February, Month of Love

Welcome back warriors!! We are now into February, and this is known as the month of love!

Melissa here to open up this month’s topic with you.

“Love” is our topic this month. Let’s start with the definition of Love. Love is 1.) an intense feeling of deep affection, 2.) a great interest and pleasure in something, 3.) a person or thing that one loves, 4.) feel deep affection for (someone), and 5.) like or enjoy very much.

WOW!! There are a lot of things that define Love. The definition of love lists several very positive things and things that make a person feel good. Everyone on this earth wants to feel love sometime in their lives. I am not sure what person does not want to feel butterflies at some point. I know I did when I met Lawrence.

There is one person that loves you unconditionally, no matter what. That is God the Father. He loves us no matter what we have done or said. God loves us no matter how far away we stray from Him. Hard thing to imagine right?? We get told by those on this earth that we are too much and completely unlovable, but God says otherwise.

Love does not always bring on those positive feeling that the definition describes. I will talk about my experience with Love on here in a few weeks. It has not always been a positive one. The part that the definition of love does not cover is how much hurt and heartbreak love on this earth can cause. We are going to dive into that. We are also going to look into how PTSD can cast a big shadow over love and how it is given and received. Mental health can make it to where no matter how much you love a person, they just cannot see it.

So, I hope you will join us through the month of February as we dive into LOVE and all that can bring.

Thank you for joining us today. Please Like, Share, and give us a comment or two! It can really help us out!

Love you Warriors

Melissa (Relentless)

We Fight This Together.

Faith and Prayer Recap

Hello, Melissa here,

All through January we have talked about Faith and Prayer and the experiences that Lawrence and I have had with both of them. I believe everyone struggles with faith and prayer sometime in their lives. I can’t see how a person wouldn’t.

For me personally, the journey I have had with faith was hard. It took me a lot of time and digging into the Word to find the kind of faith I always wanted. Prayer on the other hand, was something that felt natural. I just believed that prayers for myself were not answered, only those for others. I had to see God really show up for me for those thoughts to change. God knew that though. There had to be a change in me mentally when it came to all the grief, sadness and anger I carried and there has been. As of today, I can proudly say that the mental change is still happening. I am still growing and healing. Growing my faith has changed my life. It has brought a peace and hope that I have never experienced before and because of that, my prayer life is better too.

Lawrence had a different walk than I did. He had faith until he felt like he had no way out with his PTSD. It was hard for him to see any kind of light at the end of the tunnel he was in. That caused him to lose faith. He also told you that his prayer life is not where he wants it to be. It is something he is working on. The more he grows his prayer life, the stronger his faith is becoming again.

One of the best quotes I have seen about faith and prayer is this, “Faith and Prayer are both invisible but they make impossible things possible.” That is the truth. Both of these are the things that will change your life if you let it. Another great quote is “Prayer is the key to Heaven but Faith unlocks the Door”. These two things can carry you though any situation. They bring hope even in the darkest places.

What do you have to lose?? If you are at rock bottom, try praying and having a little bit of faith to get you through!

Thank you for joining us today. Next week we will start our month of LOVE!! Please Like and Share out blog. Also come find us on Instagram and Facebook!

Love you Warriors,

Melissa (Relentless)

We Fight This Together!

Faith in the dark

Hey there Warriors, Watch Dog here.

As Melissa and I continue on with the topic of Faith and Prayer, it is my turn again to discuss how faith has affected me in dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

As I mentioned in my last post, Faith was a big part of my life when I was younger. I didn’t realize it was faith, because I wasn’t a Christian. I was just always able to see the bright side of things and I always just felt like things would be okay. I didn’t worry about, well anything really.

Then as a firefighter I was on some pretty bad calls, that I didn’t process through. I didn’t talk about the bad calls after either. I just put them away in the back of my mind and tried to forget. One call in particular was a 4-month-old male, non-responsive and not breathing. We were not able to save this child’s life, despite our best efforts. That is when I started to live in some darkness. I was hurting, angry, and scared. I mean Melissa and I had started trying to start a family, and what if we lose our child. I just saw how fragile life is. I tried to not show it and act like everything was normal, but it wasn’t.

