Mary – Page 42

January Means New Beginnings

January 11, 2015 by Mary

2015 Manifesto! New Year’s day is a fantastic time to begin again. Start with some new thoughts and find hope in God’s promises. Hold your chin up and march forward. Today is a new day. Yesterday is behind you. In Christ, you are a new creation. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 29:11) God has your whole life in His hands. Trust.

January, a time of patient expectancy. The Holidays are over and we enter a new year, a time to look toward the future and hope for the coming year. In the newness of January I pray silently for each of my friends and loved ones, for health, peace, joy, and prosperity in the coming months. I know all too well that there are years I wish I could forget due to tragedy, loss, distress and the depression that looms after the loss of a loved one.

I begin again to savor moments spent with special people, health, my own personal sense of peace and the joy of a happy marriage. The start of each New Year is filled with promise, and hope helps me to hold dear to my dreams, as while I build them, they often seem distant and unobtainable.

I see promise in the plans and dreams of my adult children and take note that our daughter now embraces the beginning of a new year much like I do. We are list makers and goal setters. We both need to see our plans in writing in order for them to feel tangible. While the weather is frigid, I find myself buying in bulk so I don’t have to go out but can instead, stay indoors and dream, write, plan, and create. Something about January entices me to make hearty dinners for my family and they look forward to a hot dinner awaiting them after work or school.

By the end of January I will begin thinking about planting indoor bulbs like tulips and hyacinths, as when they pop their heads up from the soil in mid February, the emerging plants give me hope of Spring!

January is a time for organizing, a time to begin anew, to try new things and work toward articulating those things we want to change, improve upon, start over, or begin. A new year pushes us forward not allowing us to get stuck in the past, as time waits for no man, and we are then propelled to move with it.

As Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ, the Church now begins the liturgical countdown toward His death and resurrection on Easter Sunday, each moment in time yet connected to another. This year I will again watch “The Passion of Christ” so I don’t forget the price that He paid. For some, this may sound gruesome, but my spirit needs reminders that as a human being, I am very blessed. I need reminders that Christ had the utmost humility, and I should desire humility for myself. The constant reminder of the life and death of Christ brings me hope that some day there will be no more suffering, no more tears, no more pain, as our family suffered many losses during this 7 year season.

I refrain from setting resolutions, but rather, set workable goals. I will plug away at accomplishing my goals, realizing that those who succeed are those who have acquired the disciplines of perseverance, temperance, and consistency!

May this New Year find you filled with hope and patient expectancy. May you and your friends and loved ones find in 2014, health, peace, joy, and prosperity, and may you savor moments spent with special people. May you find promise in and hold onto your dreams and may January find you with quiet moments by which you may articulate those things you wish to change, get better at, start over, or begin.

Most of all, may your spirit be filled with HOPE.

New Studies Start in January

December 2, 2014 by Mary

Two new studies starting in January!!!

Make sure you order your workbooks!

January-March–I will post workbook prompts, devotions and food for thought to guide you through the 101 days in the workbooks. The workbooks are a great tool to personalize and journal your journey, and the really good additional stuff will be posted here.

To order either one of the workbooks, visit my store:

www.hopefilledliving.com/store

I don’t know about you–but it seems crazy to be thinking about January already! But with holiday mail–it’s best to order your books before Christmas so you can start with the group in January.

If you already did the Spiritual Wellness workbook last January, perhaps try the new Gratitude workbook. I will be working through both of them myself! I have completed two of the Spiritual Wellness workbooks already, but I keep learning every time I start a new one!

Spiritual Wellness is available now and Gratitude will be available between Christmas and New Years. If you order both, they will ship separately.

I can’t wait to work through these books with you in the coming year. We have so much to look forward to! I pray that you will make the commitment to join our study group and do the steps each day.

Hugs and Kisses,
Mary

The Heart

October 27, 2014 by Mary

Lord_help_me_focus
As we begin our week, may we take a look inward–at the truths of the heart. If you invited Jesus in for a visit…would there be rooms that you would not want him to see?

