We are inundated with tips, lists, and self-help gurus telling us the key to happiness. Peoples definition of happiness can come in many shapes and forms. The form I am learning in life at the moment, is that happiness and joy, simply come from being thankful.

We recently celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with our family. All I could feel the whole time was thankful and grateful. The most simple tasks made me feel thankful. Being able to run clean drinking water, setting the table for our family, and divulging in turkey dinner made me overwhelmed with gratitude.

Simply connecting one with the other, I am happy when I am thankful. Being thankful is an attitude. You have to choose to be thankful, it is not just something that gives you warm fuzzy feelings. We too often find it easier to complain about life and situations instead of looking at all we have and being grateful for it. Trust me when I say, you have more than someone else does; materially, emotionally, socially. Think really hard about it, no matter how down and out you are, someone out there is worse off than you. This is not to downplay that we have times of struggle. It is a thought to think when your struggles are getting the best of you. It is powerful to have the ability to turn what is bad in your mind and redirect it to what is good in your life. When you chose to live with an attitude of gratitude, you will unlock the enchanted bliss of happiness. Tho it is a simple concept, it is not always easy to achieve. I hear people complain all the time, I do it myself at times. As human beings, it is effortless to look at what you do not have instead of what you already possess. This reaches further than the material and extends to relationships, success, and whatever in life we do not have that we think would make us happy.

In Canada we are heading into an election in under a week now. It has been astonishing to hear the brash demeanour that has flooded social media in the wake of such an important decision. I have travelled to many other countries where democracy does not exist. Trust me when I say we need to be thankful on our hands and knees for the country we live in. Maybe it is too hard for people to understand or grasp the freedoms we have because they have never been without. We have so many rights as humans in this country that I am eternally grateful for.

Being thankful for what you have drastically changes your point of view in everything. Imagine how different life will feel if we always walk in thankfulness and gratitude for the small and the big. Changing our hearts and words to what is good and kind from a heart that is thankful will not only change our world, it has the power to change someone else’s too. Being happy starts with being thankful.

∼live your journey true∼

Today would have been our first daughters sixth birthday. Every year, my emotions start to build a few days before the anniversary of her death. The thought of going to her graveside terrifies my emotions every year. Going there stirs everything up in my heart and mind, reminding me of what a traumatizing day August 8th, 2009 was for my husband and I. Once we are there, I lay flowers around her name plate, the number of flowers commemorating the age she would be each year. After spending some time there I walk around and read all the other name plates of the other babies laid to rest in the Garden of Angels. I am reminded of the loss we go through, so many of us, in many different ways. I read what other parents wrote as inscriptions on their child’s name plate as a way to honour their brief, yet impacting lives. It is not easy to grieve. As humans we have to find ways to grieve, and every time I go to the Garden of Angels, I ponder over the gentle words that parents write. As I remember, it was a very difficult decision to place words on a bronze name plate that will be etched there for decades to come. To find the statement you desire to encompass everything you felt about that precious life. Once those words came forward in our hearts, it was one step forward in our grieving process.

Our daughters name plate reads:

Lord we commit our daughter to you. Give her a kiss each day for us. Continue to use her life to draw our hearts closer to yours.

God’s grace leads us through the deepest of pain and the greatest of loss. His grace allowed us to surrender to Him what was His in the first place. Our daughter was a gift given to us for a brief moment, she is God’s angel for eternity. Her lovely presence in our life was only for a short moment, yet she has impacted us forever. God used her little life to teach us that we can get through anything with Him, even the most horrendous heartache you could ever imagine. Our faith is forever rooted in knowing that no matter what happens, God has got us in His hands. For every moment we felt like we could not go on or deal with the pain, He gave us peace that was beyond all our understanding. For every day we felt nothing but weakness to walk forward, He gave us strength to stand up and move. For all of the people that asked us how it is possible we still believe in God when something like this happened to us- we still believe because He is the one who has carried us through. He is the bond that has helped us work through our grief together as a couple.

There are always days when a wave of grief floods over our hearts, yet they are followed by waves of God’s grace carrying us forward in His love.

We love and miss you baby M, Happy 6th Birthday!