Fast forward a few years and we started going to church, and I got saved. I found God and I started becoming a more positive person again. I started to understand that those feelings that things would be okay, was faith. Wow, I liked that, and wanted it again. I found faith again, but I lost it again. As I responded to more and more bad calls, I continued to put those memories in that little box in the back of my brain. I would put them in there and move on to the next one.

That worked for a while, until it didn’t. That box in the back of my brain got full, but I kept putting more and more in there. Until eventually that box busted open. That is when all those memories decided they had laid dormant for too long.

I hadn’t delt with any of the bad calls in all my years in the fire service. These memories melded together and over time they turned evil. That is when they took over and they started to consume me. I don’t really know how to explain it. It was little by little until I had just become a numb, negative and an awful person. I was mean, I drank a lot, I was selfish and just an all-around jerk. I thought I had to deal with all of this myself, because as a man I couldn’t ask for help. A real man doesn’t ask for help. (Wrong!) Even if I wanted to ask for help, I didn’t know what to ask or even who to ask.

After 15 years of dealing with PTSD, I had tried 10-12 different treatment plans and half a dozen different meds, none of which worked. Some made things worse. I was done! I had nightmares so bad that I was only getting around 2 hours of sleep a night for nearly 10 years. Now keep in mind, I’m just hair under 6 feet tall, 215-245 pounds, Military, Firefighter, Biker and I was afraid to go to sleep! Big tough guy right, scared to go to sleep. I would drink 6-8 shots before bed so I could have the courage to face my demons that I knew were coming to attack me when I closed my eyes.

After trying all the treatments the VA threw at me, I lost hope and had thoughts of leaving my family and briefly thought about suicide. Thankfully, I heard about a Biblically based PTSD treatment that is designed for Military and Emergency Responders through an organization called “Might Oaks Legacy Programs”. I decided to give it a shot. I applied and got accepted. That was one of the greatest decisions I have made in my life! They taught me so much there, including how to hold on to a sliver of faith. It doesn’t matter how dark, stormy, or scary life gets, or how hard those demons attack. I am able to weather their storms because once I realize it’s happening, I can take a breath, and rely on that sliver of faith I keep with me. That is when I and breath and start looking to see where that little light is at the end of the tunnel. Then I can start moving toward it. Sometimes I’m able to run towards it, while other times all I can do crawl. Still there are other times I can’t move, but because of my faith, I can depend on God. I can pray for God to help guide me. That is when He reminds me that I am not alone. He has placed people in my life to help me when I am at my weakest. Some of these people have been in my life for as long as I can remember, some have been here for a few years. Yet there are some who were only part of my life for a season, or just long enough to get me through that storm. Either way, I have faith and I trust God to be there for me when I can’t do it on my own.

2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” I have learned over the years, that I can do just that. I can walk through my life and know God is with me, even though I can’t see him. Just like it reads in James 1:3 “Knowing the testing of your faith produces patience”. God spoke to me, and He told me “I have allowed you to go through this for the past 15 years, because if I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have tried everything you’ve tried. You wouldn’t be here where you are right now. And you wouldn’t have the courage to get up and do what I am going to command you to do next.”

Relentless Warriors Legacy is what was next, and I thank God that He gave this to me. He gave me a new mission in life, and that is to use what I have been through, to reach others who are lost in the darkness that I lived in for so many years.

Thank you for taking the time to read our words. Melissa and I love you all.

WE FIGHT THIS TOGETHER!

Watch Dog out. Please leave any comments or questions and we will answer or respond as soon as we can.

Journey to Faith

Hey Warriors, It’s Meliss here.

We are still carrying on with the topic of Faith and Prayer. I hope you have enjoyed this series so far. I know it has really made me think long and hard about these two topics and what role they play in my life. Prayer is easy for me. I have always prayed but Faith, now that is a whole other story. It is a hard story with a lot of hurt along the way. I can say though, that there is joy at the end of that long hard story and that’s what matters. Let me tell you my story of faith and how prayer is just a small part of it.

