For the tender-hearted woman, setting boundaries can be quite challenging, especially during the holidays.
Join me here as I share a surprisingly simple way to prepare your heart when you need to set a boundary.
{Guest Post by Lori Schumaker}
The other night I sat across the table of a group of women. Remarkable women.
All beautiful and all with scars.
These are real everyday kind of women. The kind that smile and give you hugs when you see them. The kind that laugh at the funny stuff, shake their heads at the nonsense, sit with a friend in need, and love their people like crazy. They are also the kind that push themselves each day, run late, miss deadlines, yell at their kids, get irritated behind the wheel, and cry.
Real everyday kind of women.
Each of them have a story uniquely theirs. In each there is much good, yet in each there is pain.
Pain
… from loss and from gain.
… from lack and from abundance.
Pain that comes simply from the fallout of the sin and brokenness of our world.
Each has a story and each has hope.
*Click below to read more of this guest post by Lori Schumaker. Find hope and purpose in your own story!!!
Have you ever felt at the end of your rope? Me too, and when I’ve been open enough to tell a friend, there is almost always is encouragement there to keep me hanging on. I’ve been the receiver of so many thoughtful little things over the years.
Below is a little list of the some of the things others have done for me and a few that I have done for others. Some are things that you’d instantly think of when you know you have a friend in need, and perhaps a few in the list below will give you new ideas.
Click below to read more and find {Free Printables!}.
Misunderstandings. We all have them at one time or another. We just can’t make it through life without facing hurt feelings, harsh words, and misunderstandings within a relationship. Sometimes we receive it; sometimes we dish it out. When these kinds of things happen, our relationship feels fragile. We may stand there stunned, wondering how in the world we could be in the middle of such a misunderstanding. Or we may feel convicted, knowing it was our fault when our own bad attitudes and words created the situation in which we find ourselves.
And at this point, we have a choice.
We can avoid the situation, hide our hurts, cover up the misunderstanding, and even deny our need to seek forgiveness. Or we can be seekers – seekers of His grace both for ourselves and for pouring out to the other person. We all know the right choice, but it’s the hardest one, isn’t it? How can we move forward and turn those hurts and misunderstandings into a deeper relationship?
We can find some amazing answers in Colossians 3:12. Friends, I have read this verse many times. I have prayed it for the past few weeks since this post. I know others of you have prayed these verses right along with me. But what I didn’t realize is what we were really praying when we claimed and prayed this verse over our relationships!
Click below to read more!
Relationships are the stuff that life is made of. They hold us together and keep us going. Some of us have that inner circle of friends that we walk through life with, our encouragers, our confidants, the shoulders we cry on. Others of us feel more alone and sometimes we might find ourselves near the outside of that circle looking in.
I found myself in both of those places over the years, and over time, I realized something important about the latter. In hindsight, I came to understand that in one particular situation I wasn’t really being excluded. Instead, my own broken beliefs and misplaced attitudes were the issues. And I was hiding myself. It was perfectionism at its best.
Today I am so pleased to share an article with you written by my friend Jill McCormick. Jill is a gifted writer and speaker. She breaks inner issues down into portions I can handle and then she points me in the right direction so I can move forward.
This article, which was originally published on her website under the title of “How Perfectionism is Killing Our Relationships” really broke some things down for me. It reminded me of something very important I needed to keep in mind about my relationships.
Jill reminds me that:
•When I struggle in a relationship, the first place I need to look is inside my own heart.•
I’m telling you, friends, that’s not an easy thing to do. I think you’ll find that this article will help you whether you struggle with perfectionism or not. Inside, Jill takes a look at four ways perfectionism impacts our friendships. The great thing is she doesn’t just leave us holding those revelations and wondering what to do. She reminds us what God says about each one, and she gives us strategies the will help us move forward!