Myckelle’s Editorial – Back To School

Expanding Your Mind, One Book at a Time

by Myckelle P. Williams

8/1/2012

“Be a student. Stay open and willing to learn from everyone and anyone. Being a student means you have room for new input. When you are green you grow, when you are ripe you rot. By staying green you will avoid the curse of being an expert. When you know in your heart that every single person you encounter in your lifetime has something to teach you, you are able to utilize their offerings in a profound way”. – Dr Wayne W Dyer

Thank you for reading our August Issue of  B.L.O.G. Magazine™ online.  This month our theme is focused on Education. Not only education of the mind, but also the body and spirit. With back-to-school season quickly approaching, we wanted to provide helpful tips for mothers, wives and daughters on starting year off right. In my own family, with six children, education was always stressed as important in our home.  Being a teen parent who got pregnant in High School, I was unable to go to college and accomplish the things I wanted to pursue in my own life, but wanted to instill the importance of education in each of my children, as well as a love of learning. As I watched my oldest three children prepare for college, the Lord impressed upon me last year that I need to model those things to my children as well, and I was moved to enroll back in school in an effort to get my own degree.I felt that if I was going to be telling my own children that education is important, I needed to set the example as well. Also, while working on my Heartwood Project™ Workshops, I felt that having a Psychology Degree will greatly help when working with women and past traumas.

It hasn’t been easy. I hadn’t been to school in twenty years. Icompleted tons of paperwork, stood in long lines, getting the ‘run around’ with financial aid, dealt with the school losing my paperwork several times, rude staff and even had to take an admissions test. This was not including helping my own kids prepare their college applications as well! But in the end, I was enrolled, and ready to start, and I felt good that I stuck with it and didn’t let the tedious, and complicated process discourage me.

I have taken a full load of at least 12 units each semester, and am almost done with my first degree: my Associates Degree. My classes gave a lot of work, and I had to re-learn how to study and research and write papers according to the proper format.  As time went on, suprisingly, I found myself loving school. You meet interesting people, have fascinating debates and instructional lectures, and are able to see the pride of accomplishment with every paper that receives a good grade.  With my perfect grade point average, I was also able to achieve induction into the National Honor Society: Phi Theta Kappa. It was a proud moment to have my husband and children watch me receive my certificate and pin.

Lately, I have been on a slight ‘learning high’, and motivated to do more. What I recently decided was that instead of my Bachelors, I am going to go for my Masters Degree and get a heavier load for fall with fifteen units instead of twelve, so that I can finish more quickly. I am even shooting for Honors Classes so that I can get the best scholarships available, which shouldn’t be hard with my 4.0 GPA.  Suddenly, as my purpose expands in front of my eyes, I am understanding what God means by “Hope for the Future”. He desires us to overcome, excel and have faith that He will work it all out in the end. And He makes the plans, not us. He already knows what he has in mind for us the moment we enter this earth, and places within us the means to succeed in it.

Another Revelation: I added Education as my minor because, let’s face it: I’m a born teacher. My gift is to take a concept and make it easy to understand for others. Every spiritual or natural skills test that I have taken has told me the same, but all my life I felt teaching wasn’t ‘good enough’. Or that it was too hard, and unappreciated. But, looking back, my favorite teacher in life, Miss White, planted the seed of Christ in me, and what she did for me is above any earthly salary. Plus, with a Psychology degree, along with Education, I can counsel youth, and it will look better on my resume for speaking. I may end up being Dr. Myckelle. (God just laughs at me when I plan my own life, I’m sure…lol) 

However, even as I am in school, I am open to the idea that I may not even get a degree: He may suddenly direct me to start speaking engagements and touring with B.L.O.G. Workshops, and take me out of school.  I can’t predict the future, so I just stay open to his voice, and leading. God has impressed upon me as I pursue my education, never to get ‘wise in my own eyes.” Many times, as people increase their ‘book’ knowledge, they tend to mentally elevate themselves into a position of thinking that they have all the answers, and therefore tend to consult God less, and rely more on their own learned concepts.

It is interesting the prideful arrogance that develops in those who begin to consider themselves “qualified” by human standards. They will talk about their knowledge and degrees as if they are above growth and correction from others. Jesus took on the form of a servant to give us the example that in leadership, there is also humility. NO ONE called in the bible was qualified by human standards. They were stutterers, orphans, slaves, thieves, adulterers and killers. Who God called, He then equipped. He could take a shepherd and turn him into a King. I may not have had 3 degrees, but my God-given anointing has led me into blessings and favor, and gives me wisdom vs. ‘smarts’. Because of this I was able to start a business, develop several youth programs, obtain a 501c3, and even design webpages, without prior computer classes or experience. God showed me visions of what he needed, and gave me the knowledge to make it happen. It even still surprises me the things that He has placed within me. In short, we must be careful not to be so quick to take credit for your ‘efforts” to excel yourself to a certain place, because God Resists the proud, and gives Grace to the humble. In God’s Kingdom, the first will be last, and the last first, so be careful about trying to exalt yourself, and instead be open to the leading of God’s voice, because Pride comes before a fall.

Instead, learn, grow, and spend time exalting GOD. He will then exalt YOU.

‎”Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not —to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts… boast in the Lord.”~! Cor 1:26-31

We hope you enjoy this issue, and are able to learn and grow from our wonderfully talented writers across the country. Share them with friends, sister, aunts, nieces and mothers who need helpful tips, financial strategies, and educational resources from our various experts. Let’s continue to inpire, empoer and educate eachother, and most of all…thank God and continue to give Him the credit for all that we learn and are able to teach others.

With Grace,

Myckelle P. Williams

Co-Founder, B.L.O.G. Magazine™

Myckelle P Williams, co-founder of B.L.O.G. Magazine™ and creator of the Heartwood Project™ for Women, lives in Tennessee with her husband of 20 years. She is the mother of 6 children and one grandchild. Once a teen mother who overcame the odds, Myckelle helps empower women to overcome the traumas of their past, and mentors young women over the country. She was featured on “Joy in our Town” on TBN Network, for her development of the PURE Satisfaction Abstinence Program in Atlanta in 2009. Her upcoming book ‘The Road Less Traveled.” is due to be released in late 2012. For more information about her upcoming Heartwood Project™ Seminars, you can reach Myckelle at myckelle@blogmagazine.org