summer pondering ...

the estuary

gathering shells

prayerful moments

my heart

stitching and thinking

Its a new year and with it my thinking is always ... what do I want to achieve? What's working and what needs to go? My mind becomes more prayerful as I seek some guidance and understanding of how best to use my life. And more importantly, how does He want me to use my life. The answer never changes. To love God and love people. He tends to leave the 'how' up to me for the most part.

I try and seek paths that are my strengths-base and in the areas where we as a family have influence. Things that include encouragement, creativity and spirituality as well as just plain loving on people. Feeding, listening and being available to those in our lives.

My biggest desire is to start each and every day with Him first. It quickly becomes apparent when I haven't. No matter, just a quick pause in my day and my spirit seeks His peace. Then I carry on. Just me and God. I like it. Its pretty simple and makes all the difference.

I used to pray before my feet hit the floor in the morning. A quick locating of God's presence and a prayer of thankfulness and a desire to spend my day walking with God. It's when I get lazy or full of myself that I start to neglect this vital part of my day. Nothing like some drama or crisis to bring me back to what's really important.

The other thing I value is the ability to look for the good in each person and situation. Its too easy to be critical. That doesn't mean being cheesey 'positive' all the time. Authenticity is key. I want to be a blessing to others. To inspire others about the good that is in them. We live in a time when it is becoming rare to find someone who has a good word about us.

New Years day on the deck of my brothers house in Auckland looking out over the estuary, I opened my bible and found the scripture that says: The power of life and death are in the words we use; we choose what we will bring.

I want to bring LIFE with my words. Raising three sons and living a full life provides me plenty of opportunity to practice blessing others with my words. I have a big mouth, I'd like to put it to good use wherever possible. Such as it is.

Without God I am lost. I am not a nicest person I can be. In my own strength, I'm fairly good at bringing people down and that includes myself. I am inspired by genuinely kind and loving people. There's admirable strength in graciousness.

This year is still undecided in terms of where, how and what ... but I know how I want to be no matter where I am and what is happening. I know who I desire most to be with and like. It's my own simple stress-free-ish plan for my life and for my family. The saying "a happy mama equals a happy household" holds true if I stick to my personal challenge.