Quote of the week: 1.2.14

Welcome to 2014! January's quotes are all on "purpose".You'd know this is one of my favorite topics!

Grace, peace, love and purpose filled living,

Gia

What's your story

I was having a conversation with friends from church and a number of times, the comment was made "that's not my story" or "that's not gonna be my story".

It made me think. This kind of statement wasn't necessarily in relation to the "big story", which is more of what I've talked about on this blog...you know, your legacy. It was more of the day to day experiences.  For examlple, I will not suffer with high blood pressure just because everyone else in my family does. This means we must take responsibility for our actions.  However, what it really tapped into was the fact that we have authority, through the power of our speech,  to accept or reject what is put before us. 

For those of us who are Christians, the Bible tells us that "life and death is in the power of the tongue". By virtue of our speech, we are creating (or destroying) quite a bit of what we experience in life. How does that look? For most of us, it means we either are so oblivious to this authority that we say nothing at all and just accept what comes our way or we are so caught up in the discourse of the rest of the world that we speak doom and gloom (death) upon our situations.

Nope. Now that's not gonna be MY story.

I shall speak Life. Hope. Restoration to every area of my life. I shall be different and unapologetically so.  I shall fulfill the small and large dreams in a timely fashion, if necessary, breaking glass ceilings of time, gender, race or age. I shall not settle for what typically happens, when I know what God has offered to me if I just ask and accept it.

Most salient at this point, I will not be like everyone else who has gone before me who took 2 years (plus or minus a couple months) to complete a dissertation. THAT's not gonna be my story. I'm not superwoman, nor will I submit anything subpar but I will complete this project and be ready for graduation for 2014. The journey un-officially began in Fall 2012, but technically the time clock probably won't begin until February 2013. At this point, my goal is June 2014 for graduation. I understand that there are some curve balls in life (which I am currently experiencing) so I'm willing to accept Fall 2014 graduation but I will be done with everything and just sitting and "waiting" by summer 2014.


There are other areas that I realized that I've been silent on. You know, I bought into this idea that since it is how it worked for others (or the masses), that it was how it should work for me. Nah. I'm taking stock in a new way and assessing those things that I've just thought to let be...

I'm boldly declaring, that's NOT gonna be MY story.

Grace peace and love,
Gia

little dog, big bone (Lessons from Ari)

I haven't done my lessons from Ari post in a while. Mostly, its because I've been away from him for most of the Fall semester and not because he has been shenanigan free. For those of you who don't know him (or never read these posts), Ari is my little fiesty protector. He weighs all but 14 lbs, barks at any and every thing that seemingly could be a threat but loves fiercely. Especially me. He's technically a mutt (1/2 yorkie & 1/2 shih tzu) but more considered a spoilt breed since he is our only "child".

Last night as I sat and just had quiet time, I was praying and thinking and teetering between those two actions for a while...and Ari sat alongside me on his couch and tackled (literally) a bone. The thing is, this bone is big. He's really a small little thing and since last year, by mistake, we've been buying him bones that are probably for medium-large sized breeds.

At first, I instructed the purchaser to return it for a bone suited for his size but since there were two and he desperately needed something to chew on, we left it with him. What we found, is the lesson for today...he was able to handle the bone that was about 1/3 of his size. It wasn't without fighting and fumbling, but consistency and unrelenting determination was what won.

Last night was no different. The bone slipped from his grasp a couple times. He had to change positions a couple times. He had to change the position of the bone a couple times..but if you look closely at the bone (gross), there is clear evidence that it is being widdled away. And I assure you, by end of Feb, all that will be left is a mere nub.

This struck me as fascinating as my prayer and thoughts at this point was centered on a fairly big dream that I've been developing (more on that later). As with most of my dreams, this seems impossible. In fact, this is building upon...expanding, if you may, on a super size dream of The Mercy House which I've introduced in past posts.

What I need to do, though...is finalize the vision. Identify the baby steps and begin chewing one small piece at a time. I need to be flexible to realize that sometimes I may need to change my own position or adjust the dream a bit..but the idea is to steadily, slowly keep chipping away.

First things first though...getting the full vision realized and identifying those smaller goals/objectives.

I'm down for the ride!

