A Godly Way of Life

By Lady Kimberly Motes Doty

What is a godly way of life? A godly way of life is living our lives in "the way" Jesus lived his life, the "godly way," according to His teachings.

A godly way of life is the way we conduct ourselves in our every thought, action, and reaction in our everyday lives to let the rest of the world see our Creator through us by doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. By following in "the way" in which Jesus Christ lived, a godly way, by living our lives in a godly way, we begin to crave more and more the teachings of the Bible and to learn the Bible, which teaches us how to love unconditionally, to be thankful, to glorify our Creator and to become a light, an example that the rest of the world can see our Creator's unconditional love, acceptance, and grace through us.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886166866

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A Godly Way of Life

Lady Kimberly Motes Doty

ISBN 979-8-88616-685-9 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88616-687-3 (hardcover)

ISBN 979-8-88616-686-6 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Lady Kimberly Motes Doty

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Prologue

Self-Love

Gods Plans for Us

Life Plan Prayer

A Prayer for Forgiveness

Walk as Jesus Walked

Prayer to Walk in the Way

Asking Our Creator

Becoming a Light Before Others

A Godly Man

A Godly Woman

A Godly Marriage

A Prayer of Love's Promise

Epilogue

About the Author

What is a godly way of life? A godly way of life is living our lives in " the way" Jesus lived his life, the godly way according to His teachings.

A godly way of life is the way we conduct ourselves in our every thought, action, and reaction in our everyday lives to let the rest of the world see our Creator through us by doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. By following in the way in which Jesus Christ lived, a godly way, by living our lives in a godly way, we begin to crave more and more the teachings of the Bible and to learn the Bible which teaches us how to love unconditionally, to be thankful, to glorify our Creator and to become a light, an example that the rest of the world can see our Creator's unconditional love, acceptance, and grace through us.

We must first accept self-love before we can accept God's plans for us as we learn to walk as Jesus walked, and we learn why asking our Creator and becoming a light before others is to glorify our Father in heaven to be prepared to be either a godly man or a godly woman. If we choose to marry, as we continue our godly life, we are then called to live our lives within a godly marriage according to a prayer of love's promise.

—Lady Kimberly Motes Doty

Every day is a chance for Happily ever after… What are you going to do today to make yours happen, for the first time, or again and again each day?

—Lady Kimberly Motes Doty

When you truly understand and know happiness is your choice with each and every decision you make every day, will you choose happiness or will you choose to continue to fight and argue over petty nothingness every day?

—Lady Kimberly Motes Doty

Prologue

Sometimes, when God calls us, we aren't ready to hear His call, so we fight it, or worse, we run the other way.

I heard God's call for my life at a very early age, but I didn't know what to do with it, so I entered the corporate world instead and tried to ignore the light inside of me.

As the Bible says in Matthew 5:16, In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

The more I tried to ignore the light inside of me, the more it fought to get out. I was teased in my corporate world for praying all the time, but it was a part of me that I couldn't live without. It grounded me and soothed me in a way I couldn't function without.

And the more I fought it, the more my body broke down in response; over twenty surgeries on my spine resulting in a diagnosis of reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), also known as the suicide disease. In my early forties, my corporate career was over.

Still, I heard God's call but didn't know how to answer.

Then cancer.

I hit an all-time low—I mean a new rock bottom low.

Our pastors at our church in Maryland prayed for me before the surgery to remove the cancer. It was to be a routine forty-five-minute surgery followed by six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation. They anointed me with thieves oil and prayed.

I felt empty, almost betrayed by God. I'd been a faithful prayer. But I hadn't answered His call. Although I didn't realize it at that time in my life.

The surgery turned out to be a six-hour ordeal, but they removed all of the cancer, and I did not need chemotherapy or radiation. Simply stage 1 cancer as if simply is possible with cancer.

After I had sufficiently healed from the surgery, I needed to walk to keep my legs from swelling where they had removed lymph nodes. The swelling really caused excruciating pain above and beyond what the RSD already caused.

So I started, very begrudgingly walking on the beach every day.

All of this happened right as the 2019 pandemic hit. Talk about timing. But God's timing is always perfect, I'd come to learn, as I think all of us do eventually.

