What Ties You Down? What Lifts You Up?

I was recently honored to be asked to speak to a group of women at a local congregation. They asked me to speak with the topic of their retreat: "What Ties You Down, What Lifts You Up." I knew what tied ME down and what lifted ME up, and felt qualified to speak to that, but I am not delusional in thinking that everyone thinks precisely like me. So I polled about a dozen of my friends. Married, single, widowed, with kids, without, empty-nesters, career women, stay at home moms to little bitties. 

I spoke this weekend, but I wanted to share my findings with you. I found them to be really interesting. In short, whatever stage of life we are in, we are burdened by generally the same things, and lifted by generally the same things.

In order to speak to them, I put them in categories.

What Ties You Down:

Outside influences/ result of living in a fallen world: 

I described these as things that came our way through no fault or action of our own. Illness, accident, other people's behavior or actions.

• Words. Someone at church (one of those nice Christian perfect ladies) said something really mean to me
• my daughter's mental illness, borderline personality disorder
• Dealing with family members who don't do what they are supposed to do - the constant drip-drip of irresponsible behavior and deceit.
• Stressful job - I have a "pearls before swine" kinda job, and it is a real burden at times. I often feel like I am getting nowhere.

Inside influences:

This seemed to be taking on things the Lord didn’t intend us to take on, usually as a result of listening to lies of the Enemy about expectations, commitments, unforgiveness, entitlement:

• Guilt--MOSTLY self-induced of course; feelings of inadequacy when I think I am putting my needs ahead of someone else
• kitchen stacked a mile high with dishes because I've been too busy/exhausted to wash them
• fear (of failing, usually), unforgiveness
• the lack of time I have to give my all to everything I want.
• What burdens me?  I do.  Life always has challenges, and I add to those challenges when I stay within myself, try to 'fix' it by myself and don't lean on Jesus and the people who I *KNOW* God has put in my life to help me.  I believe one of Satan's biggest weapons is the 'divide and conquer' method.  He knows my tendency to isolate when I'm experiencing problems in my life and in my 'aloneness' and then I become stuck in the cycle of negative thinking.
• Burdens are usually the things that I create myself. Example: having a clean house and not doing all the work....make the kids do more to help that burden but at the same time as a working single mom it is easier to do it myself so that I don't have to do it again when it didn't suit me. The burden of having another driver in my insurance and gas bill.
• an overpacked schedule.
• My people pleaser personality. Do I really need to elaborate? Wanting to please and love people is one thing........letting them be your measuring stick or source of approval is entirely another and can lead to disobedience and removing glory from where it belongs.
• There is the weight of unbelief.......believing what eyes see, facts say instead of trusting 100% that God is bigger and knows what He is doing.

Family Concerns (Primarily Children):

These are a subset of both of the other 2, but it was such a recurring theme, it deserved its own category.

• concerns I have for my children and the decisions they make with their life that I have no control over.
• my family: if they are not doing good off track again that is what brings me down.
• it's the mundane of the everyday of being a wife and mom with young(er) kids. (homework while keeping preschool sister out of the way, ortho appointments, baseball, trying to eat together as a family)

What Lifts You Up:

These were more fun just to list out. I left any duplicates as duplicates.

