Author: Kris Valdez

Dreams. The word can conjure up different ideas to different people. One person’s dream is another person’s nightmare. A simple example is some people love to argue or debate while others run from a conflict, even a friendly one, as fast as they can. One person loves standing in front of a crowd to share their story, while someone else would hyperventilating while breathing in a brown paper bag if they needed to speak in front of more than one person.

Here’s the beauty of how God created us. We are each made for a different dream, a different path. No one else has the exact same dream. Of course, there could be similarities, put God has created you, yes you, for a unique purpose. I’ve written other posts on how to find or begin looking for our purpose, so check those out if you need some direction.

What do we do when we have a dream, a dream others think is located in Crazy Town, just past the exit to Looney Village, and we have no idea how to start reaching for the dreams that God has placed in our heart? What’s the first step? Is this even the way I’m supposed to go? Should I have exited before Looney Village, at Safetyville?

My first course of action is to check in with God. Yes, dear reader, you are probably tired of this as the first step in most of the blog posts, but it’s the best place to start. Really, I promise. Give it a try. In James 1:5 (NIV) it says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” The answer will be forthcoming, but God could be craving time with you and the answer might not come in the first five minutes of sitting quieting in His presence.

The second step, after spending some one on one time with God in prayer and journaling, is to consider asking for direction of those around you. My husband is an amazing sounding board, among other things. I’m the type of person to get easily distracted by the latest shiny thing and I’ve learned to convince myself a new class, electronic gadget, or business partnership is the next step in my journey to achieving my dreams. My excitement has a tendency to carry me away and I think with my heart, rather than my head.

When I take a step back, explaining the idea or thing to my husband, he gently reminds me of the dream I put on paper and shared with my family last year about becoming a fulltime author, blogger and coach. Then my husband will ask, “How does this fit in with that dream?” Most of the time, I have to admit, it doesn’t fit in at all.

Therefore, the decision to pass on that thing I didn’t think I could live without becomes much easier in the light of my dream. The Bible says, in 1 Thessalonians 5:11, (NIV) “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” Find someone to help build you up as you dare to reach for your dream. If you don’t have a close friend or family member to be sounding board, consider joining an in person or online group of like-minded people who support your dreams. Or give me a call, I’d love to build you up and encourage you.

The third step is to take a leap of faith. Sometimes, I get so caught up in the fear of making a misstep, I don’t take a step at all. However, in Joshua 1:9, (NIV) it says, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” See, instead of freaking out that I will make a mistake or go in the wrong direction, I need to rest in the peace that God will be with me wherever I go and won’t let me go off course too far unless He’s using it as a growth opportunity. I can trust that if I’ve done step one and two in my dare to dream exercise, I know He won’t let me go. I also need to accept that I’m human and will make mistakes. It’s not if, it’s when I make mistakes and how I deal with them that helps me grow on this journey to the dream God has placed in my heart.

Share in the comments below what steps you’ve taken or are going to take in your dare to dream so we can encourage you.

Recently my pastor was teaching on the Sermon on the Mount in the book of Matthew. The verses which have always spoken to my heart are in Matthew 6:25-27,“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”

God is urging us to be content. And we crave it. We crave it because the only place true contentment comes from is God. We need to trust Him with the big and the small stuff in our lives. I believe, deep down, what we are all searching for is contentment. That feeling of being satisfied with what we have and our lot in life. This is the exact opposite of what the world wants us to believe. The accusing voice in my shouts, I need more, more, more to be happy, to fill that empty spot in my heart.

News flash, maybe you already know this, but things do not make me happy. While I’m not comparing myself to what the apostle Paul went through by being in a Roman jail, but I do know what it’s like to have plenty and to have little. There was a time in my life, as a single mom, even though I had a great paying job, I relied on others to help feed my family, but my new little family of three was happy. There have also been times where I’ve lived in a six bedroom house in a swanky neighborhood in Colorado, with what felt like money to burn and been miserable.

I’m not advocating that if we’re poor, we’re automatically happier. Far from it. There were many a nights when I couldn’t sleep because I didn’t know how I was going to pay my bills. Not exactly the example of trusting God, but the overwhelm I felt of dealing with my recent divorce, paying my attorney’s fees, court fees, and putting food on the table felt like I was drowning in debt both emotionally and physically.