I couldn't do much at first, of course. Only about a half mile, then I'd have to rest and restore my strength.

I already had a few certifications in natural health, fitness, and Pilates to fall back on and help me rebuild and restore my strength. So I used these to help build my strength gradually.

And, of course, I prayed without ceasing. I was very good at praying, as I mentioned. Sometimes, it felt like I must be that one person on earth that prayed so much God was tired of hearing from me.

Gradually, I began to notice I wasn't the only one walking and crying on the beach.

There were a lot of sad, lonely, lost people out there with me.

I had a life coaching certification from years ago that I hadn't used for a while, so I dusted it off and got to work again, talking with people. Except, this time, I didn't have to leave God out of the discussion as I'd been directed to do in the corporate world.

I'd always known the main reason we all felt lost was because we were missing God and our time with Him, but I'd never been allowed to bring God into my discussions before or I'd been strongly discouraged from doing so. Now I was free to do exactly what my heart had been telling me to do all along.

When about all you can do is talk and pray, it's what you do. And when your heart tells you to share God's unconditional love, you share it like a lighthouse shining its light brightly into the sea of loneliness before you.

I also added additional certifications—a second life coaching certification, then a spirituality coaching certification, professional body healing coach certification, another sports nutrition certification, and reflexology certification as well as many others I thought might be beneficial.

I also became an ordained minister. If I'm going to talk to people about God, I felt I should learn as much as possible about Him from the Bible.

I also started adding my fitness, Pilates, yoga, and belly-dancing moves into my walking. As I grew stronger physically and my faith grew stronger in our Creator, I knew I'd finally answered His calling for my life.

I was finally alive and felt like for the first time in a really long time, I was living. All it took was dying in self and living in our Creator's plan for my life.

What I found was everyone I was talking to were all needing the same structures in their lives,

What are my real values? What's important to me?

How do I apply my personal values to add meaning to my life?

Pray? How do Ireally pray?

Okay, now I know how to pray, how do I know what I want and need and then pray specific to get what I really want and need in my life?

Meditate? What meditations do I need to help me get what I really want and need in my life?

How do I create a life's plan now that I know what I really want and need out of life?

How do I stay on my life's plan now that I have a life's plan?

This is how I began researching and creating the prayers and meditations for myself, friends, and clients. Real people, just like you and me. Each and every one having a real need to connect with self, our Creator, and to be whole again. We can't really be whole until we connect ourselves, our souls; that is, with our Creator.

Sometimes, it's just when we think we've lost everything that we find we've actually found everything we've been searching for all along. Isn't that the beauty of life and of our Creator's love for us after all?

I've always believed in dreams, soul mates, soul friends, loving fiercely with everything inside of me, having no regrets because I've loved completely and lived completely. I don't know that I call it reincarnation, but I certainly believe in some part of us living a life after life here on earth with our soul mates and soul friends and with happiness forever and a creator that genuinely wants us to be passionate about and successful in the life we live here on earth in preparation for the eternal life we'll lead in heaven one day. Maybe it's living a life so full of passion and life here on earth during our lifetime that we have absolutely no regrets about the chances we take or we didn't take or the chances we took that didn't work our quite like we expected, knowing we loved fiercely, completely, and absolutely to the fullest we could—that raw, wide open kind of love that children have with full trust and openness, giving everyone the benefit of the doubt until they give you reason not to do so, then give them one more chance because, well, why not? Love is meant to be shared, not hoarded and kept to ourselves.

I'm not talking promiscuous love. I'm talking about pure genuine honest love of one person to another person kind of love. Helping each other just because we have the ability to do so kind of love. Lifting each other up because we are both women and know how difficult that can be kind of love. Telling the woman juggling a job, children, and a marriage how competent and beautiful she looks doing it kind of love. Telling the man who held the door open for you thank you with a smile because he was a gentleman, and gentlemen are rare and need to be lifted up kind of love. Telling the little girl who stood up to the bully all by herself on the playground how brave she was and how proud you are of her and that it won't always be like this, even though she got beat up by all the boys while you know it probably will be like this for quite a while as you try to find a way to make the world a safer place for girls and children in general kind of love. Telling the single mom, You've got this when you see her tear-streaked eyes coming as she tells you, No thank you when you ask is there's anything you can do to help; single moms can be so prideful and also so incredibly strong, fierce, and loving. So you find out her day care and pay for a month's worth of day care or a week's worth of lunches, anonymously, hoping her tears were money-related and not something worse. Sure, you may not really know these people, but what you give them by taking a few seconds or perhaps a few hours out of your time could change their lives forever.

