Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful grandmothers, mothers, sisters, daughters and friends that are helping to raise a child because it truly does "take a village" to do it.

A Mother's Love

There are times when only a mother's love
Can understand our tears,
Can soothe our disappoints
And calm all of our fears.


There are times when only a mother's love
Can share the joy we feel
When something we've dreamed about
Quite suddenly is real.


There are times when only a mother's faith
Can help us on life's way
And inspire in us the confidence
We need from day to day.


For a mother's heart and a mother's faith
And a mother's steadfast love
Were fashioned by the angels
And sent from God above.


--Author Unknown

Friendship

“Friends are the flowers in the garden of life. Beginning with a seed of trust, nurtured with laughter and tears, growing into loyalty and love.”

Navigating the minefield of friendship has always been a hardship for me. I’ve had friends come and go through the years and some friendships that have lasted since grade school, but I have never truly learned how to grow my circle of friends. As time has gone by it seems to have shrunk instead of increased. Don’t get me wrong, I am very grateful for those that continue to be in my life although I wonder at times what I’ve done to deserve their loyalty.

I am true to my Virgo nature, once a friend always a friend - loyal to the end, unless the trust is broken and then the intricate threads that wove us together wither and break. While we still remain friends it is never to the extent we once were. I have a thing about trust; real deep-seated trust. Over the years I realize that I’ve grown cynical and isolated instead of outgoing and engaging in activities that would lead me to make new connections and now I find myself lost and at times alone.

My view of women and friendship has evolved from someone to hang out and go partying with to someone you share aspects of your life with and support each other through the different seasons you encounter in your life’s journey.

Not one to bog anyone down with my issues I’ve pretty much just held it all in and expressed what was just beneath the surface but nothing with any real depth to it for fear of rejection or abandonment. I always felt like I was supposed to be there for them but that my life had to be pretty close to perfect in order for things to work.

I never really realized until much later in life (like now…) that it is a give and take and that I have to share with them just as much as they share with me. Not wanting to be pushy or clingy I could go several weeks without calling or talking to my friends but devour the details of their lives when we did catch up while divulging very little of my own. Eager to please and ready to help at the drop of a hat but emotionally aloof is how I would define myself. And yet I know that there is more to friendship than this.

I pray that I will learn to reach out more often, to share more deeply, to trust implicitly and forgive as I have been forgiven for the slightest offenses that would normally send me retreating in an effort to preserve myself.

May He send me a circle of friends that will embrace my nuances and help me to break down the walls of isolation and allow me to blossom under their tutelage as I strive to be a better friend. May the friendships I do have flourish to even greater depths and may they know that I love them deeply, cherish them always and want nothing but the best for them today and always.

“A friend loves at all times…” Proverbs 17:17

Energy

Energy is the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity; a feeling of possessing such strength and vitality.


Over the past few months since my schedule changed from working out in the mornings to getting the kids off to school therefore, I haven’t been working out. During this time, I’ve noticed that my energy level has plummeted and my sleep intake has increased. Don’t get me wrong, once I’m up I have tons of energy for the first few hours of the day but after 1:00 it decreases considerably and stays low the remainder of the day. I’m in the bed earlier than normal on days that don’t require extra studying for school and still feel drained. It’s amazing how that one hour of exercise each morning used to carry me through the day.

This also reminds me of how I get when I get out of the habit of having a quiet time with God each day. My spiritual battery runs low and I find myself not as sharp, in control and patient as I am on the days when I make that time to study the word, have personal prayer and quiet time just me and Him. Doing that 15 to 30 minute exchange each day recharges my spiritual battery just like exercising does it for the physical part of me.

Knowing this and applying this to my life consistently is a battle I am facing right now. I don’t have any excuse because I have the time if I use it wisely but I haven’t been a good steward of my time lately. I’ve given in to the flesh and when sleep beckons I’ve allowed myself to let go and catch a few extra minutes in the morning or allowed myself to be lulled into the abyss in the evenings when I lay in bed reading only to awaken a few hours later having not made it past the first paragraph or from my brain to my lips. The pages of my prayer journal are pretty sparse and the peace of having that quiet time is missing.

