Day 8: Flowing from a Pure Heart

 One of the women on the Belize Team was an English teacher. She brought with her Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God by Rainer Maria Rilke. As she read his poems, she would share them with us, sometimes only a few lines, sometimes a whole poem. A few lines from one of these poems planted the seed for another change in my thinking that grew in the months following our trip to Belize.

I want to free what waits within me

so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear

without my contriving. . . .

May what I do flow from me like a river,

no forcing and no holding back,

the way it is with children.

(from "Ich glaube an Alles noch nie Gesagte" by Rainer Maria Rilke)

In one season of my life, I had tried to appear as if I had everything together. I pushed my emotions down deep and pretended issues that were a problem weren't really a problem. However this approach to life left me feeling driven, lonely, and isolated, unable to be real with anyone.

The next season of my life, I focused on being authentic and genuine. However, in the context where I was learning this approach, being authentic translated into letting all one's yuck and poor behavior spill out all over others. As a teacher and youth mentor this was a formula for disaster, yet I still resonated with the idea that authenticity was important . . . but it shouldn't look like THIS.

The words of Rilke's poem combined with a quote by Amy Carmicheal ("A cup of sweet water, no matter how violently jarred, will never spill bitter water.") lead me into a new season of development - Flowing from a Pure Heart. Authenticity is important and so is not spilling one's own yuck all over others. To be authentic and appropriate required a transformation of the heart.

 I read a story once (although I don't remember where) of a small village in the Alps known for its crystal clear, delicious water. High up on the mountain was the spring, tended by an elderly man, that fed the village's water supply. The aged man kept it clean of debris and guarded it faithfully from anything that would contaminate the water. Eventually he died and there was no one to tend the spring, to guard against debris and over time the water became contaminated and unfit to drink.

This story captures the idea of flowing from a pure heart. A pure heart is one that is guarded against those things that would contaminate it. Beautiful, life-giving authenticity can flow from a heart that is filled with integrity and kept through self-control and the on-going work of God to transform and shape it. Transforming, growing, and guarding the heart are an ongoing process that requires cooperation between us and the Spirit of God in us.

For me, I have good days and bad. There are days where I can look back and say I lived the majority of this day with a heart that was well-guarded and exercising integrity and self-control. There are other days where I fail miserably and I have to clean out the spring again so that the water can run cool and clear. It is a process, a journey of becoming . . .

Do you resonate with Rilke's words? What about them strikes you?

Day 7: Simplicity and Substance

A group of about 20 of us ranging from young teen to mid-life adult stepped onto the tarmac in Belize City into the tropical heat of a blazing sun. We had come to work in a small village to build a hurricane shelter and to hold a Vacation Bible School (VBS). We hoped to make a difference. We accomplished our goals for that year, and we left with unexpected blessings from what we had seen and experienced.

 One of the most striking contrasts was between what Americans have and what most Belizeans do not have AND their attitude toward life.

None of us on the team would be considered wealthy by American standards. We were struggling to make ends meet and lived modestly. The trip to Belize was a financial stretch, even a sacrifice for most of us. However, comparatively we had so much.

The Belizean homes we visited ranged from dirt floors with walls made of sticks and mud to wooden structures to the nicest homes made of concrete. Yet we noticed that even in the nicest of homes, there was an absence of many of the "toys" we took for granted at home.

Despite the obvious poverty that abounded and an economic system that kept most people trapped in their poverty, we saw people who loved one another deeply and fiercely, who laughed, cried, gave generously, and played (especially soccer) together. We saw people who helped one another through the hardest of times. We saw people who were having a rich life experience despite their external poverty.

We were getting ready to leave, saying our good-byes and we were astonished. A young man that we had come to know well in our short time there had a sports trophy that he had won in high school. His family lived very modestly and this trophy was a treasured possession. He gave it to one of our fearless leaders, a man he had come to admire. This treasured, sacrificial gift meant so much to our leader and to us as a team as an expression of love and friendship. Others in turn gave each of us a gift, many sacrificially, many a special meaningful item and we were deeply touched by their generosity and the love that prompted it.

