Monday, October 29, 2012

Sharing a Fear

I have a fear.

I will share it with you today.

I promise all my sentences won't be this short and vague.

Ok, just one more, because it seems like such a dramatic opener.

So as mentioned, many sentences ago, I have a fear, and it is a very real fear that has just started to fully come to my attention and I would like to do my best to put a stop to it, or better yet, reverse it!! And now, at long last, I will reveal my fear: People are forgetting how to dream.

This alarms me greatly. If one does not know how to dream for their future, then they also do not know how to set goals, self motivate, achieve goals, find confidence in their accomplishments, strive for excellence, strive for self betterment and achieve something in life! I'm out of breath now because I typed that sentence without breathing. Where will our next leaders come from if our generation has forgotten how to have vision and dream dreams! It's a tense time where there are no dreams, because what replaces that void is 'settling'.
Settling for remaining at the level you are at at this very moment (personally, emotionally, financially, physically, educationally, other '-ally's') because you are too scared to dream. Or worse yet, schools have taken away the dreams of students and replaced them with a 'finish school, get education, get a good job, retire' attitude. Where are the dreams!! Where are the thoughts that occur between work, school, and sleeping... have these been hidden too far inside you that you forgot what it was to live for something bigger again? To experience life instead of just live it?

I borderline feel like I am going crazy sometimes because I have so many things I want to accomplish in life (write a book, ride an elephant, learn sign language, speak at a huge conference, write another book, be a rocking awesome wife, meet 100 new people, host huge dinner party's, and 189471 more small and big things) and I'm excited about them and work towards them but then I run into people that have no dreams or aspirations in life. Excuses for their family upbringings, current financial status, current educational status, and 'tomorrow thinking' are all used as reasons for why they cannot dream big dreams and it saddens me. Dreams are a choice and have to come from within! I'm not saying 'be like me' I'm saying awaken the 5 year old within you and dream of riding a pony again!! ... or for the boys... of being a real life cowboy with your horse galloping across a desert!! Feel alive again!!

Have you ever noticed that a week can pass you by so quickly? A month? A year? Your entire life?! When are you going to start dreaming again and reach to achieve them. Life is happening right now whether you want it to or not, and today, more than ever, there are so sooo many opportunities and adventures available for you ranging in price from free to a fortune. Start at one dream and go from there, the addictive factor will keep you hooked but you have to take that first step.

Here's a blunt tip: TV isn't real life, neither are movies, video games, your cell phone, Facebook, angry birds, Twitter, etc. Live your life, not someone else's, and don't go through your life with a cell phone glow on your face. LIVE!

Now friends, if you needed that little kick in the butt I so greatly encourage you to go Dream, Achieve, and Inspire for ... well for the rest of your life. Keep me posted because I'm excited to see your dreams come to life!

Monday, October 22, 2012

One Year Healiversary

Friends, today is a big day for me. An awesome day. Even more awesome than usual! I know, that's a lot of awesome. Don't get overwhelmed yet, stay with me... you awesome person you.

Today is my one year healiversary.

"What the heck is healiversary?" you ask. Great question. I will give you a wonderful hint, a year ago I wrote this: Delayed Post of Healing - Serious Level High

And now a year later... do I even dare go over the amount of blessings that have come upon me these past 12 months after a weekend of God given healing!! And attempt to explain just how this weekend really impacted my entire life only a measly year ago!!

Yes... I dare.

Here we go. Encounter Retreat. That is the name of the retreat that happened over a year ago. Ahhh I'm so excited as I write this. Ok staying calm. Let's get one thing straight from the get-go though... I did not want to go to this retreat. I had just come back from a month in Europe, I was getting used to this whole not crying on a daily basis thing, and I was beginning to settle into a pattern (finally) with work, school, and friends. As soon as I heard about this retreat I knew two things, one, that it was going to rock my world, two, I had to be there. Both of those facts did not change the feeling that I did not want to be there though. This is called "ridiculous resistance". I was brave, pep-talked myself, ignored the feeling and got myself to that retreat. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!

I go to the retreat and walk away feeling more complete and whole then I have in my entire life. I didn't feel torn in a million pieces anymore!! I felt whole and new, I felt like I had a purpose for life again! Can you imagine how great that feels after feeling lost and like there was no plan for my life for SO SO SOOO long! I mean just imagine! I thought there was no way to fully restore myself.

