ENCOURAGED IN HEART

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOURS!

This year, I’m going to be stepping out of my comfort zone even more, expanding out, prayerfully not out of my new “skinny” jeans, in my writing and blog format!

But before I jump into that, I just wanted to tell you how much I LOVE getting Christmas cards/letters and photos every year! SO much that, when I do get them, I cut them down and tape them to my fridge to keep all year long!

Seeing friends and family lifts my spirits! And since I visit the fridge once or twice (times 200) a day, I get a boost!  I’ll be highlighting my fridge a little later here…

The first new change is, every Friday I have a super special treat for you! Be on the look out for, “Finance Fridays with the Finkster” (no, Dave did not come up with that name, but did agree to it!)

My hubby, Dave, has a passion to see families move from their prison of debt into the freedom of living below their income! He’ll offer practical ideas to make that freedom a reality!  Look for his handsome smile next to the money, honey!

It’s a new year and the perfect opportunity to make a new start! The reality is that with Christ, every day presents that very same opportunity, I don’t know why sometimes I’m swayed to think it’s limited to just a January thing!

My big nugget this week arrived from an incredible book, Safe People How to Find Relationships That Are Good for You and Avoid Those That Aren’t by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend.

Safe people…where are you?

That was my big question.  As a recovering emotional eater, I learned how to hide my emotions and perform. I didn’t ask for help, because I was sinfully proud.  And then I wondered why no one helped me? Dur!

No one would know it because I’m a natural extrovert and appeared that all was under control.  That and when you don’t ask for help, you don’t normally get it!  The problem was, my choice to hide made me unsafe and others unsafe because there was no true honesty and connectedness.

Safe people…where are you?

I ran to my fridge…no, not for a binge!

They’re ON MY FRIDGE!  I’m blessed, SO blessed with a fridge full of people that love me and my family.

Connecting to safe people…that’s where I’m going with this…and that’s what I’m going to keep pursuing in 2009.

A very practical nugget for me was right there on p. 159, “Safe is defined by helpful.”

There’s my running/biking partner Jess (who looks completely AMAZING with not a drop of makeup on her face!) We went for a power bike session the day after Christmas.  She’s “helping” me sweat like a hog, have large quantities of mucous flow out of me, pant like a dog in heat, whine like a baby …and oh yeah, she’s also helping me achieve the lifestyle I desire to have! Which is no longer going to focus/obsess about my goal weight. (I WILL get there, and I’ll keep track on the left corner of my blog site!)

My focus is to have spiritual/physical/emotional health with safe people and having a lot of fun doing so!

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25 (New International Version)

Any day is a good day for me to type a list, but New Years – COME ON – get the goals purged! So, as I typed each of my six “Type A anal-retentive” categories, I identified at least one safe person in each category.

How about you? Do you have someone to do the “Safety Dance” with? If not, consider reviewing your Christmas card pile, identify who’s been helpful to you that you can return the favor?