Gratitude

God never gives you a season without a reason.

What season of life are you in right now?

Sometimes raising children isn’t easy (at least for me anyway). We try and try and never seem to measure up to what we think we should be as a parent. Comparing, relating, trying, failing, succeeding. Or maybe you are rocking it and feeling beyond confident that your kids are and will be the best. 

 Or maybe our marriage doesn’t quite look like we thought it would when we dreamt of it long ago. Or maybe it is the life you have worked so hard at and are sharing it with your best friend by your side. 

Or maybe we don’t see our life measuring up to what we had hoped it should be.  Or we are accomplishing our dreams and aspirations and yearning for much much morez 

Or maybe our friendships and relationships aren’t as strong a deeply connected as we want.  Or possibly they are just as perfect as you had hoped and you have the best of friends that you share life with. 

Whatever the case is for you on your life journey, it is so important to find Grace in the moments we have and share with others. It may not be perfect or look the way we dreamed, but it’s what our life is made of.

Parenting isn’t easy and every new day presents challenges that we must face and overcome. It also has so many joys that we also need to slow down and breath in before its too late. When your first kid is on the way EVERYONE tells you- time goes by so fast enjoy it. And to be honest you kind of roll your eyes at it... until one day you wake up and see your 5 year old dressed and ready for school and think (silently and in awe) all those people were right.

Marriage takes work EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. God didn’t intend for married life to be easy and happy and no work at all. He gave us every tool possible to search for Him and develop our marital bond into the strongest relationship we can possibly have with someone because of His love. Find a way to make your high seasons higher and your low seasons less frequent. Take the time to say I love you. Take the time to share, truly share, your life with your spouse— not just the every day hustle stuff. Remember every day why you chose them to spend forever with. 

Make your life goals a priority. So many moms (myself included) have gotten lost in being a mom or a wife or student or whatever title you have and we don’t know how to move forward into what our heart desires. This is sad for us! Take time in every day to discover who you are, what you enjoy, and what you desire from life. It WILL make you more patient, loving, caring, and present when younallow yourself a mental break from the grime and feed your soul. 

friendships.. oh y’all do i struggle with this one. It’s sad truthfully. We all of course live life and we are “busy”... but won’t we always be busy unless we MAKE the time for them? Isn’t it important to carve out time for ourselves, spouses, children, & our friends? These are the people we look to for guidance, comfort, laughter, and so much more. As I get older and I discover more about myself, I know just how much having a true friend that you can always call on means. Seek out friendships that challenge you to grow, be the best version of yourself, and are willing to catch you when you stumble (ya know, cuz you had too much wine!)

If we stop comparing our life to others or to a fairy tale, I am certain, we would all find our life is amazing and fulfilling in the ways that make our heart happy. Some of us love the beach, while others the mountains, and still others somewhere in between. 

Be grateful for every moment.

Give thanks to the good

Enjoy the little moments

Think of all the people you are grateful for, have you thanked them? Do they know how much they impact your life? What’s stopping you from telling them right now?

Testing Faith (when it's all you have)

Faith is(may be) the absence of fear, belief without proof, to the religious it is trust in god (whatever he/she/it may be) to do what is best for you, love without boundaries, everlasting friendships.

How can someone loose faith? This is losing life...becoming angry with who you are and what you've become. Instead of loosing faith you have to put your faith in another place, not in people and not in things, but in yourself and in your heart. Faith cannot be created nor destroyed it just is--its the physics of life!

My favorite quote, one that has kept me positive and humbled in my faith is Exodus 14:14 which reads, The Lord will fight for you, you only need to be still. In our world it is easy to get caught up in the hustle ‘n bustle of daily life, but if we can take a moment to be still and listen the Lord is caring for us all. He is with us in every choice we make, every path we chose, and every hello we say. So when you feel like you are losing your faith, be still. Listen. Embrace your future. Keep your faith.

If ever taken by the hand and asked to follow, would you? If told to trust and ask no questions, would you? If given the opportunity to turn back time if just for a moment, maybe to say something differently or to change something that you'd done, would you?

I honestly think that life has its higher purpose, even if there was a time machine that could take me back to when I was younger or to a certain time in my life, I would not use it. I have never been more humble in my life and i hope to continue to become more humble as i grow. I have had a great man in my life who I loved with my all my heart and soul; who took care of me and loved me for who I am, he gave me a wonderful daughter. Family and friends to make my days go a little smoother and make things more interesting. Attending a great school--trying to get that degree, and as the days go by doing more and more things that interest me and are benefiting myself as well as others.

So when asked if I would change anything in my past.. I wouldn't, everything in my past has lead me to enjoy all the wonderful things I have now. The past has taught me how to better myself in situations and I have learned from previous mistakes. When asked to hold a hand and follow, I will not. I will simply hold the hand and help to guide me (us) in the right direction. Hoping along the way things do not get too rough and we can always find our way to better places. If asked to trust and ask no questions, I would not. How can we live life without asking questions, like how or why? If you are ever in doubt of something, ask. Because from that you will learn, from that you will become a more knowledgable person.

Building a better me

Anyone ever get the urge to do more with their life? To be somewhere better than where you currently are?

Well, I did! The combination of some big things happening (cannot discuss in detail now, but more to come on that later), an executive leadership course (one of the final courses in my Adult studies program at Oklahoma Wesleyan University), and a desire from within to use my degree and knowledge to really make a difference in my life and my daughters life.

So.. now I had this urge and some things that could potentially be of use to me in my life, but it wasn't/isn't so simple. I need to have a plan and a purpose and a WHY for whatever path I choose to take. That is where the leadership course and a book written by Dave Braun and Troy Amdahl, Oola: Find Balance in an Unbalanced World comes into play. It is a great quick read and with a little effort ( okay a lot of effort on my part) I can make changes every day to a greater good, a more balanced life, a dream world so to speak. The leadership course made me realize the things that interest me in life are far from my grasp and the book has lead me to a belief that with the right path and discipline I can achieve my goals.

Digging a little deeper: a little over two years ago, I lost my best friend, my love, my partner, my daughter's father, and my fiancé. I had always believed we should live each day to the fullest, but that became a more prominent task after realizing this life can be cut short when God says it's time. This event has sparked a desire to live a balanced and healthy life. Over the last two years I have grieved and mourned and had to be strong for our daughter. Was it easy? Absolutely not. But finding a way to balance the way I was feeling with the needs of my daughters seemed to push me to continue every day.

So over the last month I have been reading the Oola book and want to continue to balance my life out. They suggest seven keys areas of life are worth balancing in order to stay healthy and happy. The areas are Fitness, Finances, Family, Field, Faith, Friends, & Fun. Towards the end of the book they give a three step method for living a more Oola life (this can also be found at www.oolalife.com ) .

Step 1: Fill out an Oola Wheel. The areas I need to focus on the most are Field, Finances, Fitness, Faith, and Fun. I am not sure what their basis for areas needing improvement, but for me it was anything with an average less than 7 out of 10.

Step 2: Develop a plan to change the key areas where you are wanting to make changes. start with small goals and work up to a bigger goal so that daily we are improving and making progress to a better me.

Step 3: Follow a path- make a conscious choice and write it down for a path that I will take to obtain my goals and alter it with any changes that need to be made along the way.

Just wait for it-- give me a year and I will be a much more balanced and developed version of me.