Tag Archives: green hope

#lovelytracesofhope, Bible stories, Excuses, God showed up, life stories, Lovely Traces, Open hands, Pay Attention, Psalm 77, Questions?, Red Sea

What Happens When You See God?

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HOPE & HEALING IN THE HOLIDAYS

If you are just now joining us, I encourage you to start at the earlier posts (links are included in the box below) to build the foundation for the thoughts I share here.

1. Looking at the BIG moments that Change Your Life
2. What Happens When a Moment Changes Your Life?
3. Hope & Healing in the Holidays
4. Have you noticed what you need this holiday?
5. Say It Like It Really Is
6. Little Words that Will Make a Big Change

I started this series with a post about looking at the BIG moments that Change your Life.  What is marvelous, as you finish reading Psalm 77,  once again we are reminded of tha RED SEA moment.  (Check out the #1 post listed above if you need a reminder about the Red Sea. Or read the book of Exodus.  Fascinating telling of history. )

After Asaph, the writer of Psalm 77, chooses his response by

  • noticing his need (post 4)
  • expressing his emotions (post 5)
  • and pivoting his perspective  (post 6)
  • He sees God!  O God! (also post 6)

Then he gives an example of an O GOD moment, one that would be familiar to his audience.

When the Red Sea saw you!

The Psalmist once again is reminding the reader of that big God moment when the children of Israel stood between death – and death; between the RED SEA and the Egyptian army. A moment when they couldn’t imagine a way out.  They couldn’t begin to fathom how God could intervene.

And then He does. Continue reading What Happens When You See God? →

Bible stories, God showed up, healing, Open hands, Psalm 77, Questions?

Little Words That Will Make a Big Change

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If you are just now joining us in this series, I encourage you to start reading at the earlier posts (links included below) to build the foundation for the thoughts I share here.

1. Looking at the BIG moments that Change Your Life
2. What Happens When a Moment Changes Your Life
3. Hope & Healing in the Holidays
4. Have you noticed what you need this holiday?
5. Say It Like It Really Is

Today we are taking a look from Psalm 77 at the last two letters in our NEPO exercise that invites us open our fists in the middle of our grief and loss and find HOPE AND HEALING IN THE HOLIDAYS (if this doesn’t make sense- go back and read the links above.  None of them are very long.)

We have already opened the pinky finger which stands for
N: NOTICE your NEEDS

Then we extended our ring finger also to remind us to
E: EXPRESS your EMOTIONS (honestly)

That brings us to the third and middle finger and the middle of Psalm 77 where the psalmist moves from ‘woe is me’ in verse 10  (back of hand to forehead, remember) to Continue reading Little Words That Will Make a Big Change →

grief, healing, Holiday, Hope, stuck

Say It Like It Really Is

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In the last post, we were taking a look at Psalm 77 and considering what it had to teach us about our response the losses and hard places in our life.  If you are just joining in this post- you will want to go back to the posts linked below to get caught up.  Then you can join us again and things will make more sense.

This is the third post in a series called
Hope and Healing in the Holidays. 
The first post: 
Hope & Healing in the Holidays
The second post: 
Have you noticed what you need this holiday? 

But actually you might want to start here to get some background on where this series is going:
Looking at the BIG moments that Change Your Life

Let’s continue on in Psalm 77:7-9 to see another way he teaches us to respond.  This is where the Psalmist, well, some people might say he was throwing a tantrum.  But actually he is  showing us how to get ‘unstuck’ by honestly EXPRESS our EMOTIONS.

Ok!  Make a fist again.  Open up the pinky finger from yesterday (NOTICE THE NEEDS) and this time open the ring finger as well to… Continue reading Say It Like It Really Is →

grief, healing, Holiday, Hope, Psalm 77, worry

Have you noticed what you need this holiday?

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The holidays often bring with them this expectation of sparkle.  The tables are beautifully set, the food is perfectly delicious, the relationships with family and friends are glowing.

But just looking around my church  this weekend, I saw face after face that told me that it wasn’t that way for everyone.  Most homes are fortunate to get 1 or 2 out of 3, but the person who has all three- is probably not reading my website.