This is the loving passionately, fiercely, completely, not just in your personal life but with everyone you come into contact with that you live your life. Passion is strong and barely controllable emotion. Fiercely is with a heartfelt and powerful intensity. Completely is totally, utterly. When I love, I love totally, utterly, strong, and with a barely controllable emotion and with a heartfelt and powerful intensity. Those that know me personally know this to be true—my family and my friends. Others may never know who the anonymous donor was, and I know I'm not the only on that does this, so that's the beauty of living this way.

Loving passionately, completely, and fiercely. I believe this is what Jesus was teaching us by the way He lived His life. After all, how could we possibly prepare for a forever in heaven otherwise?

It is my sincere prayer that you, too, will find encouragement, hope, love, and your passion for our Creator and in the Bible through my research into our Creator's plan and destiny for you through this book and my writing. I pray that you understand as I have come to understand the pure absolute love, passion, hope, compassion, fulfillment, peace, and joy our Creator has waiting for you in the everlasting truths of the Bible scriptures. I pray you find at least one thing in this book that sparks your interest and makes you want to go read the Bible, even if it's starts as an Oh, wow, the Bible says that! Let me go see what else the Bible says.

Paul tells us in Philippians 3:10–12, I want to know Jesus. I pray we all want to become more like Paul in that we begin to crave the knowledge of our Creator. It is only in the knowing that we can ever truly come to fully love and appreciate His love for us.

Philippians 3:10–12 says, I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

The two most important things I learned are, first, the scriptures are just as applicable today in our lives as they were when Jesus walked the earth and taught us how to apply them to our lives so that we, too, could have everlasting life with Him in heaven because He truly did love us this much. By walking in the way in which He walked and lived His life, we, too, can walk with Him in heaven one day. He's paid the price for us, and He's provided the plan that we must follow in order to meet Him in heaven one day. All we have to do is strive to follow in the way in which He lived His life and taught us to live ours.

Second, as I mentioned, I sometimes felt like I was the only person on earth that prayed so much that God was tired of hearing from me. But I know He hears every prayer and He feels every tear drop like a dagger to His soul because He loves us that much. Otherwise, love would not be the primary purpose He sent His son back to earth for us. Love—it is this knowing that keeps me praying.

—Lady Kimberly Motes Doty

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

—Matthew 22:37–39

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

—Matthew 5:48 KJV

Self-love is giving yourself what your body, brain, and soul needs for the marathon that is life. Self-love is the belief you hold that you are a valuable and worthy person. It is owning our inner and outer beauty and complimenting ourselves without feeling guilty, arrogant, or entitled; it is an unconditional feeling of love, appreciation, and acceptance for yourself.

—Lady Kimberly Motes Doty

Chapter 1

Self-Love

The definition of self-love is giving yourself what your body, brain, and soul needs for the marathon that is life. Self-love is the belief you hold that you are a valuable and worthy person. It is owning our inner and outer beauty and complimenting ourselves without feeling guilty, arrogant, or entitled; it is an unconditional feeling of love, appreciation, and acceptance for yourself.

Self-love is not an arrogant lofting of one's self over anyone else. It is about setting boundaries for one's self, knowing what your values are, and maintaining your values throughout your lifetime.

Self-love gives us the confidence through our Creator's pure love for us and our subsequent pure self-love to maintain our values and morals as we become and maintain our light for our Creator. This is why it is so important as we are becoming a light for our Creator that we also understand the importance of self-love. When we love ourselves, we take better care of ourselves because we know we are taking care of our Creator's child—us. Each and every day, as we confess our sins and are renewed and perfected again in Jesus Christ's pure love for us, we reenergize our light and rebuild our powerhouse of faith that we can maintain our values and morals.