During this time, I drew closer to God and sometimes not by choice. There were days where I worked to figure things out on my own and all it did was lead to exhaustion. As a last resort, I’d beg God for a solution because I didn’t know where the money would come from to pay my bills. Then checks, a gift card to Costco or a gas card would unexpectedly arrive in the mail so I could buy the things I needed for my family.

Even in my lack of contentment, trust and faith, God showed up over and over again. Not always monetarily, but one day I was moved to tears because a random check from someone I didn’t know arrived at the perfect time so I could cover my rent. God took care of my little family and I began to record all the little miracles taking place in my life. My prayer journal became more than a place to vent my frustrations and pour out my sorrow, it became a place to build my faith and grow my contentment because I looked back at all that God had done for me and continues to do for me.

God isn’t a genie, where we rub the lamp and out comes the answers to our problems. Occasionally, we need to mine for the answers. There is something God wants me to learn in my struggle. He sees my struggle. And He sees your struggle too.

I look at my youngest kiddo still learning to tie his shoes. If I constantly do it for him, he’ll never learn to grow in that skill. God may not answer my prayers the way I want, but He will answer it the way I need to grow and mature in my faith and grow the contentment I’m craving.

Are you craving contentment? Where do you find your contentment? Share it in the comments below.

Many people, myself included, when asked how they are doing may answer, “The usual, busy, busy, busy, busy.” Or we paste on a happy face and answer, “Everything is great, just perfect.” Neither one of these answers tells the full story of our lives.

The other side of the coin is the person who appears to have it all together. No matter what, their mask isn’t going to crack. I especially use this tactic in my professional life. I’m the person in the office who the boss will turn to for something to get done, correctly, no matter the hours or unrealistic deadlines because I don’t want anyone to see the chink in the armor I wear at the office on a daily basis.

When did I stop being real with people? It feels like I have the “one upsies”. This is not a real word, so grammer police, put away your red pen. It’s a term I coined where sometimes we feel the need to compare our busyness to the person sharing their horrendous schedule or we envy the perfection we see in the other person’s life and want to have our life be the model of perfection. It almost makes us feel better if the other person validates how much we are doing and accomplishing, no matter the cost.

But, what are the costs of “one upsies”? The cost is sacrificing our true selves, the people God created us to be. It’s the feeling of being scattered and frazzled trying to keep up with unrealistic expectations rather than feeling the peace and joy that God intends for us. Romans 15:13 (NIV) states, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

What is the core of wanting to participate in “one upsies”? For me, it’s the comparison game and related to being enough. Am I enough the way I am? The world will tell me over and over again, no, because I need the to improve myself, change myself, I need to make myself better in some way. It has been pounded into me that showing up as I am, with my faults, scars, and baggage I haven’t quite let go of from the past, means I’m not enough. Especially in this time of New Year’s Resolutions or lack thereof, it feels as if no matter what I do, it will not meet the bar of the world because the bar keeps rising. (I’m all for resolutions, in context of God’s will. Read about it here.) So what’s a girl to do?

The Bible says in Philippians 3:13-14 (ESV), “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” I can let go of my baggage, my hurts, my scars because I can strain forward to what God has lying ahead for me.

It’s not about keeping up with the world or even keeping up with those around me. It’s about what God is calling me to do. It’s about what God is calling you to do. We each need to run our own race and not look over our shoulder to feel better about ourselves because someone is falling behind or look ahead and be jealous of the progress someone else has attained. 2 Timothy 4:7-8 (ESV) states, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”

How do the “one upsies” keep us from finding and fulfilling our God given purpose? We become focused on others, rather than our own unique value. Oh, if we hold onto our unique value that God has blessed us with, we become powerful for the kingdom of heaven.

We are incredibly precious to God. He has a plan for our lives. Let me say it again. He has a plan for our lives that no one, absolutely, no one else can fulfill. You have not missed your calling. God can use us wherever we are at, if we are willing. The key is willingness and having an open heart and mind to the opportunities God has placed before us.

It is a honor and a privilege to find and fulfill our God given desires. These desires become stronger when we seek to serve God. Oh, my dear brothers and sisters, God wants to get a hold of our hearts and do wonderful, grace filled work in us.

Are you striving toward your purpose? What is your biggest challenge? Do you struggle with the “one upsies”? Share it in the comments below so we can encourage each other to continue in our, own unique race.

