Faith

You Will Make It Through The Tough Times

Each of our lives have moments of life, death, happiness, sorrow, wins and losses. 

We need to go through each phase of life, but not get bogged down. 

We need to have unshakeable joy. Joy isn't fake happiness. Joy is knowing that despite horrible circumstances, you know you will make it through and you will eventually be ok. 

When tough times come, don't let them derail your life. 

Feel the emotions, work through it, and find hope in the circumstances. 

Even in the darkness, you can find hope shining down on you, just remember to look up and see it. 

You will make it through.

Be The Change

People find hope when you offer them time. Time to listen, time to help out, time to just be there for them. Don't waste sharing hope with someone.

Hope in Front of Me

Feeling down, discouraged? 

Need some encouragement?

 Listen to the words in this song and grab on to hope!

Your Choices Matter

You have the power inside you to overcome the fear and doubt that lives in  your mind.  Take the chance and step out of your comfort zone!

Offer Hope-RAOK

Random Acts of Kindness can change a life. 

A smile, or a kind, caring word spoken to someone, can give someone hope. Hope changes people. Share something as simple as a sweet word, a thank you, a smile today with someone. Look at people, not through or past them. Make sure they know they matter.

Priorities In Life

We spend too much time trying to keep up, with everything, everyone, and social media. 

Our lives move very fast. 

Too fast. 

When we give in to keeping up with the world and the speed it moves at, we lose a lot. 

We lose precious moments that can never be recaptured.

We lose memories that can never be relived.

We lose the ability to have meaningful conversations, face to face. 

We lose relationships. We forget that real life friendships matter.

We lose joy. 

We lose hope. 

We forget that people matter because the tasks of busyness take over.

Take time to disconnect, slow down, and say no, to say yes to what really matters in life.

Do Something Wonderful

Change comes when we are different than the world.  

Be kind.  

Be generous.  

Be loving.  

Give.  

Serve.  

Laugh.  

Have hope.  

Let your life be one that will make a positive difference in the world.  

Overcome or Overwhelmed?

Which handle do you grab for each morning?  We all have a choice to either be overwhelmed or to overcome.  

Life Journey

Learn from the past, but don't live there. God goes before us, and walks alongside us on our life journey.

One Step At A Time

One step at a time, 

          one choice at a time, 

               one day at a time. 

You can achieve your goals, 

overcome your fears, 

         and quiet your doubts.

30 Day Challenge

As I finish up the 30 days of thanks, having missed a couple days because I have been spending the time with family, I want to challenge each one reading this to live a life of gratitude and thanks each day.  Look for the gifts around you, and be thankful.  A life of gratitude makes the heart be filled with joy.  It puts our focus on the good in life, not the bad.    I am not saying to live in a false reality and pretend  tough times aren't happening when they do.  I am just challenging each one of us to find a daily gift, a small joy, to see the blessings in life despite the difficulties we all face.  

Gifts of Today

For Monday, think about, enjoy, find...

3 gifts from the oven

Fresh Apple Crisp

Not from my oven, but from a local bakery, gluten free kalamata olive/rosemary fresh bread..delicious!

Baked Spaghetti Squash, picked from my garden

3 Gifts

For October 3rd, I am doing a gifts challenge again. 

Find 3 things in your day, or that are present in your life. 

3 gifts of hope

True hope for me lies in the fact that God is in control, and because of trust in Jesus, I have hope that lasts for ever. 

I hope for health and healing for my loved ones facing life altering diseases. 

Sunsets fill me with hope and peace.

Word Challenge, Overcome

The first word I am going to use in this new challenge is OVERCOME. Share with me what this word means to you, how you have overcome, whatever comes to your mind when you see this word. 

At the beginning of the year, I took a challenge of 'pick a word for the year that you want to be your theme,' and I picked overcome.  It has definitely been a theme for me, and I have overcome quite a few fears, challenges, attitudes that held me back.  I still have things to overcome, which has become very obvious the past few days, such as anxiety over unknowns or what if's, but I have overcome a lot in the past few months that used to hold me back.  

Here are three examples of things I have overcome this past year.  There are many more, but these are the big ones:

I started to work out, something I hadn't done at this level in years!  I had walked, done some hiking and bike riding, but I am actually going to the gym 3-4 days a week. The walking and hiking we do have become much easier and much more enjoyable.

There have been some past hurts that I have overcome, and by doing that, I have been more open to letting new people in my life, made new friends, and torn down walls around my heart.  I have become more outgoing, speak up more, and have been blessed with some wonderful new friendships because I overcame the past hurts and scars others left on my heart.  

On my birthday, I went across a narrow, swinging bride that ascends from rock to rock over the Kootenai River in Montana.  Fear had kept me from taking more than two steps on this bridge before.  I don't like heights, although that fear is going away, but heights over moving water, on a narrow, moving bridge was not my idea of fun.  I climbed the steps, determined to overcome this fear, took the first few steps, which are high up, but I was over rocks, not water.  I took a few more steps, slowly, clinging to the cable as tight as possible, and fear swept over me.  My husband and niece were part way across, cheering me on and waiting for me.  I froze for a bit, and just stood there.  I looked up at my niece, who is 8, and did not want her to think it's ok to quit something because of fear, so I took a few more steps.  At this point, one of the three boards under my feet moved, escalating my fear, but kept me moving forward!  When I got about half way across, the fear left, and I enjoyed each step of the journey across that bridge.  It was beautiful.  I felt very accomplished when I hit the stairs on the other side.  I felt free from the fear that had held me back so many other times before.  The trip back across was now easy.  I had overcome by putting fear behind me, and taking a risk to move forward.  With each step moving forward, the fear grew smaller and the confidence grew more and more, and I overcame a barrier that held me back for so many years. 

This only shows about 2/3 of the bridge, it is a long one!  

New Challenge

After a day without the gift challenge, I think I need to focus on something similar.  How about a word a day challenge. Join me?  

I am going to post a word for each day, and similar to the gift challenge, search it out to see what it really means to you, how it can help you, how it can keep you taking steps forward in life.  

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Take The Step

Sometimes all it takes is making the first step forward.  

Don't Take Life For Granted

September Challenge, See the Gifts, Day 11

Today is a day of remembrance, honor, and respect.  

In honor of this day, today's gift challenge is 3 gifts of remembrance.  

Mine are communion, remember the ultimate sacrifice for me; handmade hutch from my Grandpa; two old pictures that my Gram had for years, now hang in my home.

September Challenge, See the Gifts of Each Day, Day 3

September 3rd Joy Dare - 3 gifts yellow

What are three gifts in yellow you are thankful for?