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Anyone Insane Yet?

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So…has everyone heard the definition of insanity? Someone told me a while back, and it kind of comes back to me on a regular basis. It’s pretty wise, honestly. Insanity is when you keep doing the same thing but expect a different result. Or at least that is what will make you insane! And when it comes to trying to be healthy, many of us including myself, have been driven to the point of near insanity by doing a plan and continuously seeing no change in clothing or size or weight.

There are fewer frustrating things in life than trying really hard and not seeing any results at all.

I’ve been there for about 4 months with my exercise and eating routine. The thing is, whatever you choose to do to lose weight, that will only work for so long. Then you plateau and have to take it up a notch. This kinda stinks. It’s like we were already doing our darndest to get here, and now we have to change something else? The good news is that the change doesn’t have to be huge to get out of maintenance mode and into losing again, if you truly do have anything to lose. It’ll be slow but it will happen.  At least you will know as you make genuine changes that things won’t be stuck forever.

This post isn’t about details of what diet I am following or what changes I made, I may write about that another time, it’s simply about this reality: Don’t go insane! If your plan isn’t working for you or you’re unhappy with it, find a new plan! Make changes that you can live with, because if you plan to keep the weight off, live with them you must! Make your firm commitments–get specific with it or they won’t work–and see the fruit of your labor again!

God is calling us not to frustration but to freedom. Getting free and staying free can surely feel frustrating, but the rewards along the way let us know we’re in the right place. 🙂

Peace!

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Bring Back the Wonder

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We all have days where colors are brighter, every word has meaning, and we want it to stay just like this forever…

Then we all have days where we feel grey, discontent, just old and done. Our callings feel less sure, our blessings feel more like burdens, and our joy is slipping through our fingers.

It’s a really beautiful thing to have a God thatwants to take these realities and help us with them.

It’s a really beautiful thing to have a God who is waiting for us to ask Him to make life new again, to make all these components of life come alive once again!

So let’s pray for this together–

Our Father, Lord, Friend, Helper, Great Resurrector,

In our bodies–our getting out of bed, our walking, our talking, our eating, our work and our play– please bring back the wonder of it all like only You can.

In our homes–our calendars, our finances, our family table, our conversations, our dreams–please bring back the wonder of it all like only You can.

In our marriages and relationships–our helping, our praying, our giving, our supporting, our listening, our loving–in this privilege of partnership–please bring back the wonder of it all like only You can.

In our parenting–their faces, their noise, their character, their hearts, their schooling, our pivotal role to play in their walk with You–oh Jesus, please bring back the wonder of it all like only You can.

In our ministries–on the street, in the store, to the Body of Christ within and without the Church, to the poor and the broken and the lost, in prayer or in physical action–please bring back the wonder of it all like only You can.

Come make it holy, because it is. Come make it precious, because it is. Come make it meaningful, because it is.

Amen.

 

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New CD Coming Soon

New CDJust a quick word here to say that Joanna Black (www.mjblack.com) and I will be releasing a new EP this Fall! We worked on these songs over the summer–it is a collection of worship songs I have written over the past couple of years. Her husband, Matt, was the producer and sound engineer, and we recorded out in their farmhouse here in Elizabethtown, KY. It is simple and sweet, but I think powerful as well.

There are 6 new duets on it: It Is Well With My Soul, Hallelujah, Never Be Another, Take Me In, Wells, and Love So Sure

And 2 duets from previous recordings: We Come Out Shining, and When Faith Runs Deep

It is titled “Beloved”, and we hope to have it available both for order and on iTunes in October.

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Sister Bridge 2013

I am SO excited!

This year, our third year, we have a Leadership Team of seven ladies who will be running Sister Bridge.

Early in October we will be sorting and pricing items that are currently on their way from around the world…Card Sets from India, lovely African material bags and aprons and more from Swaziland, and handmade paper beaded jewelry from Indonesia. October, November, and December we will be branching out all over Kentucky to bring these items to women who would like to purchase and support their “sisters” in third world countries. 100% of the money goes to the ladies who created these beautiful items!

I will be posting pictures and information about parties here on lyndsaytaylor.com and on our Sister Bridge Facebook page, so make sure you stay in touch if you would like to be a part!

 

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Work and Rest

As it is Labor Day weekend, the Lord has definitely shown me He has some snazzy timing.

