Everyone suffers. But why? Why can’t we skip the suffering and get to the good part?

Good news: I have an answer.

Bad news: You won’t like it.

As you know God created a perfect world. No sin. No pain. No suffering. Adam and Eve had a perfect, guilt-free relationship with God and with each other.

Then

the

Serpent twisted the truth,

and Eve disobeyed God and so did Adam,

and suffering was born.

All-good, all-knowing, all-just, God made a way for every person to again enjoy a perfect and fulfilling relationship with God.

He is conforming his children — you, me, and all followers of his Jesus — into the image of his Son. Listen:

 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. (Romans 8:29)

How does God conform you and me? One way is through suffering. Hear this:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:2-4)

Trials Test Faith

Yes, God is conforming you to the image of his Son, who became a man and faced every sort of temptation yet remained sinless. Unlike me. Unlike you.

Perhaps like me you have thrown pity parties. These are lonely. No one comes.

Or maybe you’ve sought relief in the arms of men or out of a bottle or in the miry pit of busyness (even church busyness).

Or have you faced debilitating fear. A couple decades ago, I had an monstrous panic attack while driving home from work on a six-lane highway and became scared of highway driving. I tried for years to face my fear and failed many times. Now I can drive highways again. It took a lot of practice and prayer, and I had to replace lies I believed with God’s truth.

As my friend Glenda proclaimed on her tee: Cancer sucks. It does. This disease ravaged her body and took her life. In the year before she died, her faith inspired me. God drew her close. She leaned into him.

The Good Part

To me the good part is this: God doesn’t give up on me, Glenda, or anyone. True to his nature, he loves me. He loves you. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

God is on your side. He wants you to know him and to believe and trust and surrender your plans, your hang-ups, your disappointments, your anger and resentment and fear — all of it, all of you — to the One who made you and loves you best.

Let your prayer be: Not my will but yours be done.

Christ is all. Live like you believe it, and you’ll get to the good part even in suffering. You are LOVED.

With Joy Overflowing,

Our grandparents and their parents had less money than we do today, but they possessed the gift of rest sweet  rest. Why? One reason: daily exercise!

Money has an upside and a downside that can help or hurt your goal to get the rest you need. Psst. . .Did you miss any post in my REST series? See the last one here.

The upside: Prosperity means you can relax after work (whether outside the home or at home). You don’t have to hunt for a second job.

The downside: Prosperity has turned up into cerebral slugs. We choose updates our Facebook status and our tweets over moving our bodies and getting the exercise we need.

And when you and I sit sit sit all day long, we not only increase our risk for obesity and its nasty cousins (including heart disease and some types of cancer), we feel more stressed and less rested.

The prescription: Move it!

Many decades ago women broke a sweat going about their chores and watching after the kids. Scrubbing laundry on washboards, hanging shirts, jeans, long johns, and sheets on the clothesline to dry, sweeping, and washing and waxing floors on hands and knees as well as making huge meals three time a day and washing dishes by hands. All this physical toil burned calories and cured insomnia.

Now we drive our cars to the gym and work out, if we have the energy.

Amazing but true: Expending energy produces rest. “One of the first benefits people notice when they embark on an exercise program is sounder sleep,” said physician Richard Swenson, author of the bestseller Margins. “Healthy physical tiredness probably has no equal as a sleep-inducing sedative.”

Indeed.

But HOW?

As I wrote in my book Energy Eating, soon to come out in a revised edition, the best way to exercise so you get good rest is to combine an aerobic activity (cycling, swimming, walking, jogging, dance) with a strength-training exercise (calisthenics, resistance rubber bands, weight-lifting) and gentle stretching.

Start slow. If you haven’t broken a sweat in a while, start with two weekly, 20-minute aerobic activites, two weekly, 10-minute strength-training exercise, and 5 to 10 minutes of gentle stretching fours times a week.

