15 Aug

Habits vs Actions

An amazing article, posted below this paragraph, in the latest newsletter from Faithful Workouts causes me to clean out my junk. This week I have been doing some refreshing in my business, my marketing, my life, and my mind. It is becoming simply empowering once again. Let this be your story today. Contact me if you need an accountability partner. I am here for you. Jeana

The above verse calls us to transform our lives, which is deeply connected to the routines and practices we embrace each day. I know that daily routines can sometimes seem mundane or insignificant, but they hold great power in shaping who we are. 

Just as habits shape our physical health, spiritual routines shape our spiritual health. I can say from personal experience that a routine involving prayer, Bible study, and reflection gradually transforms us into people who reflect Christ’s character. Whether we’re commuting to work, preparing meals, or spending time with loved ones, each moment holds the potential for spiritual growth and connection with God.

Consider the simple act of waking up each morning. Rather than rushing into the day’s demands, try starting with a moment of gratitude and prayer. This small act can set a tone of peace and purpose for the entire day. Similarly, approaching our work with positivity reflects our commitment to honoring God in all we do.

Let’s embrace routine not as a mere sequence of tasks, but as a series of moments where we can encounter and reflect God’s love.
take a closer look into your icebergs.
26 Jun

Life changing bread

I have recently started a sour dough starter, and keep it alive by feeding it daily or every other day. I make bread with it once a week. I am astounded with the time and scheduling it takes. I have had many learning moments while keeping the starter, starting a fresh starter, and making the bread. The entire process takes patience. I have been humbled by the details that go into each step. When I have decided to do my own thing, outside the process, or shorten the process, the bread is a fail. I have learned something with each loaf.

I found the following article interesting. Though it is not sour dough or yeast bread, it falls into the category of life lessons just the same, and has meaning in the title “life changing bread”. Enjoy the article.

10 Apr

“they” DON’T know you are a no one…

…and who is “they” anyway. We are constantly making up a they, them, everyone, group in our heads, and making “them” as if “they” are “everyone”, when in fact they are just a few, sometimes even just one or two! Let’s stop that right now.

“They” do not know you are a no one (well known all over the world), and “they” are in the same category no matter who they are. By the way, you are a someone and a good one at that. What is your definition of a “someone”? We all have this message that we are a “no one” because we think we are just moving through life in a common way. But what is common anyway? Common to one person is different to another. Someone in a movie is just as common and can walk the streets without being noticed, or go into a store and buy shoes without even being recognized (yes, this has happened to most movie stars). Not everyone knows everyone, and everyone can be “no one” or someone; both are the same person! THERE IS NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN. There is custom and tradition and other such things. In reality, everyone is common and uncommon at the same time, depending upon where “they” are and who they are hanging out with.

Do it anyway! That is in a popular country song, and in many poems, and in books and in sports ads, and so the list goes. It is something we all have to keep at the front of our minds at all times. It is biblical! Do it, whatever it is you are led to do (good, that is). Life is often about trying to, and wanting to, and dreaming of. Life is also about trying things and realizing what you do not want to do, or say, or be. Do it all anyway!

It is OK if you do not have it all together, all figured out. I have never had it figured out, and it has all worked out somehow. Yahweh our God has it all figured out. KEEP doing it all anyway.

Life has comforts and discomforts, times of certainty and uncertainty. In the uncomfortable, uncertain times, tackle it like you are wearing a hero suit; turn it upside down and inside out. The work will pay off, and surprise you at times, better than you could ever have planned it to be. Just do it anyway. On the note of tackling, Quit procrastinating! Pursue with every minute you have the whatever it is you are continually researching about and painting a picture of. Procrastination is a big thing, especially nowadays with all our technology and social media. I am going to post an article of great resources I found at the bottom of this blog post. There will be some repeats of information, but that is just because one person does not have all the answers and there are many who have figured this out and want to help others do the same.

Now put that phone or computer down (unless it is doing what you NEED to do, to pursue what you NEED to, to get where you NEED to be).