The heart is like our home–some rooms are beautiful and you want to share them with visitors, while other rooms–you know, the ones you throw all of the junk in when company is coming and close the door–hoping they won’t look inside…yeah, those messy rooms–you just don’t want anyone to see! We all have rooms like that in our hearts….Secrets that we don’t think anyone knows. God knows and sees our hearts. He loves us anyway.

So, the beginning of a new week is a great time to do some spiritual housekeeping. Amen???

xoxo.
Mary

Perfectionism

August 5, 2014 by Mary

“Hi, I’m Pam”. She enters through the big old double doors- laden

with doggy kisses, looks up to a chandelier encrusted with cobwebs.

“It’s been a long time since I have been well enough to do all this myself”, I admit, bowed head.

Sometimes we need a hand up.

Moments later, she leans into the deep, claw foot bathtub to swirl her magic whitener around the rim. Her helper, on hands and knees, scrubbing away months of sickness, scrubbing the grout of 150-year-old tile. When you walk into my house, and the cobwebs greet you before me, it is hard to believe that I am a perfectionist.

Why is it so hard to admit that I cannot do it all? I have been hanging onto the hope of one day being able to once again, like my 20- something self, holding onto the hope that I will be able to accomplish everything in a day and make a good dinner at the end of it.

The stress of too much responsibility and unreasonably high expectations has helped to erode my health through the years.

It’s hard to admit that I am sick. It’s hard to admit that I cannot do it all. It’s hard to admit that I need help, but as I look around this old house, I realize how out of proportion my expectations have been for myself. I do not hold anyone in my life to the same set of standards.

I don’t mind seeing the dust on my neighbor’s china cabinet, shoes strewn about…I love her just the same, and am perhaps a little more comfortable in her mess—because I realize she’s human.

What is it about women that causes us to live on a merry-go-round of to –do lists and too much to do, quietly wearing down our bodies? Why is it that I don’t want my good friend and neighbor to come in for tea and conversation if my counters are cluttered or there is dust on the china cabinet, or dirty dishes? Do these things make me less valuable as a person, as a woman of God? Life is messy. Loving is messy. Friendship is messy. Being sick is messy.

Perfectionism can cause us to hole up in our houses and shut ourselves away from people because we feel shame that things are not as we wish. Perfectionism can cause us to feel less in our walk with God, as we strive increasingly harder to free ourselves from sin.

Perfectionism overflows like water running in the sink– flooding the way we feel about our bodies when we look into the mirror.

Perfectionism erodes self-esteem and causes us to set unrealistic expectations which can never be met.

Deep down, there is a wounded girl inside each of each us. The deeper our wounds, the more we try to hide behind being perfect as women. “You’re not skinny enough, pretty enough, brave enough, smart enough, fast enough, wholesome enough. You can’t, you never did, you never will, you should have, you could have”. As children, teenagers, young adults–these words hurt us, hardened us, made us hard on ourselves.

There is a God who says you and I are enough. He created the girl inside each of us, perfectly. The sin of the world wounded her, but the good news is that we can be set free from the bondage and the weight of those things which have caused us to pick at ourselves and see ourselves through a critical eye, those things which have caused us to feel ashamed of the cobwebs, ashamed of our bodies, ashamed of being human.

There is a God who says, “take my hand” and helps us up. He sees the dust, the dirty dishes and all the other dirt we try to hide. He sees it all, and loves us tenderly, without judgment and without criticism. His words are like music to our ears. He sees you and He sees me through the cobwebs and the messiness of humanity.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Thank you, Lord, that I am your child. I ask you to hold the wounded girl inside of me tight in your arms because life is messy. Help me to see myself through your eyes rather than my own critical eyes. Help me to forget voices from my past that continue to echo through the years that I am less—not enough. Give me friends to share my days with, and help us to love one another without judgment, because loving others is messy. Teach me to know when my body is tired and to take care of it by setting limits and understanding that I do not have to accept false responsibility. Take my shame and eroded sense of self and speak to me of my value, my worth. Amen.