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Secrets of the Health Universe 😉

Despite my bold title, I’ll just say here are some things I have discovered through years of various fatigue, autoimmune, weight, and sleep issues. I hope they help someone out there!

1- I have found that eating snack-size meals every 3 hours is best for me. All the food groups are included, except gluten causes me to have terrible acid reflux so I don’t eat gluten. My plan here is that if my needs are met, I won’t binge or overeat, and it’s true. Snack-size is like what fits in one or maybe two palms: ¼ c of granola, or a banana with a ¼ c of nuts, a protein shake, or 2 eggs. I find my metabolism is revved with this plan, and I just don’t think about food very much as I am never hungry/hangry. This has eliminated the guilt from overeating or what I call “storm-eating”! If I do eat a large meal sometime, it is no big deal because the next time I eat I’ll be back to my mini-meals and it all works out. Also, my metabolism is revved with lifting weights. Because of my back, I am only using 5 lb weights but seeing all the benefits I used to see before surgery even with much heavier weights. Always have weights in your workouts and get a good sweat every day!! Mini-meals every 3-4 hours and working out 30-40 min a day with both cardio and weights WILL change your body, period! At least 5 days a week. 😃

2- Shakeology vegan protein shakes have changed my life. They already have all the probiotics, prebiotics, and enzymes I need so I don’t have to buy or add anymore. They also have the antioxidant and adaptogens I need for stress management, much like you would find in cortisol manager supplements. My adrenals are happy. The fact is that nutrition is feeding our actual cells, and our cells make up our body and our life. We have to think about eating for our cellular level. We need a lot of living food, like fruits, veggies, meat, nuts, whole grains and not dead things that have been sitting on shelves for weeks after processing. While nutrition is vital, digestion and absorption is even more so, that’s why the pro/prebiotics/enzymes are so important. On that same topic, sugar messes up the bacteria balance in your gut (which is now called the second brain!)…as well as causing inflammation and insulin resistance, which leads to heart disease and diabetes. No, thank you. ❤️

3- You gotta sleep. Maybe you’ve gotta sleep more than other people; it’s okay! But really, think about how much sleep you are getting and probably you need more. You shouldn’t need coffee every morning or sugar mid-day, and if you use these things when tired, your adrenals pay for it. When we give our bodies substitutes for what they really need, we are crippling them and their natural ability to work well. P.S.Naps are very Christlike. 😂

4- Lastly, inflammation in your body means things like pain, swelling, infection, allergic reactions, itching – and these outward symptoms are just a glimpse of the chaos going on inside our blood vessels, our histamine levels, our cells, etc. Whether or not we have high levels of inflammation matters on a heart and lung level, and autoimmune disorders/inflammation go hand in hand. There are alot of cool things people are doing to help their inflammation levels, but one thing I know for sure is this small list of supplements. Because of Shakeology I don’t need many supplements, if any, but when I was in pain because of my back (which resulted in a microdiscectomy) I took Boswellia, vitamin C, and Omega 3s/Fish oil. Here’s my testimony: The surgeon made me go supplement free for 2 weeks before surgery. I couldn’t take anything. Those 2 weeks are when I was truly in stiff, terrible pain. By the night before surgery, I could not sit, lay, stand, anything, without pain. I had had no idea what a blessing those supplements had been! Now I know that if I have stiffness or those weird hotspot feelings in my leg or even bad allergies (I have some high markers for autoimmune disorders but have not been diagnosed) I can immediately begin taking this regimen of anti-inflammatory supplements. Also, for stiffness or sore muscles, I cannot recommend a quick foam rolling session after each exercise session!

5- It’s so important to change the narrative, the self-talk, and truly think about what you’re thinking about! We need to preach truth of God’s Word to ourselves, and reframe our circumstances with faith, gratitude, and praise. As children of God, we have to see our sins as things holding us back from a full wonderful life, rather than what we can get away with…! We need to know we are not meant to walk in guilt, shame, regret, and feeling less than, but instead that we are more than conquerors and if God is for us, who can be against us? We need to let go of obligations and responsibilities that were never ours, and we need to only do what He says matters and believe what only He says about us! 

