Posts filed under 'Spiritual Walk'
It seems that it is easier for people born into a family of wealth and means. There is a limitless supply of money and connections to help them achieve their purposes in life. Things just always are going their way.
This is YOU!
As a child of God, you are born into the greatest family in the history of the world. Your Father has everything (literally). The entire world is in the palm of His hand.
The problem for most of us is that we feel more like the wicked step children than the blessed children of God. It is time that you stepped up and claimed your inheritance.
1. Meet your Father. Everyday take time to talk with your Father AND to listen to what He has to say.
2. Engross yourself in the word and will of your Father. He has already written out how you can receive all of His blessings (and even what those blessings are -
Deuteronomy 28:1-14) so dig in and find out about your true inheritance.
3. Step out in obedience. Do what your Father says and do it when your Father says to do it. Partially obedience is full disobedience.
4. Believe in the blessings of your Father. For most people, if their earthly father came to them with a promise they would expect it. The same is more profoundly true for your spiritual Father. Look for the fulfillment of His promises.
5. Hold on to faith and joy. Refuse to allow circumstances to override the promises. Hold on to what you have learned from a personal relationship with your Father.
Take your place as a true child of God and you will find that your success truly is guaranteed.
May 3rd, 2008
A sure sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different. Every person that is alive today tends to be insane in some area of life. Work is the same, speck is the same, attitude is the same, eating is the same and yet there is an expectation of change.
I was there. I wanted change and even knew how to get change, but I was willing to change my way of doing things to get there. After all, did it REALLY matter all that much? If you truly want change in your life – from what ever or to where ever – there are some things that you must do.
1. If you want change in your life then you have to choose to change. It may be something small (like keeping negative words out of your mouth) or something big (like trading sodas for water) or something unexpected (like getting up at 4 am every morning). There is something that you know you need to be doing (or not doing) and you just haven’t been willing to go there. If you truly desire change then you MUST go there.
2. Breaking a bad habit means replacing it with a good one. I had the habit of eating in front of the television (especially when the kids would eat at Grandpa’s). By fixing meals and planning for the family (whether they show up or not) I am more consistent about eating at the table. It also helps if I turn OFF the television!
3. Change comes when you decide change will come. Think positively about your situation. If you have lost your job (or left unexpectedly) use the time to create the working environment that you have always desired. Thinking positively only requires that you find one good thing from the situation you are in at present.
4. Be excited. I worked for a man who made up repeat – with enthusiasm – “I feel healthy, I feel happy, I feel terrific” over and over again every day before we started work. If you fake the enthusiasm, you are likely to find that you stumble into the enthusiasm rather quickly. Do what you need to do with joy and excitement.
5. Make a plan, but follow through. You can lay out all the perfect schemes or ideas, but if you don’t take the first step then change will never find its way to your door step.
Change may not seem easy, but it sure is simple. You simply have to want to change, be willing to choose to change, and then step out towards change in order to make a difference in your life.
April 10th, 2008
Every morning our whole family puts on the Whole Armor of God. Even the two year old is learning the process (although he always wants to skip to the boots of the gospel of peace). We go through the process of pretending to physically put on the spiritual armor usually at the breakfast table (first thing in the morning most mornings).
I thought that was enough, until yesterday. It was only after a straining serious of events that my husband faced and the resulting attitudes and actions that spilled over on the rest of the family that I realized we were missing a vital piece of the Armor – one you have to find BETWEEN the lines of scripture.
Never leave the house if you aren’t covered with positivism. Positivism is like the oil poured of Jason to keep him from being burned by the bull (Jason and the Argonauts). Facing the world with a positive mind force will keep you from being burned by the circumstances that you are bound to encounter.
Positivism is the ability to look at a situation and find the one positive that you can hold on to. For many people, the fact that I was stuck on dialup while trying to earn a living online might seem like a negative, but I would NEVER have learned to balance my time as well otherwise. There is always a positive to what ever situation you might face. The key is finding it – no matter how small – and repeating it over and over again until it takes hold in your heart.
The Armor of God has saved my family on several occasions. I know that it is important that we make that early connection with God each morning – as a family and as individuals. Now I just have to help them find their own positivism and be sure that they leave the house fully coated every day.
April 8th, 2008
There are a lot of theories about how to be a good wife. Some are distorted interpretations of one religions doctrine or another. Some are tradition handed down for generations without any rhyme or reason (or for reasons that have long been forgotten). The best way to be a good wife is to be a good you.
