Yesterday was a tough day. It started pleasant enough, but then everyone else in the house got up. I had to escape or snap so I went to pay bills before attending my Positive Moms group at church.

The group is a hodge-podge of women from the community (many that do not attend the church that hosts the gathering). It is a chance to study the Word and to talk about problems and issues that we are facing. It is also a chance to laugh and yesterday reminded me of the importance of laughter to keep joy alive.

There was no magical moment of inspiration during the meeting. Each of us have problems and we are all growing to get by. But I came out of the group feeling inspired because I was able to hold out my hand to another, give some tips and suggests and share things that WERE working in my own home.

It is amazing how the act of encouraging someone else can actually be so encouraging to me. By the time I arrived home I was in the mood to apologize for my quick departure and was able to tackle the tasks that I had left behind.

If you are feeling down today try a little encouragement.

• Write a note or letter to a friend that has been on your heart.

• Give a smile and a compliment to the check out person at the grocery store.

• Help someone out with their cart in the parking lot.

• Let someone else go in line before you – even if you have been waiting longer.

• Pay for the meal for the person behind you at the fast food restaurant.

A small act of encouragement extended to someone else can go a long way towards encouraging your own heart.

There are only a few more weeks left in 2008 and I have NOT completely my resolutions from New Years. It is so easy to put off doing what I know to do and even think the excuses are legitimate:

I need to sweep the floor
I have to watch this news report
I have been working all morning and just need a break
The kids have to have bathes
The refrigerator needs cleaning out
I’ll do it tomorrow
I’ll do it later

And I’m just getting started. I have an excuse for everything, every time and every mood. But they all boil down to procrastination – just not doing it. If I want to meet my goals for 2008 and want to create goals for 2009 then I have to buckle down, get to work and determine that no THING, no PERSON and no EXCUSE is going to get in the way of doing what I have to do.

1. Jump in with both feet. It is easy to say that I will do this little bit today and then a little bit more tomorrow, but most of us like to see results. With out something definite to show for the efforts we tend to give up. Tackle your goal with both hands and the differences that you see will encourage you to carry on.

2. Take it slow. This may seem like a contradiction but it’s about the number of changes not how you take the changes. Making lots of goals and objectives for the New Year is good, but just tackle one goal at a time. Too much change could make you give up too soon.

3. Be accountable with a friend or family member. Find someone that has your best interests in mind and share your plans with them. Ask them to keep you accountable to your goals. It is harder to back out of doing what you know to do when you know someone else is watching.

4. Replace a habit. It is almost impossible to give up a bad habit. The answer is to exchange the bad habit with something that is good. Set your goals to balance your life from the negative over to the positive.

The end may be near, but it is not too late. There are still plenty of weeks left to salvage your resolutions and start planning for the New Year. Don’t wait – start now! And whatever you do, just do it.

I was created to be passionate. There is a unique (and some might say peculiar) twist to me as a person that directs my interests and my excitement in one direction or another. It is that ministry or service opportunity that lights up my whole face when I talk about it.

Passion will NOT be denied. If a God given passion is not able (or not allowed) to be filled then it will be filled in another way. In my life it has been food and television (in some other person’s life it might be alcohol, business, games or any number of things). Satisfaction will be found.

Although I thought I was walking the path that God wanted, I had a rude awakening this weekend. “When passion is ignored it will be filled in other ways.” That was what I was doing. I was ignoring my God given passion – because there was no chance to teach at church, because no one had asked me to write a book or bible study, because . . . I have plenty of excuses. The why is not that important but the what is important. My actions or inactions were forcing my passion in a direction other than the path God has set forth.

I changed that yesterday. I made a point to fast off the two things that my passion veers towards the most (sweets and television). It is something I intend to do for the rest of the week. But even more important I REPLACED those items with others. I went outside and played with the kids, I got up and danced when I just HAD to have a break, I read my scripture and did a bible study in the middle of the day.

When the urge strikes me to do something – anything – I have started asking myself “where is my passion?” I want the things that I do, see, read and hear to amplify the passion that I have for God’s purpose and for it radiate to the world around me.

Most kids have trouble sleeping the night before some big event. The anticipation of Christmas morning or the vacation stirs up excitement that keeps them from relaxing enough to rest.

This has to be what pushed the Proverbs 31 woman to rise while it was still dark and to be awake while everyone else was asleep. Excitement and passion for the things that needed to be done were a driving force for her life.