These are all things we can gradually try and gradually change. When you begin to feel better, it gives you strength and excitement to do more. Although there are seasons of pain and difficulty, I really do believe that God wants us to thrive even in the middle of them. Find what gives you joy and endurance, and then share with others your “secrets”!!!

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Desires v. Promises

Something I love to do is listen to podcasts. One of my favorite more light-hearted ones is the Candace Cameron Bure podcast! As a child “of the 80s and 90s”, it is fun to see her all grown up, loving Jesus, sharing her testimony and life honestly with us! (If you don’t know, she was on Full House and now a new version of the show.)

Candace has a new guest for this season on her podcast: Bianca Juarez Olthoff. They were talking just this week about the difference between desires and promises, as someone had written in asking how to know if something we want is really something God has promised us! This question (and answer) really matters! Bianca explained that desires may be from God, or they may not, like a woman wanting a child is a desire. But a promise is more specific, like Sarah & Abraham wanting a child and God promising against all odds that they would have one. Also, we often want things that are very good, but we have to be careful to only “claim” and stand on actual promises of God that are in His Word. (That is my opinion, anyway.)

The promises of God are plentiful…I think there’s a good chance we could stay busy mentally, emotionally, relationally, spiritually, forever, just seeking out what His promises are to us today and looking to Him to fulfill them! That would be a much better pastime than the jealousy, discontent, frustration, and rat race that we unfortunately fall into when our life is instead based on just hopes, dreams, and desires – things we want to accomplish, be known for, possess.

But does that mean we can’t have hopes, dreams, and desires? 

Absolutely not. It means we learn the difference between desires and promises, and we prioritize them with a heart of surrender to God. After all, as believers we actually are here on earth to fulfill His purposes, not ours. (Yes, that hurts my feelings, too. But it’s better this way, I promise!)

So I just want to write a few things that I feel like God put on my heart to share about this topic, questions actually, that might help us think and prioritize and perhaps find a real sense of peace right where we are.

-What are the desires I am clinging to or working toward? 

-Are these promises from God or just desires that He may or may not have promised the fulfillment of?

-What scriptures back up my belief that these are His promises?

-Are these promises for my earthly lifetime or possibly my heavenly eternity?

-What desires do I need to surrender to Him, trading them in (in their importance to me or just altogether letting go of them) for the actual promises God has made me in His Word?

-How do I feel about some of my desires maybe not ever being fulfilled? Be honest with the Lord. He really does care!

-What promises am I going to really cling to and keep praying back to God, thanking Him and waiting for the fruition of them?

This can be the difference between a joyful, content life and a complaining, disappointed, critical one. The same set of circumstances could happen to two different people but one could learn to live their life leaning into His promises with faith that delights His heart and the other could choose to live their life leaning into their desires with striving and frustration, missing out. 

Thank You, Jesus, for how You transform us by the renewing of our minds! (Romans 12:2)

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Belonging & Behavior, Part 2

Last week, I unraveled my thoughts about both OT and NT characters seeing (or missing) their chance to simply belong to God – be chosen, be beloved, be enough in His sight, be His. 

Ezekiel said yes; the masses of Israelites said no.

Mary said yes; most of the Pharisees said no. 

This is how I am challenged right now and here is what I pray becomes crystal clear in the Belonging & Behavior connection training book, which is an adoptive parenting book with a whole other layer of truth built in~

God is inviting people into His family and that belonging piece is not just a step up into a more important level (like how we act). No, belonging is our roots, it’s our trunk, it’s our branches! It’s almost everything. It’s who we are! It’s how we survive in this environment! He knew we would need, more than we realize, to be in the family with Him! And when it really has soaked in that this fellowship is real, that this goodness is true, that we have a Provider, Protector, Father, Counselor, Ever-Present-Help in times of trouble, then…we begin to reflect the good heart with which we have been communing. 

