Tag: children

$0.79 Therapy

$0.79 Therapy- “Identity”

danitaogandaga

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So in case you were wondering, there are no illegitimate – spurious – misbegotten-orphaned children in the Kingdom! Daddy God loves you and sets everything right…..including your birth certificate! Let Him in today!

Say it with me, “Jesus, thank you for loving me and accepting me into your Kingdom. Even though I may not have parents or a parent or a relationship worth discussing, I know that you have adopted me and have given me a renewed life. I receive that new life and declare that I am forever free from the curse of illegtimacy. My sins are forgiven.”

Congratulations on letting Daddy God in. Get ready for a love explosion to hit your heart. He will cause you to walk in so much peace beyond understanding.

He loves you like crazy!

Orphan Spirit

Or·phan: Mission for the Fatherless

danitaogandaga

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Do you find yourself all dressed up waiting to become someone’s prized possession and the focus of their affection? The imagery of brides are pure and beautiful and are on display waiting to be filled with the will of their future. They are in expectation and free to walk forward and away from the shame of their past. All things have become new. Yet, for many people who have a renewed mindset, there are a million things that are attempting to prevent them from moving foward into the things that give purpose, joy, and peace. They are orphaned and feeling unworthy, stuck, muted, and disconnected from their future. They need to be sparked, affirmed, and reminded that while the world is turning, so are they.

So many people are walking around the world today in an orphaned state disconnected from the very source of life and clinging onto those things which affirm them or give them a false sense of identity. At some point in life, you realize that in the stillness of quiteness, when you are alone and without your friends, or in the shopping malls spending money, or around that circle of people snorting coke, you are and have always belonged to someone and that someone is waiting for you to come home.

Fatherless is at an all time high in the world today and there are many people who are dealing with the residual effects of not having a father figure in their lives. This in part, is preventing them from accepting the true love of the father, Daddy God and being baptized by the love of God. Abandoned, molested, broken, battered, and rejected are the descriptions that come after the names of many and their cycle continues like a broken record playing over and over.

There was  a time in my life when I had lost my worth and value not feeling connected to anyone or anything. My orphaned moment came at the point of my parents passing away. Not sure how I was going to survive, I turned to the world to affirm me and give me a sense of belonging. I was choking on a minute by minute basis from negative beliefs about myself wondering how I was gonna be able to continue my performance in the church with my parents being gone and how I was going to be received in the world; a world that I had been sheltered from as a child because I was in the church? From every angle that I could see, I was an orphan living in a state of confusion and unsure how to get connected to some source, the source that could take the pain away and move me forward from my frozen state of hurt.

What is an orphan?

1. a child who has lost both parents through death, or, less commonly, one parent.
2. a young animal that has been deserted by or has lost its mother.
3. a person or thing that is without protective affiliation, sponsorship, etc.: The committee is an orphan of the previous administration.

Remember the orphan named Annie? She was in a racheet state living in an orphanage and instantly took a leadership role against her wretched caretaker, Ms. Hannigan. Over the course of time, Annie gets adopted by Daddy Warbucks and is taken to live with him. She is exposed to a brand new life. How many of us, once we are exposed to a brand new life, mindset, perspective, and peace resort back to a former mindset wanting to re-wrap ourselves in the chains and barbed wires of our past? Constantly searching for validity in the purse or the shoes or the man to affirm us when we know those things or people have no power to do so. Their affirmation lasts but a minute and then their attention shifts to the box full of people who are standing in the line of affirmation to be stamped with a seal of approval.

God does not work like that. In fact, he states in Jeremiah 1:5 that “Before you were formed in your mother’s womb, I knew you and approved of you!” That is good news, so no matter where we go or what we do, there is nothing that we can do that will take us out of God’s love for us.