As we start this second week of January, many of us have already broken or didn’t even start our resolutions for 2017. I wonder does God even want us to create resolutions? I believe God wants us to create resolutions that are in keeping with his will for our lives. The Bible says, “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.” Lamentations 3:40 (NIV) This verse shows us that we should examine our lives. It doesn’t provide a specified time, so if examining your life on a yearly basis works for you, then that’s between you and God. I believe God wants to work on our hearts above all else.

Sometimes, I make goals or resolutions which are completely unrealistic or even crazy. Now, if these were goals I created while sitting quietly with God, then I’d say, okay God, you had better show up in the details here, because this is beyond my strength. More often though, I create my goals in a vacuum, without checking in with God. Cue the doom and gloom music because these goals are crashing and burning in a horrific way. See, I’m attempting to create something in my life that was never in God’s will for me and He graciously doesn’t allow it to happen.

This doesn’t mean the goals that I haven’t achieved are because God doesn’t want me to have it. I need to examine my role in the attainment of my purpose. I can pray all I want, but I also need to put my prayers into action. Without action, my prayers are one-sided. God expects me to work for Him. It’s not because He’s some taskmaster in heaven with a whip waiting to dole out my punishment if I don’t do what He asked. I view it as having the greatest and most understanding boss I could imagine because He wants me to succeed. And He wants you to succeed too.

The beginning of the year opens up possibilities to change and grow, not only personally and professionally, but also in pursuing our purpose. God has created only one of you. No one else has been given the gifts, abilities and passions that you have. If that doesn’t excite you, check your pulse, I want to make sure you’re still alive. If you have breath in your lungs and blood flowing to your brain, God has a purpose for you and you alone.

Consider some of these questions to figure out what your purpose is:

1. What are your passions? This is the thing you would do, even for free. It sets your heart on fire to participate in this activity. If nothing comes to mind, sit quietly in prayer. Ask God to reveal what passions He instilled in you.

2. What energizes you? This is similar to the passion question, but if you couldn’t get clear on the first question, this might be easier. Is there something that when you do it, you lose track of the space-time continuum? When I write or do graphic design or photography, I could look at the time and three hours have passed without looking up from my screen. Not the healthiest way to live, but it’s rare I get a three-hour block of time in my family of five anyway. The point is, is there an activity in your life where you require an alarm to remind you to eat when you do that activity?

3. What would your ideal life look like, feel like, and sound like? Get down to the nitty, gritty details. Close your eyes and go through all of your senses. If you’ve forgotten the five senses, it’s seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. When your mind generates your dream life, what do you see around you? What can you hear? Do you hear the noises of busy streets or crickets beside a slowly flowing creek? Ask questions like this to draw you closer to finding your purpose.

Write down the answers to all these questions. Then pray over them and ask God to reveal if you’re on track or way off base on the road to your purpose. In the past, I’ve asked God to provide encouragement in some form to know I’m on the right path. He has always answered me. If we ask for wisdom, God freely gives it. In James 1:5, (NIV) the Bible says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”

If we are serious about creating resolutions or goals this year to pursue our purpose, we must start with the One who created us. He loves us so much that He won’t allow us to stay the same. Rather, He is continually molding and shaping us through the purpose He’s put in our heart.

What’s your purpose? Put it in the comments below so we can pray for each other as we pursue our purpose.

In 2017, there is going to be a slight change up to the focus of this blog. It will still contain Christian content, but it will be focused on teaching us how to achieve the dreams God has put in our hearts, no matter our age, abilities or economic status. We are going to work together on being present in our lives to bring about the realization of our dreams and ensure it comes in line with the will of God.

What are your dreams? Are they crystal clear and are you taking daily steps to make them a reality? Or do you even know what to dream? Sometimes we get so bogged down with the day to day “To Do” lists and tasks, we don’t take the time to really be present in our own lives.

Or worse, what do we do with unfulfilled dreams? Setting goals to achieve what we believe God has called us to do, only to see them fall apart or not come to pass can be even more heartbreaking than not having any dreams at all. I get it, I’ve been there. Some days it feels like I’m still there.

Another question is do our dreams matter to God? Does He care about us fulfilling our dreams? How do we know if our dreams and desires come from God?

When these questions and more rattling around in my head, I became tired of the standard answer to finding the will of God by spending time with Him. Don’t get me wrong, my daily quiet time is essential to me, but even though I spend time with Him, I felt no closer to my dreams becoming a reality.

