Thirty-One Days of Sweet Southern Truths by LoriAnn

By Lori Bates

Thirty_One Days of Sweet Southern Truths by LoriAnn is a compilation of personal stories and daily devotionals written to encourage others and help them understand that even in times of trials, God has a plan. This author writes about experiences that changed her life and wants to share how God gave her forgiveness, mercy and grace through them all. As we walk through life, we don't always see the blessing while we are standing tall but the view becomes clear when we are on our knees.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lori Bates
• Release date: Nov 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310518874

Lori Bates

Hi! My name is LoriAnn (Lori for short). I am the wife of my best friend and soulmate. We share three wonderful children between us, a two year old grand daughter and a dog named Zeus. I share my/our life stories good and bad with the hopes of touching lives in need. My life has been so far from perfect and at times I have felt like no one could understand what I was going through. My book is about my real life and how the trials have shaped me into the person I am now; with the love and faith that I have in Christ. Life isn't perfect and we all have trials, we just have to learn to see the light and the blessings in the end.

Book preview

Day 1

It Doesn’t Matter Who You Once Were

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27

My life changed as I woke up the afternoon of January 1, 2009. As much as I would like to forget it, it is a day etched into my memory. I woke up not being able to remember how I had gotten home from a New Year’s Eve party the night before nor could I remember who had brought me there. My life in the previous three years had spiraled out of control, and it was then that I realized my life had to change. I had become addicted to Ambien to just get four hours of sleep each night and I had learned that if I added alcohol to the mix, I could at least black out for long periods of time. Unfortunately, blacking out & sleep are two very different things. Blackening out just means that you don’t remember the ridiculous things that you do during that time. I am still extremely embarrassed over many situations. I had been in and out of relationships where I was not only hurt but I hurt others, including my own family. At the time, selfishly, I didn’t care. I didn’t care, but God was working on my heart.

On January 1, 2009 hesitantly I flushed my Ambien down the toilet and I prayed to God that He would help me become someone else. It was the first day that I had felt peace in my heart in years. I had finally realized that I was the only person who could ever change who I was (with God’s grace). Twenty-one days into my new-found revelation, God introduced me to my now husband. He sent this man into my life to help fix the broken person that I had become. I had built so many walls around my heart that I am still amazed that he found a way through. The voices in my head still haunt me with the whys and what if’s but God always finds a way to show me peace.

It doesn’t matter who you were or what anyone else believes you to be. It’s through God’s amazing grace you can become who you want to be. I am sure that I still have people who remember me for who I was and for the things that I did and I can’t change that; neither can you. You can’t base your life on what was and ISN’T THAT GREAT!

You can’t change yesterday but praise God you can choose to be different today!

~And that my friend is the Sweet Southern Truth by LoriAnn

Day 2

I Am Enough

And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 12:9

How many times have you questioned yourself and your self-worth? How many times has that little voice in your head told you that you were not good enough for a relationship, job promotion, difficult parenting decision or taking care of your finances? My list could go on and on. I continually battle the voice inside my own head that tells me I am not good enough. That voice either pushes me into feeling too scared to try something for fear of failure or feeling as if I have to go above and beyond the norm to prove that I can. Either way, it creates a high-level of anxiety.

I am especially guilty of self-destruction. Even when things are going great in my life, my little voice will start telling me that I don’t deserve it. I hear it often enough that I begin to believe it and that is when my self-protection gear kicks in and my control-freak comes out. I have been known to sabotage things when they are going great just because I could control it and the rug wouldn’t be ripped out from under me by someone else. I even catch the control freak in me reminding God of things (Really? I am reminding the creator of all things of something that he possibly forgot and I can’t remember my phone number).

I am sure that the voices inside my head are something that I will always struggle with. This is my weakness, and Satan knows it. The voices inside my head are nothing more than Satan tempting me to take my trust away from God. Unfortunately, sometimes Satan wins the battle, but I refuse to let him win the war. God tells us that His grace is sufficient for all things and