A Journey of Healing

  Our Journey's  are each so unique as the hairs on our head.  We don't know when we take that step how our life could change.  We are so settled in each step that we take that often we don't see what is coming before we actually smack right into it.  Yet, looking back we see the signs so clearly and wonder why we did not see that the first time around. 

 

Your walk even around the block maybe different then the walk I take around my block.  Although I really can't say I have a block to walk around as my place is rather unique I have woods behind my house with an orange grove so it is uniquely different then others. Yet, when we talk those walks we see things that we may not ever see again.  Psalms 23 has been in my thoughts a lot this week.  I have been closely examining it and seeing new things I never really pondered before. Such as verse 4 which says....

 

 

Here God is talking about walking, thru a situation many of us don't like to talk about.  Believe me I get that. Yet, what has had me meditating the last few days is that I have always assumed it is a physical death. Yet, after really looking at this and studying this I am not a scholar by any means yet, I am finding that I believe it is when we walk thru trials, when life gets too hard, when we feel we cannot walk another step.  God is with us, he has promised us that we will comfort us and we don't need to fear God's Got this!!! 

 

The last three years have been a walk that I never anticipated and yet, looking back yes I saw many neon signs that I most likely chose to ignore.  Yet, I can honestly say that God has been with me, through the death of my marriage, to the journey of healing to learning to walk alone and holding myself together.  It has not been easy.  It does take a family of sorts to get your life together. That is something that I have grown to appreciate. 

 

When life tries to get you down, know that in the midst of the haze that life throws your way.  He always makes a way.  Years ago when I learned a song called God will make a way. It is a song I still often find myself singing yet it says, "he makes a way we can not see, He will find a way for me. He will be my guide He will be my guide , Hold me closely to His side,  With love and strength

For each new day, He will make a way ...I can honestly say he does make a way.

 

Blessings my Friend

 

Cathie

 

Simplify....

We have heard the song over and over the last few months to "Let it Go"  Move on and see what happens.  Start over.  The past few months I have been feeling the need to do just that to Let it go.  To cut ties with my past and breathe new life into me and renew, recharge and re-invent who I am.  I can't go back yet I can move forward. 

If you look on Amazon for books on simplifying your life you will be amazed at how many pages their are on just this subject.  It is almost mind boggling how many authors there can before this one subject alone.  In today's sermon we heard about simplifying our lives.  This so hit home to me as I am constantly on the go and often find I don't have enough time for me and maybe my priorities are a bit out of sync. Being a Mom to three adult children two of which don't live with me anymore and the other one is a full time college student and also works part time life is often filled with quick moments and I do treasure those. Yet on a personal level I also feel like in simplifying my life I also need to purge the past clean out the clutter not only in my home and storage unit (which is filled with the past). But also to purge my heart and make God more of a priority in my life.  Believe me he has full control of me now but there is always something that we as Christians hang on to and never fully let God take that.  We need to be more willing to simplify our lives and to let go and let God fill us with his purpose. 

  So first things first, begin with my spiritual purge and then to my physical purge and make room for the new things God wants to show me and to bring newness to my home!!! It is never easy but it is so worth it. I encourage you to do the same. 

 

Life and Lemonade

 

 

 

Growing up in Mid-Canada I must admit you can not grow lemon trees.  The soil and the weather honestly it is not a tropical climate where they could flourish. Yet I often remember my mom often saying "When Life hands you Lemons make Lemonade".  In other words, When life hands you what you are not expecting you need to make the most of it and grow from it and flourish in a new way. 

 

God says something quite similar Matthew 6:25&26 "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? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?  (NIV) 

 

This past week was a "earthquake of sorts"  Saying good bye to several different comfort zones both personally and professionally. Decisions will have to be made.  Showing grace in this journey will be a challenge but thru it all I know that this is something I will carry on and adjust to on many different levels  But I was reminded every so gently that tomorrow is taken care of for today, just enjoy the lemonade and rest in his promises that it all will work out. Romans 8:28 states it so well "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."  That is the blessing in this journey called life. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BECOME....

                                              Become ~ To grow or come to be...

                                                   John 3:30

                              HE must Become greater, I must Become less

2014 seemed to be before us in a blink of an eye. For me his last year of Embracing held so much for me I learned to live moment by moment and to have learned what made me happy and to embrace life to the fullest!  And it i included a year of new relationships, a trip to SC for the Celebrate Recovery Summit and to celebrate my big 50 in NYC with my best friend and chosen sister, 

So when December came and I started to turn to 2014 I started to think of what 2014 would hold for me. What did God want to show.  2012 was Audacious, 2013 Embrace and it just seemed that for me the puzzle piece I was looking for held the word Become....

Become - employed full-time 

Become - a better mother (always room for improvement) one that takes time to listen to her children and not always fix the issue for them. 