1. Stop right now trying to change him. There is only one person you can change in the relationship and that is YOU. Work on making you the best you that you can be. Keep it “on the down-low.” You’re change should be obvious because of what he sees, hears and feels not because you show him how you are trying to change. A good wife does not nag (in the end it is just a waste of breath anyway).
2. Focus on you – when it comes to change. Being a good wife means that you have to work hard to correct negative patterns and habits in YOUR life (I was EXTREMELY sarcastic when I first got married – often to the point of hurting others. I have had to learn that words do hurt).
3. Focus on him – when it comes to needs and wants. If you will put others first (but not to the detriment of your health) with a joyful heart then you will see a drastic change in the world around you. Sometimes being a good wife means sacrificing a little of you for him (and them when children come along).
4. Support his dreams. If he wants to quit working a “real” job and start his own business then sit down and work out a plan with him that will give him that opportunity. He needs your support to be truly successful. There is a balance for a good wife between supporting dreams and discouraging foolishness and you have to learn to find that balance and approach the situation with tact. But every dream deserves a chance to live.
5. Speak positive things over his life. Every wife gets frustrated at times and that is understandable, but 99% of what you say about (and around) your husband should be good, positive and uplifting.
6. Being a wife is a job – think of it in that terms. Work hard to do what is expected of you in the relationship. Ask your husband to write down what he expects. You write down what you expect. Work out a list that you can both be happy about from day to day. Remember that everyone comes into marriage with different expectations and part of being a good wife is blending those expectations so that the two can become one.
7. A good wife will create a zone of safety and comfort in the home. Make it a noise free zone when the hubby first gets in. Have a project or activity set up for the kids so that they can get out of the house (or off to another room) after greeting dad.
8. Take pride in what you are doing. Being a good wife if one of the most valuable things a married woman can do. Stop making excuses for why things aren’t the way you want and start working right now to get them that way.
9. Find the joy in being a good wife. There are positive things to say about every job. Find your silver linings and focus on those when things get tough, mundane, or just tiring.
10. Value yourself – no matter what others might say or do. Remember that being a good wife will help you create a foundation for your marriage, your children’s future and your own well being. Forget the experts or the politically correct and look to your own heart to determine what being a good wife is all about.
Being a good wife is a growing process. It is not something that you fall into just because you say “I do.” Each day, each situation and each time you turn around you will find that being a good wife requires flexibility, compromise and change. Take the challenge and make your family’s future one that will keep you smiling.
April 4th, 2008
There was a report on the news recently that positive people live longer and are better at overcoming heart disease. Experts have their theories about why this is likely. It has a lot to do with the physical. Although I fully believe that positive people will be in better physical shape, I think it all comes back to the heart – and the spiritual aspects of life.
1. Positive people are less stressed. If you don’t worry about things and you let problems roll off you like water on a duck’s back then you are going to live your life much more relaxed than the people around you.
2. Positive people have more fun and laugh more. Laughing has been proven to extend your life and if you aren’t worried about every little thing you will find it easier to laugh at more that goes on around you.
3. Positive people want to live because they enjoy life. The more you desire something, the easier it is to get your mind and body to go along. If you are enjoying life then you have no reason to leave.
4. Positive people are surrounded by positive people. There is some truth to the saying that “birds of a feather flock together.” Negative people tend to shy away from the positive leaving the positive people all together to lift up and encourage one another.
5. Positive people attract others. Most individuals want to be supported and encouraged and being around positive people reminds them how good life is. Having friends and family give positive people strength, support and plenty of joy.
Being positive is not just good for the way that you live but it is not proven that a positive attitude will actually help you live longer. Starting looking for the silver lining and see how far that takes you.
March 14th, 2008
There are aliens all around me. They suck the living joy right out of me before I even recognize them. Sometimes they are disguised as a clerk, or a stranger, but mostly they come in the form of my husband.
Last weekend I had my latest encounter. The little creature suctioned itself to my forehead – its tentacles sprawled all around - as soon as husband started his complaints. With each breath my husband took, the alien sucked out a little more joy. With each ounce of joy that slipped from my mind, my energy seemed to go from my body. With in minutes, I was being pulled down by the shear weight of the thing. It wasn’t so little anymore. Head in hands, I contemplated my fate. I knew the end was near.
Okay, maybe the creature wasn’t real. The feelings were real, though. With each complaint, I felt my energy seep from my body. I quickly went from being happy about life in general and simply enjoying the day to needing a nap. What on earth had happened to me?