What does listening to God even mean and how do I discern what is the truth and what if I’m hearing only what I want to hear? I’ve struggled with this for years. I started off in one direction thinking it was God’s will for my life, which was creating my first business in 2003. It started off with high hopes and people being brought into my life that allowed me to further grow my business. As fast as my business grew, it came crashing down around my ears a few years later with the downturn of the economy. It was my belief the business was what God was directing me to do, maybe it was and maybe it wasn’t, but I was able to see the purpose of my business failing because it took my life in a completely different direction and it drew me even closer to God through the hardship of that time in my life.

However, while I learned some valuable lessons, it made me question whether or not my dream of owning my own business and using my skills as a writer, coach, and teacher were what God wanted me to do. With the help of my Christian coach asking me some great questions to help clarify my desires, I was able to determine what my dreams are and essentially do a check in with God.

Not everyone is going to get the opportunity I did to get to the middle of nowhere in the Colorado Rockies and sit by myself for an entire morning while the rest of my family slept during a camping trip over this past summer. Looking out over the mountain peaks and seeing no one else for miles, watching the sun peek over the mountain tops, I sat quietly and wrote down what I thought my dreams are based on my conversations with my coach.

It started off as one sentence. I rewrote that sentence again and again until it expanded to include almost a whole notebook page of dreams and goals for the coming year. I prayed over what I wrote down and asked God for confirmation if what I wrote was part of His will for me. What I received in the weeks and month since that time, was validation from different sources, some outside my circle of friends and family, encouraging me to continue in the direction I’m heading.

One of my goals this year is to help others to discern their dreams and to create a plan to get there. We all have gifts and abilities that God wants us to use, join me on a journey in 2017 to stop chasing our dreams and help us catch them.

Share in the comments below what your dreams are for 2017.

It’s hard to believe the year is winding down and this will be my last post of 2016. What?! As I get older, the days, weeks months and years seem to fly by and I wonder if I’m doing all that God has called me to do. Will I hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant at the end of my life?” Or has my life been filled with busy work rather than meaningful things which bring a message of eternity to those around me?

Instead of looking back at what I’ve accomplished this year or what I’ve let slide, I’m challenging myself to look forward to the new year and keeping an eternal perspective. So, what is an eternal perspective and what exactly does this mean to me?

Looking forward to heaven rather than shoving it to the side or back of my life is what’s most important. In everything I do, I want to ask myself, is this serving God in some way? Is what I’m doing pointing others to the path to heaven? I need to stop believing the lie that this life is all there is, that once we die, nothing else matters. I believe that when we die, our life truly begins.

I’m not saying we live our life without meaning, willy nilly. It’s the opposite in fact. I believe we need to move where God leads us and not be fearful in sharing the message of heaven. God created us to share His love and the message of eternity with those around us. Is what I’m doing truly doing that?

My answer is yes, for this blog. These words are my controlled environment. I can delete, rewrite and edit my message. But what about in my daily tasks? Am I pointing people to heaven when standing in the return lines from Christmas presents gone bad and my attitude is quickly going bad along with my presents? When the server at the restaurant where I’m spending time with my family gets my order completely wrong, am I providing an example of God’s love? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. I’m not perfect and God doesn’t expect me to be either.

God expects me to have faith that He will put me in situations where I have the opportunity to point others toward Him. In those times when I fail, I have the opportunity to apologize and those around me may see God more clearly through my apology or I turn the situation over to God and allow Him to work out the situation.

It’s times like these where we are called to stand out from the rest of the world. In Romans 12:2 (ESV) it says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Notice it doesn’t say we are to be perfect, but the will of God is perfect and sometimes we show others eternity in our mistakes. It’s about keeping the eternal perspective in our imperfection.

How do you keep an eternal perspective? Share in the comments below to encourage others.

What is it about the holidays that makes me crazy? Or frustrated? Or, dare I say it, angry? I feel all these emotions and then some even though I claim this is my favorite time of the year. The perfectionist in me puts pressure on myself to make sure everyone else is having fun and the holidays are living up to their expectations.

For me, it’s not so much about the perfect outdoor light display or the perfect tree with the ornaments perfectly placed and spaced, but are those around me having a good time? This week and this past weekend, my family would respond with a resounding “No!”

This week was go time in for the holiday festivities. Our family had three concerts at school, one for each grade, school sports and I had a three plus hour hearing being televised on the local public access channel, which went later into the evening than I had anticipated so I missed the sporting event and I almost missed one of the concerts because I was so focused on getting through this week. All on my own. Without asking for help.

