Smelling The Roses

 

Maybe you've heard it said that there are two types of women in the world: the "Martha's" and the "Mary's".  (Luke chapter 10: 38-41) Mary seems to be a free spirit and shall I say, people focused.  Martha is focused on the task at hand.  I'm definitely a "Martha".  My life is made up of a continuous list of to-dos (either written down or stuffed in my brain in an unorganized form of chaos).  There is always something to do.  

Don't get me wrong.  I'm most definitely not a "type A" personality.  I'm not a go getter.  I'm not a task master (although my child might disagree sometimes).  I don't thrive on 5 hours of sleep just so I can put together a 20 page scrapbook of my daughter's piano recital that lasted all of 1 minute or to prepare homemade frozen meals for an entire week.  Believe it or not - there are people out there like that (you may even be one of them).  But it's not me. 

I'm the kind of person that seems to always find the importance (or over-importance) in the most menial of tasks.  I create a list and can't truly relax until the list is complete.  Problem is - the list has a hard time getting completed because I keep adding to it.

Sometimes I look back at my life and realize that I've missed out on some of the enjoyment of it simply because I was focused on the "responsibility" of it.  Let's face it - girls just want to have fun.  So does it sound silly to add something fun to my to-do lists?  Maybe I'm the type of girl who just needs to give myself permission to prop my feet up, to take my daughter to a movie, to go on a date with my husband or to eat chocolate for dinner (okay I already do that sometimes).  

We're only here on this earth for a blink of an eye.  It's important to soak up the special moments and treasure them.  In fact, I'm pretty sure there will be more special moments if I actually stop to notice them.  I recently read a book that was heavy on eye-opening insights.  If I had read the book straight through without stopping to chew on what I read, I would have missed 90% of the message.  

Life is like that.  If we don't take moments here and there to absorb what's happening in and around us, it will simply pass us by unnoticed.  This year on my to-do list, I'm going to try my best to stop, smell some roses, and smile as I take in the blessings around me.  I hope you can do the same.

Sunday Blogvotional: Find Peace in an Overloaded Life

Do you feel overworked? Is each day a battle to accomplish left over duties and all of today’s “must do‘s“? Do some days feel like a rat race and the rat’s ahead.

This is not what God planned for us. We are created in his image. Can you see him running around like that? Peace. Just saying the word can make us feel better. It brings forth an image of serenity and tranquility like a lazy afternoon on the beach.

Peace is what the world needs more than anything else. What if we took a good look at our duties and made a list at the beginning of each week of what we must do and what we truthfully can eliminate. And then add in some fun things, the kind of things that make life enjoyable again. When you see it in black and white suddenly life isn’t so daunting anymore and needed peace can be restored to that area of our life.

Seek peace and pursue it.  Psalm 34:14b

Encouragement for the week: This is a busy time of the year and it's easy to get so lost in all the to-do's that you don't even enjoy the season.  Decide what has to be done, then eliminate a few things that don't.  Take time for yourself and your family to enjoy the season.  Usually the best times together are those where nothing much is planned.  Simple togetherness is peaceful.  

This week's blogvotional was submitted my Mumsy (my mom).

The Problem With "What if"

The other day I was praying about a situation and realized I'd been holding on to some "worry poison" as I like to call it.  Yep, I drank the poison which found a cozy little spot in my body to call home gradually oozing out its nastiness over time.  I know it doesn't make for a pretty picture but sometimes the truth isn't pretty.  Worry is poison and it does damage to, not only your spirit, but your body as well.

The particular worry poison I took this time came in the form of a "What if?" pill.  There I was again worrying about the future.  You've been there too, haven't you?  "What if this happens?"  What if I make a mistake?"

The logical person inside of me says: "Duh! It's dumb to worry about things that may not even happen."  Sadly, my body isn't always controlled by that logical person.  Instead the emotional person inside of me says "Ooh! Let's go on a roller coaster ride."  (Only it turns out there are no safety harnesses installed.)  I fall for this trick every time.   

As I was praying something profound occurred to me.  (True - it actually did.)  I pictured making my decision and then what would happen if a year down the road I discovered it was a mistake? What then? Would I pull that worry poison out of my body, display it before God and say "See, I was right to hold onto this!  You wanted me to let go of my fears but I knew better.  I knew I'd need this eventually. My fear in this has been completely justified."

Then I thought, what does this worry poison really gain me?  If my decision turns out not to be a mistake, then poison is taking up a place in my body that could be filled with Godly things (like love, joy, peace...).  And if the decision turns out to be a mistake?  Does it help me to be right?  Does it make the mistake go away?  Does it help to tell God "I told you so!"?  Does it make me more receptive to God's grace? No, it doesn't do anything for me but allow me some righteous (or unrighteous) indignation.

My take-away is this:  Do your best to make wise decisions.  Pray about them before you make them.  But once you make your decision, commit to it, and go forward in faith.  Believe firmly that no matter what happens, God is with you and will always be with you even if things don't turn out like you thought.  Holding on to the worry poison only trains your eyes to look for the failures instead of seeing how God graciously gets you through what is, in effect, the bumpy road called life. There's no upside to worry.  Free yourself and get rid of it.

Sunday Blogvotional: Honoring God With Your Life

If you were asked to come up with a list of words to honor God, you might come up with a few words like Loving, Generous, Compassionate, All Knowing, Powerful, Lord and Master. What if you couldn’t speak?  How would you express yourself to honor God? They say communication is 90% visual and 10% verbal.

God’s creation honors Him. The heavens declare and the skies proclaim... We are by far the greatest and most cherished part of His creation. In everything we do and everything we say, our lives should honor God. Can your family, friends and co-workers declare the glory of God by seeing how your life is lived? Are there parts of your life that don’t declare the glory of God?

With all of our strength we should live out loud the Glory of God. Our lives should declare how awesome, loving, forgiving, merciful and compassionate He really is and how much He loves and longs to be with his most cherished creation.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 

Psalm 19:1

Encouragement for the week: In some way each day this week, make a special effort to declare by your life’s example the glory of God to your family, friends, co-workers or anyone else you come in contact with. Let the glory of God shine through you!

This week's blogvotional contributed by James "the hubs".

21 Days of Blessings Challenge

In my latest Sunday blogvotional "See Your Blessings" I decided to challenge myself to write down 7 things each day for which I am thankful for or blessed with.  I'm doing this for two main reasons.  One is to open my eyes and see the blessings around me and the second is to create a habit of looking for and seeing those blessings. (They say it takes 21 days to create a habit.)

It's so easy to get caught up in our wants and desires.  We see more quickly what we don't have and what we still want that we become discontented.  I believe that by training ourselves to see the truth in how blessed we truly are - the more content we will be.  I would rather live a thankful and contented life than one of ungratefulness and discontentment.

I began my 21 days challenge in hopes of changing my outlook.  Before bed I have been writing out my 7 things.  At first this seemed pretty easy.  A few days into it, sadly, I started to struggle.  I can't write the same things every night.  That kind of defeats the purpose.  And I'm trying hard to stay away from the standard blessings (my family, Jesus, salvation).  The reason is because my goal is to look closely at my daily life and see the blessings I tend to overlook.

So as I struggled I realized that not thinking about my blessings until the end of the day was making it harder for me to see them (or remember them).  My new strategy is to consciously be on the lookout throughout the day for my blessings.  That way when I notice them, I can immediately give thanks for them.  The more I notice, the more thankful I'll become. The more thankful, the more grateful.  The more grateful, the more joyful.  And then I'm right back to receiving another huge blessing from God - a thankful, grateful, joyful, contented life.  Sounds good to me.

Join me on the challenge and let me know what you discover!