∼live your journey true∼

Have you ever felt that you were being led in one direction, only at the last-minute to be catapulted the other way? Currently my husband and I are in a relocation trial for his job. The trial is for a descent amount of time in order to make a thought out decision. We have simply been praying that if it is where God wants our family to be, that He will continue to open the doors for us. If however this is not the right move for us, then we ask God to close the door. As far as we have entertained this idea, I have felt like God is giving the go ahead. So far, the doors have been opening. Yet, I cannot help but remember the stories I have heard and some of the experiences I have journeyed through in the past. Times when you are so certain God is leading you in a direction, then at the final moment it does not happen. Are there times where maybe we thought we were hearing God because we just wanted it in our own will? Sure, that can happen. However, there are times where I believe that God bring us right to the threshold of an open door, only to gently close it right before we walk through. Why would He do that we ask? Well, sometimes we need to walk that mile to see if we will listen to Him. To see if we would be obedient to His call wherever it may lead us. It keeps us on our toes, reminding us that we are not in control and that a faithful life devoted to God is a life that is constantly trusting the ebb and flows of where He guides us. If we trust and follow, we will land exactly where we need to be. It is not an easy task, and at times it comes with disappointment for a while. As time goes on we can sometimes see why we went on the journey we travelled and why we ended up or did not end up where we thought we would be. The destination is not always where everything comes to light, it is most often the journey we take that teaches us patience, perseverance, long suffering, compassion, and brings more understanding of what faith and trust in God really mean.

Living life with so much up in the air is not a comfortable place to be. It is becoming a place that I am slowly getting used to being in, simply because God continues to bring me back here. It is a place where we surrender how we think our life should look, so that we can fulfill what God wants to accomplish in and through us. So we continue to walk forward while the doors open. If at the final moment the door closes, we will still cherish all that we learned along the way.

∼live your journey true∼

When you become a mother you enter what almost feels like a parallel universe. So much of what you once knew can feel so different. Your body changes, your relationships can change, even your mind changes. There are days where it is easy to feel like you are going crazy or that you just do not feel like yourself anymore. I often refer to the first couple years of motherhood as a complete haze. Lack of sleep, sacrificing your whole self – mind and body, and the entire disruption that motherhood brings to what you once recognized life to be… that is the haze.

There is a large part of your life that is all laid to rest when motherhood takes over. Some of your dreams, your hobbies, your career, your body, and even some relationships cease to exist. Everything truly changes to a degree when you become a parent. There are days where you feel like the amount of sacrifice it requires is overwhelming. Yet all of these things that our laid to rest in our lives do not mean that they will completely die off. Timing is everything. Having a family, requires us to put some things on the back burner for a time. In a society that is completely the opposite of patient and that teaches that you should be all things and have all things, we forget that it is okay for some things to rest at certain times in our life. In fact, some of our dreams and aspirations need to rest for a while so they can come out more refined in the aftermath.

I have to remind myself often that what I have put on hold in my life in order to give to my family will have its time. When that time comes, oh the magnitude of appreciation that I will have cultivated in bringing forth all that has been percolating in my heart and mind. There are great things ahead for us all when we exercise patience. Gods timing is perfect timing for all I wish to do and accomplish. For now, God had given me the greatest gift of a family that needs my attention and the sacrifices I have made will not go unaccounted for.

When you have a bad day in the trenches of motherhood, remember that all that you have laid to rest to raise your babies is for a time. We may not know how it will all come to fruition, but it will all work out. Who knows, maybe God will work out your dreams to be fulfilled through your children after all you invested and sacrificed for them. Wouldn’t that be the greatest joy of all!

∼live your journey true∼

The truth of the matter is that God has got it all! He has it all in His control, in His time, in His method of achieving what is required to fulfill His will through you. As humans, we naturally worry about the most minor of issues, and the most major. God loves us so much that the matters in our mind that toil us- even He cares for those matters to be settled for us. The role that we play is giving those matters to God, letting Him have it all and take care of it His way, in His time.

My husband and I have moved many times. In our 11 years of marriage, we have moved 9 times. Every time we move, I become obsessed about where the next house is going to be, what it is going to look like, will it fulfill my picky taste. In the grand scheme of life, it is really a minor worry. It is not a life or death situation. Yet, God still cares that I feel at peace where I live. In His grand life scheme, where I live can help me to become who He wants me to be, and can help fulfill His purpose for someone else as well if I am obedient to Him. You see, everything serves a purpose. Where we live, who your influences are, who your friends are, where you go to school, where you hang out, all the people you interact with in life matter. They matter because they are who God has placed around you to influence you and for you to influence them- hopefully all in love and for God’s glory. And all those things we worry about matter to God too. If we can take all we have in our hands, let go, and give it to God- He will take care of it all. It will all work out. Whatever you are so worried about, so torn up about- who you love, where you live, where you will work, where you will go to school, if you should move, who you should marry, if you will have children, the list goes on and on… God has got it all, if you are willing to give it all to Him.