This weekend was supposed to be practice for the Christmas pageant at church for my youngest. If you didn’t show up to the practice on early Saturday morning, there was no performance in your future. Understandably so…the last thing we need is for some kiddo running off stage in tears because they don’t know their lines. (Not like I’ve ever experienced this before or anything.)

The dilemma was that it snowed buckets on Friday night. Assuming the show must go on, my husband diligently got up, pulled the snowblower out for the first time this season and made it possible for my youngest and myself to get out of the driveway to make the trek to church.

The problem? I arrived at church with one minute to spare and the parking lot was empty. I did what any modern mother would do and checked Facebook to see if I had missed a post about a delayed start or something, anything to give me direction as to where all the other little angels in the pageant were. Nothing, nada, radio silence. I attempted to call my husband but he couldn’t hear his phone over the continued snow blowing occurring at home.

My frustration mounted as I saw each minute tick by on the clock in my car. After waiting for ten minutes, I headed for home, deciding maybe we should call the whole thing off. Not only our participation in the annual Christmas pageant, but the whole holiday. I was tired. Tired of the juggling, the logistics of having people where they needed to be and figuring out how to get everyone fed in between the commitments of the holidays. It became too much and I hit a wall when we arrived home. My son played in the newly fallen snow until he said he couldn’t feel his feet or fingers anymore. He seemed no worse for the wear that his participation in the pageant wasn’t happening this year. (I never did find out if practice was cancelled or moved.)

Instead of seeing the joy in my son’s face at getting to play in the snow, I felt like a failure. I had worked hard this past week to make everything happen the way it needed to, but I couldn’t cross the goal line with the last “To Do” item.

I realized after binge watching romantic comedies on Netflix and eating almost nothing healthy for the rest of Saturday, this is not what the holidays are supposed to be about. I’d lost my focus. My focus was supposed to be on God and the meaning of the season, not about how many events I could check off that my kids need to be in, but how this holiday is supposed to be about the gift we’ve all been given by the birth our our Savior. I focused on all the wrong things. So how can I get God back in focus? Here are a few steps I took:

1. I came back to God. The Bible says, “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:6 (ESV). Instead of having a hurried quiet time of checking the box that it was done for the day, I sat and was still. Instead of checking my email or text messages as they popped up, once I read my online devotional for the day, I put the phone out of reach and turned off the notifications. If I got stuck or felt like something was going to be too tough to deal with, instead of grabbing my phone to distract myself, I let whatever it was, flow, which leads to the next step.

2. Let it flow. Whether I’m swimming upstream or I’m building a dam, I have a tendency to stop the flow in my life. In Proverbs 16:9 (NLT) it says, “We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.” The Bible has promised God will guide our steps, we need to turn to Him and go with the flow, which leads to the next step.

3. Trust Him. In Acts 27:25 (NLT), we hear the promise, “So take courage! For I believe God. It will be just as he said” I’m not sure why it’s so hard for me to learn to trust God. But it’s one I continually struggle with and grow from. If I need wisdom, guidance or direction, all I need to do it ask and it will be given to me. It’s about keeping it simple, which is the next step.

4. Keep it simple. I felt overloaded this week. Most of it couldn’t be helped because the concerts were required for school grades and my hearing on television was required for my job, but I could have handled it differently. I could have kept it simple and realized, this was not the week for home cooked meals and convenience was key. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1:12 (ESV) “For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.” I need to keep things simple and I could have asked for help which leads to the final step.

5. Ask for help. We are all busy this time of year and if friends or family offer to help, take it! However, the help I’m referring to is from above. In Psalm 121:2 (NIV) it says, “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” God doesn’t want to see us stressed out or frantic, He wants to provide help and reassurance. In the past, most recently, a few minutes ago, I’ve asked God for energy to accomplish all I believe He’s called me to do and He answered by giving me the energy and words for this blog post.

I’m learning to stop making the holidays about something it’s not and start making it about keeping God in focus. Will you join me? Share in the comments how you keep the focus on God during the holidays.

Control. This concept looks different for different people. One person’s idea of control is chaos to another person, but the control another person seeks feels like a straitjacket to someone else. Whatever our comfort level with control during the holidays, it seems everyone’s idea of control is pushed to their limits.

