 |
| Monday |
| January 30, 2012 |
| Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:4 |
| Tuesday |
| January 31, 2012 |
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Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do; forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. |
| Wednesday |
| February 1, 2012 |
| In him we have redemption through the blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. Ephesians 1:7-8 |
| Thursday |
| February 2, 2012 |
| We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. Romans 12:6 |
| Friday |
| February 3, 2012 |
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He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. |
| Saturday |
| February 4, 2012 |
| Listen to this; stop and consider God's wonders. Job 37:14 |
| Sunday |
| February 5, 2012 |
|
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. |
| Most Popular Articles |
| The Meaning of Be Still will Surprise You |
| A Prayer for Being Overwhelmed |
| A Modern Day Good Samaritan Story |
The Lord is my Shepherd – What Leader are You Following?
Many references are made throughout the Bible about sheep and about the Lord being the Good Shepherd. There is the famous Psalm 23: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” John 10:14: “I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep.” John 10:27: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.”
In the United States we understand the reference but it’s rare to see a sheep other than in a petting zoo! On a recent choir trip to Scotland and England, the Bible verses literally came to life along the roadside, pastures and hills.
Throughout the British Isles sheep are a main fixture of the landscape.
Traveling from Manchester, England to Edinburgh, Scotland by motor coach, our tour guide pointed out a flock of sheep that started moving very suddenly. Up until that time, the sheep were either grazing or resting, they were never on the move. He explained to us that when one sheep started to move, that first sheep became the leader and the other sheep would follow. It was really quite amazing to watch. Right in the middle of eating some grass, they saw the leader and took off.
How often do we lose sight of our inner knowing and being guided by God and take off in another direction lead by another voice? It happens all of the time. Jeremiah 50:3 says, “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have lead them astray.”
We can always get back on track. I Peter 2:25: “For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
Listening to the voice of our true Leader and Shepherd means being still and getting quiet. Meditation is a great way to learn how to be still. If you’ve never practiced meditation, it is a powerful practice to quiet the mind.
Are other voices leading you astray, or are you being lead in the right direction? Your true Shepherd is always there to listen and to lead.
An Inspired Life Six Day FREE Event With Six Christian Women Experts
An Inspired Life Series is a six-day event featuring six different Christian Women experts talking about the importance of mind, body and spirit. I am honored to have been chosen to talk about a subject I love – meditation. My hour long segment is entitled Meditation – Stop Being Overwhelmed and Start Being Empowered. The event starts August 1 and ends on August 6. Meditation – Stop Being Overwhelmed and Start Being Empowered will be featured on Wednesday, August 4th.
Ginny Edwards, a certified Christian Life Coach and founder of Times of Refreshing Wellness Center, will be our host. The series is FREE, however, reservations are required and seating for the six-day seminar event is limited. Claim your seat now and find out all of the details. Please join us!
It’s Okay to Get Angry – Sometimes Releasing Anger is Just What You Need
Now the title of my post of saying it’s okay to get angry does not encourage you to go off on someone or lose your temper. That’s not what I mean. I teed up what I was going to share with you on my prior post Seeking and Finding Abundant Wholeness. Expressing our anger is sometimes exactly what we need to get unstuck.
When we don’t deal with issues that are stuffed down, it makes us feel stuck and overwhelmed. That was certainly the case with me. I was stuck. The process I used to get unstuck was the power of meditation and journaling.
I drew this meditation cartoon as an example of what happens when we don’t get quiet and do some soul searching. We can get wound pretty tight as a result!
I took a cartoon class a year ago and as a result I finally began to draw again after thirty years. You see, growing up I had always wanted to be an artist. That was my passion. As a kid you would always find me with crayons in my hand. As I became older (meaning a teenager) I moved on to charcoal, pastels and dabbled in some painting. Art was an escape for me. I was in my creative world where everything was fun and beautiful – a contrast to the reality of living in an environment with an unstable father who was an alcoholic. His drinking didn’t make him a happy drunk, quite the contrary. We never discussed Dad’s outbursts and violence. That’s pretty hard to process as a child.
Be Still and Know that I am God – The Meaning of Be Still Will Surprise You
The words – Be Still – can mean not moving, and being quiet. From a biblical perspective, I was shocked and actually had to laugh when I found out the literal meaning.
The sermon at church one morning focused on the passage from Mark, Chapter 5. Jesus had been overwhelmed when so many people wanted to make contact with him. That’s right, Jesus was overwhelmed. He made the decision to take a boat across the water to escape the crowd. A huge storm rolled in. The disciples were freaked out and scared to death. They looked for Jesus to help them and found him fast asleep from exhaustion. They were terrified because of the storm and woke Jesus up. According to Mark’s account, Jesus was not happy. He was quite mad. So much so that he yelled, “Peace, Be Still!” The storm and the huge waves stopped immediately. The literal translation of, Be Still is – Shut Up!
The bible verse, Psalm 46:10 – Be still and know that I am God – is also translated to mean – Shut up and know that I am God. Another pastor I met told me about that translation and used the analogy of the proverbial, family road trip. You know the one, with the kids in the back seat saying, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” The answer, of course, is be still or shut up!
