Let IT Go

If you are alive, breathing, and moving you will face some challenges in life. Life is designed to chisel away our known and unknown imperfections to help us live a better life while on Earth. I have encountered some “life” moments that have absolutely shaken me to my core. I have wept so bitterly, that I felt as if this was the end of my life. But I have also lived some life moments that have left me speechless. You know the kind where your mouth is open in awe and amazement and you thank the Good Lord for allowing you just to witness what happened. However, the question that plagues my mind is why? Why are there moments that we can explain and then suddenly moments we cannot explain.  Why is there so much pain in the world? Why does it seem that sometimes evil wins and good is hiding? Why am I living a life that I didn’t exactly plan?

WHY? This three-letter word has plagued people for centuries. Here’s what I have learned in my short time here on Earth. Why is a question that although we ask it, we rarely want the answer to it.  We question circumstances, like when the car breaks and you just spent your emergency fund on braces for your oldest child. We question people, when your spouse that you love with all of your heart suddenly walks out your front door. We question, God… if you love me why is all of this happening to me?  Without ceasing we ask why, but do not stop to hear the response.

When why happens to you, don’t spend the rest of your life being angry in search of the answer. Let IT go.  Know that life is going to be filled with some why moments but let IT go. You know IT, whatever is keeping you from recovering from one of those moments. You know IT, that holds you hostage to hate, rejection, loneliness. You know IT, a failed marriage, prodigal child, lack of money to survive. Let IT go.  Don’t let IT stop you from living.

Happy New Life!

Look Again

So today I spent about an hour cleaning my daughters clean room…sound crazy?  It was. She, at 11, sent me a text message, from school, begging me to find her lost gift card because she wants to use it after school. Well, since I am the best Mom ever I decided to venture into her room to find this “missing” gift card. Her room was already clean (it’s required), so I really just tried to retrace her steps from two days ago when I handed her the gift card. She is such a free spirit not worrying about anything, except her fashion! As I cleaned the room again, I still didn’t find the card. I felt sad because I didn’t’ want to disappoint her.

This afternoon when she came home, I encouraged her to look again, and see if she could find it. After about fifteen minutes elapsed, I walked by her room and there she was, tears in her eyes, sprawled out over her bed. “Did you find it?” I asked.  “No.” She could barely speak because of the tears. Well I began some lecture about responsibility and the value of things, and told her to look again. She did not move off the bed. While I continued, I opened a drawer that I had just searched two hours ago and there among her shirts, was the gift card.

I picked it up, still lecturing (ha) and said, “See daughter, sometimes, you just have to look again.” Just like life, those tests, people, circumstances that cause you despair, instead of laying on the bed with tears in your eyes, get up and Look Again!

Happy New Look!!  🙂

 

The Power of Breath

Have you ever stopped to think how many parts of your body are involved when you take a breath? Have you ever thought about what must go on internally when you take a breath to speak? Have you ever thought about what happens when your body works as one, and you breath, speak, sing, or yell? I can tell I have never thought about any of the mechanisms involved in breathing until I am having a problem breathing. Where my breath comes from is never a thought in my mind, I expect, no I demand for it to be there when I need it.

I don’t always stop to think how I am using my words toward someone. Most of the time, I don’t even care if they understand what I am saying, I mean if they fail to understand, I usually say that is their fault (anyone else guilty)! I am breathing right now as I type this but I haven’t once thought what would happen if I wasn’t? That is the problem I face today.

Are we taking our every breath for granted? Are we using our breath to spread gossip, lies, doubt, mistrust, hatred, death? Are we using breath, breath that is a gift from God alone, to kill not just others but ourselves? I can’t spend my life using the gift of breath, to snatch the breath out of someone else…no one has that power. But that is exactly what we do when the only objective is to be selfish. The next moment you speak, the next moment you yell, the next conversation you begin, ask am I using the power of breath for good?

Now, take a breath.

 

Happy New Life!

Teamwork

When my Daughter was growing up , there was a show on called the Wonder Pets, it was about three friends that were the class pets for a preschool. They had amazing adventures helping other animals in danger after the kids left for the day. The three friends were a turtle, a duck, and a hamster. I absolutely loved this show! It was totally adorable and believable, it was a great reminder of the importance of teamwork.

