My Monday Map to Success

The Romance Blog

"Draw me! We will run after you! The king brings me into his apartments! We will be glad and rejoice in you! We will be glad and rejoice in you! We will recall [when we were favored with your love, more fragrant than wine. The upright [are not offended at your choice, but sincerely] love you."

Song of Solomon 1:4

    In the last few months, I have struggled with feelings of emptiness. A few days ago, I began to question why I am feeling so lonely and empty. As a woman with three kids, a great husband, and a God on my side, why am I feeling so forgotten?

    Last night, I heard Misty Edwards talking about Song of Solomon, and I started thinking about romance. Sure, I have a wonderful husband who gives me plenty of romance here on earth, but I need something more. It is not satisfying my spirit.

    As I read Song of Solomon today, I realized that there is a spiritual romance I am missing. For some reason, I go strong for awhile, but, when times get tough, I get weary and give up. Instead, I need to start running to God when times are tough and I feel alone. This emptiness can be defeated by a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit.

    There is a great scripture that I am going to start meditating on. This great scripture made me realize that only God's love can fill that emptiness. If I am struggling with this emptiness, I know that my eyes have moved away from God, so I need to move my focus back on God.

"[That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!

Ephesians 3:19

    Wow, God wants to romance us and fill us with His fullness. God is ready and willing to flood us with His goodness, but we have to allow Him to romance us. When I was dating my husband, Brenton, I always wanted to look and act my best. Even after 15 ½ years of marriage, I want him to find me beautiful. Every time he comes home, I kiss him and tell him how much I missed him. We call each other several times a day to keep connected. We are always on the lookout for special songs that we can dedicate to each other, and, when we hear these songs played on the radio, we look at each other passionately

    What about God? Do we put on our best, or dress for Him? Are there times when we stop and talk with Him? Is there a special song just between you and Him that makes you stop and think passionately about Him? Do you do everything for Him? Do you give Him your best, or do you only give Him the scraps that are left over at the end of the day?

    These are questions that I had to stop and honestly ask myself. Unfortunately, I really didn't like the answers. If I am willing to romance my imperfect husband here on Earth [no offense to Brenton, He is the greatest man I know here on Earth], but how much more should I romance the perfect God who loves me and set me free.

Weekly Challenge:

Right now, I encourage you stop and take inventory of your life. If you feel empty or alone, you need to stop and pray that God will make you full, again. He will turn mourning in to dancing, and depression into joy. If you allow God to come into the pain and sorrow, He will give you a reason to live again.

In the world today, we hear of tragedy over and over again. It is only when I get with my God that I feel the peace I need to live. My challenge this week is to make a pact to romance God. This means to not only love Him, but give Him your best. In everything you do, do it for Him. Not only will your life change for the better, you will begin to make an impact on the people around you.

"Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; [your eyes] will behold a land of wide distances that stretches afar."

Isaiah 33:17

Hang In There

Lately, we have had issues that have caused us a lot of stress. When I tell my friends about the problems, they tell you to hang in there. When I hear their response, I feel worse. They mean well, but somehow it just does not help. I tell them that I am having issues and they say stay in your issues, they will be resolved soon; somehow, that response just does not have the effect that was intended.

"When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."

~Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

What does hang in there mean? It means keep fighting. We have all heard that winner never quit and quitters never win. We all know that this is true. One of the most watch programs of the year is the Super Bowl. This is a great matchup between the best team from each conference. This is what people want to see, how do you think the game would change it was a matchup of the two worst teams of the year? What if the teams were made up of players that tried out for the team but quit when the tryouts got difficult. No one wants to see this type of event. The Super Bowl would lose its reputation of being a premier sports event. We need to understand that we may fail by trying, but we will always fail if we quit. We must never ever quit.

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."

~Harriet Beecher Stowe

 

We believe that hanging in there is an active response. Most people see a mental picture of a person holding on to the end of a rope. They are waiting to be rescued. They are waiting for outside forces to come in and fix their problem. This allows us to feel better about doing nothing to resolve our own issues. It also allows us to blame others if we fail or they don't help us. We must change that mental image to a person holding onto a rope but actively trying to climb the rope. We need to look at our issue and take action. By taking action, we may be able to resolve our own issues with outside help. Even if you do not resolve the issue, our actions will make our issue better. We must take action to resolve our issues.