His family has certain ways they act because they have been dwelling with perfect Love. Just like in any family, the members branch out and look different, but in God’s family, all those differences are still going to point to the same beautiful, good, true things about who He is and what He does. Their behavior is the fruit. The bearing of fruit, the harvest, never comes before the planting season! This is where we go wrong when we focus on the rules of what we are doing or not doing, rather than focus on knowing Jesus personally and dwelling with Him in a relationship. 

Sometimes we need to stop and see that our behavior problems are really belonging problems…and oh how the Father would love to help us with that! Soaking in His love, we are changed. 

Like I said last week, it is repeated dozens of times in the OT that God was saying: “I want you to be My people and I want to be Your God.” And God went on multiple times to also say the following, which I think is absolutely worth mentioning…these are Family Basics, per Yahweh. This is how we act when we are His.

We will:

•Be generous to the poor and foreigner, whether that is spiritually, emotionally, or financially poor. They are in our midst for a reason. This shows we know the “Family of God” basics; this shows we know we lack nothing and can give what He gives us away without fear of lack. Giving shows we know our roots, deep in abundance with Father God. 

•Keep the Sabbath, meaning rest and don’t do what you normally do. Don’t catch up or get ahead. Literally, cease! Regroup. Recharge. Give your mouth a break from idle words. Meditate on the beauty of the Lord. Give over to Him all that makes you strive, signifying a release of all our own man-made goodness and accomplishment. This shows we trust our Provider and that we put Him above our abilities, our reputation, and anything we could build for ourselves. Resting shows that who we are comes from the work of Jesus, not us, and that the world will go on without us. It’s more than sacrifice, it is a practice of humility. 

•Know He alone is God. Regardless of past hurts or fears, He is on the throne. He is sovereign. His Word is true. He alone is God, meaning we are not…that takes the load off responsibilities that were never ours in the first place. 

Lord,

We are a tribe that longs to know You and look more like You, our Leader, our Author, our Father. But we are in an atmosphere that makes it feel so complicated as we parent, work long hours, pay for things, and deal with things that don’t seem to matter much in the Kingdom! Show us how to live here, as Yours.

Amen.

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Belonging & Behavior, Part 1

It has always been a dream of mine to write and publish a book, and last week, I crossed the finish line of that idea; thank You, Jesus! I had been working off and on for four years to write a book about how adoptive families connect, based on our experience and what we learned – both before our adoptions, and during the “hot mess” years! Ultimately, we learned a lot that paralleled the love of Father God and His invitation into the Family!

Lately I have been reading Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a prophet, whom God called to do many crazy things to show the Israelites who He was and what He was after. When you read Ezekiel, you see that while God brings new and creative visual lessons to His people, the bottom line of all these lessons is the same. Yes, He was echoing through these books that the people were horrible, belligerent sinners. But why didn’t the sin of the Philistines or the Edomites cause Him the same grief? Because God’s priority was His family: “I want you to know that I am God, your God, and that you are a people, My people.” He was upset about their behavior, He called out certain actions – but He just kept saying in all of His decisions: “Then they will know I am God.” It reminds me of Ps. 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God…”

Again, and again, and again. In Isaiah, or Lamentations, or Exodus, or just about all the Samuels, Kings, and Chronicles, God is warning: I will punish you to bring you back to Me and teach you what you really need; I will make you see that I had a special position and place for you which was the best plan for you; I will make you sorry so that you will understand and never stray again! And eventually, He lets a great number of them die, be exiled, etc, never to return to their promised land because of their consistent choice to sin and not be His people. While He left a remnant, as He promised, His warnings did come to pass. 