I don’t want to be like the Dunkin Doughnuts guy, stumbling around mumbling “I gotta ____________” (fill in the task of the day). I want to be like the kids on Christmas morning that stay in bed only long enough to be able to get away with saying its morning.

The only way I know to get that enthusiasm is to discover a relationship with God. As I grow in my knowledge of Him through time in His word, as I spend time talking with Him in prayer and as I take time to just sit and enjoy the blessings that he has poured into my life I will begin to get a picture of where I need to be and what I need to be doing in His will. It is there that I find my joy.

I have no more excuses or I guess I should say that I’m releasing the excuses. It is more important to me that I find my place and walked boldly in it than I find a reason to stay where I am.

It is my hope that my enthusiasm for discovering and following my passion will spill over on to all those that I encounter, but even if I am alone in my journey I know that Joy will make it a pleasant one.

Everyone is created with a passion – a heart to do something unique to that individual. It doesn’t matter what church you attend, what denomination you come from or what gender you are – you have passion.

The problem for many of us is that the God given passion is being crushed. Cares of this world (a fear of being hurt or ridiculed or a fear of what might happen) keeps us from stepping out into the passion that drives us to do and to be more. Instead we settle for a worldly replacement because passion will not be denied.

Addictions – to food, to television to alcohol – is an attempt to fill this passion. But the worldly substitutes leave us still wanting and empty and ultimately in a worse place than we began.

It’s time to quit settling and to reach for the passion of God. Step out into the thing that you truly want to do regardless of how peculiar, strange or weird the people around you think you are. If the church blocks your passion then you should just reach out to other avenues – even Jesus wasn’t accepted in His home town.

Become all that God has called you to be – reach for His passion and dare to live the life of hope and joy that He has called you to.

It has not been easy. There is a limited amount of time in the day and it seems that if I slow down to kick my feet up then the day slips passed and I’m behind on the things I need to do. Finding the balance can be just as difficult and scary as walking a tight rope.

Every time I turned on the television last week it was a tear jerking story about a mom and usually involved her losing a child. It had two results: 1. the television stayed off a lot more last week and 2. I took more time with my children.

I also came away with a new sense of purpose – I can do all that I need to do and will usually have time left over for what I want to do. It’s just a matter of prioritizing, organizing and then following through.

1. I work from home, so there has to be time to do that. There was a time when I would jump out of bed and right into work, but now I schedule work through out the day so that life can happen and not be as much of an interruption.

2. Kids are going to shake up the schedule. The youngest (almost three) never indicates when he is going to get up. Some mornings it’s just after me and some mornings he gets up with the rest of the house. I can’t plan around him – believe me I’ve tried – so I have to work with him. It takes a little longer, but I can deal with the unexpected if I expect it.

3. My body gets tired. I am not in peak physical condition, and even if I was there would be times during the month when the energy might not be as high as it is during other times. It is important for me to get plenty of sleep. According to most experts, IF your sleep schedule is not disrupted (that means you haven’t been deprived for weeks and weeks) then it is likely you will only need around 6 to 8 hours of sleep. I get ready for bed when my children do and then I spend a little time reading before going to sleep. The television is never the last thing I do before turning in. It takes too long for the mind to wind down.

4. I need time too. It’s not that I can’t survive without time by myself or for myself, but it is hard to thrive. Each week I spend time with other ladies (I live in a house full of men and need that Estrogen fix) at a support group for moms. It is one of the best things I have ever done for myself or for my family!

5. My number one priority is my relationship with the Father. I spend some time in the morning chatting with Him about friends and family and situations. Time is spent reading and thinking over His word. If I start my day without my Father I struggle to catch up all day. Starting my day WITH the Father seems to increase the amount of time that I have to do what needs to be done.

6. More time with God. The morning is just the beginning. Each afternoon before lunch I set aside a little time to do the Sunday school lesson or other bible studies. It is just a way to refocus my heart and mind on the things that really matter.

7. Coming to a close with a Word or two. Before bed I read over a section of Proverbs. It helps me release the cares of the day and find peace and rest in the arms of the Father.
My schedule reflects each of these different points. I have taken the time to break it down so that I know what I need to be doing and when I need to be doing it. There is enough flexibility so that if a friend stops in unexpectedly then the schedule will not collapse. I can take time to visit and enjoy the friend. Having the schedule makes it easier to relax and enjoy the unexpected pleasantries of life.

The time with God is also scheduled in the sense that I have specific times I want to be alone with the Father (but I do try to talk to Him sporadically throughout the day as well in brief prayers and thanksgivings). My children know when and where and why and they are relatively good about keeping things quiet. It is important to me that they see mom taking time throughout the day to be with God.

No matter what else goes on or how much there is to do in a day, the most important thing is God. Spending time in that intimate relationship with Him is the only way that I can get anything done around here.

After God comes family and after family comes work and after work (including the house) comes me time. Staying on a schedule, organizing the tasks that need to be done and keeping my focus help me to find the balance in my life that lets me do the important things without out stress or worry being able to cloud up my life.

Being a good wife is important to me. I want my husband to shout my praises at the city gates. On good days I feel like he doesn’t even see me. On the bad days I feel like I am failing him in every direction.

That’s how it was.

Several years ago I came to the understanding that I can not make my husband happy. It doesn’t matter what I do or how well I do it. My husband’s happiness is not in my hands. At the same time I can not make my husband do what is right or change him in any way for that matter. That was the biggest realization.

It turns out that God is in control. Go figure!

I started concentrating on my own behaviors, habits and attitudes. It helped with my husband, for a season. He slips back into the old days now and then. The great thing is that I don’t beat myself up when he does. I know that I am doing what I am suppose to be doing, and his mood swings offer me the opportunity to check and see if any directional changes need to be made in my own life.

I AM a good wife. It is through my relationship with God that I am growing to do all that He has called me to do. Budgeting my energy, time, finances and other resources allows me to pick up, clean up, straighten up, fix up and on and on until all of the to-dos on my list are done.

It was the relationship with God that allowed the Proverbs 31 Woman to be as amazing as she was. My strength, wisdom and abilities are not enough. It is the power of the Holy Spirit in me that makes it possible.

It was my Sunday school study that reminded me to continue to push on. We are discussing our S.H.A.P.E. (from The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren). At the end of this week’s study I had to write down what points were going right in my life, what were not going so right and what I was committing to do next.

Sometimes it seems that things are going good, until you see it in writing. While I thought my life was moving along in the direction that I desired, it turns out that I’m farther behind than I realized. Things keep getting in the way of my goals and dreams and I keep letting them.

The people around me don’t always make change or choices easy for me, although that is just one excuse in a whole line of excuses that I could produce without blinking. But I don’t want to make excuses this morning. I want to make a difference in my life.

I’m determined to reach some goals in my life over the next thirty day.

1. I will write on my novel every day – my goal is to complete the new novel by the end of thirty days.

2. I will write fiction every day – my goal is to publish one fiction story by the end of the thirty days (or at least sale one).

3. I will write on my blogs every day – my goal is to increase my readers to 100 per day by the end of the thirty days.

4. I will spend time on my house every day – my goal is to have one gathering in my home in the next thirty days.

Each goal has a step that will help me reach that goal that requires action every single day. It’s just for thirty days. So it shouldn’t be too much of a challenge ;). What are you willing to do for the next thirty days to get you to where you know to be?

The last few days have been a struggle – as much in my heart and mind as it has been in my body. I was knocked down pretty hard by a cold (that managed to hit me when my defenses were already weak). Typically I will sniffle and cough for a day or two but this is pushing a week. I haven’t had the energy to do much of anything and too much of anything would put me into a coughing fit.

So I have had the choice of doing nothing or doing nothing while wasting time in front of the television. I confess that the television has had an attraction most of the time. I have plenty of reasons and excuses as to WHY I chose the television, but none of them are worth listening to. The truth is that I was just putting off becoming what I want to be.

As silly as it sounds, I am beginning to believe that we all do a little bit of that. We have the hunger and desire to be great, but we just aren’t willing to take that step over into greatness. “I’ve been sick.” “The kids need me.” “There isn’t enough time.” The excuses help put off the move even though the move is what truly is desired.

I have started attending a women’s group on Tuesdays and there are a few of the women I think will hold my feet to the fire (and one or two who are pushing me even beyond what I had envisioned for myself). That accountability is something that helps push me even when the excuses are trying to hold me back. I missed this week – because I was sick – but already I’ve received cards and notes letting me know I was missed. Just the words of encouragement I needed to help me get going once again.

The fire is in me again. The motivation is there for me to become what I know to be. Now I just have to step out into that greatness and not look back. There is a song that keeps filtering through my head – at least a part of the song. The name of the song isn’t important and even the words escape me. It is one phrase that keeps replaying over and over: “There’s something in the air tonight . . . you can mark my words, something’s about to change.”