Today is a beautiful and glorious day to get outside and play! I'm not talking about the kids - I'm talking about you and me, sisters! I'm jazzed, big time, about this gorgeous spring weather and the opportunities to enjoy it all weekend!
My thoughts, today, are very simple...TAKE time, MAKE time to P-L-A-Y with the special people in your life, this weekend! The laundry will wait, the dirty floors will stay right where they are, the dust will stick around another couple of days....but the opportunity to play could slip by, so carpe diem!
Our good God designed us with the ability to smile, to laugh, to run, to jump and to feel with all 5 senses! On top of all that, he gave us so many beautiful things to experience if we have "eyes to see!" STOP with your to-do list! Yes, this is the same person who told you a couple of days ago that a disciplined life is a happy life! BALANCE is the key here, girlfriends!
Ecc 3:1 "For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven."
LIVE! Explore, listen, observe, discover and enjoy all the the wondrous things around you. Don't carry that big burden, today. Lay it at the feet of our all seeing, all knowing, all loving God and put your hand in his to enjoy some play time in the sunshine.
I'm praying for you!
See you back here, soon....I've got some playing to do!:-D
Still Climbing,
Cher
Friday
Wednesday
A Disciplined Life = A Happy Life
Do you doubt? Come with me and let's explore the thought together, girlfriends!
Do you believe a child is happier and more secure when he has a routine and, in that routine, he knows there are specific and consistent expectations for the things that are in his realm of responsibility? Do you know a child who has no clear boundaries, no set bedtime, chores, homework requirements, limits on junk food? Need I say more?
We, as adults, are no different! When we live a disciplined lifestyle, we are at our best!
Once again, I will refer to the 4 areas of growth.
Being disciplined, spiritually, means we make time to allow God's spot light to shine into our hearts, revealing what's inside and taking out the trash, day by day! You don't let the trash in your kitchen pile up for weeks (I hope not!) and then try and haul 15-20 bags out at once, do you? The whole house would smell like a sewer by then! :-0 Neither should we neglect our time with God and allowing him to do a clean up in our hearts. If we start our day with him and run to him throughout the day as we face various situations, he will walk with us and keep us in optimum "running condition," spiritually. Take some time for him, today. Make it a disciplined habit to read,to pray, to worship and to commit your day to him. It will pay off in so many ways throughout your day!
Intellectually, are you disciplined in your thought life? What kind of "diet" are you on? T.V., music, books, conversations, thought patterns? All of these things make up the intellectual diet we are feeding our brains. Are you feeding on positive nutrition in these areas? Do your conversations build up others and make you feel strong, mentally, or are you feeding on negativity, gossip and dark thoughts?
Physically, are you eating right and getting enough exercise and sleep? All of these areas affect your...
Emotional health (which) culminates in a disciplined = happy or undiciplined = unhappy life.
It all begins with a dedicated decision, bathed in prayer, to be your personal best. Discipline takes determination. You must make that decision and then put some "clothes" on it or define it by things you will do, on a daily basis, and make yourself accountable to someone for optimal success. Bring your goals into the light to put some weight behind them. You'll be so glad you did!
If you make the decision to be your personal best, set your daily goals for optimal success with smaller goals for living a disciplined, happy, healthy life. When you prepare and those little voices start coming, and they will, telling you that you don't "feel" like having a quiet time or reading something encouraging and helpful for your personal growth instead of a romance novel, or that you want to hear just a l-i-t-t-l-e bit of gossip instead of refusing to be involved in any negative discussions about others or that you don't really need to exercise TODAY, you will have no excuse because you've ALREADY made those decisions back at the beginning! No need to revisit them every day! :-D
Heb. 12:11 "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."
A disciplined life = a happy life.
Still Climbing,
Cher
Do you believe a child is happier and more secure when he has a routine and, in that routine, he knows there are specific and consistent expectations for the things that are in his realm of responsibility? Do you know a child who has no clear boundaries, no set bedtime, chores, homework requirements, limits on junk food? Need I say more?
