Category: Health

Don’t Get Too Comfortable

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I have spent some precious time in serious meditation and prayer these days. Yes, there’s a difference between the two. Prayer is my dialogue with the Lord. It’s me, coming before the Lord and pouring my heart out, letting him know what is going on in my life and the direction I’d like it to go. Meditation is where I am still. It’s where I allow his pursuit of me to show me things altogether different from the perspective I have.

With the church just weeks away from completion my prayers have been about smooth transition, wisdom in not getting so caught up in the newness that we forget it’s a building but that the people are what’s important. It’s about the logistics of how it’s all going to happen and who we will call on to help. It’s about lists for the dedication service and not leaving anyone out.

My meditations, however, have been about comfort. The Lord showed me that in every stage of my life, I’ve gotten comfortable and that I mourn transition. When I was a stay-at-home mom and my youngest reached kindergarten, I took a part-time job. Yet, I struggled with the decision. When I took a full-time job and transitioned into a corporate lifestyle I mourned once again, and again when I went into ministry. Each new level, left me looking back at what I was missing. Yet, I can’t deny the fact that each new level had its own exciting possibilities that the others didn’t and it also had its challenges. So for me, it’s about a thought process and on one hand, a trepidation of walking a new path, on the other hand, an excitement of possibilities and challenges.

Yet life changes from thing to thing does it not? I mean my titles have changed throughout my adult life but I am still a mom, I am still an administrator, I am still in ministry, I am still Susan. My perspectives have changes and my skills and abilities have changed and I am more comfortable in my skin. My husband took this picture of me recently and I noticed new wrinkles over the last few years. Yes, the smile is still the same but my eyes show a contentment that I feel in my soul and an anticipation for what the future holds.

Our titles change, our goals change, our lives are shaped differently than we ever could have imagined, but God is at work in our lives. He is molding a life that has adventure and risk. He is calling us all to not get too comfortable in any aspect of our life because one thing is for sure, things will change and more will be required of us. Are you ready for the challenge God has for you? Are you ready to do a new thing? Mourning the old is healthy and natural, but don’t get stuck in the process to where it takes too long and you miss your next step. We must move forward into the things of God for that is where our real future lies!

Slowing Down

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Recently while listening to talk radio, a speaker made two statements that multi-tasking, actually first of all, makes things take longer, and second, destroys brain cells in the frontal lobe of the brain. Not one to just hear something and accept it, I looked for articles on the Internet. Which then led me to research because not everything you read on the Internet is true. So here is what I found out.

The ability to multi-task is done by the executive part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. When we stress that part of the brain out by overload, it causes damage to the cells in the hippocampus which is where new memories are formed. So being stressed from overload causes forgetfulness, stress, and depression. Actually the articles I read said excessive multi-tasking is causing more problems than it’s solving AND it goes on to say that it actually takes us longer to get things done because we keep stopping what we are doing to do something else. Multi-tasking has also shown in studies to cause a person’s creativity to slow way down. So workers get into a “mode” of just doing what they have to do to get by. This means, free thinking goes away as we try to hurry through our tasks.

I learned two things that weren’t good for my lifestyle, actually three things. Here they are:

1. That I have a part in my body that has a name like hippocampus, which brings a visual of hippos communing and for any woman that is a freaky thought.

2. That all this time I thought multi-tasking was actually saving time and instead it was only serving to stress me out. I had this idea that I was so efficient and now I find that it’s no wonder that I was feeling frustrated.

3. That my forgetfulness isn’t because I’m 45 and a woman, but rather that I am on work overload.

That being said I am going to have to change some things in my life. I am going to have to take one project at a time and not get side-tracked. It seems like a daunting task. Multi-tasking is such a way of life.

My biggest question is we’ve raised our children on this mode of operation so how are we going to change this? Kids can listen to an ipod, text on the phone, chew gum, do their homework and ignore you all at the same time. Now we are going to have to tell them to slow down. Can you imagine this? We could actually a change a culture and slow down a pace that would bring us back to a more relaxing time in America. What could it be like to only do one thing at a time? One can only dream!

Be Still and Know

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Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God;

How often are you just quiet before the Lord? How often do you tune out he static of life to truly listen to what is going on within you?

New age calls it meditation, but followers of Christ call it meditation as well. The process is the similar because the principal of meditation doesn’t change.

Psalm 48:9 Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.

The temple of God is not a place. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?

So what does it mean to meditate on the word? When I worked in a large city I had a masseuse who taught me to mediate because she said I was too tense. She said I had to get to a quiet place in my mind and the way to do that was to count back from 100 to 1 with each breath until I could do so without any other thoughts of things to do, thoughts of breathing or anything else that came to mind to distract me. Honestly, I was never able to do that. My mind would wander and I’d forget where I left off in the breathing. It’s impossible to not think about anything, so I changed my meditation time in to learning to be still before the Lord. Have you ever tried to still your mind? It’s very difficult. Yet, the bible says that God speaks to us in that still small voice. (1Kings19:12) The only way to hear a still small voice is to be as quiet as possible. When people whisper you have to be quiet and draw near to hear.

