Today, I am sharing this guest blog post by Ebonie Mukasa in honor of Mother’s Day. Ms. Mukasa originally posted this blog as a book review of Inspired for Greater Things on her “OUCHGirl Blog”, on Friday, May 2, 2014, but to me, it was more than a book review.

“God can and will create out of ‘nothing’ the answer that’s best for us.” – Linda Freeman

Within 24-hours of receiving my copy, I read Inspired for Greater Things from cover to cover.  In December 2013, I had the honor and great pleasure of doing a one-on-one interview with Linda. Needless to say, it was a power hour, filled with laughter, excitement and purpose.  As our brief interlude came to a close, I found myself compelled to do more, be more and help others more than ever.  I realized that inspiration is one of the greatest intangible needs we have.  It IS the fuel that truly powers us to do greater things!

In January of 2014 my husband and I learned some truly amazing news to only be devastated 16 short weeks later.  To sum it up…here’s what I recently shared with a dear friend about our experience.
I had let go of my hopes for another child and we found peace and excitement about what was to come in our lives.  We thought, once our son goes to college it will be just us and we would travel the world and just do things. Then when we learned of the pregnancy, we were SHOCKED!  We were in disbelief! All of a sudden all those hopes came rushing back, we would talked late into the night about the new outlook on our life (with a baby now in tow). It was a miracle!

Then with no warning – no signs…with the presence of one little pink spot, our world shifted. We were speechless, dumbfounded, numb and I kept praying for God to please wake me up, that this had to be a bad dream.  I’m embarrassed because I was so very hopeful and that so many people hoped with me. I don’t know how to encourage them when I am fighting to stay encouraged myself.
This was my second miscarriage since the birth of my now twelve year old son. After 10 long years of hope, trying and then not trying, I miscarried another child. I, with the support of my husband decided to wait for natural miscarriage (birth) to take place. We waited 13-days and on day eleven I received a package in the mail.  It was this book! Little did I know that the words within its covers would bring me back from such loss to anticipate something greater from God! 

For the sake of brevity I decided to do 4-posts, since this journey has moved beyond just a book review.  These are the chapters that literally prepared me for what I could have never expected and filled me with words and thoughts that carried me over the threshold from death to life.   

PRAY (Pg. 25 – 27)

I’ve never, ever heard of anyone describe prayer this way.  I thought I was praying when I learned of the devastating news of the loss of our baby.  We as a family pray every night and the baby was at the top of our list.  There were requests for good health and full development, others were for the baby’s purpose and future life. All of our prayers were good and full of hope and faith. 

However, when I read this chapter I got a glimpse of a different way to pray in my time of despair, need and fear. I could feel that the contractions were increasing and getting stronger.  My midwife kept a very close eye on me. Her words of encouragement were to pray, that God created my body to do this work.  I just needed to continue to pray and trust in the process.  This word “pray” was surrounding me. In Linda’s book she describes prayer as breathing.
Breathing is the act of inspiring and respiring (or inhaling and exhaling).  When we inspire we draw air into our lungs.  We retain the oxygen from the air, and then we respire anything we cannot use biologically. Prayer is also an act of inspiring and respiring.  As we inspire we bring into ourselves the grace, the mercy and the power and the healing virtue of God. When we respire we can release our anxiety, trouble, concerns, desires and needs.
I could not believe what I was reading.  As the contractions came, I inspired and respired to endure and manage the discomfort. After reading this description every contraction brought me to a place of prayer, where I inhaled the goodness and grace of God and exhaled the hurt and pain of loss.  Who would have thought this pain was leading me to a place of healing?
Ebonie Mukasa lives in South Florida with her family. Ebonie is the creator of OUCHGirl | OWNYOURCURLYHAIR as well as the CEO and Founder of the long standing Socially Conscious Fashion Brand, CLOAK INC. More than all of that, she is a women learning to love who she is…natural hair, curves and all! Find out more about Ebonie and her work at the “OUCHGirl Website”.

(I photographed these beautiful flowers blooming on a passion fruit plant on May 1, 2014.)