I grew up in Catholic school and had parents that always went to mass, mainly on Saturday evenings. They tithed and walked through the motions. They both believed in God and that Jesus died for us. From there it got muddy. My mom always struggled to have faith and she did not believe in big things like miracles. To be fair, my mother and father went through a lot and that is why their faith was the way it was. We did not talk about prayer or faith much in our house and at school it was all just a ritual. Motions and words that were tradition and it never showed me a true relationship with God.

Fastforward to around 2005. Lawrence convinced me to go to a Pentecostal church. I was honestly mortified. It was just new and very different from a Catholic mass. Lawrence was very comfortable from the get-go. I was not. The head pastor there was Brother Gene. An amazing, wonderful man and loving pastor. This poor man answered ALL my question about God and the Bible. He gave me the time I needed. With him and the other wonderful people in that church, I took Jesus into my heart. I started to learn and grow my faith. We stayed at that church until Lawrence was sent to Korea and I moved to Ohio to be with family while Lawrence was gone for a year.

My next church taught me how to worship and love God. I still really struggled to have unwavering faith though. Now through all of this I prayed and prayed hard. In the blink of any eye, it did not seem to matter. One of my friends had cancer and at a young age, lost his life. I thought him and his wife would be together forever. Now he was gone and left behind a wife and two young kids. I started questioning everything. Did God exist, was he real? Did God just hate me? Did I do something wrong? I thought because things were wrong in my life and because my friend passed away, that God did not hear or just did not want to answer my prayers for myself.

From there I was lost. I wanted nothing to do with church or God for that matter. Some of the things that rocked my faith was church leadership, my mom passing away, my dad passing away, and losing our twins. My marriage was a mess, and I was so far down in depression that I could not see a way out. Prayers were hard. I was so broken. Finally, we moved to Kentucky and that is where God was, for me at least.

Lawrence and I were still in a really bad place. I was ready for divorce. Completely ready. Lawence started counseling. Now you might ask, “What does your husband’s counseling have to do with Faith and Prayer.” Well, his counselor was a Christian Counselor and wanted to work on repairing our marriage. So, after a switch in churches and going with Lawrence to counseling, I could finally see God and feel him moving. It was in counseling I found out I was dealing with PTSD too, not just Lawrence.

I was a “seeing is believing” kind of person. I could not wrap my mind around having blind, childlike faith. God knew he needed to think outside of the box to reach me. He gave me things like amazing women who taught me and guided me though the Word of God. They let me ask questions, cry, scream, get angry, and grieve. God was also healing my marriage. I would go up to the alter and pray for myself and others. Step by step, my faith was growing.

Our counselor told me to read the book ” The Shake” because of how I struggled with my faith and grief. This book changed my life, faith and relationship with God forever. In this book, God tells the lead character that when all we can see is our pain, that’s when we lose sight of God. That is what I had done. I lost sight of God, because of all my pain and grief. It is because of that, that I lost all my faith in God and what he was doing around me. I thought I was good to go but God knew otherwise.

Sunday May 29, 2021, while at church, God flipped my life upside down. This time for the better. At the altar, God put me on the floor and then took all the anger out of me. It was like nothing I had ever experience. I now know what it is like to love God with all my heart. He meets me where I am at all times and in the way I need it. God has blessed me over and over again. I am finally at the point where believing is seeing. I pray all the time. It is what gives me my hope. I have also found other ways to pray and praise, both have brought me closer to my Father.

Even now I still struggle with PTSD, and depression. My life with God is not perfect. Every time I feel my faith slip, I start praying for God to show up for me. To give me something I can hold onto. It can come in the form of a book, a person, or by being still and listening for God’s voice. I have seen God take away my anger and really help Lawrence with his PTSD. God is now part of my story and I have faith for days. I have been told that I am a prayer warrior and I try to pray about everything in my life.

