Learning Along The Way

Is Change Happening?

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Do you wonder if change is happening?

You might be battling discouragement today.

Maybe when the new school year began you started (or tried to start) to make changes in your routine: getting up earlier, eating right, being on time places, not losing your temper, writing that thank you card, memorizing scripture, or even just reading the Bible; any one of these changes might be on your to do list.

You started your plan and it was going great!

But life happened today and the to do list didn’t get done.  Or maybe it’s the third day in a row that “life happened” and the to do list is buried under the mail.

The question is: do you give up?  Just quit because change is too hard and you don’t see it happening?

Or do you make a different choice?  The choice to persevere?

Steady Progress
Three years ago to honor my dad’s memory I wanted to make our backyard into a relaxing retreat area by installing a water feature.  Here’s what it looked like brand new:

The plants were little and it looked rather stark.  It wasn’t lush and verdant like I had imagined, partly because the cost to plant mature plants was way out of the question and partly because I am committed to the process of growth and I wanted to watch the yard change over time.

Little by little, when I wasn’t paying attention, change happened.  Now, this summer the fountain area looks like this:

My point is, don’t give up!  Little by little, when you push back against the tide of demands and make another choice to continue on your new routine, starting again, you will see change when you least expect to!

Sometimes when we’re the most discouraged, we do want to throw in the trowel, in gardener speak, and just quit.

I have one word for you: DON”T!

Keep going!  Start again!  Get support from friends or, contact a Coach!  Click over here to learn more about working with a Life Coach.

Change can happen.  Change takes time.  Give yourself grace and get support.

Life Lesson #3 Keep On

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I have been under the pile.  Things to do.  You know, the usual: laundry, cleaning the house, grocery shopping, cooking. Add in relationships with family and friends, don’t forget work, and then fit in hobbies like gardening, reading, learning music, sewing.  Now add some major life events: college graduation for one son, college planning for the other, wedding planning for the firstborn and just to make life more interesting: The Change has come upon me.

I had all but abandoned my writing when, in the middle of the craziest busiest week this month, I looked out the window and saw this sight

I was immediately reminded of my unfinished blog series on Life Lessons.  So here it is.

Keep On.

The sunflower that had fallen is the tall one on the left.  If you don’t know sunflowers, it’s the tall skinny plant in the top row, directly above the garden arch in the picture.  It only slightly leans forward from the others. Hardly noticeable in its difference.  The brokenness that could have killed it now has become a testimony of perseverance.  Keep On.

I have been slowed down in my life by circumstances.  Or at least that’s the excuse I am clinging to right now.  But my circumstances are my life.  So how am I slowed down?  By my attitude about the circumstances.

Allowing my focus to be on the hurry and worry, rather on the acceptance of what is; the lack of seeking wisdom of what to let slide; neglecting the need to reach out to others for help; not speaking a very short word that is a step to freedom: “No”, have all contributed to a dry, distracted, unfocused life.   This is not the way to Keep On.

The sunflower shows me.  Keep seeking life.  Be renewed.  Keep On.

He came that we may have life and have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)

Mindset adjustment: abundant does not mean DOING MORE!

Abundant means life giving: Jesus in us, for us and to others.  Overflowing life.  Strengthening life. Joyful life.  Even in really tough circumstances.

My circumstances are NOT tough right now.  But I have had them.  You might be having them now.

Where do you seek life that changes you, that strengthens you?

I look to Jesus.  He lifts my head.  Through the Word. In the garden. In the chirping of birds. Through music. Laughter.  Oh that we might have eyes to see and ears to hear!

Friends, don’t let the busy-ness of your circumstances distract you from seeking life!

I made myself take time to read this morning instead of “getting right to work”.  I finished a terrific book, Beautiful Outlaw, by John Eldredge.  He ends the book with this:

“But this Jesus—this Beautiful Outlaw—if his exquisite life were to invade ours…oh, my.  It would change everything.”

Seek life.  Keep On.

