Friday, November 6, 2015

Own Your Life Chapter 1


Let's continue on with our study of Own Your Life by Sally Clarkson and dive in to Chapter 1.  SEEING BEAUTY AND PURPOSE IN YOUR ORDINARY DAYS.  Owning the Hero Who Lives inside of You.

"I believe there is also a heroine in each of our hearts waiting to come out.  Yet somewhere along the pathway of our lives, we lose our innocence, forget our dreams, and succumb to a life filled with monotony and responsibility."  Oh yes, I know that over the last few years of motherhood I have honestly felt very zapped.  I've been wondering who I am anymore...I've had so much on my plate that I forget that I am my own person and I need to pull myself off the backburner and invest in myself and let myself dream again and take care of me.  I've felt very overwhelmed with responsibility lately...so much so that I haven't been taking care of me.  I want to find my inner heroine again and dream big again.


Boy can I relate to her feeling like she had no friends or much of a support system either.  We moved here to Texas in 2006 and while I am happy here and we've had so many answered prayers, I do wish that we had more friends, but I am very grateful for our family that we do have here.  I also like what she said too about how we live in a culture of runaways--rushing to another marriage, job, house, internet thrill, vacation, drug, whatever.  Yet, when we run away all the time our "demons" seem to follow us.  The very difficulties we want to escape can be overcome only when we face them head-on."  My tendency sometimes isn't to run away, but in order to not make anyone else feel bad, I tend to internalize things and distance myself.  I see that I need to find my "inner hero" and learn to face that and pray about these things and trust God and obey what He tells me to do when I face those "demons."  I love how God spoke to her in the midst of her children's devotions and told her that he wanted her to remain faithful  and that she was exactly where He wanted her.  I love this quote "This time of testing will be the making of your faith, the humbling of your heart, the shaping of your character, the writing of your story."  It is our choice on how we respond...with a good attitude or with a bad attitude.  I want to earn favor and honor from God and be obedient to where He wants me too and I know that even though I do feel "stuck" at times with the kids, that He has told me many times that I am also right where He wants me.  

I love Sally's response to God too and I want it to be my own prayer as well  "I will choose to find light in this darkness...I am planting a flag of faith.  No matter what happens, I will be as obedient as I can to bring joy into this place, to create beauty in this wilderness, to exercise generous love, and to persevere with patience.  I will choose to believe that wherever You are my faithful companion is the place where Your blessing will be upon me."  What a beautiful response....

In Owning Your Part, Sally asks a question "Are there any areas that seem impossible at this moment that you need to put into God's hands?"  I have a child with a LOT of behavioral issues and it causes lots of heart ache for this Momma...I'll talk more about that later, but all I can do somedays is continue to put that child back into God's hands and trust that God is working and will touch their heart in some way.  I know that one day I will be able to look back and see all of the ways that God was working even when I can't see it right at this moment.  I know He hears and that He sees.  It definitely tests my patience at times, but I do see that I am also able to help other Momma's going through tough times whereas before I wouldn't have been able to do that.

I pray that we are each able to be faithful right where we are and that God willl work our situations out for His glory and for our good.

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