Now today, as I reflect an exact year later I can't believe the direction my life has taken. And I know you may have heard it before but I just can't move past this point or completely fathom the blessings that have poured upon me now that I have set my steps straight with the Lord. I cannot for one second deny the incredible peace and purpose he has poured down upon and the great love that he has for me. AHHH it makes me feel so excited for the future!! How does He love me so much! I have joy, I have purpose, I have value, I have a HUSBAND, I have incredible friends and family, I have incredible work environment, I have so so much.

I'm just rambling now because I'm too overwhelmed with love and gratefulness and joy and .... oh man. Love life! I will just leave you with this... because this my friends is the reason I get so excited. If a broken person like me can find such emotional freedom and peace I KNOW that others can follow and find that same healing.. EXCITING!!

"Speak my mind so that I may be free. But take the 'me' out of 'my' and make it Your own. Your will, Your guidance, Your words. Speak the words I do not want to say. The awkward, difficult, faith pushing words that save. The words that are delivered to me: the hands, feet and voice of the Lord that will bring His lost people home. The words that are uncomfortable, but so is hell. Bring the lost to Heaven and let them see for themselves that those words were never awkward or odd but words delivered to save them and guide them to their rightful home. Life is but a vapour, don't waste your few words."

Monday, October 15, 2012

Life Plan Panic

Good day Friends, I have a thought for you today that may bring peace to your hearts.

Picture a snail


Cute, ok good.

Now picture seeing that snail on the ground as you are walking.


Is your first thought when you see this snail, "Oh my gosh!! He's so behind, he's losing the race!! What's wrong with him!!!!!!"
I am guessing not. In my typical Sunshiney Day if I see a snail moving along, well ok I probably don't think much about it to be honest, but I also don't analyze this snail thinking that it is way behind on its journey to wherever it is going.
Stay with me, this is getting good...

Ok, now picture seeing two snails:

Does it now seem more likely that you will think one of the snails is falling behind? In this case obviously the snail on the left is behind. You can think whatever you want as these snails may not be racing at all, but simply headed in the same direction at different speeds.

Don't worry, there is a point to this. I'll tell you now...

In your own life you may be moving along on your own path completely unconcerned about how long it takes you to get wherever it is you're going.
  • It is only when you start comparing yourself to other people that the idea is planted that you might be in some sort of 'race'.
  • It is only when you start comparing yourself to the expectations that others have put upon you that you feel like your are losing the 'race'.
  • It is only when you start comparing yourself to the gifts of others that you feel somehow you are inadequate and have lost the 'race'.
Do you see the stressful situation that this may put you in?! Wondering day in and day out if you are on the right path, why you don't know exactly where you are going, and what you were meant to do in this world! Seeing other people's life plans and what they have accomplished compared to you will never ease that situation.

I came upon this verse yesterday and it is beautiful and freeing:
"You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed." Psalm 139:16

How can you get behind a life that is already perfectly planned out specifically for you?
Does this mean you can sit on your butt and life will come to you? No.
Does it mean you still have to take action to live to your full potential? HECK YES!

Friends, you have an amazing life plan set out before you. A life plan specific for you. An incredible plan. Even if you are moving at a snails pace keep yourself moving so that when you receive opportunities or guidance to be steered in another direction you already have the momentum going to get to that place quicker.

I'M EXCITED FOR YOUR LIVES!!!


