Brave

I read this this morning. Great reminder as we head into a new year.

You have been equipped by God to endure this life. 

He has built you 

to be strong and courageous. 

He designed you with a spine to stand up for what is right, 

hands to work hard and provide, 

a mouth to speak His truth, a mind to make wise choices, 

a heart to love others unconditionally, 

and muscles to exercise your strength for the purpose of His will. 

You are a warrior with the power dwelling inside 

you to live a bold and righteous life.

You will face trials. Being brave is about being 

ready to face and endure any circumstance.

Being brave is about being prepared both physically 

and spiritually to defend your faith and to protect  

those you love. 

There will be people and situations that 

threaten those things. 

You must not be distracted by selfishness, and you must not be wrapped up in sin. Otherwise, you will be blindsided by your weaknesses. 

Kindness Challenge

I began a 25 days of kindness for the month of December. I have a few friends on Instagram who are joining in with their own list. You can find many lists online for daily acts of kindness. The point is, do something. 

Give.

Be kind.

Make a difference.

Smile.

Serve.

Do something every day that is not about you. 

You never know whose life will be changed because of your kindness. 

Remember What is Important

This week has held days of preparing for the holidays-shopping for Thanksgiving dinner, cleaning the house, listening to Christmas music, putting up lights on the outside of our home. I've been a mixture of emotions. I am excited to spend time with family. I love getting the lights up on our home. But then there is this.....this is the first holiday season without my mother-in-law. It's difficult. We miss her. She passed at the end of April of this year. My heart also thinks of other loved ones we have lost this year, and along with over the years. I also think of some of the difficult situations that have come about this year in our lives and the lives of friends and family. Tears stream down my face at the most inopportune times, it seems. Memories are triggered by food, ornaments, decorations, songs, something someone says and the tears come. Memories are good, though. The remind us of intentional times spent together.

I have so much to be grateful for and I don't want to forget that. I have challenged myself to a gratitude challenge every day. It helps to keep things in the right perspective and to focus on what is good, what I have, and to be grateful for those who are in my life. Life is precious. Live every moment. Love deeply. Put your phones down and spend time with those you love. Laugh. Cry. Make memories. 

At the end of your life, you will not wish you spent more time on your phone, staring at a screen. You will remember, cherish, and long for moments with loved ones, so cherish them now. Remember what is truly important. People. Face to face. Real conversations. Time together. People. 

Pause To Be Grateful

November is a great month to intentionally focus on gratitude. Unfortunately, the world we live in seems to easily focus on the bad, the negative, what's wrong with everything and everyone. It would change our world if we all remembered to pause every day to be grateful for the blessings we all have, for the people in our lives, and for the beauty that surrounds us. There is always something to be thankful for. Will you join me in taking time every day to write down what you are thankful for, for the daily gifts in your life? When you change your focus and begin to look for daily gifts, write them down, and see the beauty in every day, it changes how you see the world. If you don't like to write in a notebook, there are apps that allow you to keep a daily gratitude journal. Yes, life is busy, but it only takes a few moments to pause and be grateful. 

Autumn Beaty

Autumn

And just like that, Fall has arrived. 

Changes

Today feels like Fall has arrived. The air is crisp with rain falling on and off and the fog is drooped off the tree tops. Some of the leaves are beginning to change, as well. 

Some changes in life are beyond our control, while other changes, we choose. Change is inevitable. Many of the most difficult changes are when they come out of nowhere and slam into us, unexpectedly.  

How do you handle change? Do you run from it, embrace it, or push through and figure it out as you go? Personally, I do all three. This week we were faced with that unexpected, knock the breath out of us change. It's been difficult. It isn't anything personal, but happened to someone we know and who is a mentor to us. My reaction was shock, anger, sadness, and wanting to help wherever I could. 

Change is inevitable, but how we choose to handle it is a choice. Even if we feel anger, how we respond in that anger is the key. 

Ecclesiastes 3 says this about change: 

For everything that happens in life—there is a season, a right time for everything under heaven:

2     A time to be born, a time to die;
        a time to plant, a time to collect the harvest;
3     A time to kill, a time to heal;
        a time to tear down, a time to build up;
4     A time to cry, a time to laugh;
        a time to mourn, a time to dance;
5     A time to scatter stones, a time to pile them up;
        a time for a warm embrace, a time for keeping your distance;
6     A time to search, a time to give up as lost;
        a time to keep, a time to throw out;
7     A time to tear apart, a time to bind together;
        a time to be quiet, a time to speak up;
8     A time to love, a time to hate;
        a time to go to war, a time to make peace.

Reconnecting

It's been awhile since I have written, blogged, or even really gone out and spent a day with my camera. Writing and photography are things I enjoy and ways I express myself, work through things, release stress, process life, so when I haven't done much of either, frustration sets in. We were created to be creative. When I'm not, I seem to forget to connect to the things I enjoy most, I don't take time to see the beauty in life, and I get much more stressed. I need to take time to back to what I enjoy, things that I'm passionate about. I have missed writing. A lot. It has been awhile since I have put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard. 

