Pray, Think and Living with Faith

Two weeks ago I was reminded about the importance of faith in my life.  I was at a Time Out For Women and listening to Laurel Christensen and  heard about how she had prayed, thought and lived with faith and I was touched.

I have always had faith, but I became lost in a world where it was encouraged to do things for yourself and to in some ways rely on your own ability to get you through. This happens to the point where you can actually start to believe that you don't need anything else, and even in the smallest chance you did - someone was going to be able to read your mind or heart or both and provide the help you so desperately needed....

Well, did I get a HUGE wake up call when my body told me that it had other plans for me and it actually spoke so loud that this intellectual smart woman took notice and pressed the great big imaginary button that was on her forehead that said 'Pause' and when I did - I knew immediately that I had a lot of work to do.....

Then came the reminder about 'faith' and here I am. I am heading into week three of praying, thinking and living with Faith and this is what I have found so far.

1) Happiness
I don't know what it is and can't really explain it but there has been an absence of happiness in my life for sometime. Don't get me wrong, I have laughed and had some wonderful experiences - but I wake up in the morning and I am happy.

2) Fear
I am scared of the future in terms of I really have no idea where I am going to go - but it is a fear that I can overcome because I am in control of where I go next. It is the kind of fear that you know something is going to happen, its big, its good for you, and you have never done it before but still alittle nervous... especially when you know that that the next thing to do is to jump. So here I am all 40+ of me at the precipice of what I believe is something spectacular and just for me.

3) Joy
When talking to someone during the last five or six weeks, I mentioned the word joy and how I had no joy anymore.... I am not sure why I picked those words but the word joy was used as a desciption of the place inside that lights you up... anyway, I am experiencing joy for the first time in a long time. The joy comes when I am in the car with my boys and they are rattling on about their rugby game, and joy resonates with me when I have dropped the boys off and the bell has not gone for their first class ;-) Joy has come to me through being a mother ;-) Instead of doing my motherly duties like a checklist that spanned pages and pages - I am being a mother.....

4) Excitement
I am scared but I am excited. I have literally put my life into someone else's hands and I am being guided. I have prayed about my future, after thinking and pondering my options which has lead me to be totally excited to be living with faith.

5) To be
Last week I taught a lesson based on a talk called What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be given by Lynn Robbins and this is what he teaches: "Many of us create to do lists to remind us of things we want to accomplish. But people rarely have to be lists. Why? To do’s are activities or events that can be checked off the list when done. To be, however, is never done. You can’t earn checkmarks with to be’s. [I can drop my children off to school everyday, which is a to do. But being a good mother is not an event; it needs to be part of my nature—my character, or who I am.]...Because be begets do and is the motive behind do, teaching be will improve behavior more effectively than focusing on do will improve behavior.

So out goes my 'to do' list and in comes my 'to be' list and I think I am on my way...

How are you doing or rather being? Try praying, thinking and living with faith.

Yours in friendship,

Mxox