I have to share. The next chapter in the book I'm reading is on forgviness. I haven't gotten started on it yet, but I am very excited. This is my very, very favorite topic. I know first hand the incredible freedom and healing that comes from forgiving people, especially those people we least want to forgive and those we feel unable to forgive. Holding unforgiveness and grudges eats you up inside. Forgiving sets you free and let's God heal your hurts. Here's an awesome video that goes along with the book I've been reading:
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Trusting God
I've decided to add a page (well it's already 2 pages) to my commonplace book that I will use to write the things that are bothering me that I am committing to turn over to God and trust God with. By writing them, I can make sure I don't take them back.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Do You Really Trust God?
This really touched my soul when I saw it.
I trust God most of the time, but sometimes I find myself grabbing things that I say I'm trusting him with back to me so that I can worry about them. I am trying very hard to stop this and allow God to handle it.
I trust God most of the time, but sometimes I find myself grabbing things that I say I'm trusting him with back to me so that I can worry about them. I am trying very hard to stop this and allow God to handle it.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Commonplace Book
It is finally done! It took me a month to get it made up, but I've finally got my commonplace book made and today I got everything I wanted to put into it that I've done recently moved in. I'm excited about how it came out, especially since I made it myself. There are some problems with the inside of the covers, some glue got on them and is shiny. I also ended up transferring some paper from elsewhere because the notes I had on the book I'm currently reading really needed to be in there, and there were way too many to just copy over. But still, I am quite happy with it. It is exactly the way I want it to be for this time.
Exactly What They Need
Lately I have been going through a strong period of self-improvement combined at the same time with self-affirmation. Over and over I keep learning that I am enough, I am who God wants me to be. Today was more of that, as you can see in part from the last post. I have also been learning, again, how to relax and leave my problems with God. This seems to be a cyclical process for me, as I've been through these same lessons over, and over, and over in my lifetime. Thankfully God is patient in getting me to where I need to be. I make progress each time and get closer to the end goal each time but it is very much a two steps forward one step back type endeavor. This time around, I have moved past trusting God to help me with things but still worrying about them, to now not even worrying about them, and in doing so have achieved an entirely new level of peace in my life. The peace has really made me feel much more like me than I have in a long time.
Today I was thinking about that on the drive home, and realized something that I think is really important for me. When I am myself, and not trying to be someone other than me or trying to put unreasonable expectations upon myself, or allowing myself to get caught up in anger, hurt, or other emotions, or shutting parts of myself off, when I am totally my true self, I am exactly who my husband and son need for me to be. I am the calm in their lives, the person who they can come to when they are upset or frustrated, talk it out, and leave feeling refreshed. When I am not me, I can not respond to them the way they need me to, and they get frustrated, and I get frustrated, and we all end up upset or irritated with one another.
How refreshing to realize that the best thing I can give my husband and son is to be who I am.
Of course this only makes sense because why would God send me a husband or child that needed me to be someone that I am not?
So to reflect back to an older post, I am perfectly created. I may not always make the right choices, but as long as I am me I am exactly who I need to be, and as long as I stay faithful to Him, it will all work itself out.
Today I was thinking about that on the drive home, and realized something that I think is really important for me. When I am myself, and not trying to be someone other than me or trying to put unreasonable expectations upon myself, or allowing myself to get caught up in anger, hurt, or other emotions, or shutting parts of myself off, when I am totally my true self, I am exactly who my husband and son need for me to be. I am the calm in their lives, the person who they can come to when they are upset or frustrated, talk it out, and leave feeling refreshed. When I am not me, I can not respond to them the way they need me to, and they get frustrated, and I get frustrated, and we all end up upset or irritated with one another.
How refreshing to realize that the best thing I can give my husband and son is to be who I am.
Of course this only makes sense because why would God send me a husband or child that needed me to be someone that I am not?
So to reflect back to an older post, I am perfectly created. I may not always make the right choices, but as long as I am me I am exactly who I need to be, and as long as I stay faithful to Him, it will all work itself out.
My Epiphany
I had a lot of epiphany moments today, some of them were things that I knew before, but just cemented in my head a little more today, others were fairly new ideas.
1. I remember being told as a child that the actions of a child directly reflect on their parents, that people judge parents by their children. This makes me totally paranoid about how Nick acts. I worry too much about what other people think, and I realized that I am letting it affect how I parent my child, especially when I parent in public.
