Doris McKinney Jones, Ph.D.

Have you ever thought about what you are supposed to do with the emotional baggage you collect on this journey we call life. Such as; regret, grief, shame, fear, rejection, anger, unforgiveness, hurt, pain, self-doubt, self-hate, and a self-destructive mindset. As you hold on to these things, they weigh you down. They keep you from giving and receiving real love, they steal your joy and laughter, and they rob you of your peace of mind. They also keep you from soaring high and enjoying your life. You pick up baggage during the course of your life when you experience negative events that hurt you physically, negative words that hurt you emotionally, and negative thoughts that hurt you mentally. So why would you want to hang on to them?

Sometimes people hang on to their emotional baggage because they don’t know what to do with it or they don’t know how to live without it. Their emotional baggage becomes a part of their life and who they are. They carry this baggage with them throughout the...

Life is full of choices. But in order to live a prosperous and beautiful life, full of joy and

laughter, you have to make the right choices. You can change anything in your life quickly if you just make a decision to do so. You can change your attitude, leave an abusive situation, forgive someone who has hurt you, choose different friends, start going to church, spend quality time with your children, pay your bills on time, budget your money or even speak positive words to yourself and others. You can do all of these things and more to make your life better, however, it depends on what’s most important to you.

Would you rather live a life of misery, sadness, anger, hurt and pain? Or live a life of peace, love, joy, happiness and laughter. God has given you the freedom to choose and the answer to the question of what will you choose.

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you...

Let’s say you want to bake a cake and you discover you have the right ingredients, but the wrong recipe. What do you do? It’s OK to say goodbye to the recipe but you don’t have to throw away the ingredients. Just begin again with the same ingredients but a new recipe.

It’s the same way in life. You are the ingredients; you are a triune being. You are a spirit, you live in a body and you have a soul. And your life is the recipe. As you know recipes can change depending upon where you live, how you were raise and personal taste. When you start out in life as a baby and you grow into adulthood, your taste in life changes. The type of people you hung out with as a teenager, you may not want to hang out with them in your thirties. The things you did that you once thought were so cool and daring, as you get older you may think “that was crazy!” It’s OK to begin again at different stages in your life. Some things (and people) are better left in the past so that you can have a fresh start in li...

If you have been blessed to be a parent, your main job in the earth, is to love your children. “Train them up in the way they should go…” I have so many parents bring their children into my office and want me to fix them, but the truth of the matter is…a lot of times, it’s the parents who need fixing.

Your children learn first from you. They hear you when you think they are not listening. They see you when you think they are not watching. YOU are their first covering. YOU are their first friend. YOU are their first teacher. YOU are their first counselor. YOU are their first encounter for whatever they will face in life.

YOU are where they learn anger. YOU are where they learn to be selfish. YOU are where they learn fear. YOU are where they learn to curse. YOU are where they learn hate. YOU are where they learn to lie. YOU are where they learn to steal. YOU are where they learn abuse. YOU are where they learn manipulation. YOU are where they learn to dominate. YOU are where they learn to...

Is it really over? Have you finished talking about it? Are you done with that phase of your life? If the answer is yes, then put a period at the end of it. If it’s over, then it’s over. Stop going back there.

So many times when we say we are done talking about something, we bring it up again at another time. If you have made your point in a conversation and you have clearly presented it where you know the other person heard you loud and clear, then put a period at the end of that point and move on to something else.

If you say you are done with a toxic relationship and you know that person is not good for your life, so you pack up and leave, don’t go back. If you say you’re done, be done. Don’t allow no one to convince you, manipulate you or threaten you into staying in a situation that does not bring, love, joy and peace to your life. Remember: hurting people, hurt people and misery loves company.

This also applies to your past. If you have had a painful hurtful past and you want to move...

“Let’s talk blessings.” Sometimes in life things don’t always go as well as we hoped. It is during those times you may be tempted to think that you will never get a break, things will never work out for you, or maybe that you are cursed and not blessed.

If we go back to the beginning when God created heaven and earth, there is a simple phrase about what God did immediately after creating man; “God blessed them.” They didn’t have to ask God to bless them, or manipulate God into blessing them. They didn’t even have to pray desperately hard for a blessing. He simply did so because He is gracious and good.

When we are blessed, our blessings should overflow to others. We are not blessed so that we alone can feel good, or be happy and comfortable, but so that we can bless others. If you know that you are blessed, don’t keep it to yourself. Go out a BE a blessing to someone else. You never know how an act of kindness can change the very direction of someone’s life and give them hope.

Love & B...

“What’s love got to do with it?” Everything! It was God who so loved the world that HE GAVE His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) I guess you can say that real love makes you want to give and it is willing to sacrifice it's own happiness to be a blessing to someone else.

As humans we are all seeking to be loved. However, what we really want is “REAL LOVE”.  Sometimes it can be confusing to know for sure if someone loves you for you or if they are saying they love you to get something from you. Real Love is caring about the happiness of another person without wanting anything in return.

How do you know when you truly are loved? 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 say it best:

            Real love is patient

            Real love is kind

            Real love does not envy

...

Let’s begin by first giving a definition for forgiveness. “Forgiveness is a conscious, deliberate decision, to release feelings of resentment, anger or revenge toward a person or group who has hurt you, regardless if they deserve it or not”.

A lot of people find it hard to forgive because they think if they hold on to an offense it will somehow hurt the other person. But the truth is, they are only making themselves miserable by not forgiving and releasing them. It has been said that “unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person will die”. Think about yourself for a moment and all of the things you have done to hurt yourself and others. God forgave you.

You have been forgiven, so why not forgive others? You only have one life so why not enjoy it fully. Forgive those who have hurt you, receive God’s forgiveness, and forgive yourself. Now go and enjoy your life!

Love & Blessings

Dr. D

It is difficult for a lot of people to understand what it means to be victorious? Are our victories, events and moments in life? Or do we strive to BE in that state where we are always moving forward towards victory? Is it something we do and then it’s over, or do we wish to become victorious as a natural part of our being? An event, action or an outcome doesn’t make us victorious. Victorious is a constant state of being; it’s the direction we are taking for our life.

For example, a single mother who takes care of her children is victorious. She provides everything they need. Not just clothes, food and shelter,but love, patience and understanding. It is natural for her to do what she does, that makes her victorious.

A husband who goes to work every day to provide for his family is victorious. When it’s freezing cold in the dead of winter or scorching hot in the smoldering heat of summer, he still gets up every day, whether he feels like it or not to ensure his family is taken care of. I...

Have you ever given any thought to the benefits of having dinner with your children? In our society today our children are over inundated with things they see, hear and are invited to participate in. The pressure from their peers can sometimes be overwhelming to the point that they no longer know what is acceptable and what is not. The boundary lines of right and wrong, which at one time were clearly marked by parental involvement, have become so blurred that one can barely recognize them.

It is extremely difficult for children to navigate on their own through this entangled maze of unyielding and continuous peer pressure. So how do we help our kids? Parental pressure has to be greater than peer pressure. I’m not talking about sitting your child down and interrogating, intimidating or threatening them. Simply have dinner with them. Be present in their world, whether they want you there or not. It is at the dinner table that engaging conversation takes place.

The dinner table is a safet...