Tag: proverbs

Posted on by — Leave a comment

she builds her life on firm foundations

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Em Hazeldean, one of the lovely @secretsinthebay girls on a Rockingham Wild Three Island Tour.

Have you ever had a season when you felt like everything around you was crumbling?

I have.

That season was the most overwhelming time in my life. The funny thing is though, in the midst of the aftermath I realised that not everything had been taken away from me. What was left was my family, my faith and my closest friends. I found myself smiling, standing amongst this realisation, thinking I indeed was a very rich woman.

Just a few short months ago, my dear friends Aunty got the call that no one ever expects to get. She was called by her husband as he stood and watched their house burn to the ground. As my friend and her family searched through the wreckage of their home, they also had the most beautiful awakening moment. They realised although a million dollars worth of property and valuables had been lost, they still had these same things; Their family; everyone had survived the tragedy, they had their faith; which is now stronger than ever and they had the most beautiful sense of community as people gathered around them in their darkest moment.

At the end of the day, when all is lost, the only thing that remains is the foundation of what we have built our lives upon.

Would family, faith and friends be enough to sustain you if you lost everything?

What is of greatest value to you?

Your looks, personality, house, valuables?

What about your reputation, what others think of you or your online presence?

In the midst of tragedy or immense life change, none of these things will remain and when we build our lives around them, it is like building a mansion on top of shifting sands. The reason why builders require deep foundations of concrete, before any house is built, is because the weight of the life that is built can only withstand hardship and challenge, to the depth of its foundation. The higher the building, the deeper the foundations go.

If you thought of your life in terms of values, character or what is most important to you, how strong is your foundation?

If everything was taken away, what would you be left with?

A woman of wisdom builds her life around firm foundations. Values that are deeply ingrained in her character and life. Wherever she goes and whatever she does, she is congruent to the foundations that have been firmly dug in her life.

She values generosity.

She deeply appreciates and give precedence to her family.

She loves and pursues integrity.

These are the silent companions of wisdom that build strength in our lives.

Strength from a foundation that is firm, will always give us light and life to any path or season that comes our way.

Proverbs 4: 18

But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

Proverbs 11: 20

The Lord delights in those with integrity.

If you find yourself in a season where you feel as though you have lost everything, have a look around and see what your life was built upon.

The values that we build our lives upon are the things that will hold us and keep us in times of stretch and struggle.

These foundations are very different for a woman of wisdom, than what popular culture would tell us is important.

What is the very substance of your life?

Who and what do you live for?

What do you believe you were created to do on this earth?

These my friend are the very things that will be important when days of challenge come. When we build our life on silent values birthed from wisdom, no matter what tragedy may befall us, nothing can dig up the foundations of strength that remain.

To keep reading here is tomorrows post: She is patient in waiting

signature

Posted on by — 2 Comments

she faces her pain

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Shoalwater Bay, Western Australia

Honestly if I can get away with not feeling pain, I will go to great lengths to escape it.

My little lady had her immunisations today and I had to leave the room, I could not handle hearing her pain.

You see when I was a little girl I spent a lot of time in hospital sick, Needles, IV drips and doctors offices carry a resounding place of fear deep in the memories of my heart. I hate physical pain. The memories of the vulnerability still send shivers up my spine.

The thing about immunisations is though, they are designed to protect us from a whole heap more pain, if we get the diseases they are protecting us against.

A bit of pain now, to save a whole lot of sickness in the future.

I find that wisdom is like an immunisation for the soul.

When we seek it, it protects, guides and keeps us away from places that could possibly end in great danger for the future.

Wisdom is an intuitive knowledge, that helps us make decisions that stop us from going down paths, that will lead to unsafe places.

Despite the protective nature of wisdom we each have pain from past experiences that needs to be processed and let go of, to move brilliantly into our new chapters.

What about the pain that lingers deep in our souls, that we desperately try to keep submerged?

Just like this proverb 14: 13 talks about…

Laughter can conceal a heavy heart, but when the laughter ends, the grief remains.

We each carry around wounds and deep memories of pain that sometimes is just too hard to face.

“The marks humans leave are too often scars.”  John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

As hard as it is to face these places with care and in the right season, a woman of wisdom faces her pain.

