it will renew our minds.”

That hits home, doesn’t it? Sometimes the walls holding us back aren’t even real—they’re lies we’ve mistaken for truth.


Breaking the Barrier: A Victory Practice

Here’s a simple exercise you can do:

    1. Ask God to show you a lie you’ve been believing.
    2. Write it down in your journal.
    3. Find a verse in a trusted study Bible (like the Life Application Bible) that speaks truth over that lie.
    4. Write that verse down and post it where you’ll see it daily.
    5. Speak it aloud over yourself until truth takes root.

Freedom begins when truth replaces the lie!


Walking in Freedom

The lies I shared earlier once defined me—but most have now been extinguished by God’s Word. Still, this is ongoing work. Some strongholds run deep, and healing takes time. Satan knows our weaknesses and will try to revive old lies through memories and triggers.

But here’s what I’ve learned: when I stay faithful in my quiet time with the Lord—especially in studying Scriptures that speak to the battle—I always find my way back to truth, peace, and victory.

Worship Response:
One song that ministers deeply to me in this area is “Sound Mind” by Bryan & Katie Torwalt. If you’re in a season of tearing down mental strongholds, let this song wash over you. It’s a powerful reminder that God has given you a sound mind, and His Spirit brings peace, not fear.