I was challenged yesterday by my pastor to make a review of my life and ask four questions. These questions were intended for a spiritual review, but I think it goes for my entire life (which by the way is really all ‘spiritual’ if you think about it – as a Christian it should permeate all my ‘being’). The questions are:<\/p>\n

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1. What needs to GO? The first thing that came to mind is being “reactive”. Quit immediately reacting to everything and stop to think. This is especially evident to me as I start the process of menopause. My emotions tend to be a bit more close to the surface. Next is that I need to stop taking everything so personally – especially from my children who are exerting their independent thought and need me to be their mother – not their friend.<\/em><\/li>\n
2. What needs to STAY? My relationship with my husband. That may sound funny – it’s not like we aren’t committed to each other, or having ‘trouble’, but I need to nurture that relationship and feed it – especially as I start menopause and he feels helpless to ‘fix’ it. Next, I need to jump into my church. Because of some past experiences I have held things at arms length – but I’m ready to jump into the pool and swim.<\/em><\/li>\n
3. What’s NEW? My writing ‘career’ is new. This has been a joy this year and I still consider it new.<\/em><\/li>\n
4. What’s NEXT? I don’t know – but I’m excited at the possibilites ahead and pray that I will see each opportunity as an adventure.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

   Life is an adventure. I don’t always like every aspect of it, but it is a rich experience. I am frequently reminded of the last line in the movie HOOK when family says to Peter that he must be sad that the adventure is over. His reply is, “oh no, to LIVE is the greatest adventure of all.”<\/p>\n

   I have much to reflect on this week. The economy stinks and has really hurt my husband’s business. I don’t know where things are headed. I have a trip to Mississippi for Thanksgiving coming up and my sister and I haven’t communicated well for the past six months. I have close friends who are seriously ill. I have two teenage boys who are pushing the boundaries, one more than the other, that challenge me emotionally. I have a daughter who is turning double digits and has great drama in her life. I am trying to finish writing a chapter book. All of these things are somewhat stressful – but I know I have a choice. I am the only one who chooses what I will do with each of these situations. I may have no control of other people’s thoughts or actions, or how the economy goes – but I DO have control of how I handle it.<\/p>\n

   P.S. Just heard a piece on the news of a woman who was diagnosed with MS and within two years as pretty much disabled. Her spiritual advisor gave her a ‘prescription’ – to give 29 gifts in 29 days (could be comfort to another, etc.). It really helped her to quit dwelling on her own situation and now her MS has pretty much stopped progressing and she’s better. Hmmm – maybe this would be good for all of us who are in stressful situations to try?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   I was challenged yesterday by my pastor to make a review of my life and ask four questions. These questions were intended for a spiritual review, but I think it goes for my entire life (which by the way is really all ‘spiritual’ if you think about it – as a Christian it should permeate …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7zbKo-Rr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3313"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}