orphan – Page 22 – Danita Ogandaga, MSW

Catch & Release

12/29/201101/06/2012 danitaogandaga

Open to close, close to open, the movements we do every single day! Entering into the presence of something or someone and leaving their presence in the same. Life brings a myriad of decisions of whether and when to catch something as well as to release. The book of Ecclesiastes says with confidence that there is a time to sing, a time to be silent, a time to laugh and a time to cry. The point of decision will set the tone for what we will do and for however long.

Amid the reflexes in life is a time to catch and a time to release. Catch to grasp and seize after the pursuit of something and to release to set free from confinement and restraint. If you take the time to evaluate your situation, you’d realize that the inventory of your life has a number of things that are awaiting designation in either of these categories….to catch…to release.

Perhaps it is the power of confession, to call consistently those things dead in your life back to life and to catch the motivation to speak life and not death. Or perhaps it is the release of a toxic relationship that has caused you more pain than a bottle of Tylenol can cure. Letting go can be so hard to do but can sometimes prove to be the very best for you.

So in letting go (RELEASE) remember the following:

1. Baggage gets really heavy…Let it GO!- Expressive therapy refers to the process of identifying creative methods for releasing a thing or person from your atmosphere. You may not want to admit it but baggage can weigh you down. Realize that your feelings are temporary but God’s word is eternal. Pick up an empty notebook and begin to write your feelings out about how the experience is causing you to feel. You may write a poem or whatever just get it out via writing. Journaling is a powerful tool to express yourself. As you begin to study your bible, research the scriptures on Peace. Acquaint yourself with these scriptures multiple times a day until the realization of these scriptures become more real than your feelings. Read Job 22:21, Psalm 85:8, 10-11, Proverbs 16:7, Philippians 4:7.

2. Surrender, Surrender! – Gratitude is a powerful thing but cannot co-exist in the same space as doubt, fear, and anger so surrender. Realize that your greatest days are ahead of you and you have the power to let go because you have the expectation that God will lead you to victory and provide timely help for all of your needs. Surrender is an admittance that you are aware that you can no longer hold this issue and continue to function in your best form. Surrender is opening yourself up to the possibility that you may have missed it or may not know it all or may have failed in a major way but best believe that help is available and ready to assist you. So surrender.

3. Close the chapter…Close it!– Addictions to relationships create symptoms that linger for days. Once you realize that your issues are not hiding under your bed or in your closet waiting to come out unexpectantly, you will be ready to close the chapter and move on! Once you have acknowledged your issues or sins to God and have asked Him to come into your heart and make the difference in your life, you may not cease from the temptation to commit the issue again, but you do not have to remember each of the ten times that you allowed it to happen. Isaiah 43:18 encourages us to not remember the former things that have taken place in our lives because God is doing a new thing. Since He is into doing new things, allow the chapter in your life that was not so flawless to close and begin anew.

Ready to attract (CATCH)? Ponder on the following:

1. THINK Vision!- When you think a thing you can achieve it! Write your vision for your life and what you seek to attract into your life now that you have released and created space. Clutter can create stuffed places that should be vacant for creativity. The seed of vision will expand your creativity and allow God to speak witty inventions and creative ideas to you.

2. Take the limits off!- Proverbs 18:21 says that death and life are in the power of the tongue so everything that you believe about yourself you create and eventually walk in this manifestation. God is a limitless God and He is able to help you and heal you everywhere you hurt. If you believe that you cannot make it, you are probably right! You can make it with GOD! Allow Him to lead you into the new stages of your life. When we release the things we sometimes believe we cannot live without; those things prove to sometimes be the very things that cluttered our path to delaying the process for what we were destined to have.

God loves you and He wants the very best for you. Open to close, close to open, 2012 will be the Year of Release. While you prepare to release, what will you prepare yourself to catch?

Emotional Healing

Serita Jakes on BROKENness!

