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Posts Tagged ‘spirituality’

Who’s Really In Charge?

21 Jan

For You!

You are! We are in charge of our FAB, our feelings, attitudes and behaviors. Sometimes we want to blame others for our reactions to things, but we are able to choose our response. You may have to catch yourself in mid-blurt of frustration or anger or aggravation, but we really can train ourselves to not REACT! every time we get upset. It’s learning to hold on to those good moments, those happy places and dwell on those good things that help. I know it does, I know it helps. I also know from personal experience it takes work, and you have to make yourself believe that you are WORTH putting the work and effort in for too. I know you are worth it, and I don’t even have to know your name. You have value because you exist, and I know that God loves us too. Just because we exist. Even if you want to dismiss this because it’s “God” stuff, take a moment to read it. You may be surprised.

God loves us. God loves you. He is touched by our problems and hurts with us through the hard times of life. He is there to breathe new life into the dead places of our lives. He wants us to learn how to live at rest, zenned out .

God’s Records of Me:

You have recorded my troubles. You have kept a list of my tears. Aren’t they in your records, you put them all in bottles. Psalm 56:8

God…”hurts with the hurt of my people.” Jeremiah 8:21

Lord God, when burnout singes, let us sing praise, let us go feel the wind, let You fan the embers into flames of joy.

Are you tired? Worn Out? Burned out on life and religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything ill-fitting or heavy on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly. Matthew 11: 28-30

Hope is really a positive attitude. It’s expecting that something good is going to happen in your life. Be a prisoner of hope. In other words, believe God can change whatever needs to be changed and that you can do whatever needs to be done. Zechariah 9:12: Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce to you that I will restore twice as much to you.

Psalm 65:11 You crown the year with your goodness and your paths drip with abundance.

Psalm 40:6 Doing something for you, bringing something to you – that’s not what you’re asking for. You’ve opened my ears so I can listen. 7-8 So I answered, “I’m coming. I read your letter you wrote about me, and I’m coming to the party you’re throwing me.” That’s when God’s words entered my life, became part of my very being.

Hear my child, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many. I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in paths of uprightness. Proverbs 4:10-11

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing: Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Philippians 4:8

Be encouraged! Don’t live in the valley of doubt and anger and resentment. You are hurting yourself when you choose to do that, you are not being the person you want to be. Have a question? Want to share your ideas? Please leave a comment for me to respond to. Thanks, Angela

2 Comments

Posted in overcoming, Ponderings

How Much Grace Do You Have?

21 Sep

These words on grace by Annie J. Flint really spoke to me today:

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.
Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.
His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

I have recently exhausted my personal supply of strength and resources. My peace evaporated in the heat of daily stress. Trials seemed to loom on every side. But guess what? His limitless love came racing back to me when I read these words above, reminding of how freely God wants to give to me, again and again and again.

I also love what Roy Lessin had to say about grace: “Recently, I have to come to understand God’s grace to mean this…Jesus Christ will be to me all that I cannot be; He will do for me all that I cannot do; He will work through me all He calls me to be and to do…not once in awhile, but always; He will give it, not in tiny measure, but abundantly, over and over again.”

This is the God I know, but so few people seem to know this one. The god they know is chasing them with a to do list that never gets done, with a check list of all the things they are doing wrong, and another list of things they must accomplish to make him happy. My Abba God is not like that. Not at all. He loves me. He loves me when I get everything right. He loves me when I get everything wrong. He just loves me, period. This may not be the God you know, but He and His Son are real, and they love us with a never ending, never rejecting, never condemning love. I want to love like that. I want to remember He loves me like that too, especially on the days the walls are falling in on me. His grace enables me to experience the truth of His love. I’m glad of Annie J. Flint’s words reminding me of this. Grace is a beautiful part of love and hope and happiness.

Thanks to these reminders, my week just got better! Hope this will help improve yours as well. Talk to you soon! Angela

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Posted in gratitude, Ponderings

The Walking Wounded

22 Jul

Life has shot arrows at all of us. Unfortunately it isn’t some figurative bow they come from, but actual hands and mouths of people we know. Christians like to shoot their wounded, so they are gone and don’t remind them of their failures in ministry. But then…..others still open arms and hearts, like Ann Voskamp does, to try to answer questions, to help us not feel alone, to remind us we are not the only wounded soul on this planet…..sad is that, but true. Ann, I want to thank you for your blog. http://www.aholyexperience.com/ It has been a refreshing fountain for me to come and sit beside. You are a blessing to me.

A Place of Defense

I have been reading her for a few weeks now, her life is so different than mine, but still we have suffered similar things. Funny that thing of experience. Pain knows no boundaries, and we have all been touched by it. One of my dear Catholic friends once told me our pain is never wasted, God sees it as a sacrifice, sees and aches and hears our cries, so to never feel our pain is wasted. I am 4 or 5 years divorced from my former husband of 28 years, 3 children, and now 6 grand-children. Never thought it would be like that. But the nights when all I could do was collapse on my kitchen floor and cry, and ask the same questions we all have asked, “Why God? Why me? What did I do to deserve this, why are You letting this happen to me, to us, to my family?” Left for a time wondering if He even heard me, ever, at all.

