Learning Along The Way

Perceptions

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How do you like the new look of my blog? I have been struggling with the perception I had of the appearance of my layout; colors, size you know the details! It was too cut and paste and didn’t really appeal to me. I kept hunting for how to make it more my own (for free of course!) Found a cute site (the link is in the upper left) that offers lots of fun backgrounds (thanks Penny!) and other goodies to customize your blog site. If you’re blogging, check it out! Enough of the fluff!

Yesterday’s post I talked about the idea of paradigms powering our perceptions. Our model or pattern affects how we look at something or someone. The big idea here is does your paradigm fully work for you? How do you perceive circumstances that you find yourself in right now? We have so many paradigms as I mentioned but the one I would really like to explore is faith. This paradigm is at work in your life even if you don’t stop and take a look at it. Your model or pattern that was handed to you from your family affects your perceptions today. Big concepts like trust aren’t always openly discussed in a family but what your parents showed you about faith and trust as a child has imprinted your paradigm and thus your perceptions about faith.

What you say you believe and what you demonstrate with your actions may not always line up and that is due to your paradigm. Do you find yourself fearful and you don’t know why? Are you prone to worry and want to be done with that struggle? Look at the model you grew up with. The power of modeling for the learning process of children is well known: often something important is “caught” not “taught”. The tendency toward fear may have been subtly modeled and you didn’t even realize it. All is not lost! Paradigms and perceptions can be changed.

I will go so far as to say that your faith paradigm is the most important pattern for you to examine and align and realign throughout life. What we do and say is important; people close to us as well as those strangers we come across are watching how we interact. If you claim the name of Jesus, how you follow Him along the Way is THE most important paradigm to keep looking at. More on this later…

Paradigms and Perceptions

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Have you read this book? If you haven’t I recommend it. Here’s why: it is fiction, first and foremost. It deals with deep hurts that we all have even though we push them down or away. It gives you somethings to ponder and we all need to be thinking!

Here is a quote that made me stop reading and think about the depth of these words.

“Paradigms power perceptions and perceptions power emotions.
Most emotions are responses to perceptions–what you think is true about a given situation.”

I want to unpack this statement a little. Paradigm–“an example that serves as a model or pattern, especially one that forms the basis of a methodology or theory” We all have models or patterns that we follow, and sometimes without even realizing what they are and how they impact us. Parenting, marriage, roles in the family, are all examples of paradigms that we have that we may not even think about.

So read that quote again, filling in a particular paradigm you have. Take time to think it through in how it affects your daily life. Does your paradigm have a positive affect on you and others? Does your paradigm need adjusting to be more effective for your life?

Now specifically look at the paradigm of your faith. Many people don’t stop to think through what they believe and if what they believe lines up with how they live. Take some time to think about deep, eternal matters. I’d love to talk with you about your thoughts; no judgment, just open discussion.

Speaking of open–be open to reading the Shack. It is not doctrine, it’s fiction. But I would go so far as to say it can be a tool to move your paradigms a little!

Quote from a certifiable genius

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Did the title make you curious? Some quotes I collect are simple, some profound. This one is profound in its simplicity. I have to give finder’s credit to my friend Susie who is a terrific quote hunter! (among many other skills she possesses)

3 Rules of Work

1. out of clutter, find simplicity

2. from discord, find harmony

3. in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity

Sounds like Henry Ford. Practical, grounded, straightforward, matter of fact. But its not Ford. Before I reveal the quotable individual, let’s look closer at these three rules.

Each rule has a challenge in the first half and resolve in the second half: clutter, discord and difficulty are resolved in simplicity, harmony and opportunity. Not only can we make that word pair observation but look at what the rules are for–work. You might simply think rules for getting work done. That approach could be sufficient for appreciating these rules. But you can also look at each of these rules and see that in order to achieve the resolve it takes work; not just task oriented work but character forming work. These rules could be re-titled “3 Rules for Change” or “3 Rules for Growth”. These rules are bigger than they seem at first glance!

Of course you might expect something profound in its simplicity from a certifiable genius~ Albert Einstein

Now go and apply these rules….

