Category: Hope
Transitional Friday: Home is where Heart is
For years I was unhappy with where I was living. I did not want to be there. I was fighting a spiritual battle, between what I wanted and what God wanted for my life.
There were times when the situation weighted so heavily on my heart that it gnawed away at me and I became angry.
Then a few months ago, God opened amazing doors for a new job in a new city an hour away.
I realized during this time that the place I’d been fighting living, had become more of a home than I ever expected or anticipated.
Only once I had left, did I realize how much this town and place had become home.
Often we don’t realize how important a place or person is until they are gone.
We are told to be “thankful in all things.”
This isn’t always easy, especially in trying circumstance. I’ve really struggled with this lesson at times.
However, that is exactly what God wants for us.
What have you been thankful in?
Transitional Friday: When God Answers Prayers
I’ve discussed discouragement and waiting for God, but eventually He will answer?
However, what happens once you finally have prayers answered?
I’ve had prayers answered that showed me this was not God’s will for my life and took me down a dark path. I’ve also had prayers answered that only God could orchestrate and proved this was God’s will for my life.
- Thank God for answered prayers
- Ask God if this is His will for my life
- Understand the lessons God has been teaching along the path
- Praise God for His blessings and provision
- Remember that God likes to show off to show what He can do
- The lesson in the wait is Faith, but we can’t abandon it once our prayers are answered
- Sometimes we have to get out of the boat and take the first step in faith
Transitional Friday: Why Doesn’t God Answer My Prayer
For years I waited, longing and struggling to change and improve my circumstances and situation. After leaving an abusive relationship, the journey to heal and recover took years.
I wondered if I would ever find the person I’d lost along the path.
I longed to be able to stand on my own two feet and to find a way to do this, but nothing seemed to be working.
I wondered if God heard my cries and prayers! Had He forsaken me! Would my circumstances ever improve?
Don’t get me wrong, my circumstances weren’t awful and were a whole lot better than they had been in the abusive relationship. I just wanted more to my life. There are still things, such as a family, that only God knows if and when that prayer will be answered.
- His reasons are often beyond are grasp
- He hears all of our prayers, cries, and tears
- His way is better than my way
- He is preparing me for a future that only He knows
- His timing is not my timing
- Sometimes His answer is no or not right now
- It’s not all about me. There are times we are where we are to help someone else. One example is being a caregiver.
What have you learned in the wait?
Transitional Friday: 7 Lessons Learned from Discouragement
There have been times when I wondered if anything was going my way.
No matter how hard I tried or how much effort I put into the endeavor nothing seemed to work.
This led to great disappointment and discouragement. There were days when depression hit and I nothing could lift my mood.
When discouraged, I have to remind myself that:
- This too shall pass
- God is preparing me for something better
- God has a better plan
- There is a reason for this
- I need to spend more time in God’s word and in prayer seeking His will
- I need to work off the depression
- My circumstances don’t identify me as a person
What has discouragement taught you?
Transitional Friday: Psalms 121:7-8–The Lord Will Protect Us
Last week, we discussed God’s protection as we watches over us. This week we are again reminded of this promise.
7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
The Lord will watch over and protect His children from harm. As we discussed last week, both known harm and unknown harm. I personally can think of several harmful situations God has protected me from.
he will watch over your life;
God doesn’t just watch over us for an hour or a day and then tire of us. He watches over us for our entire life. Even in those empty, sad moments when we feel all alone and that no one cares, God is still watching over us.
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
God watches over us in both life and the afterlife. From before our birth into the world, until long after we enter eternity with Him, God is with us watching over us and caring for us with only the protection He can provide.
both now and forevermore.
His promises, love and blessings last forever. Time is finite. Tomorrow is gone forever and yesterday is yet to be. However, right now is the time we are in and we will never have that time back. God holds all the yesterdays, todays and tomorrows in the palm of His hand. He is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, the same yesterday, today and forever.
Creativity Thursday: 9 Steps to make your creative dreams a reality
I would love to be able to make a full time living writing, but I have not reached that point yet.
However there are ways to turn a creative dream into a reality.
