My walking buddy and her husband like to grow a small garden each summer and a few Fall plantings if possible. They talked me into trying the Fall planting this year in some of the large planters I have on my deck. I planted them carefully and placed them in the sunniest place on that side of the house. I had faith that they would grow! So far the beans started to grow. The lettuce seeds have not.
I mentioned this because the tag line for today's devotional:
Trials are the soil in which faith grows.
Wow, I have read a lot about the metaphor of the crucible and songs like Blessings by Laura Story, but never thought about "trials" being "soil". My first thought was my grandparents using manure to make the soil better! It adds a whole new perspective to this trial garden thing, doesn't it?!? ha!
Yes, trials do help us grow our faith. Faith can move mountains. It can change minds and hearts. It can change a silly old bear like me.
Lord, I want to be honest when I say "thank you for the trials", but you know how I hate working in the garden! Please help us have faith in any circumstance.
Wellness Wednesday
I talked about wellness goals last week. I recommend setting goals in at least three different wellness areas. I found this cool article about the seven dimensions of wellness. They are:
Social Wellness is the ability to relate to and connect with other people in our world. Our ability to establish and maintain positive relationships with family, friends and co-workers contributes to our Social Wellness.
Emotional Wellness is the ability to understand ourselves and cope with the challenges life can bring. The ability to acknowledge and share feelings of anger, fear, sadness or stress; hope, love, joy and happiness in a productive manner contributes to our Emotional Wellness.
Spiritual Wellness is the ability to establish peace and harmony in our lives. The ability to develop congruency between values and actions and to realize a common purpose that binds creation together contributes to our Spiritual Wellness.
Environmental Wellness is the ability to recognize our own responsibility for the quality of the air, the water and the land that surrounds us. The ability to make a positive impact on the quality of our environment, be it our homes, our communities or our planet contributes to our Environmental Wellness.
Occupational Wellness is the ability to get personal fulfillment from our jobs or our chosen career fields while still maintaining balance in our lives. Our desire to contribute in our careers to make a positive impact on the organizations we work in and to society as a whole leads to Occupational Wellness.
Intellectual Wellness is the ability to open our minds to new ideas and experiences that can be applied to personal decisions, group interaction and community betterment. The desire to learn new concepts, improve skills and seek challenges in pursuit of lifelong learning contributes to our Intellectual Wellness.
Physical Wellness is the ability to maintain a healthy quality of life that allows us to get through our daily activities without undue fatigue or physical stress. The ability to recognize that our behaviors have a significant impact on our wellness and adopting healthful habits (routine check ups, a balanced diet, exercise, etc.) while avoiding destructive habits (tobacco, drugs, alcohol, etc.) will lead to optimal Physical Wellness.
Your assignment for next Wednesday is to pick three of the dimensions and think about what your goal should be. Follow the directions about setting SMART goals from last week. I am very aggressive about these things, so I picked more than three (darn overachievers....).
You can read more about the dimensions here.
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May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit - Romans 15:13
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