The kids’ memory verse for school this week was Matthew 11:28-“Come to Me all you who are weary and I will give you rest.” But even before that, I was pondering what probably every other adult in America ponders: busyness, priorities, needing a break, and–let’s be real with each other–wondering if I’m where I’m supposed to be, doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

There seem to be a lot of things that can steal my restful, peaceful, joyful spirit, things that can make me forget that all is well with my soul. Sometimes it is when schedules and sleep are out of balance, sometimes it is when I’ve gotten in a rut or failed to get in a rut that would have been a beneficial one! Sometimes one can figure it out and sometimes one cannot…and before you know it, “this too has passed”.

But sometimes it doesn’t pass, because something really needs to change. I have heard that the definition of insanity is when you keep doing the same thing, but genuinely expect a different result. That’s a wake up call if I ever heard one! So what may need to change? It may be a little tweak here and there in the “seen realm”, in the visible daily life, I know I have made some “external” changes lately for the better…but it may be something a little deeper that needs to be addressed.

I am learning the value of living authentically.

Living authentically, living in humble awareness of who you really are at this point in your existence and accepting it, brings rest and peace. Living with wrong motives, inferior focuses, or just a vague sense of wanting to “be more” or “better” brings strife and confusion.

I’ve been asking myself these questions lately:

*1* Do I make certain choices based on the recognition or positive regard I will get from others? Anything from what I wear to what career I am in, am I doing it to be placed in a certain group or elevated to a certain level in others’ eyes?

*2*  Do I need my successes or good things that I do to be visible to others in order for me to enjoy my life and enjoy how God is at work in me?

*3* Do I decide where I am supposed to be and what I am supposed to be doing on based on whether I excel at it or if God has asked me to be there for His purposes?

Sometimes things need to change, in our jobs, in our relationships, in our lives. But sometimes all that needs to change is we get real with ourselves and see if we are living purposefully and authentically  right where we are.

I believe with all my heart Jesus came to give us LIFE and life to the FULL. He gave us work that will enrich the lives of others and give us a chance to have the Christ-life formed in us, and He gave us a rest that goes far beyond a Sunday afternoon nap. His rest is the communion with Him that carries us through every place He has asked us to be, with every person He has asked us to serve.

Peace and grace, friends!

 

 

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First “Journey Well” Blog Post

I’ll be honest with you.

I’m not sure if I’m going to have time to really stick with writing a blog about nutrition.

But I’m going to try, because as I journey through this-trying to make it less battle and more balance-I come across insights that help me and being a natural born encourager, I like to share good stuff with anyone who will listen…and maybe that someone is you.

I name this place “Journey Well” because I believe our relationship with food can play a key role in our wellness, but even more so I think this journey is about a lot more than physical health. Who we are spiritually, mentally, emotionally, socially matters just as much…actually more. Not to keep circling around, but our relationship with food (our bodies, our expectations, our illnesses, our defeats, our victories) all make an impact on the other parts of who we are, like it or not.

And we have to start somewhere to get focused and know that God has given us dominion over ourselves, at least to a certain extent. So, no more excuses, no more wishing; just hoping, learning, and changing.

Let’s journey well together.

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Making Life Harder

Really, who would do that? Make life harder, that is. That’s crazy, right?

But I keep catching myself doing it, and I’d like to explore the reason why.

This is a bold thing to say (but I believe in transparency there is humility and in humility there is great growth): I think the reasons why I continually fall into the trap of making my life harder can be put into two categories. One is “good” (in quotations because it’s obviously not truly good!), and one is bad.

So…the “good” one first. Since giving my entire being, choices, and future to the Lord at the age of 13, I have not thought of my happiness or my ease as one of the points of discussion when making most decisions. Decisions are usually made based on other criteria, such as: what is better for these specific other people, or what is “God leading me to do” with a nice long drawn out “e” in the word “leading”, because that word has to be emphasized when declaring your next choice in life, am I right? I don’t have an answer for this, because there are definitely times God calls us to do things that are everything from nonsensical to uncomfortable to personally devastating!! He is God and He sees the end from the beginning, and I trust Him! But I wonder how many times He watched me choose the stressful, overachieving path for absolutely no reason other than I thought the hard way HAD to be the best way. Hmm…Just a thought.