I am probably not explaining this well, but here is my epiphany, as I wrote it when I pulled over on the side of the street on my way home from class :) :
I am not responsible for who my son is, or who he becomes. God made him who he is, he will decide who he becomes. My job is to teach / give him the foundation, experiences, knowledge, beliefs, and morals that will help him to become the best person he can be and that will help him to learn to make the choices that will take him down the right path, the path God would choose for him.
2. I am the best parent for my son. God sent him to me because he is who I need and I am who he needs. As long as I do my best for him, it will be enough, because if it wouldn't be enough he wouldn't have come to me. I am perfectly capable of giving him everything he needs from his mother. Erik is perfectly capable of giving him everything he needs from a father. We just need to do out best for him, and he will get from us what he needs.
1. I remember being told as a child that the actions of a child directly reflect on their parents, that people judge parents by their children. This makes me totally paranoid about how Nick acts. I worry too much about what other people think, and I realized that I am letting it affect how I parent my child, especially when I parent in public.
I am probably not explaining this well, but here is my epiphany, as I wrote it when I pulled over on the side of the street on my way home from class :) :
I am not responsible for who my son is, or who he becomes. God made him who he is, he will decide who he becomes. My job is to teach / give him the foundation, experiences, knowledge, beliefs, and morals that will help him to become the best person he can be and that will help him to learn to make the choices that will take him down the right path, the path God would choose for him.
2. I am the best parent for my son. God sent him to me because he is who I need and I am who he needs. As long as I do my best for him, it will be enough, because if it wouldn't be enough he wouldn't have come to me. I am perfectly capable of giving him everything he needs from his mother. Erik is perfectly capable of giving him everything he needs from a father. We just need to do out best for him, and he will get from us what he needs.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Changing the World by Changing Yourself
Okay, I'm not usually a bit quote person, but lately I have found so many noteworth quotes I just have to share.
I particularly loved the quote below. It speaks to my heart. It encompasses both the goal of my life... to improve myself and in doing so hopefully have a positive affect on those around me, compounding into a much larger affect on the world; and also addresses the fact that while we may feel powerless to change the world, or even our country, we can all change ourselves.
This was taken from the tomb of an Anglican bishop (1100 AD) in the crypts of Westminster Abbey:
"When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country.
But it, too, seemed immovable.
As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it.
And now as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realize; if I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family.
From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country and, who knows, I may have even changed the world."
I particularly loved the quote below. It speaks to my heart. It encompasses both the goal of my life... to improve myself and in doing so hopefully have a positive affect on those around me, compounding into a much larger affect on the world; and also addresses the fact that while we may feel powerless to change the world, or even our country, we can all change ourselves.
This was taken from the tomb of an Anglican bishop (1100 AD) in the crypts of Westminster Abbey:
"When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country.
But it, too, seemed immovable.
As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it.
And now as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realize; if I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family.
From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country and, who knows, I may have even changed the world."
Friday, March 19, 2010
Isn't It Exciting
Okay, I'm chatty this morning I guess :)
I'm just sitting here thinking of how exciting it is that God brings everything together for us when we need it. What I mean is that, when God is working on something with us, He'll often bring it to us in several ways. For me right now, I'm seeing overlaps between my book, my project, and the Saturday classes I'm taking. In fact I'm laughing because for both classes Tracy has asked a question that I've not thought much about, and within a week or two I have found that what she asked is EXACTLY what God has me working on. It never ceases to amaze me the way God does that.
I'm just sitting here thinking of how exciting it is that God brings everything together for us when we need it. What I mean is that, when God is working on something with us, He'll often bring it to us in several ways. For me right now, I'm seeing overlaps between my book, my project, and the Saturday classes I'm taking. In fact I'm laughing because for both classes Tracy has asked a question that I've not thought much about, and within a week or two I have found that what she asked is EXACTLY what God has me working on. It never ceases to amaze me the way God does that.
Verses, Scriptures, and Quotes Wanted
For the project I'm working on, I'm looking for verses / scriptures, and maybe some quotes on the following subjects:
Peace - such as the peace of God, feeling peace, etc not peace vs war
Forgiveness and Forgiving - not God forgiving us, but us forgiving one another
God's Protection and Safety in God
If you know of any good ones, please share!
