Know Your Why

You may remember that my One Little Word for 2016 is Purpose.   I wrote about in this blog post: Purpose.  I had great intentions of getting to grips with the word via various books, videos and studies and apart from the one of the exercises in the Reflections class I have done none of it.

And then this week, this video turned up on my Facebook newsfeed.

And it started me thinking.

Do I know my why?  Do I know my what?   If my what currently is mixed media and textile art then why am I doing it?

I believe we have seasons - not the four seasons in the year - but times for certain things to happen.  There is a famous passage in the Bible about this:  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven -

A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.

A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.

A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.

A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.

A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.

A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.

A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.

I think that our purpose has seasons - we have times where our activities fulfil a certain purpose and then we move on to something else.

I believe that there are some purposes in my life that are on going:
To be the best wife that I can be
To be the best mother that I can be
To be the best friend that I can be

However I also think there are other purposes or plans that God has for me now and in the future - although currently I don't know what they are.  I trust God to reveal them in his timing which is never the same as mine!

But I wonder whether sometimes I am doing the what without seeking the why first.

This month's assignment for One Little Word was to make a vision board.  So I cut out words and pictures from magazines that 'spoke' to me and collaged them together.

I enjoyed putting it together but sadly it didn't help with the why!

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

February

In January I told you how I am combining my One Little Word, 'I am' tags and my Unplanner all in one binder.

I managed to keep up with February although some days I didn't do anything other than art so at the end of the month I printed out some small photos of the pages of my February Challenge Sketchbook.

February Divider
I planned to put a large photo of snowdrops on this page and at one point thought I might have to find a photo from a previous year.  However we eventually did go out and find some.

Week 1
The theme for the I am statements for February was  'Made in the image of God'.  I don't usually include photos of peoplein my art but managed to do it this time on each tag.

Week 2

The List Ten for this month was about things I shouldn't have done and one of the art challenges was Gratitude so I decided to list 10 things I'm thankful for.

Week 3

Week 4

One Little Word
The assignment for February was to practice something everyday and record it.  I used my February sketchbook as my art practice everyday.

I damaged my back at the beginning of the month and wasn't able to do the Salsa exercise I had planned to do.  I was eventually able to do short walks.  The back is ok now so hopefully in March I will be able to exercise more frequently.  Just have to find the motivation!

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Purpose

Last week I wrote about the background to my choice of one word for 2016: Purpose although I didn't really spell it out and maybe at the end of the blog post you were wondering the connection between what you had read and my choice of word.

When I stood down from the Foundation Team at His Kingdom Come I felt a real peace about it but also a sense of loss.  The formation and running of HKC had been my focus and purpose for over 12 months.  And as I said in my post introducing my word: 'But giving up something that is successful without God saying what is next is bittersweet and I'm not good at just resting or not knowing what is coming next.'

I felt that I needed a purpose or a vision for what is coming next.  And I seriously thought about having Vision as my word.   'Where there is no vision, the people perish ..' Proverbs 29:18

But Purpose kept coming back into my mind.  I also prayed about it.

And various books and articles kept showing up which helped confirm the right choice.

I looked online for a dictionary definition of purpose
• : the reason why something is done or used : the aim or intention of something
• : the feeling of being determined to do or achieve something
• : the aim or goal of a person : what a person is trying to do, become, etc.

A friend posted a link on Facebook to a website which also led me to a book: Chazown - the book and the website

In May, Mary wrote some devotions for His Kingdom Come based on self-care and I intend to return to those and to look at the links Mary provided:

• Personality test resources: I (Mary) personally prefer the Myers-Briggs personality assessment. It is very in-depth and used by many churches and employers.   16 Personalities   or  Typefinder Personality test
• Spiritual gifts test resources:
• Saddleback Church, home of pastor Rick Warren has a great tool called SHAPE to help understand how you are wired.

I have signed up for One Little Word and downloaded the ebook from logos365 and will use the ideas from both to combine to make my own exploration of Purpose throughout 2016.

Listen to the words of this song.

I want to dig down into what makes me the person I am and to tell my story.  To get that going I signed up for a class from Jeanne Oliver: Reflections.

I much prefer to choose a word for the year - something that I want to see more of in my life.  Do you choose a word for the year?  If so, why not share it in the comments below.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

My word for 2016

Over recent years I have chosen a word for the year that I focus on.  I shared about my word for 2015 last December.

The word for 2015 was Thirst.  And it really didn't grab me.  I did some journal pages for the first three months.

January

February

March

But to be honest, my heart wasn't in it and at the beginning of April I gave up on it altogether.

I have spent most of 2015 being really busy helping to run His Kingdom Come.   You can read about how I became to be involved with HKC at A Story & a Giveaway (the giveaway is now closed!) and I expected to be involved with it still through 2016.  In fact we started discussing Take Me Deeper - DNA back in April.

However towards the end of October I began to feel that it was time for me to move on.

Several times in my ministry career I have worked on things that God has asked me to do – setting up new ministries, organising conferences and even helping set up a new company – and then passing them on to others to run.   To be sure that I was hearing correctly about HKC, I asked a friend to pray for me without saying the reason why and she said ‘You are gifted and know sometimes things are for seasons.’    This confirmed for me that the season was ending for me with regard to the Foundation Team at His Kingdom Come.

But giving up something that is successful without God saying what is next is bittersweet and I'm not good at just resting or not knowing what is coming next.

So what is next for me?  And what is my word for 2016?

Regular readers will know that I am involved in a new weekly online Bible study from my church: Glimpses of Jesus in the Old Testament.   And that I have signed up for rather a lot of online classes.

And my word?

Purpose

I'll explain why in another post on Sunday.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice