Inspiration

“She watches carefully all that goes on throughout her household and is never lazy. Her children stand and bless her; so does her husband. He praises her with these words: There are many fine women in the world, but you are the best of them all!” – Proverbs 31:27-29

Let me take a look into this passage.

I do not carefully watch over all that goes on in my household. I do not have eyes all over my head to see it all. My children get into things, do things they shouldn’t do, but I can not watch everything all the time in my house, who can?

I am lazy! I will admit it. I cannot seem to make myself get up and do what needs to be done. Sometimes my house is a complete mess and my husband gets angry.

My husband, however, does tell me I am the best of them all! Can you imagine? I am not the kind of woman described in Proverbs but my husband thinks I am the best in the world!

Proverbs 31:17-18 tells us that the virtuous woman is energetic, watches for bargains, and works far into the night.

I am not very energetic! (go back up and look at the lazy statement)

I do watch for bargains. I love to go to yard sales, I get the Sunday newspaper to look for bargains, I look on Craigslist, Freecycle, and I cut coupons.

I do not work far into the night. I am sorry but I love my sleep and my husband will tell you, I will not budge on that!

Our priorities as a Proverbs woman or virtuous woman are supposed to be;

1. God

2. Husband

3. Children

4. Home

5. Everything else

My priorities look like this;

1. Everything else

2. Children

3. Husband

4. Home

5. God

My priorities are way off! This is why I am not confident in my walk with the Lord. Why I feel worthless at times, I need to get my priorities in the right order.

When you get your priorities in order, God will take care of the rest!

Leo Tolstoy made happiness simple.  This simple quote resonates in my head on days where I make life difficult.  Sometimes we can get in the funk of dragging our feet, pulling our hair out and then we say, “I just want to be happy!”  So today I tell you:

If you want to be happy, be.

Happiness doesn’t have to be complicated.  It really can be simple.  The folks over at Real Simple have given us a guide to 9 Ways to be Happy in the Next 30 Minutes. Check it out and be happy!

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NOTE: Take time today to APPRECIATE
our nation’s Independence!
Remember and honor all of those who
gave of themselves and sacrificed greatly in
order to create and maintain our freedoms!

As mothers we often micro-manage our households.  We coordinate which person goes to what activity (and when!), we pay the bills, make budgets, call exterminators-you name it.  Why is it then that we doubt our skills when it comes to something involving ourselves?

I see women all the time (including myself) who doubt their abilities.  When it pertains to those we love we go all out and encourage them to no end.  Think about something for ourselves and suddenly the presses stop.

“Will I be able to do it?”

“Will I be able to do it well?”

“I shouldn’t even bother-I won’t have time/I’m not smart enough/strong enough/fast enough/young enough”

Why?

Is it a generational thing?  Look at the women who came before us.  Women who went to war or took up where there husbands left off.  Women who fought for equal rights…the list goes on.  Yet we doubt our ability to further our education, start a business, have a family or love ourselves?

I’m going to challenge you this week.  Maybe your challenge is something small.  Maybe it’s a big step or change.  What your challenge is will depend on you and you alone.  I challenge you to have faith where you had none.  Have strength where you weren’t sure you could be strong. Take a deep breath, put on your superwoman cape and JUST DO IT.  No excuses.  Next week I’ll tell you about something I’m forcing myself to pony up to and I’d like to hear the same from you.  Let’s be examples to our children and all those we love.

What are you holding yourself back from?

It’s so easy to forget how much of a joy being a mom really is. What, with the constant bickering, repeating EVERYthing twenty times, and wondering how so-and-so keeps their house spotless while you’d be doing good to be able to walk across the floor without sliding threw a glob of unidentifiable stickiness. Or maybe it’s just me.

In thinking about all of the chaos involved in my day to day life with four daughters and a son, I was led to reflect on what exactly makes me “mom” aside from simply having children. I know – that sounds strange, right? Just hear me out. I know many women who have had children that don’t have a motherly bone in their bodies. I don’t mean those moms who are non-traditional and do things a bit out of the norm. I mean those moms who absolutely do not parent their children. Period.

What makes me Mom? What is it that makes me one of the moms who cares whether her children fight amongst themselves or eat three meals a day or only get one snack? What makes me one of the ones who enforce rules, do things to make their kids feel special (even when they don’t deserve it LOL) and bawl their eyes out at just the thought of something happening to their child? What makes me the mom who lives for her children and does everything in her power to ensure their safety, confidence, and security?

To be honest, I’m not exactly sure. What I do know is that I love my children. Unconditionally. What I feel when I think of them is indescribable. What I think when I look at them is impossible to articulate. Sometimes, those feelings and thoughts take the backburner to other feelings (like frustration, pain, disappointment, fear, and even anger…) and other thoughts (such as, “There is not a place in existence far enough away from these little people for me to go right now…”) but through all the messes and mishaps, nothing can ever overshadow the fact that they are my entire world.

There is no situation, scenario, or circumstance that could ever change the way my heart aches with the fullness of my love for them, and that’s what makes me Mom.

What makes YOU Mom?

Recently, someone sent me a message and asked if I was adjusting to the single life –  again.  I had to pause for a moment before words could form in my mind.  I realized that over the past three months I had not identified myself as being single, again.

This journey has caused me to go into deep reflection over choices I have made, choices I didn’t make and accepting the blessings and outcomes of it all.  It leaves me with only one way to answer that person’s question –

I don’t feel single. I don’t feel alone at all. I have found that I am settling into the person God wants me to be.

Wow. It has taken me 25 years to get this.  Life is not about being single or being married. Life is about love – perfect love.  For God, for self, for others.  Yesterday, when I answered the question, I breathed in life – and it felt good.

The feeling I have right now is all about settling into myself and creating the space for love – pure love. This must be the feeling the character Celie felt in the Color Purple when she said, “And then I figure this the lesson I was suppose to learn.”

About a month ago while I was in Target, I picked up the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. My co-worker recommended the book to me many months ago, but I never bothered to take an interest in it. I wasn’t in a hurry to read a book about a woman’s wonderful travels all over the world eating great food. I am so glad that I chose to buy this book, and I think the Universe knew exactly the time I needed to read it!

This is not a book review, but a story of how I was inspired by the book to pursue my own spiritual life. I grew up in a very small Baptist Church, old-time Baptist Church, and for all my life the word “meditate” felt like it meant I would be cheating on God. Meditate to who? Isn’t that what Buddhists do? So I’m sitting here reading Eat, Pray, Love, and I see so much of myself in this book. I see me trying to go deeper with God, trying to be still more, trying to be joyful and just live. Breathe.

Elizabeth’s own spiritual journey inspired me, but so does Russell Simmons. Two totally different people with totally different backgrounds, but yet each seems to have found that place of peace that only comes when you are in tune with your spirituality. He talks about his belief in practicing yoga and meditation in a way that I’ve never heard a Christian say before. Russell truly believes that yoga brings you in communion with God. He also says the “closest thing we can have to the Holy Spirit in our body is our breath.” Now this is the type of meditation I can live with.

So, I’ll continue to write and let you know how my journey is going. I pray that I won’t bore you death. I do intend to eat, pray & love!