Until Today! - Hardcover

Vanzant, Iyanla

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743216989 ISBN 13: 9780743216982

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2000

Synopsis

Beloved:

If there are situations, circumstances, or perhaps relationships in your life that you have been struggling to overcome, trying to work through, or doing your best to work around, throw your head back and declare to the universe, "Until Today!"

If you believe that life has to be hard, that things will probably never get better for you, that you must expect less or accept less because that is just the way life is, raise your hands and shout into the ether, "Until Today!"

If you have been hurt, betrayed, abandoned, or rejected, if you are struggling with feelings of anger, resentment, doubt, or fear, put your hands on your heart and gently whisper to yourself, "Until Today!"

My friend and colleague Dr. Therman Evans once told me, "If you behaved yourself into a situation, you must behave yourself out of it!" A devotion is a behavior in service to love, truth, and God that will create powerful changes in the circumstances of your life that have held you down and back until today!

Whatever has been going on in your mind, your life, or your heart can stop -- right now, if that is truly what you desire. However, you must be willing to "do a new thing." You must spend a little time, each day, in devotion to the truth about yourself and the truth about life. You must make a conscious approach to what you think and how you feel about what you do. Devotion will clear up misconceptions that may have obscured your vision of life until today!

A devotion is a divine action. Its profound dedication demonstrates the desire to be in service to God. Since it is God's desire for you to be happy, any time spent in devotion will be beneficial. Your devotion, as a demonstration of your willingness to embrace new concepts and to undertake behaviors that support those concepts, will ultimately result in your happiness. When you are actively, willingly devoted to seeking a "good thing," the Divine Intelligence of life will guide, support, and reward you.

I am excited! It is exciting to be alive in a time when people are actively, willingly, and devotedly seeking ways to be of greater service and create more love in our collective experience.

I can hardly wait to see the good, the joy, and the peace that we can create. I am so grateful to be in support of and of service to you as you undertake this journey. Because I know that "where two or more are gathered" the Spirit of good is present, I believe that the things upon which we focus our hearts and minds will reap bountiful results. So, here's to your personal strength and your peace of mind, through the elimination of all things that hindered or denied our collective power and greatness -- Until Today!

Be Blessed!

Iyanla

About this title

Review:

This book of 365 daily devotionals supports the time-honored adage, "Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today?" The charismatic spiritual leader Iyanla Vanzant knows how easy it is to stay stuck in "old sentiments, resentments, beliefs, decisions, agreements, judgments, and ideas that may have become habitual." Through these devotions Vanzant hopes to show readers that the easiest way to create change is to simply shift your attitude--today. "We often work so hard to get the things we want that we miss the fact that it is the landscape of the inner world that stands between us and true happiness."

In the closing paragraph of each one-page devotional Vanzant names an old way of thinking and offers readers a new attitude to try on "just for today." For example, Vanzant writes, "Until today, you may have believed that you had to stay in the painful hole of hurt caused by the loss of a loved one. Just for today, make a conscious effort and choice to cover the hole and move on." Some might consider these devotions a fancy term for affirmations. Vanzant scoffs at the notion. Time spent in devotion is not a "New Age trick through which you can impose your will on God, the universe, or those around you," she writes. "Devotion is the reverent, personal act of surrendering your will to the Divine will." --Gail Hudson

About the Author:

With more than 8 million books in print, Iyanla Vanzant has truly established a dedicated fan base.

Iyanla's path to success took her through a multitude of life-changing experiences that shaped the profound insights she eagerly shares with others. A neglected, overweight, sexually abused child who was shuttled from one family to another, she became a teenage mother on welfare living in the projects of a major urban city. Vanzant took control of her life when she walked out of her second abusive marriage and entered Medgar Evers College in New York and then the City University of New York Law School. She moved to Philadelphia with her children and became a public defender for three years. Then she eventually became an ordained minister, who was committed to a message based on the principles of divine power and self-determination.

Iyanla combined her professional skills with her life's lessons and embarked on a writing and speaking career. Her mass appeal is evident in her overwhelming success as an author. In the Meantime was a #1 New York Times bestseller, where it spent 20 weeks on the list, and she has had numerous other major bestsellers. As a nationally recognized speaker she has sold out such prestigious venues as New York's Jacob Javits Convention Center, Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, Atlanta's Civic Center, and the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. Vanzant is also familiar to the daytime TV audience from her role as a regular contributor on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Acclaimed journalist and producer Barbara Walters recognized Vanzant's extraordinary appeal, seeing in her a "breakaway talent" with the potential for huge success in daytime television. With Walters and partner Bill Geddie on board to executive produce, Buena Vista Productions to develop the show, and Buena Vista Television as distributor, the road to Iyanla was forged.

Vanzant has received numerous accolades for her work. In 1992 Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley named October 21st "Tapping the Power Within Day" in honor of a workshop she presented in that city for African-American women. In 1994, the National Association of Equal Opportunity in Education, an organization comprised of the presidents and administrators of the 117 predominantly Black colleges in the United States named her Alumni of the Year. She also was awarded an "Oni" by the International Congress of Black Women as one of the nation's unsung heroes, and she served as the national spokesperson for Literacy Volunteers of America in 1998.

In 1999 she was listed among the 100 Most Influential African-Americans by Ebony magazine. Later that year, she was awarded the 31st NAACP Image Award for "Outstanding Literary Work, Non-Fiction" for Yesterday I Cried. She also earned her first Honorary Doctorate degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, from the City University of New York, Medgar Evars College. In 2000, she earned her second honorary degree, Doctor of Divinity, from the Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition, Ebony has named her one of their "55 Most Intriguing People," Vibe magazine tabbed her one of "100 Leaders of the New Millennium" and Newsweek recently included her as one of the "Women of the New Century."

The mother of three and grandmother of four, Vanzant lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with her husband Adeyemi and Mr. Coco, their cat.

To learn how Iyanla can help you get started on your journey toward spiritual enlightenment, visit Inner Visions Worldwide, Inc., at

www.innervisionsworldwide.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0743216989
• ISBN 13: 9780743216982
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 432