Tag Archives: self-esteem

My God and Me Blog Tour

LaShawnda Jones is the publisher and author of Jazzy Media LLC. Her latest publication, My God and Me: Listening, Learning and Growing on My Journey is full of inspiration and testimony of personal growth.

Jazzy Media’s early publications brought local recognition to LaShawnda Jones’ work and requests for speaking engagements poured in. In 2004, she began facilitating body image and self-esteem workshops. Over the years, she has facilitated workshop discussions on the effects of family, friend, media and societal influences on our body image, self-esteem. She combines all that and more in My God and Me as she addresses, explores and strengthens her and her readers’ identity in Christ

About the Book

Relationships change with the tide of life. When your relationships ebb more than flow, do you find yourself asking, “Were my dying relationships ever real relationships? Are the people who maintain contact, but with whom there is no connection, worth holding on to? Should I expect a person’s presence in my life to equal dependency in my time of need? Does the quality of interaction determine the level of importance?”

These questions and many more flow through the interactions shared in My God and Me: Listening, Learning and Growing on My Journey.

LaShawnda Jones Reads an Excerpt

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mviNH4O7Bwc&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

View the blog tour schedule and read an excerpt at http://bit.ly/MyGodandMe.

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“Who I’ve Become is NOT Who I AM” by Sonya Visor


Take Off the Mask Blog Tour
Who I’ve Become is NOT who I AM, is Sonya Visor’s first non-fiction book. Her passion is to minister to the people who hide behind masks. Sonya’s calling is to break and destroy the yokes of bondage, releasing the power of God into the lives of others by the preached Word and prayers of deliverance. When you can find the strength, to step into who you truly are; you can find the strength to BE THE (Tru U). TruU Ministries is the women’s ministry that God has charged her with to help other’s become free.
Sonya shares her heart with her husband, Pastor Tony Visor, who she calls her better half, for nineteen years. She and her husband have ministered effectively in the city of Racine together at NCC since 1999. Sonya is blessed to love two sons, Jason and Tony, Jr. Visit her online at sonyavisor.com.

About the Book
Who are you when nobody’s looking? It’s time to take off what hides who you truly are…the mask! Are you tired of going around family, friends and church folk with a frozen smile and a broken heart? Unmask your true identity and learn your real name as pastor’s wife and playwright Sonya Visor cuts to the heart with dynamic testimony of sexual molestation at a young age.
BEING SILENT GAVE POWER to the hands that touched her life. Can hands meant to protect you also have the power to crush your identity? YES! But when we stop allowing a mask of shame to hold us captive with CLOSED mouths, WE CAN let Jesus be real in our lives.
Discover who you have become and embrace who you really are in a book that goes past the pews and what other’s think about you — to bring glory to God by being transparent and transformed. It’s time to take off your mask and let the true you show up!

Book Review by Linda Fegins
Initially I was not enthused about having to read this book. However, Sonya Visor’s passion for helping hurting women and men to be healed, delivered and freed from captivity by taking off the mask shines through and demonstrates the glorious healing power of Jesus. The book is more than a story about having suffered the trauma of sexual abuse, remaining silent and hiding one’s pain and true self by putting on a mask to hide secrets. It’s about overcoming the silence of shame and gaining freedom from the societal and self-imposed yokes of bondages that cause one to put on a mask to hide the wounds and shame, to pretend that all is well. Paul Laurence Dunbar said
“We were the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes:”

Sonya gives real life practical examples of the different masks many wear for many reasons. Her descriptions such as Ms. Gucci, Mr. Do Good , the Bethany’s and others will make you laugh and say “ I know about that one” or identify with the pain of cover up and silence. She encourages one to take off the mask and to be transparent so that Jesus can heal you internally. The book is lined with practical and spiritual pointers of how to take off the mask, how to remain free and daring to be true to yourself. The book will encourage readers to seek true freedom by discovering their true identity in Jesus and unmask the true you.

We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,–
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

Sonya challenges you to take of f the mask, to be transparent, transformed and let the true you shine through.

A Message from Sonya
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taD1hkwGWME&hl=en_US&fs=1]

View the blog tour schedule and read an excerpt at http://bit.ly/TakeOffTheMask

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“Beautiful Ugly” by Shelia Lispey

Win an autographed copy of Beautiful Ugly by Shelia Lipsey
See contest details below.