As I compared the American approach to life and the Belizean approach to life, what I saw reminded me of a dollar store gift lavishly wrapped beside a valuable, meaningful gift simply wrapped in plain paper. In American we had so much on the outside, so many things, so much that looked pretty and yet we were missing this rich life experience. We had exchanged substance for fancy frills.

I was drawn to the way the Belizeans we met lived simply, but with great substance. I was drawn to the way they gave themselves so fully to life. They drew from life so much - love, faith, family, friends, hard work, laughter, and generosity. They focused on the intangible things that give life meaning and substance. I was challenged to refocus on what had meaning rather than on the superficial.

Have you faced this challenge to add more substance and meaning to your life? 
What have you done to make that happen?

Day 6: Surrender

The summer of 2000 began a journey of explosive inner transformation in my life. This period was marked by changes in my thoughts. Lies I had believed were replaced with truth and specific themes that altered my perspective and how I lived emerged.

After the school year ended and I began summer break, I was sick in bed for about a week. During that week of bed rest I read and journaled. I became aware that ever since the "rug had been pulled out" and I had experienced a series of unfortunate events over a decade earlier, I had been living with a self-protective stance. My decisions and my interactions with people were guided by a core promise to myself never to let people "treat me so badly" again. This soul level promise was in conflict with the promise I had made to God years earlier to serve Him with my life. As I tried to keep both promises, I experienced inner conflict.

As I lay on my bed, I wrote a prayer of surrender to God. I acknowledged that I was unable to protect myself and that running my life in an effort to do so was not working. I surrendered myself to God's ability to care for me (He is so much more capable than I!) and I asked Him to teach me how to live as He desired rather than trying to protect myself.

That prayer opened a door to many marvelous transformative steps in my life. The first ones came out of a trip to Belize that summer. I'll talk more about that tomorrow.

I would love to hear your stories of transformational pivot points!

Day 5: Why? An Answer

Yesterday, I shared a brief history of what led me ask the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" I have read and heard many answers to this question, some helpful, some . . . not so much.

What I am going to share is AN answer to this question. Although it is an answer that has given me peace through many losses, I also want to say that I know this is not THE ultimate answer, there are pieces missing still. I'm okay with that for now because I am still on the journey. What I have to offer is what I have learned in the face of my own loss and heartache.

The other thing I hope is that my conclusion does not seem overly simplistic, because I don't believe there IS a simple answer. I recognize that this question is usually asked with great anguish and turmoil and that finding peace and resolution is a hard fought journey that takes time.

The foundation of my answer came in the realization that God is good. G.O.O.D. Often we think of good as well-behaved, pleasant, nice, beautiful or high quality. However, God is so much more than that. With God, good refers to his moral character. He is holy and righteous, absolutely without evil. There is no evil in Him and He has not been tainted by evil in any way. He is good and all He does is good.


How did evil enter this world? God created a perfect heaven and a perfect earth. He created angelic beings to serve Him and human beings to enjoy the Earth and to experience intimate relationship with Him. One angel led a rebellion and declared himself equal to God. This angel was cast out of heaven with one third of the angels. He is the being known today as the devil. This same angelic-being-gone-bad influenced the first man and woman to disobey God. With that choice to disobey, evil, death, and destruction entered the human experience. The world and all that is in it was contaminated by sin. God has been at work ever since to redeem what is and to restore what was lost.

The second key factor is that God gave human beings the gift of choice. God did not create evil, nor does He cause evil or sin. Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. Because sin entered the world, so did disease and death and many other horrible things.

The one question I want to ask God when I reach heaven is, "Why was it so important for us to be able to choose? You knew all that would happen, all the pain and destruction, yet it was so very important to You that we be able to choose. Why?" I have heard answers. The most compelling to me is that God didn't want robots or puppets, but creatures like Himself who could choose - choose to love, choose right, choose good. Still, I long to hear from God Himself the answer to this question.