And in all this, the thing that keeps standing out to me is that, in my opinion and from what I can see across the Word, God’s greatest desire was simply: “a people”. A people that belonged to Him. A people that were proud to be His. A people that reflected His heart and His ways. A people who enjoyed knowing that He was God and happy they did not have to be. A people at peace, knowing that while they lived in a foreign dark world, they had a secret identity and connection to the King of a much better and more important Kingdom.

And yet that was the one thing they did not do, the one thing they refused to be. The Jews rejected this belonging. 

In the New Testament, we see that Pharisees and Sadducees were finally some Jews that had their acts together. They weren’t going to hurt the reputation of their God! They weren’t going to get punishments like their ancestors had, no way! They finally had a grip on what God wanted out of them…or so they thought. Unfortunately, they had it backwards! It was a different version of the story, but still sin and still separation from God. They couldn’t care less if they belonged to God; they really just belonged to their law books, their religion, and their self-righteousness. They had their act, and I believe they believed it was enough, I really do. But they were missing the fact that God wanted their behavior to flow from their joy of belonging to Him – in humble awe calling Him their God, in humble awe praising Him for saving them because they couldn’t possibly be near Him without mercy, and in humble awe obeying Him through serving others. This is not what the leaders in Jesus’ time on earth lived like. That’s why He judged them more harshly than the drunks and the prostitutes.

The religious leaders rewrote the story of what God wanted from them…or at least they tried to.

We make things complicated sometimes.

The question to be asking is, truly, am I thinking and living and enjoying Him…like a child of God, beloved and secure?

Lord,

Help us recognize the value, the priceless value, of belonging to You, of being Yours! Lord, the gift and the beauty of this…Thank You.

amen.

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Saying Hello

It is always hard to say goodbye to an era, to a season you were highly invested in. There’s a loss and it deserves time, and I believe time is healing. But time itself is not enough…

How do we move on, really, in wholeness and peace and new motivation?

For me, the loss is relatively quite small. It’s the end of my homeschooling era. It’s the end of my “family years” with Selah. It’s entering mid-life, leaving behind the skin and body (and sometimes brain) of a younger me.

Others have more grievous losses, like the death of a child, a major job transition, or a health scare or long term disability.

We know in our heightened focus on mental and emotional health that we can’t shove all this down. We can’t just keep busy until we forget. We can’t self-medicate with idols like overeating and numbing out.

We have to make room for it.

Some ideas for that are to write in a lament journal, just taking time to write when the sadness or confusion hits; prayers written to God who does grieve with us. Sometimes we need to take time off to caress our senses with beauty outdoors, friendships, and things we enjoy- as opposed to bingeing Netflix and ice cream. Sometimes we need to talk with someone regularly who will ask questions to make our minds wake up and sweep out the places we don’t want to go inside, finding fears and core beliefs that drive our thoughts, then feelings, then words and actions.

Healing, letting go, and moving on is an actual journey…a process…and like any good journey or process, there is an end. We are created to be resilient and heal! Skin, neural pathways, feelings- they don’t stay the same. When damaged, they can be renewed. Our hearts, our hurts, our disappointments, our memories can also be renewed and restored through the power and healing of Jesus. He can do it anyway He chooses- in an instant, or through a long journey. But just like Joseph, we can know that the timing has purpose. It is making us, molding us, and we can willingly go with that current or never see that God is there driving a current at all.

So the key is surrender. The key is surrender to an awareness of a bigger picture, of a great big God, of others in need, and of the short time we have here to run in the path He has for us. The key is surrendering not only to God’s work in our story, but surrendering to being a part of His story.

When we left Selah at college, knowing I was entrusting her to God like never before, there was this moment in worship where the lyrics were:

“Oh Christ be magnified~on the altar of my life~oh Christ be magnified in me.”

And I realized, my life being laid down—my surrender—day by day as a parent, and in the other ways I try to trust and obey Him, is for no other reason than to be a willing part of His story.