Grace peace and love,

Gia

Divine meets the mundane

Have you ever had one of those moments? Something happens or maybe its in the reflection of a memory and you just know this was a divine moment.

Those are beautiful, especially when life gets...well to be life. overwhelming. busy. unfair. mundane.

Recognizing and basking in these moments are reviving. refreshing. inspiring.

Have you had one of those lately, that moment where you know it was God in the midst?

Grace peace and love,
Gia

Gee whiz...

Christmas is over. unbelievable how that happens every year. I love the spirit of Christmas but the older I get, I can't help but think how over-commercialized it has also gotten.

Anyhoo, all that aside, it is still my most favoritest time of year and I trust that everyone had a very merry, festive, peaceful and joy-filled day, whether the day(s) were filled with family, friends, or just you and your fur-baby.

I had a great time celebrating with my family. The tangible gifts this year (in particular) wasn't as big of a deal as some of the more precious moments with hubby and my larger family.

On Saturday past, I had the opportunity to speak with one of the kids from the Timothy project. It was bittersweet that I only spoke with one since the majority of the kids were there but awesome because this particular young lady asked for me specifically. You should remember her...I talked a bit about her here.

In that post, I mentioned her rough exterior and how a bit of care and time, helped to melt walls and tough facades.  At that time, I said that my prayer for her was:

"My prayer is that this young lady now feels less burdened, less neglected, a smidgen more hopeful and definitely loved."

Well, based on the conversation with her on Saturday-this prayer has been answered. The young lady I spoke with was not the same girl I met in August. She was free-er. Happy-er. More peaceful. She sounded like she was enjoying life.

ahhhhh I could have seriously walked on water after that convo. Definitely in top 3 list for Best. Christmas present. Ever.

Grace peace and love,
Gia

Life as a puzzle

Every now and again, purpose would slap me upside my face and I'd smile because I realize this is a part of me emptying myself so that whenever it is my time to die, I know I would have fulfilled what God placed me on this Earth for.

So you may be asking, what exactly does "purpose slapping me upside my face" look like? 

It looks like my original plan for my dissertation being too big and my first draft falling flat. 

It looks like me taking a step back to my original plan and remembering that I wanted to explore life as an "orphan". 

It looks like me getting an opportunity to do some volunteer work (learned about this in November) with girls who are orphaned and me being over-the-moon excited about it. So excited, I was like..."why didn't I think of that"?  

It looks like me asking myself and then God, why is it that this group of individuals pulls to me the way they do. 

Then it looks like, a friend suggesting that I work with her to potentially counsel orphans (got this request last week).  By the way, the friend knew nothing of the changes to the dissertation which came in November, neither was she aware that I will be volunteering with this group for another project next weekend.  She just thought of me as an ideal person for the task at hand.

It is not by chance, or even not by my own doing that all of these opportunities are presenting themselves. This is purpose slapping me upside the face. I'm still waiting on the full "understanding" from God about the extent of my involvement (now and in the future) with this group of individuals. I've been even wondering if this is the direction for Mercy House (not first time I've had that thought either).

I love when it happens like this...just like the pieces of the puzzle of life coming together. Some people say they don't know what their purpose is. I believe that if we take 2nd and sometimes 3rd looks around us, we can see how our talents/passions can make a change.  We can also see how we are drawn to certain things, people or groups. Somehow, like me, it just so happens that multiple opportunities present itself over and over and so you find yourself doing something that you enjoy, and never actually pursued it. That's purpose slapping you over the head.

I was so taken with this post on JeremyStatton.com this morning, that I decided to just redirect my readers there....(click title below for full post). For me, the last bullet points (white background) just made my heart scream "YES!"

Excerpt taken from the post To die is to live. Enjoy.

"The point is to be fully alive.

• To focus on doing the things that will matter forever.
• To understand the value of time and stop wasting it.
• To silence distractions.
• To focus on relationships.
• To realize that some risks are too important not to take.
• To stop worrying about failing and to start doing.
• To love because in the end, there is nothing else."

Grace peace and love,
Gia

wasted life?

Losing my life doesn't scare me; wasting it does.

I saw this status post on Facebook about a month ago and have since adopted it as a signature for my email.  It called to me because (again), at the heart of the statement of this idea that each of us has a purpose and life is only fulfilled when we are aligned and living on purpose.