The Beauty That Matters is Always on the Inside

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Hopefully you read my previous post which linked you to Susan Boyle’s audition performance on the show Britain’s Got Talent. Millions of people have viewed the YouTube posting. Today I want to share portions of a wonderful thought provoking article about Susan Boyle, titled “The Beauty That Matters is Always on the Inside” written by Colette Douglas Home in The Herald web issue 3439. The following excerpts are Reproduced with the permission of the Herald & Times Group

This small, brave soul took her courage in her hands to pitch at her one hope of having her singing talent recognised, and was greeted with a communal sneer. Courage could so easily have failed her.


She lived with her parents in a four-bedroom council house and, when her father died a decade ago, she cared for her mother and sang in the church choir.


It was an unglamorous existence. She wasn’t the glamorous type – and being a carer isn’t a glamorous life, as the hundreds of thousands who do that most valuable of jobs will testify. Even those who start out with a beauty routine and an interest in clothes find themselves reverting to the practicality of a tracksuit and trainers. Fitness plans get interrupted and then abandoned. Weight creeps on. Carers don’t often get invited to sparkling dinner parties or glitzy receptions, so smart clothes rarely make it off the hanger.

Then, when a special occasion comes along, they might reach, as Susan did, for the frock they bought for a nephew’s wedding. They might, as she did, compound the felony of choosing a colour at odds with her skin tone and an unflattering shape with home-chopped hair, bushy eyebrows and a face without a hint of make-up. But it is often evidence of a life lived selflessly; of a person so focused on the needs of another that they have lost sight of themselves. Is that a cause for derision or a reason for congratulation? Would her time have been better spent slimming and exercising, plucking and waxing, bleaching and botoxing? Would that have made her voice any sweeter?

Susan Boyle’s mother encouraged her to sing. She wanted her to enter Britain’s Got Talent. But the shy Susan hasn’t been able to sing at all since her mother’s death two years ago. She wasn’t sure how her voice would emerge after so long a silence. Happily, it survived its rest.

If you’d like to read Ms. Home’s wonderful article go here

I hope Susan receives further opportunities to sing. She has earned them by virtue of her talent. But my question to us all is what talents have we not brought out to be seen for lack of opportunity or even more, the fear of ridicule? Perhaps the courage Susan displayed can spur each of us on to love and good deeds, knowing that what truly matters is the beauty on the inside
that is always seen by our audience of One.

Little Things

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My dear friend Debbi made this yard art stone for me many years ago. Doesn’t it look lovely nestled in among those tiny green plants?

I have left them there although I normally pull them all out. That’s because they are weeds in my garden bed! My quote for today is one I love as a gardener:

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, Fortune of the Republic, 1878.

I don’t just love this quote for the chance to rationalize leaving the weeds but it makes me think too.
I just have to wonder what is valuable to God that I over look as little and unnecessary? What may I have cleared out of the Way that really has virtue not yet discovered?

Musings

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I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses….

I don’t know your habits, but I know mine: the ones I have and the ones that I am trying to form and reform.  One habit that I love is rising earlier than the rest of my family to enjoy the quiet in the house alone with my coffee and my Lord.  After daylight savings we sometimes walk through the garden looking at the new shoots of seedlings or the flowers in bud.  Hearing the birds waking up as the sun rises is so calming to my spirit.  The songs of the house finches who nest in our jasmine have such a lilting melody and I find myself imagining their conversation with their Creator as I eavesdrop.  
As I walk or stand staring at a bird or plant I allow my mind to flit like the birds; the needs of my family come to mind; my husband’s need for work, our oldest’s desire for a summer job keeping him away from home again, our youngest’s sports plans.  I think of the uncertainty that surrounds so many people’s lives in Sri Lanka, in Uganda and here in the States.  I allow my mind to rest in the knowledge that God is already in the unknown of my future and it is completely known to Him. I remind myself of the many times He has shown up in my present, proof enough of His promise to never leave me or forget me.
Giving my mind and heart time to bring thoughts and fears to the surface also gives the Lord space to show up in my present with His comforting Word reminding me that He leads me beside still waters.  I am able to hand over the fear of the unknown to His capable hands as He walks with me and talks with me and tells me I am His own….

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