So, now it’s time to say hello not to the next chapter in my life or my family’s life, but to the page of the seemingly unseen story my life is a part of. Do I have choices, do I have feelings? Yes and yes! But I choose to get excited about His story over mine. The memory of Lyndsay Taylor on the earth will at some point be long gone; but what Jesus did through my simple, transparent, messy life surrendered to Him will actually remain!

I’m going to close with this thought. When we pray for God’s will to be done in our lives, what is our motivation? Is it to see a life that at the end we can say we “did right”; are we praying this in hopes of it all going fairly well?

Or do we pray “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” to surrender to our smallness, praying that the reality of our lives – whatever He allows – will make a clear way for others to see Him?

God ~ You areJehovah Rapha, Healer ~ You are Jehovah Jireh, Provider ~ please bring joy into our processes and pain, as we surrender them to Your purposes, for Your glory and Kingdom plans in the world!
Amen.

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Saying Goodbye

They said not to blink, so I didn’t.

But still, off she goes.

I am all feelings… because I know something wonderful is over. Yes. Something new is beginning and it is going to be wonderful, too. But still, something beautiful is over and that deserves a moment or two or a million.

I am learning to feel my feelings…and rather than shun the annoying fact that I am human, follow it, allow it, a little.

So what beautiful, wonderful something is actually over? What is so hard to say goodbye to? Let me go way back…

Carrying her and feeling her kick my ribs. I’ll never forget! Pushing her in the cart at the grocery. Snuggling and reading. Her enthusiasm when meeting new people and doing new things. Her dresses and hair bows. Homeschool mornings. Worship time.

Then middle school years. The purple bedroom. The books she wrote, the songs she wrote, sang, and played on the piano. Making friends and even struggling with friends, the hard conversations. Beach vacations. The way she memorized movie lines and made us laugh.

High school ~ I guess this is when I began to start feeling the first stabs of loss. I was sad that so many hard things were happening to her. It was not all bad, but the simple times were over. Health problems and diagnoses a long time coming. Managing appointments and meds. Some hard relationships and discoveries. Also, there were special memories like sharing things with her younger sisters, learning to drive, taking college classes. Watching her start a crochet business. Seeing her pick a college. Dating. Prom. Graduation. One last summer.

Now I am parenting an adult child. And I don’t know how much will change, but I’ve spent a long time trying to get ready for whatever this all means. Tomorrow we take her to college and drop her off, and a new beginning happens for both of us. It’s just sad because my new beginning doesn’t include her as a forefront figure…but it did for more than 18 years. I have new assignments now, and my assignment to her is there but different.

It is brave to love and give to our kids. Praise the Lord for His bravery and strength He supplied in the days that turned somehow to years. We made it! That is something beautiful and wonderful. (And encouraging, because I have three more to raise! Also encouraging because all I did was pray and do my best, and I’m choosing to believe that was enough. Whew, that could be another blog entry…or book.)

It is also brave to let go and move on. I choose to praise Him for His bravery and strength He will give in these days where things are different and maybe even painful. We will make it through the transition! Mommas in the same shoes, I’m talking to the both of us! We will make it through this, too!

I think we just get used to running the race and giving our all; when the scenery changes, when the track changes, we have to be able to move forward into a new scene.

But there are no shoelaces tied up for me just yet.

I didn’t blink then and I’m not going to blink now. I’m here. Tears and all. Fully here because this wonderful beautiful gift deserves nothing less.

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Time With The Word

When we dwell on a word or phrase from the Word of God, the Bible, we are sitting with God because He is the Word. (John 1)

I just want to soak in that for a moment!

In that time with the Word, we are with a Person, THE Person, who wrote it.

It goes from being an instruction manual to a one-on-one coaching, teaching, encouraging, convicting, loving us to pieces session.

Because in that time with the Word, we are transformed by the renewing of our minds (Heb. 12), and we need that, since life is such a mental game.

