Joyful Guardrails

What’s your greatest joy? My children and being their mom brings me more joy than anything else in life. But joy is not the only feeling that comes with parenting. There’s also worry, frustration, fear, even anger blended with the love and joy we experience as parents. How can we minimize these and find more …

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Why We Need to Surrender

I love how God plants similar thoughts with different people. Last week, I noticed a friend’s post on Twitter about letting go and receiving what we truly need.  I immediately agreed as letting go is on my mind and heart this month. Her reply to me?  Surrender = freedom. Yes! Wait, really? It’s the opposite …

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Letting Go of Perfect

We’re not perfectionists. Maybe not, but sometimes,  it felt like we were, or at least I was. It’s one thing to expect perfection (or as close as possible) from oneself. But when these same standards are now being applied to our children, they felt harsh, maybe dare I say, perfectionistic. I mentioned it to my …

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Choose Joy!

Choices.

We make literally hundreds to thousands of choices daily, many of which impact our future. We may not even be aware of their effect in the moment. But choices are powerful. One of mine, in particular, has had a lasting impact not only in my life but many others.

I chose joy.

A cloak of grief and sadness covered my life. I lost both Mom and Grandma within weeks of each other and it sent me reeling. After a year or so of navigating the heartache, I longed to be free of sadness. My life was ahead of me with a young family who I needed and needed me. So, I chose joy.

At the time, I didn’t recognize it as joy as much as choosing to let go of negative. I was tired of grief and regret and craved happier. I chose to purposefully seek positive.

When younger, my glass skewed half-empty with negative go-to reactions and worry as the norm. But in my twenties, I had shifted to being more positive. It was a willful choice, but soon I was seeing the world as half full.

Then in a blink, the two most influential women in my life were gone.

It was a deep, bruising blow and revived my negative nature.

To read the rest of my post and what I happened when I chose joy, click to see it on my friend Alisa Nicaud’s Flourishing Today blog!

Linking with the #Salt&Light ladies and Brenda at #ChasingCommunity 

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50 Life Lessons

My child listen to what I say, and treasure my commands.  Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.  Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding.  Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will …

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