Increase as you go. Exercise longer (30 to 45 minutes per session) and more frequently as your endurance and strength improves. Aim for three to five 45-minute aerobic activities a week and three strength-training exercises a week, as well as daily stretching.

Be smart. To stick with exercise, select activities you like. For example, I don’t like to swim laps. Boooring. Instead I work out on a machine called the Elliptical for aerobic exercise and use machines and free weights. Also, check with your doctor before beginning an exercise program.

Put it on your calendar. You are more likely to get moving when you plan your exercise and put is on your calendar.

ENJOY! As you move and burn calories — and get better rest — you may also notice a mood boost. Physical activity bumps up the production of your brain’s feel-good endorphins and lowers stress levels.

Go Retro

More than a century ago, 90 percent of Americans were farmers; today the number has dwindled to a mere 2 percent, Swenson reported. You can get the benefit of exercise by growing your own vegetables and fruits in a large garden at home. Plus, you’ll save money on your grocery bill.

Question: How has exercise improved your rest? 

With Joy Overflowing!

When you neglect self care, you open the dark door to depression. Take care of yourself. This is God’s will for you.

Have you tumbled into the pitfall of self neglect when life goes nuts? Every woman has.

I remember many times when I cared for a sick kid (and a sneezy-queasy hubby), getting them medicine or water or barf bowls, running myself ragged, and losing sleep. Then when one child was on the mend and I entertained her the best I could, the flu bug bit another child. More medicine. More barf bowls. More worry.

For me less sleep and less good food, unless one dark chocolate after another counts. No? I didn’t think so.

Sometimes we care for everyone but ourselves when we are busy, hurt, or trying to prove our worth, and often end up depressed. So what should you do when you’re depressed or to head off despair?

For a clue, let’s listen to a true story of how God cared for a man who experienced great victory and now suffered deep depression:

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die.

“I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” (1 Kings 19:3-7)

Anticipate a Low After a High

Elijah had experienced a great victory against enemies of God and their evil queen Jezebel. A sort of David-Goliath faceoff and the giant dropped dead. Here, however, it was one against 450 false prophets of the false god Baal. The false prophets all died in a blood bath. Then came the queen’s creepy death threat: “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”

Elijah ran for his life.

Eat Right

The angel told Elijah to eat. He filled up on delicious whole-grain bread and drank water, both miraculously provided. After facing the false prophets and proving that God is God, and knowing a powerful person wants you dead, Elijah was physically spent and emotionally drained even though he walked close to God.

Do the Next Thing

Did you notice that the angel told Elijah to get up? When overwhelmed by busyness, hurt, or depression, it’s tempting to do nothing except maybe change TV channels with a remote. Getting up and doing the next thing — whether getting dressed, eating breakfast, or making a phone call — moves us in a positive direction and spares us a deeper depression of self-pity.

Rest

The average woman needs 7 to 9 hours of sleep daily, more while pregnant, injured, or ill. Are you getting enough? Too much?

Make a godly habit of falling asleep at the same time each night (or morning, if you work third shift) and waking up at the same time each morning. Ban the TV from the bedroom. Steer clear of a computer screen at least one hour before bed. TV-watching and computer use can interfere with sleep.

All of these together — rest, doing the next thing, eating right, and anticipating a low — help you avoid the pit of self neglect and even depression.

Tomorrow is my fourth post in my series on REST. This particular post is counter-intuitive. Can you guess what it is?

With Joy Overflowing!

Lucy

This precious poem was e-mailed to all the parents whose kids play baseball in our town’s little league. You and I can heal with words. We can maim.

The Apostle James exhorts: “No human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be” (James 3:8-10).”

Bless a child today, my sweet friends. Here’s the poem. I do not know the name of the author.

HE IS JUST A LITTLE BOY

He stands at the plate,
with his heart pounding fast.
The bases are loaded,
the die has been cast.

Mom and Dad cannot help him,
he stands all alone.
A hit at this moment,
would send the team home.

The ball meets the plate,
he swings and he misses.
There’s a groan from the crowd,
with some boos and some hisses.