Everything we care about in life requires us to have a strong mental component!

-to start

-to maintain

-to take breaks

-to get back up again

-to finish well

This is life, and there are so many pieces of the whole that we try our best to keep functional day in and day out. It’s actually pretty exhausting and I can get really discouraged, if not bored even sometimes.

But God has provided a way to keep our mental game strong, and to revive it when it’s lacking. (Not if, but when!)

That Way is the Word.

I love prayer and worship and fellowship, and if they are full of His Word, they’re going to be more powerful than ever – but the key here does have to be His Word. Why? Because:

His Word is where the power is.

His Word is alive, active, sharp, and effective.

It’s interactive without batteries or internet!

It’s speaking…now.

It’s God’s voice and all of His sides, all there, wrapped in perfection, poised to reach out and in.

When it comes to the mental games, we aren’t here in this world alone; He wants us to win and has provided Himself, through His Word, as the Way.

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Summer

Let’s start back into Writing Wednesdays with a big reality check!

My idea of a summer series about the different branches of health simply did not happen even though I outlined several blogs at the beginning. I thought I would have a time to get back here and at least schedule some out, but nope! And it has been a GREAT summer, truly.

Here’s what DID happen:

My book, Belonging & Behavior: 12 Weeks of Connection Training for Adoptive Parents, got put into high gear with a wonderful design/artist friend who is formatting the book. Now, thanks to her, we should have a book available on Amazon in September. This book is all about connection as well as correction, with five chapters of information/education/our story about what TBRI (Trust Based Relational Intervention) is. Then the second part of the book, which is the largest portion, is 12 weeks of:

-1 Bible Study Lesson for the parent per week

-3 Student Devos per week that could be done together or assigned to the student, depending on their age

-1 “Connection Time” Activity to do per week, with many to choose from

There is a packet of beautiful worksheets, again thanks to the designer I hired – happy to share her info if you love it! – that can be downloaded and printed off right here from my website and put in a binder for each child. You can print off as many as you’d like, and having those student binders made ahead of time will set you up for the best success along the 12 weeks.

Also, this summer, I ordered more Sister Bridge items and already sold about half of my merch, so it’s time to order more! I have beautiful handmade mugs, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, purses of all kinds, zipper pouches, and backpacks. Soon I will also have ornaments and Christmas-related items and would love to bring the shop to your house or women’s meeting for a party this fall!

Sister Bridge is a ministry I started over 10 years ago, and now that I have a home office/studio for lessons and coaching, I have a little international gift shop right here, open by appointment! I have items from Haiti (Papillon Marketplace), Ethiopia, and Swaziland (Timbali Crafts) right now, but I am open to carrying more from different countries and ministries. I am not making any income from this, but the “profit” is being put in a fund for my trips to Ethiopia to minister with Embracing Hope Ethiopia, which is very dear to my heart.

Our family had many birthday grill-outs, movie and pizza nights, and time to chill. My summer flowers are beautiful…the tiger lilies were my favorite but as soon as they left, the naked ladies (I know) popped up and took their place in the spotlight. I’m thinking about learning how to compost and get better soil for next summer. We lost two trees which has made some sunny spots and I’m contemplating a garden??!! Am I crazy?

Oh, one more thing, my dear friend Heather and I are almost done with our Life Coaching (and fully done with our Mental Health Coaching) Certification, and we will have the fun of being in a graduation ceremony in Nashville this September, complete with cap and gown. I’m so proud of us! It’s been a wonderful experience, and we both are busy already using what we are learning.

Thanks for this opportunity to just sum it all up and start back fresh into this semester of Writing Wednesdays! I am READY!

