Transitional Friday: Home is where Heart is

home where heart isFor years I was unhappy with where I was living.  I did not want to be there.  I was fighting a spiritual battle, between what I wanted and what God wanted for my life.

There were times when the situation weighted so heavily on my heart that it gnawed away at me and I became angry.

Then a few months ago, God opened amazing doors for a new job in a new city an hour away.

I realized during this time that the place I’d been fighting living, had become more of a home than I ever expected or anticipated.give thanks

Only once I had left, did I realize how much this town and place had become home.

Often we don’t realize how important a place or person is until they are gone.

We are told to be “thankful in all things.”

This isn’t always easy, especially in trying circumstance.  I’ve really struggled with this lesson at times.

However, that is exactly what God wants for us.

What have you been thankful in?

Transitional Friday: When God Answers Prayers






I’ve discussed discouragement and waiting for God, but eventually He will answer?

However, what happens once you finally have prayers answered?

I’ve had prayers answered that showed me this was not God’s will for my life and took me down a dark path.  I’ve also had prayers answered that only God could orchestrate and proved this was God’s will for my life.

God answeres prayers

  1. Thank God for answered prayers
  2. Ask God if this is His will for my life
  3. Understand the lessons God has been teaching along the path
  4. Praise God for His blessings and provision
  5. Remember that God likes to show off to show what He can do
  6. The lesson in the wait is Faith, but we can’t abandon it once our prayers are answered
  7. Sometimes we have to get out of the boat and take the first step in faith

Transitional Friday: Why Doesn’t God Answer My Prayer

God hearsFor years I waited, longing and struggling to change and improve my circumstances and situation.  After leaving an abusive relationship, the journey to heal and recover took years.

I wondered if I would ever find the person I’d lost along the path.

I longed to be able to stand on my own two feet and to find a way to do this, but nothing seemed to be working.

I wondered if God heard my cries and prayers!  Had He forsaken me!  Would my circumstances ever improve?

Don’t get me wrong, my circumstances weren’t awful and were a whole lot better than they had been in the abusive relationship.  I just wanted more to my life.  There are still things, such as a family, that only God knows if and when that prayer will be answered.

God reminded me:God answers

  1. His reasons are often beyond are grasp
  2. He hears all of our prayers, cries, and tears
  3. His way is better than my way
  4. He is preparing me for a future that only He knows
  5. His timing is not my timing
  6. Sometimes His answer is no or not right now
  7. It’s not all about me.  There are times we are where we are to help someone else.  One example is being a caregiver.

What have you learned in the wait?

Transitional Friday: 7 Lessons Learned from Discouragement








When discouraged, I have to remind myself that:discouragement quote

  1. This too shall pass
  2. God is preparing me for something better
  3. God has a better plan
  4. There is a reason for this
  6. I need to work off the depression
  7. My circumstances don’t identify me as a person

What has discouragement taught you?




    he will watch over your life;

the Lord will watch over your coming and goingcoming and going

both now and forevermore.


Creativity Thursday: 9 Steps to make your creative dreams a reality




    Dare to Dream and Reach for the Stars
    Dare to Dream and Reach for the Stars




Last week, we discussed how God will not let us fall

The Lord watches over you—

the Lord is your shade at your right hand;


the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.





I lift up my eyes to the mountains—I will Lift



where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.


Leave an answer:  Where do you look for help?

Creative Thursday: 9 Ways to Discover Your Creativity

I’ve often had people tell me, “I’m just not creative.”

Perhaps, that person isn’t a musician, dancer, artist or writer.  However, that person most likely still has some creative flair.  Often it’s just discovering what the passion is and taping into it.

I’ve seen these same people become excited about designing a room, throwing a party, or working on various crafts.  All of these are creative outlets.

So, how can you recognize your creative side?

  1. Passion—notice the things you are passionate about, such as designing a room, throwing a party, putting together an outfits, looking at floral arrangements, cooking, gardening, etc.

    Where is your passion? How do you experiment?
    Where is your passion? How do you experiment?
  2. Enjoyment—what are the things that you enjoy doing?  How can you experiment and put a creative flair to the hobby?
  3. Experiment—be willing to tap into the left side of your brain.  Step out of your comfort zone and experiment with a craft or hobby you’ve always wanted to learn.  What do you have to lose?  You may discover a new passion that was lying dormant.
  4. Unconscious Behavior—what are some things that you do unconsciously?  This could include singing in the shower or car, doodling in a meeting, dancing around your house to your favorite songs, acting out stories, telling yourself or your children stories you’ve made up, etc.  How could you take any of these behaviors to the next step and turn it into a hobby?
  5. Dreams—do you have a secret dream you are too afraid to admit?  This could be to perform on stage, be a speaker, appear in a film, show a piece of art in the studio, etc.  Ask yourself if you can realistically sing or create art, can you learn to and take baby steps to realistically reach your goal.
  6. Natural Talent—do you have a natural talent in an artistic field?  Be willing to take lessons and develop this talent, even if it’s for your own personal enjoyment.