I hope that reading a bit about my faith journey, it can help yours. Ask yourself a few questions. How is your faith? Do you wish you had more of it? Have you prayed for it? If you are not happy with your answers, then what is your plan to fix it? God is always there. He leaves the 99 for the 1. I could not get through my PTSD and depression without God and his amazing love!!

If you like this post, please LIKE it and subscribe to it. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Join Lawrence next week for more talk on Faith and Prayer.

Thank you so much for joining me,

Melissa (Relentless)

We Fight This Together

Can Faith and Prayer Affect PTSD?

Hey Warriors,

Watch Dog here. I really hope that you are all doing well. Melissa and I are very excited about this upcoming year and the plans that we have in place to move Relentless Warriors Legacy further and be able to reach more people. One of the steps we are taking is that we have picked topics to cover each month. That means every Monday you will have a post about that month’s topic. Melissa and I will trade off each week giving our perspective on the topic. We agreed that Faith and Prayer would be a great way to start out this new year.

I love these topics paired together because I believe that they go hand in hand. I’m excited to cover this topic because it can remind me how important they are. Faith AND Prayer are extremely important in navigating through this rough brain injury known as PTSD! I will discuss how prayer and faith has helped me with PTSD.

Faith was and still is, a wonderful thing in my life, even when I didn’t realize it was faith I had. Stay with me here for a second. I wasn’t a Christian as a child, I knew that churches were those buildings that had a “t” on top of them. Even though I didn’t know why, I still always had a feeling that life was going to be okay. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” There was a short period of time when I lost faith, all faith. I didn’t see any hope in my life. I couldn’t see any way through. My life was over in my mind because I couldn’t see any way to keep going. Melissa and our children didn’t give up on me, even though I was ready to give up on myself.

It was because of my family that I kept on fighting. Matthew 17:20 says, “I say to you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” This passage in the Bible has really spoken to me. I have figured out that this passage is true, sometimes that mountain will be moved one pebble at a time though. To me this is a perfect example of faith, because it truly takes faith to understand that God is doing what we need in our life at his pace, not ours. Just because we do not see it, does not mean He isn’t working in our lives. When I look back over the last 20 years there are more than one mountain that God has helped me move.

Prayer is another huge part of healing this awful brain injury known as PTSD. I have a horrible prayer life, (just being honest, I’m working on being more consistent). Psalms 34:17 says, “The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.” I have asked God “Why me” for 15 years without an answer. After I went through the Mighty Oaks Program, I asked God “Why did it take so long to find something to help?” That is when He answered me. Matthew 21:22 says, “And whatsoever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” I realized two things when God answered me. First, that I was asking the wrong question out of anger and desperation, not faith. Secondly, I was not ready for the answer until I had learned what I learned through the Mighty Oaks Programs. God gave me an answer to a question I thought he was never going to give me the answer to.

Through my PTSD journey I have had to face many demons, many giants, and I have been lost inside myself. I have a great support system in my wife and children, and with my church family, and most importantly in God Himself. The issue was I was so lost and so scared to ask for help, that I could not see the support around me. I was so scared, and thought I could do it on my own, and because of that I almost lost it all. I was so afraid of PTSD that I told Melissa to “take the boys and go, and we’ll get this over with now.” I thought it was a death sentence, thank God Melissa had faith in me when I didn’t. God let me know why I suffered so much for so long. He has a use for me, to reach you!

Lawrene “Watch Dog” McGuire

We’re Fighting This Together.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please leave comments or questions for Melissa, me or both of us.

Start the Year off with Faith and Prayer!

Hey Warriors! Melissa here!!

Happy 2023!! Yes, it has been a while, but we are back and ready to roll for the New Year. Lawrence (Watch Dog) and I have planned out the year with lots of interesting topics and how it applies to PTSD. I hope you all are ready for what God is giving us and that it will touch your heart and mind and create change and healing in your life!

