This installment is very near and dear to me as a mother of two chicks who have just made their first foray into the WORLD. Both are full-time college students, both are taking intelligent risks and failing occasionally, but learning the truth about resiliency. They both have been given a foundation, coming from totally different beginnings -- one born three months premature, the other spending far too many years in foster care. My children who are now adults, know the love of God and family and it shows in how compassionate they are to those who need it most.
I think they are closer to living their best lives than I ever was at their ages. I'd like to think I had something to do with that, but ultimately I think it is more the path that God made for each of them. We all have the choice to stay on that divine path or detour occasionally, sometimes suffering the consequences. Truthfully, there are no surprises. We wake each day and we decide much of what leads to our daily outcomes - good or bad. Life is full of opportunities, sometimes minute-by-minute to make not just good choices, but God choices -- Those choices that will guide us to purpose; the answers to the WHYs of our lives.
For many years I was trapped; maybe in a cocoon of sorts. Many things happened in my life to cause me to want to be liked and accepted. Wanting to say the right things always -- Never ever to offend anyone with telling them the truth. Those thoughts by themselves are not harmful or far-fetched. But coupled together with an unhealthy concept of God and religion... *my Christian friends' antennas just went up - chuckle* I was so religious at a point in my life that I negated all that Jesus taught in his short life. I ruled myself with an iron fist and beat myself up for considering enjoying anything outside the four walls of the church. I love God, I serve a risen Savior in Jesus the Christ - Yeshua and I love God's creation - not just the Christian ones.
Before I professed the Lord, Jesus, I spent a good deal of time around people of various ethnic backgrounds/cultures. I tried different foods, listened to different genres of music, visited wonderful places... I experienced great pains and even greater achievements and victories. The path that I have traveled can not have been for NOTHING at all! A few years ago, I began to feel the cocoon crack.
I left a job I hated and started my own company. I can not tell you how liberating that was. The old me would never have considered such a thing. I was always a scared bird who talked big, but did little to change things when I was unhappy; hence the gastrointestinal issues I later suffered. Now some would say... "That's not true." Yes, I have made some life choices that some would consider "daring," long before quitting my job, but I always quivered inside -- hoping that my decision would not be too hurtful and believing deep down that SOMEONE was really disappointed in my decision.
I have come to learn and embrace that every experience and lesson, every victory, every failure and misstep, every gain and loss, every appreciation AND disappointment has all been combined to form a big loving pot of ME. And there is always enough of me to go around, as long as I don't serve up TOO much. As long as I'm truly LIVING life, I will never be empty. Abundant life is restorative and healthy. That may or may not extend to health in my body, as everyone has a day/hour to leave this life. But while I am here, I am going to BE all of ME. My relationships are more genuine and richer -- I pray to see purpose in those I encounter. Being me doesn't give me license or even extra time to critique everyone in the world. The best of us doesn't have to be harmful or unkind to be truthful (that's often pain speaking), nor do we have to permit others to inflict or deflect their pain on us. Be HONEST, know LOVE, give LOVE and BE YOU. Hope this helps someone. Remember God's faithfulness.
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