Understanding Self-Love

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

Sometimes, in this journey we call life, we can get caught up in the cycle of fear of the unknown about the future, the fear of the What if this happens? or I have done this before, what if I do this again? or What happens if I do this, this time? or What if someone does this? or What if this random act of nature type things could affect our future. 1 John 14:18 answers all of these things for us by saying that fear is a punishment, and we know our Creator is a perfected love, not a punishment.

When we walk in the light with our Creator, we are walking in perfected love; in essence, there is no punishment in perfected by love. We become the light with our Creator; we are becoming that perfected by love with our Creator, that light and perfected by love where there is no punishment and all fear is cast out.

1 John 14:18 says, There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

How awesome is a Creator that creates a way for us to be perfected in love where there is no fear? No fear of retribution, no fear from our past mistakes, no fear of punishment, no fear of being cast out because we somehow don't measure up, there simply is no fear.

Have you ever really truly had a moment in your life where you weren't afraid or weren't worrying about something? For most of us, we haven't had this feeling since we became aware of ourselves. A fear of being late, of being too bossy, of being too pushy, of talking too loud, of talking too softly, of having to work late again and being late to pick up the children, of not having enough money, of not truly being loved, of loving too much, of not being enough for someone, of being too much for someone, of being too much of something or too little of something—there's always been something, hasn't there?

It is telling us in this verse, through His love, There is no fear in love. Genuine love carries no fear. When someone truly, genuinely loves you, their love carries no fear with it. You do not have to be afraid of their love. Their love will be like our Creator's love. It will cast out fear, and it will have nothing to do with punishment of any kind. When someone genuinely truly loves you, they love you just as you are. You will not have to change a thing for them. They see you as you are, they accept you as you are, and they love you for being just as you are.

When I think about it, about being called to walk as children of light from Ephesians 5:8, a light unto the world as one of God's children, a light unto the world for Him, it's like I can feel and see this bright wholesome light illuminating out of my body and soul into the world as this beam of pure light and love for the whole world to see and know that our Creator truly lives and dwells inside of me. It is so bright and luminescent that nothing can dull or dim its brightness into the dark night or even bright daylight as it shines like a beacon of light for all to see like a lighthouse shining bright in a stormy sea. It is God's light shining through me, His Holy Spirit that lives inside of me. When we have self-love and allow His Holy Spirit to live inside of us, we accept self-love, we accept grace, and others can see the peace within us and His light shining out of us. It is a transformation that is both seen and felt.

Ephesians 5:8 (ESV) says, For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

Cleanse Us from All Unrighteousness

Shame, insecurities, self-pity, sinful desires, or perhaps it's just the sum of all of your past that keeps reminding you of your past indiscretions that can keep you feeling defeated, frustrated, and like you just don't measure up. Whatever it is, it can keep you from accepting our Creator's call to come and worship to receive the gift of everlasting life, to feel and accept unconditional love, and to know the blessed peace inside the Creator's open arms. But it doesn't have to, no, it doesn't at all. Each and every day, as we confess our sins and are renewed and perfected again in Jesus Christ's pure love for us, we reenergize our light and rebuild our powerhouse of faith that we can maintain our values and morals.

Reminding us of our past failures or current insecurities is just another strategy the enemy uses to keep us down and keep us from receiving the gifts our Creator has for us. Sometimes, even our friends and family can do these things to us, whether on purpose or out of fear that we'll repeat past mistakes. Whatever the reason, it serves no good purpose in God's plan for us. It's in the past, isn't it? Let's leave it there in the past and concentrate on perfecting ourselves and helping others becoming godlier, shall we?

1 John 1:19 tells us, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

It doesn't say He'll forgive some of the stuff we did. It says all unrighteousness. All of it goes away when we confess our sins; it means all of it!

Romans 8:1 goes on to further say there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus, so once we have confessed our sins, we are no longer condemned in any way. Reminding us over and over again is just a waste of time. We are now cleansed and have been perfected in Jesus Christ love.