We are starting off each month with a new topic. The first blog post of each month will give a clear definition of what we are talking about for the month and then each week Lawrence and I will tell you all how it applies to our lives and how it might apply to yours. We are diving deep into some amazing topics and sharing our lives with PTSD with you.

Our topic for January is FAITH and PRAYER. We feel like these can go hand in hand and are essential for managing PTSD. I hope you are ready for some hard truths and conversations cause here we go!!

The definition of FAITH is 1.) complete trust or confidence in someone or something and 2.) Strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.

Do you have that all-in kind of faith, or do you struggle with it? Do you believe that believing is seeing or seeing is believing? Hard questions, right? I have a few friends who have faith that is so strong, that it seems like they never waver. It is an amazing thing to see.

What does God have to say about Faith? Let’s take a look!

In 2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” and in 1 Corinthians 16:13 ESV “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” God wants us to be firm in our Faith. To have Faith even though we have not seen the signs and wonders that the Bible talks about.

Here is another question. Do you have faith in yourself or in others? Can you trust? That thought is a whole different ballgame. Faith in something you cannot see is one thing, but faith in those around you is different. People are human and can let you down. What about Faith in your relationships? Do you have those ride or die people in your life? I have a few but I am very selective about who I let in my circle. You see trust for me is complicated and having Faith period, has always been really hard for me. That’s a story for another day (actually in a few weeks from now I will be telling you about my experience with Faith and how it has gotten me where I am today). Faith is something that many struggle to grasp but it is a big part in moving forward if you have PTSD.

Something that can go hand in hand with Faith is Prayer. What exactly is prayer?? Prayer is a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God. It is an earnest hope or wish. Sounds comforting right?? When you pray though, you have to have faith your prayers are being heard. That does not mean they will be answered in a way you want them to.

Do you pray? What do you pray for? Do you have Faith that your Prayers are being heard? I love prayer and consider myself an intercessory prayer warrior! That is someone who prays hard for others. My struggle is praying for myself, but remember I also struggled with my faith too.

God has some interesting verses about Prayer. Here are just a few! Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (That is my favorite verse!) Mark 11:24 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” This verse talks about prayer and faith and they depend on each other. It truly is amazing how God gives us great verses to guide and help us with hard topics like Faith and Prayer

We want you to take an honest look at the questions we are asking. Take a good hard look at your Faith and your Prayer life, if you have one (no judgment here!! That’s not our job!). We just believe that when dealing with PTSD, faith and prayer are very important. So, this is where we want to start especially with the New Year. Why not build a great foundation to get us through the rest of the year.

Please join us next week when Lawrence will dive into his personal experience with faith and how his faith journey has affected his PTSD.

Please follow us on our other social media platforms!

Thank you

Melissa

Anger isn’t always Anger

Hello Warriors, Watch Dog here.

I used to be a very angry person and I still am at times. I didn’t know why because when I was younger, I was always in a good mood. I loved to laugh, joke, and just enjoy everything. I was always the one person who found the good in everything. I didn’t even have to try. It was just who I was.

I’m not sure when I let anger in or exactly what caused it. Heck, I don’t even know if it happened in the blink of an eye or if the anger took time to take me over. I do know that anger did take me over completely. It dug its claws in me and controlled me, for a lot of years.

If I’m being honest, anger still has a grip on me and comes out from time to time, even when I don’t want it to. Over the past few years, I have learned to take back control. (Not all of it, YET) I have learned one very important fact about anger. That fact is this, most of the time anger isn’t even anger. Are you confused yet?

I’ll try to explain. For many years I lived my life knowing 2 emotions, happy and angry (Well pissed off). I would switch from one of those emotions to the other in the blink of an eye. I was ready, willing, and able to take on one of those emotions. If that emotion was anger, I was also ready and willing to hurt someone too. Most of the time I did not have a good reason for that kind of anger. It was just all I knew, and I did not know how to control it.