Instead of of focusing on company, our children’s holiday events, and the time we spend with those we love, we freak out about the menu, getting to the grocery store, delays in travel or making sure the house is clean enough for the standards of our extended family. Please tell me I’m not alone in this boat, quickly taking on water? When did this become what the holidays are about? A vision of perfection, rather than being present? Every year, my holidays feel a little more out of control, so I asked myself, what do I really have control over?

News flash! I have control over nothing. This was a tough pill for me to swallow when I figured this little chestnut out in my life. The more time I spend with God, the less control I realize I have.

At first this made me angry. Didn’t God see all I was doing to make things better in my little corner of the universe? Didn’t He see how I was making my children’s lives better by keeping them safe, by limiting their choices? Which is essentially a euphemism for control, by the way. God gradually showed me sometimes in a soft way and other times through a spectacular failure in judgement for all those around me to see, that the greater control I seek, the more out of control my life felt.

When I started surrendering those out of control moments, the happier I’ve become. It sounds crazy, but I’ve learned greater control by controlling less and releasing the situation or outcome to God. It seems counter intuitive, but by letting go and letting God, as the popular saying goes, we can feel more secure. Because isn’t that what having control is about, being secure?

I may get an argument on this point, but please hear me out. From my experience, I want to control something so I know the outcome or can influence a situation. This provides me a sense of security. I want assurance the circumstances will all work out to my favor. This is where I deviate from God’s will. It not about my favor, but about the favor God can give me, if I trust Him.

In 2 Timothy 1:12 (NIV) “That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.” My dear friends, the promises in the Bible provide us the security we seek when our lives feel out of control during the hectic holiday season. We can be in more control by controlling less because we can entrust everything to God and He will guard it for us. The creator of the universe is willing to guard what we entrust to Him. I can’t get much more secure than that.

What are you willing to entrust into God’s care?

Share in the comments below if letting go of control has helped you gain more control.

This weekend my five-year old arose very early and caught me in the middle of my quiet time. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know I journal my quiet time to not only keep me focused, but to look back over the years and see all the things God has accomplished in my life when I’m having a bad day or week or month or even year. Yes, I’ve had some bad years. Please tell me I’m not alone? Can I get an “Amen” from the back? Anyway, I call those my rebuilding years, where God is tearing me down to build up something better.

I’m not sure what woke up my little one, but it always amazes me that on the one day of the week he can sleep in, he’s up before the sunrise. All my kids know that in the morning when I’m sitting quietly, writing in my journal, you don’t bother mom, because it’s “Mommy Time” as it’s come to be known in our house. However, I could tell my little one needed some TLC and I put down my pen to have what turned out to be a conversation to inspire this blog post.

“Mom, why do you like to write?” my little one asked.

“Because I love to write,” was my answer.

He cocked his head to one side, like the RCA dog of old, clearly thinking about my response, and said, “I love to play. So I’m going to go play.” My little one then proceed to tackle/wrestle my husband still asleep next to me much to my delight because I was able to finish my quiet time.

I adore his way of thinking and it made me realize how simple his answer was. All he wanted during the early morning hours was someone to listen to him and someone to play with for a little while. I supplied the listening and Dad supplied the playing. His requests and desires were so simple and innocent. It reminded me of how God wants us to have the faith of a child. In Matthew 18:3 (NIV) is says, “And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Right now, my five-year old thinks my husband and myself are heroes. I know this will change because it has changed in our 10 and 13 year olds. But for right now, at this moment in time, our youngest, has unquestionable belief that we will take care of him, feed him (this is a big one as he’s going through a growth spurt right now) do our best to keep him safe and warm as well as provide guidance to him when he needs it or is going off course. Sometimes, he responds to this correction with ease and the words, “Okay, mommy.” Other times it’s with kicking, screaming and a trip to the timeout corner.

When God asks me to have a child like faith, it’s not with the kicking and screaming response, which I sometimes do. I wonder if God wants to put me in a time out corner when this happens. Instead, He wants me to respond with trust and obedience, knowing He will take care of me and direct my path. While my trust gets easier the more time I spend with God, the best reminder has been going back and reading through my journal and seeing how God has worked things out for my good during those rebuilding years. This in turn builds my faith for future trials.

Are there things you do to build your faith and provide reminders of God’s goodness? Share it in the comments below.