Romans 8:1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

I'll take a moment here to speak to the fights that couples, friends, family, and others have where they bring up the past over and over again. Just as we ask our transgression, trespasses, debts, and sins to be forgiven when we pray; I believe we need to ask each other to forgive the things we do to each other. I believe this is the reason these things are brought up over and over again. We haven't addressed them and asked for forgiveness from the person we've transgressed, trespassed, or sinned against.

I pray a more formal prayer that follows the Lord's Prayer. I greatly expand it and include prayers for my family, my hopes and dreams, and ask others to forgive us for the things we've done to them. I even take it one step further and ask that our Creator heal the hurts and wounds we've caused each other that we feel we can't forgive, wounds that won't heal, or wounds we are having trouble forgiving so that we can forgive them. Once they are healed, I pray that we will then forgive the one that hurt us so that we can then be forgiven by our Creator. Then I pray that we are then able to move on with our lives now that the hurt has been healed and all has been forgiven.

For me, this is my way of keeping these things from being brought up over and over again. Once they are healed and forgiven, we should be able to finally move on from them and get on with our lives.

Sometimes, someone can wound us so deeply that even though we pray to forgive that person and we try so hard to forgive, the pain of that wound lives on in us. We can even feel like we have forgiven them in our heart, but the pain of the hurt or betrayal is still impacting our life in some way. Perhaps we can't trust that person again or we have a physical injury as a result of a broken heart or some other lasting effect on our lives.

Forgiving that person, forgiveness is just the first step, getting on with or moving on with our life is the harder part of the process. We may never get an I'm sorry, please forgive me from that person or sometimes, even if we do get the apology, the wound still lives on. Either way, we need to move on in our life just the same. For me, that is why adding this to our prayers is an important piece of the healing and forgiving process.

When I pray, I add it to my prayers in this manner:

Forgive us our transgressions, trespasses, sins, debts, and everything else that we need to be forgiven. We forgive those that transgress, trespass, sin, and debt against us. Where we feel we cannot or have trouble forgiving, I pray You will heal whatever is hindering or preventing us from forgiving and help us get past these hurts and wounds and move on with our lives. Once You have healed us, I pray You will help us then forgive those that have hurt us and that You will forgive us so that when we stand before You, You will know and say that we are Yours.

Then I continue on with my prayers.

As I mentioned earlier, reminding of past failures, whether from our own mind or someone else, is just a distraction tactic used to try and convince us that anything in our past disqualifies us from receiving our Creator's forgiveness, pure love, gifts for our life, from becoming our own light, or from sharing our Creator with others. Self-love tells us to stop with the reminding. Our Creator forgave us, all of that has been washed away. We have been perfected by our Creator's perfect love for us. We are whole again. There is nothing to fear in His love. His love is perfect.

The Worst of Sinners

Sometimes we can feel like we have done something that is so incredibly shameful, harmful, or wrong that no matter how many times we ask for forgiveness, we can never fully be forgiven or we can never fully forgive ourselves. It can be a really awful thing that we've done or a really simple, stupid thing that we keep doing that we absolutely hate that we do; either way, we are ashamed that we do these things, and we feel unworthy of true forgiveness.

We see this often as young mom's raising our children when we are trying so hard to have patience with the little ones, but we always seem to yell at them for something. We see those tears start to well up in their little eyes, and we know they didn't mean to spill the cup of water, yet again, for the tenth time that day. They are just learning how to balance the cup as they sit it down on the table, after all. And we've yelled at them again for it. We feel so horrible for having yelled at them; the guilt and shame eat us up inside and sometimes cause us to yell even more. This is, of course, a very simple example of something we might do over and over again that can cause us to feel guilty or shameful, and we really hate that we do it over and over again. There are far worse things we do every day, and each and every one of us can easily think of a dozen or more without even really trying, can't we?

Perhaps it's trying to pay off your credit cards, but we just have to have that new whatever it is again. And once again, our credit card balance has crept back up to as high as it was this time three months ago or ever higher. And we find ourselves wondering, Why do I keep doing this over and over again? I can't believe I keep doing this to myself and my family!

There are, of course, much worse things that we can do to ourselves or others that we can hate or start to hate ourselves for than what I have listed here. Whatever our reason for our self-loathing, shame, or guilt that is making us feel like we can never be fully forgiven, we are wrong; we can be fully forgiven and we are fully forgiven each and every time we ask in earnest to be forgiven. Even the worst sinners of us are called out as the worst sinners and told that we are forgiven; it says so right in the Bible.