I have done a lot of soul searching and self-reflection over the past 3 or 4 years. I figured out that most of the time I wasn’t even angry! (Confusing isn’t it) I had a Chaplin Friend introduce me to an Emptions Wheel. If you do not know what this is, look it up, download it, and print one out for you to keep on hand. I learned that in a lot of situations where I felt anger, I wasn’t even angry. It was some other emotion, but it would come out as anger. It was just an emotion I knew, so I used that instead of trying to understand what I was really feeling.

The truth is I used anger to cover other emotions that are not “acceptable” for men to feel. You know, because men aren’t allowed to have feelings or emotions! (Sarcasm) Some of these emotions that anger masked were Fear, Confusion, Feeling Alone, Lost, or even the Unknown. It was easier being angry or mad than it was to be scared.

Anger can have physical effects on your health, I experience headaches, high blood pressure, and trouble sleeping just to name a few. But anger does so much more also, it prevented me from experiencing Joy, Happiness, Comfort, Compassion and Peace. I was never able to be Calm or Confident (Tough one to admit) or know Love (for my-self and for others). I realize that I was not truly living.

Anger was my comfort zone. I would look for reasons to get angry. Sometimes it was just so I could feel comfortable and feel like I had control over something. It was fake comfort and didn’t make me feel good. It just made me look like a jerk and embarrassed my family.

Wow, I wish I knew then what I know what I know now. Learning how to label and identify my emotions has made all the difference. That’s where that Emotion Wheel comes in. I can look at all the emotions on it and then decide from there exactly which ones I am feeling. Communication has been key, but prior to knowing how to label different emotions it was impossible. Making sure that what I heard is what was actually said. I’ve realized that I don’t always have to be the tough guy. I can still be that guy if I need too, but I don’t have to be. It is because of these things that I can be the man that my wife and kids want to be around. It is a much better way to live!

Once I reached that point in my life when anger was all I could feel, I stayed there for a long time, a very long time. I lived in that state of anger for so long that I am still trying to get out of it. I do not want to be that person anymore. I want to be the man that my wife fell in love with. The man who has compassion for others. The man with a good heart and the most important thing is a man who follows God and doesn’t worry about my pride. It’s been about 4 years now, but I am becoming a better man day by day. I am becoming the dad that my children are happy with, and the husband that my wife always wanted. I am becoming the man that God created me to be.

I still have work to do to overcome the anger that took me over, but I’m better today than I was yesterday. Seeing my family happy and knowing that they stood by me is the motivation I need to keep working to better my-self. God is allowing me to reach other so I can’t give up. My family continues to support me, so I won’t quit. This has been extremely hard and continues to be hard, but it is worth the fight! I am finally truly living.

God Bless you all.

;IGY6

No One Fights Alone!

Watch Dog

We are Relentless Warriors Legacy

It has been a while since we have posted things on here so we thought it would be a great idea to reintroduce ourselves and tell you what Relentless Warriors Legacy (RWL) all is about.

My name is Lawrence McGuire, AKA Watch Dog. I have been in the Fire Emergency Service for 22+ years. I spent just under 14 years on Active Duty in the United States Air Force, and another 1.5 years in the Air National Guard. During that time, I deployed 3 times along with a 1-year remote tour. I medically retired out of the Military in 2016. I continue to work in the Fire Service as a Fire Inspector/Firefighter to this day. God has given me a chance to share my experiences to offer hope to others.

My name is Melissa McGuire, AKA Relentless. I run the social media side of RWL. My other jobs include being a wife and mom, doing all the social media for our church, learning to run sound for our services, and Direct Support Person.

Lawrence and I have been married for over 21 years and we have three boys. We started RWL a few years ago because of the battles we both have faced with PTSD, anxiety, and depression. PTSD has had serious effects on our marriage and our home. We have gone to counseling separately and together and really fought for ourselves and our marriage. Now God has put us in the position to help other marriages and individuals to thrive with PTSD instead of struggling and battling it.

Why the name Relentless Warriors Legacy? We did not take picking a name for our ministry lightly. After much thought, and a ton of thinking, and a lot of prayer, we decided on Relentless Warriors Legacy, or RWL for short.

