Category: Joceline’s Posts

Amy's Posts, Angela's Posts, Discovering God, Guest-Writers, Joceline's Posts, Kerrington's Posts, Krystyn's Posts, Let's talk about Dating, Life in the Spirit, Luisa's Posts, Marnie's Posts, Rachel's Posts, Sienna's Posts, Soul-Searching Sundays, Taylor's Posts, UYM, UYM Runway, {Beauty}, {Faith}, {Life}, {Love}

{#SHINEproject}

UYM

Uniquely Yours Ministries, is very thrilled to announce… “Shine Project!”

SHINEproject

#SHINEproject is a promotional campaign dedicated to reaching out and encouraging women in communities across the globe. With the help of you, our dear readership…We are in pursuit of reaching new heights of ministry! Here is our ultimate GOAL:

-3,000 Likes on Facebook

-500 Followers on Instagram

-500 followers on Twitter

We have exactly ONE month, 30 days to accomplish this amazing ministry goal! We believe that with God, ALL things are made possible…With many exciting campaign kick-starters, encouraging scriptures, inspirational videos, special tributes from The UYM team and much more coming your way…You will have the pleasure of sharing, with all your friends and family. This month, will be an incredible month for UYM! Join us August 1st-August 31st for #SHINEproject! We would love to see what you are sharing and doing to promote SHINE in your community!  You may be wondering…”How can I help?” Well, by simply pressing that share button at the bottom of this post, you may just be changing a life forever 🙂 Shining through social-media! So please use our hashtag, on ALL sources of social media. Thank you in advance for your support! We are so grateful!

Click HERE to watch the exciting Promo Video of #SHINEproject!

Until Next Time,

~The UYM Team

Joceline's Posts, {Love}

{Love} Be Specific.

UYM

Written By: Joceline Sweeney

Love be specific joceline

Twenty-one years ago, this past May 19th, I met my soul-mate. My life was forever changed. Let me take you down memory lane. I was just about to graduate high school and we were off to a convention, for private schools.

The convention was a three day competition of various events, from singing to sports to be held in the state of New York. The school I attended was requiring we do at least two sporting events. Since I was already doing volleyball, I thought I’d sign up for something easy, like running long jump.
That’s where my first encounter with arrogant  boy comes into play.
My turn had come up and I didn’t have a chance to practice but really I thought
“How hard can this be?”
So a running I went, mentally preparing to hurl my body forward.
I apparently am an over achiever, because I lunged myself forward
so hard I couldn’t stop. I landed flat on my face in the sand.
Wow!!! Did that ever hurt!
Arrogant boy laughed at me. Here he was standing there, when I was devastated because I had dirtied my new sweater  and was in great pain…and he laughed.
I had thought he was cute, but not now. Rude, just rude!
The teasing continued throughout that day from arrogant boy, 
and my annoyance was mounting. (I guess the saying is true,
boys really do tease girls they like.)
After some time of harassment, a friend told arrogant boy that my feelings were possibly becoming hurt and that he should apologize. Out with arrogant boy… 
enter Prince Charming.
After a lovely apology, things began to change. I found myself looking to find him at each new event and have some exchange of a look or words.
That was by far the fastest three days of my life, before I knew it, it was our last night and we were leaving. I had resigned myself that this had been a wonderful,
fun time, but that was it. Until, a slip of paper was handed to me by Prince Charming. I held it in my hand and wondered if it was what I was hoping it was.
A phone number and an address. YES!!! An exchange of information was made.
Thus beginning a wonderful, long-distance relationship. Our phone bills were quite high, but we couldn’t help ourselves. We were falling in love and the sound of each others voice was all we had.
Until Mark, my soul mate moved, so we could be closer to each other.
We were engaged after 8 months of knowing each other. We were quite young, but I knew this was the man I was supposed to marry.
When I was younger I had spent a lot of time thinking and praying as to what I wanted in a husband. I had even written a list of things I had asked God for in a mate. What is completely God, is that Mark was my list. Everything I had asked God for, things only He and I knew. He gave them to me in Mark.
Neither of us were planning to go to convention that year,
 but God had already planned we would.
Isn’t He Amazing!
Until Next Time,
~Joceline
Joceline's Posts, {Life}

{Life} Pause.

UYM

Written By: Joceline Sweeney

PAUSE

I unfortunately haven’t heeded the advice I’m giving you today. I have learned the hard way of over piling my platter too full, that some days I could just scream, and sadly I often have.

We are all at different stages in our lives, but I know this post can be applied to you not matter what.