"No action, no change. Limited action, limited change. Lots of action – Change occurs."

~Catherine Pulsifer

 

"Imperfect action is better than no action."

~Giovanna Garcia

 

We also should seek good council. First, we need to talk to someone who can help us take action to resolve our issues. If we know what we should do but not how to do it, we need to find an expert to help us. This guidance will help us make the best possible action to resolve our issue. We need to seek wise council from our friends, family, and those around us. We must seek wise council to assist us during difficult times.

"Where there is no guidance, a people fails, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety."

~Proverbs 11:14

 

We also should seek good support. We need to seek support from our friends and family. We need to talk to people who will emotionally support us through our issue. It is great to have a friend in your corner. We need to reduce or eliminate our time spent with people who do not support us. Non-supportive people will make your issues bigger. Everyone needs someone to help them when they fall and support them during trying time. We must seek positive support during difficult times.

Most of us, swimming against the tide of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement – and we will make the goal."

~Jerome Fleishman

 

This Week's Challenge:

If you are facing difficult issues, we would like to tell you to hang in there. What we mean is you must never quit, no matter what happens. You should take action to resolve your issues. You must seek wise council to assist you during difficult times. You must also seek positive support during difficult times. If you follow these steps, your problem may not be resolved immediately, but you will take an active role in resolving your issues. The lessons that you learn from this issue will help you to resolve problem in your future.

"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go."

~William Feather

 

 

How to Deal with Stress

The last two months have been very stressful months. We had all kinds of issue come up that added to our stress level. As you have heard, our grandmother passed away last month. We had to take time off work to go to the funeral. We went along on the trip to help the rest of the family in case of car trouble; however, we were the ones that had the car trouble. The air conditioner went out, and the cost of the repairs caused us to have to purchase a newer vehicle. Our air conditioner at our house also died and we have been working to repair it. Just when we think we have it fixed, something else goes wrong. This has caused us a lot of stress. Our normal life is very busy, so this just adds to the stress. These issues have caused us to look at the way we deal with stress, because we have been dealing with this high level of stress for almost two months.

When we are faced with stress, we need to understand that a small amount of stress is good. This small amount of stress keeps us on task and helps us to be productive. But prolonged amounts of high stress are not good for our health. We need to learn to deal with our stress appropriately. This can be accomplished in many ways, and we will address our favorite five steps.

First, we need to review our stress and separate the real from the fictional stress. When stress is present in our lives, we need to make sure that the stress is real. Sometimes, we stress out over perceived outcomes. We stress about things we think are going to happen. This type of stress is unrealistic. We need to stop stressing out about things that are not real. This step will make our stress levels more realistic.

Second, we need to concentrate on what actions we can take to reduce of our stress. We need to look at our stress level and figure out what can be done to fix the issue that is causing the stress. We need to take action on what part of the issue we can change. Our action can reduce or eliminate the stress from a certain issue. We should work to resolve the problems that we face to reduce our stress levels. The worst action to take is no action, which causes the problem and the stress to get worse.

Third, we can take a break from the stress. We need to find ways to take some time to get away from the stress, even if it is just a little while. We should look for positive ways to give our brain a rest from stress. These mini-vacations will help us to get away from the stress long enough to regroup and deal with the stress better.

Forth, we need to get some exercise. Exercise is a great way to reduce the effects of stress on your lives. If we concentrate on the exercise then we are able to give our brains a rest from our stress. Exercise also helps our body deal with stress better by releasing Endorphins into the body. Endorphins interact with our brain and reduce our perception of pain. Endorphins give us positive feelings that help us deal with stress better

Fifth, we need to ask for help. Sometimes, we want to feel important and self sufficient. We want to believe we can do anything by ourselves, but this is unrealistic. We need to understand that we all need help from time to time. It is important to ask for help from others when we need it. This allows us to share the stress with others and reduce our own level of stress.

This Week's Challenge:

We need to follow the five steps to dealing with stress. We need to start by reviewing our stress and separating the real from the fictional stress. Next, we need to concentrate on what action we can take to reduce our stress. We also can take a break from the stress, and get some exercise and ask for help. By following these five steps, we can learn to deal with stress and have a more successful life.