His prayer at the end of his book was my prayer this morning.  It can be for you as well:

“Jesus, invade my life.  Cleanse this temple. Produce your Cana in me.  I give my humanity to you, to be restored by your humanity.  I give my life to you to live your life.”

 

Keep On.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunflower Life Lesson #2–Develop Strong Roots

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When I first talked about the amazing gardening experience, I briefly mentioned that, although the sunflower was lying down among its neighbors the cantaloupe and watermelon plants, it was not uprooted.  The sunflower was already 5 feet tall when it fell.  That means there was a deep, strong root system already in place so that the plant didn’t die when this trauma hit.

 

What life lesson is here for us?  Develop Strong Roots.

 

The question is: How does one do that exactly?

 

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you already know that I have weathered some really difficult seasons. I would guess you have too since life is not easy!  It’s funny that we think it should be; if we do all the right things then the result will be a good healthy life, great kids, a spouse who treasures us, a house with a white picket fence and a garden without weeds or gophers.  Ideal perhaps, but not reality.

 

How do we develop strength to withstand trauma that comes out of nowhere?

 

Develop Strong Roots.

 

Strong Roots take time, nourishing soil and water.

 

Time—a regular habit of spending time reading, hearing, and thinking about God’s Word.  Investing in your soul takes your time.

 

Nourishing soil—Jesus taught about soil. The soil of our heart can be nourished by praying for God’s work in our lives; memorizing Scripture; humbly surrendering to growth and change that He leads us to make that results in a changed heart more like His.

 

Water—Jesus told the Samaritan Woman “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”  Jesus is the Gift of God Himself to each of us.  He lived the life we should live, died the death we deserve, and was raised from the dead so that we may have hope knowing that our physical death has no lasting victory. His Spirit will live in you, to strengthen, guide and empower you when you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

 

Life Lesson #2: Develop Strong Roots to be able to be lifted up by the Master Gardener when the difficulties of life knock you down.

“ Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. “For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.”

Know that I am praying for you, dear reader: that you call on the name of the Lord; that you nourish the soil of your heart in Him.

 

Resilient (or How Does My Garden Grow?)

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I had the most amazing gardening experience ever!  If you’re not into gardening, that’s ok, it wasn’t super technical but there is a great story so bear with me.

 

A week ago our son graduated from Biola University.  We don’t live in the LA area so attending his graduation meant traveling down a day ahead.  Since we were going to be down there anyway we had made plans to be gone the whole long holiday weekend.

 

We left on Friday afternoon.  If you’re a mom you know how much preparation goes into getting ready to leave; for me it includes surveying the garden for potential issues that might need attending to before leaving.  All was in order so we were good to go.

 

It was a wonderful graduation; made this Momma very proud!  But I digress; the event is not the focus of the gardening experience!

 

After returning home four days later, I went out to survey the garden.  I found one of the giant sunflowers lying down in the middle of the cantaloupe and watermelon plants.  It hadn’t been uprooted so I knew I could stake it up and it would be okay.  That’s not the amazing part.  I’m getting there.

 

I wish I had thought to capture this with a photo.  While it was lying there on its side for 3 -4 days, the head of the sunflower, not yet in bloom, had turned itself upward toward the sun.  The stalk of the sunflower had to twist itself around in order to face upward.  When I staked the plant up it was crooked and the head was facing the wall behind the plant.  This would be a gardening experiment for sure.

One week later, this is what the plant looked like:

 

 

I have gleaned a lot of metaphors from this gardening experience.  As another experiment, I’d like to hear from you!

What life lessons do you recognize from my amazing gardening experience?

I’ll share mine tomorrow!

The Work of Training

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Here you see the result of training.  Not the act of training, the result of it.

 

The person who did the training had tools, time and energy that had to be used to get to this point in the growing season.  It was a lot of work and will continue to be a lot of work.  Some days are more demanding than others, but truly, year round there is work that needs to be done to maintain healthy strong life in the vines.

 

I see all of life through the lens of a garden.  It’s just the way God’s made me.

