Hug Me!

The energies have declared today 'Hug Holiday Day,' which means it's time to wrap your head around this concept and then wrap your arms around someone else. In fact, 'Hug Holiday Day' encourages us to give hugs to anyone we think might need a few squeezes of love. It's said that on this day, volunteers freely give their hugs at senior citizen centers, hospitals and other public places where hugs would be welcome.

Research from psychiatrists and other medical professionals agrees that a close relationship exists between the health of the body and that of the mind. This research supports the speculation that your thought patterns, moods and even your behavior have a tremendous and direct result on the state of your well-being. Some of this research even cites certain things that any empowered person can do to vastly improve their health, as well as bringing a big boost of happiness into their lives.

Besides cleaning clutter, organizing the household and getting a hobby to take your mind to a different and happier place, the next advice on this happy list is to laugh often and hug freely! Laughing and hugging have been proven to exponentially improve the health of both body and mind, as well as to provide an immediate lifting of spirits! Rounding out this list are healthy eating and doing something charitable to pay it forward for all the blessings you have in your own life.

Starting today, if you do any or all of these things, then you should stand up and give yourself a big hug! I'll be sending a virtual one as well! Big squeeze to you from me!

Then and Now

In the past couple of decades, there has been a significant movement challenging men to become men of God, to love their wives and children, and to express that love through sacrifice and service. What an encouragement it has been to me to see God stirring my husband, Kenji, and turning his heart toward Him and toward his family.

Women need to be careful that we do not lose sight of the primary roles God has given us to fulfill. In today’s world, it is “politically correct” to challenge men to go home and serve their wives. However, it is not “PC” to talk to women about their responsibility to serve their husbands.

God did not make the man to be a “helper” to the woman. He made the woman to be a “helper” to the man. Of course, this does not mean that men are not to serve their wives and children. If men are to love their wives as Christ loved the church, there must be willingness to lay down their lives and become servants, even as Christ did for His bride.

If women focus on what we “deserve,” on our “rights,” or on what men “ought” to do for us, we will become vulnerable to hurt and resentment when our expectations are not fulfilled. Blessing and joy are the fruit of seeking to be a giver rather than a taker and of looking for ways to bless, serve, and minister to the needs of our families.

Simply Trust God

Don’t complicate your life by trying to understand what is wrong with your friends and family members who don’t agree with you about everything. After 5 years of marriage, I still don’t have Kenji figured out. But I found joy when I simply quit trying to understand why he likes to watch sports and be a couch potato. I have learned to be a sports fan and watch TV series on a marathon, so now I’m a couch potato myself. LOL! How’s that for a change?

In other words, you can’t really love people until you quit trying to rework them and find joy in who they are. My life got real simple when I finally realized I couldn’t change people.

God can change someone if He wants to, and if He doesn’t, it’s because He doesn’t want to. So I might as well trust God. Trust is simple. Casting your cares on Him is simple.

The Bible message is simple: Love God and love others.

The gospel is simple: Jesus loves us, this we know. Why? Because the Bible tells us so!

Even the plan of salvation is simple: Jesus died for us. He paid the price for our sin. How much simpler can it be?

It is amazing how a straightforward, uncomplicated message change your life and bring joy.

Jesus came to simplify your life. Satan wants to complicate your life, but God is not the author of confusion.

There are so many people in the church who are not really serving God with their whole hearts or their whole lives. Their lives are a big, complicated mess because they have one foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world.

The Truth Is...

God is good. Psalms 119:68 says so. When the sun is shining and you have money in the bank and you’re healthy and everyone thinks you’re wonderful, it’s not hard to believe that God is good. But when you lose your job or a loved one is diagnosed with a terminal illness or your church goes through a nasty split or your husband or wife says he/she doesn’t want to be married to you anymore, the Enemy will move in and cause you to question God’s goodness.

The Truth is, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of what we feel, regardless of what we think, God is good, and everything He does is good.

God’s grace is sufficient for me. 2Corinthians 12:9 says so. As a child of God, I will never face a circumstance that exceeds His grace. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. When I am weak, He is strong. When I am empty, He is full. When I have no resources of my own left, His resources have not begun to be depleted.

The Truth is, whatever you are going through right now, His grace is sufficient for you. Whatever you will go through tomorrow – or next year or fifty years from now – His grace will be sufficient for you then.

His grace is sufficient to deal with the memories, wounds, and failures of the most scarred or sordid past. His grace is sufficient for a lifetime of singleness or for a half century of marriage to an ungodly man. His grace is sufficient for the single mother trying to raise four children. His grace is sufficient for the woman caring for her elderly parents, for the empty nester, for the man or woman going through the change of life or midlife crisis, for the widow living on Social Security, and for the invalid in a nursing home.

We need to speak the Truth to ourselves; we need to speak it to each other. In every season, in every circumstance, His grace is sufficient. It is sufficient for me; it is sufficient for you!

The Truth is… I am blessed! It’s my birthday! Thank you oh God for giving me life…

Moving Forward, Pressing On!

This morning I talked to myself… “Hmm, you may have come a long way, baby, in reaching your romantic goals or letting go of the past.”

Now I could receive further gifts in my spiritual life, love life, personal life, family life, career, and relationships. Perhaps some family planning or a positive change in my relationship that can expand my horizons is in the works? Let me get ready then – ready for exciting and creative plans for the future. Only the POSITIVE stays, never mind the problems, for it is not good to admire negativity. Why worry? As my husband reminds me consistently, “worry does not carry out anything good, nor does it promise any solution.” Yeah, he’s so right about this.

Looking forward, this may be the real deal! I could finally feel complete (as if I never was? LOL!) – but it’s only the beginning… “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (New Living Translation, 2007, Romans 8:28).

Perhaps God's Spirit woke me up this morning to tell me this amazing scripture. Yeah!