Peace - such as the peace of God, feeling peace, etc not peace vs war
Forgiveness and Forgiving - not God forgiving us, but us forgiving one another
God's Protection and Safety in God
If you know of any good ones, please share!
Obsessive
I've been working on a writing project all week. It's been a great experience. It started as writing a "book" (not for publication purposes) and has now transformed into a website style blog along with the book. It has been a great learning experience so far.
I've discovered, I'm obsessive, totally obsessive about my projects. Okay, I knew that, I really did, I'm just shocked to realize it again. So now I'm wondering, am I obsessive about all of my projects, or just the projects that are centered around God and spirituality?
As long as I make myself stay on track with work and family, I don't think it's a bad obsession. I've done pretty good this week. Staying on track with family has been pretty easy, staying on track with work is taking a little more effort, but I'm doing pretty good.
I've discovered, I'm obsessive, totally obsessive about my projects. Okay, I knew that, I really did, I'm just shocked to realize it again. So now I'm wondering, am I obsessive about all of my projects, or just the projects that are centered around God and spirituality?
As long as I make myself stay on track with work and family, I don't think it's a bad obsession. I've done pretty good this week. Staying on track with family has been pretty easy, staying on track with work is taking a little more effort, but I'm doing pretty good.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Taxes
I've been reading a lot lately about not becoming stressed or worried. I've known these things for a long time, but I've always struggled at getting to the point where I could truly turn my worries over to God and just let them go. Oh sure, some worries are easy, but the big things, like finances, not so easy.
Last week we found out we owe money on our taxes. A LOT of taxes. Enough that we could not scrape together of the course of a year, enough to pay them. Why? Because we are self-employed, we have a lot of taxes to worry about, we have a lot of deductions too, but this year, it just didn't work out. The problem is, if we owe this year, we can pretty much count on the fact that we will owe as much or more next year.
In the past, finding this out would have made my physically ill, but this time, when I heard this, I was totally relaxed. I just kept thinking "God has always taken care of it, the money will come along". I had no worries. I still have no worries. I am so excited though, I feel like I've finally crossed that hurdle!
Erik on the other hand freaked out about it, he was angry and agitated. Normally once he gets upset, I get upset, but not this time. I stayed totally calm and started looking at what we could do. Because I was calm, he started to calm down, and we were able to formulate a plan to both get these taxes paid and start laying away money for next year's taxes. Although we still have to find out if our plan will work, I have no doubt within me that God will make sure we have what we need.
Last week we found out we owe money on our taxes. A LOT of taxes. Enough that we could not scrape together of the course of a year, enough to pay them. Why? Because we are self-employed, we have a lot of taxes to worry about, we have a lot of deductions too, but this year, it just didn't work out. The problem is, if we owe this year, we can pretty much count on the fact that we will owe as much or more next year.
In the past, finding this out would have made my physically ill, but this time, when I heard this, I was totally relaxed. I just kept thinking "God has always taken care of it, the money will come along". I had no worries. I still have no worries. I am so excited though, I feel like I've finally crossed that hurdle!
Erik on the other hand freaked out about it, he was angry and agitated. Normally once he gets upset, I get upset, but not this time. I stayed totally calm and started looking at what we could do. Because I was calm, he started to calm down, and we were able to formulate a plan to both get these taxes paid and start laying away money for next year's taxes. Although we still have to find out if our plan will work, I have no doubt within me that God will make sure we have what we need.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Puzzle Pieces of Life
From the book I'm currently reading, isn't this so true:
Why is it that we have more faith that the pieces of a puzzle made by a company in Taiwan will all fit together than we have that the pieces of our life that are presented to us by God will fit together?
When you start a puzzle, some pieces, even if they fit perfectly together, will not help you to beter understand what the puzzle is about, but in it's completion you can appreciate even the parts that origiinally seemed insignificant and pointless.
Why is it that we have more faith that the pieces of a puzzle made by a company in Taiwan will all fit together than we have that the pieces of our life that are presented to us by God will fit together?
When you start a puzzle, some pieces, even if they fit perfectly together, will not help you to beter understand what the puzzle is about, but in it's completion you can appreciate even the parts that origiinally seemed insignificant and pointless.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)