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DEEP ROOTS Spend an entire season identifying and deepening our roots together. Month 1 — The people. Month 2 — The storms. Month 3 — Our Savior. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee28c415120a7c1d19f170/1612646499911-8USCMUHAT0ICKKIX1WVU/image-asset.jpeg Testimony - Tell your story If you’re looking to discover how God is using the unique storyline of your life to tell HIS story to others, this plan is for you. Week 1 — Way Back Week 2 — Regret or Repent? 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Time Management. Balance. So much easier when you aren’t tied to a job, right? The answer for myself at least was alarming. As I prepare to go back to work today after a 7 month sabbatical I wanted to share my revelations about "greener grass"... How did I have it so wrong? In my head I had imagined that those without jobs whose sole purpose was tied to raising kids and a family produced results in that category beyond that which were possible when you had commitments outside the home. I really had it so WRONG (or maybe just wrong for me). A guiding principal and law in life gave me a huge wake up call: A body in motion stays in motion and a body at rest stays at rest. Ton. Of. Bricks. Could this be true? Could it actually be MORE beneficial for my family that I have been working and forced to be hugely efficient with my time and energy? The reality is, aside from the home organizational projects that I would have done anyways even as a working professional, I can’t say my family has been better off. I participate in the school at the same level, I attend field trips whether I was working or not. It's STILL not natural for me to wake up early (thanks dad!). I admittedly even still have the same level of patience (or lack of at times) even though my stress level is supposed to be lower. I have learned that I self create To Do’s so my pace doesn’t change. When I am not working, however, I don't manage the time for them as efficiently. Wow. What a freeing discovery for me to make. This is why I wanted to share it with you. And it actually gets better… I don’t see that other mom’s who don’t work are any more ahead of me in their relationship with their children, in their management of digital photos, in respect to their marriages. I am not comparing, don’t get me wrong. Its the opposite in fact. I used to compare to my 'misfortune'. But now I feel cathartically released from those feelings. It doesn't matter which side of the fence you are on, but lets just free ourselves with GRACE wherever we are. Its not all roses. I have enjoyed the bike rides, book reading, spa days, and lunch dates with friends. They have been fun. I haven’t seen a shift in my life as a result of doing them because frankly, I know that I will always make time for what is important to me. None of those things have to stop when I begin working again. It will be a miss in some respects to not be able to do them at a moments notice, but is that life changing? No. Its NORMAL. Again, I will always make time for what is important to me. OR, is it what I am making time for IS what is important to me. This will have me re-evaluate what I say are my priorities so that I can be truly intentional with my time going forward. What I know for sure: My family means everything to me. Alone time makes me feel whole and balanced. I need to give up control and be less reactive at home, but still facilitate bringing out the best in my children and husband. I can work and mother well. Eating healthy and exercising is important to me Moderation is the key to life God’s Instruction is available for me if I seek it- I Pray for God to seek me and my family always I am confident that mothers across the spectrum of working, part time, free-lance, business owners, home based businesses, stay at home, etc share many of my truths. The amazing revelation I have been blessed by is that we can live our own truths in whichever circumstances you want to design in your life. But you have to distinguish them first. You must Know Thyself. Once you do, no external situation we find ourselves in can rock it, because we will have identified what we need to feel whole. When I make decisions inside of my truths, I live my purpose, whether at work, at home, at the gym, at church, or out with friends. A special edition post is coming over the weekend that will outline the process I used to discover my purpose (a big part of what led to this Blog!) and is available for you if you would like some ideas on discerning yours. I invite you to share your career decisions inside of this question, to work or not to work? What is your truth? Hint: There are NO wrong answers, and you will probably be encouraging others to stand up in theirs! Everyone wins with GRACE. https://www.agracebasedlife.com/blogpost/be-brand-aware monthly 0.5 2021-01-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee28c415120a7c1d19f170/1609484221087-MAKJXGYA9EBXU5S3N5B2/Liakos+Family+Mission+Statement.png Archived Blog Posts - Be Brand Aware - Thursday, April 14, 2016 What is your Family's Brand? Be Brand Aware If I spent time with everyone in your family individually, would I walk away knowing what you are up to together in this gift of life? I have worked for a lot of different companies. Small, Medium, and Fortune 100. The companies that seem to get it right from an employee culture AND a brand awareness perspective are the ones who had the mission statement of the company clearly established and known throughout the organization so that there would be a shared vision and purpose across the entire team (whether there were 10 people or 10,000 people). More than that, our consumers and clients also knew who we were through our brand because it was communicated in the way that we worked with them and the customer service and support they received. Without a clear mission statement, each individual contributor for the company is left to create their own interpretation of their purpose and you can guess what happens. No clear brand is established across a wide consumer base because there is no consistent experience. Lack of shared vision of a mission can derail big companies and small families alike. Its not to say that companies won't survive, and