My Personal Journey In Life

Having just finished the Thanksgiving holiday, is it any wonder that, while we are thankful for everything good in our life, we still reflect on who or what is missing.  Thanksgiving was the big holiday for my mother.  She pulled out all the stops to make it as special as she could, and woe to the person who would dare get in the way of making that happen.  For her it was a very important tradition of gathering family and friends near and far to feast and enjoy each other’s company.  Of course like many traditions in my family, this one also centered around good food.  With this in mind, my daughter this year insisted that we make what “Grandma always made.”  So I tried my best to do that.  And even though I know that I didn’t quite get there, I believe that Mom would still be happy with the effort. We always had turkey for Thanksgiving. We did not just have turkey breast, but the whole turkey.  God forbid that you even mentioned having ham at...

Have you ever woke in the morning really wondering what purpose do I still have for being here?  I know that this is a question that has plagued me since I passed the half century mark.  With my daughter leaving home and starting her own independent life (not totally because a good deal of her "stuff" is still here), I have been really struggling to figure out what to do next. The "empty nest" may have some shouting for joy because now it seems they will have so much more pampering time for themselves, a little more money in their pocket (since the kids are not dipping into it every five minutes), and excitement at exploring all those things they've wanted to do but haven't done in a very long time. But for me, it doesn't seem that simple.  Once I left the ideas I had in high school that I was going to go to a university, get a degree in science something or other, land a job at a research facility that was five years away from curing cancer, and have ...

How do we define love?  1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love, and in verse 11, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”  In chapter 3 of 1 John is also talks about how this is what we have been commanded to do, to believe in Jesus Christ and to love one another.  It sounds pretty simple, but not so easy to pull off sometimes.  When we think a situation is wrong or if we think that we ourselves have been wronged, it is hard to just love and let God sort things out.  But I am beginning to see more and more in my life how it is so important to just love people and situations in order to have peace in my heart.  It is a matter of giving to God and trusting him to work things out the best way.  This frees me to “sow to the Spirit” so that I can “reap life everlasting.” [Galatians 6:8] Two situations have brought this to my attention this week, and have caused me to deal with emotions that are very strong.  First was a situa...

"Living without personal boundaries is like trying to hold my breath and gasp for air, at the same time, it doesn't work. My introverted nature requires solitary sanctuary, to breathe. My internal batteries need time to recharge if I am to give from a place of abundance." Author: Jaeda DeWalt What are boundaries? Up until recently I probably would have referred to the property lines that surround where I live.  But during a recent trip to visit someone very dear to me, I began to think of the “boundaries” I have, or in some cases, have not placed on myself and the people closest to me.  Do I value myself and how I feel?  Do I convey my feeling to others?  Do I just shut down, or shut them off if I don’t like the situation?  This was my initial thought: “Boundaries are so hard, especially for the ones that you care about.  We share so much history together that we want to somehow think it (the relationship) will work.  When our parents die w...

What does it mean to receive? Dictionary.com offers this definition: “ to take into one's possession (something offered or delivered).” If you take possession of something, how far do you have to go with it? How long do you keep it?  When are you justified in throwing it out? Is it just an object, or can it be invisible too? Of course a possession can be both a tangible and intangible object, and I do believe that the amount of importance you put on the possession will make all the difference in how you treat it and how long it stays around.   I have always been a little bit silly about what my husband calls my “family heirlooms.”  I have always been that person in the family that would latch on to a certain object because they had some sort of history with it, or just liked remembering that it belonged to great so and so. My family members have passed these objects down in hopes that the next generation would see value in them.  My daughter is as bad as I am a...