- Determine your dream—what do you want to do more than anything
- Determine the steps needed to reach this dream—what are the steps you need to reach this particular dream and goal
- Be honest—is this dream a reality? Can you work towards being a full time writer or a singer? Or do you want to be a basketball player, although you’re only 4’8? Be honest if this is doable and if it is not then how can you make it doable. You could become a basketball coach, cover the game for a local radio station or write the articles for the newspaper?
- Write out your dream—people are more likely to reach a goal when they write it down
- Learn, Learn, Learn—is returning to school an option? Do you need a coach? Conferences, seminars, blogs on your specialty, books and online classes are a great way to learn and grow.
- Practice, Practice, Practice—begin working on the craft and learning
- Network—whether it is attending conferences and seminars, joining local groups or finding a critique group find ways to network and continue learning.
- Business—remember that you are working towards establishing a business. Learn all you need to know about the business aspects of your industry. I know I’ve learned a lot through trial and error.
- Perseverance—don’t give up. The path is never straight and narrow. There will be many twists and turns along the way. The goal is to never give up but keep learning, practicing and working hard to move forward.
Leave a Reply: What have you done to make your dreams a reality?
Transitional Friday: Psalms 121:5-6–The Lord Watches Over You
Last week, we discussed how God will not let us fall
5 The Lord watches over you—
The dictionary describes watches as “”to be alertly on the lookout, look attentively, or observe, as tosee what comes, is done, or happens”
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
under God’s shade we can sit in his delight and assurance. God is always near his people for their protection and refreshment.
The right hand is the working hand and God wants His people to do their duty. When we do as God ask, He will give us success.
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
God will take care of His people when the storms come up in our lives.
nor the moon by night.
God sees what happens in both the open, as well as in secret. He protects us from both our known enemies and obstacles, as well as those we do not know anything about.
Transitional Friday: Psalms 121:1-2–I Will Lift My Eyes to the Hills
My life has felt like one long transition at times. This has been particularly true for the last few years, as I deal with changes and seek God’s will in various situations.
This month I would like to take an in-depth look at one of my favorite Psalm. I often turn to this verse for both guidance and comfort.
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
The Bible takes place in the modern day Middle East. During the Bible times mountains dotted the region and landscape.
Mountains often are a reference to authority or a rule. The author is most likely referring to God’s throne.
where does my help come from?
I know I often wonder where help will come from. When my prayers will be answered or how I will get through a situation.
2 My help comes from the Lord,
The speaker speaks of the greatness, power and glory of the Lord. Lifting up of the eyes is a gesture of prayer.
the Maker of heaven and earth.
God is the maker of both heaven and earth. He is the ruler over both the heavens and the earth.
Leave an answer: Where do you look for help?
Creative Thursday: 9 Ways to Discover Your Creativity
I’ve often had people tell me, “I’m just not creative.”
Perhaps, that person isn’t a musician, dancer, artist or writer. However, that person most likely still has some creative flair. Often it’s just discovering what the passion is and taping into it.
I’ve seen these same people become excited about designing a room, throwing a party, or working on various crafts. All of these are creative outlets.
So, how can you recognize your creative side?
- Passion—notice the things you are passionate about, such as designing a room, throwing a party, putting together an outfits, looking at floral arrangements, cooking, gardening, etc.
- Enjoyment—what are the things that you enjoy doing? How can you experiment and put a creative flair to the hobby?
- Experiment—be willing to tap into the left side of your brain. Step out of your comfort zone and experiment with a craft or hobby you’ve always wanted to learn. What do you have to lose? You may discover a new passion that was lying dormant.
- Unconscious Behavior—what are some things that you do unconsciously? This could include singing in the shower or car, doodling in a meeting, dancing around your house to your favorite songs, acting out stories, telling yourself or your children stories you’ve made up, etc. How could you take any of these behaviors to the next step and turn it into a hobby?
- Dreams—do you have a secret dream you are too afraid to admit? This could be to perform on stage, be a speaker, appear in a film, show a piece of art in the studio, etc. Ask yourself if you can realistically sing or create art, can you learn to and take baby steps to realistically reach your goal.