Matthew 6:33 (MSG)

“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers- most of which are never even seen- don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”

I need to breathe that scripture every day of my life. He cares about us. He has got it all!

∼live your journey true∼

Life is crazier than it has ever felt before. My little ones are growing beyond any grasp. My extended family is going through a stressful time due to past circumstances. My husbands career is the most time consuming it has ever been. There are periods of time in my life where the wheels start spinning out of control. Today I just felt the need to stop and breathe. To look back on some of my past thoughts and writings to bring me back to my center. There are days that you have to look back on what you believe, what your values are, and what words you have expressed before about your approach to life- refreshing yourself in your own words and advice.

∼live your journey true∼

My daughter is often in a battle to fight falling asleep. She does not want to give up on the action going on beyond her bedroom door. I have utmost respect for the determination of that little toddler. She just will not give up to stay awake at times. At times I wonder how that determination in her spirit will guide her through life. It will be interesting to watch as she grows. Watching her on the video monitor when she is trying with everything in her power to stay awake, reminds me of how frustrated we may become when we are unable to let go. There are circumstances, relationships and events in our lives that we want to control so badly. It is easy to get wrapped up in it all that we are fighting with ourselves and sometimes others. The tension we can cause by our own stubbornness is most often more harmful than we realize.

I watch my daughter fight and fight and fight, only to find herself so over tired. My mind thinks, just go to sleep and you will feel better, just let go, give up already. As her battle wears down, I watch the moment she finally releases her tension, lays down, and peacefully drifts off. When she wakes, she is so happy and refreshed. She always has to tell me that she slept for some random number of hours – it is pretty cute.

Simply put, when are we going to realize that there are times we need to just release, let go, and let life take its course. There are some situations and relationships that are out of our control. What a refreshing moment when we let the chips fall where they need to and we let it be what it needs to be. At the end of the day, it is all in God’s hands if you allow Him the control of the situation and relationships that are causing you so much strife.

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

∼live your journey true∼

Did you know that every day is a second chance? Every morning that we wake up is a second chance to live better. It is an opportunity to make better choices than we did yesterday. It is another chance to forgive ourselves and others for what is in the past, and move forward to a brighter future. That is how vast God’s love is for us. His mercies are new each morning for us.

Lamentations 3: 22-23 (NIV)

“God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!”

This is how faithful God is, that He lavishes His love and forgiveness upon us. His mercy never fails us. Wow! That is love beyond what our minds can fathom. Oh, how I desire to love others with this kind of love. I am so thankful, that even tho I can make mistakes, we all do, that each morning I wake, a new day is before me. A day to walk on a better path.

Tho His mercy is extended to us, it is not an excuse to fulfill our selfish desires. It is hope for a new day. We are going to mess up at times, no matter how you look at it. How thankful I am, that I can look out the window at the warm glow of the sun, and have peace that today is a new day, with new hope, and new beginnings. The choice is mine to accept that mercy and never-ending love that comes from Father God.

∼live your journey true∼

Tell me something… what makes your spirit feel alive? Do you thrive on success and accomplishment? Do you ignite with thrill and risk? Perhaps quietness and rest makes you feel alive. As I walk day by day, I am coming into a place that makes me feel alive. It is actually feeling content. It is easy for me to want to get to the next stage in life, or achieve the next milestone. I often have not grasped one, before I am already thinking of the next. It becomes a mad race getting to the next phase of life. What I am learning for myself, is that being content makes me feel alive. Why? It is a place of balance for me. Contentment  means having no fear of the unknown or what comes next for me. It is intertwined with trust, that I am right where I am supposed to be in life. Sure there are more adventurous situations that light a fire to my awareness of life. Yet, the one that brings the right balance for me, is being content with where I am at. Letting go of fear and hurriedness. Enjoying the exact moment I am in and contending that it is the perfect place to be makes me inhale life for all it is. Tho some of those moments may be painful and some joyous – they all have their rightful place at their destined time to shape me into all I can be.

Philippians 4:11-13 (NIV)

11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Feeling alive does not require my hands to be empty or full. It requires my heart to be aware; that whatever the situation, God is with me, He loves me, He provides, and He gives me strength. Feeling alive for me, means that I am content in a state of happiness, fulfillment and peace knowing that everything is as it should be.

∼live your journey true∼