As we prepare for years-end, we as individuals need to do much like a business or organization would do during this time. WE NEED TO TAKE INVENTORY. Inventory (or an audit) is needed in order to both identify and preserve our VISION.
A glimpse inside this blog: If you are looking to develop and/or deepen your faith walk, the 7 Beginning Steps to Devoting Daily Time with God – Checklist and Step-by-Step Guide is a step in the right direction. This checklist and guide come with a FREE 18-page printable PDF version for your convenience.
The guide provides steps to help you set a daily atmosphere for communing with God, in a way that yields connecting and understanding. I use and created this checklist to help bring structure and routine to my own daily time with God. Because women have often asked me what I do to maintain my faith and to stay prayerful, I decided to share it.
I too wanted the fairytale; and my assumption was that my husband would give it to me. He’d be my Prince Charming. But let me tell you this…DISNEY LIED! Disney only presented a very SHORT part of the “story.”
A STORY presents us with characters, a setting, plot, conflict, and a resolution. In the fairytale stories, all the final credits end the same way…”and they lived happily ever after.” The conclusion? The conflict was resolved. They fell in love. The End.
But there is a misconception about that closing phrase…”and they lived happily ever after.” The focus on the HAPPILY…and not on the “LIVED.” For if we focused on the LIVED, we would know and expect that living does not come without tests and trials. We don’t give merit to the fact that as one story ends…another story begins.
Friendships can feel like rollercoasters; but isn’t that true of life? There are going to be unexpected ups, downs, twists, and turns along the way; but when we reflect back, it will be in those experiences that the thrill of the journey is recognized and appreciated. Maybe.
The term UNFRIEND has become an ugly word. Not just an ugly word, but an offensive word. But I’m here to play devil’s advocate I see individual messages on FaceBook about this topic all the time; and I’ve had some conversations with a few friends about it. People are usually very bothered when they realize they’ve been unfriended. I, however, am on the other side of this. One because, I’ve unfriended some folks a time or two, and I’ve also been unfriended by people. Here’s my take. Unfriend has less to do with the person who was unfriended and more to do with the well-being of the person who took the action. Learn more…
In this modern-age of social media, many of us have increased our “friend” base tremendously; yet, people report more often feeling friendless or alone. Why? Because there is a difference between mere friendship and frientimacy. True friendship does not equate to quantity; it equates to quality. In other words, friendship has less to do with having a relationship or the number of relationships one has, and more to do with connectedness and intimacy within the relationship.
People need to CHECK IN. But rather than it being just an act of acknowledging one’s physical presence, we’re also needing to confirm our mental and emotional presence. Some are becoming more desensitized, numb, detached, and absent in spirit in a way that is seen as dangerous and unhealthy. Suppressing true emotion for the sake of not dealing with whatever it is…to the point that people are losing themselves. We need to make it a point to CHECK IN.
“The early bird gets the worm” is an expression I’m sure you’ve heard. You may have even said it to someone or had it said to you; especially in preparation for students returning back to school. But in my latest revelation, I believe the term “The early bird gets the worm” should be reconsidered; as it seems we’ve taken the term out of context; as it seems we place more emphasis on the bird’s timing and position, rather than its preparedness.
Rather than referring to stunted physical growth, I’ll be referring to stunted emotional and relational growth. Not only referring to the kind of emotional blockage that occurs as a result of children’s experiences, but also the emotional barriers that continue to present themselves in the lives of adults still dealing with the residue of the emotional distress. The damage – that though suppressed, ignored, and hidden – continues to plague both their maturity in certain areas and their relationships.
If we think about it (and most of us don’t have to think about it too long), we can all think of times where we felt like we were handed a bag of lemons; whether it be in school, on our jobs or businesses, in our marriages and relationships, with our children, or in our health. We’ve all faced some difficulty to give us cause to become bitter. No matter our age, race, gender, or socioeconomic status, none of us are exempt from experiencing difficulties, or has the ability to control how or when they come; but we can control of how we respond and process through them. In any case, our goal should never be to become bitter…but to get better.
