I humbly present the next pillar of a healthy spirituality - humility. I don’t hear cheers and loud applause for this virtue. I know I hesitated even to invite humility to come to this blog, but felt it had insights for our spiritual walk. In 2023 I plan to explore different building blocks, components, the essential nutrients that support a vibrant strong life with God. I hope to learn, study, and share thoughts about these various aspects and hope they bring fresh insights to all of our earthly journeys as God continues to shape our souls. This is our second exploration of one of the characteristics of a healthy spirituality: humility and being humble. You can read about the first one. Be Awake, here. Be Humble Do you know this old song by Mac Davis? Oh Lord, it's hard to be humbleWhen you're perfect in every wayI can't wait to look in the mirror'Cause I get better lookin' each dayTo know me is to love meI must be a heck of a manOh Lord, it's hard to be … [Read more...]
Remodeling – Revamping – Restoring
I am surrounded by bedlam, disarray, and chaos. Commotion and change explodes both inside and out as we are in the midst of remodeling– here at home and to be honest, even our lives right now. Remodeling Home Our first project is updating the backyard with new decking and fence. My hubby enlarged his storage shed and my garden is growing weeds not green peppers and tomatoes this year. If you have read this blog for long you know I love the peace and quiet time in summer in my backyard. Nope, not this year. At least not yet. Memorial weekend found us on our knees – not in prayer, though we certainly could have used some – but ripping up carpet in the living room. New hardwood floors will be installed next week. Starting today my normally peaceful home will reverberate with pounding and hammering. I do feel blessed that we can do this remodeling, but enduring the disruption and disorder unsettles this introvert! So I seek quiet time extra early in the morning before the … [Read more...]
Healthy Spirituality Gift Guide
Healthy Spirituality Gift Guide Gifts to Feed Your and Your Friends’ Faith I love giving and sharing great gift ideas, knowing I am nourishing both my faith and those of my loved ones and friends. Below are some ideas I have recently compiled for holiday gift giving. Hope you enjoy this special edition of Healthy Spirituality. The Absolute Find of the Year – My Pick Shacke Packing Cubes – What did I ever do without these? My clothes are less wrinkled (though they have a few creases when I rush the packing) and fit into smaller suitcases. I love this product! Dayspring The products created by Dayspring are wonderful. Here are just a few neat ideas: A great jewelry collection. I especially like the “Be Thou my Vision Necklace” as that is one of my most favorite hymns. Word Matter Letter Box Collection of wall art is both inspirational and beautiful. Since my fourth grandchild was born in October I have been going crazy with Christian baby gift ideas. Check … [Read more...]
Literary Landmarks and Spiritual Spaces – New Resource Page to Healthy Spirituality
Don’t you love finding new resources and ideas to feed your curiosity? To nourish your soul? To stretch your mind? Learning new things energizes my spirit. I am excited to showcase a new resource page on Healthy Spirituality. If you look above at the page tabs you will see the new addition: Literary Landmarks and Spiritual Spaces. I love to travel and often on trips will seek out special spots - ones with history of fellow writers – the writers’ homes or the settings that inspired them – and I also love visiting the “thin places” - spiritual spaces where heaven seems a little bit closer to earth. Fun and educational places to visit and explore. Literary Landmarks – I hope to personally visit areas where writers lived and drew inspiration and feature them with photos and information. The first post for today is from a stop we made a couple of weeks ago at the Mazza Museum in Findlay Ohio about one hour north of Columbus. The Mazza Museum showcases original work of art from … [Read more...]
Please Take my 2015 Readers’ Survey
I would really like your input on how to improve and grow this blog. Below is a link to the 2015 Healthy Spirituality Readers' Survey and I would appreciate you taking the time to fill it out. I want to ensure this space does the best possible job of answering your needs and interests and draws you closer to God. And that means I need to know more about you. Your input is important to me. The survey is easy to fill out, and the results are completely anonymous. I can’t tell who said what. The survey will be open until August 2. Thank you so much. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SXKHFMX … [Read more...]
The Spiritual Practice of Unplugging
I am a techie. I love gadgets. The Internet lures me away for hours playing with history, trivia, fascinating conversation. I admit my struggle with dealing with emails and can tell you all the tips about time management with electronic devices. Okay one more confession. I am one who has been known to read USAToday app on her IPhone in the middle of the night. Yes I have read all about how the white light from the phone interferes with sleep and about the girl whose pillow caught fire from putting her phone there. What drives this? A fear of missing out on something? An ego urge to know the most up to date info? Insomnia? Why am I fearful of letting go? Guess I have to ponder this a bit more. I am not into many games, but a good round of Angry Birds is a great stress reducer. When we go out with friends, we do put the phones away during dinner, but have this unspoken competition about who can look up some table conversation question on Google the quickest. The truth is: … [Read more...]
Love as a Frame – Quote of the Week
If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in. Frederick Buechner … [Read more...]
OOPS!
For all of you who normally get this blog by email, I owe you an apology. Sometime end of last week, my blog and the software that mails out new posts to you decided not to communicate. I didn't realize this until Tuesday and then had difficulty reestablishing the links. Finally late Wednesday, the two parties decided to talk again and to be honest, I am not sure if the connection miraculously healed itself (I was praying!) or if something I did finally worked. BUT OOPS! Once all was well again in cyberworld, the internet imp decided to mail all of you not one, not two, but three posts. I am so sorry to clog up your inbox. Hopefully we are now back to the normal schedule of posts. "Don't you just love technology?" she says gritting her teeth and with a fake smile. Yes frustrating, but not the end of the world and lots worse could and has happened to me, so I am grateful for the comfort of routine and no annoying glitches. And thankful most of the time for technology … [Read more...]