It's time

 Found this saved from long ago...

It's time. All of this pretending and performing - these coping mechanisms that you've developed to protect yourself from feeling inadequate and getting hurt - has to go. Your armor is preventing you from growing into your gifts. I understand that you needed these protections when you were small. I understand that you believed your armor could help you secure all of the things you needed to feel worthy and lovable, but you're still searching and you're more lost than ever. Time is growing short. There are unexplored adventures ahead of you. You can't live the rest of your life worried about what other people think. The time has come to let go of who you think you're supposed to be and embrace who you are.

~Brene Brown

Being beautiful

 Being beautiful has very little to do with how you look.  ~Stacie Martin

Deepest fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful

beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness

that most frightens us. We ask ourselves,

Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented,

fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You

are a child of God. Your playing small does not

serve the world. There is nothing enlightened

about shrinking so that other people won't

feel insecure around you. We are all meant to

shine, as children do. We were born to make

manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's 

not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as 

we let our own light shine, we unconsciously

give other permission to do the same. 

As we are liberated from our own fear, our

presence automatically liberates others.

~Marianne Williamson

His timing

 From The Unscripted Truth

His timing is not out our own

"Wait on the Lord: Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord."

Psalm 27:14

Lord I will continue to trust you even when it seems the world is crumbling around me, when it seems as everything is against me and when my heart is feeling down and weary. There will be times when things don't make any sense and you wonder if you are doing the right thing by choosing to walk in faith. Let me remind you are, God is still sovereign and God is still good and He will always be loving and merciful, just be patient and know things will happen in His timing not ours. He has not forsaken or forgotten you, just hold on...

Lord, help us wait patiently for you to work in our lives.

Exchange of power

 When a man truly loves

a woman she becomes his weakness.

When a woman truly loves a man he

becomes her strength. This is called

Exchange of Power.

There you are

 From Her Wild Heart

And then

my soul saw you

and it kind of

went,

"Oh, there you are.

I've been looking

for you."

Rare breed

 From 3 am Thoughts

There is a rare breed of people who go all out.

They keep their word.

They give it their all.

They put themselves last for those they care about.

These individuals rarely receive the same compassion and effort in return yet continue to give freely.

To the givers, forgivers, and selfless lovers out there...

Keep pushing forward.

Don't let the cold world change who you are.

Seldom do

 by Eleanor Roosevelt

You wouldn't worry so much about

what others think 

if you realized 

how seldom they do.

Something

from The Better Man Project

something about you

made me feel a little more alive

and a far less lost.

His name

 I'm just a nobody

trying to tell

everybody

there's a somebody

who can save

anybody

and His name is

Jesus

Seven truths

 From Love is Chaos

Seven uncomfortable truths we all need to accept in 2022

• If you continue to "wait until you're ready" you'll be waiting the rest of your life.
• Feeling sad after making a decision doesn't mean it was the wrong decision.
• What happened yesterday may not be your responsibility, but how you behave today is.
• A narcissist will tear you down and rebuild you in a way that is easier to control. Protect your boundaries at all costs.
• If you learn to read books, you can be smart. If you learn to read yourself, you can be anything.
• You have to stop prioritizing being loved by others over the love that you have for yourself.

~Steven Bartlett

Abuse destroys

From Esther Company

I have come to see that the true crisis with marriages

in the church is not a divorce crisis but an abuse

crisis. If we had low divorce rates but high abuse

rates, how would that be success?

Here is what I know: many godly women are 

divorcing their husbands as a last resort after years

of abuse, pornography addiction, infidelity, lying, and

other destructive behaviors. These are not women 

who simply "fell out of love," were disappointed with 

marriage, or fell for another man.

No. They have prayed for years, done everything they

know to do, followed their church's advice, and 

fought to have a good marriage. Meanwhile, their

husband has broken the marriage covenant again

and again through his destructive behavior.

When a woman makes the difficult decision to

divorce her husband after years of ongoing abuse,

she is not the one who ruined the marriage. Let's be

clear: in the case of abuse, divorce is not what

destroyed the marriage. Abuse destroyed the 

marriage - divorce is simply the declaration that the

marriage has been destroyed 

On you

Learn to say, That's on you.

Your behavior is on you.

The way you move is on you.

The choices you make are all on you.

The way you live it's all on you.

Stop absorbing the pain of other people,

recognize what belongs to you and what doesn't.

Attack

 From Flying Free

The love of a husband towards

his wife is symbolic of the 

love between Christ and the

church (Ephesians 5:25-33).

Stop telling abuse victims

to tolerate a relationship that

portrays the love of Jesus

like the attack of the enemy.

~Patrick Weaver

Boundaries

Love yourself enough to set

boundaries. Your time and

energy are precious. You get

to choose how you use it.

You teach people how to

treat you by deciding what 

you will and won't accept.

