Author: Toni Limbers

This simple quote from author Bob Goff about covers it for today, doesn’t it? If my words and actions today truly reflect grace and love – wow. What a good day today will have been.

1. Walking in love today means I will live by the standard of love toward others and myself. On any given day I find myself being good at one of these and maybe not so much the other. How about you?
2. Walking in love means being present today. Am I too hurried to be loving in the here and now to others? To myself?
3. Walking in love means I need to stop criticizing other and myself. As in number one above – on any given day I find myself being okay at one of these…
4.  Walking in love means today I will build up others and myself. If you see something that looks good to you, point it out to the person. Do you like the color of the shirt someone is wearing? Tell that person. Is someone’s desk impressively organized? Let her know. This includes giving yourself those positive accolades.
5. Walking in love means talking the talk today. When we walk the walk and talk the talk we are truly enhancing harmony around us.

As to living in grace, I think of unmerited favor. What does unmerited favor look like during the day?

• Even in the midst of a long hard day, I will show grace by not getting angry or frustrated with others (or with myself, for that matter).
• I will give more grace (forgiveness). Why? Because I’ve been given grace (forgiveness).
• I will show grace by embracing the outcast. In conversations today, I will draw someone from the periphery into the conversation. When I’m walking down the street, I will greet someone who I don’t know or by the looks of the person may not want to know. I may be the only grace that person experiences today.
• When I need to speak a truth that is difficult, I will season it with grace. I don’t know where I read this but I think of “let your sweet reasonableness be known to all people”. Today I will be sweetly reasonable.
• Grace is patient. I don’t know about you but this is a difficult one for me, especially with my children. I don’t want to give/show grace by being patient when it looks to me like blatant inaction on his/her part. I want answers quickly. Grace is not only patient but is not controlling. I will be patient and not controlling today.

I will give grace today because it was given to me. I will love because I have been loved.

Growing up, I would always tell my kids to remember their worth, to value who they are. That they would always be enough.

I never took my own advice. I let negative thoughts and self-doubt creep in to influence everything I did. Those thoughts became a mantra that I followed. Those thoughts always creeping in to destroy whatever progress I had made. But I am no longer going to pay attention to them because I know they are a lie.

If I let them, they would hold me back. Instead, I am going to focus my attention on the positive. I am holding myself accountable for my success. I am no longer letting self-doubt strangle me until I can’t remember what even the smallest victory felt like.

I am strong. That doesn’t mean perfect. that doesn’t mean I won’t mess up. What it does mean is that there is strength in me I can draw on and use to help me overcome any obstacle and appreciate each success. I can accept the positive and negative in equal measure. I need both to achieve my goals.

I have value. I am whole and complete as I am. I will learn and grow as a person. I will accept the challenges in life and deal with them. I will embrace the successes. No longer will I cower and give in to fear and negativity.

I am enough. Have a great day and remember you are enough.

Last evening’s glow of thankfulness has persisted into today. My son who we thought might not ever be able to pursue any self-fulfilling endeavor was in our living room working on an Art assignment and talking about what should or shouldn’t be included in his short essay. My son who always has been intelligent and witty but who was restricted by something we couldn’t understand is free – free to travel his path. Free from the restrictions that held him down and free to explore, question and embrace this big world in which we live.

If you had asked me two years ago if I could envision such a scene as last evening, I would have had to despairingly replied “never”. Yet, there we were, four of us excitedly interjecting another thought into the assignment my son was completing. And my son, my beloved son, enlivened by our conversation but even more so invigorated by being a part of an academic community. Something I know he thought would never happen for him.

It took many hours to get here. Rivers of tears were shed and mountains that had seemed insurmountable were climbed. This mama never gave up and that made all the difference. Perseverance does not always result in a victory such as this but how thankful I am that in this instance it has!

Do  you remember Buzz Lightyear? I think that Pixar character said, “To infinity and beyond!” I don’t know about all that – I’m thinking more in terms of the old quote (I think it’s from a song), “one day at a time, sweet Jesus”.

Sometimes I look too far down the road. Instead of thinking about what I can do today, I’m thinking about what can I achieve by the end of the year. Sometimes we have to do that for work purposes but I’m not sure that’s a great approach to the year generally. Why not narrow in on this week’s goal or even today’s goal?

I recently started a program through our health insurance for weight management. I worked out using my personal trainer given plan for the first time this past Saturday. My wonderfully perky and encouraging personal trainer assured me that this workout would take @ an hour. It ended up taking me an hour and twenty minutes because I had to figure out all over again how to set the machines and where I was going next (it’s circuit training). Usually that’s the way it is, in my experience. It’s really easy when there’s someone with you to guide you through the routine.

Instead of getting stressed out because I got home 20 minutes later, I am now considering that as time that I didn’t sit in front of the tv eating mindlessly. Come to think of it, any time that I even get to the gym and do anything, I’ve improved from that behavior. Woo hoo!

Here’s to 2019 and beyond – One Day at a Time, Sweet Jesus!

Sometimes we can be really hard on other people. Sometimes we get into a habit of doing this and sometimes we do it without realizing it. Think about the fact that we may have no idea with is really going on with the other person. We may not and most likely do not have the full story. We judge and dismiss them or their actions too quickly.

Oftentimes what I write here is a reminder to my own bad self. I’m reminding myself today to take a pause the next time I start to criticize someone either silently or out loud. I’m going to try to remember that I don’t know how their day began, what conversations and sorrows they may have experienced, or what perspective they may be coming from. I want to be as gentle with them as I would hope others would be with me.

Folks that know me know that when I get frustrated or angry, I cry. I then get more frustrated and angry because I’m crying. Being female sometimes means being emotional and even though I will try and convince myself and others that this is a negative thing, it really isn’t. Emotions aren’t a sign of weakness and I don’t know why or how I ever got convinced otherwise. If there were no emotions, I believe there would be no strength. Let’s not negate our emotions. If you have nobody to talk about your emotions to, write them down. Build on your emotional strength.

I ran across a quote of Walt Disney’s recently. “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading to new paths.” I push forward often because I do not want to be stagnant. I don’t want to, as the old adage says, “grow moss” (that old saying about a rock).

This quote brought me a different perspective. Be curious. Your curiosity about any little thing will most likely lead you to a new path. Keep it fresh today!

Have you found yourself in a “conversation” with someone and thought it wasn’t a conversation at all? Sometimes it is more like people taking turns talking. Often one person is waiting for the other’s voice to stop so they can say what they have been planning on saying the entire time the other person is talking. Take time to truly listen to the other person. Be still and look into the other’s eyes. Resist the urge to talk about yourself. Today I will aim to be an active listener!

We all do it. When it becomes a habit, complaining weakens you, whether you’ve noticed it or not. Complaining prevents happiness. It also prevents positive social interaction. Have you noticed that? I’ve caught myself whining (a lot) about too much to do and not enough time to do it. Are you likely to hang around a person that perpetually complains? Probably not. Don’t be that person! Stop complaining. It doesn’t help. Either do something about it or be quiet. I’m preaching to myself here. 🙂

We all know what happens when we allow garbage to pile up. There’s no room for anything beautiful because the garbage overtakes everything. Garbage smells bad and makes everything around it sticky and dirty. This is what happens to our body and our mind if we let stress and unhappiness pile up.

One way to get rid of stress it to release it through dedicated quiet time. During this quiet time, breathe deeply and with each outward breath release tension and let go of resentment, anger and anxiety.

Today I will not only unclutter a room in my house but also release clutter from my mind.