Teamwork. That word is not heard very often today. Everyone is trained to accomplish goals alone. We live in a world full of “I”.  I can do it, I don’t need help, I make the difference, I am important. Now, don’t get it twisted, there are somethings that I can do, but we were made for relationship. It’s no fun to work in an organization and lie, cheat, manipulate others so I can be number one. Why are we so afraid to work together with others? Why do we fear others knowing if we are weak in an area? Why do we spend our lives chasing possessions, money, empty relationships just to be hurt in the end? Because if I admit that I am weak, you might use that against me. If I admit that I spend all of my time working to show off my “keeping up with the Joneses” stuff, you might think I am shallow. If I avoid people and relationships at any cost you might think I am scared to be myself around others.

You want to know the truth? We need each other. Skin color doesn’t matter, economic standing doesn’t matter, education doesn’t matter, we need each other.  What I learn from the Wonder Pets is they are individuals that alone are not successful but together they are awesome. Each of them have insecurities but when they work together they have the right stuff. The world is longing for people to work together. Relationships, families, schools, need everyone to make our future successful.  Get around some people who may not look like you, think like you, or even act like you, but they are human just like you. As the Wonder Pets always say, “What’s gonna work…TEAMWORK!”

HAPPY NEW LIFE!!

Help!

I don’t know about you, but I do not really like to ask for help. Being the oldest child I have learned how to offer help to those who are younger than me. I have always extended courtesy to others when it is obvious to me that they needed some assistance. My sister says, I have the heart to help the “underdog.” But when I need help, I find myself scrambling to figure out the problem and save face so others do not perceive me as weak. What’s up with that? The world teaches us how to take care of me and mine, and you get whatever is left. The world tells me to step on, and step over those in my way of success or getting what rightfully belongs to me. Use whatever means necessary to ensure my ability to climb the ladder of success, have the best house, the best children, the best marriage, even if it is a lie.

For the last few weeks I have been attending a women’s bible study that has challenged me to my core. As a believer, it is easy for me to offer help to those that I believe are struggling more than me, why, because I know the secret-don’t let anyone know I am really the one who needs help. So where’s the disconnect? When did it not become ok, to need help? When we were children, we asked our parents, as students we asked our teachers, as adults, we become silent.  Today, I need help. I need God. I need unconditional love. I need grace. I need mercy. All of these things can only come when I ask for help, genuinely without fear, without wondering who might talk about me, without consequence because I want to be whole.

Life is so precious and wasting time pretending to be fine when you are screaming on the inside doesn’t make sense. I challenge you tonight to ask for Help!

Happy New Life!!

Passwords

For the last two months I have been trying to remember my password to my school issued email account. The university sends out reminders that your password is going to expire and in that email they give you the option while reading the email to click the link and reset your password. Now, here’s the problem.  I was in the computer lab and did not have my journal to write down the new password, so I found a receipt in my purse and created a new one.  I should have used one of the generated ones and taken a picture of it with my cell phone, but no I wanted to be fancy and make up one that I could remember. Well I scribbled the first combination of letters, numbers and symbols that came to my head and created a new password. All was well until I received notification on my iPad I had a new email for the upcoming semester. Well, I touched the app and it launched and then the dreaded pop-up box appeared. “Please enter your new password.” I didn’t even sweat it, I went to my purse and looked for the receipt.

Oh no!!!!!!! I can’t find the receipt. I don’t know where it is. Did I throw it away? This can’t be happening, how am I going to fix this problem? Oh wait I know, I can hit lost password and reset it with no problem, except when it asks me to answer the security question, I don’t know the answer!!  AUGHHHHHH!!!! I panicked and attempted this daunting task. I hit the reset button and up pops the security question, and I knew the answer!! Success!  I reset the password, wrote it down in the proper place and thought no more about it.

I giggle when I remember the sheer fear that gripped me when I couldn’t remember my password. I mean I didn’t want to see those dreaded words, Access Denied appear on my screen, because then it would seem that I am not authorized to open this account. My identity and authenticity of ownership would be questioned. Although I know I am the rightful owner, the system did not recognize me without the password.  Our life has a series of passwords.  See, these unique combinations represent change and as I’ve grown I have given access to those that I want in my life. If today you have anything or anyone in your life that doesn’t quite fit, and your access denied box keeps popping up it may be time to change some passwords!

Happy New Life!