Human beings and all that dwell on planet Earth ARE bent and broken, tainted by sin. Our noblest motives, our most altruistic actions, our best relationships are all tainted by the evil that entered this world so many centuries ago. (C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy helped me to understand this in a vivid way. Great reading by the way!)

Sometimes bad things happen as a result of human choice. A person chooses to drive while "under the influence" or while texting and a tragic accident happens. People engage in dangerous activities and a rope breaks, a tree gets in the way, a tire blows and life is irrevocably altered. Government officials make poor political choices and an entire country suffers because of it. 

Sometimes bad things happen as a result of disease that entered the world as a consequence of sin. People battle illness and sometimes the battle is won and sometimes it is lost, each the result of a myriad of interwoven factors such as physical condition, treatment options available, the patient's will to fight, the severity of the disease, and the skill of the doctors.

Sometimes bad things happen because all of creation is under the curse of sin. A tsunami or earthquake destroys property and claims lives, a drought causes crops to fail leading to hunger and malnutrition. Even these "acts of nature" are not what God created the world to be, but what it has become because of the damage of sin.

Bad things happening is the expected outcome of living in a world bent and broken by sin.

Our HOPE is that God will make good out of the bad. He is good. He can only produce good. Bad things will happen in life because of sin. But God promises to work those bad things into something good for those who love Him.

One of my favorite authors, George MacDonald (contemporary of Charles Dickens and admired by C.S. Lewis), has a theme flowing through his writings - that God wants to make us good. I think that perhaps too often we look outside ourselves for the good that we would like God to bring about, when He desires to bring about good IN us, to make us good. 

One of the good things God brings about is building our character as we learn to respond to bad things in ways that reflect Christ. Another good God produces is to strengthen our faith and to help us come to know Him better. God may also work good by helping people to know Christ, by bringing truth to light so that health can be found, by giving a deeper appreciation for life and loved ones, by teaching lessons that change the course of life in a positive direction. The possibilities are endless for what God can do to bring good out of the bad things that happen.

Our other hope is heaven, that one day we will live in a place where mourning and tears are wiped away, where bad things no longer happen. We have the hope that we will forever dwell with God in a perfect place and in unity with God and mankind. In heaven we will see the final redemption of what has been lost and restoration to what was intended to be.

May you find hope and peace on your journey and may you have vision to see the good that God is bringing about.

What are your thoughts about all this?

What good things have you seen come out of bad situations?

Day 4: Why? The Question

Throughout my life I have repeatedly been asked, "Why? Why did this happen? Why did God allow this to happen?"

Four specific untimely deaths led me to ask these questions myself as a young adult.

When I was eight my uncle was killed in a tragic car accident. He and a teenage passenger were killed while he was driving a vehicle full of young people to an amusement park for a church youth group trip. He was serving God. Why did God let him die?

When I was 12 nearly 13 our Pastor's son (just six months older than I) lost his battle with leukemia. His father was a faithful, godly man. The boy was a good boy. Why did God let him die?

While my cousin and his wife were in language school preparing to be missionaries, he was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). The disease ravaged his body and slowly incapacitated him and then his wife was a widow and his young sons were fatherless. WHY did God let him die?

The year I was a freshman in college another cousin's very young daughter lost her battle with leukemia. Chemotherapy, bone marrow transplant, every effort had been made to save her precious life, but in the end nothing could be done. WHY, oh why, did God let this little child die?

Why? Why did God take those who were serving Him? Why did tragedy, trauma, and such profound grief fall on those who were following His call, serving Him with their lives? It seemed so unfair, so upside down for a just and loving God. These questions along with feelings of disappointment (God hadn't protected His own children), sadness as I saw others in such deep pain of loss, and at times anger (How could God allow this?!) swirled around in my head and heart for nearly a decade and a half. At first the thoughts and questions were often in my mind. As time passed, they receded and I came to something of a fatalistic acceptance, but no true resolution.

Then I was faced with a loss of my own and all these questions bubbled to the surface neatly summed up by Rabbi Kushner in the title of his book, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? For several months after my loss I wrestled with this question and slowly I found an answer that made sense to me.