But then, in a desperate night, feeling like a piece of garbage thrown away, God sent a friend. An old friend I wasn’t in touch with, who suddenly had my cell number and was calling me. Do I answer, or do I not? I answered, and then decided not to kill myself that night, not giving into the aching part of me that screamed I was a failure and it was all my fault. Because of course it wasn’t. God gave her, my friend, what I needed in that desperate hour to not do a desperate thing. And I made it through that night, and then a week, a month, almost a year…..

A place to rest...

Then again, when I needed some desperate touch from someone in flesh and blood and not just ethereal God, another friend from long ago and far away calls, warning of disaster, need to change this and not do that, real specific things she couldn’t have known without Someone giving her details. Once again, disaster was averted, and I was ok, and didn’t feel so lost, or abandoned or uncared for.

I pray for those of you who have suffered too. Suffered at the hands of friends, suffered at the hands of family, suffered from places too vast to mention here. I pray for you. For the same God who came to my desperate need and rescue to do the same wonderful things you need, and rescue you from a pit of despair, or a dark night or cloudy day. I know it won’t be exactly the same as what He did for me, because you need specific things for yourselves. I will be watching and reading as you share. Tell me how you have been rescued, how God and the universe did what you needed, and when and how.

You are not alone. If you are reading this, you are not alone. Others have suffered and survived and grown through it. You can too. That is also a prayer I will pray for you. I pray for your heart and soul to be washed in peace, to be rinsed in love and to be softened in hope. To dry and be strong, not brittle or hard, but strength of character, of honor, of justice. If injustice has been served to you, do not become the thing you hate and serve injustice to others. Serve Justice, Rightness, Quality. Do not become the thing you hate. Do not give in to it. Reach out and reach up. You can do this.

We are here together in this space and time. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. I cherish each response. As always, Angela

2 Comments

Posted in Ponderings, recovery

Holding On, Letting Go

12 Jul

I hold onto things. I have a hard time letting go. I think I learned this from my parents. Fine folks, my parents. Really good people. Parents raised by parents that survived a Depression, people who didn’t let go of anything because you never knew when you wouldn’t have enough, or when you might need more, or just have to have that thing you just let go of. So, I have learned my lessons well, and have a hard time letting go.

Unfortunately, I have lots of stuff I haven’t let go of yet. Bits of colored cloth I might make into something one day. Broken jewelry that needs a new clasp, or a broken bead removed, that will tarnish or turn before I get around to fixing it. A broken cup I keep gluing back together with Elmer’s school glue….non-toxic….I figure I can still use it if it’s non-toxic, right? A couple of pairs of shoes I can’t break in, they hurt my feet so badly! But I paid new price for them, so how can I just let them go?

Unfortunately too, it’s not just tangible things I hold on to, it’s many intangibles I have forgotten I hold. Memories that pop up like ugly jesters to poke fun of me in my head; “Aha! Caught you! You really are dumb, know that? You can’t figure this out, why even try?” The mocking words can go on and on, unless I think about it and stop them. Sometimes it takes me a little while to realize these words are rolling on and on in my head, like loose marbles rattling around, bumping into things and stirring up dust and cobwebs. Then suddenly I really hear them, and I stop, and think, now why am I doing this? And then I stop them. On Purpose. No, I am not dumb, I can figure this out. If I can’t figure this out, I can ask for help from my friends. I try because I can try, I have abilities and have worked hard to know and understand things, so….I might not have my answers right now, but I will….and not just my answers, but God answers, and friend answers or just because I needed it answers, an answer shows up and tells me hello. The answer will come. I just need to let go….

Let go of the anxiousness, let go of the fear, let go of the doubt and take hold of other things. Those things that are lovely, things that are pure, things that are noble, admirable and right…think and ponder and dwell on these things. Your puppy’s smiling face when you get home from work, the grand-baby that runs wide open into your arms when you pull up to see them. The day we get rain. The day we don’t. The way your significant one looks at you like you are a long tall glass of water on a very hot day. The fireman that saved the kid, or the dog, or the cat. The lost child that was found, the found treasure that was lost.

Hold on to the good, let go of the so-so. Hold onto things that are needed, let go of the excess. Hold on to the love, to the happiness, the fun and good times. Think on these things. Make a conscious effort to change your mind. Think on these things.

So, I need to take my own advice…and let go….

Let go of those things I hold onto that only weigh me down. Bitterness at lost friends, anger at an ex-boss, disappointment in myself for not being greater than and all that and better and super. Just let go, and love me and love others and love God and ….just….let….go…..and lean into that love that is there from children and grandchildren, from good friends and family. Love of color, love of fun, love of good food, and good times and all the good things I have been blessed with. So, …

Let’s learn together of the the things we need to let go of, and in return the good things we need to hold on to. To let go of mediocre because we are afraid better isn’t coming. To hold onto hope, because it is one of the greatest powers on earth. To let go of doubt, and fear because they are poison to our hearts and minds. Hold on with me, and I’ll hold on with you!

5 Comments

Posted in Ponderings