Embrace: Embrace the Pain of the Past, the Chaos of the Present, and the Uncertainty of the Future

By Olympia Y. Pringle

Personal acceptance can be difficult, especially when you have to overcome family troubles, personal traumas, and tests. Dealing with low self-esteem, not having any self-worth, and living without an understanding of Gods love is a recipe for mediocrity and settling for the crumbs instead of pressing into the fullness of Gods blessingsbecause God has so much in store for those who love, trust, and obey him.

In Embrace, author Olympia Pringle takes you through her own personal journey of struggle to embrace herself, what God says about her, and all that he has in store for her. Olympias story is a story of mental transformation, heart purification, and walking in revelation, and she shows you how even though it is difficult to pull yourself out of the pit, God always holds out his hand to pull you up and out.

In order to live a life of fullness, we have to embrace the pain of the past, the chaos or the mundaneness of the present, and the uncertainty of the futureand in God we can do these things confidently and boldly. He will help us to overcome doubt, shame, guilt, and fear. And as we walk daily with the Lord and continue to surrender, He will give us the courage and boldness to live the life He promised for us.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Sep 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781480867451

Olympia Y. Pringle

Olympia Pringles life purpose and passion is to help others maximize their potential and live their best life. More specifically, Olympia empowers women to live life to the fullest and enjoy their journey. Her purpose is almost paradoxical because she has had a difficult journey realizing her own potential. Her own personal life struggles are why she is so zealous bout coaching people in overcoming past hurts and present chaos, and equipping them to walk in victory. Olympia is an ordained minister, psalmist, and educator. She earned a Masters degree in Guidance and Counseling and a Masters in Human Development and Leadership from Murray State University. She has been working in higher education for over ten years in various positions within student success and academic advising. During her time in college she started a Womens Bible study (Women of Worship). She has served as praise and worship leader, mentored a number of beautiful young women, and continues to minister at churches and Christian events. She has been married to her wonderful husband Willie for a little over 2 years. She was single for over ten years before she met and married the one God kept for her. She understands the joy and heartache of being a single Christian woman. She knows without a doubt that it is the love and power of God that keeps us and that Gods love is the greatest love we could ever know. She hopes and prays that her writing will help others pull back the layers of hurt, pain and defeat. She desires everyone to know and believe that we really can do all things through Christ Jesus.

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Copyright © 2018 Olympia Y. Pringle.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-6744-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-6745-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018910740

Archway Publishing rev. date: 9/11/2018

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used with permission.

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

EMBRACE

EMBRACE THE PAIN

EMBRACE THE PAST

EMBRACE THE PRESENT

EMBRACE YOUR FUTURE AND IDENTITY

Embrace is about mental transformation, heart purification and walking in revelation. The embrace process is about our mind, heart and faith journey in the Lord.

Contents

Introduction

Part 1        Embrace the Pain of the Past

Chapter 1     Embrace

Chapter 2     Fear Not; Trust God

Chapter 3     Being Perfect (My Past)

Chapter 4     Wilderness vs. Promise Land Mentality

Chapter 5     Growth is Intentional

Chapter 6     Situationship vs. Relationship

Part 2        Embrace The Present

Chapter 7     Walls

Chapter 8     Surrender

Chapter 9     Stuck

Chapter 10   God’s Goodness

Chapter 11   Determined to Keep Moving Forward

Part 3        Embrace the Future     and Your Identity

Chapter 12   What’s After Embrace?

Chapter 13   It’s a Process

Bibliography

I want to dedicate this book to my husband, my family and friends: Kenya, Erica, LaShonda, Nikki, Christine, Shannon, Kamilya. Also to LaToya who encouraged me to write in the first place and Jenaya for keeping it all straight. They have supported me along each step and I can’t thank them enough.

Introduction

Does this sound like your internal dialogue? Do you constantly ask yourself questions such as: Can I? What if it doesn’t go well? Am I really qualified?

Do you have statements that hinder your progress or decision to move forward or in any direction at all, such as: I don’t have all the steps, I don’t know anybody. I am not sure if I will succeed.

Have you ever said this about yourself: I am awkward. I am not intelligent enough. I am boring. I am not creative. No one in my family has ever done that. Stepping outside of my comfort zone—yeah right! I don’t have a mentor. I don’t have anyone pushing or encouraging me. No one understands.

You see everyone else’s potential, but not your own. You know there is more in you, but have no idea how to manifest it. This brings about so much uncertainty, doubt, confusion and anxiety.

It’s time to get out of your head. Get out of your box! Who told you that you are limited? Who told you that you can’t? Who told you this is all there is? What are you afraid of? What if it doesn’t go well? But, what if it does go well? What if it flops? But what if it doesn’t flop?

Success is birthed out from failure. If you don’t fall, how will you know how and when to get up. Failure is the very entity needed to succeed. The saying goes, If at first you don’t succeed get back up and try again. What if a baby never got back up again after falling while learning how to walk? We would have a lot of adult people still crawling and holding on to the edge of things because they are afraid to use their failures as their opportunity to stand. And not just stand, but walk.

As you read through this book, I welcome you to my journey of embracing me, my pain, my past, my present, and the uncertainty of my future. I will discuss how my biggest enemy has been my inner me, but with God, all things are possible and walking in victory is conceivable. Overcoming every obstacle is possible—even if you fall a few times in the process. Don’t look at failure as a setback, but as a set up for something greater. God is up to something big in His people—in YOU—but if your thinking has been small and limited, you will never believe it for yourself. And it’s time to embrace God, the True and Living God—the God that you say that you love. And it is time to embrace YOU.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me Philippians 4:13 (NKJV)

Part 1

Embrace the Pain of the Past

Chapter 1

Embrace

Embrace to accept or support willingly and enthusiastically¹

E mbrace the pain. That sounds crazy. Usually the last thing that you hear someone say is Embrace the pain. But as the saying goes, No pain, no gain. When wanting to increase muscle, stamina or flexibility, there will be pain. The first instinct is to stop at the start of feeling pain. But if you stop, you will never achieve your goal. I have heard and you probably have too, God will not put more on you than you can bear. That is how some people interpret 1 Corinthians 10:13. People say it to comfort and encourage others going through a difficult time, situation or season in life. I wish that statement were true because sometimes life seems unbearable and you do feel like giving up, but it is right at that moment that God usually shows up. After we have done all that we know to do, God can then finally come in and do all that He can do. His grace is sufficient.

Each time He said, My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. (2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT)

We will suffer. As soon as we realize that and embrace the pain, we can grow and achieve our purpose and destiny. In order to gain our life, we must lose It (Matthew 10:39).

If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us. (2 Timothy: 2:12 NKJV)

Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough