As the daughter of three generations of gardeners, I can now look back at my family experience through a lens that is humbled, inspired, and thankful. I feel immense love and gratitude for my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather who made ends meet because they saw opportunities through the blades of grass. They taught me that a small job done well could make ALL the difference. That you can always make a new path. That something meant to keep you down can be the very thing that lifts you up. For my father, gardening is his passion and he grew up working the routes my grandfather would make.
Read MoreThroughout the Bible, we find instances of God delivering on his promises; working exceedingly, miraculously, overwhelmingly, and abundantly. God rarely delivers in the way we expect and yet He is always faithful to His word. And He’s ever inviting us to depend on Him as an act of faithfulness.
To ignite the fire within is to remember that he’s placed a bit of Him in each of us. It’s this fire that lights us up in purpose, purifies and melts away any impurities, and brings us back to reveling in the eternal blessing of His living water again and again.
Read MoreWe were each granted God-given gifts to allow our creativity to flow into a larger held vision for the benefit of something greater than ourselves. Because Jesus loved us so much that he placed a piece of Him into each of us and entrusted in us what we could entrust in others. If we hope and believe in what we can only imagine right now, eventually we will stand on the other side of what God has promised. And so the cycle repeats. If we hope and believe in the best version of ourselves, we can do the same for others.
Read MoreI genuinely believe that it is possible to run a successful business without sacrificing ourselves and our bodies.
I’m privileged to be in a position to explore this possibility and, if it proves to be true, I will have achieved a quality of life that needs to be perpetually evasive (at least to me): the ability to pay my bills, relief from unnecessary stress related to overworking, benefitting from regular fitness and physical movement, and contentedness with the direction of my life.
I don’t expect perfection but I do expect myself to try. When and if I fall, I’ll be there to support myself. I won’t be hard on myself but I will help myself up and try again. That’s all we can do, anyways - we try and try again already, and, this time, it’s for me.
Read MoreGrace is a process of developing an awareness and accountability to the needs of the moment with presence and mindfulness. When you are able to meet yourself with grace, you are being kind and merciful with yourself and what you can handle in your process right now. Meeting yourself with grace is a process that: embraces devotion, creates cultures of care for yourself and others, and enables you to connect + experience deeply. Grace feels like a place of peace filled with ease and harmony.
Read MoreForgiveness is a process of letting go of old energy that does not serve you. Whether it be a thought, belief, or attachment, when you release, you not only forgive what/who has offended you, you also free yourself. It means to leave no record of wrongdoing and upholding a threshold level of respect, kindness, and compassion. Forgiveness is a gift given to us by the blood of Jesus to be able to love and hold one another in spite of and because of each other’s imperfections. It changes hearts, allows for transformation growth, and creates possibilities of deepened connection through the power of vulnerability + intimacy.
When you get hurt, offended, or threatened, it takes an enormous amount of willpower to be able to resist the urge to react in an unhinged way. Being able to process it internally allows you to be able to respond from a place of love and compassion. If you have made it here, you have a regular practice of showing up to your best abilities.
So how can you process + move through it?
Read MoreGod gives us three ways to connect with Him: through the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
It is said that the Holy Spirit is a spiritual voice that can be felt into whispers and commits to the mind what is experienced in the heart. The Spirit is so powerful because through the Spirit, we each have the capacity to be fully led and guided in our daily living. Because of the Spirit, we know where and what to say our next “yes” to.
Read MoreMonitoring your attachments shifts your relationship with control. With more gripping, there is more resistance and clenching onto what we so deeply want to hold with tenderness. With more release, there is more lightness and abundance and what we seek begins to flow easily and effortlessly our way.
When you clench and hold tightly to whatever may be in your clasp, you are more likely to become unfulfilled, bored and drained by monotony. This creates a fog that distracts you away from ever-present opportunities. When you hold what you love with clenched fists, your expectations become mired with pressure and high expectations. In surrender, you release and let go and the response you are met with is an opportunity to be blessed and touched in unexpected ways.
Your attachments form from your beliefs (those that are learned through experience, practiced + reinforced over time, and inherited from your ancestors + loved ones), your expectations + the preferred outcomes you have for your life, and your past experiences. The relationships you have with these attachments can fall under a whole spectrum of lightness + ease to hoarding + gripping. This shows up in the spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, and social dimensions of your wellness through your relationships, your belongings, cleanliness + hygiene, feelings, and thoughts. Your attachments have the possibility to also foster great intimacy and a sense of worthiness + contentment for what you have and where you are.
When you begin to practice surrendering your will to His, you are essentially detaching from all that you know to attach + align with the heart of Christ. When you let go to let in, you are examining your relationships with what is consuming your time, energy, and attention. Getting into a routine process of doing this allows you to periodically let go of what is no longer serving you in order to make space for what you are hoping, believing, and praying for.
Read MoreThe temple is a place of worship, cleanliness, and purity that we have access to within after the New Covenant. Upon accepting Jesus into our lives, we are cleansed of our sins and live a God-filled life. This is when the Holy Spirit comes into us.
Fasting allows us to give him the start of our year and focus. In a season filled with traditions of writing new goals and resolutions for the new year, I’m choosing to lay down my plans for the rest of this year and everything after that at His feet. In submitting my hopes, dreams, and heart desires all to Him, I’m finding His merciful grace. By His supply, there is always victory.
Read MoreChristmas is just a little over one week away. It’s one of the most widely celebrated and holiest of holidays that celebrates the birth of Christ by Mother Mary. We celebrate the coming of Christ because God sent His son to save us from our sins.
And yet…
How often have you heard someone (either yourself or a loved one) say, “I just need to get through the holidays?” With the commercialization of this day, pressure of upholding traditions (both cultural and familial), and a whole snowstorm of factors beyond human control, it’s no wonder that many already feel stress + burnout leading up to a day meant to be full of joy and celebration.
So how can you turn an “I need to get through” experience into an “I get to” one? The answer: boundaries.
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