Month: March 2021

Categories
Faith

How Big is Your God?

This week is Holy Week and on Sunday we celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection — the centrality of the Christian faith. Easter is my favorite holiday as I’m humbled that God chose to die for my sins and filled with hope of eternity through Jesus rising from the grave. Our God is bigger than death and the grave.

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the big-ness of God. When it comes to faith and grace, I’m amazed that the God of the universe sees me, loves me, and knows me. I believe that God can do great things…but my prayer life doesn’t look that way.

When it comes to my prayer life, I’ve made God small. I don’t pray for the big things and then wait in expectation for his answer. I move through my daily life, compartmentalizing as I go, sending out small, easy prayers along the way. Sure, sometimes in the moment there are bigger prayers, but there’s not a lot of faith behind it.

Jesus said that with faith as small as a mustard seed, you could tell a mountain to move from here to there and it would! (Matthew 17:20) Jesus’ disciples were able to heal the sick and raise the dead through their big faith in God and his promises. Do you pray big prayers? Prayers that can only be answered through the work of God?

My desire it to live fearlessly, praying BIG prayers with BIG faith to my even BIGGER God who can do all things. How big is your God?

Categories
Health and Wellness Self-care

Know Your Body

I’m officially old.

This past Monday, while playing kickball with my 5th grade P.E. class, I tweaked my back throwing the ball in from the outfield. The muscles instantly tightened and pain shot through my glute whenever I turned. I sucked it up and moved on, but knew I needed to get help that day. If I let it go for too long, the muscles would continue to tighten and I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed the next morning.

As soon as we got home from school, I called my chiropractor and scheduled an appointment for a hour later. After a painful but needed adjustment, my pain decreased by 50% when I went to bed and 80% the next morning. I’m thankful that I know my body well enough to know when the pain or “tweak” is something that I can manage or is something that needs to be taken care of right away.

This was a learned process. Trust me, I’m often the last person to go to a doctor or take the needed rest for any type of pain. But after a big injury back in the summer of 2019 that had me flat on my back, I learned to listen better to the pain signals, give myself time to heal, and not just “suck it up” or “walk it off.”

Nothing hits the ego or makes you feel old, then tweaking your back simply throwing a ball (another not-so-gentle reminder that I’m 42 and not 22). Even though I exercise, lift weights, eat well, take good supplements, etc., age can still be a factor. As we get older, it is even more important to take care of our bodies and listen to them.

Stay active. Eat well. Take high-quality supplements. Reduce the toxic chemicals. And don’t forget to take time to rest, heal, and listen to your body. Getting older doesn’t mean you have to stop doing what you love, but it might be different. You might have to ease into things, stretch even more (if you’re young, be good with your stretching NOW), and give yourself those rest days.

And if you need a sympathetic ear or encouragement, I’ll be over here nursing my back and ego.

Ready for some kickball! — pre-injury 😉
Categories
Faith Health and Wellness

Lemons Into Lemonade

If you’ve read my previous blog posts, you’ll notice a different look to it…and location. Why? Let me tell you a quick story.

A few weeks ago, I looked to make a minor tweak to my website. I paid a designer to create the website about 6 years ago and updated things here and there, but haven’t done a lot with it. Well, I managed to push ONE BUTTON and removed the custom front page my designer had created. I tried to undo, go back, etc. but it was no use. Totally gone and now my home page looked epically stupid.

Now, on other days of the month, I would have been crushed and cried, but instead I shrugged my shoulders and put on my big girl panties. In all honesty, my website needed an update, and this forced me to do it.

Do I know how to do web design? Absolutely not. But I do know how to use Google. So, I used Google, cast aside fear of mistakes (I mean, I already screwed it up, what else could I possibly do?), and started fixing it.

And you know what? I’m so thankful I messed up my website! I learned a lot, built my confidence, and felt empowered. Plus, I realized that a lot of my links and other info were outdated and should have been updated a long time ago. AND, I finally figured out how to move all my blog posts to my website (instead of being links to a different blogging program)!

