Moderation and balance

"By approaching our work with moderation and careful planning, we can accomplish more and still retain a sense of mental, emotional, and physical balance. Few things are more exciting and energizing than setting goals and planning for a better future.

However, our excitement can often be detrimental to our well-being if we take on too much, too soon. Rather than trying to run the race in a few giant leaps, we can instead pace ourselves and take smaller, more consistent steps to reach the finish line with less effort and strain. We then conserve our energy and accomplish much more in the long run than we would otherwise.

By being gentle with yourself and proceeding with moderation toward your goals today, you can make great progress without becoming overwhelmed."

Source: The Daily Om

Moderation and balance have become a recurring theme in my life as I've entered a new phase and into the "real world" again.

One step at a time is what it takes to make positive changes . . . being consistent and persistent is what made it happen for me. The result is peace and happiness within myself, not depending on anyone else to get there and the feeling of pride associated with standing on my own two feet after stumbling so many times.

The biggest change is a wonderful new job where I have taken on the equivalent of three positions that have been merged into one job description . . . without being totally overwhelmed at a demanding schedule. Everything is falling into place at a very comfortable pace . . .

My new attitude as a result of finding that balance in my life I have been searching for is what I attribute to hitting the goals I have set for myself. Striking that balance has set into my personal life, making circumstances that were almost unbearable a few months ago very tolerable and pleasant today.

A big life lesson I am learning is being patient with myself and the people who surround me.

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Expectations

Expect to have hope rekindled.
Expect your prayers to be
answered in wondrous ways.
The dry seasons in life do not last.
The spring rains will come again.

Sarah Ban Breathnach



Never losing hope is always a wise decision.

Long distance love takes time and lots of patience
that strengthens love, faith and hope.  

Anything worth anything is worth it.

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The burden of infinite mystery

Release yourself from the burden
of trying to understand all,
let God carry that
burden of infinite mystery


The quote profoundly struck me today as I went through some of the thousands of emails that have accumulated while I've pondered the infinite mystery that is my life.

While the pondering has gone on way too long and in way too much detail in a sea of confusion by way of personal happiness, peace, sadness, conflicts, blah blah blah . . . I have managed to find a rather decent job in a world where becoming gainfully employed has become like hitting the jackpot at the casino.

Maybe I should have focused on finding that job rather than carry the burden of other things going on in my life . . . after all, it IS survival we are talking about. Perhaps the alternative of remaining unemployed any longer and the worrying that goes along with it should have taken front stage in my life. But it didn't . . . I released that task to God, knowing that he would eventually take care of that situation.

Now . . . if I could only release myself from some of those other burdens bothering me at this moment in my life . . . maybe I would enjoy and appreciate that mountain of peace, love and happiness that is staring me in the face.

Why do we as humans have to understand, make sense of and control every little detail of life? What will be will be anyway . . .

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Uproot the Fears in Your Life

What if this, what if that . . .
fear itself can be enough to prevent a person from
attempting the mere motions of living life normally.

Lately I've been in touch with my spiritual side
more than usual. As I have mentioned in the
past, I'm not here to preach, however the words
of God and reading the Bible has helped me
deal with life's frustrations and hopefully
they will help someone else.

Uproot the Fears in Your Life
Fresh Manna 2009© by Pastor Tim Burt

You’ll find that in every garden, weeds that you never planted spring from the ground. Your heart and your garden are the same. Weeds – fears, worries, and evil imaginations invade your heart and mind that seem to come from nowhere. Jesus in trying to teach His disciples about how our heart and mind works used gardening and farming illustrations saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. "The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?' " 'An enemy did this,' he replied.” Matthew 13:24-28,

Satan is always trying to plant seeds of fear in our heart. It’s by design. He would rather have you have faith in his fear than faith in God’s promises. Why? Because your faith is what brings forth its crop. When you allow weed seeds of fear to grow in your mind and heart - fear, discouragement, and hopelessness is the crop you will reap. Consequently, you have to work to keep out things you do not want in there. You have to dig up what shouldn’t be there and cast it out! What does a heart with weed seeds planted in it look like? Jeremiah 17:5-6 reveals this saying, “This is what the Lord says: "Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans and turn their hearts away from the Lord. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, on the salty flats where no one lives.”

When you plant good seeds planting them in good soil (a heart that loves and trusts God and puts faith and expectation in His promises) then you will reap a good crop. Hosea 10:12 (NLT) says, “I said, 'Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of my love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.”

What does a good crop from your heart look like? Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NLT) describes it like this: ‘But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit.”

God’s Word is our riverbank for our roots to go down into. Remember today that the promise He promised you is this:Hosea 10:12 (NLT) “I said, 'Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of my love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.”

In His love,
Pastor Tim


Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2009 Tim Burt, All rights reserved.
http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/

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Feeling lost

"When we are lost, we typically look at a map to figure out where we are and how to get to our chosen destination. This works well, assuming that there is a map of the territory in which we find ourselves, and assuming that we know our destination. However, this is not always the case. At this time in human history, we are all venturing into uncharted territory, whether we know it or not. And as individuals, we may find ourselves covering ground that our predecessors never even knew existed. When we look to them for guidance, they often come up short. Not knowing exactly where we are, we find ourselves unsure of which way to go, and eventually the uneasy feeling that we are lost presents itself.

The beauty of being lost is the same thing that makes it scary—it asks us to look within ourselves to find the way. If we have no map, we must go on instinct, relying on our inner compass to show us which way to go. This can be scary because so much seems to be riding on it. We fear we might go too far in the wrong direction, or become paralyzed and make no progress at all. And yet, this is the very challenge we need to develop our ability to trust ourselves. We are also learning to trust that the universe will support and guide us. We may believe this intellectually, but it is only through experience that it becomes knowledge of the heart. Learning to be okay with being lost and trusting that we will be guided, we begin our journey.

We can support ourselves by confirming that we don’t need to know exactly where we are going in order to take our first steps. We are learning to feel our own way, rather than following an established path, and in doing so we learn to trust ourselves. It is this trust that connects us to the universe and reminds us that no matter how lost we feel, and even as we journey, on the inner level we are already home."

Source: Daily Om

I couldn't say it better myself.

Sometimes the words and emotions are difficult to express.

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