Little Messages

The school year is done! It's always so busy in the last few weeks as we close another year in our ministry to Keyser School ~ we wrap up tutoring, we get ready for events like Bingo Math Night and Field Day. It's fast. It's furious. It's bittersweet as we say goodbye to kids and teachers for the summer, yet are ready for a change in pace...for a little while. I love slowing down in the summer. This summer I plan to take time to dig into the conference material from the When Leaders Lose Heart conference, read some of Terry Wardle's books, do some art journaling and look into the things that lie beneath this pattern of burn-out I regularly experience. I'm starting my summer journey next week with a two day personal retreat.

This quote from Terry Wardle seems to sum up well the journey that needs to take place to position myself for God's work of healing, restoration, and freedom.

"The journey forward to our true self in Christ is a journey backward to the woundings that created our false self."

So, one of my messages to myself this summer will be, "say yest to the journey". 

Our exercise for One Little Word 2013 in May was to listen to the voices around us that are repeated and document these little messages in our journal. For me, this exercise fit in well with books I've been reading and with what I heard at the conference.

In her instructions for this month's exercise Ali Edwards said about the messages we hear from life around us as well as that still small voice within us, "Have you ever noticed how sometimes it whispers and sometimes it shouts?" Well, the messages I've been hearing from friends, from books, from conferences, from God, have all been shouting. And repeating themselves!

My Little Messages:

From the conference/Terry Wardle:

• Say yes to the journey
• Focus on one area and build from there. (In other words, I don't have to tackle everything at once. Growth and healing will take place as I focus on one area and move on from there.)
• Hold fast to His promises (This message actually came to me out of the times of worship and music that started our days. The song "You Never Let Go" reminded me of how faithful God is.)

From books I'm reading:

• It's not about fixing, it's about letting go. (Ruth Haley Barton, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership)
• Live into your true self. (So many books I've read lately have talked about our true and false selves.)

The rest have been a part of my life and are reminders to myself:

• Be who you are (based on the book of Ephesians and especially Eph. 4:1 to live out of your identity that is found in Christ.)
• Live with intention
• Be still. Relax. Breathe. (i.e. Slow down and focus!)