of course families will survive without a mission. We did for a long time and I have no doubt you have as well. But are these companies and families reaching the abundance and prosperity that our loving God has in store for us? Living A GRACE BASED LIFE is not about survival. Its about being and loving on purpose those in our lives that we have been graced to spend our time with. An intention about what we are up to together built by the knowledge that we can do so much more unified than on our own. We can make a huge IMPACT on this world (whether we are 10 or 10,000). Simple Steps to creating your Family Mission Statement, summarized from a Focus on the Family article that you can link to for more details: Commit to make one: Schedule it during your family night, it will be fun! Identify your family values: My husband and I did this over a date night out and seemed to create a laundry list of things that were important to us that we needed to streamline so that our children (young and old) could know, understand and live out this mission in all we do. For this it had to be simple for us. Ask in Prayer for clarity and conviction that your family mission is aligned to His purpose Consider the Bigger Picture; what are your long term goals for your family? What is your end game strategy for when your children leave your home or you leave this life? What is the imprint in your child's heart that you want to leave behind that will impact generations that will follow... Determine how you can live this mission in the world. What types of ministry can you get involved in as a "mission"ary now that you have a defined family purpose. Where do you want to give your lives away to, gaining Life in return? I will share ours, but there are many options you can find on google, pinterest, etc. for inspiration: I pray that this exercise will give clarity and purpose to the families that create a mission statement together, led by God's will. I ask that His grace shine upon us and through us as we align our families closer to our Father and closer to each other. Let us be intentional and chose to live in our families as a town on a hill that lights up this dark world (Matthew 5:14) in all we do. I have an exciting post planned for next week to dive more deeply into our personal life plan and mission, but I wanted to provide a potential outline for what could be your very first family night that we established earlier this week. Please SHARE YOUR MISSION STATEMENT WITH US! https://www.agracebasedlife.com/blogpost/a-simple-and-effective-family-night-idea-fill-the-emptiness monthly 0.5 2021-01-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee28c415120a7c1d19f170/1609483689251-CZNWHCYQQ6MGCEXHYOVT/He+has+made+everything+beautiful.png Archived Blog Posts - A SIMPLE and EFFECTIVE Family Night Idea: Fill the Emptiness - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 A simple and effective family night idea: fill the emptiness If you are anything like me you have questions at times about how to keep your children level to the reality that life isn't always easy. A Christian life might be exceptionally difficult with more and more hostility prevalent in global encounters. The genesis of my questions come from a concern about what they will do when faced with difficulty...With increasing numbers of people (or at least awareness of them via social media and news platforms) that are seeking to fill the void or emptiness in life with fleeting and temporary pleasures, we can't deny that our children will and possibly have attempted already to "fill the gap" with outside things as well: Think iPod, money, game systems, friends, food, Facebook, Instagram... We do the same thing, don't we? We were created with this longing and need for God; He set eternity on our hearts before we were born to help us turn to Him in utter dependance and need. We were created to seek relationship with Him. This was pure intention. Yet we spend time seeking things that actually pull us farther away from Him trying to fill it and wonder why we feel empty, lonely, depressed or ____________. This activity is designed to create awareness of this longing in our hearts and prevent a lot of heartache from attempting to fill it with the wrong things. Have fun with today's Family Night Suggestion~ our children did; and it was pretty easy to pull together, needing only a few supplies: Battery operated doll or toy (We used a Lego Ninjago Alarm Clock) with batteries removed but close for use later Flashlight with batteries Dollar Bill (I used a $100 which got pretty distracting :)) Pictures of: Beautiful Man or Woman, group of friends, favorite food, dream house, vacation spot, favorite toys, an expensive car Index Card and Pen for each person in your family Pray: Our Father in Heaven, please bless this time together that it would inspire deeper connections with and understanding for each other. Thank you for this gift of family that you did not create as an accident but with a purpose to love and support each other. Help us remember that you placed each of us here for the others. When we gather in your name we know you are with us and ask that you use our family to be a blessing to others. Activity One: All I need Everyone gets an index card and gets to write and complete the sentence: **Younger children get to draw a picture of their answers Try not to show each other your answers...its fun to try to guess what each member of your family may have put as their answer. After everyone has had a chance to share, ask the questions: Do you think if you had this one thing you would be completely and truly happy? How long do you think this would really make you happy for, before you decided you needed something else? Read the verse shared above: Ecclesiastes 3:11. What does this mean? (God has put a longing in our hearts; a desire and a hope for Him) Activity 2: The Empty Hole Show your family members the doll (or battery operated toy) with the empty battery box and ask: "What does this doll need to do the "thing that it does"? Share "We all know it needs batteries, but I wonder if anything else will make the doll work?" Your kids will perk up here just out of your sheer silliness. What happens if I put money here? (literally try to stuff the money in the battery box and try