Monday Morning Inspiration

Monday:

Success is finishing what God gave you to do. Harold Cook

Affirmation: I will begin today and work toward the finish line.

Prayer: Lord, help me work toward the finish line without looking back. I want to givemyself the chance to do and experience those things you have put on my heart. Help mediscern the difference between my needs, wants and desires and that which you desire forme, as I know that YOU alone have the perfect plan for my life. Amen.

Tuesday

Relying on God has to begin over again every day as if nothing had yet been done. C.S.Lewis

Affirmation: I can cast my cares and burdens over to God, day-by-day, minute-by-minute.

Prayer: Lord, just like each morning is new, help me to begin anew each morning byrelying on you, talking with you, expressing my needs to you. When doing so, I will behonest with you in expressing all my cares and burdens. I understand that you desire forme to have a clean heart, something that develops through honesty. I will begin to rely onyou over again every day.

Wednesday

Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questionsthemselves. Rainer Rilko

Affirmation: All those unresolved things in my life are part of the journey. I will learn toenjoy the journey and relax even though I have many unanswered questions. I will havefaith.

Prayer: God, help me to be at peace with the questions in my mind, the unresolved issuesin my life, the fears, hurts and disappointments. Give me a new mindset built on hope,trust and understanding. Amen.

Thursday

The spiritual seeker says, ‘My life is a classroom. I am learning something important,even from this.’ Mary Grieco

Affirmation: I am learning something important today. I will silence my mind enough tolisten.

Prayer: Dear God, I will attempt to understand that with each new experience, be itpleasant or painful, you are teaching me something important. I want my life to be aclassroom. I desire to be a spiritual seeker. Teach me, grow me and use the gifts you havegiven to me. Amen.

Friday

When God shuts a door, He opens a window. John Ruskin

Affirmation: I will not grow weary when doors are shut in my life. I will be hopeful forthe new opportunities that await me.

Prayer: Lord, even though closed doors are sometimes hard to accept, I understand thatyou alone have the perfect plan for my life. I understand that sometimes doors are shutfor my own well-being—to protect me, to challenge me, to grow my faith in you andconfidence in myself. I look forward to the many windows of opportunity you will openfor me in my lifetime. I trust you completely. I will not spend time dwelling on thingsthat are no longer but will instead look forward to things which are possibilities. Amen.

Saturday

In the aftermath of our tears, hope rises to fill the part of us that has been cleansed by thepain. Zig Ziglar

Affirmation: I am thankful for the difficult times in my life, knowing that hope bringsnew life inside of me, birthing new ideas, new plans and the excitement of newness in myfuture.

Prayer: Lord, you know how difficult it is for me to live with the pain of grief, loss andthe disappointments that life sometimes throws at me. You have watched my tears andknow the pain in my heart. I thank you that I have lived through pain to see the otherside, which is a rainbow of hope. Thank you for being my hope. Thank you for holdingmy hand through the storms of life and making me stronger. Amen.

Sunday

Crying is one of the healthiest things you can do. Bob Deits

Affirmation: It is ok to cry when I feel sad or angry or afraid. I will allow myself toexpress these emotions through tears.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for making me confident enough and vulnerable enough toexpress my sadness to you and to others through my tears. In their truest form, my tearshelp me understand new things about my situation and myself. By releasing my emotionsin this way, I find healing of my mind and spirit. Amen.

A Word of Encouragement:

Our quotes, prayers and affirmations this week are all centered around grief and healing.In our time here on earth we experience many forms of grief, and sometimes we do notrecognize that it is grief at all. We can grieve when things change, grieve the loss of aloved one, grieve the loss of a job, grieve financial hardship, grieve for the despair ofothers, grieve aging, grieve retirement, grieve over loss of health of ourselves or lovedones, grieve divorce, loss of friendship, ended relationships…to name a few.

However, life is also full of healing. Often we do not recognize our own healing. It comesgradually and manifests itself in healthy emotions and responses to situations and afeeling of joy—as if the winter has passed.

All quotes for this week Monday Morning Inspiration are excerpts from the book, “ATime to Grieve…A Time to Heal” by Dr. Criswell Freeman/Delaney Street Press/2000

Inspired Living

Creating a Sacred Space

Life is so hectic these days for most people that finding time for ourselves can bechallenging. One way to honor the process of taking time out for yourself is to create aspecial space in your home that you can call your own. It is important to find a quiet areawhere you can collect your thoughts, read, pray, meditate or journal.

Where do I begin?

Look around your house and take note of areas that tend to draw you. Is there acomfortable chair in front of a window to which you often gravitate? Perhaps you have aspare broom closet or, if you are like me, one of your children has moved out and younow have a spare bedroom. Maybe you have a room filled with clutter—a room whereyou store all the excess “stuff”… and you are thinking about clearing it out and gettingrid of everything you do not need.

After you have found your sacred space, do what you need to do to clean it out, clear itout and freshen it up. You can paint a small niche in a bright color, decorate it with fabricor hang personal artwork.

Next, gather some things that have significant meaning to you and display them on asmall table, bench or whatever you have on hand. Decorate your sacred space with thingsyou already have…just do some shopping in your own home! Light a candle, pick a fewdaisies and put them in a vase. Buy yourself some pretty stationary, a journal or otherthings that inspire you to spend some time with your thoughts. Your sacred space can bea creative space too.