A thoughtless voice cries,
“Strike out the bum.”
Tears fill his eyes,
the game’s no longer fun.

So open your heart,
and give him a break.
For it’s moments like this,
a man you can make.

Please keep this in mind,
when you hear someone forget.
He is just a little boy,
and not a man yet.

Question: What’s your favorite phrase to bless a child? Please share and encourage others. Thank YOU!

With Joy Overflowing!

]]> http://www.lucyannmoll.com/2012/words-can-make-or-break-a-child/feed/ 0 http://www.lucyannmoll.com/2012/7-ways-to-add-room-to-breathe-rest-3/ http://www.lucyannmoll.com/2012/7-ways-to-add-room-to-breathe-rest-3/#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 07:25:19 +0000 Lucy http://www.lucyannmoll.com/?p=4424  WELCOME TO MY 6-WEEK SERIES ON REST! Today’s post gives you 7 simple ways to add breathing room to your busy life.

Here are the first post and the second post in the series in case you missed them.

Is this your life? Laundry overflows. Bills pile. You’re out of milk. Out of time. And going out of your mind?

Then your life is on OVERLOAD. The good news, you can add room to breathe into your life. How? It’s called margin. Everyone needs it. I do. In fact I did something kind of crazy to get me moving in the right direction. I’ll tell you about it in a sec.

So How Do You Breathe Again?

There are many simple ways to add back margin and live a life of rest, resulting in physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial peace. Here are seven ideas.

1. Speak slower. Walk slower. Drive slower. In every way imaginable, SLOW DOWN.

2. Plan FREE TIME in your daily schedule. On purpose have nothing to do for a half-hour here and a half-hour there. Spend it in anyway that feeds your soul: watching birds, taking a nap, playing tic-tac-toe with your child or a friend.

3. Enjoy anticipation. STOP CALENDAR CONGESTION, and space out events like weekend trips months in advance. This way you and your family can enjoy looking forward to your get-away.

4. Decrease spending. Ideas: Make NO IMPULSE PURCHASES. Put a moratorium on eating out for a month. Buy grocery items that are on sale or use a coupon. Do not pay retail, ever.

5. BORROW a tool from a neighbor, and let your neighbor borrow your tools, including scrap-booking gadgets.

6. TURN OFF THE TV for a week or a month. (The average American watches 30 hours of TV a week. Imagine the free time, friend.) Is an entire week without TV too wild to handle? Then pick one day a week to fast from TV. OR, you could unplug for a day or a weekend: no Facebook, no Twitter, no email, no cell phone.

7. Envision A BETTER FUTURE. We all need a purpose bigger than ourselves to live for. You need a heavenly perspective, especially as the world tries to convince you that you’re a loser if you don’t drive this type of car or send your children to that fancy preschool or own this latest technological gadget. Your choice: to live for temporal things or to adopt a godly vision–for your family, for your community, and for the Kingdom.

A Reason You ARE Overloaded

. . .and margin-less.

Adjusting for inflation, real income in America has stayed flat for 40 years while real expenses — especially medical costs — have increased steadily. The good news, you can go retro. You know, tap into your inner rebel. . .and have rest.

You can make a crazy decision like mine: to buy NO clothes or shoes or purses during 2012. We’re five months in, and I haven’t bought a thing, except socks. I am “fasting” from new clothes for a reason other than saving money: to save time.

When I said “No” to new clothes-shoes-purses, I gained the time I would have wasted looking for deals or for a new cute something to wear. And I like my new time. I feel refreshed. Not always, but more than before.

What about you? Have you tried any of the 7 ideas at the top? Did you feel less stressed?

If you’re serious about regaining margin, read the book by Richard A. Swenson, M.D., first published twenty years ago. He has since revised it. You can see it here.

Are you enjoying my 6-week series on REST? Please subscribe to my blog so you get all of them delivered to your email box.

 With Joy Overflowing!