 

What season is your life in right now?  A season of rest?  Of lying dormant with no evidence of life? An active season of preparation?  A season of waiting?  The thing about seasons: they change.  But do we?

 

Any season you find yourself has its joys and challenges.  That is what is consistently true of life.  The training and preparation we go through before we’re called upon to bear fruit is so important.  Summer is a season of balance: watering, weeding, dead heading, maintenance, and waiting for the plants to bear.  Some days it looks like nothing is happening.  But the efforts will pay off.

 

Reading, studying, and memorizing God’s Word is much like the balance of gardening in the summer.  Sometimes no one sees or knows of your efforts but God Himself.

 

What are you in training for?   Does it frustrate you that no one sees your efforts?  Or are you like these vines, showing the evidence of training?

 

What if you’re not sure?  What if you’re feeling a longing to get busy and make a change in your life? Ready to get your hands dirty but don’t know what step to take?

Let’s talk! I’ll listen.

 

 

Weeding in the Garden

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What is growing in the garden of your life that you’re not paying attention to?  We get busy with the day to day routines: cooking, cleaning, laundry, shuttling kids, changing diapers, cleaning messes, working outside the home, caring for aging parents, the list goes on.

Tending to the garden of our hearts takes time, energy and focus, all tools you may feel you don’t have in your garden tote.  In different seasons the weeds grow more rampantly than others.  When I have allowed the weeds to go, the work to remove them is overwhelming.  When I have been too busy to be consistent in tending the garden, it shows.

What to do to get back a tended, well watered garden (think life)?

1. Start weeding.

What’s there that isn’t helpful?  What’s getting in the way, crowding out the good things you want to see in the garden of your life?  Get rid of whatever that is for you.

2. Ask for help.

Weeding takes a practiced eye; knowing what is a weed and what is a good plant can be confusing if you’re not used to the practice of tending the garden.  You might need a mentor, a seasoned gardener, to help you recognize what doesn’t belong.

3. Adjust your priorities

Everything cannot have #1 priority.  Really hard for an over-achiever to hear, I know!  Learning to know the difference between what things are ‘have tos’ and what things are ‘want tos’ also takes practice.  In different seasons your time must be spent in particular ways and in other seasons you’ll find there is more discretionary time.  But the fact remains, a little regular attention to the garden is the better practice than only one day a week or once a month!

Start.

Who knows, once you get in there you may discover the Master Gardener has planted something in your life that you weren’t aware of!

To Teach is to Touch a Life Forever

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Some of you who have known me for awhile already are familiar with my history. But for those who don’t, I have spent more than half my life teaching. I have worked with children, youth and adults in a variety of settings from traditional classrooms to garages to auditoriums. I love to teach!

What I have discovered in working with my coach Kathy is that my passion is really to give the tools to learn so that my students, regardless of age, can continue the learning process on their own. Giving away a passion for learning and growing is not an easy task. But if only one student was inspired in each year’s work, it would have been worth it to me.

The funny thing is, although I am no longer a classroom teacher, I find myself still teaching! I guess it is because I am an eager learning and I want to share whatever new things I have come across. When I am enthusiastic about something it is nearly impossible for me to keep my enthusiasm to myself. I’m not sure if that is bad; you’d have to ask my family what it is like living with me: “Hey you guys! Guess what I just read?!”

Your passion may not be for learning and teaching what you learn. You do have passion about something though. You may be busy today with small children and can’t think much past their daily schedule of needs, or you may be going into a season of change and you don’t know what is ahead. Either way, somewhere inside you is some element of creative passion. I know that is true because each of us is created in the image of God and He is the source of creativity and passion!

I really encourage you to carve out some time to sit in solitude asking your Maker what your passion is if you are disconnected from the awareness of how you are wired. He knows the plans He has for you…

Some of you are really living out your passions right now and you inspire me! I really believe we are intended to share our gifts and talents with one another for both blessing and challenge. How do we get started though? What can you do today to take a step toward living out your passion? I would love to talk with you about what I have been learning (there I go again!) that can help you get the tools you need to learn about your passion.

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