Become - completed with my Masters (February 2014)  and work towards my Christian counseling License 

Become - a better friend and spend more time praying for my friends and their families

Become - more fit and healthy with my body 

Become - more fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ

Become - a women whose recovery will be life long but will have the necessary tools not to fall victim into a relapse 

Become  -a better blogger

Become -  more organized in my home

Become -   One that has learned the art of self care 

So many ways I can grow this year this list is just a few snip bits of things God is showing me that I can work on.  It will be a a year be willing to be stretched, having fath to finish this lap that God has me on.  Not sure what the future holds but I do know that I will Become who he wants me to be ,

Let's celebrate 2014 and put our feet forward we have Lots to do for his kingdom

Blessing,

Cathie

What's an Instant

I can't help but thing how this little 7 letter world has changed so much of society as we know it today.  Just the other day I happen to purchase a new pair of pants, and the tag said this "instantly slims you"  Wow, Instantly slimmer?  I need ten pairs not just one pair.  That is magic to be instantly slimmer.  In reality there is no "instant" in being slimmer it takes hard work eating right, exercising and choosing the right foods.  But we want everything instantly. We have become impatient people. 
I started to doodle about how much instant we have become  Here is just a very short list.

 

* Instant Messaging

* Instant Coffee

* Instant Credit

* Instant Replay

* Instant Commissions

* Instant Krazy Klue

* Instant Dry Nails

* E-Books InstantlySynced

*Insant Downloads

* Instant Live Streaming

 

I am sure many of us could had hundreds of "instant" things to our list some necessary and some unnecessary. I remember when Turkey's took hours to cook and yet now you can deep fry them and even thug they are not ready in seconds in less than an hour a turkey is done.  That is just one example of how things have changed. I know for me when I got my implants I had hoped I would instantly hear.  That was not the case and so often those I mentor that are getting CI"s ask how instantly they will hear.  Now seems to be the language every one speaks. 

James 1:9 (niv) says "Understand this my dear brothers and sisters; you must all be quick to listen,slow to speak and slow to get angry.  Jesus didn't say to be instantly listen or instantly speak one even get angry he said to be slow.  Next time you see something flash ahead of you that says instant think twice and see if it's worth having that appear instantly.  

As for the pants well let's just say I can't tell the difference so I was not instantly slimmer...

Until next time

Cathie

To Walk or to Run

t In this week of being thankful I have had a song that has never left my mind and has given me time to think about my life where it was and where it is going.  I seem to listen to more praise and worship music then secular music but the song by Kenny Rogers The Gambler Chorus has been playing over and over in my head.  Just the chorus but it really has a lot to say about life. 

 

You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run......
 

 

Often in life we continue to sit at that table and not get up to make a move. We are scared of the unknown what will happen if we walk away. Often we think of our failures and that inhibits us from moving forward because we are to scared to fail again.  Yet God's mercies are bountiful and often once we get up life begins to happen.  Yet, so  often we do know when it is time to walk away and even when it is to Run.  I have sat at many tables had many conversations some good and some bad and often I knew when it was time to get up.  This chorus can apply so much about life and where we are and were we need to be.  I am so glad I chose to get up and walk away and make the choices that God will honor.  (The part of the song about wheelin and dealin are not what I wanted to focus on but the first part of the chorus) :)

 

Life isn't easy but I can tell you that it is easier when you are ready to surrender and give it all to him and let him direct your path.  You do have a choice you can continue to sit at that table or let go and run to a new day a new beginning a new you !!!

 

Blessings

 

Cathie

Month of Gratitude - Day 10

Being thankful for things is often something we do take for-granted in that should we be thankful for every little thing in our lives?  Take the jig saw puzzle. How many of us have done a jig saw puzzle and we get to the very end of the puzzle only to find out it is missing one piece. Or we have a puzzle and one piece just does not fit in anywhere. We can get so agitated and frustrated because we can not get it to work correctly.  We try and fail so we give up.  Not sure why, but we end up throwing that jig saw puzzle in a box and putting it in the closet to maybe some day bring out again and seeing if somehow that puzzle piece magically found it's way home to the correct box. 

In ways that is how I have been for years trying to figure out who I was, what I enjoyed doing and who I actually was. I always felt I was missing a puzzle piece that I could not get my hands on.  Everyone would say I was this type of person, or would tell me what I meant or was feeling it was assumed that they knew.  No one every truly asked how I felt they just always knew.  But most of the time they were never right.  But I was too much of a misfit to say they were wrong. 

Yet I have found that puzzle piece and in finding that puzzle piece I have also found my voice. I can now speak up for myself and say what I think. And if they don't agree that is fine. But I have feelings and great ideas I just have to be able to be who I am and who God wants me to be. I no longer feel like I am missing a puzzle piece, I found it and I now the secret of why I was missing it.  Maybe at some point another piece will go missing, yet this time I know exactly who to ask and how to find it. It's inward looking inside to see what is missing and praying to our awesome father who will light the way. 

Here's a verse to meditate on:

"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well"Psalms 139:14 (ESV)

God made us so we are not misfits, we aren't missing any puzzle pieces.  They maybe hidden but God will show them to us in his time not ours.

Blessings