    Give it a try and often the pieces will fall into place!
  7. Divine Inspiration—do ideas and thoughts come to you, or do you feel inspired?  Be willing to take a chance and act on this inspiration.  My first book came about the same way, I was inspired by a story, but thoughts “I can’t write that.”  A little voice told me, “you don’t know if you don’t try.” I discovered a talent I didn’t know I even had.
  8. Be Quiet—take time each day to just be quiet, without outside distractions such as the television, radio, children, etc.  Listen to your thoughts and discover what may come to your mind.  Sometimes it’s in those quiet moments that our most creative thoughts rise.
  9. Expose Yourself to Something New—step out of the comfort zone and try something new.  This can mean attending a museum, theater production, reading poetry, discovering a new author, listening to a different type of music, writing a letter, taking a nature walk and taking photographs, taking a walk, etc.


How have you tapped into your hidden creativity?


Caregiving Monday–7 Ways to Help Senior Adults Deal with Loneliness

Last week we discussed loneliness in senior adults.  This week I would like to explore suggestions on how to help senior adults deal with their loneliness.

Schedule regular outings if possible for your senior adult
Schedule regular outings if possible for your senior adult
  1. Visits—schedule regular visits with family, friends, church {or society/community} members, etc.   Ask friends to visit your senior adult on a regular visit, but remind them your loved one tire easily.  Ask them to not stay for more than an hour or two. If you have a large family nearby, maybe everyone could take a day each week for a short visit.
  2. Schedule outings—schedule regular outings for your loved one {if they are mobile and able to go}.   Find friends already going, ask a neighbor or search for a senior transport company for transportation.  This could be a community {especially if they are in a retirement community} outing, to church, to the theatre or movies, to concerts, or to other activities s/he enjoys.
  3. Senior Action—this is a great resource for senior adults with numerous activities and often you can arrange for transportation through your local senior action center.
  4. Adopt a Pet—if your senior adult loves pets, adopting a dog or cat might be a great idea for companionship.
  5. Music—lifts spirits and helps combat the loneliness.   Find or make CDs of his/her favorite songs that can be played.  Also, inquire at church or in the community about an individual/group that can come sing for your loved one {if homebound}.

    Pets are great companions for senior adults
    Pets are great companions for senior adults
  6. Discover a passion your senior adult loves and have them teach someone else—this could be a neighbor, grandchild, caregiver, etc.  However, it makes them feel useful and needed.  Along with the fact that they are doing something they love.  It doesn’t matter if it’s gardening, cooking, sewing, putting together puzzles, working on model cars, etc.  If your senior adult is physically unable to do the task themselves {not able to bend or stand for long periods} they could sit in a chair and give directions.
  7. Teach technology—if your senior adult is still mentally able, teach him/her how to Skype, email, text, etc.  this is a great way to maintain contact with children, grandchildren, siblings and friends.   If your loved one is mentally unable to understand the setup, possibly you or a caregiver could set things up for regular visits.  This is a great way to maintain contact for family members that do not live nearby.

Transitional Friday: 9 Ways to Bounce Back from Failure

Failure success



There are times when no matter how much we try, we continuously face failure.  There have been several areas of my life, where nothing I’ve tried has succeeded.  I continue to face one failure after another.  Over time, this is enough to make anyone grow weary, frustrated, overwhelmed and even defeated.

So how do you continue to move forward when nothing is working?

  1. Don’t Give Up—if you are pursuing a dream, never give up, no matter how much defeat and frustration you receive.  I’ve heard some writers say that they received thousands of rejections before receiving a break through.  I’ve heard artists say that they worked for twenty years before making it big.  However, they never gave up.
  2. Keep Bouncing Back—this is much like never giving up, work through the emotions and bounce back.Churchill quote
  3. Evaluate—often I’ve had to go back and evaluate what worked, what didn’t work, and the why for each one.  Then I figure out what I can do differently and how to move forward from there.
  4. Be Realistic—often it’s easy to reach for our dreams without being realistic.  You will not become a concert pianists, if you refuse to practice the piano.
  5. Set Goals—often I feel like a fish at sea, but when I set goals and see where I’m going and what needs to be done to get there, I make much better progress.
  6. Be Open to Change—sometimes we need to be open to change, whether this is going in a different direction, taking a different approach, learning a different technique, etc.
  7. Never Stop Learning—continue to read, study and follow the experts in your field of interest.  There is so much that we can learn from these experts, including not on the subject matter but also what to do and not do.
  8. Be Open to Feedback—be open to accepting constructive criticism from others.  Yes, there is the occasional person{s} that wants to pull you down, however most people want to help you.  One critique method is the oreo method.  This starts with a positive, then adds what needs to be changed and ends again with a positive.
  9. Prayer—pray, seek God’s will and be willing to go in the direction in which He is leading.

