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| The Joyous Living Journal |
“Spirit has given you the greatest gift; it is the gift of your life. What you make of it is the gift you give back to Spirit!”
This is the first sentence I read on January 2 in the Joyous Living Journal, our reading for 2014.
Pretty powerful words, aren’t they?
I have always understood my life being a gift.
But what these words made me contemplate was that what I make of my life is a gift BACK to Spirit.
That isn’t an idea that has ever become present to me and, for some reason, it packed a punch.
Am I making my life into a gift back to spirit?
My answer brought peace to my heart and a smile to my face.
If I would have been presented with this same question six years ago, the question would have brought sadness and maybe even anger.
Six years ago, I certainly wasn’t making my life into something I would have viewed as a gift back to Spirit.
I was living for other people. Doing what I thought would make others happy. I was working a job I hated. I was “buying” a life so, on the outside, my life looked happy and successful.
But, I was so sad and so unfulfilled on the inside.
It took a major, and heartbreaking, life event for me to take a true, honest look at my life and from what I saw, things needed to change.
Change they did and as I contemplated this idea in my morning reading six years later, I was pleasantly surprised by my answer.
I am living a life, that I believe is a gift to Spirit, and, it’s getting more and more of a gift every day.
Why?
Because six years ago, I started living for ME…not from a selfish standpoint, but from the place of living from my inner Spirit.
That part of Spirit that lives within me.
I dedicated myself to being One with it and following the thread of joy everyday…not someone else’s joy, not even my kids’ joy, but mine.
It took me some time to get to that place.
As they say, it’s a journey!
And, a journey it certainly has been!
Following my heartbreaking life event, I had to heal first.
I had to forgive.
I had to decide to live differently.
I had to decide to let go of everyone else’s happiness and choose my own.
I had to decide to let the old me (and all her beliefs, paradigms, and thoughts) die and allow my soul to emerge from the dark depths I had buried it to.
…as my soul emerged, I had to step aside and allow Spirit to express Itself through me and as a result, I have found peace and more joy within than I have ever known.
The results of my spiritual emergence is still unfolding, but I can definitively say that I am a better mom because of it. I’m a better person because of it, and I am certainly living as if my life is the gift I know it to be.
And because of that, I am making my life into a life that I know is a gift back to Spirit.
For that, I am living in joy!
Already two days in to 2014, and working through this daily “Joyous Living” Journal, I feel pretty certain that 2014 will be the best gift I have to give back to Spirit!
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What about you? Contemplate the words: “Spirit has given you the greatest gift; it is the gift of your life. What you make of it is the gift you give back to Spirit!”
Are you making your life into a gift that Spirit would be proud of?
No matter what your answer is, every day is an opportunity to decide to live life and give your gift back to Spirit!