Hello my loves and welcome back to my kingdom! If this is your first time visiting my page, WELCOME! I hope you enjoy yourself and stick around! Better yet, JOIN THE KINGDOM!

WELCOME TO MY 2ND BLOG!!! Oh boy! This past week has been a whirlwind of emotions after the publication of my very first blog. The response that I’ve received from my first blog has been SO AMAZING! O-M-G! Shock, surprise, amazement, gratefulness, blessedness, and disbelief doesn’t BEGIN to caress the surface of the emotions that I’ve been feeling. The response was so unexpected, so overwhelming, so unpredicted, and so EVERYTHING! Like really, GOD IS SO DOPE Y’ALL!!! Above all, I’m HUMBLED! Not only was the amount of support that I’ve received amazing, but the actual PEOPLE that have reached out and commented and gave feedback in any way of what they thought/felt about my blog has been so refreshing! You never know who is watching you and who will support your dreams. When I posted my first blog, there was no forewarning/heads up to anyone that it was coming, just BOOM…SURPRISE, I’ve started a blog site! The response?! 333 views in just 4 days!!! WHAAAATTTT?!?! Don’t tell me what God can’t/won’t do if you just step out on faith. 333 views may sound minor to some, but IT’S HUGE TO ME and you’ll understand why in a bit! Due to the response that I’ve received, I was prompted to make blog #2… JUST DO IT!!!

Shameless Plug: If you have not yet read my first blog titled “Who Are You Anyway?!“, take a moment and read it as well. I’ve heard it’s kinda dope! (*Kanye Shrug*)…

Ok, so some background information to bring this all into perspective… The initial idea of starting a blog came to me like 5 months ago, if not longer. I was at work one night (like most nights), I have no idea where the idea came from but BOOM, “start a blog” came to my mind… Never before had I thought about starting a blog, I’m not a follower of blog sites, and I had NO IDEA about how to start a blog! But the moment the idea was conceived, it took flight! I started researching how to start a blog, brainstorming what my blog would be about, and by the end of my shift, I had at least 10 blog topics listed. I mean, ideas were just flowing! For the next couple of days/weeks I was getting ideas for topics from everywhere! Stories I’d hear, social media postings, personal life conversations, sermons, music, everything was a potential blog topic! THEN IT STOPPED! The river flow of ideas dried up y’all! LIFE HAPPENED. I was ending one job, packing, relocating, starting a new job, unpacking, getting settled into life and I wasn’t focusing on a blog and clearly a blog wasn’t thinking about me! I mean, I would think about the blog from time to time. I would get ideas here and there, but nothing like it was initially. I thought to myself a few times over the next few months, “Dang, you still ain’t started that blog yet bro!” and I’d respond to myself like, “I don’t have time for that right now! Life is up in the air, I work like a maniac, I’m still trying to get my life! I’m hungry…”, along with any other excuse that fit the moment…

Side Note: Myself and I have these candid conversations with each other… Sometimes we even invite “Me” for an unbiased 3rd opinion… So save your judgement! PROCEED!

Now like I was saying, I was hella procrastinating (i.e. my middle name from which I’m yet awaiting God’s deliverance). Finally, one day after myself and I got into a heated debate about said procrastination, we came to a mutual decision that something needed to change. I had to start doing SOMETHING towards working on getting this blog up and running. So, I started taking steps. I chose the site I wanted to use to build my blog, I finalized the decision on the name for my blog, I purchased my domain name, I started working on the design layout of my site… THEN PRODUCTIVITY STOPPED, AGAIN! Not for any other reason besides the fact that I am so picky, so particular, so indecisive! I had this idea in my head of how I wanted my blog site to LOOK and it wasn’t turning out that way. I’ve never created a website before, so trying to navigate and build a website from scratch was new territory and I couldn’t conquer bringing the vision in my head to life (fun fact: I still haven’t!). But weeks (more like a MONTH) passed and myself and I had to have another come to Jesus… like Bro… (insert rolling eye emoji)… you’re pretty ridiculous… JUST WRITE ALREADY!!! I felt like I couldn’t start writing until the site was PERFECT! (In my own special definition of the term perfection)… I honestly felt like God was probably perched up there in heaven on His throne, looking down on me, tapping his golden sandle clad foot with impatience laced with a bit of annoyance at my YET PROCRASTINATING self! Like He was trying to tell me, “Just do what I said do… Just do your part and the rest will fall in place later… The writing is the purpose, the looks can come after”… Well… I finally just gave up my battle for perfection and tried my hand at just being obedient. And I started writing… Last week when I posted that first blog, I was up until like 5 am, just writing. Deleting. Writing, changing and rewriting until I was happy with AT LEAST the way my writing looked. I read it over a million more times, then finally I got up the nerve to hit “Publish”.

When I tell y’all, the moment I hit the publish button and saved everything to the site, in the next few clicks, I IMMEDIATELY learned  how to alter a part of the page that I had been struggling to figure out! Like seriously, it was right there. God in that moment was probably sitting up there looking down on me again with the “See I told you so” face. (Y’all know the one your parents always give you when they know that they know better). Ok, so now my first blog was published, I altered a few more things to the site and everything was saved… But still nobody knew about it though… As I briefly mentioned in the last blog, I’m kind of a private person. This whole blog life is my new attempt at being more open and transparent. I ain’t there yet… So creating the Facebook post to inform all of my family, friends, and social media followers that I created a blog ABOUT ME and to go and read it, took an entire act of congress (i.e. Myself and I peer pressuring Me on top of the fear of being disobedient). So I created the Facebook post… And I waited… I still didn’t give anyone a head’s up that it was there, I just let everyone see the posting and take it from there. AND THE RESPONSE WAS B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

So… With all of that said… Over the last week I’ve sat in much reflection over how grateful I am to all of you for the continued support and love I’ve been receiving. Also it has caused me to ponder how many more of us are sitting on our gifts/talents because we are too afraid to step out on faith and act on them. To pull them out of the backs of our proverbial closets, dust them off and set them atop the mantles of our lives for all to see. Afraid to put our gifts to great use. We are all a talented people. The bible says that God has blessed us all with a gift. What is your gift?! What are you talented at doing?! The Friday night before my blog went live, I was having a conversation with my best friend about life and purpose. During the conversation she asked me, “What are you good at?! What are your talents?! What do you like to do?! What is it that you like to do, that you would be willing to do regardless, even if you were never paid to do it?! Once you know that, then you take that and see how you can use it to serve and glorify God”. Now she knows me, and she knows what I’m good at and what my talents are, but writing is something that I’ve never talked about even with her! But the moment she was asking the questions, in the back of my mind, writing was my answer. Her questions that night were the catalyst for me to move forward and just start putting words to paper and fingers to keys…

So I challenge you all to stop sitting on whatever gifts and talents that you possess. As my friend posed the questions to me, I will now pose the questions to all of you… What are you good at?! What are your talents?! What do you like to do?! What is it that you would be willing to do regardless, even if you were never paid to do it?! Once you know what that gift/talent is, then see how you can use it to serve and glorify God! Don’t be afraid of failing. Don’t be afraid of what others may think or say. Don’t be afraid of being exposed! Just step out on faith. JUST DO IT! At the end of the day, when all is said and done, God’s Grace is sufficient enough!

Grace: The unmerited, undeserved, unearned, merciful favor of God!

Stay Loyal, Stay Royal!

XOXO,

Freddie J.

Scriptures of the Week:

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms”. —1 Peter 4:10

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”.— Jeremiah 29:11

Songs of the Week!

Jennifer Hudson- I Got This

Jonathan McReynolds- Excited