The noise of the world often drowns out the possibility of hearing from God. We have noise wherever we go. We have even created noise machines so as not to sleep in silence. The very thing we need to exist in peace, wisdom and love, we drown out in the chaos of life. Jesus often went away from the crowds to be still. You must often get to a quiet place in your life where you are still. In those moments of stillness are where revelation comes, where problems can be resolved, and where wisdom is imparted. In those quiet moments is where God speaks to the scared part of your heart, the wounded part of your heart, the healthy part of your heart, and the inquisitive part of your heart. Is it any wonder that the enemy of your soul surrounds you with noise? Televisions that are on all night, music in elevators, can you ever find a quiet place unless you make room for it? Some people I know actually feel edgy in quiet times. Simply they have not learned to be still. Quiet makes them nervous because they’ve never learned to dwell in the peace of stillness. Quiet can be scary because it forces you to face fears.

Noise is sent to distract us from the union between God and us. I’ve heard people say that they decided to shut the TV off for a set number of days and that boredom caused them to read the bible. Do you have a quiet place? Can you access it regularly? If not, I urge you to find one. Try to find a place where you are still. To find a place where you are able to hear God’s still small voice. It’s the direction and the peace you need. Sometimes my best prayer time with God is when I am quiet and I listen rather than speak.

Specific Adaptation To Imposed Demands (SAID)

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When I first heard this term it was reference to my workouts. SAID works in that let’s say I am beginning a workout and I run a mile each day netting seven miles a week. My body will begin to change as I implement the workout but that change will stop as my body hits a plateau or rather, adapts to the imposed demand of the seven miles. In order to get my body back to changing I will have to do something different like run 1.5 miles a day and therefore increasing my weekly mileage.

How do we apply this to all aspects of our lives and not just our exercise routine? Our life for the most part, is continually adapting to the imposed demands we place on it. If you want a different career, then you must impose demands on your life that are different than those you currently have. You will have to impose the demands of learning new skills, revamping your resumé, networking and you get the picture it’s all about change. To get a different result you have to impose new changes.

Could it be that our lives are stuck in situations that we say are out of our control because our specificity has not been demanding enough for change to actually occur? While we are great at pointing the finger at situations, people and circumstances the choices are ultimately ours to make and the demands we place on our lives whether too many or not enough are of our own doing.

I found myself a month or so ago looking at a sore spot in my life. They happen to everyone but I had asked someone who I consider to have a better perspective on this thing I was going through to hold me accountable for my part in this deal. I wrote down every single feeling, appropriate or not and every action and reaction again appropriate or not and let it all be bare before the person I had chosen to be accountable to. There wasn’t much feedback in the way of words but prayer I know was happening. Something happened in the writing of it all I realized that the problem wasn’t going away; I had to change my mind about things. I had to impose demands on myself rather than adapt. I had to determine that my problem was mine to fix. I could not change the adaptation on the part of others and their imposed demands on their life but I could change mine. That is, after all, the only thing required of me.

Transformation in its truest form is about changing the demands placed on the situation. It seems quite simple but actually it’s a daily commitment to change. Just like my workout had gotten stale so had my perspective on this area of my life. Anything and I do mean anything that requires a different result in your life must be met with new imposed demands. Those demands will need to be changed again and again as muscles in that area of your life are torn down and rebuilt bigger and better.

The average person has 60,000 thoughts per day. This is an incredible number of thoughts yet the facts are that normally we have the same perspective day after day. To change our lives we must change the thoughts. Impose those thoughts that will propel you forward instead of those which cause you to adapt. Making small changes in your thoughts daily will eventually create specificity to the new shape of things in your life.

Baby Food Giveaway A Big Success

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I was so busy during the Baby Food Giveaway that I didn’t get pictures with my camera so the pictures shown are of the volunteers posing. We had lots of volunteers and that made the giveaway go smoothly. It really was a privilege to be able to give food away to families who could really use it! I’m sure more pics are to come. We have video as well. Here’s a tiny glimpse at the crew.

The Tyranny of the Urgent

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The tyranny of the urgent is something that holds us back from accomplishing those things that are really important. For years I’ve wanted to write a book but there was never time to sit down and just write. Too many things in my life were urgent and the importance of writing had to take a back seat to just trying to get through the week. That is, until I learned the secret that I am going to share with you. The secret of setting aside the guilt and tyranny of the things that I THINK are urgent and just spending some time each day doing what’s important. To me it was taking the time for writing a little at a time.

You see there are always urgent things to do. There is always going to be things that seem like they can’t be put off another day but there are important things that God is calling you to do that are actually more important and those things believe it or not supercede those urgent things.

What does tyranny mean? The American Heritage Dictionary defines tyranny as this:

A government in which a single ruler is vested with absolute power.
1. The office, authority, or jurisdiction of an absolute ruler.
2. Absolute power, especially when exercised unjustly or cruelly: “I have sworn . . . eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man” (Thomas Jefferson).
3. Use of absolute power.
4. A tyrannical act.
5. Extreme harshness or severity; rigor.

