A Life Well-Lived…Come On In!

I was thinking this week of how often we want something to be different, and it doesn’t matter if it is in our home, in our hearts, in our minds, or in our family and friends.  We want change.  We often wish something was different that what it is.  If this or that would change, I could be happy.

We have only this…a moment.  A moment comes…passes…and will never come again.  That made me think this week.  I had driven up north this last week to attend a service for a dear cousin of mine who died at the age of 101 1/2 years old. It caused me once again to ponder what makes up a life well-lived?

As I sat in the chapel and listened to friends and family share what they loved about my cousin, it wasn’t about what she looked like, where she lived, or what she owned, it was about HER.  What they noticed about her life.  It was about her love of life in spite of the hardships, it was her baking of cookies and cakes, her love of flowers and gardening, her hospitality in her simple home, her gentle ways, neighbors and family around, and always seeming to have enough for the extra people to join her around her table.  I personally remember her always making sure everyone was well cared for when we visited.  Perfect hostess.  Loved…because she loved well.  Never a fancy life, but certainly a well-lived life.

We can get so tangled up in life that we forget what is really important.  We choose to remember what we choose to remember.  I like the way she lived her life. It was like “throwing off the old coat with no Plan B”, as my pastor shared last Sunday.  She lost her husband at the young age of, I believe, he was thirty-nine years old, and had to continue on her own with a large family still to raise.  But she did it.  She had great older kids who did their part to make it work, and pressed on.  She had some very young children when that happened.  I’m not saying its easy to live that way.  It has to be intentional, and for some, MORE intentional!  I always admired her tenacity and determination to live her life well under whatever circumstances she found herself.

We all have a NOW moment.  Will we step out and create the life that we keep thinking about?  Or will we complain because it is less than what we would like it to be, or expected it to be?  Last Sunday in a message by Pastor Doug Cotton, he shared about faith having a voice.  That makes perfect sense to me!  There is a moment when God speaks.  We have that same moment to be used of God or He will find someone else who will do it.  Pastor also talked about the verse where God talks about “faith that comes through hearing”…you are hearing right now as you read this.  It is why I continue to blog.  I want to share some ideas that may encourage you to step out.  I want to do that often enough that it might make a difference for you, and build your faith that you can do it.  We all have that window of time when God is speaking to us.  Satan wants to confuse you about where it is coming from, but don’t you allow it!  Your window of time is when God speaks.  Say, “Yes Lord, I am willing.  Guide my steps.” He will.  Walk through that door He placed before you and keep your gaze straight ahead.

I have a choice to make changes, however small, in any area I choose.  I may make the smallest adjustment that can have life altering change!  It may become the very thing that will change everything else in my life!  If it is God ordained, I need to follow His lead and move forward with it.  I have to trust Him.

 I, for one, have made many changes in the last few years and I am so glad for each of them! Some have not been easy. at. all.  But I wouldn’t change where it has brought me.  I am not going back to the place that I was.  Instead, I am moving on with God’s help!  I’m anticipating what He will do next in me!  I have brought the outdoors in doors and the indoors out, so that we enjoy the beauty of nature in and around our home.  We have made our home a cozy place to live so we ourselves enjoy being here.  We have a contented life.  That is very important to me.

What about you?  Is there something bugging you that you need to take action on?  Is your legacy building a life well-lived?    I know I want my life to reflect those ideals.  I want to be used of God.  I want my home to reflect what God has blessed us with, and part of that is a feeling of warmth and love to every guest who enters our home.  I want to be gracious in hospitality.  I want my home to be a place of refuge to dial down and feel comfortable from the time someone walks through my door to the time they depart.  That does my heart good. 🙂

Is God calling you to some changes or adjustments?  Are you willing?  Maybe you have made some?  I would love to hear from you regarding your thoughts concerning a life well-lived.  Blessings!

Walking the journey with you…