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Summer Series on Shalom: Peace with Yourself

Here are a few thoughts on developing an awareness of what you are feeling, thinking, saying to yourself, and eventually doing. I am a firm believer that everyone lives by their inner drive, and that inner drive is made up of their priorities and motivations. That is one of the reasons why people see things so very differently. Some people wake up thinking they are already behind and must go out and achieve, while others wake up thinking about how they can get the least amount of work in for the day! That’s a silly example, but what we tell ourselves (or what we are unknowingly listening to from others) is a huge part of how we end up living. Here are just a few pieces of how to grow in shalom with your own emotional and mental self.

First, feel your feelings and make space and time for them. Acknowledge the ones you are shoving down. Talk and pray and journal about them, and ask for help when needed! Guilt, anger, fear, sadness, joy, excitement-all of these are telling you something. Don’t be afraid. Through accessing your feelings, you are taking care of yourself and helping yourself move on. It’s the resistance to this that keeps you stuck. Keep a short record of wrongs and work through all negative feelings in an appropriate way.

Do you know what you felt today? Did you shove anything down that may need to be worked through?

Second, do something you want to do that is fun or relaxing, every day. If 15 minutes is all you can do, plan it and do it. Recommended: 2 hours! Have one hobby or thing in your life that is just your’s. Cultivate it and know it is a gift from God.

Do you have at least one thing that you love to do that doesn’t cost much money and can be worked into your schedule regularly? You are free to do that! Accept that freedom, brother or sister!

Thirdly, spend time outside every day at a minimum of 15 minutes! Feel the ground under your feet, get some sunshine if possible, and breathe. Take a walk, or go inside or on your back porch for some yoga. When I say yoga, I mean stretching, breathing, holding poses, etc. The kind of yoga I do is not a religious experience. Yoga in itself is not a religious thing. Yoga predates any Eastern religions and when it was brought over to the United States, it was brought over as Hatha Yoga which was not a religious form. To me, it’s a lot like music. Depending on what the artist is saying, it can take you somewhere you should go and truly be from God, or it can take you somewhere you shouldn’t go and not be from God. In my years of experience, I have never felt in my spirit that I was being led away from God, but rather toward Him as I let my heart be still and know that He is God, Lord over all my worries, and Giver of the life that I must learn how to calm, manage, and worship Him with.

Do you have some kind of exercise that makes you feel more alive? Are you glorifying God with how you take care of your body?

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Summer Series on Shalom: Week One

To celebrate the opening of my small in-home ministry called The Shalom Studio, this summer I am doing a short weekly series on SHALOM (peace, wholeness) in all the main areas of our lives. I hope it is helpful to someone out there who likes a lot of freedom but also wants a checklist, too. (That’s 100% my style, for sure!)

First of all, we need shalom with God. Let’s not let it be complicated. Here are three basics of having shalom with God, beyond accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior and giving your life to Him!

Be in the Word every single day, preferably doing a plan where you will know what to read, study, work on, daily. A great idea is The Bible Recap which is a chronological reading plan with any version you like, and then an 9 minute podcast that helps you understand it. I love TBR. Whatever you have been taught about “a quiet time”, any guilt you feel over that concept, remember God is not in a box. He is wanting to fill our minds and spirits with the best Life, through His Word. Things will still be hard, but we will have purpose, strength, and peace.

The main question is: Are you daily digesting and opening your heart to God’s Word?

Secondly, keep a gratitude journal and at least once a week (if not daily) jot down a few blessings you noticed. Begin to seek beauty and feel amazed again at God’s perfect timing, friends, and even the mundane parts of your schedule.

Are you living out Philippians 4:6-7 that says to present your requests to God with thanksgiving?


Thirdly, be in weekly community with other believers. The components of this should always include honest sharing, accountability, prayer together, meeting needs, serving, God’s Word, and fun!

Do you do these things alone? Do you always worship and sing to God alone? Do you understand and comprehend God’s Word alone? That used to be my tendency but I was missing out. Let’s not be afraid to risk differences of opinion or personalities. The Body of Christ is a huge part of relating to God and having shalom with Him.