We, as adults, are no different! When we live a disciplined lifestyle, we are at our best!
Once again, I will refer to the 4 areas of growth.
Being disciplined, spiritually, means we make time to allow God's spot light to shine into our hearts, revealing what's inside and taking out the trash, day by day! You don't let the trash in your kitchen pile up for weeks (I hope not!) and then try and haul 15-20 bags out at once, do you? The whole house would smell like a sewer by then! :-0 Neither should we neglect our time with God and allowing him to do a clean up in our hearts. If we start our day with him and run to him throughout the day as we face various situations, he will walk with us and keep us in optimum "running condition," spiritually. Take some time for him, today. Make it a disciplined habit to read,to pray, to worship and to commit your day to him. It will pay off in so many ways throughout your day!
Intellectually, are you disciplined in your thought life? What kind of "diet" are you on? T.V., music, books, conversations, thought patterns? All of these things make up the intellectual diet we are feeding our brains. Are you feeding on positive nutrition in these areas? Do your conversations build up others and make you feel strong, mentally, or are you feeding on negativity, gossip and dark thoughts?
Physically, are you eating right and getting enough exercise and sleep? All of these areas affect your...
Emotional health (which) culminates in a disciplined = happy or undiciplined = unhappy life.
It all begins with a dedicated decision, bathed in prayer, to be your personal best. Discipline takes determination. You must make that decision and then put some "clothes" on it or define it by things you will do, on a daily basis, and make yourself accountable to someone for optimal success. Bring your goals into the light to put some weight behind them. You'll be so glad you did!
If you make the decision to be your personal best, set your daily goals for optimal success with smaller goals for living a disciplined, happy, healthy life. When you prepare and those little voices start coming, and they will, telling you that you don't "feel" like having a quiet time or reading something encouraging and helpful for your personal growth instead of a romance novel, or that you want to hear just a l-i-t-t-l-e bit of gossip instead of refusing to be involved in any negative discussions about others or that you don't really need to exercise TODAY, you will have no excuse because you've ALREADY made those decisions back at the beginning! No need to revisit them every day! :-D
Heb. 12:11 "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."
A disciplined life = a happy life.
Still Climbing,
Cher
Tuesday
Spirituality
I am a Christian. By this, I mean that I am a believer in Jesus Christ. I have put my faith in him and have accepted his death on the cross as the atonement for my sins. I believe that when he hung, perfect and sinless, on that shameful cross, he hung there, in my place, thereby taking all of my sins upon himself. When I was 15 and heard of his suffering and broken body, battered and bruised for me, my heart was filled with the burden of my sin and the magnitude of his love. He extended his offer of forgiveness and grace to me, in that moment, if I would but place my faith in him and I did so, gladly. An exchange took place that day. My sin-scarred life and the penalty of eternal death and separation from God nailed to his cross in exchange for his sinless life and payment that covered me and granted me eternal life and a new relationship with him! What a day and how I loved him for what he had done for ME! "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found. Was blind but now I see!" I felt, in that moment, that I would surely tell the whole world of my new birth and I was on cloud 9!
Ah.....but then I went back to school and to reality! If I remember right, I carried my Bible around for the next couple of weeks and attempted to talk about my new faith and to do what was right. We didn't attend church, as a family, and I didn't really begin to grow so I did not live a changed life...oh, the exchange had taken place, no doubt. My heart was never the same from that day, but it would be some 10 years later before I came into a dedicated Christian walk with Jesus Christ.
Jumping ahead to where I am, today....I'm thinking of a word...Man, I sound like a game show host! :-D The word is spirituality. Let me go back to my original thought. I am a Christan, today, as I was then, and I have had much opportunity to grow in my faith in Christ through personal Bible study, church attendance, fellowship with Christian friends, seminars, etc. I am not, however, always spiritual. You do realize that is possible, don't you? We can go around with our Christian banner on all day, listening to the Christian radio station, speak Christian"ese" (I sure hope I don't do that!), have little Christian sayings all over our desk, talk about our church activities and, shoot, we can even be working, AT the church, volunteering our time. In other words, we can be all up in the appearance of our Christianity....and miss the boat on spirituality!