Thinking back on the situation, I kept returning to the scripture “the joy of the Lord is my strength.” Every time I had thought of strength, I pictured a muscled bound guy lifting heavy weights or the big muscle man at the circus. There had to be more.
Pulling out my trusted concordance, I searched for the true meaning of strength. According to Strong’s it is a fortified place or a rock. This definition is a far cry from Webster’s definition that strength is the power of body, mind, position, etc. (and far from the muscle man pictured in my head)
“The joy of the Lord is my strength.” It is the solid place I make my stand. It is the beginning. I needed to think on that for a while.
What exactly is the joy of the Lord? For me it is the confidence that He died so that I could live. It is the knowledge that He cared so much that He preferred to suffer instead of allowing me to suffer. It is also the understanding of the kind of life that He wants me to live – an abundant life of joy overflowing. I picture Him pouring waves of smiles over my head. (I have a vivid imagination.)
It is with these understandings that I can build up my positions and fortify my walls so that they can stand against the storm. Understanding and Knowledge are my ability to survive and to make it through. This is a concept I have know, so how or why had I let this little alien, this insignificant creature just suck away my very ability to stand?
It didn’t take much thought to pinpoint the moment of invasion. It happened right at the time that my husband started his barrage of negative comments. “We don’t have . . .” “We aren’t . . .” “We’ll never . . .” But how had it happened? I began to understand that spending time with someone who is focused on the negative is like having a balloon with a pin sized hole. Before you know it, the whole thing is flat and you never even noticed there was a leak. I had sprung a leak.
With this new wisdom, I determined not to fall victim again. Negativity (the new name for my little alien creature) has the power to rule my very thoughts if he gets just a leg in (or a tentacle). I wasn’t letting him back in.
People have the right to complain, just not around me. It takes far more energy to complain than to enjoy what you have, which is probably why the complainer sucks the energy out of everyone around. (It also takes more muscles to frown than to smile, but that is for another day)
Being positive or learning to find the silver lining is a gift or an art or a challenge, depending on how you look at it. “What ever is true, honest, right, pure, lovely, or of good repute – think on these things.” If my mind is full of God, then Negativity has no place to attach. Without negativity, I keep my joy. I keep my strength. I win.
March 4th, 2008
Gluttony is a curse, a disease, a hindrance against all the blessings in my life. Weight has been the giant in my life since I was a young teenager. Yesterday, as I was sitting around inside squandering the amazing day, it dawned on me that gluttony is blocking my path to true freedom.
The sad part is that gluttony is like the elephant in the room that everyone sees, but no one wants to discuss. If I had spent the day on the couch because of drugs or alcohol then someone close to me would have likely called for an intervention. But it is politically incorrect (not to mention insensitive) to point out a relationship with gluttony.
This morning I woke up determined to claim my freedom. I understand that gluttony is stealing my time, my energy and so very many blessings bound for me and my family. It will not happen anymore. From this moment on I am treating the bondage of gluttony like I would any other curse. Starting right now, I am breaking free – for myself and for all those who I encounter.
1. No more treating food like a god. I will not worship it by eating alone, hording “special” foods or worrying about my next meal.
2. There will be no eating apart from the place designed to eat. That means if I’m not sitting down at the table, allowing my mind and body to experience the food and communicate satisfaction (instead of cramming something in while watching a movie or working on the computer) then I just won’t eat.
3. Being hungry will not kill me. I will allow my body to get to the place of hungry by not eating until I feel an actual grow or rumbling in my stomach (not my bellybutton, but just under my chest).
4. Everything in moderation. Instead of trying to cut out the “bad” foods, I will trust that everything God created is good and I will only eat a small portion (about ½ to ¼ of what I have been eating).
5. Gluttony is a sin, and I confess my sin to God and to any one who has been looking to me for guidance or inspiration (and in whose path I have been a stumbling block).
If I look at my life through the eyes of reality instead of sugar-coating my actions with political correctness and “sensitivity” then I can finally push myself to be what I want to be.
March 2nd, 2008
I am not like other people. My husband will tell you that I don’t live in the same neighborhood as other people – and I’m okay with that. Unique is the label that I prefer (but I also stand proudly under the standard of strange, unusual, peculiar and different).
My uncle must get some credit for my ability to walk to a different beat. He was definitely different – just ask anyone in town! The stories that I have heard (and had the misfortune of experiencing first hand) could fill volumes of books – and will once I sit down and write it out. But his “creative” behaviors are not what get him credit for my uniqueness. It is the fact that he continuously pushed me to question everyone and everything.