• A good laugh. 
• A long talk with (friend). 
• A good talk with my Momma. 
• A walk with (my husband) and the kids. 
• Connecting with a student at school--or knowing I helped them in some way. 
• Hugs and smiles and conversation after church. 
• Music. 
• Perfectly timed lyrics.
• Time to write and think. 
• An uninterrupted nap.  
• An empty, quiet house--and then everyone arriving back home to make it full and noisy again.
• A HIGHLY carbonated Sonic Diet Coke with the PERFECT ice to Diet Coke ratio. 
• This e-mail from YOU!!!
• Texts from friends.
• Walking beside a sister.....as well as my sisters that walk beside me.
• Knowing I have someone I can call if I need to.
• Knowing others are praying for me and my family.
• My "village" (helping me raise my children).
• when (daughter) plays a certain piece on the piano.
• Words can lift me so high, but I HATE superficial compliments. Like if someone knows you are on a diet and they say "wow you look like you've lost weight" and you have lost a pound and a half. They are just saying that to make you feel good and it's not true. But (a friend) walked by me and said "funny girl. You are a funny funny girl. And you write really well. I like reading what you have to say." That make my spirits SOAR.
• when (my children) are doing great. Nothing makes me happier than when all is right with each of them.
• Writing.
• Quiet time.
• Nature.
• Physical activity
• Teaching - watching light bulbs go off as they "get it".
• Watching my kids grow up into decent human beings.
• music
• chocolate cake
• coffee
• truly knowing others pray for me. Many days I am too tired to even tell God I'm tired.
• Saturday morning coffee with my sisters and parents.
• Working on a project with (my husband), where we dream, plan, etc.
• Quiet time. There’s never enough of it. Reading whole books from the Bible at a time, or sitting outside and just thinking, or writing a song, or playing in my kitchen (with no interruptions).
• watching my (children) succeed
• when (husband) helps
• being reminded of the freedom I have in being who God created me to be, where I am now with all my faults, fears, failures... FORGIVEN!!
• When I live intentionally/mindfully taking care of my mind/body/soul.
• When I stay in the moment, trusting God has prepared the path ahead of me, always keeping in mind that He's in control, and provides what I need.  
• Helping others,
• being kind and gracious,
• seeing the big picture of God's plan, and
• actively participating in building a deeper, more intimate relationship with Jesus.
• THE WORD.
• TRUTH!!!!
• having time to spend meditating on the Word, building relationship with my Father.
• Being able to speak truth and encourage others
• my total faith that Jesus is God's son
• there is a heaven waiting for me
• God hears my prayers for my children
• the unexpected kindnesses of others.
• Evidence of Gods presence, provision, protection.
• Scripture.  
• Knowing that love covers a multitude of sins... (1peter 4:8)

Categories of What Lifts You Up:

• Using Your Gifts/ Living in Your Purpose
• Community
• Creating, or appreciating the creation of others’ (music, etc.)
• Solitude
• Awareness of being in the presence of God/ the love of God 

 Of course, my overall point was that the world will bring those things that tie us down to us. We have to plan and be intentional to put IN those things that lift us up. It's a battle, but we are in a battle.

What about you? Do you see yourself in any of these? Would you add anything?

Naming Newsletter Help (WITH a Contest!)

Here we are, 15 days into September.

I have done it -- I have written a blog post every single day (with one of them posting a day late due to a disabling migraine).

Lemme confess this: I am tired. Not of writing. (Oh, I'm about to lay a bombshell on you that will cause you to roll your eyes and say, "But I am tired of your writing. Enough...!")

I'm just tired. Maybe it's the cloud cover. Maybe it's the fact that my alarm goes off at 4:45a so that I can meet my running partner at 5:15. Maybe it's that we keep having weekends-o-fun (that I think I pinky-promised you I would tell you all about and I haven't) and I need a weekend-o-rest. Super Bad. I think I have one penciled in for the weekend before Thanksgiving, but I see band directors eyeing it for something that will keep my children out until ridonkulous hours.

So. Today I'm a little bit at a lack of writing material, because heaven knows you don't want me detailing how tired I am. Instead of doing tons of writing I'm planning and working on ministry stuff, planning for the spring, and working on things I should have done a long time ago. One of those things is looking at my calendar to see which dates I have available for speaking in the spring. If your group (conference/ club/ small group/ retreat/ ladies class/ church gathering/ etc.) needs a speaker, I would be honored to visit with you to see if I would be a good fit for your group. (P.S. -- I just looked at my speaking topics. Evidently I could stand to be practicing what I preach -- or something like that...)

One of the things I'm working on today is to create a(n email) newsletter. Yes, this is where you, faithful blog reader, think, "Why in heaven's name would I need to read your newsletter? Pretty sure when I'm reading about how tired you are, we have scraped the bottom of the subject-matter barrel and you have nothing left to say to me..." EXCELLENT point, dear and lovely blog reader...