She processes,

She asks for help,

She opens her heart to those who are safe,

She does not hide behind masks of confidence and pride, she finds a way to unpack the baggage that has tried so desperately to become her companion.

Proverbs 4: 20-22 encourages us to find ways to let go of the pain in our hearts and move forward into the future. Finding health for our whole being.

“My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body.”

Proverb 3: 1-3 encourages us to reform and heal our hearts with words of life and promise.

“My son, do not forget my teaching,
but keep my commands in your heart,
for they will prolong your life many years
and bring you peace and prosperity.

Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.”

Imagine if the health of our heart was a window into our soul. Just like this proverb describes, a tablet that our life is written upon.

Has pain kept your heart contained?

Is there deep conversations, that are waiting to be released?

Every one of us have seasons and dialogues of pain, the problem is not discovering or finding where the wound is. They often rear their little heads around every corner, the problem is finding safe and valuable ways to release them.

A woman of wisdom finds safe ways to face her pain.

She let’s the past go, she forgives and she releases.

My prayer across this whole month of writing has been that the time I am giving to researching the depths of life found in the book of proverbs would bring transformation.

The greatest gift we can give to our families is finding ways to let the past go and to live fully in our present.

Do you need to find a counsellor?

Is there a story inside your heart that you need to write and reframe?

Has forgiveness been slow to rise in your heart for a person who hurt you deeply?

Facing those places of pain with health and in the right season can be the greatest release into a new season of hope for you.

Let go of that which is holding you down my friend.

Step out into new and broader horizons.

To keep reading here is tomorrows post: she finds the rest she requires

signature

Posted on by — 2 Comments

she keeps things simple

she keeps things simple

Have you ever been in a situation with a friend and a little thought has gone through your mind, man she is making this way more complicated than it needs to be?

As women, we have the capacity to make very simple things extremely complex.

Relationally,

In our careers,

Our own sense of self worth and confidence.

I am realising the times that I become complex, are those times when I overthink things. My expectations are often the quickest ways I make my days full of disappointment and fear. Worry takes place of peace in my internal world and life just becomes heavy.

We live in a tiny two bedroom apartment, which means our nearly one year old and our three and a half year old share a little room. There are somedays, that I get very overwhelmed by our lack of storage but other day it propels me into a culling frenzy, that I never regret.

Every time I give something away, there is something so satisfying because my world becomes a little simpler. When I overthink it, when I become too nostalgic and I give stuff more power than people. It is then that my world starts to feel complex and overwhelming.

It is quite a practical side of wisdom, but I know the more I have, the more overwhelmed I feel. The less I have in my environment, the more peaceful I feel. Just the other day I was thinking, what if I just had two towels per person in my household?

What if each person only had three pairs of pants, three t-shirts, three jumpers?

What if we weren’t allowed to have more than three of everything?

Every time we simplify our surroundings, I have less washing, I have less to clean, I have less to pack away…

Life becomes simpler.

The external of our worlds mirrors the internal and a woman of wisdom knows this.

Proverb 4: 23

Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life.

A woman of wisdom takes stock of her thoughts and culls, cleans and measures their content.

Is life feeling complex lately?

Maybe a little spring clean and re-arranging of our worrying, thinking and pondering needs to occur.

This my friend is the call of wisdom.

Tomorrows post link can be found here: She is slow to anger

signature

Posted on by — Leave a comment

she is disruptive

disruptive

The word disruptive does not easily gel with wisdom, but the more I read proverbs and the stories of men and women of influence the more I am convinced that it takes a special kind of human to do something in the world that has never been done before.

We cannot fit into our culture without thinking and somehow believe that we are making a difference. A woman of wisdom, is a leader, she is a thinker, she is an agent of change and she is not defined by what other people say about her. The whole chapter of chapter 31 from the book of proverbs talks about a woman who completely disregards cultural norms and plays by her own rules.

This winter I have been working slowly through Lisa Messenger’s Daring and Disruptive playbook (it’s more like a workbook, than a traditional book) that compliments her book Daring and Disruptive. The more I think about her precepts on life and leadership, the more I am becoming convinced that somehow whether it be life, leadership, disappointments, loss, change of season or age, that I have become more cautious in the way that I have reached out and innovated my days.

I have always been a disruptor.

