Jamila Jackson Talks About Offering Hope to Women through "loved + blessed"

Jamila Jackson, the founder and Chief Encouragement Officer at loved + blessed. Jamila spent her life dreaming of being a wife and mother. After finally getting married, she became obsessed with the goal of motherhood - only to discover the painful truth of infertility.  After years of trying to conceive, Jamila realized that motherhood had become and idol- ad se had to give that up to God.

God instead birthed in her a passion to encourage Christian women who may be suffering in silence. From this, the loved + blessed community was born.

loved + blessed is part subscription box, part online community, part devotional. Women receive monthly packages that ae all theme based, with devotional, memory verses, and daily workbooks that give encouragement and hope. These women are all a part of a vibrant, online community where women supper each other, pray with each other, discuss the devotionals and more.

The contents of past boxes can be viewed here:

Q:  Thank you Jamila for your time. Tell us a little about yourself and how God helped you to create Loved+Blessed?

Thank you!  I appreciate the opportunity to share my story and encourage others that even when God's answer to your prayer is "no", He's got something special in store just for you.  I've always wanted to become a wife and mother.  God has blessed me to be married for over 13 years now, but have not been blessed with children.  When we got married, it never crossed my mind that we might have trouble conceiving, but after a few years of trying, we found ourselves facing infertility.  It was really hard on my husband and it was a huge shock and disappointment to find out that the problem was with me.  I was depressed and feeling hopeless and guilty that I couldn't give my husband a child.  I didn't know what else to do, so I started fasting and praying and that's when the idea of loved+blessed was born.

Q:  What is Loved+Blessed?

loved+blessed is all about encouragement.  It's a community and monthly subscription box for Christian women.

Q:  How do you become part of this community? 

There are lots of ways to connect with our community.  Ladies can join us online in our private group called Loved and Blessed Ladies on Facebook.  They'll find an amazing group of caring women who are so dedicated to encouraging and praying for each other.  They can also follow us on social media @lovedblessedbox and visit our website to sign up for our email list where they'll get encouragement delivered to their inbox.

Q: Tell us more about the subscription boxes?  What are these boxes about?  And how much do they cost?

A loved+blessed subscription is $19.99 per month and it includes the monthly box, monthly blog post, monthly downloadable workbook, access to the Facebook group where they can participate in live weekly discussions and access to our private members-only section of our website where we have a library of encouraging resources on various topics.  Typical subscription boxes are about discovering new products.  You get a box with a lot of cool items inside from different brands, so it's like getting a gift basket every month.  loved+blessed is different, it's more like getting a monthly care package from a friend to encourage you. 

Q:  What are some issues you address through these boxes? 

We've addressed issues like self-worth, contentment, faith, hope, waiting, patience, friendship, fear, beauty and so many other issues.  Our themes are usually challenges that every woman experiences, but they are not too broad to speak to specific situations.  For example our perseverance themed box spoke to women of different ages and backgrounds and was able to encourage them in their specific situation whether they were persevering in trying to reach a goal, holding on in their marriage, dealing with a challenge at work, looking for a job, graduating from college, battling health issues, etc.

Q: How do you come up with your monthly themes?

Each woman is unique but we also have so much in common and go through a lot of the same struggles, so many of our themes come out of me honestly examining the areas of my life where I struggle or where I see my friends needing encouragement. Most of the ideas actually come to mind during my prayer time.

Q: Can you give us examples of women who have had been helped by this ministry?

Absolutely! We've been shipping boxes of encouragement since 2014 and have received so many cards, emails and notes about how God's used them to make an impact on so many women's lives. We've been told stories of women who decided not to take their own life because one of our boxes arrived at just the right time to remind them that they were not forgotten or alone. Many women who are struggling through challenges that they just don't feel comfortable sharing with others have found that these boxes give them encouragement in the quiet of their homes and help them face each day, moving forward with hope. Because each box also includes an encouragement kit to help the women encourage someone else, we've also heard stories of how they've passed along one of the items from the box and brightened someone's day.

Q: Have you thought about starting a ministry to encourage the men?

Yes, we have actually started a box of encouragement for men called blessed+chosen. It isn't a subscription. Our goal is to create a collection of boxes for men to encourage them to walk in faith. We introduced our first box with the theme Courage last year and we hope to release a new theme in time for Christmas this year.

 

 

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