Relentless means oppressively constant, incessant. Harsh or inflexible. To be Relentless is to push forward, never give up, and not stop until you reach the place you want to. Melissa chose this as her road name years ago because that is how she is in relationships and in other aspects of her life. When it comes to PTSD you have to be relentless in finding the things that will help you heal. You have to be willing to not stop until you are thriving with PTSD, and it is just something you have but not something you are.

Warrior means brave or experienced soldiers or fighters. Someone who is engaged in some kind of struggle or conflict. You have to be a warrior to fight PTSD. You have to be a warrior for yourself and your relationships. You have to be a warrior for your life. The fight with PTSD can be long and hard but worth it. There are ways to fight and win. PTSD is not the end all be all.

Legacy means a piece of one’s history left behind for the following generations to experience. If you are a parent, you want to leave a legacy for your children. What will that legacy look like? Are you happy with the answer to that question? I know when we were asked that question, we were not happy with the answer we gave so we decided to change the legacy we will leave.

Each of these words separately have good strong meanings, but when you put them together, they are words that can make you feel unstoppable. Relentless Warriors Legacy means that you are an incessant, never quitting warrior who is fighting a battle to make sure you can leave behind a positive history our following generations can be proud of and draw strength from.

We want people to know that they can fight PTSD and not give up until they are thriving. We added the S to warriors because we do not have to fight alone. We battle together and help each other.

All of us have something to fight for. Beit yourself, family, job, friends, anything at all. They are all worth fighting for.

This all is something we do with God’s help. God gave us the ministry for his glory, mercy, and healing. We would not be where we are today without God’s help.

Relentless Warriors Legacy is a Peer Lead, Biblically Based, PTSD Support Ministry. Its purpose is to help marriages and individuals who struggle with PTSD. We do this by sharing our own personal experiences with PTSD and offer what worked for us and other resources to help manage and heal PTSD.

Thank you for joining us and meeting us. Please join us each week for posts about different aspects of PTSD and the things we have been through. We are starting a series about ANGER to get things rolling. Check back next week to find out more.

Lawrence and Melissa McGuire

New Year, New Word

Hello Warriors!

Melissa here!!

I know it has been a while. We have had a busy life of hockey, archery, and the holidays. Then we all got sick. But of course, not all at once. Nope one at a time. So for the last month at least one person out of the five of us in our house has been sick. So, we are sorry for the long break, but we are back at it.

The last few years I have picked a word for that year. This word is what I strive for in all aspects of my life for the year. Some people put great thought into it, and some go with their gut instinct from the get go. The last two years I have gone with my gut instinct to pick my word.

In 2020, my word was Relentless. Fitting right!! 2020 was hell for a lot of people and really hard to get through. The same way for me but I wanted to be relentless for myself. Put the time in on myself. I worked on my mental health a lot and that part continued into 2021.

The word I chose for 2021 was Accomplished. What a great word to go for right!! I know a lot of people who really struggled through 2021, but I was not one of them for the most part. My struggle was different than others. It was a big year of growth for me in several areas of my life. 2021 brought on great healing mentally and emotionally in ways I could have never imagined. It all was truly amazing, and I can see the growth I have had coming into the new year with a difficult January. Lawrence and I accomplished a lot with RWL and are making big plans for the future. I started a YouTube channel for my craft blog and have put up several videos. Plus became a consultant for Lemongrass Spa and hit the bonus sales marks for my first 3 months. Those are all big accomplishments, and I am satisfied with how I pushed myself to reach my word for last year.

The biggest accomplishment though has been in my walk with God. He has showed up for me in ways I never thought possible. Bringing people in my life to help me grow closer to him. Learning what it’s like to have the relationship with him that I want. Truly seeing what is meant by blind, unwavering faith. Knowing that God is really walking with me in my day-to-day activities. God purged me of all the grief, self doute, worthlessness, and anger that I have felt for so long. He did not let me stay stagnant. For the first time in my life, I could feel my faith growing stronger and it made me want more!!

