Meet Our New Shazzy Fitness Instructor, Colette Adams! Hello! My name is Colette Adams. I am 36 years young and live in the beautiful sunny state of California. I am happily married and blessed to be called Mom by 5 amazing kiddos. I am a nurse by trade and work as personal health coach at My Body Tutor. God has giving me a heart and passion for helping other become the best version of themselves both inside and out. I have always been a lover of dance and yoga and wanted to bring another element to my coaching business. Worship music has always been one of the biggest ways I connect with the ..read more

A Better Version of Myself: Meet Shalane Jenkins! My name is Shalane Jenkins. I am 57 years old. I was born and raised in a small town by the name of Fountain Hill, Arkansas. Even though we were a small community, the people there were loving and very supportive. The elderly people had strong faith in God and always instilled in us to “Always have faith, always pray, and always believe in God.” Their words were rooted within me and on more than one occasion while growing up, I relied on those words. I am happily married to Samuel Jenkins, Jr. from Hamburg, Arkansas, where ..read more

Growing With Your Garden Over the past few months at home, my family has really gotten into gardening and growing our own produce. Yesterday, as I spent some time outside picking herbs for our dinner, I realized that I have learned quite a lot about life during social distancing and self-quarantine from something as simple as gardening.   1. Plant your seeds Until we planted our seeds in our garden, they were just sitting in a kitchen drawer just taking up space, because we always had the intention of planting them but kept putting it off. When we finally put them in some soil, we were s ..read more

5 Stay Motivated Strategies for Healthy Living I stood there tugging at my clothes but the mirror didn’t lie. I’d packed on so much weight during a particularly turbulent season of life that I barely recognized myself. Those round cheeks, wide hips, and flabby stomach must have belonged to someone else. But they didn’t and on top of that I felt sickly and weak. I knew something had to change.   That was ten years ago and it’s been an imperfect journey. But, despite setbacks, I’ve maintained a desire to stay healthy and feel good. And, along the way, I’ve learned how to keep myself m ..read more

Love is A Verb   One Week Christmas Action Plan Day 1 — Welcome the new month with all of its possibilities. Put on some Christmas music & sing or dance along. Day 2 — Take 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a and replace the word Love with your name and post it somewhere that you can read it every day. Day 3 — Look up a local charity and find out how you can help. It may be a small donation or volunteering your time either in person or from home. Day 4 — Think about a teacher or someone who has had a positive impact on your life and find a way to reach o ..read more

An Attitude of Gratitude In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Paul writes that as believers, we should “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. It may seem like a tall order for God to ask us to rejoice and give thanks in ALL circumstances, but it’s important to realize sometimes we will be grateful because  of our circumstances, and other times, we will be grateful despite our circumstances. In the best of times and worst of times, there are a few constants that we can be thankful for in any situation ..read more

Are You Using Your Time Wisely? Time is valuable. It is so valuable that once it is gone, we can't get it back. Other things we can replace. But not time. And yet it is the one thing that we waste the most. While I am sheltering at home I am working remotely and this has caused me to have a different routine. Since I don't have to get up, get dressed, and commute to work, my schedule is all off. I stay up sometimes until two or three o’clock in the morning. I might take a nap during the day. My whole concept of time is off right now. And because of that, it is easier for me to procr ..read more

Relentless Gratitude I am going to start things off a little differently this month. I’m going to acknowledge the elephant in the room, and then I am going to politely ask said elephant to leave the room. The elephant being how very different this Thanksgiving will likely be with the fact that we may not be able to gather with family and friends because we are in the midst of a global pandemic. I am lovingly patting this elephant on the head and excusing it to go about its day. The reason being is that all of this chaos and turmoil is changing and will change just as all o ..read more

Why Our Health is Important Now More Than Ever I saw a social media post the other day that read in bold letters: “Don’t forget that you can still get ‘regular’ sick during a pandemic.” It was a fantastic reminder that even if COVID-19 is changing how we live our daily lives, it shouldn’t change how we maintain our overall health, especially since it can impact not only ourselves but our communities. Let’s delve into some of the reasons why!    Prevent contraction of illness The most straightforward reason why you should keep yourself healthy is to prevent contraction of the virus b ..read more

7 Christian Books to Read for Godly Encouragement Spending a lot of time at home means that I have a lot more time to do things that I would usually be too busy to do otherwise, like reading! I wanted to share a few books that I’ve read both during shelter-in-place and in the past few years that have really stuck with me and encouraged me in my walk with God.    1. “Lies Women Believe” by Nancy Leigh DeMoss The enemy is a masterful liar and targets our weaknesses by feeding us lies that make us doubt our relationship with God. Each chapter breaks down a lie that is so ingrained ..read more