In a few weeks school will be out and I’m looking forward to the summer when I’ll get back into that routine of working out in the morning since the kids don’t have to get up for school and I can let them sleep in. But I can’t wait until then to jump start my spiritual battery. I need my quiet time to begin now on a steady and consistent basis.

So I am challenging myself to create the habit again of doing this each morning for 15 minutes before getting up and starting my day beginning tomorrow. I know that He will give me the strength I need to get over the hump of missing 15 extra minutes of sleep and I will be renewed with an abundance of energy in return.



But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

Destiny

As long as we are persistence in our pursuit of our deepest destiny, we will continue to grow. We cannot choose the day or time when we will fully bloom. It happens in its own time. Denis Waitley

The destiny of man is in his own soul. Herodotus

Destiny is defined as something to which a person or thing is destined; a predetermined course of events often held to be an irresistible power or agency.

We all have a purpose, a destiny that must be fulfilled. No one can accomplish what has been destined for you and you can’t accomplish that which was meant for someone else. The key to this is for us to seek out and fulfill that which we have been purposed for in this life. Some of us have multiple things to accomplish while others have a singular path but we were all created for something much larger than mere existence here on this earth. Greatness comes from the creator and since we were created in His image then greatness is in store for each of us. What that looks like for me will be different than what it looks like for you but it is equally as important.

What is your destiny and are you living your life as to discover it?

All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good, so with the sinful; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them. Ecclesiastes 9:2

Confidence

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy.” Norman Vincent Peale


Confidence is defined as belief in oneself and one's powers or abilities; the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust; the state of feeling certain about the truth of something.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.” Jeremiah 17:7

Who is your confidence in - God, man or yourself? The question is not meant to trick or confuse you but to get you to think about your confidence and where it comes from.

I am confident in my ability to perform my job to the best of my ability. I have confidence in my role of a friend, mother and sister – sometimes. I am confident in my belief in God and that he is the beginning and the end and that I should cast my cares upon Him and feel confident that He will see me through.

When my confidence comes from myself it wanes when things get tough or beyond my control. When my confidence comes for God, I am able to stand steadfast through the storms of life and weather them out knowing that He has all things under his control and that no matter what the outcome, it is as He has planned.

Self-confidence is necessary to survive in the world but it is not to be confused with pride and our thinking that we are able to do all things by ourselves without care or thought of God in the process.

My confidence comes from my faith. When my faith is strong so is my confidence but when my faith falters so does my confidence.

Hebrews 10:19-39 talks about confidence and faith in great detail and I have learned a lot about how the two correlate to one another. I am thankful for the word and the lessons found within that help clarify what my role is in this life and how it relates to what God wants me to do and how he wants me to do it.

I am still a work in progress but I am open and flexible in my beliefs that as I delve deeper into His word that my faith and therefore my confidence will remain entrenched in Him as it should rightly do.

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.” Hebrews 10:35

Beauty

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. 1 Peter 3:3-4

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and since the beholder is me then makeup is a necessity. I get up Monday through Friday and make my face up before going to work and on the weekends a little tinted moisturizer and mascara usually does the trick to get me through. My girls complain about the fact that I put on makeup questioning why I need it. For me it’s necessary for a couple of reasons. First I use it to protect my face from the dirt and grime encountered throughout the day and secondly it is a security blanket. Not one to think highly of myself and my looks, putting on makeup makes me feel better about whom I am. It’s amazing what a little foundation, eye shadow and mascara can do to bolster ones confidence.