Tuesday, October 9, 2012

A Ruined Day

Tuesday is the new Monday, moving right along...
You may be offended today. I half apologize for that, but I also hope you get over that in a timely fashion once you realize that you can leave this post feeling uplifted (if you so choose).
Let's begin and see where we end up as this topic has been on my mind for a while.
Have you ever heard this: “I’m soooo angry. I can’t believe they said and/or did that. She/He ruined my entire day.
I overhear strangers saying this, it’s all over my facebook page, I hear some friends say it quite often, heck, I have probably said it myself once or twice in my life. But here’s the thing, I hear that now and my first thought is honestly somewhere along the lines of…
 “Well, that was dumb! Why did you let them do that.”
...because honestly, who do you have control of in this world? Who’s attitude are you in complete control of? Other people’s? Your Ex? Your current? Your now 'ex' friends? No, negative, the only person you have exact control of is you.
If you are letting somebody else ruin your day then that is none other than your fault. Maybe I don’t understand your situation, maybe you have a unique scenario… sure, but that doesn’t change the facts. How you look at a situation or more importantly how you allow yourself to react to a situation is completely up to you. Will you be the higher person keeping that situation a private matter to be resolved quickly, or will you allow yourself to become the poor victim then go and update your facebook status so everybody knows how you have been victimized and how horrible your life is while also giving you the chance to wallow in your 'ruined' day as others give their opinions on how offended you should be. (That is a run on sentence of confusion for why this happens daily all around me.)
Friends, you are better and stronger than wallowing in self pity over a rude and/or inappropriate comment someone might say to you... the more you don't make a 'vague' facebook status about it, don't rally your friends to start hating this person, and don't focus on this fact the better you will feel about yourself and feel about the quality of your day! I encourage you to be strong and the bigger person! Crazy things happen in life that could leave us all offended every 10 seconds… but what fun is that? Don’t you want to move past ridiculous situations so you can get back to living life and enjoying your day sooner?
Again, if you take the time to read this (p.s. thank you I appreciate it, honestly, thanks so much) but if you are also sitting there being like well Sherylynn… Sunshine… whoever you are, you have it good, your life is all in place obviously you don’t get it because nothing bad ever happens to you. Think again my friend!! You may not know about the difficult challenges going on in my life because:
1)      They are not a part of my facebook statuses.
2)      You probably don’t need to know about them. (Don't get all offended on me...)
3)     And most importantly, I don’t like to dwell on things but instead just pray and leave the issues with God to sort out. He’s good at that stuff!

It’s truly as simple as that.

“Every day you can have an incredibly great day, you just need to remember to have it.”

Monday, October 1, 2012

"Strict Policy" Breaker

A Sunshiney Day Moment:

I was at the store the other day purchasing some things for work.

Upon gathering my wonderfully selected items I went to the till, where one pays for said items.
Time Travel: Prior to leaving my work
I was given one of the corporate visas,
just to see if the store would take it.
My guess was no, but I was going to give it a try
just for some fun and entertainment.
End Time Travel.
So once at the cashier and after we had gone through that whole "How's your day?" "Great, yours?" etc. that they repeat over and over again (especially in the express lane) I handed her the visa for payment. The cashier took one look at the visa and got a bit serious to inform me that the store, we will call it Unsafepath, had a 'strict visa policy' and therefore would need photo ID for me to use that card. I told them it was a corporate card (while also trying to casually show that the company name matched my sweater). She asked if I had ID that matched to the actual name on the card, I said that I did not, however I did know the pass code for the visa... so then she just let me use the visa! That was too easy. Now ultimately, it didn't really matter if they took the visa or not because work would have just reimbursed me if they didn't. But the fact that I got around this 'strict policy' without barely even trying...I couldn't believe it. A supposed 'strict policy' just disappeared because I said I knew a little code, regardless of whether I had ID to match the card or not.

Let's talk about this in great and loving detail about the dangers of veering away from strict policy's. Fun!
So my thought is simply how often in our lives do we have 'strict policy's' on different things but then end up waiving them off if we are given a persuasive argument or met with resistance? Are we even aware that we are doing this or do we simply see that there was no immediate punishment from our bending of policy's and therefore no harm done?

Need some examples? Think wide range on this one: think goals for eating healthy, think not swearing, think habits, think premarital sex, think drinking, think eating at McDonalds, think not buying unneccesary things, think reading every single day, ... think about whatever your personal convictions may be, there is a very wide range!

If you decide to make a strict policy on something, example never eating at McDonalds again, then you must stick to that if you think you're going to make a difference and gain people's respect and acceptance of that policy. And here's the thing as much as keeping yourself accountable to your policy's, other people matter as well because once people know you have such a strict policy against eating at McDonalds (or not drinking alcoholic drinks, etc.), and that you do not budge from it they will stop asking you to go to there. Your name will not become associated with McDonalds, I know this from first hand experience!

One more example, let's go more serious here, even though it sounds a bit high school but I'm going here... If you decide that you are not going to have sex until you are married then, regardless of your reasoning, you must make a strict policy for that to actually happen. If a cute guy comes along and just wants to see if he can get past that policy, if you don't have your guard up and know where you stand then he's just going to talk you right out of that policy. Or maybe to go so far as saying that 'he loves you' (knowing the pass code) which might make you think that it is ok. Guess what, once somebody knows that your 'strict policy' can be broken through or avoided it will be harder to maintain that strict policy.


"A strict policy is for the dedicated, determined, and downright stubborn."
And that's ok, just make it positive.