You see, true spirituality is all about having a relationship with God, not religious "doings." It's about BEING. I'm not elevating the all too often purported "easy believism" here. Anyone that knows me, well, knows that I don't ascribe to a faith without works as an alive and viable faith. I'm talking about a living faith that walks and talks with God and gets our direction for life, every day, as we go. And me? Well, lemme tell ya, I just have to admit that there are times when I move into the arena of ritual, abandoning true relationship, and at a heavy price!
Ritual will never satisfy the way relationship will. Sometimes even the most seasoned Christians can be lulled to sleep by the counterfeit of ritual or religion, for a time, because it allows us to feel like we are "doing" something - you know, checking off the little boxes...but, friends, it leaves our soul's barren because there is no joy in ritual, only in relationship! That's how God designed it! Ritual or religion is a burden we aren't meant to bear. It really has nothing to do with being a Christian! And THAT is good news!
Jesus said, in Matthew 11:28-30 (New International Version)
"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."
If you find yourself in a dry place, today, a place of doing, without being, come go with me to the cleansing closet and lay that religious burden down. Yep, just take that heavy yoke of ritual and religious "doings" off your shoulders and come before the one who offers you relationship. He's waiting to spend time with you and give you rest. He will refresh your spirit and quench your thirst like a cool rain on the dry desert sand!
Come back, soon, and have some fun enjoying all the moments God has given you, today!
Still Climbing,
Cher
Ah.....but then I went back to school and to reality! If I remember right, I carried my Bible around for the next couple of weeks and attempted to talk about my new faith and to do what was right. We didn't attend church, as a family, and I didn't really begin to grow so I did not live a changed life...oh, the exchange had taken place, no doubt. My heart was never the same from that day, but it would be some 10 years later before I came into a dedicated Christian walk with Jesus Christ.
Jumping ahead to where I am, today....I'm thinking of a word...Man, I sound like a game show host! :-D The word is spirituality. Let me go back to my original thought. I am a Christan, today, as I was then, and I have had much opportunity to grow in my faith in Christ through personal Bible study, church attendance, fellowship with Christian friends, seminars, etc. I am not, however, always spiritual. You do realize that is possible, don't you? We can go around with our Christian banner on all day, listening to the Christian radio station, speak Christian"ese" (I sure hope I don't do that!), have little Christian sayings all over our desk, talk about our church activities and, shoot, we can even be working, AT the church, volunteering our time. In other words, we can be all up in the appearance of our Christianity....and miss the boat on spirituality!
You see, true spirituality is all about having a relationship with God, not religious "doings." It's about BEING. I'm not elevating the all too often purported "easy believism" here. Anyone that knows me, well, knows that I don't ascribe to a faith without works as an alive and viable faith. I'm talking about a living faith that walks and talks with God and gets our direction for life, every day, as we go. And me? Well, lemme tell ya, I just have to admit that there are times when I move into the arena of ritual, abandoning true relationship, and at a heavy price!
Ritual will never satisfy the way relationship will. Sometimes even the most seasoned Christians can be lulled to sleep by the counterfeit of ritual or religion, for a time, because it allows us to feel like we are "doing" something - you know, checking off the little boxes...but, friends, it leaves our soul's barren because there is no joy in ritual, only in relationship! That's how God designed it! Ritual or religion is a burden we aren't meant to bear. It really has nothing to do with being a Christian! And THAT is good news!
Jesus said, in Matthew 11:28-30 (New International Version)
"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."
If you find yourself in a dry place, today, a place of doing, without being, come go with me to the cleansing closet and lay that religious burden down. Yep, just take that heavy yoke of ritual and religious "doings" off your shoulders and come before the one who offers you relationship. He's waiting to spend time with you and give you rest. He will refresh your spirit and quench your thirst like a cool rain on the dry desert sand!
Come back, soon, and have some fun enjoying all the moments God has given you, today!
Still Climbing,
Cher
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