Daily KIP:  Focus on patience and not "reacting". Sometimes our first instinct is to assume/judge a situation. Today be patient with in ALL your interactions (kids, co-workers, friends, service people, family) this truly is an act of kindness and others around you will appreciate it.

Our Life is a Message.

This statement hit me hard, REALLY hard.  I thought to myself, my life a message?  WOW, if my life is a message, what message am I sending with my life?  And who am I sending a message to?  I really need to look closely at this and I’m thinking it’s NOT going to look pretty.  Here we go…….

What is a message?  I leave voice mail messages several times a day and little messages to people via email, text, or a little note/message for my son in his daily planner for school, “have a GREAT day, I love you!  Love, Mom”, but I’m thinking that a life message is different.

I had to look this one up in a dictionary – I am grateful for the one (dictionary) I downloaded on my itouch, it made it simple for me to get the definition quickly.  Here’s what it said:

Message 1. A communication (usually brief) that is written or spoken or signaled.  Semantic Words:  content, subject matter, substance

Usually brief.  A communication written, spoken, signaled – USUALLY BRIEF?  If the messages are usually brief, this doesn’t give me much wiggle room to screw up as I interact with people in my daily interactions; I screw up ALL the time!!  What if I’m having a bad day? What if I’m grumpy?  I can pretty much guarantee my life message has looked pretty nasty to some people.  God forgive me.

I’ve got only a brief moment to show my life message.  I like this; but I don’t because I’m already feeling sick to my stomach thinking about the many “icky” messages I’ve sent with the way that I’ve lived my life in the past.  A lot of these messages were unspoken, shown by my actions and how I lived.  Yeah, I’ve sent some pretty horrible messages….Gross, I am NOT proud!

Who am I?  What’s MY content?  Subject matter? Substance?  I’ve been struggling with these questions for several years now…….what’s my purpose?

I know my life message is different today than it was a year ago and I pray that as I continue to grow my purpose becomes clearer.  I am challenged by the statement, our life is a message, and I want to keep this in the forefront of my mind.  Unfortunately I cannot go back and change many of the bad messages that I’ve “displayed”, I can only choose today to display a better message.   I desire that my life message will bear the fruits of the spirit:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

I am grateful that His mercies are new every morning and pray that, for today, my life message will be fruitful.

Christmas Traditions

Traditionally the Saturday after Thanksgiving is the day my family ventures off to cut down a Christmas tree. So... yesterday was the day! We packed the family up with our $3 dollar off coupon and away we went. I had visions in my head of what a wonderful experience this would be- family time, memories, traditions, hot cider and santa! 20 minutes into the trip, we were lost, in the middle of the country. Good thing for the iphone google maps application. I guess. We eventually found our way into the Hampton Hills tree farm, grabbed our saw, and drove out to the balsam portion of the farm. We piled out of the truck, Doug, Owen, Gracie, myself and Murphy, our naughty little dog. I had our camera in hand ready to capture the 'moment'. A few steps into the field, our boots became caked with mud- Murphy's paws were black, and he became tangled in some prickly vine like thing. We walked for what seemed like a mile, and found nothing but Charlie Brown looking trees. Gracie (you'll start to sense a theme here...) starts to scream that she's tired and wants to be carried. Tears start flowing, and after what seemed to me like a complete meltdown, we found ourself in the pre-cut section of the farm. Picked out a BEAUTIFUL, tall 11 foot or so frasier. Tied it to the top of the truck, and away we went.

Not exactly how I had pictured 'the moment'. In the end, we got our tree, and I have to say it is the most beautiful tree we've ever had! I'm laughing now, but at the time I was disappointed. Often in life I have expectations of how something should look/feel/be. I get caught up in these expectations and find myself disappointed when things don't go according to MY plan. This experience reminds me that real life doesn't follow my script, and I'm NOT the director! I should simply enjoy the moment. Even if it is in the middle of a muddy field with a screaming 4 year old refusing to walk any further!

Wishing you MEMORIES, whether they be funny, madening, or heart-warming in your Christmas traditions.

Daily KIP:  Call your grandparent or other elder who might be lonely this holiday weekend. This can be a difficult time of year for many.  Engage, ask questions, get them talking, let them know you're thinking of them.........YOU will brighten their day!

Daily KIP:  Compliment someone on their children TODAY.  If you are out and about and you see a woman and/or a man with their children LOOK for a way that you can share a compliment on how cute, well behaved, helpful, respectful they are, etc.  If you’re not out and about, pick up the phone and make a specific call to someone to give them this compliment.  Everyone LOVES getting compliment on their children.

Daily KIP:  Its BLACK Friday.......brighten someone's day with your SMILE!  Whether your working, shopping, or simply seeing others today focus on smiling at those you make eye contact with - REALLY smile!! How does that make you feel? You WILL impact someone's day with your smile!!  We would love to hear your experience......

Go, move, decide, do SOMETHING!

I often ask myself, “Why is it so difficult for me to___________________?”  Here are just a FEW things that I’ve used to fill in the blank: exercise, have more patience, be a better listener, not judge others, forgive, pray, organize the junk drawer in my kitchen, accomplish the things on my list, simply make a to do list!  I could ramble on for quite some time naming the difficulties I have but the one that has been hitting me like a ton of bricks recently is………give up control.

