Tag Archives: bible

Blogroll, Enlightenment, Growing, mindfulness, purpose, responsibility

Control Is An Illusion And Resilience Is A Gift!

I have been through a lot of different things in my life and the toughest things have always been the things that strip away and take my ability to exercise control. Fred Bubbers said: ““Control is merely an illusion we construct to cope with the chaos that is reality.” and I have to admit that sounds pretty much right.

We like the idea of control, until we have to face the reality that control is really something that we have very little of. Chaos on the other hand is the thing that we have more of than we can stand.

When ever we face times of chaos that remind us of just how limited our control really is, it for some reason causes us to start looking back on our lives and living. We love to revisit our successes and even appreciate looking to see what we learned from our failures. We like to tell ourselves that learning something from our failures means that they were not a waste, but served a higher purpose.

In the last week of my life, I have been doing a lot of this looking back and one thing that the Spirit has been helping me to see is RESILIANCE. Resilience is the ability to come back from whatever it is that attempts to take you down and out. It is the ability to take the bad and do something good with it, the setback and use it for a come back, so that you can grow into the something greater that you have always been created to become.

Live life long enough and no matter how good you think you are, something is going to come along and knock you off of your high horse. Whatever it is that knocks you off and down is not the end, unless you give up. Resilience is an unwillingness to give up and a willingness to make sure that you get yours.

When I watch my Granddaughter Addie Jo, I see resilience in its most pure form. She came into this world, laying in whatever position she was placed in, but almost immediately, she was dissatisfied with that position and started working to figure out ways to experience the freedom she was looking for. She cannot even talk, but she has learned that if she grunts long enough and loud enough, with a tear here or there that she can manipulate others to do for her, what she cannot do for herself.

She does not give up, she does not give in, until she gets what she wants. I have seen her doing it in a thousand different ways and as I look back on my life, I have seen where I have done the same thing in a million different ways.

Proverbs 23:7 says: “As a man thinks in His heart, so is he.” The heart is the heart of resilience. While we may not have control, we do have resilience and with resilience, pretty much anything is possible, so let’s get to it…

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My Word For The Year!

A few years ago, I started thinking about a word that helped to represent my goals for the new year. Last year, I decided to put a little more focus into selecting my one word and letting it motivate and encourage my goals, rather than allowing the goals to motivate my one word. It was a pretty amazing year and the concept seemed to stick with me and encourage me in some very positive ways all throughout the year.

My word last year was SATISFIED. I first got the idea for the word from Psalm 23 – “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want…” I reasoned that if I don’t want, then I must be satisfied and this simple idea which I latched onto, became the driving force that helped me to shift my focus onto the things that were working and off of the things that weren’t working. This simple shift allowed me to empower the positive and weed out the negative that so often tended to distract and discourage. It was a very amazing year, filled with blessing and amazing opportunity.

I had planned on having my one word for 2020 picked out before the year began, but for a variety of reasons, I was just not ever able to focus in on it and figure it out. I didn’t give up, I didn’t freak out about it, I just kept the task on my list and knew that when the time was right, it would come to me. Today was the day and I now have my new word for 2020.

My word for the year is TRIUMPH, which carries with it the idea of victory, achievement, success, conquest, winning, growing, developing and becoming. It is what we were created for and is the ultimate fulfillment that we are all destined to experience.

My Scripture for the year comes from 2 Corinthians 2:14 – it says: ‘But thanks be to God, who always leads us in TRIUMPH in Christ, and manifest through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.”

My idea with this word is the encouragement to follow through, complete the things that the Spirit has laid out for me and expereince the fulfillment of accomplishment that comes with being in step with my created purpose.

I really want to encourage you to think about and discover your one word for the year. You can go to http://myoneword.org/ and it will help guide you through a simple process and give you a lot of good ideas for choosing yours… If you already have one or happen to figure your one word out, please feel free to share with me, I would love to hear it…

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Sacred Spaces And Reflection Places…

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The Not So Secret Secret!

One of my favorite ways to begin the day is outside. And I always try to begin my day with some time spent in meditation and prayer. This combination of some quiet time out in nature allows me to do the inside work that is so important to helping me not totally cave in or explode completely apart. It is often a fine line and time in meditation, contemplation, prayer and reflection is a vital part of my daily process that allows me to keep on keeping on, even and especially when I don’t want to.

This morning I headed out to one of my special spots that I call my prayer rock. On my way, I decided that in this new year, I wanted to use my physical copy of the scriptures during this time, rather than my electronic device. I love my iPhone and am very blessed with my iPad. They help me to research, write and share in incredible and amazing ways. They are tools which make tasks quick, efficient and a lot easier. I just thought it would be nice in the new year to go “old school” and actually hold “THE BOOK”, flip the pages, look up the scriptures and feel it as I allow it to fill me with His presence and power.

Now, I’m not looking to get into a debate about which is better, because I think that our Creator is more than capable of communication through whatever and however He chooses. This is just about me, what I like and taking some steps back to something very familiar, healing and encouraging to me. To each his own and my Grandaddy taught me: “There is more than one way to skin a cat!”, but that is another blog for another time.

One Of My Prayer And Meditation Rocks

The important a thing to grasp here is that we: 1.) Take Some Time To Do The Inward Work Of Thinking and Thanking. 2.) Discover & Utilize Special Places Of Peace, Relection And Meditation. 3.) Embrace What Is Special To You And Keep It Special. Below are three ideas with some of what works for me:

TAKE SOME TIME TO DO THE INWARD WORK OF THINKING AND THANKING! You can do this anytime you want, but I want to encourage you to take time everyday to: 1.) Spend a little time in the inspirational and encouraging scriptures found in our Bibles. God’s Word is powerful and once it is taken inside of our mind and life, it begins a work that stays with us for all eternity. I try to write at least one verse or passage in my journal everyday that I am considering and thinking through… 2.) Think about all you have to be grateful for and express that gratitude in some “out loud” way. I do this by saying “THANK YOU”, writing at least three things I am thankful for in my journal everyday and practicing a gratitude meditation where I just basically take time to speak thank your out loud for many of my blessings by making them.

Special Place Not To Far From Home!

DISCOVER AND UTILIZE SPECIAL PLACES OF PEACE, REFLECTION AND MEDITATION! I have places inside and outside. I have places at home and away from home. I am discovering new places all the time. Everyone needs a place to escape to. It may be a special room in your house. It may be somewhere in the backyard. It could be a special chair on your porch. It can be a bench in the park, a blanket on the ground or even the quietness of just sitting in your car. Just find you a place and use it as a sacred space for you to spend time with your SPIRIT to find peace as you reflect and meditate on what really matters.

EMBRACE WHAT IS SPECIAL TO YOU AND KEEP IT SPECIAL! This is one of the big secrets: Once you have figured out what, how, where, who and when is special and sacred, then make sure to protect it and utilize it. We have such wonderful, amazing and supernatural tools that our Creator has put at our disposal, but we often leave the tools in the box, the books on the shelf, the ink in the pin and the pages in the journal… Make sure that you use it, so you don’t lose it!

Scripture!

It really is the simple things that have the potential to have the biggest impact on our lives and living, so I encourage you to invest a little time to rediscover the simple things that are so special to you and you know what? I bet, you’ll be glad you did!