Remember, you are not alone.  There are numerous examples of people that have failed before success.

Walt Disney faced numerous hardships before reaching success
Walt Disney faced numerous hardships before reaching success
  • Henry Ford had 5 businesses go broke before Ford Motor Company became successful.
  • Walt Disney faced multiple occurrences of being fired, bankrupt and failed businesses before succeeding.
  • Thomas Edison had over 1,000 unsuccessful inventions before inventing the light bulb.
  • Winston Churchill lost almost every election before being voted Prime Minister at age 62.
  • Before making it big in I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball was considered a failed actress and B movie star.
  • Vincent Van Gogh is considered the greatest artists of his time, but only sold one painting in his life time.


How do you bounce back from failure?  Who else has inspired you?



Transitional Friday: 10 Questions to Ask if Our Choices Matter

life is all about choices







  1. How does this affect me now?choices
  2. How will this affect my future?
  3. Is this a want or a need?
  4. Does this have a life and death impact?
  5. Can I wait or postpone for a better future?
  7. What does The Bible say about this situation?
  8. What does my gut say?
  10. What does God say about this?


What mistakes have you made that you wish you could change

Transitional Friday: When Change isn’t your Idea




Sometimes life altering events, lead to positive change.

What other ways do you deal with change?



When Change isn’t your Idea

Techniques to deal with change 

Transitional Friday: When You’re Stuck and Can’t Break Free

stuckHave you ever been stuck? Do you feel that you’ll never be able to break free no matter how hard you try?  Do you try and try to change things, but nothing never seems to work?

If you are, congratulations, you’re not alone.  I’ve felt this way for years now.  No matter how hard I try I feel that I can’t move forward.  This frustrates and discourages me to no end.

I wish I could say that I never grow frustrated and discouraged, but continue to plunge full steam ahead.  Unfortunately there are days when life gets the better of me.

So what do I do:

  1. Pray and seek God’s will—the first thing I do is to pray, tell God how I feel, ask for his guidance and direction and read my Bible.  There are days when I feel such great peace, but I’ll be honest there are other days when I wonder if God hears me.
  2. Continue to put one foot in front of the other—each day I continue to put one foot in front of the other.  Some days this is easier than other days.  At times I feel that I’m doing things by rote and just going through the motions, but then I remind myself that this is better than the alternative of just giving up.  I believe in you
  3. Share my feelings—I don’t have a lot of close friends, but I do have one or two people that I can be honest and share my feelings with.  Sometimes they just listen and that’s all I need.  Other times they will pray for me or we will brainstorm what to do.
  4. Not give up—there are times when I do feel like giving up, but I eventually snap out of it. I continue to move forward with my dreams and plans and I continue to believe that I’ll eventually turn the corner and have a break through.
  5. Seek Encouragement—my friends are great to encourage me and lift me up.  Sometimes they will send me encouraging words, quotes, sayings and scriptures.  Other times they will pray for me and that always touches my soul. I struggle terribly with depression at times and I can’t tell you how lifting such encouragement is to my mood, soul and attitude.
  6. Creatively Express my feelings—there are many times when I cannot find the words to express my thoughts and feelings.  prayerHowever, I’ve discovered two outlets that allow me to do just this and I feel that I’m worshiping God at the same time.  For me that is to write or journal my feelings.  Sometimes I may even write God a letter.  The second is through music.  Whether playing the piano or singing, I unburden my heart to God and he knows the words even when I cannot find them.  I also had a friend that introduced me to art journaling, and although I’m not an artist, I found this to be most therapeutic. Experiment with various techniques and interest to find one that works for you.  You may discover that you enjoy dancing or another creative outlet.
  7. Pray—I know I began with this, but I do a lot of praying.  Sometimes I have to check my attitude to make sure that I’m seeking God’s will and not telling Him what to do.  I have a habit of that and will even tell Him when I’m angry at Him.  He wants us to be honest with Him, but He also wants us to humble ourselves before Him to seek His will.  Ouch!  That’s a tough one!



When You’re Stuck and Can’t Break Free

Breaking Out of the Hold Pattern

Waiting Through the Storm

12 Ways Not to Lose Hope



Here are 12 ways to keep hope alive:




hope quote