Deja Vu

In life's experience, I've often lived moments seemingly familiar to my spirit; a Deja Vu, if you will. And if for a few friends reading this rambling the following feels like one of those times, it is because you actually have been there before - this being one of my previous writings composed in the context of a Spirit-based newsletter for women, a small slice of which I now serve up. I can only hope the offering will prove more inspiring than indulgent. You see, I personally need the reflective reminder!

The Pursuit of Happiness . . .

Perhaps like yourself, my most vivid and optimistic vision of self is that every day I will perform life's calling with great passion, laced with enormous amounts of righteousness and endless reservoirs of celestial joy. I find, however, that many of my days will often journey somewhere between challenging and more challenging, with spurts of okay and erratic pulses of pleasant.

In fact, some mornings I jump start the day with only a modicum of dignity and determination, barely enough to declare that I'm alive and kicking - hopefully not against "the pricks"...as the scriptures so prudently advise me against such unproductive, unholy antics.

"Be still," the familiar voice whispers. And while so doing, in the midst of contemplating perceived inadequacies on my part, peace pours into my stormy heart and saturates it with the solace of heaven in the form of an utterly transforming personal revelation: We can realize the dream of our divinity only as we first embrace our humanity, created and blessed by Heavenly Father to a grand and holy purpose.

In other words definitively expressed by Erwin Lutzer, "Everything that God brings into our lives is directed to one purpose: that we might be conformed to the image of Christ." Woman, like man, was created that she might have joy. And our presumptive joy is forever defined in Christ's love for us, as we now are, and as we may patiently become!

~~~ Simply Me, Barbara M. Childress

Aahhh... Friday!

Go ahead, say the word. F-r-i-d-a-y! The sound and sigh of it evokes ethereal breath from within the deepest recess of our being, carrying us to an infinite array of imagined possibilities. It is the promised bridge to hours of heightened awareness and a banquet of delicious discretionary time. A time, the weekend, in which we can feast upon the special moments - walking in the park, losing ourselves in a good book, basking on the beach, sharing entertainment with friends, laughing with loved ones - ideally uninterrupted by hurry and go. We all look forward to its relaxed relevance for restoration of body and spirit. And yet some of us will steal the blessing away with a To Do List long enough to pave a road to hell. Don't do it! Discretion, O Best Beloved, is the better part of valor. Yes, some things will demand tending even so. So, tenderly we go and do, kind to ourselves along the way. Because, you see, it's Friday!

~~~ Simply Me, Barbara M. Childress