to turn the doll on) A nice house? A nice car? A handsome boyfriend (or pretty girlfriend) A great vacation? Continue with any other pictures you may have to demonstrate things we might use to "fill our gap" to show that nothing else will make the doll work ASK: How is this like the need we have? The need we have isn't for batteries, its for a relationship with God. Everyone was created with this need, but not everyone looks to God to fill it. A lot of people try to stuff other things in their lives to fill this need, but just like the doll without batteries, it won't work. What are some things people try to fill the need with? (Answers range from friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses, popularity, nice houses, wonderful vacations, money, jobs, toys, new bikes, better cars, drugs, alcohol, volunteer projects and causes.) There will always be a better job, a bigger house, others with more money and popularity, more amazing vacations, new toys, etc. We just can't keep up. But we can keep drawing nearer to God and He will draw near to us. God invites us in Isaiah 55:1-2: "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend your money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare..." Don't work hard for things that won't satisfy you, or spend money on that which "isn't food", meaning that which doesn't sustain life. God knows we have a need and wants to fill that need for FREE thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that paved our way to a restored relationship with our Father Almighty. Time to put the batteries in the doll; Just as the doll has a hole in her that can only be filled with batteries to serve her purpose; we have a hole in us that can only be filled by a relationship with God. After the activity, take prayer requests from your spouse and children; make a habit of teaching our children to pray for each other throughout the week and let this strategic time together transform their hearts and yours. Takeaway: We all have a need in our lives and only a relationship with God can fill our need. *Inspired by Family Night Tool Chest "Cavity Filler" https://www.agracebasedlife.com/blogpost/does monthly 0.5 2021-01-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee28c415120a7c1d19f170/1609483050188-YFNLEAOQLDVJQVMVAZI8/cup+runneth+over.png Archived Blog Posts - I don't know how she does it! - Friday, November 4, 2016 I don't know how she does it... I don’t know how you do it....UGH! That phrase. It carries so much history for me. Before the blatant and comical rebellion we witnessed in the movie Bad Moms there was another extreme of a mother actually trying to do it all in a book/movie, "I Don't Know How She Does It" with Sarah Jessica Parker. This movie revealed the laundry list of juggled "to do's" toggling between the roles of mother | wife | woman | professional | friend | et all. I remember going to a luxurious iPic theater with friends to see it and they each had such diverse family, parenting and career dynamics. While the movie was absolutely designed to be a comedy, deep and authentic tears streamed down my face throughout the movie creating the appearance I may have been watching a full blown dramatic tragedy. In my recollection, none of the other half dozen women I was with experienced that effect. It was just so real. Too close to the struggle I found myself in, acting like I actually could be balancing so much, when I knew I wasn't. Truth: When I was successful in one area, I wasn't finding success in another. While that movie came out many years ago, the phrase, which I still hear often enough, gets to me now just as its gotten me before... Especially because it is delivered by those who really just don’t understand how much I don't want to be "doing it". How much I feel like I am just failing at it by taking on too much, truly. An old mentor of mine taught be how to be a duck well I guess. Gracefully gliding atop the calm surface of pristine, still water; all the while spinning like mad just underneath to direct my progress. Do you know how fast I am spinning just underneath my surface? Jesus, come into my heart and reside with me, so that I can experience peace in your presence. How do I do it? When one of your “buckets” is full you better believe there is another one losing volume. Constant monitoring to make sure one bucket doesn’t totally dry out feels like a full time job in itself, and I have more than a "full time" job outside the home as it is. I need to keep shifting and attending to what is getting depleted and it keeps me from truly enjoying any of these important areas of my life for long enough. Just maintaining. That is what it feels like. Not really thriving. Just maintaining. I found wisdom in the maintaining though. Just like every other story I could ever share with you, God uses it all to work out for the good of those who love Him. Do you know you will always receive what you ask for with a heart open to receive? The wisdom I see in this cyclic activity? How do you sustain yourself to do this? Pseudo “Balancing”, or taking turns, through self care, your spouse, work, children, faith, friends, hobbies, volunteering, growing, developing your legacy? There is only one way. By Grace. You may not know how I do it, but I do. Only by the Grace of God. And that is where I will live, and what I hope to transfer to you at any chance we can connect. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e9e44e143969e061c2ed8fa/1588180686664-FDAPIWL54W9DIX8NGKRF/image-asset.jpeg Archived Blog Posts - I don't know how she does it! - Lunch Beet and pear salad with pomegranates and walnuts It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e9e44e143969e061c2ed8fa/1588181999254-OHHOSLR2DQE35WJ2V4VO/image-asset.jpeg Archived Blog Posts - I don't know how she does it! - Drink Golden milk It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. https://www.agracebasedlife.com/blogpost/heartandhustle monthly 0.5 2021-01-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee28c415120a7c1d19f170/1609482766451-YH9HAOVPHAGRW8GUEXSL/children+are+arrows.png Archived Blog Posts - Heart and Hustle - Drink Golden milk It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. https://www.agracebasedlife.com/blogpost/brokenandmessy monthly 0.5 2021-01-01