- Natural Talent—do you have a natural talent in an artistic field? Be willing to take lessons and develop this talent, even if it’s for your own personal enjoyment.
- Divine Inspiration—do ideas and thoughts come to you, or do you feel inspired? Be willing to take a chance and act on this inspiration. My first book came about the same way, I was inspired by a story, but thoughts “I can’t write that.” A little voice told me, “you don’t know if you don’t try.” I discovered a talent I didn’t know I even had.
- Be Quiet—take time each day to just be quiet, without outside distractions such as the television, radio, children, etc. Listen to your thoughts and discover what may come to your mind. Sometimes it’s in those quiet moments that our most creative thoughts rise.
- Expose Yourself to Something New—step out of the comfort zone and try something new. This can mean attending a museum, theater production, reading poetry, discovering a new author, listening to a different type of music, writing a letter, taking a nature walk and taking photographs, taking a walk, etc.
How have you tapped into your hidden creativity?
Caregiving Monday–7 Ways to Help Senior Adults Deal with Loneliness
Last week we discussed loneliness in senior adults. This week I would like to explore suggestions on how to help senior adults deal with their loneliness.
- Visits—schedule regular visits with family, friends, church {or society/community} members, etc. Ask friends to visit your senior adult on a regular visit, but remind them your loved one tire easily. Ask them to not stay for more than an hour or two. If you have a large family nearby, maybe everyone could take a day each week for a short visit.
- Schedule outings—schedule regular outings for your loved one {if they are mobile and able to go}. Find friends already going, ask a neighbor or search for a senior transport company for transportation. This could be a community {especially if they are in a retirement community} outing, to church, to the theatre or movies, to concerts, or to other activities s/he enjoys.
- Senior Action—this is a great resource for senior adults with numerous activities and often you can arrange for transportation through your local senior action center.
- Adopt a Pet—if your senior adult loves pets, adopting a dog or cat might be a great idea for companionship.
- Music—lifts spirits and helps combat the loneliness. Find or make CDs of his/her favorite songs that can be played. Also, inquire at church or in the community about an individual/group that can come sing for your loved one {if homebound}.
- Discover a passion your senior adult loves and have them teach someone else—this could be a neighbor, grandchild, caregiver, etc. However, it makes them feel useful and needed. Along with the fact that they are doing something they love. It doesn’t matter if it’s gardening, cooking, sewing, putting together puzzles, working on model cars, etc. If your senior adult is physically unable to do the task themselves {not able to bend or stand for long periods} they could sit in a chair and give directions.
- Teach technology—if your senior adult is still mentally able, teach him/her how to Skype, email, text, etc. this is a great way to maintain contact with children, grandchildren, siblings and friends. If your loved one is mentally unable to understand the setup, possibly you or a caregiver could set things up for regular visits. This is a great way to maintain contact for family members that do not live nearby.
Transitional Friday: 9 Ways to Bounce Back from Failure
There are times when no matter how much we try, we continuously face failure. There have been several areas of my life, where nothing I’ve tried has succeeded. I continue to face one failure after another. Over time, this is enough to make anyone grow weary, frustrated, overwhelmed and even defeated.
So how do you continue to move forward when nothing is working?
- Don’t Give Up—if you are pursuing a dream, never give up, no matter how much defeat and frustration you receive. I’ve heard some writers say that they received thousands of rejections before receiving a break through. I’ve heard artists say that they worked for twenty years before making it big. However, they never gave up.
- Keep Bouncing Back—this is much like never giving up, work through the emotions and bounce back.
- Evaluate—often I’ve had to go back and evaluate what worked, what didn’t work, and the why for each one. Then I figure out what I can do differently and how to move forward from there.
- Be Realistic—often it’s easy to reach for our dreams without being realistic. You will not become a concert pianists, if you refuse to practice the piano.
- Set Goals—often I feel like a fish at sea, but when I set goals and see where I’m going and what needs to be done to get there, I make much better progress.
- Be Open to Change—sometimes we need to be open to change, whether this is going in a different direction, taking a different approach, learning a different technique, etc.
