This week we thought that it was necessary to bring up the horrible events that happened in Las Vegas Sunday night. Monday morning I woke up to text messages from friends telling me to pray for Vegas and to look up what happened in the news.

As I read the news I had no words. What do you think or say after reading about something so violent and destructive, affecting so many people? Feelings such as anger and a deep sadness fell over me. This was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. 

What would cause somebody to use a gun to take so many lives and injure countless others? It’s so saddening and gut wrenching that somebody decided to follow such intense thoughts of destruction that led to affecting so many people’s lives. I couldn’t help but think that I could’ve been at that concert. My life could’ve ended that Sunday night. I had another realization of how short life is.

It’s definitely a time for mourning in the United States, with so many hate crimes occurring. But it is also a very important time to stand for truth and love. There is no more room for hate. I feel such an intense anger at the hatred that has happened in Las Vegas. This anger is driving me to my knees in prayer and giving me an even greater reason to love every person I come in contact with.

I truly believe that LOVE drives out hate and fear. I love these words from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

May we all stand for love in even greater ways today, this week and for the rest of our lives. May hatred only cause us to love all the more. May love multiply in our country so that hatred may be annihilated. I truly believe that LOVE is the answer. Hatred won’t last, love will.

What are you doing this week that is bringing light and love into another’s life?

We would love to hear your feedback! Let us know your thoughts about this post below.

You wake up to a phone call that your son was in a car accident. You get a life altering diagnosis. Somebody close to you dies suddenly. You lose your job when you least expected it. You start to get panic attacks in public places. Your spouse wants to get a divorce…

Have you ever felt like you have lost all control of your life?

Me too.

Over four years ago I had to leave the university I was attending because of how bad my struggle with anxiety was getting. Even as I am writing this, I can feel the tears welling up. I was in a season of life where I battled feelings of not being good enough, every day. I was in an endless cycle of striving to be loved and accepted.

The crazy thing is that I didn’t even realize I felt unloved. I was deceived, unable to recognize the root problem of my struggle. I wasn’t the same person, and this was obvious to my whole family. During this time I started an internship at a Church and worked at a pizza place.

For the next two years I learned to let go of my own ways. I had to surrender to God. I encountered a love that set my heart free. I stepped out of a life of slavery into a life of freedom. But that takes trust in God and surrender. It takes losing control of your life. Sometimes the hardest moments of our lives teach us how much we don’t have control.

In what area of your life have you learned to let go of control? Has there been a circumstance that has seemed out of your control?

We would LOVE to hear from you!

This week’s blog post is a little different. Instead of us sharing what is on our heart, we thought that it would be great to share a testimony from somebody who has been impacted by one of our products.

These are the stories we are all about. If our products aren’t blessing people and encouraging them, then we aren’t doing our job! Our goal is to make people feel loved and for them to understand their purpose and identity on this Earth!

Read Lorin’s story below:

“The rose necklace was given to me from practically a stranger. It's funny how you can go through life sometimes thinking everything is fine, but then encounter God's love in a way that makes you realize how much you're missing inside. How much you need Him and his people. 

At a time when I didn't feel deserving of love, I was told this necklace represented abundant life. That I deserve and have been freely given abundant life, to simply receive it. In my guilt and shame that was hard to hear, but God is so faithful that now I can't help but believe it. This necklace is a reminder of that for me- that God can't go back on His promises, including that of abundant life.”

If you have been impacted by one of our products or one of these blog posts feel free to comment below! We would love to share your story as well!

Are you afraid of messy situations? It seems that people have a lot of anxiety when it comes to uncomfortable situations. We’ve all had experiences where we made a mess, whether that be with food, in our rooms, in family or in a dating relationship. But what makes us so uncomfortable when it comes to situations that don’t go the way we expect?

I already said it. We get anxious because things don’t go the way we expect it to. Our sense of control is lost and we find ourselves in a storm of uncertainty. We are left like a wound that has been torn open, without a bandage to cover us. Cleaning a wound is always painful, but we need to go through this process in order to heal correctly.

Wounds don’t ever look nice. Some of us have huge wounds, others not so big. But we all experience wounding throughout our lives at some point. Maybe you have just gone through a terrible break-up. Maybe you messed up at your job and got fired. Or maybe your closest friends or family have recently hurt you emotionally.

