Contemplations of a Mommy "Monk"

We all want to feel significant. sig·nif·i·cant (sĭg-nĭf'ĭ-kənt) adj. Having or expressing a meaning; meaningful. I remember when I won the district debate competition. Of course, our district was small and filled with small schools. There wasn't much competition. Nonetheless, I felt significant. Then, I went to the state competition and suddenly felt insignificant in the swarm of masterful debaters. I pursued a teaching career because I wanted my life to make a significant impact in this world. And then I went overseas as a missionary to do significant work for Christ. Why is it that we want to find our significance in our accomplishments? I want to SEE with my own eyes that I am doing something worthwhile. I need to know that my life has meaning. And I don't know about you, but I often rely on the praise of others or some recognition. If no one else noticed what I did, then it must not be significant. What does the Bible say about my significance? 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 14...

A pendulum swings from right to left, back and forth until gravity slows down the swing to a stop in the middle. Society in general has a tendency towards this pendulum behavior as well. Conservative politics swings to liberal policies and then back again. Wonder if this swing will ever slow down and settle in the middle? I don't want to talk about politics today though; I want to look at patterns of thinking that are unhealthy. Within Christian circles, I see people who swing from legalistic and perfectionistic frenetic activity to a hopeless, giving up on the situation inactivity . We are either trying to prove that we are saints or we have just concluded that we are sinners so why try. The truth of grace leads us away from extremism to a healthy balance . My daughter enjoys playing on the seesaws at the school playground. Unfortunately I cannot play on these with her since my weight does not match hers. If one side of the teeter totter has more weight, the other side cannot be...

It takes ten positive comments to outweigh one negative. I remember resonating with that statement my professor made because it seemed easier to dwell on any small criticism, while small compliments never seemed to be enough. I wonder what would happen if we reversed that mental pattern. What if people's criticisms never seemed worthy of contemplating, while any little word of praise was cherished? Someone at work notices your orderly system of organizing and then a client angrily stomps out of your office. Which one will you choose to dwell on? Sometimes it's more natural to dwell upon the negative event, so it must be a conscious CHOICE to dwell upon the positive. If you have a mental filter that sifts out all the positive things you hear and catches the negatives, then you have a propensity towards depression. Right about now you're thinking that this positive thinking sounds like humanistic worldly advice. Don't be shocked to find out that this is actually quite ...

Success in mathematics is 90% attitude. Here's the way it usually plays out: A young girl struggles to master fractions in the sixth grade and every red mark upon her paper screams " Failure " loud and clear. So, she decides that because she has failed once, she will always fail and she gives up trying any more. Her inner conviction that she is "dumb" in math dooms her to repeat her failures. Middle school math seems far away for most of us, but we can all relate to failures and mistakes in our past. Perhaps it was yesterday, or maybe it was thirty years ago. Have you allowed your mistakes to define your character? What we're talking about is an attitude which is dangerous when left untended - Overgeneralization. "If I have been rejected once, I will always be rejected." If you are allowing past failures to dictate future failure, you are overgeneralizing! Look for words like "Always" or "never." We can overgeneralize o...

There was a time in my life when I woke up at 5:30 to work out for an hour each and every morning. My kitchen was spotless and I spent three hours every Saturday morning deep cleaning our home. Then I had kids. And suddenly life became more complicated because I couldn't keep up with my all or nothing thinking. Some strange quirk in my personality wants things to be perfect and because I can't have it perfect anymore, there are days I just give up and let the house be a mess. If I can't work out every day, I might as well just forget it all together. My mentality can often lead to feast or famine - I give it my gusto for a short time and then sputter out. I see things in black and white , which is not necessarily wrong in issues of morality, but life in general is not all good or all bad. This kind of thinking sets a person upon the edge of a precipice, precariously waiting for a tumble into a deep pit time and time again. What is it that brings us to this place i...