- Never Stop Learning—continue to read, study and follow the experts in your field of interest. There is so much that we can learn from these experts, including not on the subject matter but also what to do and not do.
- Be Open to Feedback—be open to accepting constructive criticism from others. Yes, there is the occasional person{s} that wants to pull you down, however most people want to help you. One critique method is the oreo method. This starts with a positive, then adds what needs to be changed and ends again with a positive.
- Prayer—pray, seek God’s will and be willing to go in the direction in which He is leading.
Remember, you are not alone. There are numerous examples of people that have failed before success.
- Henry Ford had 5 businesses go broke before Ford Motor Company became successful.
- Walt Disney faced multiple occurrences of being fired, bankrupt and failed businesses before succeeding.
- Thomas Edison had over 1,000 unsuccessful inventions before inventing the light bulb.
- Winston Churchill lost almost every election before being voted Prime Minister at age 62.
- Before making it big in I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball was considered a failed actress and B movie star.
- Vincent Van Gogh is considered the greatest artists of his time, but only sold one painting in his life time.
How do you bounce back from failure? Who else has inspired you?
Transitional Friday: 10 Questions to Ask if Our Choices Matter
When I reached adulthood, I made a lot of dumb choices. At the time I did not think about the long term affect these choices would have on my life. Some of these choices effected the direction of my life, made life a lot more difficult and cost me some of my dreams.
I didn’t stop to think or pray about what I was doing and I did not consider the long term cost these decisions would have on my life.
Some questions we can ask when looking at our choices and decisions are:
- How does this affect me now?
- How will this affect my future?
- Is this a want or a need?
- Does this have a life and death impact?
- Can I wait or postpone for a better future?
- Do I feel pressured to make this decision or change?
- What does The Bible say about this situation?
- What does my gut say?
- Am I following my intuition, my heart, my dreams or my hormones?
- What does God say about this?
Most importantly, take time to pray and ask God for guidance and direction.
What mistakes have you made that you wish you could change
Transitional Friday: When Change isn’t your Idea
Life throws us a curve ball at times and change is forced upon us. This can be through the loss of a job, loss of a loved one, abusive relationship, natural occurrence, decision of another person, tragic accident and number other causes.
So, how do you deal with change when it isn’t your idea?
- Cry—sometimes we just need to cry and express our pain. There are times when there just aren’t words.
- Mourn your loss—a loss is a loss, regardless of how large or small. Even if the change is one that we want, our life is changed and we need to mourn and say goodbye to that part of our lives. Sometimes this is a few hours or a day and other times it is months or years.
- Pray and ask God for guidance and to help you move on—in all things we need to pray and ask God what He would have to do now.
- Accept your new normal—we have a new normal, even if it is for an interim time. We have to accept this and learn how to live in this new reality.
- Determine your ultimate destination—we need to decide what our goals are. What do we ultimately want in life? Sometimes it takes weeks or months to determine what we may truly want and what God’s will might be for our lives. We mustn’t forget to seek God’s will.
- Make a list of steps to reach that goal—now that we know where we are going, we need to access where we are and the steps to get from one place to the next. Again, sometimes our goals are short term and other time they are long term.
- Work hard towards those goals—we work hard to meet these goals, whether it is returning to school, searching for a job, selling a house, etc.
- Continue to put one foot in front of another—there are days when life gets difficult and we don’t feel that we can keep going. We take a deep breath and continue to put one foot in front of the other.
- Reach for your dreams—never give up—if this is truly what God has laid on your heart, never give up. Ask for His help and keep pushing through no matter how difficult life gets at times.
Sometimes life altering events, lead to positive change.
What other ways do you deal with change?
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Transitional Friday: When You’re Stuck and Can’t Break Free
Have you ever been stuck? Do you feel that you’ll never be able to break free no matter how hard you try? Do you try and try to change things, but nothing never seems to work?
If you are, congratulations, you’re not alone. I’ve felt this way for years now. No matter how hard I try I feel that I can’t move forward. This frustrates and discourages me to no end.