Whatever the wounding, it takes vulnerability and honesty to overcome it. And this process can be messy. Have you experienced a community where you can be open and honest and still be unconditionally loved by those around you? Have you experienced the safety of a community that takes you in as if you were a family member?

As humans, we may feel the intense urge to hide in shame when facing messy situations. We hope that we can create a community where we can be vulnerable and messy, but also maintain continual respect and love for one another no matter the condition we are in.

We would love to hear your stories and thoughts on this topic in the comments below! 

Did you know that it is estimated that 40 million adults struggle with an anxiety disorder, 15 million adults struggle with depression and 5.7 million of adults struggle with bipolar disorder in the United States? That’s a TON of people! Statistics also say that many of these people don’t get treated for these problems.

Could it be that people who struggle with these problems don’t ever vocalize it with others because it’s something that is seen as shameful? Could it be that the friends you hang out with daily struggle with one of these disorders?

I struggled with anxiety basically my entire life. When I got into middle school it turned into an anxiety disorder called OCD. I remember fighting this debilitating problem by myself knowing that it wasn’t my true self. I never really brought it up to others but my family because I just wanted to defeat it and move on. And when I did mention it to others, it would make me feel weak and empty.

I thought I could fight it on my own, but realized that my way of fighting anxiety through the OCD rituals was not the way to freedom. One day I had a realization that I was doing this all on my own. My pride was keeping me in the never-ending cycle of OCD. I surrendered my ways of doing things.

I became real and honest with my problems. During this time I realized that I was unconditionally loved. I didn’t have to do any rituals to be accepted. I was already accepted. I believe that the root of anxiety is not feeling good enough or the fear of being rejected as a person.

The reason why we decided to start this blog is so that others going through the same struggles could experience the same freedom I received by simply being honest and open. If you are reading this and you don’t struggle with anything I’m describing, that’s ok! We all go through many different struggles and you are needed in this community as well!

In my struggle, I also realized that people didn’t know what to do when I would talk about my OCD tendencies. I wish I could have had a community to surround me during this time who understood what I was going through, and knew a way out! Let’s do this life together and bring things to light so we can heal! Isolation never helps us when we are struggling!

Because of the events that happened on August 11-12 in Charlottesville, Virginia, we believe that it is necessary to speak out against the hate that was shown. As a company, M57 strives to show love and stand for love. We are greatly saddened by what happened in Charlottesville and hope that racism and hate are stopped in our generation in America and around the world.

White nationalism/supremacy is rooted in the belief that white people are a superior race and should be the dominant race. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Each one of us is a beautiful manifestation of the heart of God on this Earth. We believe that the lie that one race is greater than another is an evil doctrine.

As a company, we support all races and are friends with people of all races. We need your help to fight racism and support love. What are some things we can do every day to support the equality of all people? I know that getting educated on this subject is huge. Many of us who are white don’t realize the severity of racism simply and sadly because we are white.

A couple things that can help is making sure we have friends of color who can inform us of how racism is affecting them. We also believe that we need to come together and be unified so that we can find ways to destroy the injustice of racism.

What are some ways we can come against hate and racism this week? What are ways we can remind ourselves daily to show love to all people? We would love to hear your thoughts!

Do things in your life seem like they never work out? Are you facing rejection after rejection? Maybe you are in sales and you aren’t making any progress. Or maybe you can’t have kids. Maybe you keep getting made fun of at school no matter how hard you try to be accepted by your classmates. Sometimes the negative things we face in life can seem unending and relentless.

Have you ever wondered why you may be facing the battles you are going through? I know that hard times can make us feel discouraged and even unloved. But have you ever thought that the circumstances you are facing are actually revealing your true identity?

Let me explain. Gold is a metal that is usually mixed with other metals when it is found. It is then put through a process of refining. This process involves crushing the gold and the metals intermixed down to the size of sand particles and then further into a mud-like substance. After adding chemicals, the gold is put into a 2912 degree furnace for two and a half hours to separate the gold from the other metals! So, how does this relate to you and I?!

In order to find pure gold, there has to be a process of refinement. As written about above, this process isn’t pleasant. It consists of crushing, chemicals and an extremely hot furnace! What if life’s challenges function in the same way? I’m not saying that we should seek suffering, or that getting made fun of is right! But what if we can use negative situations to pull out the gold in ourselves and others?!