Wow! So we see that tyranny is a government that is exercised unjustly or cruelly. Well, I know that I live in the Kingdom or government of Christ. That means that if I succumb to the tyranny of the urgent I am submitting myself to an authority that deals unjustly or cruelly with me. Therefore, the tyranny of the urgent is sent not by God but by Satan to upset the Kingdom in my life. To simplify it further the tyranny of the urgent takes the important things in my life away. The result is that I never reach my full potential because I am running around like a chicken without a head.

It all makes sense! Now it makes it clear why you can’t read your bible without distractions, why you can’t pray without distractions, why you can’t sit and listen to a friend. It shows that the tyranny of the urgent has stolen the important things and has divided your mind. The bible is clear in its statement that a divided mind is unstable in all of its ways (James 1:8). In other words, it doesn’t stand on solid ground. Instead it wobbles. No wonder we wander around in circles accomplishing nothing.

It’s not easy to focus on the important when the urgent is constantly coming to mind but you can do it! It means simply becoming aware of those things that are taking time away from what you have been called to do. You may want to run home to watch your favorite TV show but maybe God has placed a person who desperately needs to speak to you about a problem. The TV is urgent, the person is important. It means we must sometimes do those things God has called us to do over those things we’d rather do. Ultimately it’s about which Kingdom we are submitted to, the tyranny of the urgent or Kingdom of God and those things which are important?

Life’s Battles

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Our most important battles occur when we face life’s enemies. There are three areas of your life that will be attacked.

1. Mental, emotional, spiritual, physical health will be attacked by these factors:

Unbelief
Anger
Low self-esteem
Sickness
Negativity
Bad eating habits
Drinking, smoking
Unhappiness
Drug abuse
Hopelessness

These are battles against your well-being. To be a whole person you must fight against these enemies who seek to kill you or at least destroy this aspect of your life. You will never fulfill your destiny when these battles are being won with your agreement. It is your choice after all.

The second area of your life that you will face battles in are your covenant relationships, God, your family, your church, your friends. The enemies of covenant relationships are:

Boredom
Jealously
Anger
Pride
Lack of consideration
Lack of motivation
Weakness
Selfishness
Poor self-image
Adultery
Fornication
Criticism
Lack of character, integrity
Injustice
Misunderstanding
Lack of honor and consistency

These are enemies that attack the area of your life where your relationships are involved. We were not meant to be lone creatures but a part of one another so these battles are lost when you turn away from or make decisions based on these attacks to your mind.

The next area of life’s battles is your prosperity. Prosperity is not only your money. It’s where you prosper, your attitude, your job, your time, your talent, your home and everything and anything that adds value to your life.

Laziness
Carelessness
A hoarding attitude
Failure to plan
Excessive debt
Poor credibility
Failure to plan
Ignorance
Lack of goals
Failure to honor God through your tithes and offerings

These are all enemies to prosperity. When any one of these battles is lost the results are that you find yourself in lack in that particular area of your life. Don’t allow this happen.

God gives us a weapon for every single enemy. Here’s the big thing you have to know about warfare – you have to get it into your heart that you can win! You can win. You have to KNOW the weaknesses of your enemy. David when he came across Goliath had the faith that he could win. The reason he did so well against the giant was that he’d faced smaller trials and had success.

Remind yourself of battles that you’ve won in the past. Don’t get caught up in the lie that nothing has ever gone right, there are things that you have been a winner at. Reach for those goals as markers that this battle is yours to win and then go for it! If you don’t go for it, you’ll never defeat it.

Still Keeping Your Workout Resolution?

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My Aunt Helen says this is posted at her gym. I loved it and wanted to print it to remind myself!

My trainer

is my shepherd; I shall

not weigh more.

She maketh me to lie down in green sweatpants;

she ordereth me to

do situps.

She sendeth me down jogging trails of endless length for my hearts sake.

Yea,

though I walk through the valley of the shadow of the bakery,

I will

fear no pastry,

for she art with me;

her fruits and her veggies they comfort me. And I shall dwell in the

house of the gym

for half an hour everyday.

Amen

Haiti Hit Again

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Another earthquake has hit Haiti. People are scared, tired and hungry, hurt and in dire need. Moms Against Hunger has moved into action.

You can make a difference in bringing aid  to Haiti!

Project Haiti

Mom’s Against Hunger supplies are being shipped to the crisis happening in Haiti now. Due to conditions beyond anyone’s control in the earthquake, deep human suffering, disease, and death are happening daily. Through our provisions we can ease the pain of Haitian men, women, boys, and girls.

Please join us in this most worthy cause of compassionate care for the earthquake victims of Haiti.

By clicking on the Donate button on the top of this page you can get aid to Haiti. Moms Against Hunger has already moved into action to help. To read more about Moms Against Hunger click here.