It's Monday. What plans do you have for the week? What does your to-do list look like?

Have you carved any time for pursuing purpose? That is of course, if you aren't already living and working in your calling. If that's the case, then continue to press on.

For me, I guess this week is working toward getting the first draft for my dissertation completed. It's not the ultimate but it's a huge step toward the ultimate.  It is a fight though...I've been finding myself in a bit of a funk related to this project but I will not lose sight of the end...it is near and I've just got to continuing pressing.

Other than that, my to-do list looks devoid of anything "important". Maybe I'll carve some time to develop that idea about the Girls Conferences that I mentioned last week...

Tell us about anything exciting, life-altering, inspirational that is planned for today or this week.

Grace peace and love,
Gia

What does your future hold?

Yesterday, I sat through a training session as a part of my duties for my internship. There wasn't much presented that I didn't know, but two of the assignments stood out to me.

The first was to draw your timeline...essentially, getting the college-aged students to think beyond today and construct some semblance of a life plan. Based on some of the responses, I still think some people did not get it...the points on their "timeline" were vague and unrealistic and when they were challenged to think about resources and specifics, they simply refused to. I took the opportunity to begin drafting my 5 year plan which my good friend, Kaylus, had suggested I do about a week or so earlier.

It's funny because I ALWAYS have a plan but when the question was put forth to me, I realized that I essentially stopped planning life once I hit grad school. All plans for the past 4 years, were surrounding the achievement of the major projects and such associated with the attainment of the PhD. This meant that I needed to now think about what I wanted, where I wanted to be and how I plan on achieving said goals after this degree. Yes, I still have another 2 years until I walk across the stage but considering 2013 is pretty much already here, it is definitely a good time to start revisiting my life plan.

I still haven't completed it as yet BUT I've got details through 2014 and highlights for 2015. I'll spend some more time on it in the days to come to get some more highlights through 2017 (at least).

The 2nd assignment was to construct a personal vision statement. wooo who knew this small task would be soooo challenging. Without going through the details, I'm excited to report that I got mine drafted [insert happy dance]. I'm still praying about whether this is "it" or if something else need to be added but I'm excited! Beyond excited...ecstatic.

"For everyone that I work with, my aim in life is to AMPLIFY their strengths, CHALLENGE their faulty thinking, attitudes and belief systems and thus assist with bringing about CHANGE so they can live more fulfilled and meaningful lives."

What do you think? too long? too vague? too pie in the sky?

Those key words: amplify, challenge, and change were a part of a professor's philosophy and pedagogy and although I interviewed her almost a year ago, those words are seemingly on repeat in my head.  It resonated with me over these months, and it actually shifted my own approach so that I looked at my experiences as challenges to bring about change in my life. Challenges are now welcomed rather than avoided.

I've committed to be on a never-ending growth tract and decided my life's mission is to do the same with the lives I'm blessed to interact with.

Do you have a personal vision statement? or something similar? share with us in the comments section below.

Grace peace and love,
Gia

SHAPE

About 10 years ago (or more), I read The Purpose-Driven Life. It spoke to me..and although I can't remember quotes or even the chapters, the one thing I often think about is the acronym SHAPE. I wouldn't lie to to you to say that I remembered exactly what each of those letters meant but I always remembered the general idea...I was made, divinely designed to fulfill a particular purpose and if I paid enough attention, this would be really obvious in the topics and things that I am interested in, my talents and even to some extent through my experiences.

From purposedriven.com, here is what the SHAPE acronym stands for:

• Spiritual Gifts: A set of special abilities that God has given you to share his love and serve others.
• Heart: The special passions God has given you so that you can glorify him on earth.
• Abilities: The set of talents that God gave you when you were born, which he also wants you to use to make an impact for him.
• Personality: The special way God wired you to navigate life and fulfill your unique Kingdom purpose.
• Experiences: Those parts of your past, both positive and painful, that God intends to use in great ways.

Yesterday my Pastor's message was pretty much about this, without using this language. (Once the video is available, I'll upload it for those who are interested. I don't want to go into too much detail about it.)  The thing is, I feel like I've been hit over the head over and over with this theme for this entire year...

from The Purpose Driven Life Shaped to Serve series (Robert Johnson)

I know what my SHAPE is....have you figured out what yours is?

Grace peace and love,
Gia