I thought you might like this article:
https://www.lifehack.org/articles/work/you-dont-know-what-with-your-life-read-this.html

23 Mar

Praying the Promises

Hello all.

I have been seeing and feeling some great things this week, in all the mess. Yes, you can feel good things in the mess of life if you are looking.

I began my prayer journal again, and I began praying promises when I wake, through the day and before I go to sleep. I have exercised again every day, sometimes more than once a day. I am, because of the season, in the garden much now and outside a whole lot. I have had better sleep. I have had libido issues and other hormonal issues disappear. I have noticed my speech be better, my mind be clearer, and my energy be enhanced.

I had a saliva test recently for hormones and cortisol and other things. I was near bottomed out in cortisol when it should be up and low overall. Hormones were not all in balance but not too bad. I decided to give it all to the one who knows me and what my body is going through at this time (age 46, and I like to call it level 46). I am amazed. Below are the scriptures of two of my promise prayers. You take the scriptures, with the promises, and figure out what they are saying, then put them into your own situation or moment, and then read them back to God with it all together. It is powerful. I also add “tapping” and mental exercise to the sequence and it becomes even more powerful. (look those things up for yourself to find out more about getting to the core of your body and soul/spirit).

Isaiah 41:10 Do not fear (and this means do not let fear consume, fear is real and needs to be acknowledged as such), For I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous Hand! Personal note: there is so much here in this; I would consume myself in front of the mirror looking at bumps or other flaws and letting fear consume me…no more! I would consume myself when I was outside looking for ticks….NO MORE! This is how this scripture works. No more junk anxiety. I am fine. Enjoy what is around you and consume in that. If something changes, I will know and God will take care of me to have what I need to take care of it, but NOT until then will I be anxious of that around me or on me or in me.

III John 2 I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.

Take all this in!

Have a good day.

11 Aug

Had a Bad Day? …..

If you have had a bad day, it is just a bad day, and you HAVE NOT failed. Failure is not the failing; it is the staying down.

When things are going well, we feel elated. When hardships come, we sink into depression. But true joy transcends the rolling waves of circumstance. Joy comes from a consistent relationship with Jesus Christ. When our lives are intertwined with his, he will help us to walk through adversity without sinking into debilitating lows and manage prosperity without moving into deceptive highs. The joy of living with Jesus Christ daily will keep us levelheaded, no matter how high or low our circumstances (from the Study Bible Commentary on John 15:11)

John 15.11

11 Aug

Weeds…the Continuing Series…(and video)

More weed lessons:

  • Weeding on your own gets a lot. Weeding with another gets double or more. Weeding with a team gets most or all.  Weeding on your own takes time; Weeding with another, or a team, takes much less time than on your own. Weeding on your own, depending on your circumstances, can be pretty thorough; Weeding with another can be much more complete.  There is a method to weeding that takes full focus.  Weeding is painstaking at times, and having help will take some of the load off. If there is a team, each member can be put into a particular task area; each area will be able to perform with more energy and detail. With weeding on your own, you can end up weeding with less detail because you have the entire garden to tackle.  Weeding, whether on your own or with help, should be performed with great care, with the goal of completeness; there needs to be a regard to every detail, not superficial or partial.
  • There is a side to weeding that can be unwelcome or unpleasant, yet it has to be done. When you weed thoroughly, and the area looks clear, there is a hidden seed, unseen, that will show itself days later. It is a nuisance. It is utterly, downright maddening sometimes. We must never leave it unattended, or forget to check on it.  The grass and the weeds will always be there, in the soil, in the air, outside the fence, or in the corner, and they will come back, or new ones will grow in the place they were pulled.