Tune in tomorrow for the answer that made sense to me.

At some point in life, most of us ponder this question, "Why Do Bad Things Happen?" 

What answers have you found to this question?

Five Minute Friday: Write

⁴ “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ESV)

One of the first things that comes to mind when I hear the word "write" is the Scripture passage quoted above. As I was seeking direction in my life, I was reading in Deuteronomy and came across these verses. The two words that seemed to leap off the page were TEACH and WRITE. What are we to teach and write? The commandments of God. 

God desired that His children would know what He had said to them and He wanted His words preserved and passed down from generation to generation. To ensure that this would happen, He commanded His people to teach them all. the. time! wherever they were AND to write them in places where they would be seen . . . every . . . day!

What legacy do you desire to pass on through your writing?

Day 3: Oops! Where Did the Rug Go?

Did you ever feel like life pulled the rug out from under you and you're not sure what to do, where to go. It's even worse when it seems that God is the one who has pulled out the rug and left us confused, lost and alone. Getting our bearings and sense of direction again can be difficult.

Convinced that I was to be a career missionary overseas, I spent 7 weeks in Peru as a missionary apprentice in the summer of 1987. I returned excited, starry-eyed, and ready to pursue my dream, what I believed to be God's call on my life.

During the following school year, I wrote a letter seeking advice to the mission agency I had worked with the previous summer and that I hoped to work with as a career missionary. The response I received pulled the rug out from under me and, at that time, seemed to close the door to the career I had believed I was to follow. My college major, trips I had taken, activities I was involved in all were to prepare me for this career. This letter, arriving in the midst of a series of difficult events, pulled the rug out. I felt lost, confused, directionless. I asked why over and over as I tried to make sense of this sudden and unexpected change.

This letter, combined with the series of unfortunate events changed the course of my life from a focus primarily on overseas ministry to ministry in the USA and even more specifically in the church. However this shift took time and only came after a dark night of the soul.

During this dark night of the soul, I doubted the character of God. What kind of God would do this to me? I withdrew from church, feeling deeply hurt and wounded by the treatment I had received at the hands of those IN the church. Eventually I wrestled through my questions about God's character and came to a place of peace, but that is another story for another day.

Have you ever felt like the rug was pulled out from under you? 

What advice would you give to someone in that circumstance?

Day 2: Going for the Gold

"What will you make of your life?

This question was posed to me by one of my professors while I was in college. I often engaged in lengthy conversations with this mentor where he posed difficult life questions to me. In the spring of 1985, he challenged me to think about where my life was headed and how I would live.

Although my life has not followed the path I thought it would then, a vow I made at that time has been a guiding factor, an anchor over the course of my life.

Classes were over, finals were nearly complete and that year's graduation exercises were rapidly approaching. One warm spring day I made my way to a quiet spot in a large, old cemetery on the banks of the Susquehanna River. There I wrestled with God about what He wanted for me. I read verses from my Bible about the solemnity of making a vow to God. I prayed. I journaled. Eventually a vow emerged, a vow to serve God all my life long.

At that time I imagined I would take the good news of Jesus to some foreign country, but instead my life took a different path. My journey led me to teach in my own country, to work in a church first with youth and later with adults. Through bumps and bruises, through times of great satisfaction and times of doubt my heart has led me back over and over to this anchor, this call, this vow that when all is said and done I want God to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." My service has not been perfect. I am an average woman seeking to please God with her life and I fail and falter. Yet, this promise to God and His Spirit in my life cause me to get back up each time I falter, to try again.

Currently, I find myself in a season of change and transition. The path I thought I would take turned a bend and all was different. I am looking forward to what the next season will hold, some days with anticipation, some days with fear. I wonder where serving Christ will take me next, but I am thankful that in a world of change one piece of the puzzle remains solid - my purpose in life is to serve my Savior.

Have you ever made a vow or a decision that has had a life shaping effect on you? 

I'd love to hear about it.

Day 1: His Eyes

When I saw the pain in his eyes, I repented and prayed to change.

