God uses what was meant to stop you, to thrust you forward<\/em>.<\/p>\nLet that sink in for a minute.<\/p>\n
The things in life that were meant to stop you, paralyze you, frustrate you, discourage you, scare you and incapacitate you… God can take ALL\u00a0of those things and use them for good.<\/p>\n
Whether they were brought on you by Satan’s attacks or you brought them on yourself by your own poor choices (gotta love free will!), God can flip around even the worst of situations and use it to thrust you – and others – forward.<\/p>\n
Again, if you’ve read my blog, you probably already know my story. \u00a0But for those of you that don’t, in a nutshell… I went through a series of pretty traumatic events in just a few years. \u00a0I was in an abusive relationship, my father passed away, my mother passed away, my health took a nosedive and a few other things… pretty much all at once.<\/p>\n
But even though any ONE of those things (much less all of them) could have sent me into a downward spiral, destroyed me and made me give up hope… they didn’t. \u00a0Not because of my own strength. \u00a0But because of God’s grace.<\/p>\n
And He didn’t stop there.<\/p>\n
God not only delivered me from the pain, confusion and sadness of those situations… but He used them to strengthen<\/em>, encourage<\/em> and shape<\/em> me. \u00a0And more importantly, He is using them to help others.<\/p>\nWhat could’ve stopped me has instead, thrust me forward. \u00a0Into a position of immense gratitude\u00a0and joy. \u00a0It thrust me into a life where I get to do what I love every day, where I get to reach others and help them in ways that still amaze me, and where fear has been replaced by peace.<\/p>\n
God won’t necessarily protect you from hurts in your life. \u00a0Bad things\u00a0will\u00a0<\/em>still happen. \u00a0But the good news is they don’t have to stop you<\/em>.<\/p>\nGod can (and will) use what was meant to stop you, to thrust you forward.<\/p>\n
All you have to do is trust and let Him<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you’ve been reading this column or my blog for any period of time, you’ve probably realized that I love my little “mottos” or catch phrases. \u00a0Maybe that’s because I’m a writer, I’m not sure. \u00a0But I love when a phrase or a quote encompasses an important thought or lesson. \u00a0So I’ll apologize in advance…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":589,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[140,193,521,272,265,125,524,33,528,307,126,264,293,141,523,526,527,179,124,219,525,522,308,237],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christ","tag-christian","tag-contentment","tag-determination","tag-encourage","tag-encouragement","tag-forward","tag-god","tag-gods-plan","tag-gratitude","tag-inspiration","tag-inspire","tag-joy","tag-life","tag-life-lesson","tag-moving","tag-moving-forward","tag-peace","tag-positive-thinking","tag-purpose","tag-stop","tag-success","tag-thankful","tag-will"],"yoast_head":"\n
Forward, Not Backward - Simply Fabulous<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Forward, Not Backward - Simply Fabulous\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you’ve been reading this column or my blog for any period of time, you’ve probably realized that I love my little “mottos” or catch phrases. \u00a0Maybe that’s because I’m a writer, I’m not sure. \u00a0But I love when a phrase or a quote encompasses an important thought or lesson. \u00a0So I’ll apologize in advance…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/2016\/05\/forward-not-backward.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Simply Fabulous\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-25T20:07:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jenn Baxter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Forward, Not Backward - Simply Fabulous","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Forward, Not Backward - Simply Fabulous","og_description":"If you’ve been reading this column or my blog for any period of time, you’ve probably realized that I love my little “mottos” or catch phrases. \u00a0Maybe that’s because I’m a writer, I’m not sure. \u00a0But I love when a phrase or a quote encompasses an important thought or lesson. \u00a0So I’ll apologize in advance…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/2016\/05\/forward-not-backward.html","og_site_name":"Simply Fabulous","article_published_time":"2016-05-25T20:07:16+00:00","author":"Jenn Baxter","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/2016\/05\/forward-not-backward.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/2016\/05\/forward-not-backward.html","name":"Forward, Not Backward - Simply Fabulous","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-05-25T20:07:16+00:00","dateModified":"2016-05-25T20:07:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/#\/schema\/person\/2203de766b706a2fbb1706c052ee1925"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/2016\/05\/forward-not-backward.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/2016\/05\/forward-not-backward.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/2016\/05\/forward-not-backward.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Forward, Not Backward"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/","name":"Simply Fabulous","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jennifer Baxter","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/#\/schema\/person\/2203de766b706a2fbb1706c052ee1925","name":"Jenn Baxter","description":"Jenn Baxter is an accomplished writer in Charlotte, NC, who has been published in The Charlotte Observer, Fort Mill Times, Charlotte Five, SOCIETY Charlotte Magazine and Lake Norman Magazine, as well as featured as a columnist on Beliefnet.com. Her freelance clients span across the nation, as well as Australia and the UK, in the fashion & beauty, health & wellness, travel and life coaching industries.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/author\/jbaxter"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions\/242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}