Well, that brings us to 2022!! It is currently February 4th and I have just recently decided on my word for this year. I had a hard time deciding on one. So, I turned to a few different websites to find one. Drum Roll Please!!!!! ACCEPT. My word this year is Accept. Accept that I cannot control things. Accept that things are going to happen and move forward even if I am terrified for them to happen. It is the perfect word for me because I have a son graduating from high school in just a few short months and I am really struggling with it all.

I know I am a control freak. My husband and kids call me Kim Jung-Un. You could say that it is in my personality. Combine that with the fear of losing those around me, sometimes the anxiety of it all is crippling. That is the whole point in concentrating on a word though, for the year. One that can really help me focus on an area that really needs some work.

I have seen the growth I have had the last two years and that makes me excited for the growth in a different area of my life this year.

Do you pick a word to work on each year? If so, what is it? Try to keep a journal of the progress you are making with your word through the year so you can see the work you have put in. Happy WORD hunting!!!

Melissa McGuire

Relentless

Relentless Warriors Legacy

Frustration

Hey Warriors,

Its Melissa. Have you ever had one of those weeks where you accomplish some really great things but they are over shadowed by all the crap that has been thrown at you. I am in one of those weeks. How do you deal with it? How do you find the joy even when it is really hard to see it?

This week Lawrence and I had a speaking engagement and it went great. I also put out my second YouTube video for my crafting channel. I did all the work myself and I was really proud of myself. It gave me a great since of accomplishment. It was all amazing.

Also this week one of our friends got Covid so two of our sons had to get tested. One of our boys tested positive. Its not that we are worried. We honestly feel like what symptoms he did have has passed and he is at the end of it. Here is where some of the frustration comes in. My oldest is missing his first official hockey game of his senior year. Its no ones fault. It just is what it is. All of this is also over Halloween and we have a little one who still trick or treats.

That was just one part of my day. The other thing that happened is that I have had a medical issue that I was praying for a solid answer and treatment plan which I didn’t really get either of. It is a double edged sword to be honest. I am grateful for all of my testing to come back normal but on the other hand I still know something is up with my body and now I am back at square one.

I will say I am not handling any of this stuff gracefully. I am angry, frustrated, sad, exhausted, and want to give up at the moment and just let life pass me by without me putting in any more effort. This is how I have felt for a few weeks. I have not had a lot of big breakthroughs and feel like I am just getting pushed backwards. Seems like lots of things just want to set me back. So what do I do?? How do I try to push past all these feelings??

Well first off tomorrow is a new day for something big to happen. I know that noting will happen if I don’t at least try. Some days this is a fake it till I make it kind of thing. All those feelings are still there but I have to make the choice to make it a better day. That choice is important. You chose the kind of day you will have. Now just because I chose to get up this morning and try to have a great day, does not mean that is the day I had. Today wore me down and my choice for a good day faded away quickly. I allowed all the crap to get to me. Now I feel worse than I did this morning because I feel bad for letting my day go the way it did. Its a crazy cycle.

The next thing I can do is put some self care in my day. I will go take a hot bath or go in my craft room. I can even read a book. Just something to relax me and finish out my day a bit better. Self care needs to be a priority in your life not just for when things are going wrong but also to make sure you do not get overwhelmed and burnt out.

Try to take a step back and see what things you can control. I know I can not control Covid. That one is completely out of my hands. I can somewhat control what I do about the medical issue. I am not willing to just suck it up and deal with it or have parts of my body removed. Going to a different doctor is something that is in my control. I also have full control over what I choose to do next. What I choose to do tomorrow. So I do have some control over things.

Everyone has bad days. Everyone gets frustrated. It is how you deal with it that matters. Like I said, right now I am not handling things gracefully. I am spending a lot of time wallowing in my self pity. I do have the choice to make tomorrow better. You have that choice too. It might not be easy but it will be worth it.

2 Corinthians 4:16 – For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

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Have a wonder weekend,

Melissa McGuire (Relentless)