During Thanksgiving we go around the table and say what we are thankful for or we take the 30 day challenge when someone tags us in Facebook to say one thing we are thankful for during the 30 days of November. Now that Thanksgiving is over with the turkey dinner is cleaned up and relatives are making their way home, which depending on your relationship with your family could be one of the things you’re thankful for, and we are perusing Pinterest to see what we can do with all the leftover turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, or we’re heading off to a Black Friday sales to get the best deals on Christmas presents, how do we keep our attitude of gratitude during the rest of the holiday season?

This is a lesson I’m working on to teach my kids. Is it me or are there more advertisements for toys this time of year? Rarely do our kids sit down and watch the Disney Channel, not because I’m against television, but because during the week our kids have homework, drama club practice, swim lessons, wrestling practice, and the list goes on. One of my coworkers gave me the advice of only having your kids enrolled in one event at a time, which is what we do, however, each kiddo has a different interest, so my life becomes about logistics most days after work.

However, over Thanksgiving, our kids are out of school, obviously, with limited homework and no extracurricular activities. My youngest wanted to watch Disney Channel after we had finished cleaning the house. Within 30 minutes, he had a list of 10 new toys he absolutely had to have this Christmas and could Santa please bring them? Since I wasn’t paying attention to the commercials getting things ready for Thanksgiving dinner, I had no idea where this new list had generated from in less than 30 minutes.

I’m not sure about you, but this is the way I can be with the advertisements for the holidays. I see the latest tech gadget or newest cooking tool and I think, I must have it. There are things in my house I bought off an Amazon Deal of Day and now, I can’t figure out what possessed me to buy it in the first place and it’s too late to return it. Please tell me I’m not the only one who does this, right?

So, I’m challenging myself during the countdown to Christmas to let go of the material side of the holiday and working towards keeping an attitude of gratitude which seemed prevalent during Thanksgiving and keep it going through the rest of the holiday season. I also want to be an example to my family of what it looks like to have an attitude of gratitude, instead of filled with desire or depression for things we don’t have in our lives. Here are three ways I’m challenging myself.

1. Turn off the television. Now, I do have limits on this. Being a huge football fan, the whole reason I have satellite television is for football, otherwise I could do without a television. So this might not be a big challenge for me, except I also love the holiday specials. The point being is the advertising for Christmas is almost as bad as the recent political campaigns ads, the positive ones, not the negative ones. According to these commercials, it seems we can’t go another minute without bigger diamond earrings or an automatic pizza cooker which is easy to clean and gets our pizza done in half the time. If these things are within your budget or on your Christmas shopping list, awesome! But so many times, I see these advertisements and begin to wonder if I need the automatic pizza cooker. Is my oven not good enough? This leads to the question, am I lacking? Do I not have enough? In 2 Corinthians 3:5, (ESV) it states, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God.” We already have everything we need to be sufficient in God.

2. Get off Pinterest. Don’t get me wrong, this site is wonderful for recipes and lately I’ve been planning my weekly meals from the boards I follow, but this site can create feelings of our homes or our lives not being enough. We think we need a new kitchen or a bathroom remodel and it’s super easy with blocks that adhere to the outside of our tub walls. One destroyed bathroom later and a bill from a contractor to fix the damage, and we realize to emulate the beautiful pictures, we need a professional. I don’t want to buy into the lies that if I only have the perfect kitchen, my life will be better and I’ll be a better cook.

I think learning to make do and jimmy rigging what we already have, makes me a better cook and a more creative person. However, God has blessed us with a wonderful house, a stone fireplace to keep us warm during the cold winter nights and a great kitchen with a spectacular view of the Rocky Mountains. Truly a dream come true for me. According to James 1:17 (NIV) Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” These gifts have come from God. Not everyone would like where I live, but it’s perfect for me and God knows this about me.

3. Let go of the news cycle. Keeping an attitude of gratitude seem almost impossible with CNN or Fox News playing in the background or checking the headlines of MSN. Let’s face it, negativity sells. Watching or reading the news can be scary. It’s hard to be positive when I believe the world is falling apart and no one has an answer. Then I remember, God has the answer. He is ultimately in charge of everything. Nothing is outside of His watch. In Joshua 1:9 (ESV) God encourages us with this verse, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” I know God is always with me and nothing I do is out of His control.

These are the three things I’m challenging myself with this holiday season. Do you have ways to keep an attitude of gratitude going? Please share your tips in the comments below.