Renewing Faith

Renewing Faith

From Judith Hogan, Director of Religious Education

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. –Martin Luther King, Jr.

Greetings!

Well, we missed January but I’ll say it anyway, “Happy New Year!”

There are certain things in life that cannot be changed, like how we come into this world and the number of hours in a day.  What we do with the 24 hours that we have each day is a completely different story…

How can I become completely invested in living the life I want to live?  The self-discovery journey of examining what my values and beliefs are and digging deep to answer those questions is part of the fun. A journey towards building a skillset that helps me through life’s challenges.  Living life intentionally is about putting ourselves first, not in a selfish way but in a way that shows that we respect ourselves, our time, and our contributions to be a part of this world.  I know, this all sounds like a lot of work but any steps made towards intentional living mean that we’ve already begun!  YAY!

Here are a few key steps that help me be more intentional in my daily activities, I hope you might also find them useful:

  • Visualize your day or planned activity – the who, what, where, when how are not as important as imagining the joy of each step throughout the day. I’ve found that when I envision even the most stressful task in a way that is joyful, it makes that task a treasured experience.
  • Add enjoyable daily habits to routines – such as perhaps a ten-minute meditation, or a very deliberate moment to find joy in small things.
  • Prioritize the day – As we all know, there are only twenty-four hours in one day, and a good five to eight of those are typically spent sleeping or in a restful state, so what we do with the remaining sixteen to eighteen hours means that we should pay attention to how we navigate that time. Prioritize according to what needs to be done, and then secondarily what of those things is most enjoyable. 
  • Declutter – THIS is one of the most difficult things for me as I am a multimedia artist so to me EVERYTHING has creative potential, which also means that I try to hold onto EVERYTHING… I have added a daily routine of decluttering for at least ten minutes each day to manage my art STUFF – It helps a lot!
  • What we eat matters!  The old saying, “you are what you eat” is really true when it comes to intentional living.  Eating healthy (like limiting if not eliminating junky fast food), can change our life in unimaginably beneficial ways.  I love to cook so when I prioritize my time to include preparing something super yummy, then I also add joy to my day and my stomach.
  • LAUGH!  Laughter makes everything better!

The list above is just a small few steps that I use regularly to make my life more intentional.  I plan to expand this list in this new year to include finding time to be more creative as I know that will add more joy to my life.  To me, living with intention requires knowledge of self and a willingness to acknowledge and live my individual truth in a way that purposefully increases happiness, joy, and faith!

Happy amazing new year!