Maybe next time we try something and fail at it we can start thinking of all the things we have succeeded at! Instead of allowing that negative comment from our classmate to cut us down, maybe we can forgive them and compliment them about something positive we see in them! The next time resistance comes your way try to look a little deeper to find the gold!

Let us know how this post has been helpful!

Sometimes people can make us feel worthless or ashamed. Maybe your own family members are constantly putting you down and aren’t helping you succeed in life. It can be hard to be around people sometimes. But does being around angry or negative people affect the way you see them?

I know that in my life it has been difficult to love people who are not loving me back. Sometimes it may feel hard not to get bitter when somebody is making fun of you in front of others or showing hatred towards you. But is there a way to see people for who they TRULY are, even when they are at their worst?

Have you ever had a mentor or person in your life who believed in you before you believed in yourself? In the movie, The Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi was training Daniel. But Daniel was told to do things that didn’t seem to have anything to do with karate. He was waxing cars and painting fences. He got frustrated at his teacher, Mr. Miyagi, because he didn’t feel like what he was doing was preparing him for karate.

 Mr. Miyagi then asked Daniel to show him what he does when he waxes cars and paints fences. The same moves he did to paint fences and wax cars were the same moves that are used in karate. Mr. Miyagi told Daniel to show up the next day for more lessons. He didn’t let Daniel get frustrated and give up. He showed him that what he was doing was actually counting for something.

Mr. Miyagi could have easily given up on Daniel because of his frustration and complaining. But he didn’t. He saw the best in him and helped him get to where he wanted to be. What if we lived as Mr. Miyagi’s in people’s lives? What if we saw the best, even in our enemies?!

This doesn’t mean we need to mentor people or be best friends with everyone. It simply means that we see the best in people. We look past their failures and shortcomings so that we can pull out the best in them. We can see their talents, gifts, aspirations etc. instead of their anger, frustration, complaining, hurt, hatred etc. Will we see the best in people and make an impact that may change their life or will we see the worst in them? It’s our decision!

We would love to hear your thoughts on this subject!

There’s a TON of negativity that tries to fog our minds in the world around us today. Watch the news for a night and you know what I mean. But what if we were people who spread good news?! What if the channel was turned to positive in our minds when everything around us wants us to be negative?

Wouldn’t it be amazing to walk down the street and see people full of joy and vibrancy? What holds us back from truly living a life full of joy and abundance? I love these questions because it helps us understand what the root problem is. We all go through really hard times, so what makes some people full of joy? They must be seeing something we don’t.

When Steve Jobs looked back at when he got fired from Apple he said, “It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.” What if we saw life this way? It can be a challenge for me at times, but this is something I am trying to apply daily.

Steve Jobs didn’t decide to give up but started two more companies and eventually was hired by Apple once again and became the CEO a year later. What is the lesson in Steve Job’s life? He could have given up and stopped creating things. But instead he decided to keep going. He was seeing the best instead of the worst!

Where have you felt like a failure in your life? What is weighing you down? How can you start to see the good in the midst of the hard circumstances you are in? What are some ways you can spread good news instead of bad in your life and in the lives of those around you?

We would love to hear your thoughts!

Have you ever felt pain that was too much to bear? Maybe you have had to walk through pain because your parents decided to get divorced. Has somebody in your family died tragically and suddenly, leaving you with endless tears? Or maybe you made a decision to drink too much the night before, leading to negative consequences you had to deal with the next day or even years later.

There are times in life when we enter into a season of pain. Sometimes we may bring it upon ourselves, other times pain sneaks up behind us without any warning signals, without our choosing. Think back to a time when this was true? Is this true now?

Can I be vulnerable for a moment? In this season of my life I have learned what it means to walk through pain instead of hide from it. I was set free from an anxiety disorder called OCD a couple years ago. I realized it was a healing that made me face my pain, not avoid it through the OCD rituals. Instead of running from my pain like I did for so many years, I was finally able to face my anxiety.

So there are times when I am in a social setting and will feel anxiety creep up. In those moments I choose not to run but breathe and rejoice. I choose to walk in joy and thankfulness instead of anxiety and fear. But believe me, it is not always easy. In fact, it is usually an intense battle internally. But then I make it through the pain and can be proud of myself for facing another giant. If we do not face our pain, we will be left in a continual cycle of defeat and frustration.

What is the pain you are facing today? What is one way that you can successfully walk through your pain, instead of hiding?

We would love to hear if this was encouraging for you in our comments below!