OLW Balance



My name is Christine and you can learn a little more about me and the other JOYsisters by checking out our December posts on Instagram @thejoysisters. 

 But today we are talking OLW.  In 2011 I had been hearing about this One little Word trend and for some time some of my sisters and friends were participating. But I didn't know much. I decided to jump in, feet first and pick my own word for 2012. GRATITUDE. And my lofty goal was to write 365 letters Of gratitude. I missed the mark. I only wrote about 150. But as I got to the end of that year, I gave myself GRACE and props!  150 letters of gratitude to loved ones, while homeschooling and raising 5 kids!  That was pretty awesome!  And so I continued to pick O.L.W.s

OLW has become a part of me over the past 6 years.
Having a word to FOCUS on has helped me grow, given me something to work on and brought clarity to my life. I value the connections that happen throughout the year with my word. Both connections with people and with blessings.  My word becomes my friend, accompanies me, lifts me, gives me courage often, and teaches me.  And I feel God finds ways to teach and speak to me through my word. So these days I try to be open to some spiritual nudges when selecting a word. 

Some of my past words besides gratitude have been: freedom, remember, believe, and joy. And this past year my word was REACH. A friend shared that for her joy meant Jesus, Others, Yourself. I learned so much from picking JOY in 2016. So I considered repeating my word. But Reach kept coming clearly to my mind. I resisted. But the thought came "Reach is just like JOY. Reach up to God, reach out to others, reach in and improve". And so I decided to ACCEPT the word, although reluctantly. What I didn't foresee was that "reach" was everywhere, in things I read, listened to, watched. Even with TheJoySisters I/We are reaching out of our comfort zone to reach out to other women, hopefully all over the world. 

My 2018 word doesn't fit like a glove yet, but it came clearly to me and I am learning not to argue. It is BALANCE. I am sure there is much for me to learn this year about balance with 7 children, two of which have beautiful and a little extra special needs. 

My friend A.L. wrote me and asked how I plan to BALANCE life.  And that she always seems to drop something off her plate.  I have the SAME EXACT PROBLEM.  This was part of my response to her: 

"I think the Lord is teaching me balance. But I also believe it doesn't look the same to him as it does to us. I think the scales aren't always even and part of balance, I am starting to believe, is moving in the right direction while the scales tip back and forth, things fall off, things are added and learning to trust and DO things his way, even when it doesn't make sense to us. Not exercising when we are sick (or injured). Reading some verses even when we are exhausted. Learning exact obedience in the things we can be perfect in like tithing and daily prayer (for me). And accepting his GRACE when we fall or something slips off the scale. Balancing our spirit, making it one with him and making sure the BEST things (not just the good and better, see a talk by Dallin H. Oaks) are on the scales. 

It's going to be a great adventure this year.  I hope you will join us. Let's DO this!!! XOXOXO

 ~~Balance in 2018
Love and Light, Christine
kept
kept

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

OWL More

Image
I started thinking about my OLW for this year a couple weeks ago. Usually picking out my word is a strenuous process. And usually I forget what it is by about May or June. I knew I wanted this year to be different. I’m very music oriented. I can’t sing or play an instrument but there is usually a song playing in my head. I wasn’t surprised when my usual 80’s internal soundtrack switched to a hymn from church. I’ve been instructed by the Lord through music often. But when it got louder when I thought about my OLW,  I knew I’d better pay attention. If you google LDS hymn number 131 More Holiness Give Me you can sing along. My word for 2018 is MORE. And I’ll be focusing each month on a specific MORE.  January will be MORE fitness.  February is MORE self care.  March will be MORE obedience.  I’ve got all 12 months assigned a focus point. Over the next week or so I’ll write some more specifics for each month. For January I’ll be joining a diet...
Read more

Vision, Goals, Plans

Image
I am a visual person.  And though we all learn in different ways, I think for all of us, seeing something helps us process, and understand.  I have always found it interesting that when a person loses one of their senses, or is born without something like sight, their body often compensates with other senses.  When we engage our senses in our daily life we can achieve more.  This principle was applied to a wonderful phonics system (my sister HH Shared with me) which I used for my kids when they were younger.  The program had them repeat the sounds of letters with their mouth, see with their eyes as I wrote them, write with their hands, and hear instruction with their ears.  In a month my son's writing ability improved drastically from chicken scratch to beautiful lettering. So I want to take you on a quick little journey and I will need you help and cooperation if YOU are going to be able to VISUALIZE the end field: Imagine for a minute with me. ...
Read more

Refinement: Best Effort VS. Perfection

Image
Lessons in Refinement:  Improving by making small changes I've thought about this a lot lately. I tend to suffer from perfectionism. If I can't give it a perfect effort then I tend not to do it. If I see too many ways to fail...I won't even try. Some times after completing a task I look back and beat myself up because it wasn't a perfect effort. I might have completed the task to my best effort but because of my limitations it just wasn't perfect. Wow. Even just typing this it sounds so horrible...so mean. I don't hold everyone around me to this standard. I am happy and celebrate when someone in my tribe has given their best effort. So why can't it be good enough for me? No idea. It's only been the last few years (with the help of some very kind, wise women) that I've even become aware of this flawed thinking. Lately in my life I have been feeling a shift coming on. I've been letting go of some of the things I used to like to do, to spend th...
Read more

Receive

As women we are givers. Givers of life, of ourselves, our time and talents. I have noticed in myself and those around me, we are not quite so good at receiving and we have to put effort into being receptive to the service and gifts of others talents and time.  "I'm fine" "We're fine"....."it's ALL fine", seems to be a standard refrain. But. We aren't ALL fine. WE NEED EACH OTHER.  We need to be able to serve and to receive service. We need to be able to give love and receive it...AND EVEN ASK FOR IT! *gasp* Yep. I said it. Ask for what we need. When we need it. And then allow it to be given. It will likely take some work for some of us to get there, but I think we will all be better off for it. Together we are bringers, sharers and spreaders of JOY! Yes, this is likely the shortest blog post ever, but it's all I have in me for tonight.  ~JOYsister Heather
Read more