I’ve been doing A LOT of soul searching, reading books, and praying to find the answer and it FINALLY came to me.  The answer is Fear.  It’s that simple……….It is difficult for me to give up control in EVERY area of my life because I FEAR the unknown.  I’ve been fooling myself for years thinking that I had all the answers and that if I could just maintain control in EVERY situation and relationship it would be best for everyone involved.  Seriously, I thought that…….silly me!!

How was that working for me? NOT VERY WELL!!  I was miserable.  My life was out of control.  The very thing that I thought I was controlling was OUT OF CONTROL!  I crumbled, I was defeated, I couldn’t do it anymore, I hit rock bottom (that experience I will share in another blog).

As I look back to that time just a short six months ago, I am grateful.  I’ve embraced the experiences in my past and have chosen to find the good in the bad.  But, now what?  Changes needed to be made or I would end up right back where I was……miserable. 

I thank God for putting people in my life who speak truth to me and kick me in the butt to tell me what I NEED to hear not what I want to hear.  It wasn’t enough for me to just be grateful, embrace my past, find good from the bad, etc.  I needed to do something about it.  I needed to take action – UGH!!!  Taking action may be one of the most difficult things to do sometimes.  It’s easy to talk about it but to actually do it IS WORK.  What I’m realizing is that if I am NOT taking action I’m either getting “stale” or falling backwards and I do NOT want to go backwards and to me stale stinks!

So, baby steps…………to give up control.  Remember this is just one of my difficulties/challenges/character defects – but you gotta start somewhere, right?  I’m taking baby steps to give up control and trusting God with my life.  He goes before me and paves the way; I want His plan to be my plan.  I want to grow NOT be stale, this is the desire of my heart.  The daily challenge for me is I want to take my control back, out of fear!  My simple prayer is this, God your will be done, not mine.  I’m saying this little prayer no less than 100 times some days and He is piece by piece showing me his plan and I LIKE IT!!!

I truly believe that one piece to the puzzle is Keeping it Personal.  God woke me one morning at 3:00 a.m. with the Who are we….on my heart.  I couldn’t go back to sleep until I had it all typed up and saved on my computer.  A month later were taking action.  We’ve decided to go, move forward, and like my husband often says to me, “do something!” As we start this journey down a path that is unknown to us we are trusting God to pave the way.  With keeping it personal we want to be a blessing and make a difference in the lives of others by sharing our experiences – which in turn blesses us.  That’s what we know right now. 

Leah and I want to encourage you connect with us with your comments, feedback, and suggestions; we WANT to hear from YOU!!  We are going to do our best to provide you with a daily KIP; this is a suggestion/idea on ways to keep it personal in your interactions with others, via our blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

So much to be thankful for………Happy Thanksgiving!

Take it down a notch!!!

I grew up in a rural farming town of about 1200 in central MN. Life was simple then. People took the time to stop each other on the street and visit. Have coffee. Make cookies. Life wasn’t as rushed as it is now. In my opinion, there was a lot more focus on relationship. Relationships with children, spouses, friends, neighbors, teachers, pastors, bankers… Kids weren’t running from this activity to that sporting event- or at least not as often as they are now. Families sat down and had dinner together at night. I suppose because the work day predictably ended at 5pm (at least it did in my parent’s home). There weren’t fast food restaurants to run to, or pizza delivery options to choose from.

I remember my mom getting together on a regular basis with other women and their children for 'coffee'. This 'coffee' group I suspect, was really a group of amazing women getting together to talk about parenting, marriage, life experiences both good and bad. They shared each others joys and sorrows. They were a built in support group for each other and never hesitated to pray for one another. If my memory serves me correct, these were all stay at home moms, who in order to stay connected with each other, made an effort to get together in each other's living rooms and talk. Even if it was about a new recipe they found, or a new quilting pattern they were going to try. In fact, this 'coffee' group continues to this day, in a more limited fashion. They are still getting together throwing bridal showers, baby showers and attending weddings for the children who were carted along to these coffee groups. (We enjoyed it by the way!)

For me, Keeping It Personal is about bringing to my life a deliberate effort to do just that. Keep it Personal. I don’t expect it to mirror my description above, as life is different now. In fact, I am sure it wasn’t as ‘simple’ as my memory would have me believe. But there are changes I can make, which I think will ultimately impact my children, my marriage, my relationship with God, and others. I was talking to Teri earlier tonight, and told her this. I have no real idea what this blog is going to turn into. Seriously, I don’t think I even knew what a blog was a year ago! I feel like we have a blank canvas in front of us. We have given much thought and prayer into KIP, and don’t feel like either of us has a clear picture of what this final work of art will look like. We want to take this opportunity to be real, to share from our own experiences, to learn from others’ experiences, and to inspire people to take it back a notch. Occasionally step out of the high tech, fast paced world we live in, and into the 'living rooms' of our friends both old and new.... and keep it personal. Kind of ironic that we chose a blog to carry out that message, right?

There is a bit of anxiety on my part about putting this blog out there for everyone to see. A vulnerability. I just pray that God-willing, we will encourage each other, and those who choose to follow us to keep it real, by keeping it personal.

Daily KIP:  Walk off Turkey dinner with someone special and just be.....LISTEN to what they say and look for ways to encourage them and lift them up!

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