Today’s scripture made me think about my inner beauty. What am I doing to put forth the best inner me each day. Do I wake up and have a quiet time with God setting my spirit on the right track to handle what comes my way? Do I soak up the word and listen to inspiring and uplifting music that will soothe the inner me and allow that beauty to come shining through? Am I doing things to nourish the inner most portion of my soul?

Sadly I’m not. I don’t have a daily regimen for my inner self as I do for the outer. Yet I feel as though I should. What a difference it would make to have my inner and my outer in tune with one another. Although I don’t go about flashing my gold jewelry and fine clothes I do take great pride in making sure I look my best for the world and since God means so much more to me than this place wouldn’t it make sense to treat my inner self with just as much, if not more, care in my desire to be pleasing to Him. God looks not on the outward man but on the inward man – the heart.

What is the state of your heart today?

“The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

Action

Action –noun: The process or state of acting or of being active: something done or performed; act; deed.
An act that one consciously wills and that may be characterized by physical or mental activity.

The harder I try the more I fail. The more I let Him do the leading and the guiding the easier it becomes. I struggle daily to be a good steward over all that He has given me. I struggle with being the mother, the daughter, sister, friend and co-worker that I know I can be. I am weak and give in to my flesh. I fall prey much like Eve in the Garden of Eden and surrender to the cravings of a idle mind only to fall on my face and cry out in forgiveness. It is the falling on my face and asking for forgiveness that keeps me humble. It allows me to get up yet another day and start all over again. That atoning sacrifice that Jesus made for me on that cross assures me that I am forgiven and that makes me want to do better. Today I walked a mile, tomorrow I might make it two miles and on Friday I might not do anything at all but that is ok. The lesson is this - each day that I get up, put on the amour of God and attempt to walk in the shoes of peace serving Him to the best of my ability for that time and place is all that he requires of me. I am not perfect. I am a work in progress. I am in a perpetual state of motion and that is the key.

What's Up?

Spring break, strep throat, stomach viruses and college visits, oh my! It’s been a crazy month filled with a whirlwind of activities, sicknesses and life in general. We had some really good weather and a lot of fun times over spring break. They went to Busch Gardens and the beach, played Putt Putt, did the movies and ate lots of great food. All too soon it was time to get back into the routine of things and head back to school.

The next two weekends we did the college circuit so that baby girl could make her final choice of which college she wants to attend this fall. It was eye opening to get a load of campus life now and how things were 20+ years ago. BIG difference. Things are definitely more open to the lifestyles of today with co-ed dorms, Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A on campus, drinking/partying seems to be a major for some kids and they tell you in orientation to learn to balance drinking with studying. That blew me out of the water.

Expectations at some schools are very high freshman year and in others it wasn’t mentioned. Parents were told to drop off their kids and don’t look back at one school while another said keep a pulse on them at least during the first year. I left feeling overwhelmed and insecure at one and I’m an adult to feeling right at home at another. It is definitely worth the effort to visit these schools and get a feel for the lay of the land rather than just shipping your kid off and hoping for the best.

Strep got three out of the four and one had a stomach virus these past two weeks. It’s been fun. Things have started to settle down just in time for May to begin. Warmer temperatures are expected this week and it looks like spring might get pushed out of the way early for summer to roll in.

Time is quickly winding down to prom and graduation. I’m not sure I’m ready for the end of one chapter and the beginning of another but ready or not it’s coming so I better get prepared. I can’t believe my first girl is getting ready to leave the nest. Boy what a big change that will bring in the house.

As for me, I finished my Intro to Marketing class and hated it. The professor was good but the workload was over the top; way too much to learn and do in 5 short weeks. Things have settled down with Business Management but our class has dropped down by 4 students and I’m losing two from my study group in the next rotation. Change is in the air and I might as well get used to it. I passed my one year anniversary and still feel good about school and the progress I have made. I made the President’s list for carrying a 4.0 GPA which was really nice. The summer will be busy with class and juggling the kids out of school but hopefully I have it all worked out so that everyone will be pleased.

What’s been going on in your world?