 

11 Aug

Weeds…the Process…Part 2

Pulling Weeds Lessons I have learned from weeding in my garden:

  • The weed in relation to allergies such as alpha gal: What I feel alpha gal and other food allergies, intolerance and sensitivities are in the garden, and my mission to wipe them out so that they cannot reproduce again. This is my coined nickname now for alpha gal: a weed.
  • The weed in relation to life situations, people and things: Must stop in the moments and pull the weed, even when we do not want to stop, take care of it and go on.  When I stopped in the moment to take care of a situation, or approach a person with an issue, the ending was always good. When I catch myself not saying or doing anything, turning my back or face to a problem person or situation, (going silent or leaving after a disagreement with a friend or my spouse, walking on when there is trash in the trail)  it never ends well, creating a lasting bruise or sever in friendship, or scar, and creating a tougher thing to fix.
  • Weed before you water, before it rains: If we water before we weed, the weeds will flourish with the fruit, causing the fruit to produce less because the weed takes away from the fruit. Weeds and grass will consume the majority of the water and deprive the fruit of its needed moisture and nutrients. Watering a weed creates more weeds, bigger weeds, weeds with deeper roots.  If we weed and then water, or are aware of the skies to weed before the rain, then the fruit gets the water.
  • Weeding must be complete, with root and all parts with it: The soil must be knocked off the weed roots or the weed will find a way to re-root. (ie: pull weed from close to ground to get root, or use a tool to dig it up completely, and then make sure it is turned upside down, root up, and soil knocked off) Weeding takes time, but it is worth it in the end. Weed the small stuff and the big stuff; the small stuff is what hides and becomes bigger when left alone or thought to be too small to worry about. Take the time to weed all strands of grass, tiny two leaf weeds, etc. Get the weeds when small because it is easier to weed them with your hands and takes less time.
  • Weeding must be continuous: We have to be out in the garden daily to pick the fruit, yes, but also to take the time to weed. If we are weeding every day, then there is not chance there will ever be a take-over, and our fruit will last longer and be more abundant. Our fruit will rule the garden when the weeds are continuously taken out.
  • Weeds grow around the plants, but sometimes they come in from the sides and walkways: We can overlook many weeds when they are outside our “circle” of produce/fruit/vegetables, such as fences, areas where plants are finished producing for the season, areas where we have picked out the produce plants (beets, carrots, root veggies, greens,etc.), areas outside the fence. Weeds can vine in from far outside the garden growing under the plant then choking it from the inside out…this is where we have to follow the vine and dig the root from its outside source, and not just cut the vine inside the fence.  Weeds and grass will grow in the walkways and trenches, spreading toward the good plants slowly and gradually.  We can leave them be because they are not “near the plant” but they take from the plant from that short distance and they eventually grow out of control surrounding the good plants, creating a long hard weeding process later, or a “too overwhelming” situation (and then the plants die slowly and fruit less).
  • Weeds choke off the water ways: I have trenches in my garden for the water to go out, so that I do not have my plants flooded in big rains. Weeds grow in those trenches first because they are wet longer, but also because trenches are protection from the elements.  Waterway drains must be weeded regularly to avoid choking off the protection from a flood in the garden.  Weeds choke off water, and food, from all fruiting plants.  Weeds, even small, literally suck the water from the soil and the plants around them.
  • A GOOD THOUGHT FOR WEEDS: Weeds can be turned into something good for the “community”, or garden. When I pull weeds, I turn them upside down onto the old mulch, and they then become good mulch, good nutrition and cool ground for the roots. Weeds can be converted into something good for the garden.
  • Hidden evils under weeds: Weeds can look fine where they are, and not be a problem. They can however, be hiding some bad stuff under them. I pulled a bunch of weeds out and it revealed a den of fire ants! I had to extinguish the fire ants, leave the weeds for a while because if I touched the weeds in that spot, there would be bad consequences for me. We have to be aware of what is under the weeds. Snakes, wasps, other insects, crawlers, and spiky weeds can be under or around a weed; when there are groups of weeds, roots are deep and they are tough to pull, but groups also create dangerous situations. Take care and be aware.
  • ONE MORE: Weeds and grasses are beautiful inside and out, just as all plants. Good loving management keeps them from hindering, challenging, or altering the face and growth of the fruit and vegetation.

Pulling weeds

Read Part 1 of Weeds, the Process.