And the “bad” method of making my life harder is wavering from the basics of what I know to be true, right, wholesome, life-giving living. Our life gets harder, our focus gets out of whack, our resolve gets talked down when we lose sight of the foundational truths and callings we have previously set our course straight on. What do we need to get back to? We’re all different but we all have disciplines of the mind and body that help us stay out of pits.It may be as simple as getting in bed at a decent hour regularly, and it might mean quitting something we just started because it has thrown a kink in the works and it would be better to end it now than give it time to cause more confusion and chaos. It may be finding creative ways to keep the connection strong between us and the Lord. Having Spiritual Alzheimer’s means keeping that connection fresh and ongoing!

Jesus came to give us LIFE, full and abundant, wise and free. He also said in this world we would have troubles, to not be surprised at them, but to know He has overcome every one of them in His own way and time, that He is still in charge no matter what. It’s clear from scripture that difficulties are allowed to refine us and give us a chance to use our faith muscles, which results in a true act of worship and adoration of God. I guess what I’m trying to say is pretty simple. These things are coming whether we want them or not, but there are so many ways we make the blessings into burdens and allow our day-to-day lives to be less than joyful—less than enjoyable—just because we feel guilty for not being purposeful every minute. Or maybe that’s just me. 🙂

I want to remember this. Obedience doesn’t mean doing a million good things. Obedience means doing the exact things (be they few and insignificant,or many and powerful) our Teacher says to do…and maybe He is yelling RECESS a little more often than we think.

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It’s good to have these sweet little reminders (these are my girls and their cousin) of the good that comes from “wasting time” sometimes! JOY!

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Balance and Joy

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My husband was watching a TED talk the other night on Netflix. I walked in and sat down and was really quickly drawn in to the topic. This young woman with kind of crazy hair and a funky dress on was talking about how she had suffered a concussion and went through severe brain trauma. She was very depressed at one point, and said that 1 in 3 concussion sufferers go through this extreme part of recovery. She was a video game creator, and she decided to make a video game to help her get well.

So she created this game that would motivate her to do very small (each taking less than a minute many times) tasks, and by making it a game she could play online with friends, she could bring in a little competition which would be even more motivating. You could get points for little things like going to sit by the window, or snapping your fingers 50 times. She had a mental, a physical, an emotional, and maybe a spiritual (I can’t exactly remember) component to the game, and each challenge led to healing.

This reminded me of my favorite professor at Campbellsville U, Dr. Hurtgen. He said every day you need to open “each of your four doors.” I will add social, making it five :). For a general sense of well being, we need to realize that we are not merely 100% spiritual or merely 100% physical.  We are all of the above and we need take a little time for each of these parts of our being every day instead of thinking “I’m eating great, why don’t I feel good?” or “I’m around lots of friends, what’s wrong?”

When we begin to feel “out of it” or depressed or just imbalanced, there is usually a door that we have either abandoned or let get stuck in a rut. God created us to be multi-faceted, right? It’s fun to embrace who we are on all these levels, because He made us so uniquely. I love to find out what makes people tick. He made us mental, our brains are always at work. He made us emotional, our feelings are embedded in all we experience. He made us physical, our systems never stop. He made us social, even an introvert like me craves face time with people. He made us spiritual, and connects us to Himself through the Holy Spirit so that our Life in the spirit remains our anchor.

This TED talk speaker also said that she has learned through talking with people, especially those who have suffered much, that most of us don’t allow ourselves to be happy. We think we’re lazy or doing something wrong if we aren’t worried or working ourselves to death. I am so so guilty of this!! I forget to relax and just enjoy life sometimes. I forget that the possibilities are endless. I forget how fragile and precious the people around me truly are. I forget the freedom both physical and spiritual I have been graciously given, with no work on my part to receive it. I forget that seasons change and it’s okay to let go of things and that God isn’t breathing down my neck about a single thing. Praise the LORD!

As believers, we can be happy in suffering because we have surrendered our wants to God…we aren’t demanding our way anymore. We’re saying, “God, I want life to the fullest, whatever You want that to look like.” There is such joy in surrender, such peace in obedience, and such fulfillment in letting each day grow us a little more in all these parts of who we are.

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Being Brave

This week I got to learn something about myself, and that is that I am a wimp.