This is difficult for me to admit, but I hate saying no! I know I’m not the only one, as there are quite a few books available to help people like me and a few others who are willing to admit it! I would rather just say yes and a possibly grumble about it afterwards then to hurt someone’s feelings or to have them upset with me. I have done this for years! Take on something that was important, a worthy cause, a God thing and push myself literally past my physical and emotional limitations and then turn around and take it out on my family. Sad. When you are a kind and generous person you see needs everywhere and honestly sometimes feel it is your responsibility to fulfill them all.

I’m here to tell you… Pause.

I used to wear a crown of busy on my head, I still so often want to wear it, as it is like an old hat, easy to slip on. Wearing it to prove to myself and others I could handle it all with a smile on my face.

I sat down a few years ago and wrote a list of things that were on mine and my husband’s schedules and I was shocked and ashamed that I had let it get this bad. Seven pages single spaced of the things we were both currently involved in. I wanted to cry. No wonder why I felt completely overwhelmed all the time, like I could never catch up. I wish before I had let it get this out of control, I had taken the time to… Pause.

I sat and talked with my husband about what I had written and discovered, I began to cry as I didn’t know what to do. Everything that was on my platter was important, a worthy cause and even God things. He sat and listened to me as I poured my heart out, asking him how I could possibly go on living like this, being so completely overwhelmed and utterly miserable.

He asked such a simple question which stopped me in my tracks, “What do you want to do?”

I sat and thought about it for quite a few minutes, with such honesty I wept and answered “I just want to read a bedtime story to Jillianne!”

I knew then that I desperately needed to… Pause.

My heart was aching, being a wife and mom was all I had ever really wanted and I had let mine and other people’s expectations crowed out the very thing I felt I was created to be… a good wife and a loving mom, who read bedtime stories to her children.

I am a huge work in progress as I still like my sparkly crown… but now before I add anything else to my platter, I remember how much joy it brings me to grab a book and read to my youngest daughter.

When life and all its demand are coming at you, faster than you can handle, before you become overwhelmed…Pause.

Until Next Time,

~Joceline

Joceline's Posts, {Beauty}

{Beauty} Just One Thing…

UYM

Written by: Joceline Sweeney

{Beauty} Just one thing.I remember (back in the day… I have to say that because after all, I am 38 years old! ) when I was a teenager I was surrounded by what I considered to be beautiful friends, blond ones, tan ones, … In my mind this is what pretty looked like and let me tell you when I look into the mirror all I saw was a pale faced-freckled girl, with frizzy brown hair!

Definitely NOT what I considered to be beautiful. I struggled with much insecurity about my looks because at that time, I hadn’t learn to appreciate my own unique, beautiful qualities. I began to try to change myself to look more “beautiful.”  My first plan of action was dying my frizzy brown hair with this “wonderful” new product called ‘Sun In.’ Most of you won’t even know what that is but, the girl on the bottle had gorgeous blond hair and the promise on the back of the bottle was, if you sprayed this product in your hair and applied some heat it would turn your hair a beautiful shade of blond. But as far as I can recall, they neglected to inform you (or I may have skipped the warning parts!) that the more time you spent in the SUN (a source of heat!!) it would continue to lighten your hair!  My hair turned a brazen blond-orange! (not as in sweet red headed orange no no…orange like the actual fruit!) It completely dried out my hair and I had to brush it very gently because it would literally break off if I didn’t. It was like straw!!!

ON top of ruining my hair, I tried laying in the sun to tan my pasty white skin, yep you guessed it, all I got was MORE freckles!!  My plan to “beautify” myself was seriously crashing and my skin was burning!

One day in our school devotional time, my teacher was talking to us about finding “just one thing “that we liked about ourselves, something we may have even found beautiful …Hmmm, I literally sat there for quite a few minutes trying to think of something…nope I wasn’t getting anything, but then I remembered I had thought my feet were kind of pretty, although rather large, I found them kind of cute, so I focused on those. Then before I knew it, as I was thinking positively about my feet, I continued to find ”just one thing” that I liked about myself. A new appreciation for my uniqueness had been sparked.

I was, much to my surprise, now embracing my porcelain skin, with all of those sweet sun kissed spots and when my hair finally returned to its normal color, it really wasn’t that bad, it was so much better than straw!

So if you struggle like I did (and still sometimes do!) with insecurity about the way you look…Stop and find “just one thing”, focus on that and then keep repeating, until you too can truly appreciate how beautiful the girl in the mirror really is!!!

(P.S. My husband loves my freckles!)

Until Next Time,

~Joceline