I was in my early teens and waiting at our local public school for my ride to the Christian school I attended in a nearby city. Several of us waited each morning and often our public school friends would come to visit us.

On this particular morning, one of my friends, a young man on whom I'd had a crush since I was 5, had come to visit. I had been peeved with him over a now unremembered offense and had given him the cold shoulder. When he came to me to ask what was wrong, I looked into his big, vivid blue eyes and I saw hurt, deep hurt. His eyes haunted me throughout that day.

That evening alone in my bedroom I realized that I had hurt more than this boy I admired. He was one of God's children and when I hurt one of God's children, I hurt God too.

God . . . my heavenly Father, the Creator of the universe, who had given me the right to call him Papa. Jesus who was beaten, mocked, and crucified because of my sin . . . my sin. I had hurt a brother in Christ, deliberately, out of my own pettiness. Christ had died for this sin . . . even this, what would seem to be, small sin in the grand scheme of sins.

Superimposed over the hurt in this boy's eyes, I saw the hurt in Jesus' eyes when I sin, when I do wrong, when I hurt another person.

My heart broke as I understood the depth of my sin and what my sin had done to the Jesus I love. I begged God to never allow me to hurt Him like that again. I walked in the knowledge of the weight of my sin (big or small) after that. I knew of God's forgiveness, although it would be years before I grasped the wonderful immensity of God's forgiveness, grace, and love toward me that could completely cover every one of my sins.

31 Days Transformational Pivot Points

Welcome!! Thank you for dropping in to see what's happening during my 31 Days of Pivot Points. Here's a quick summary of what you'll find.

Throughout my life I have had "Pivot Points," times when an event or a lesson has transformed my thinking and my behavior. For the 31 Days of October I will be sharing these Transformational Pivot Points here at Emerging Butterflies.

Nester is the inspiration behind this endeavor and I am linking up with others through her website to share our 31 Days musings. Be sure to check out others there too. If you're participating in the 31 Days, please leave the URL to your first 31 Days post so that others can drop by and visit you too.

Grab a cup of coffee or a mug of hot chocolate on these cool Fall days and read along as I share how God has transformed me little bit by little bit . . . from what I was to what I am becoming in Him.

A link to each day's posts will be added below:

Day 1: His Eyes
Day 2: Going for the Gold
Day 3: Oops! Where Did the Rug Go?
Day 4: Why? The Question
Day 5: Why? An Answer
Day 6: Surrender
Day 7: Simplicity and Substance
Day 8: Flowing from a Pure Heart
Day 9: Listening to God
Day 10: Blessing by Being
Day 11: Five Minute Friday and Pivot Points . . . Ordinary
Day 12: Path of Transformation
Day 13: Level of Commitment
Day 14: Invincible Faith
Day 15: Working Together for Good
Day 16: Grieving the Loss
Day 17: Lies v. Truth
Day 18: Five Minute Friday Meets Pivot Points - Laundry
Day 19: I Am Loved
Day 20: What to do with Emotions
Day 21: Captivating Woman - Part 1
Day 22: Captivating Woman - Part 2
Day 23: Neither Offend or Be Offended
Day 24: Created in God's Image
Day 25: Five Minute Friday and Pivot Points: Together
Day 26: Bubbles and Boundaries
Day 27: Accept Another's Essence
Day 28: Dependent on God and Connected to People
Day 29: Changed Thinking
Day 30: Pruning
Day 31: 31 Days Wrap-up

Five Minute Friday: TRUE

"A cup of sweet water, no matter how violently jarred, will never spill bitter water." 

(Amy Carmichael - missionary to India) 

Last spring I saw this quote approached in a different way. A woman was asked to hold a cup of water and then another woman bumped the first woman's hand and water spilled out. The question was asked, "Why did the water spill out?" The answer, because the cup was jarred. WRONG! The water spilled because that was what was in the cup.

Recently I have been reminded of this at times when I feel stepped on or taken advantage of and I feel first frustration and then anger bubbling to the surface, anger that I do not like. I am reminded that I am not angry because of the other person. I am angry because that is what is inside me that is spilling out.