~Anna Taylor

Robins and sparrows

Overheard in the Orchard

Elizabeth Cheney

1859

Said the Robin to the Sparrow,

"I should really like to know

Why these anxious human beings

Rush about and worry so."

Said the Sparrow to the Robin,

"Friend, I think that it must be

That they have no Heavenly Father

Such as cares for you and me."

Being liked

 Worth repeating...

from 3 am Thoughts

You absolutely HAVE to become ok with not being liked. 

No matter how loving or kind you are, you will never people-please your way

into collective acceptance.

You could be a whole ray of sunshine and people will hate you because they're used to rain.

Be ok with shining regardless.

Honey is better

 A wise man once said,

"Bees don't waste their time

explaining to flies that honey

is better than s***."

Read that again.

(Sounds like from 3 am Thoughts)

Bananas

 by Nathalie Robin Justice, @welcomewords

If a monkey hoarded more bananas

than it could eat, while most of the

other monkeys starved, scientists

would study that monkey to figure

out what the heck was wrong with it.

When humans do it, we put them on 

the cover of Forbes.

The Other (Other) Serenity Prayer

 I feel like I already have an "Other" Serenity Prayer, so I renamed this one

The Other Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity

to stop beating myself up for

not doing things perfectly,

the courage to forgive myself

because I'm working on

doing better, and the wisdom

to know that You already love

me just the way that I am.

~Eleanor Brownn

Hung on

 by Rachel Macy Stafford, Only Love Today

Before 2021 Comes to a Close:

Notice the dirt under your nails.

You could have let go,

but you didn't.

You hung on.

And now you carry that strength

with you,

Forevermore.

Flight 2022

 Got this from Joann and I love it~

Flight 2022 Instructions

Good morning and welcome to Flight 2022.

We are prepared to take off into the New Year.

Please make sure your Positive Attitude and

Gratitude are secured and locked in the upright

position. All self-destruct devices: pity, anger,

selfishness, pride, and resentment should be turned

off at this time. All negativity, hurt, and

discouragement should be put away.

Should you lose your Positive Attitude under

pressure during this flight, reach up and pull down a

prayer. Prayers will automatically be activated by

Faith. Once your Faith is activated, you can assist

other passengers who are of little faith.

There will be NO BAGGAGE allowed on this flight.

God, our Captain, has cleared us for take-off.

Destination - GREATNESS!

Wishing you a New Year filled with new HOPE, new

JOY, and new BEGINNINGS!

Stay Blessed!

And welcome in 2022.

Hyper-independence

by Kate Kelly

I don't know who needs to hear this,

but hyper-independence is the result

of trauma.

"I don't need *anybody* & must do 

everything myself" really means, "My

ability to trust has been injured by

people systematically letting me down

and failing me."

You do need people. We all do.

Resolution

 From 3 am Thoughts

My 2022 resolution is to stop 

wondering if I'm good 

enough for other people and

start wondering if they're

good enough for me.

Blame you

From 3 am Thoughts

Ever have someone blame you for your reaction to their disrespect.

Wake up some day

Oh my God, what if you wake up 

some day, and you're 65, or 75, and

you never got your memoir or novel

written; or you didn't go swimming

in warm pools and oceans all those

years because your thighs were

jiggly and you had a nice big

comfortable tummy; or you were

just so strung out on perfectionism

and people-pleasing that you forgot

to have a big juicy creative life, of

imagination and radical silliness and

staring off into space like when you

were a kid? It's going to break your

heart. Don't let that happen.

~Anne Lamott

Disagreements

from Adam Grant

The clearest sign of intellectual

chemistry isn't agreeing with 

someone. It's enjoying your

disagreements with them.

Harmony is the pleasing arrangement

of different tones, voices, or

instruments, not the combination of

identical sounds.

Creative tension makes beautiful music.

Abandon

 

People don't abandon

people they love.

People abandon people

they were using.

Mistakes

There is a difference between a 

person who hurts you by making a

mistake, and a person who hurts you

by continuing a pattern.

Mistakes can be forgiven.

Patterns should be broken.

Best for you

Someone once said "you know you

have a big heart when you feel bad

for doing what is best for you"...and I felt 

that.

Maybe

Maybe it won't

work out, but maybe

seeing if it does

will be the best

adventure

ever.

Mindset

 

Mindset.

It is all about mindset.

From the moment you 

wake up to the moment

you rest your head at 

night.

Everything is up to you.

Your emotions, your

thoughts, your

perception, your

reactions.

Every moment.

Ended

 from Flying Free

A marriage to an abuser does not need to be fixed,

it needs to be ended.

~Pastor Jeff Crippen

Rarely know

 by A.W. Tozer

I rarely know where I am going in my life's journey

but I look back, and see that God has been leading me every step

and I did not even know it.