If you Fall off the Meditation Wagon (or Meditation Horse) – Just Get Back on Again
I officially launched this website just after Thanksgiving. There were a lot of technical issues to resolve and a lot of parts and pieces to get in order. But the website child was finally born!
Of course Thanksgiving is the start of the holiday season. I was determined to not let the holidays steal my joy which they had done every year, so I decided to blog with a new Christmas idea every day.
Having not fine-tuned a daily blogging habit on my other site, the process wasn’t exactly flowing. But by the middle of the month, I was tooling along. The problem was that the month of December was filled with a ton of other commitments: end of the year doctor appointments for my mother and myself in order to take advantage of the deductible for the year, choir practices and concerts, family coming in from out of town and all of the to do’s that come with Christmas – shopping, baking, wrapping presents, cleaning – Need I go on?
I was getting up before the crack of dawn to craft my tip, idea or inspirational thought for the day then flying out the door to take care of my other responsibilities. Something had to give and unfortunately, I let it be my fifteen minute meditation practice. THAT was the one small, chunk of time that I should have protected.
But, my friends, even as one who has dedicated her life to teach and involve people into the practice of meditation, I let myself fall of the meditation horse. Why?
Sometime between the Activities of the Day, Take a Walk or at Least Pause and Enjoy the Most Special of Holidays
I’m sure you’re running around like me today. We are having the entire family over for a turkey dinner. So, I’ll be cooking from early in the morning until late into the afternoon.
There will be unwrapping presents and playing with children. Before you know it, the big, Christmas day we have planned for, shopped for, cooked for and probably stressed out over will be over in the blink of an eye.
Tomorrow will be business as usual.
Silent Night – Holy Night – Take in the Stillness of Christmas Eve
I have to say that when Christmas decorations come out after Halloween that it gets a little much for me from a consumer’s perspective. But as a Christian, I am grateful for this over commercialization of Christmas simply because it has become such a do or die time period for retailers. So, from a positive perspective, Christmas has to be celebrated because too much of our economy depends on it! And when Christmas is celebrated, the true meaning of Christmas can’t be lost, which is to celebrate the birth of Christ.
I wanted to bring up the retail frenzy because our world has changed since I grew up as a child of the 1950’s. We didn’t have 24 hour anything. Stores were closed on Sundays, and the world ran at a different pace.
I particularly love Christmas because the majority of retail stores are closed. These sacred days are not business as usual. The world actually stops to be still.
This Christmas Eve take the time to enjoy this stillness. Take a drive and enjoy streets not filled with traffic. Notice parking lots of retail shops and malls completely void of cars.
There is truth in the most famous poem, now carol, Silent Night, written in 1816 by an Austrian priest named Joesph Mohr.
Silent night,
Holy night,
All is calm all is bright
To me, there is something magical about Christmas Eve. This magic doesn’t last but for a night.
So this Christmas Eve, be still and bathe your senses in a silent night.
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulder. And he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” – Isaiah 9:6
Christmas Ideas – Pray for Friends, Family, Loved Ones, Our Country Our World
Each December I let the hustle and bustle of the holiday season steal my joy. Not this year! This year I am celebrating Christmas with a new idea every day.
Don’t underestimate the power of prayer. When I talk about prayer, I mean talking to God. I am not talking about saying The Lord’s Prayer or a standard, memorized prayer. I have to confess that I have taken my definition of prayer for granted. My definition of prayer is talking to God – just as I am talking to you through the words on this page and through my video on the home page. I have come to understand that “my” definition is not the same as others. Here’s a story to explain what I mean.
Christmas Ideas – Bring in Nature as part of your Christmas Decor – And When You’re Putting Up your Christmas Decorations, Don’t Think Chore, Think that This is Meditation
This is Christmas idea number 10 in my countdown to Christmas. I’ll give you two Christmas decorating ideas that bring nature inside. At the beginning of the month I was determined not to let the hustle and bustle steal my joy. It’s working! I am celebrating Christmas every day with a new idea.
While I do recycle, and am respectful of our planet, I am not a fanatic about going green. However, at Christmas time, it’s nice to bring nature inside. I blogged earlier about supporting a local church by purchasing a Christmas tree. There is nothing quite like the smell of pine to put you in the Christmas spirit.
We had to clip off some of the lower branches so I saved those, cut them and arranged them in glass vases. I filled the vases with sufficient water. Then I stuck some fake, red holly berry stems that I had purchased from a craft store ages ago to make several, pretty red and green arrangements.
Another decorating idea using nature is to place a candle in a hurricane lamp and pour real cranberries around the candle. Make sure you don’t fill it up so far that the berries will burn. It’s very – or berry – colorful and looks great.
As you decorate, put on some Christmas music. This is a fun way to practice a form of Christian meditation. Meditation isn’t just about mantras and silence. Meditation also means thinking and planning. You are thinking and planning to celebrate the day of Christ’s birth. So, when you are putting up your Christmas decorations, don’t think of it as a chore. Take this opportunity to meditate. You’ll feel more joy and less stress in the process.
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulder. And he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” – Isaiah 9:6