About Beautiful Ugly
Three friends with different struggles rely on God and each other to get by. Layla Hobbs has so much to offer, including a beautiful singing voice, but obesity and low self-esteem hold her back from life and finding true love. Envy Wilson has always been Layla’s backbone. But what about her own dark secrets? She won’t share them with anyone, and it’s starting to eat away at her from the inside. And then there’s Kacie Mayweather. Stricken with cerebral palsy, she’s had her share of men—five baby daddies for six children, in fact. But she’s never had one man to call her own. They’ll need plenty of faith and support from each other to see the real beauty that lies within each one of them and fulfill their deepest desires at last.

My Book Review by Linda D. Fegins
This heartfelt story chronicled in “Beautiful Ugly” reminded me of a song by one of my favorite male groups, the Temptations. “Beauty is only skin deep. Beauty is only skin deep. But ugly is to the bone. So if you looking for a lover, don’t judge her by her cover. She may be fine on the outside but….” I really paraphrased the words or may have misstated them. The essence of the song reminds me that we must be so careful not to allow the physical trappings of a person to determine or define the quality and content of their character and heart. Furthermore, one cannot hide behind one’s outward appearance and neglect addressing the inner woman or man when one’s actions and conduct result in negative and painful consequences that reveal that on the inside he or she is in a poor or “ugly” condition. Many times society places emphasis on the outer appearance while we dress up or neglect the development of our spiritual character. “Beautiful Ugly” by Shelia E. Lipsey is a unique name for a book that follows the lives and friendships of three women, each facing low self esteem, insecurities, and hurt from the past. Through these believable church going women characters, we see that it is possible to believe there is a God, yet fail to trust God and to truly believe His Word that He loves us and will forgive our sins and that through Him, not food , sex or a man ,we can be made whole.

Layla Hobbs use her angelic voice to sing praises to God at church ,but who due to her obesity she settles for less in a man and does not have the faith to do something about her weight.

Kacie Mayweather was born with cerebral palsy. She wants to believe that she can have a man to love her despite her disability, just like any woman without such a disability. She has six children and five babby daddies in her attempt to find love and a husband.

Envy Wilson is considered pretty and has a successful career. She may be pretty on the outside, but she felt ugly on the inside and suffered from guilt and rejection as result of a secret sin of the past. While she looks like an angel, she cannot cover up her past and she acts out by engaging in a secret life of sexual promiscuity.

Through their experiences each one of them comes to realize that they must confess their sin, cling to God and come to understand that each of them needed to be made whole and to have a spiritual beauty makeover to be delivered from the shackles of sin , shame and low self-esteem. This thought provoking book will serve as a good teaching tool to discuss issues of self –esteem and relationships for those who are battling these issues. The characters were believable and it will make an interesting read for those who would like to see how low esteem issues affect how respond to the every day life experiences.

Win an autographed copy of
Beautiful Ugly by Shelia Lipsey

Shelia Lipsey is the author of three other Christian Fiction novels. The trivia question below is from one of those novels. Leave your response to the trivia question below in the comment section.
Name Aisha Carlisle’s best friend in Sinsatiable.

About the Author
Author Shelia E. Lipsey is a multi-award winning author. Her novels are available at most bookstores nationwide as well as online. Lipsey’s books have been called gripping, life-altering, memorable and realistic. Lipsey was recently awarded the 2009 Top Shelf Award for Beautiful Ugly by Black Pearls Magazine. She also won 2009 Shades of Romance Readers’ Choice Awards for My Son’s Wife in the following categories: Author of the Year, Christian fiction Book of the Year, Christian Romance of the Year, Best Book Cover of the Year, Best Fiction Book of the Year, among several other awards for her novels, Into Each Life and Sinsatiable.
Lipsey is the proud mother of two sons and the grandmother of three blessed young men. She is president of UCHisGloryBookClub.net, founder of Living Your Dreams Now a non-profit organization and MAAW (Memphis African American Writers).

Read an excerpt and check the tour schedule at http://bit.ly/BeautifulUgly

For more information, visit www.shelialipsey.com.

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“Beautiful Ugly ” by Shelia Lipsey

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