And while I will be thrilled for you to read my newsletter, it's really not for you, you see. Because you are my faithful. You show up over here when I lament about my dog losing hair, losing my dog, or just generally losing my mind. You rock that way.

Once I get my newsletter up and running (target date: Oct. 1.  Feel free to ask me about it!) it will be for folks that have heard me speak and/ or may be interested in having me speak, but what exactly am I about anyway? It will probably be a once per quarter newsletter, so just 4 times per year in your email inbox.

Here is where you come in. I do articles and words and loquaciousness. Brief and succinct are not my strong points. Can you help me name a newsletter for my speaking ministry? It can be a play on words based on my name: "Sarah's ... Stubborn... Stumping.." (see? I told you I shouldn't do this...) or it can be based on the title of my ministry: "Thoughts from The Cleft of the Rock"

To encourage you to put your thinking caps on, I would like to offer a $10 Amazon gift card to a random entrant/ commenter that gives me an idea. Here's how this will work: Leave one comment on the blog  with your BEST entry for a newsletter title. Only one newsletter title entry per person, please. However, for an additional entry, you can click on my facebook link over there and follow me on facebook. Comment and tell me that you did, or leave me a comment to tell me that you already do. So there should be a maximum of two entries per person.

I will accept entries for a week -- through midnight, September 22. I will choose a winner by a random number generator, so even if you think the best you can come up with is cheesy, toss it out there! For those of you that read my blog on Facebook and generally comment over there, you're going to have to add your comment here ('lest I get REALLY confused). 

So get thinking, and be clever. Ready.... GO!

Neck Deep in Dreams

The waves lapped over my toes years ago, tickling my senses and awakening a calling. The genie was out of the bottle -- or the pantyhose out of the egg -- never to return.

I stood before a group of women, asked to do a "book review" for a group of young mothers at church. I had never in my life heard someone give a book review, nor knew what components should be in one. So I told how God had used the book to change aspects of my life -- a testimonial of sorts, I guess.

I can still picture the precious faces in front of me: eyes locked on mine, nodding and understanding. Souls connecting, each of us mothers simply trying to make it through this world to get to the foot of the Father's throne. Looking into the eyes filled with tears before me, I felt the refreshing knowledge of doing what I'm called to do -- as stepping into the cool ocean after a trek over the hot beach.

I stood there at the edge of the ocean, the waves barely tickling my toes for years, having no idea how to go any further. God blessed me when he sent me The Coffee Group -- a group of ladies who have traveled together speaking at retreats and ladies' events. I felt that I had waded knee deep into the ocean, speaking 3 or 4 times a year to groups of women. Every trip left me so honored to share God's story in my life, and so HUNGRY to tell it again... and again... and again.

I finally scraped together enough pennies in 2009 to attend She Speaks, but spent weeks agonizing over going as a writer or a speaker (why do some parts of my life feel like a week ago, and some parts feel like decades ago -- that was less than 2 years ago? Really? A lot has happened, I guess). That time, I chose writing. This time, I choose speaking.

I am also applying for a scholarship this year. You can, too, by going here. Because I am soon to be moving away and getting a fresh start in a fresh town, I am ready to move beyond knee deep in this thing. I long to be neck deep in my call, and I know She Speaks has the tools to get me there.

Last year being blind-sided by unemployment was tough. This year, living 200 miles from my husband waiting for a house to sell hasn't been a walk in the park, either. At the beginning of 2011 I claimed Joshua 3:5 for all of my family:

"Then Joshua told the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you."

AMAZING things. I'm claiming it. Our family has had a difficult desert season. We will soon be moving to a new town. I've got stories and testimonies of His faithfulness to proclaim. I hope to attend She Speaks to sharpen my tools and be among that godly group of encouraging women again.

I would love to have any of my bloggy friends join me at She Speaks. Anyone else thinking of going? Who's with me?