Looking back, I suspect that what he was trying to do was not quite what I received. And that’s okay. I took away from our talks the need to be the defender of the “little man.” The underdogs became my battle cry. I embraced the outcasts. Not exactly popular actions in small town Alabama.
The other night I was washing dishes (and apparently even my muse dance to a different beat, this night it was the beat of dishwater) and it dawned on me that God has been training me to be around others. He has been molding me to be their glue – to pull and hold them together.
“Fine,” I mumbled to the dishes. Everyone else was already in bed. I was still up because I had committed to myself to do just one more thing before bed. Cleaning out the sink was it for tonight. “When is it my turn to have someone to pull me together?”
I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU.
The words weren’t audible, but they felt audible. I remembered all the times while I was growing up when I would lay in my room and just talk to God, or walk down along the lake and talk to God. I began to understand that God is my glue! He is lifting me up. He is pulling me together. He is the one I depend on, not people.
I am getting back to my unique walk, with God as my glue. I’m taking time to talk to him, sometimes without even an awareness of where I am. When I thank Him for a blessing, out loud, in public, I know people look at me rather sideways. When I don’t cry at funerals but rejoice in what is to come, I know what they are thinking. When I dance in the grocery store and sing from the joy that is overwhelming ever aspect of my being, I feel their stares. When I choose to the right thing instead of the easy thing, I can hear their whispers.
“She’s not normal.” “She’s not like other people.” “What is up with her?”
It’s all good. I’m not like other people. I don’t want to be like others. I was created with a purpose – I am unique – and I am called to be peculiar. I will take a cue from my crazy uncle, and continue to dance on roof tops, swing from chandeliers, or at least stand proud in the knowledge that doing what I know to do might make me stand out in the crowd, but it will bring me to my rightful place as God’s heir.
February 15th, 2008
My mom needed a ride to the doctor’s office, but I needed to get some work done. It was easier to just pack up some of my work and take it with me than to try and create a different way to get her to the doctor. When I walked into the doctor’s office, I was greeted by the smile of a friend I hadn’t seen in two years. It was a pure joy to visit with her and it was the reason I needed to take my mother on that day.
The other morning the kids all woke up early and they all had to spend time with me before I left for my meeting. All the distractions got me out the door later than I had planned. Two miles from our home I came across a serious wreck. If I had been on MY schedule then I would have be in the wreck instead of just driving by it. There was a reason I needed to be with my kids that morning for that time.
Not too long ago I was stuck in the doctor’s office waiting room. Surprisingly, the office was running way behind. By being on time for my appointment, I had an hour to pass before going back. I struck up a conversation with the lady sitting next to me. We shared stories that were filled with humor and uplifting ends. A few months after our visit, I passed her in the grocery story. She stopped me to explain how that time together had given her the motivation to push on through the bitter times she had been experiencing. There was a reason I was at THAT doctor in THAT chair and they were running behind.
There is a purpose for every moment of my life. There are times when I need to be lifted or helped and there are other times when I am there to do the lifting. Sometimes I see the reason and try to ignore it. Sometimes I just miss what is in front of my face. But there are those times that I see and embrace and even understand why I am where I am. There is always a reason.
February 14th, 2008
Weight has always been an issue in my life and in my home growing up. Today it is one of the first subjects discussed even though we only see each other about once a year. What diet or program we might currently be on and what we are eating or not eating.
After the birth of my second child I tried everything I could think of to lose weight. I bought (and actually did) a small library of exercise videos. I cut my fat and calories. Nothing happened. Then I found a Christian Program that helped me view food in a whole new light. I quit dieting and quit weighing and the weight seemed to pour off.
My last pregnancy brought the weight back in spades! Now it’s a fight between doing what I know to do and doing what I’m going to do – which seems to be a recurring theme through out much of my life.
My issue is not with calories or fat grams. My issue is with the heart. It has idolized food over all other things. It would treasure the times alone with food (when the family would be someone where else and it could eat the meal with no one to disturb it). It didn’t want to share food with any one for any reason.
I have started retraining my heart to love what is right above the food. I am breaking the habit of selfishness by making moments to share with others, by making food a time together so that the people become more important than the food.
Like any bad habit that we form over many years, breaking the food habit is not easy or over night. Every morning I am declaring out loud (and with enthusiasm) that the weight is gone and the habit broken. I am following up the words with regular exercise and by giving away eating alone.
With a positive attitude, the right mind set, and action, you can have, be or do what ever you desire!
February 4th, 2008
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