Remember the woman at the well? It is a timeless story of a woman in the Bible who has been the victim of circumstance. She was involved in a revolving door romances and connected to men who belonged to another woman. Not having an identity or connection of belonging to someone; she availed her self to become someone’s night dream- then wet dream- an experience that can promise no dreams or hopes for the future. The woman at the well, in the midst of all the handprints and guilty actions came face to face with Jesus Christ and was instantly affirmed and identified as His own. In the very moment in a twinkling of an eye, she was changed and forgiven, free from the barbed wire that confined her and released from the shame of her past. What a love.

Just as births occur daily, orphans are created daily and Daddy God is the only one that can help free you from this debilitating mindset. Let him in.

Relationships

The Front Porch: The Waiting Room by Danita Ogandaga

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Front porches are so quaint and serve as a beautiful introduction to a home. I like to think of front porches as a waiting room of sort. Some overflowing with rocking chairs and plants and some bear with a single chair. I am sure that many people have had an awesome experience in life while sitting on the porch. For those friends of mine that may be from various sections of the world, the porch is defined as a structure attached to the exterior of a building often forming a covered entrance. The definition is solid but does no justice for the cultural symbolism that a porch holds for the American and their front porch. The porch fosters an amazing connection between nature and land, safety and security, the level of control one has between the world and the domain of his or her home.

Formation of Community- Growing up on Desmond Street in Kinston, North Carolina was an amazing experience. To the left of my street would be the Koonce, Dillahunt, and Platt families and to the right of me would be the Rhem, King, and Smith families. Whether the weather was cold or hot, you could be sure that at some point of the day, you would have a member of those family members sitting on that porch. Before I could even walk, my mother and my father would always encourage me to greet my neighbors when coming out of the house and getting into the car. The idea of offering a greeting was a sign of respect and reverence for the neighbors who assisted in creating community on my street.

Porches have been creating venues for socialization for many years which has lead to the formation of community. I remember the farmers coming into town stopping on my street and watching my mom go to the porch to purchase her vegetables and fruits. There were times when my father would give the payment for our life insurance policy to the agent….on the porch. We would venture off of our porch and walk to the porch of our new neighbors who moved into the community. The porch was the holding space that fostered much opportunity to building lasting friendships; building familiarity beyond the sidewalk and not yet achieving the intimacy of entering the house. It was overall, a healthy balance of a new beginning.

Nurturing the Psychiatric Core- My parents were ministers, so I was a PK (Preacher’s Kid) two times over. Still, I witnessed several occasions where my parents would counsel married couples, engaged couples, and family issues on the porch. The furniture on the porch got a lot of wear and tear from our family as we would use the porch as a common ground to air the issues were facing as a family in addition to celebrating the positive moments like birthdays, holidays, and other events.

Families use the porch as a common ground to resolve issues about which kid knocked the hose over and how it would be resolved. The porch was a civil arena where people could come with no reservations to establish a non-threatening environment for creative resolutions to making everything better. Bringing the neighborhood and the community together and provoking opportunities to invoke awareness and prompt care, the porches of the world, whether public or private, are a waiting room for change.

This weekend, my family and I were engaged in our weekend activities which included the following, to name a few:

Visiting family members for Tally to play with her cousins
Taking a trip to our International Farmer’s Market
Business meetings with clients
Courting at our local cafe
Walking a trail at our local park
Checking out or returning books at our local library

In the midst of doing all of this traveling and back and forth, while out visiting our Aunt and Uncle in the northern part of Georgia, we realized that while attempting to get to their home early, we were locked out and did not want to wait in the car. So instead of complaining, we just took the time to take the funny pictures, get in sneezing matches due to the pollen affects, sing our favorite songs, and just look into each other’s eyes and just be……one, with each other. It was such an awesome experience to be able to take the time to star gaze into each other’s eyes…..that was until we realized that the door was open and our Aunt and Uncle had entered the house from the rear and had been waiting for us to come in for about twenty minutes! It was hilarious, but the time we spent on that pollen- filled porch was priceless!

Enjoy your family; enjoy your porch!