 

It’s NEVER Too Late

Let’s be honest with ourselves, we all have hopes, dreams, goals, aspirations, plans and then reality hits. You lose your scholarship for college, you have to work two jobs just to pay off your tuition balance, maybe you become a parent, unplanned and unexpected, maybe there is a family emergency and you have to place your life on hold to be with the family. Maybe you fail your first semester and end up on probation, or maybe you just quit. Regardless of the circumstance, your performance, or your diligence, sometimes life is just hard and dreams sometimes fade. For the last five years, you have promised yourself to go back to school and finish that degree, to become more so your children have an example to follow, to pay off debt, and revive the dream that once burned within you, but you are stuck right now. You are doing your routine, work, family, home flawlessly but secretly wondering is this all my life is going to be? I am ever going to finish anything that I really want? Something has to give…

Right now, you have been blessed with an amazing opportunity, TODAY. Stop planning to do something and do it now. I know, it sounds good and it even may get you excited but life has a way of reminding you what your priorities are. Well, no life is worth living without a dream. Children are the best example of how adults (grown children) need to live. They want to be astronauts, presidents, scientist, rock stars, teachers and all of those dreams live because they do not worry about what tomorrow may bring. Children remind us that we always have time to live the dream that is inside our heart. Children remind us to have NO FEAR!! Take the limits off yourself and run until you finish.  No, I certainly don’t want to be five again, but I do want that faith of my five-year old self. I tell you the truth, It’s Never Too Late! See you at the finish line!

Happy New Life!

Untie and Unite

Did you just say those two words aloud? I know I have been saying them since about 5 this morning. I was attempting to sleep but I could not get away from these two words. Being a word junkie I looked them up and jumped out of my bed to write. (ok, I’m writing about 3 hours later, ha!)

So, this is what I found out: Untie- to loosen or unfasten to free from restraint, to resolve. Many times we only think of untie in relationship to our shoes. Unite- to join, combine, to form a single or whole unit, to act in concert or agreement.

What is so crazy about these words is they contain the same letters just placed differently. I thought about life, there are many things in our lives that use the same words but their place in our lives are drastically different. When you unite  in marriage you join your family to another family. You no longer function as a single unit you become whole and during that process you must untie  some knots in your life in order to live free from restraint and conflict in your new life.

Wow!!! As I thought about my life today, I was blown away. What things have I united with when I should have untied? Where have I untied relationships, family, change for my level of comfort?  This is a self check for me. I must pay close attention to how I am using words and knowing what I mean, but not aware of what I say. Today, UNTIE and then UNITE.

Happy New Life!!

 

Today

Last night I spent over a half-hour watching and listening to some new internet based 100% commission program that is absolutely free. Why was I watching it? Well, I received a friend request on Facebook and ventured to the person’s page to see if the request was legitimate. I did not know the person but clicked on the link anyway. As I listened to the CEO speak about this unprecedented, once in a lifetime opportunity, I will admit I was intrigued; but after doing my own research I found it to be another type of scheme where those already “in” were rich and those “joining” were not going to be rich.  I thought, man we live in a world where words can cause you to do almost anything!  People are thirsty for words that affirm, build-up, encourage, challenge, and give hope. Yet, we spend our entire lives using words in the opposite context. We use them to lie, hurt, manipulate, and destroy.

Today, I will use words to change my life and the lives of those I love. I will not waste time offering a promise that I cannot deliver hoping to trap someone by my words. I will use words to love. I will use words to build up. I will use words to strengthen anyone who is down. I will use words to LIVE.

Today, you and I have been blessed with another chance to get it right. Today, we have the opportunity to give hope. Today, right now as I type and you read we have the choice to change our world with our words for better. Today, is a gift, use it well.

Happy New Life, TODAY!!!

Begin Again

Life.  It is one of the most rewarding, most difficult, most complex, most fun gifts that we have been given. Life takes everything that you are and then demands more than seems possible for you to give. Life, is an individual journey, shared with family, friends, enemies, and strangers. There are moments when words escape you to describe how you feel, then there are moments when life causes you to burst into uncontrollable laughter, some moments that you cry, and some where there is no emotion at all. Yet, we all have one life.

January is the first month of the calendar year, most of the world makes resolutions, determinations, just plans to live life differently than the last twelve months. By the end of this first month, most of us have returned to Life, just how it was last year. Why is that? I mean is it difficult to commit? Do we really think that changing is the best option until we have to do it? Is it peer pressure, is it laziness, is it fear? What happens between December 31 and January 31 has stifled the entire population. There is a drive to be, to do something anything new, until Life interrupts. So how do we change that?

What guides you? What are you passionate about? Who do you love? These questions hold the answer to your attempt and mine in January that fail by February. If we set a goal, why is the goal not centered around my passion? If we want a change in our lives, why not focus on the people we love to help change it? If we want a new career, why are we afraid to follow our hearts desire? Why? Because we think if we try to and fail, it’s over. Here’s the truth, every morning we have new mercies, new grace, to begin again. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is not promised, but you have today. Begin Again, right now. Accomplish something today. Don’t spend this gift of today planning for next year, live right now.

Begin Again.

Happy New Life!

Lamentations 3:21-23