Spend time in your sacred space doing things that make you feel good about yourself.The more creative, happy time you cultivate in your space, the more sacred it becomes toyou, and the more you will realize the importance of setting aside time for yourself andyour own private thoughts.

Faith

Spring is Coming

I planted a dozen baby pine trees around the property at my cottage last fall. We have hada rough winter with very cold temperatures and lots of snow, and as I look around theproperty, rather than seeing the full baby tree, I can see only tiny shoots here and therepoking out from the banks and drifts of snow. I have hoped and wondered throughout thisseason whether they were going to make it through, and I wondered whether I would beable to have the joy of watching them shoot up like pine trees do in the spring.

This reminds me that sometimes during the winter of our lives we tend to live in survivalmode. We do what we can to stay strong under the pressures of our heavy burdens.Sometimes our own sorrows inhibit us from healthy growth. The burdens of our heart andspirit pile upon us, blanketing us, and we wonder if we are strong enough to withstand theweight.

I have had seasons like this in my life, times that I call winter. Sometimes it feels like itgoes on and on, and we grow weary. We long for the light, but we are not quite preparedfor it to come just yet. Maybe you need to remain just a little longer in survival mode.Perhaps you are not emotionally or spiritually ready to come out of hibernation.

I know that if my tender baby trees can make it through their first winter, their roots willgrow strong enough to withstand the many winters that lay ahead. I guess this is true forpeople too. If we grow our roots during good times–establishing our faith, our belief

system, our “God confidence”– then we will be able to withstand some of the seasons ofhardship that will inevitably touch us in our lifetime.

This is the one thing that is for certain: Spring is coming! It happens every year. I willlook out my window one morning to find hundreds of yellow daylilies blooming. I willhear the sound of mama robin chatting away in the trees. Then as the sun grows closer tous, we experience the big thaw. The ice begins to melt, waters start to flow, and we seenew buds on the trees. The plants in the garden begin to spring up from the ground as ifthey too are emerging from hibernation and are now strong enough to see the light of day.They built their roots during hibernation and are bigger, stronger, and more colorful eachspring.

If you have been going through some difficult times and feel like the burdens on yourheart and soul will never ease, remember that the coming of spring is always certain. Thisseason of hibernation that you are going through will only last until you are spirituallyand emotionally ready to move on. We grow during the winters of our lives, establishingour root system. During these times, we can choose to insulate ourselves in darkness orwe can choose to poke our heads out above it to see the light.

After surviving a season of hibernation, young plants are starving. They spread out theirroots and absorb every nutrient that the ground in which they are planted has to offer.They are growing strong again, getting ready for new growth. I suppose it is that way forhurting people too. Once we survive hibernation, we are eager to grasp new life, a newway of thinking, a new way of seeing and a new way doing things. We embrace the light,spreading our wings, taking chances and absorbing all that our Creator has for us to learnand see and do. We are hungry. We have a new richness about us. We show buds of newgrowth in our actions and attitudes and flowering in our heart. The winter that had frozenour soul has now been touched by spring, by new life, and we are ready to embrace thelight.

If you are in the winter of your life one thing is certain: Spring is coming! Your soul ispreparing for it in the silence.

House and Garden

Preparing For a New Season: The Waiting Time In Between

There is a time after the holidays and before the change of spring that can be somewhatdull as we peek out our windows and see nothing but cold and snow. The excitement ofthe Christmas is over, and we have long since taken our tree down and removed all of ourglittery décor. We wait silently for the snow to melt to feel and see new life around us.

How do we prepare our homes for this time of waiting? How do we overcome thedoldrums after the holidays? The beginning of the New Year always marks newbeginnings to me. It offers us a chance to try new things, put out new things in the houseand to change things out again, as you would rotate your favorite sweaters. There are allsorts of clever ideas for dressing your home.

Perhaps in the New Year, you have committed to deepening your spiritual roots. Maybeyou have decided to read some new books, take up painting or to begin some seedlingsfor your garden. At this time of year, I like to look for ways to incorporate these changesinto my life and into my home. This waiting period between the seasons is also a greattime to purge your closets and nick knack shelves of unwanted clutter. This can be aseason of preparation…removing the old to bring in the new. New ideas, new adventures,new thoughts and a new outlook. All of these things will have an effect on the way yousee and decorate your home.

Here are a few ideas to get you started!

Glass shelving with potted plants in a sunny window.Paint a wall a bright color.Purchase a fun new tablecloth.Change out a couple of lampshades.Set up a reading corner with a table lamp, a comfortable chair, and some books.Play inspirational music in your home.Dust.Clean all of your mirrors so you have a shiny clean reflection.Buy or make a couple new decorative pillows.Create a vignette with candles and a couple of your favorite things.Clean out your spice cupboard, discarding outdated items.Throw out old baking supplies and buy some new ones to put in glass jars.Clean and disinfect your counter tops. Make them shiny. Shiny is always good.Clean your oven.Hang a couple of pictures of your favorite place to visit. It will inspire you every timeyou pass by it.