I am thankful for God's forgiveness in those moments when I feel anger and rage and let is spill out. I am thankful that when I feel ashamed of the ugliness inside of me, He forgives, refreshes, restores, and gives me hope for a better day.

Picture: Microsoft clip art

Clutter to Clarity

"Define what you are shooting for, and then prune against that standard." 

~ Dr. Henry Cloud (Necessary Endings)

In June I began a Clutter Buster Challenge - get rid of 7 items per day. By the end of August I had gotten rid of over 5,000 items (much of it paper). Choosing what to keep and what to discard gave me clarity about my life.

In the past I had been a school teacher and a youth worker. Those seasons have ended and now I am looking ahead to a new season. Although the picture of the next season is still a little fuzzy, I see a picture of a counselor, a teacher, and a writer. While I gave away many of my tools that had served me well as a school teacher or youth leader, I kept those tools that would help me as a counselor, non-school teacher, and writer. In my sorting and evaluating, I found clarity about the season that had ended and the season ahead.

The old must go to make way for the new. Pursuing new opportunities requires energy, time, and focus. As long as I hung on to the old, I was stealing time, energy and focus from what lies ahead. I had to let go of the old to make room for the new. Letting go of the old is giving me the time and space to focus on the new. As I focus on the new, I am excited about what lies ahead.

My Clutter Buster Challenge has ended. Purging my home of what has come to an end has given me emotional and mental space to pursue the future. Still, I own too much. My next challenge is "Finding a Home" for everything, also known as "having a place for everything, and everything in its place." I can tell that this is going to lead to further pruning. As I continue to prune, I trust that my next steps will become clearer and clearer as well. 

Have you had a time when you made room for a new season in your life? What helped you to transition into that new opportunity?

Five Minute Friday: She

She carried me in her womb. She waited while the church bells rang and other mothers gave birth. She waited for me to arrive. She cradled me in her arms and cared for my needs.

She taught me to talk, to walk, to sing, to cook, to sew, to love, to learn, to follow Christ above all else.

She became my best friend. She went on shopping trips, vacations, doctor's visits, trips to college, and to church with me.

She grew older . . . and older. Now she is facing the winter of her life and it is confusing and lonely at times for her. She calls me when she is afraid or lonely or confused. She tires easily so trips to town are shorter and she lets me do her shopping, take her to the doctor, arrange her pills in their green, purple, and yellow cases.

She gives me the privilege of loving her as she has loved me my whole life long.

Five Minute Friday: Red

In 1974 my parents and I moved into our new home. My older siblings were either married or pursuing careers and I was the only one left in the nest. On the south side of our new home my father had placed a family room, a large room with windows on three sides - facing east, south, and west. My mother decorated this room in grays, gray-blues, and red. The carpet was red and the design on the long drapes was red. A fireplace flanked by two windows dominated one wall. This was a room of many happy memories.

Five Minute Friday

Five Minute Friday: Small

Small . . . kittens . . . babies. So many babies have been born to people I know recently. Most of those births have brought great joy, but some have brought sorrow and anxiety even loss.

Babies come into our world small, helpless, defenseless and we love them, we long to care for them to see them grow to maturity to live a full and beautiful life. When one is taken from us, the loss seems impossible to bear, the questions endless, and the pain unendurable. People I care about are going through this right now and there are no words to comfort them, nothing to say to answer the heart-wrenching "why" that nags at our souls. Yet still God is good. Still God loves. So I ask him to heal this broken-hearted family and the people who love them.

Five Minute Friday

Clutter Buster Challenge

Back on April 29th Money Saving Mom invited all her bloggy friends to join in her in a Clutter Buster Challenge for the month of May. The challenge was to rid your home of 7 items each day for the entire month.

Well, my invitation was late, so I didn't find out about the challenge until most of May was done. However, I knew how desperately I needed to accept this challenge, so I decided even though it meant being incredibly late to the party, I would accept this challenge, but for June. Well . . . actually, not just for June, but also for July and August. So far so good. June is recently ended and it's time to report how I did.