But God is bringing opportunities to practice not being a wimp and I am excited about this.
Over the past month, there have been (now) four situations where my oldest daughter (age 8) has had some sort of conflict with a friend. Sometimes the mom told me about it, sometimes another adult friend told me about it, but I never saw it for myself nor did I have the chance to really get involved. After the third one (and like I said, all three being something I only heard of after the fact), I was beginning to feel really weird…wondering what character flaws were showing up and irking other people, wondering what was actually being said and done, how much was provoked, how much was immature and silly, how much was a necessary response (if any), and how much I needed to get involved and help her know how to handle these conflicts or keep them from happening in the first place. Ah, parenthood, right? 
So I brought it up with my friend, who was hosting my daughter for a sleepover. We had such an awesome talk about this; it was truly the Lord giving us a chance to help our daughters and at the same time, help ourselves get over any insecurities we might have about admitting character flaws and things we need to work on. It is hard enough to realize these things about yourself…but I think it takes a whole new big mama dose of the Holy Spirit to be able to realize and humbly speak of these things about your own precious flesh and blood that you feel “surely couldn’t say or do that, at least without good reason”.
It was great. We decided we would allow the conflicts that may come up to be a learning experience for all of us; to somewhat expect little issues and if they aren’t worked out well by the girls themselves, us moms would step in and take our time to address it fully. We want to teach them how to get along, not leave it all up to them to “figure out”. We want to let them make mistakes and know what to do after that happens, because that is going to happen, and maybe even learn how to steer clear of those relationship mistakes in the first place.
So, there was a conflict and the next day we all talked about it. We made sure everyone’s feelings were validated. We called blame out where it was due. (A side note about this: it was probably easier for me in this particular instance because it was my girl who needed to do the apologizing. Its actually harder to be the one who was wronged because you don’t want the other to feel too bad, or make a big deal, etc. but I think it takes bravery on both sides. The one who was wronged has to really stop and say, “Yes, I need you to apologize, that is what’s fair” instead of “No, it’s okay, forget it.” The one who was wrong needs to stop and think about how it would feel if those words or actions had been done to them and then have a plan of action to make things right.) 
The great news is: I think both girls walked away with a sense of what they would do differently next time. Taking the time to deal with it instead of just gloss it over, with parents and apologies involved, made it unforgettable. For example, Selah stayed up late writing apology letters (that is plural because her problems didn’t end with this one conflict with her friend! We had a rough day!) and then today I read a song she had written and left on the table. It brought tears to my eyes because it was two pages long (takes after her mama!) and it was all about how thankful she was that Jesus came to take away sin.  It was a beautiful worship song, and this was one of those times that God used pain and realization of her own brokenness to bring her to His feet.
We all need that. We all need to see the brokenness so we can be made whole! In relationships, to be made whole! With God, to be made holy! With ourselves, to not beat ourselves up but to rationally and maturely handle this balance of what God is doing in us vs. what we have already conquered. Humility is to agree with God about the reality of our fallen selves; forgiveness is to let Jesus’s perfection cover us in that broken reality! We are not only allowed to, we are commanded to, walk in the freedom and joy of a forgiven and made holy person…and that’s going to require facing things and doing whatever we have to do to make it right when at all possible.
So, lastly, this just brings me to say–I have been a wimp in my relationship with girlfriends. I haven’t known how to handle conflict. I haven’t used the opportunities I have been afforded to truly grasp skills that would allow forgiveness and freedom…and fun 🙂 but I want to! And I think in stopping that cycle, in not allowing that to go on in how I train my daughters to relate with people, I myself am going to have to choose to be brave and stop and work things out with people regardless of how uncomfortable or afraid I am. I have always believed people could work anything out through prayer and talking, but I have still shied away from necessarily practicing that. It’s so scary! Will I be too brash or will I call out specks when the plank is in my eye? Will I make things worse? Will I sound so self-secure that I will freak people out who aren’t really in this same place of wanting to lay it all out on the table? 
I don’t know, really. But I know I need to be brave and prayerfully handle, truly handle, issues when they come up. After all, our kids don’t necessarily do what we say, they do what we do! And God continually gives us extra worksheets, extra homework, to really nail down a characteristic of HIS in our own lives so that we shine forth who Jesus is to the world…Oh, I love that He is all about doing that! Makes any discomfort or pain much more manageable to have heavenly purpose behind it.
So here is my honest and open prayer: “Lord, help me learn how to love, to create safe spaces for people to be themselves (even if I don’t like or agree with all the pieces of who they are), and to have the humility to truly be myself even if someone doesn’t like all these pieces of who I am (because that’s actually okay). Help me learn how You would handle differences and bad moods and feelings, and help me give people freedom to be where they are, loving them right then and there instead of steering clear of them.”  Can I hear an AMEN!? 🙂