Life Words

Phillipians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

simple. authentic. content. humble. giving. open. approachable. compassionate. uncluttered. peaceful. joyful.

These are my Life Words. Life Words are my motto of sorts. They are words I try to focus on for whatever I’m doing whether it be chores, parenting, housekeeping, or relationships. They help remind me what my goals are in regards to these areas of my life.

I’m starting to see the whole attraction to this living simple thing I keep seeing in the blogosphere.

Living simply. Not simply living.

See the difference? Simply living connotes just getting by. Barely living. Just making do. That’s not how Christians should live.

I want to live simply so I can live abundantly. Visual clutter equals mental clutter. When I’m overwhelmed by all my possessions and things and the work that goes into keeping those things in order I get stressed and it steals my joy. Which is the opposite of peaceful and content.

Am I being authentic and open in my relationships? I don’t like to show my flaws. I hate making mistakes. But, who am I kidding? Everyone else knows I’m not perfect! So why do I keep trying to act as if I am? Admitting ones flaws helps keep you open and humble.( Wow, it hurt my fingers to write that!!)

And guess what? If you decide to spontaneously stop by my house one day you’ll find out I’M NOT THE WORLD’S BEST HOUSEKEEPER! There, it’s out there! My house overwhelms me at times. I lose control of it. If you tell me a date ahead of time that you’ll be visiting I”ll rush around, stressed and in a craze trying to make everything perfect for your visit. But, as hard as I try, a few days after our visit is over we’re back to the real house I live in. I don’t really enjoy making everything from scratch. Although I really wanted to be able to do that. It’ s just not me. I tried it for awhile. And you know what? It caused me stress. I’m not crafty. I can’t whip up my girls costumes, thereby saving us a lot of money. I wish I could say that I sit down every day with my girls and spend a lot of hands on time with them doing all sorts of educational things. I don’t. I would like to but I’ve been too busy trying to manage my house. Sometimes I feel like I’m running in one of those hamster wheels and I’m going in circles, doing the same stuff but nothing is really getting done. Isn’t that the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result each time.

Enter living simply. When my life is not cluttered with unnecessary stuff (excessive amount of things, worry, constant rush, stress etc) I can now be more approachable, joyful and open. When I’m stressed and busy, busy I’m less compassionate and less giving of myself.

When I get to Heaven God is not going to accept this from me- ” Lord, I know I didn’t put myself out there as much as I should have. I’m sorry for all the opportunities that passed me by while I was dusting. But hey, I finally found the perfect cleaner for my hard-to-clean tub and it looked fantastic right before You called me home.”

So, I’m changing things around here.

What are your Life Words? Do you have a “motto” that you live by?

Comments

http://lidandthekids.blogspot.com Lydia

Awesome! Love this! I’ve actually been in the process of writing a blog along these lines. Just never get a chance to actually finish it. haha But I hope to. At least before the Lord calls me home. And I’m trying to change one of my Life Words to “Yes”. Not all the time, just some times. I’m too quick to say NO to a lot of things: new friendships, fellowship with people I’m not real close to, etc. It’s a huge struggle for me. I completely can relate to the paragraph you wrote about authenticity. This goes along with my reason to say no a lot. I don’t want people to know the real me. It’s too hard to be “real” with people. Because *gasp* they might decide they don’t like the real me. And that would be a tough pill to swallow. Thanks for this!!
Christina

That’s really awesome, Mel! Thank you for sharing! I’ve been trying more and more (especially lately) to REALLY put my life’s path in God’s hands. I tend to want to fix everything, and expect that I can make all my earthly hopes and dreams to come to fruition. I need to remember that I am the Lord’s, and His plans are FAR better than any I could possibly come up with.

So my motto is: Let go, and let God. I know it’s super-simple, but there’s a lot of weight in it. For instance… I really wanted to have children. This past summer I cried all the time about it. But when I finally “gave in,” and told God that I would listen to whatever HE wanted for my life. The peace and joy that He’s given me now on that subject in particular just leaves me speechless. He knows our hearts, and He heals our hearts, if only we let Him…
mom

Enjoyed your blog as usual! Very good insight:) Couldn’t had said it better myself.0.
http://www.perrymanponderings.blogspot.com Stephanie Perryman

Great post! I’m going to have to give my motto some thought. I would really like to actually have on and then live by it, or at least move my life in that direction! I may use some of your Life Words too! They are a lot of what I’m wanting to do with my life right now. Thanks for the great post!
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