I donated 21 books, 12 foam craft sheets, 15 corrugated craft sheets, a bin of foam letters, 7 Happy Birthday pencils, and 4 red pencils to a local Christian school.

41 files of outdated financial records hit the shredder to be taken to the recycling center.

23 defunct writing utensils were thrown out.

13 pen and pencils were donated to my church's Jr. Church program.

Approximately 750 pictures from my picture file were recycled.

247 documents were recycled.

20 sewing patterns will be sold at a garage sale or donated to a worthy charity.

An old Pledge sweeper hit the dust and went the way of the trash.

3 calendars were recycled.

5 Ink cartridges are marked for recycling.

514 pieces of paper were recycled.

14 packages of craft supplies are headed for a garage sale.

39 greeting cards were donated.

12 books set aside for a garage sale.

5 gift bags thrown away.

3 gift bags set aside to sell.

3 gift bags recycled.

Total number of items decluttered = 1,753

Whew! My office space feels lighter! Now onto other parts of my home.

What clutter have you removed lately? or what clutter do you need to remove?

Books that Influenced How I Live

Books are like good friends who influence us to live better, fuller, richer lives. I enjoy reading. I enjoy hearing the voices of others and I am delighted when those voices have something so valuable to say that it changes how I live. Here are 8 books, other than the Bible (which deserves a post all of its own), that have impacted how I live.

The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence taught me to avoid getting trapped in guilt. Brother Lawrence describes how he deals with sin. He acknowledged his sin to God, accepted God's forgiveness and moved forward in obedience seeking to honor God in all things. Rather than wallow in guilt, trapped and hindered, he accepted and trusted in God's forgiveness and grace and lived in freedom and love. 

A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken tells the story of a young man and woman in love unwilling to consider Christ or Christianity until they meet C.S. Lewis. They come to faith in Christ, yet Sheldon refuses to put Christ before his beloved wife. When she is taken from him, he grieves deeply for her. He showed me how to grieve purposely, how to honor the one lost, grieve the loss, and move forward. 

A Grace Disguised by Jerry Sittser describes the day tragedy struck his family and left him bereft of his wife, mother, and daughter. He taught me how deeply loss impacts our identity. We derive much of our identity from our relationships and when they are lost we must look deeper into our own soul to discover who we are apart from those we have loved and lost.

Men are Like Waffles – Women are Like Spaghetti – Pam and Bill Farrell's description of the ways men and women think differently changed how I related to men. I learned that things that seemed unbelievable to me were reality (like men can turn off their brains or when they say "I forgot" it's not merely an excuse, but often the truth). I learned to stay on topic more especially in a serious, problem-solving conversations.

Henry Virkler describes how we relate to one another in Speaking Your Mind without Stepping on Toes. Sometimes we manipulate, sometimes we become aggressive, sometimes we become passive, however the best way to relate is assertively. When we approach another person in an assertive manner, we remember that both ourselves and the other person matter. We seek to find solutions that express respect for both people.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People written by well-known author and speaker, Steven Covey, contains a treasure box of life changing ideas: seek first to understand then to be understood, work through difficulties until you find a win-win solution, and prioritize based on what is important rather than what is urgent.

How I Changed My Mind about Women in Leadership by Alan Johnson is an anthology of reputable, conservative Christians who seek to live according to Scripture and who have also come to recognize the freedom that women have in Christ to exercise their gifts.

The Youth Builder by Jim Burns taught me to establish boundaries that protected my ministry and personal life. Ministry is emotionally and spiritually draining which can also impact us physically. Jim Burns recommends, among other things, limiting the number of nights out each week and taking retreats to focus on God and be refreshed. His advice led me to begin having "Solo Days" - a day set apart every three months to seek God and recognize His direction in my life.

What books have influenced how you live? What lessons have you learned from your favorite authors?

I Met a Man

Today I met a man who changed my life.

For twelve years, I have visited physician after physician. I believe I have seen every physician in this whole district and no one could help me . . . no one! My money is nearly all spent and I am considered unclean. All I touch is unclean. I am even restricted in where I can go, who I can touch, and how I interact with my family and friends. I have lived this way for twelve years and I was desperate for help, desperate for healing.