What do you find therapeutic? How do you creatively express yourself? Have you done it lately? If not, I challenge you to go to your creative outlet and take time to reconnect to it, and connect with yourself. 

Learning To Rest

Why is it in our society we see rest and quietness as something wrong, or temporary? We treat rest more like a privilege than a necessity.

Do you get so busy that you forget to enjoy life? I recently went on a weeks vacation, and although I was busy sightseeing and going, it was a different type of busy. I was with my husband, my loved ones, seeing the beauty. For those who know me or who have followed my blog, you know that photography is my way to disconnect, to connect with our Creator and see the beauty He has created. It's been months since I intentionally picked up my camera, actually close to a year. I have not had my 'photo days' where I grab the dog and the camera and just go take photos. I will admit that because of busyness and lack of rest, my creativity has taken a vacation, and I was just breezing through the day, not seeing the sunsets, the flowers, the beauty. I do not want to live that type of life. It's not truly living if you are not experiencing life.

Rest is more than a nap. Rest is more than an hour massage or a day off. Sometimes we feel guilty that we haven't rested so we 'schedule' a couple hours of rest, and it becomes just like all of our other commitments we have on our to do list. Our rest becomes a task to accomplish and we become more and more exhausted.

I know many who have told me they had to become sick, to become well. They had to be knocked down with chronic illness, probably caused by too much busyness and not enough rest, to find out how important true, real rest is for all of us. Through these journeys, they have also found out that wealth and success as the world sees it are not what matters in life. The love and laughter of family and friends is what matters. Relationships matter. Rest matters. Real rest.

Chronic busyness causes chronic stress which causes chronic illness. I know. I have recently been diagnosed with one. Yet, I am struggling to prioritize my life to get well. My doctor has given me a warning to slow down, yet I keep going, I keep doing, I keep striving for worldly applause and success. The more I strive for these things, the worse my health is, and the worse I feel. A couple days ago, God made a loud point and made me so dizzy and fatigued, I could not do anything else but rest. I slept. I sat out under our big twisted willow tree and listened to the birds, the sound of the wind, neighbor kids laughing, hummingbirds buzzing over my head, and silence.

We get busy and we forget to pay attention to our life, to our loved ones, to our faith, and to our health. We don't see the beauty, we just get in a mode of doing, not living.  We stare at computer and phone screens, thinking we are connected but instead we are deeply disconnected from life and relationships.

I have been rudely awakened to the importance of rest and real relationships through my body having a revolt against my busyness. While I am not thrilled to be dealing with a chronic illness right now, I am thankful that I have been awakened to the life I was living and what it has been doing to my body.

I am in a new season. A season of restoring my health, reconnecting with God, learning to be still, knowing that rest is healthy not bad, and getting intentionally connected with friends and family face to face...these are what matter in life. These are the things that leave a legacy, not busyness.

What needs to change for you today to restore healthy rest, to connect with people face to face, to be still, to see the beauty that surrounds you every day? Make the changes and truly live the life you have been given. It is a gift.

Tulip Fields

Last week, I was able to go to the tulip fields in Washington State. I have wanted to visit them for a long time, and finally had a chance. Many of the tulips were done blooming, but I was still able to take in much of the beauty. 

What Are You Chasing?

We all chase something. 

My dog chases her tail. She also chases cats that wander in her yard, and she loves to chase balls and sticks.

Some people chase the impossible dream, other people chase careers, love, money, beauty, approval, popularity, perfection. 

Lately with all the rain and cold weather we have had, I've felt like chasing the sun. 

What you chase, defines you, shows your priorities in life. What you chase shows a lot about who you are and what you value. 

If we forfeit what we are passionate about to chase money, we succeed at something that doesn't really matter. If we chase perfection, we miss the opportunity to learn from our mistakes, reset, and enjoy life.

If we are always running, chasing a life that we weren't designed for, then we miss the life we were designed to live, the purpose and plan that God set in our hearts and we are never truly content or happy, so we continue to chase things that do not matter. We always want more, instead of experiencing joy and peace. 

What are you chasing today? Do you need to stop chasing, and allow a time of quiet to overwhelm you, reset your life, readjust your focus? Do you need to pursue the things you know you care about and are passionate about, even if pursuing them will not bring you the earthly wealth you may seek? Do you need to set aside your OCD and perfection driven life to just live, love, and find joy in your family, your friends, and just be? Do you need to stop chasing the life of someone else, whether it's their looks or their lifestyle and just be thankful for who you are and what you have? 

We can all improve our life, no doubt about it, and we should, but when we spend all of our time chasing things that take all of our time, or are not our life calling, or make us pull away from what truly matters, then our lives need to take a course adjustment.