How You Can Enjoy Today in the Midst of Trials

RR: You’ve written a book titled Enjoy Today Own Tomorrow, and it came out right in the middle of a pandemic. I understand the last few months have been very difficult for you. Can you tell us a little bit about what you’ve experienced over the last couple of months?

Laine: To start with, it must have been a topic of great need. I was so blessed to be a bestselling author the second day that it released August 17th, and that shows you, people are suffering. COVID has brought a new layer of suffering. This book was written a year ago and developed in the fall of 2019 way before COVID. So isn’t God good to bring such a message of hope today?

That you can enjoy today and own tomorrow, no matter what you face personally. I did get COVID. I got very, very sick. My daughter was here on a sabbatical in quarantine from Santa Clarita, and she was on lockdown for months —we all were. We were very diligent. She has asthma and some pulmonary issues. So we knew COVID would be serious if she got it. And wouldn’t, you know, she’s at the age that we’re her friends are all getting married. And we finally got a little ease about four months into it to let her go to one final wedding.

11 of the 12 attendants got it. And it just so happened, we crossed paths long enough that I got it. So for weeks, I suffered COVID and really, truly I’m still a couple of months out and I’m still one of those that have some residuals from it. Also, my husband’s an entrepreneur, he’s in the oil and gas business. I mean, we’ve been affected by COVID deeply.

RR: In spite of all of the quarantine and all of your best efforts still you ended up very, very sick. Even though it would have not been anything we would have wanted, God knew what the world needed. Didn’t he?

Laine: Yes he did. And that, you know, that really built my faith, personally. Because when you’re facing so many trials, you often wonder. I mean, here was this message that he had me pen, and get out and here I was facing some challenges that were so difficult.

And then when you’re sick, nothing’s easy, is it?

When you’re coughing your lungs up. And literally in COVID, you drown in your own phlegm, your own mucus. So, I mean, literally I was a gasping for air some days for me to breathe. I crawled around in the house because the energy level truly is completely taken away. So the air in your lungs and the energy of life is truly just, I mean, truly just taken away. So the providence of God, was so apparent in this, because I just kept reminding myself, I’ve got to reconnect, realign, and reactivate myself.

Even at my sickest points. And again, we were dealing with this financially, we were dealing with this physically, we were dealing with this even environmentally. We were in the middle of a move from Florida to Alabama, planning a wedding for Labor Day. Just tremendous. Then my book releasing worldwide. My first traditionally published book. So it was quite a tsunami.

RR: In your book you put forth some principles and actionable steps, a philosophy of life. Things to do in every circumstance. And so you had an opportunity to actually put those into play under the worst of circumstances, like you said, a tsunami of certain circumstances. So would you tell us a little bit about exactly what those are?

Laine: Yes. When we’re in trouble, when we’re facing trials, tragedies, tests, and traumas that are just beyond ourselves. The first thing we normally want to do in our natural selves is run. Run away, run away and hide, run away from God. So the first part of the three R process is I urge, and I dare, you to run to God. I ask that you reconnect with Him and not run from Him.

Then that leads us into the second step.

Once we reconnect to God, and know who He is, and know that He’s good, and note that He has a providential plan and His plans are always good. Then I ask that you realign your heart and your mindset with His, and that means you go to God and you say I’m sick or I’m down, or I’m angry, or I’m struggling. You lay that down at His feet and you just pour out your heart, your brokenness, and you’ll allow Him to pick it up and to begin to mend.

So we’ve reconnected and we’ve realigned. And then you reactivate your life.

And what I mean by that is there’s a power within us. And it’s the Holy spirit. And sometimes we have to stir that up. I know personally when I was facing the deepest, darkest hours, I would have to stir it hard and say, God, I can’t do this. And He would reply back, “That’s right. That’s why I left my power within you.” So the challenge in the third R is to stir up that power, recognize that power, and then call upon it in a practical way. Use that supernatural power inside of you to offer that forgiveness so that you can get freedom and move forward so you can enjoy today and own tomorrow.

And truly, I think the most important thing about the book and the reason it’s done so well is that, He is still healing hurts. He is still moving mountains. And I think this message of hope can touch anyone today.

RR: It’s very timely. A lot of people are having a hard time even recognizing what tomorrow is going to look like. There’s a lot of fear going on about tomorrow. You had talked a lot about what you’re doing in the now, to realign, and reconnect. But what about the owning tomorrow part?

Laine: Well, that’s just the hope, you know, once you reconnect and realign and reactivate your life, then you have hope. Many times in my own life, particularly in that dark hours, sick, and moving, and planning a wedding, and releasing a book. I had to reconnect realign and reactivate all day long. This isn’t a drive through, get out order of French fries and eat them. This is something that is a process. It’s a lifestyle. I really do offer it as a lifestyle because life’s going to happen. Life is full of hurts and that’s why Jesus came. And that’s why this message continues to challenge us and dare us to reconnect.

Don’t run away. Realign our hearts and our mindsets. Don’t give up, don’t stay broken, go to him. And then reactivate it with this power that lives within us, because it’s not natural. And that’s what I’m telling you today. It is not natural to enjoy today and own tomorrow when you’re facing so much fear, uncertainty, discouragement, depression. So it’s a process. I’m getting daily testimonies of how people are finding a sense of wholeness and hope that tomorrow will also bring goodness and healing.

RR: What would you like for your readers to know? Is there one thing that you really want to leave them with one special thought that you feel like they need to take away?

Laine:  I was the skeptic. I was the skeptic 13 years ago. And what I mean by that, is I was a religious woman. I went to church and I taught Bible studies. I was a praise team leader. I did the right things, but my life was a mess. I had fallen in sin discouragement. I kept going to church knowing God didn’t work in my life. I couldn’t live a lie anymore. So I was a skeptic.

I dared God to show up. And he did.

From that point on not only has he shown up for me many, many times in dark hours and delivered me, and rescued me, and made a better plan than I could see. He’s brought me into relationships with many other people that were also skeptics, or broken, or shattered. And He showed up.

If you are challenged today and you are wondering if there is this God, and that there is a God, why is He allowing this? I dare you to be like me and many others and just draw close to Him.

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