Whether it was in school, my dance class, in mass, at university and also bible college. There is something within me that is not content with comfortable. There is a little clock that ticks inside of me asking that I try something new.

I think sometimes we believe keeping the peace and being nice or pleasing those closest to us, is the wisest path of least resistance.

I am realising that this may make for a safe life, but it is not a satisfying one. If you are always suppressing the voice that has been given uniquely for you, in some way and some how, that voice will erupt.

I am not talking about outright rebellion, but a spirit that asks questions of why we are doing, what we have always done and then getting disappointed with the results. A leader that starts something because they are deeply moved with compassion. A woman who see’s a need and rather than turning her head and saying someone else will get too it, they pitch in and do something about it.

She sings on the bus, when everyone is facing the front desperately trying not to make eye contact.

She says hello to the homeless person, for no other reason than to value you their humanity and existence.

She dances on the train whilst everyone delves deeply into their iPhones.

A woman who swims against the tide and current she is in, because she has the inner strength and tenacity to simply have a go.

Someone who writes down goals and actually ticks off the boxes on her vision board.

She is disruptive.

In a circle of women gossiping, she turns and walks away, knowing she has much better use of her time.

Proverbs 16:15 and 16 says this

Good-tempered leaders invigorate lives; they’re like spring rain and sunshine.

Get wisdom – it’s worth more than money; choose insight over income every time.

 

She invigorates.

She leads.

She refreshes.

She makes an impact.

She speaks out the crazy dreams and ideas, then actually does something with them.

She is remembered for her courage more than whether she was successful or not.

She actually has a go.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain

She dares greatly and disrupts the boring, plodding, bland, beige and antiquated.

She has a go.

Oh my desire is that I would bring change and innovation. That my life would be marked by courage and not fear. That I would stop worrying about what others say and step out, send that email, ring that publisher, write that speech and make a difference.

Thanks Lisa Messenger, for inspiring this heart and life this winter.

To read the next part of this series click here: She keeps things simple

signature

Posted on by — Leave a comment

she guards her heart above all else

Shoalwater Island
Shoalwater, Penguin Island

We went for a big walk today, to shake off the mornings cobwebs. Even though we walked far and wide, we knew our way home, as it was a path we have walked many times before.

The path a well worn part of our weekly routine as a family. Along the way is our favourite park, little sights and sounds we have grown to love, in fact we can talk the whole way and not ever get lost, the path leads us home.

 

One of my all time favourite proverbs is this one;

Proverb 4: 23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Do you feel confused about the path you are walking in your life?

Are you unable to find the path that leads you home?

Instead of looking for directions towards your purpose or dreams, wisdom would ask you how is the state of your heart?

Another version of this proverb says that “our heart is the wellspring of life.”

It is like everything we do, everything that we are and everything that we long to be, flow up and out of the artisan spring of our heart.

If we are full of anger and bitterness, it flavours and impacts our direction and life.

If our heart is clouded by pride and arrogance, it shrouds the potential of the course of our days.

If we have not processed grief or strife it changes the tone of our days.

Sometimes the impact is not felt in the immediate season, but as we orientate ourselves towards the designs of our future, we start to venture off course.

Our heart and its condition impacts every single area of our life.

It affects the people we meet, the friends we make, the opportunities that come our way, something so small can filter the entirety of our being.

A woman of wisdom knows that the internal voice that leads and guides her needs to be retuned every so often.

A woman of leadership knows that she needs a group of safe and deep friendships that she can keep unpacking and processing the hardening of her heart.

A woman of strength is vulnerable enough to speak honestly about the condition of her internal world and ask for help when she needs it.

One of the greatest pursuits of my days, is to filter, process and work through that which is getting a little stuck in my internal worlds.

It reorientates me back to the path that sometimes feels overgrown and hidden, giving me a sense of direction towards the days I was designed to live.

I think finding the path again is as simple as getting quiet, meditating, reflecting, talking, processing, listening, thinking, finding, seeking the condition of our internal worlds, then slowly the course of our days becomes very clear.

The proverb goes on to list ways that our hearts easily become compromised;

Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.”

If your path seems unclear, today’s thought would be this, why don’t you dig a little deeper and look at the condition of your heart?

It may just reveal more than you expect.

To read the next day in the series click here: She shares her stuff

signature