For many, the holidays only accentuate the awareness that things are not right, relationships are broken, money is tight.  Life is not what you hoped it would be. Instead of the feelings of joy and delight, we feel fear and disappointment. The greater the expectation of sparkle, the deeper the funk we get in when it is not.

Instead of smiles and bright eyes, we often have furrowed brow and hands made into fists.

So how can we expect to find hope and healing in these holidays?

In my last post, (You can read it here) we talked about how our defining moments do not have to be those situations or losses in our life that we have no control over.

But we can do something about Continue reading Have you noticed what you need this holiday? →

grief, healing, Holiday, Hope, respond

Hope & Healing in the Holidays

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Days before Thanksgiving, I am noticing many people are writing or sharing posts and articles about ways to find hope and healing in the holidays.Honestly, the holidays are still one of the most difficult moments in my grief.

Our daughters, Caitlin and Brielle, come home – though often not at the same time. They are both married so we’ve also added two special son-in-laws. But when we are all together we are more aware than ever that Leisha is not among us.

After some earlier losses in life, I could still “manufacture” some of sparkle and gratitude of the holidays. I could still muster it mostly because I’m a positive person and I don’t have to work too hard to at least ‘appear’ happy.

But after Leisha died, it was not possible to even pretend to make that happen.

I’m sure I’ve shared this before, but for me grief was a feeling of being in a really dark tunnel where the mud was up past the top of my head and I couldn’t move a finger let alone breathe.

The harder I tried to get out the deeper I got Into the mire, into the mud, into the darkness.

Maybe you are reading this because you are Continue reading Hope & Healing in the Holidays →

Bible stories, fear, God showed up, grief, healing, Hope, life lessons, Lovely Traces, Moses

What Happens When a Moment Changes Your Life

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In the last post, I talked about the big moments we can recall in vivid detail.  We remember who was with us, what happened, how it felt.  Often, we share how that moment changed our life.

I shared one moment that is talked about a lot in scripture- I call it the RED SEA story -when the children of Israel were caught between death – and death.  It was that moment when God showed up like he had never shown up before and they were saved. (You can read more about that in the post from yesterday)

I’m guessing that even as you read that description, you immediately think of one or more occasions in your own story that changed you.

I wish we could sit over a cup of coffee and share those moments together.  I would love to hear about the moment that changed you in the comments section or via email at kathy@greenhopecoaching.com.

For now, I’ll share my story RED SEA moment with you. It was the day my 15 year old daughter, Leisha, died.

I didn’t know how I was going to survive the grief tunnel any more than the children of Israel knew how they were going to get out of Egypt, or get through the Red Sea.

God had to show up! And he had to show up differently than he ever had before! Continue reading What Happens When a Moment Changes Your Life →

Broken, Hope, life lessons, prayer

Plans to Give You Hope!

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I’ve read this passage so many times.
I memorized it as a child.
It was given to me in cards and notes over and over again after Leisha died.

God has plans to prosper me- not harm me

God has plans to give me hope and a future.

But I today I read the verse in context of chapter 29.

This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

First thing I notice is to be in exile is the condition of someone being sent or kept away from their own country, village, home, etc.  CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH DICTIONARY

The Lord tells them through Jeremiah to:

Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

Hmmm?  Sounds like God is saying make the most of the situation you are in – whether it is good or not, whether it is where you want to be or not.

Then in verse 10 the Lord says; ”

When seventy years are completed in Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 

And that is where Jeremiah 29:11 comes in.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

SEVENTY YEARS????

Continue reading Plans to Give You Hope! →

Fresh start, Hope, influence, LIFE, life lessons, Living Intentionally, make a difference

New WORD for a New Year

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My Word for the year is EnJoy!

I am quite excited about this word.  Over the last 10 years my words have been  Hope- Hope & More HOPE!  I had that word for several years. It’s a great word, but it was a desperate time for me.

One year the word was TRUST, another year it was BE STILL. (I know technically two words, right?) Last year my word was FINISH which was appropriate since my goal was to complete the Lovely Traces of Hope book.

These were all great words and they were significant to me at the time, but they all had a urgency to them, desperation is still the better word.  Even being still was a challenge word at the time.

But this year, the word that keeps coming to me Continue reading New WORD for a New Year →