12/11/201112/13/2011 danitaogandaga

All dressed up to go where you were always destined to be. God loves us to much to leave us where we think we need to be. That placed called all that, that place where we think we are better than this person or that person. Serita Jakes, I love you and appreciate you letting the body know that we don’t have to conceal ABORTION, SEXUAL ABUSE, TRAUMATIC LIFE EXPERIENCES, or INCEST. God has a plan for all that and He wants to get thr glory for all of it. WE gotta go through what we need to go through to get ALL that GOD has for us!

Thank you for the strength to keep moving forward with the Orphan No More Podcast, encouraging the masses to let their mess be recycled into messages! I know that God has HIS hand on my life and I will follow this call until Jesus comes!

God is calling us out to be used for HIS glory!!!!!

Praise you Jesus!!!!! Katabakasetumashui! Glory to God!!!!!

Emotional Healing, Uncategorized

Looking Inward- Orphan No More

12/01/201112/11/2011 danitaogandaga

On a given day we assess so many things, whether a report at work or the amount of apples in the refrigerator before making that stop to the grocery store. Consistently evaluating to see if our subject measures up to the stated standard of our upper’s approval.

It is so easy to see how one could then apply that mindset to the navigation tool of their own life and seek to be adopted by the standard of Mother Earth…feeling like an Orphan…separated by our once reality, the constant voice who always stabilized us in our uncertain times…thinking why like Corinne Bailey Rae, why we are not quick to let our guard down, cautious and walking on ice with every relationship that comes our way, ready to show our ID to justify our age when we know we’re over 21 and oh so grown!

A tweet here, a post there, and an entry on the blog all seem to soothe the soul because writing is what I do. Making strides to be all that God wants me to be creates a constant put on my mentals when I do not seem to identify with the traditions that history originally footprinted me into. How many people do you know seek for validation? My God, this is such an intimate and red faced topic but who gets it? Validation defined is to recognize, establish, or illustrate the worthiness or legitimacy of. I remember hearing when TD Jakes father passed, the poignant moment of his message that resonated with me was the time when he stood over his father’s grave commanding him to remind him of who he’d become and what would he be. Once a happy go lucky young boy walking it the footsteps of his father was now thinking the heavy thoughts of an orphan. Similarly, it felt as if the fabric of my identity was stripped when my parents passed away. Relationships with people and place did not appear to be the same. Interests that once captivated me did not. I remember getting in my car and running away….driving until my car was on empty unwilling to face the reality that I was going to learn to live life without them. My validity did not matter because it was swallowed up in silence and therefore so I became until God found me.

Coming out of validation addiction is like a person being weaned off of hard drug-.one step at a time, intense introspection, and the Word of God. It can be done and I am so sure of this. As a public affairs professional, servant of the Lord, doctoral student, and organizational consultant, absolutely everything that I do is heavily scrutinized by various eyes commenting and adding to or subtracting from the reality that I seek to create. As you move away from the reality of the world and into faith or from the seat of negativity to the seat of positivity, or even from the diaspora mindset to the kingdom mindset, you will not be able to allow the validation to move you. If the likers LIKE your post, it is really appreciated, if they comment, that is great too; but now more than ever, the time to be free is nigh.I am walking this out and it is liberating as you come into your Godself. When Adam and Eve were in the garden they were naked- chilling absolutely in the garden and wandering around until someone brought to their attention that they were NAKED (exposed). Their internal reality and peace had suddenly been overturned and what they believed to be true on the inside of them—the peace that passed all understanding had succumbed to the external reality around them. As a result they began to change—their clothes, their mindsets, etc.

Don’t allow the status and pictures on Facebook or other social media outlets to shake your core and make you believe that you are not valuable! Stop looking to the media to validate your existence or tell you how you can get a man in 15 days when they can’t even begin to tell you biblically how to keep him. Refrain from attempting to try social drugs at a house party or lounge because that one experience can get you hooked to a substance for life! Seen the METH billboards? Retreat to the top of your stairs or lay and stare at the ceiling and ask God to reveal himself to you and show you the plans that HE has for you! His plans and His validation are sure and trust me you will never be shaken.

I think it is time. Yes, it is time.