She's a Cover Girl in the Real World

By Fred Willis

We've heard what women can't do for years, while scripture has long affirmed what they will do! The spirit poured out on all flesh is inclusive of genders, nationalities. In Joel's prophecy, the word of the Lord is that "sons and daughters would prophesy." And, the day of Pentecost made it clear that the gospel was to be heard in all languages. Ageism isn't an exclusion in this dispensation of grace as old men would dream dreams and young men would see visions (Acts 2:17). I want to help you go forth with boldness and courage as the Holy Spirit equips you with power.

When they tell you you can't, prove to them that you can with scripture and go forth! Whom God calls, He qualifies (Romans 8:30), and if you're qualified, what are you waiting on? God's approval is all you need, so stop waiting on the permission of people! I support your going forth, and you are the reason I wrote this book. I want you to see just how vital that holy thing is to the Kingdom. It's no light thing, it's a holy thing and has come from God. What will you do with it? No more vacillating and equivocating. It's time you be thoroughly convinced and do it.

I'm standing with you and cheering you along as you set out to do what the Lord has given you to do! Bring it forth with all diligence and deliver it to the audience with all your might and strength. I close with this reminder; the Lord will never leave you or fail to help you! He's all the help you'll ever need! Cover girl, are you ready for your close-up?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mighty Pen Publishing
• Release date: Nov 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781735175560

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I Get It From My Mama

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

Growing up in a single-parent household, it was bound to happen. I would be called a mama’s boy by either a bully or a frustrated girlfriend. It’s ok. You can laugh. I learned how to laugh it off and even embrace it. In my book, The Journey to Genesis, I paid homage to the men in my life who helped me as destiny helpers and brothers. It’s been said that a woman can’t raise a man, but in contrast, I’ll proffer this wisdom dubiously attributed to Frederick Douglas’ that "it is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. What he actually said is, Once thoroughly broken down, who is he that can repair the damage?" Both quotes work to ensure that minimal damage is done because the repair may be insurmountable. The quote about a woman raising a man is often focused on single motherhood, but the onus is not on the mother of a young son but the woman in a relationship with a man. Essentially, if he’s not a man by the time he gets in a relationship, he’s doomed. No way you can raise a part of a man’s life that is buried with childhood trauma, hurt, absenteeism, and other pain of his past.

We should then put effort into fortifying that young man (and all children) for the sake of their future. At age 39, I have a better picture of my life. My mother and father were never together (far as I know), but my mother kept us. You know what I mean when I say that. She didn’t pawn us off as other people’s problem. She hung in there even when life’s circumstances weren’t ideal. One day, I put my past to rest with two words, she stayed. Life wasn’t perfect all the time, but we got what we needed and occasionally what we wanted to. She raised us to be hard workers, dream chasers and unfettered by the opinions of others.

We saw her take flack and keep going. We saw her serve people young and old that she knew had no goodwill for her. She knew they didn’t like her, but she never flinched. I also found out she didn’t play about us, nearly coming to blows with another parent who overstepped their bounds with my oldest sister! My mother was also my first gateway to the faith. She read Bible scriptures to us at home before bed and served as our Sunday School teacher. In particular, I remember our reading through Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. We read it before I knew anything about the vanity Solomon spoke of, but once my hair curled to my liking, it rang out in my mind! Oh, that’s what he meant! As I ran curl activator through my hair and stared in the mirror a few extra seconds before school! Laugh if you must, but we’ve all been there!

She made chore lists for us on Saturday, which included ironing all our clothes for the week. This required forethought and vision because if you changed your mind, there was very little chance you’d have to iron a new outfit. Now, if school called for a particular outfit or uniform, we could make the change, but not before a slight interrogation about when we found out about it. She often ruled our home with an iron fist to avoid many or any of the mistakes she made in her life. At church, she taught us about Hosea and Gomer, and I realized that I probably would need to transfer to another class if she was going to walk us through at least the natural side of the story! I said, No way my mama would teach me that, but she did, and we all learned in a way that pointed us to the deeper meaning of the story and not merely what our young minds imagined.

Don’t get me started on those early morning devotions when we stumbled through scripture like zombies, and the only way away from the table was to talk about the passage and close with a prayer. Show me a teenager willing to get up at 5:30 AM to read scripture, and I’ll send them to seminary! We didn’t have it in us then, and I still don’t have it in me now. I’m not an early riser. But we did devotion before we got ready for school, and occasionally, it was what we needed for the day. Most of the time, I was half-sleep, and so were my