I have heard of a new teacher, a new rabbi who travels around Galilee and heals people. I was so desperate! I heard he was near my village so I went to where he was, hoping he might help me. I thought surely if I could only touch his robe . . . he is so powerful . . . just touching his robe would be enough.

The crowd was thick around him, like a flock of sheep gathering around a feeding trough. People were pressing close to him and jostling him on every side. How could I get close enough to merely touch the edge of his robe? I pushed my way through the crowd, getting more than a few angry looks, but I didn't care. I NEEDED to touch his robe. I had tried everything else and I needed this man to heal me . . . so very desperate.

At last I was close to him, just a couple of people stood between us. So close. I pushed ahead, heedless of the people in my path, and I reached out and I made it. I touched his robe, only the fringe, but it was enough. As soon as I felt the soft tickle of the fringe on my fingertips, I felt his healing power flow through me. I felt the blood stop flowing. Never for an instant did I mean to interrupt him. After all he was hurrying to an emergency. A young girl had died and he was on his way to help. I touched him so lightly, the fringe, only the fringe and from the back. I thought he would not know. But he did know.

He stopped. He asked who touched him. His disciples made fun of him a little because so many people were jostling him from every side, but he insisted and then he looked straight at me. I knew that he knew I was the one, so I admitted I had touched him. He looked me in the eye with such love and compassion as I have never seen before and said, "Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well."

I met Jesus today and my life has been changed.

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Recently I have been preparing for a workshop that I will be teaching at my church's annual women's conference and I have been experimenting with different types of journaling as well as different ways of studying the Bible. This post is the outcome of one of those experiments and is based on the story of "The Woman with an Issue of Blood" found in Matthew 9 and Luke 8.

I would love to hear about your journaling experiences and/or things you do to keep your Bible study times fresh.

2012 - A Dakota Tale

Guest writer Dakota joins us for this final post of 2012.  

Here I am again putting paw to keyboard to send you a year end greeting from Mommy and me. She has had a very exciting year and I want to tell you all about it!

In January, Mama was able to live out one of her long time dreams. She went to see “The Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway. Shortly after New Year’s she started listing Bucket List items on Facebook. One of them was to see a Broadway show. One of the ladies from her church saw this and offered to go with her. Then a man from her church gave her a link to a site where she could get tickets very inexpensively. Before Mama knew it, she had tickets to see “The Phantom of the Opera” with two women from her church. She loved it!! (Yeowzer!!) When the music began to play and the chandelier began to rise, she got a chill up her spine and was entranced the rest of the evening. 

In Broome County where Mama grew up, they have an annual weekend event called the Balloon Rally and Spiedie Fest. Mama used to go many years ago, but she hasn’t been able to go since she moved away. This August Mama and cousin Sandra went to the Fest. On Friday night they were able to watch the hot air balloons fill up and take off. On Sunday they went to church at the Fest, heard Mark Shultz in concert (meow, he was good, even though he made people cry with his poignant songs!) and then wandered around looking at the crafts and Mama enjoyed a spiedie sandwich. That afternoon Mama and cousin Sandra were able to hear Lone Star in concert as well. It was a fun weekend for Mama.

 

Autumn brought another opportunity. Mommy took a workshop.  For 5 weeks she met with several other women and they worked through a book called Sacred Rhythms about how to incorporate different spiritual disciplines into your life so that you can get to know God better. She enjoyed getting to know the other women and learning about them and sharing herself with them. Through this workshop she realized how important rhythms are in her life both those that come naturally like the seasons and holidays and those that she incorporates into her life like work and rest, time with God and time with family.

As for me? Well, I do a good job at keeping Mommy company and she tells me I am a good kitty a lot. I work hard to keep our home free of mice and she is very appreciative. Once in awhile she gives me tuna juice and then I am so happy (meow . . . purr, purr, purr)! 

We hope that you have a Blessed and Healthy New Year!!