The Bible doesn't say murder is a worse sin than stealing. It just says, Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not steal. Both are equal sins. Both can be equally forgiven. That is the thing about sin. All sins are equal in the eyes of our Creator. He sees them all as sin. He forgives them all as sin. He forgets them all as sin. It doesn't matter what we think of as the worst sin to what we think of as the white lie sin; it's all the same to our Creator. 1 Timothy 1:16 tells us for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His immense patience as an example for those who would believe in Him and receive eternal life. So, yes, you, absolutely you, the worst of sinners, if you believe in Him and come to Him in earnest, you will receive eternal life.

Pretty awesome, isn't it?

But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His immense patience as an example for those who would believe in Him and receive eternal life (1 Timothy 1:16).

I'm continually amazed that all of the answers we need in life really are right here in the Bible! Yes, it really says it right here in 1 Timothy 1:16, The worst sinners. It truly amazes me that even today, His Word stands the test of time and covers us all. So no matter how much shame, self-loathing, or guilt you are feeling about whatever it is that you have done, when you truly ask to be forgiven, it is all forgiven. Self-love is accepting our Creator's gift and believing in Him and starting to love ourselves, even when we feel we are the worst of sinners because our Creator has forgiven us, and it's all been washed away.

Outcast

In this current time of ours, we have great bullying, racism, sexism, and so many other -isms that make us feel like outcasts and like we just don't fit in anywhere within our society today. To me, it seems the more we label everything, the more we isolate everyone away from the rest of society. Everyone is being herded or packed into some type of label or another, and if you are not in a label you are an outcast.

I'd really like to see us get away from and/or drop all of the labels and get back to being one people. However, I also believe many have found too much notoriety and fame in their labels for them to want drop their labels, even though they are hurting our society and, in many cases, the very ones they are attempting to protect, but this is just one woman's humble opinion in a sea of labels.

The more we segregate each other into these labels, the more segregated we all feel. To me, the whole Whatever You Want to Call it Lives Matter has created so much more segregation than it will ever heal. The more segregated we are, the more segregated we all feel and the more isolated we all feel. From what I've seen, by and of itself, these labels create more of the very issues we are trying to get rid of, don't they? This is so true. If you don't fit into someone's idea of a label, you become an outcast.

In my humble opinion, all of the Whatever Lives Matter will only ultimately serve to create a society of these lives don't matter because they don't fit into a label that does matter. In essence, they only serve to create a society of outcasts. No one wants to be an outcast.

The very most important thing to remember here, and Jesus was so very good at teaching us this point, is we can be mad about something or mad at someone, but it doesn't mean we hate them or that we hate anyone at all. Today, especially, I think so many have forgotten or have chosen to forget this very basic fundamental fact. Just because we are mad at someone or something does not mean we hate them. We can look at the way Jesus chose to handle his anger. In this book, we will take a look at the way Jesus taught us to handle anger.

As it says in Jeremiah 20:17, no one wants to be an outcast. Being called an outcast is very hurtful and devastating to anyone. An outcast denotes a sense of abandonment and loss of hope. What a truly lonely one is the outcast, alone, abandoned, no one cares for them, without hope.

Jeremiah 30:17 says, For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds,' declares the Lord, because they have called you an outcast, saying: ‘It is Zion; no one cares for her.'

I believe this is what we are doing to ourselves and our youth with all of the labels we are placing on everyone today. I believe we are depriving ourselves and especially our youth of the freedom to explore and discover their creativity. Without this ability and time needed to explore and create who they can become, we will lose generations of scientists, artists, mathematicians, musicians, chefs, explorers, and many others needed to move our society forward and away from this stagnant recycled regurgitated state of It's all about me and What can you give me? that we live in today.

We don't need gender neutral or trans labels to explore all of the colors of the rainbow. We just need to be able to go out and explore all of the colors of the rainbow freely. This is the very key to me: If gender neutral or trans or ADHD (which was very popular a few years ago) or whatever else you