My website is 10x better than before and offers all the info and connections that I need to help clients and reach more people!

There will be frustrating times in your life when you have to make a choice: To be defeated and see the negative or to trust God and your abilities and make the best of an unfortunate situation.

I’m so glad that I didn’t get discouraged or look to someone else for help, but took those lemons and made an amazing whiskey sour…I mean, lemonade.

Categories
Health and Wellness

What Are You Waiting For?!

Sit and pause for a moment. Take a deep breath. Now close your eyes and picture how you see your life in five years…in one year…next month. What are you doing right now to get you moving toward the life you desire?

We all have dreams and desires but so often we let the excuses and fears crowd in and keep us from taking a step forward. 

A dream of mine for the past 20+ years has been to go skydiving. First my excuse was that no one would go with me (at the time, I felt like I needed to share it with someone else). Then it was that it was so expensive. Then my kids were little. And it just kept getting pushed to the back burner. Here’s the thing…I still really want to go skydiving. 

I’m tired of the excuses. My kids aren’t the excuse — they are my reason. I want to inspire my kids to go for their dreams and live fearlessly. So, I’m going skydiving this Spring (doesn’t really make sense to go in the winter in Chicago — I would freeze and the view would be pretty ugly 😉 ). I’ve told my husband and started planning. I’ve done the research and figured out the price. This year for Mother’s Day, I’m going to celebrate by finally going skydiving! 

We can spend all our time preparing for the perfect moment that will never come. At some point you just have to get started. Make the decision to start and take the first step. Don’t let fear and excuses hold you back.

Want to start getting healthy? Don’t wait until it’s more convenient or you’re less busy or you don’t have a Girls Night planned. Start now. Where you are. Doing what you can at that moment. 

Want to run a marathon (or a 5k)? Start small and take that first short run. Run around the block one day. Then a little bit farther the next. Slow progress is better than no progress.

Want to follow a passion or dream? Don’t wait until the stars magically align. Find a way that you can use your gifts and passions NOW and see where it leads you.

There will always be difficulties and there will always be people and things that want to hold you back. But if you wait for the perfect time, it’ll never happen. So strap on those shoes / grab your guitar / open your computer and start writing / schedule the appointment / contact a Health Coach to get you going. What are you waiting for?

Categories
Marriage

Lessons I’ve Learned In Marriage

On March 2nd, my husband and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary! I’m so thankful for my wonderful husband and God’s faithfulness throughout our marriage. To find someone to love and loves you back is truly an amazing thing — especially when he chooses to love you even at your worst.

As in all marriages, there are highs and lows. I wouldn’t change a single second of it for I have grown as a person and in my faith through our relationship. However, I wanted to share with you two lessons that I have learned in my marriage:

1. He shouldn’t be my everything. Walter is my best friend, my confidant, and I love just being in the same room as him. It’s romantic to say that “he’s my everything” (which in many ways he is), however, I don’t expect him to be my everything. It’s an unfair pressure to put on him. My husband needs to be able to hang with his friends and talk with them without constantly worrying about me. And I need to have people that I can be with as well. When our shelter-in-place happened last March, I was totally content — I’m an introvert and I got to spend my time with the people most important to me. I would be completely happy only hanging out with my husband every single day, but that doesn’t mean that’s all I should do. God designed us to have relationships with others and even though I struggle with idea of female relationships, I’m learning that there is a place for them and that I need them in my life as well.

2. He doesn’t define my worth. My husband and I are two imperfect sinners that are able to love each other and live together by the grace of God. My husband gets to see both the best and worst of me…and sometimes we are quicker to point out where the other one is lacking and forget to point out the good things. My worth isn’t defined by my husband or any one else. My worth is defined by God. When I remember that, I find myself less defensive to criticism and open to improvement…knowing that he loves me still.

I thank God every day for giving me Walter and I pray that the Lord would continue to work in my heart and teach me how I can love my husband more each and every day.