I wish I could say that I never grow frustrated and discouraged, but continue to plunge full steam ahead. Unfortunately there are days when life gets the better of me.
So what do I do:
- Pray and seek God’s will—the first thing I do is to pray, tell God how I feel, ask for his guidance and direction and read my Bible. There are days when I feel such great peace, but I’ll be honest there are other days when I wonder if God hears me.
- Continue to put one foot in front of the other—each day I continue to put one foot in front of the other. Some days this is easier than other days. At times I feel that I’m doing things by rote and just going through the motions, but then I remind myself that this is better than the alternative of just giving up.
- Share my feelings—I don’t have a lot of close friends, but I do have one or two people that I can be honest and share my feelings with. Sometimes they just listen and that’s all I need. Other times they will pray for me or we will brainstorm what to do.
- Not give up—there are times when I do feel like giving up, but I eventually snap out of it. I continue to move forward with my dreams and plans and I continue to believe that I’ll eventually turn the corner and have a break through.
- Seek Encouragement—my friends are great to encourage me and lift me up. Sometimes they will send me encouraging words, quotes, sayings and scriptures. Other times they will pray for me and that always touches my soul. I struggle terribly with depression at times and I can’t tell you how lifting such encouragement is to my mood, soul and attitude.
- Creatively Express my feelings—there are many times when I cannot find the words to express my thoughts and feelings. However, I’ve discovered two outlets that allow me to do just this and I feel that I’m worshiping God at the same time. For me that is to write or journal my feelings. Sometimes I may even write God a letter. The second is through music. Whether playing the piano or singing, I unburden my heart to God and he knows the words even when I cannot find them. I also had a friend that introduced me to art journaling, and although I’m not an artist, I found this to be most therapeutic. Experiment with various techniques and interest to find one that works for you. You may discover that you enjoy dancing or another creative outlet.
- Pray—I know I began with this, but I do a lot of praying. Sometimes I have to check my attitude to make sure that I’m seeking God’s will and not telling Him what to do. I have a habit of that and will even tell Him when I’m angry at Him. He wants us to be honest with Him, but He also wants us to humble ourselves before Him to seek His will. Ouch! That’s a tough one!
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When You’re Stuck and Can’t Break Free
12 Ways Not to Lose Hope
Are you going through a transition? Does life seem uncertain? Are you unsure of what the future holds?
Whether you are battling a disease, working through a divorce, searching for a new job or dealing with other life struggles in this chapter of your life, don’t give up hope.
Here are 12 ways to keep hope alive:
- Read your Bible—this is the best place to start. There are plenty examples of individuals that have struggled and been blessed by God.
- Keep a hope journal—write in your journal every day, sharing your heart and feelings. This is a journal just between you and God.
- List of gratitude’s—make a list of things to be thankful for each morning. I like to list at least three things, but you can list any number you want.
- Art journaling—this is simply drawing your feelings and heart.
- Uplifting Music—listen to music that lifts your spirit. While you listen you can sing along or even dance to it.
- Inspirational Movies—find an inspirational movie that relates to your circumstances or just lifts your spirit and makes you feel good.
- Place your name in the Bible Verse—when you read a verse put your name in that verse. For example: “cast not your burdens upon the Lord.” I would say, “Leagh, cast not your burdens upon the Lord.”
- Cast Your Cares Away—write your burden out and then burn it. As the ashes burn, lift that burden and prayer up to God and allow Him to lift it from your shoulders.
- Say Goodbye to the past—if your house burned down go back to that site and say goodbye. If you hurt someone, meet with them and apologize. If it is impossible to meet in person then write that person a letter. Even if you never send it, you’ve released those feelings and said goodbye.
- Speak with someone else that has overcome that situation—find someone else that has overcome the same situation and share your stories with one another. Just knowing that someone else has been there and understand helps.
- Help the less fortunate—often doing something for someone else is the best medicine. You get your mind off of yourself and onto others. Doing this provides you with a new perspective of how much worse your own situation could be.
- Life Coaching—this is a great tool that will allow you to set goals and keep you accountable as you move forward.
How do you keep hope alive? What struggles have you overcome?