RockSolid Life Tip #2: Give Yourself A Song

RockSolid Life Tip #2: Give Yourself A Song

Sometimes you just need a song. A song to lift you up. A song to mark a moment. A song to help you gain understanding. A song to propel change.

Bono writes,

“Music can change the world because it can change people.”

Last year I had a song, "New Wine" that was on repeat. Might have listened to it

100+ times. I needed to know there was hope in the face of struggle. Struggle with purpose, struggle with career, struggle finding a new grove of parenting and marriage adding a 4th, struggle with dollars and cents, struggle all around.

The lyrics of the song start with:

In the crushing

In the pressing
You are making
New wine

Crushing and pressing grapes cannot feel good for the grape, but since 6000 BC new wine has

been formed because crushing and pressing of grapes has occurred. If you have a wine you love...think about the reality of long the process it takes to make a new vintage of wine.

The lyrics of the song end with:
Cause where there is new wine

There is new power

There is new freedom
And the kingdom is here
I lay down my old flames
To carry your new fire today (oh today)

I gave myself that song. Spent $1.29 to have it accessible to me at all times. I have

spent much more then $1.29 on professional help so i figured it was even a good deal as a yearly expense!

RockSolid Life Tip #2: Give Yourself A Song

Then this new year came and I waited for a new song. I bounced around between a few and

friends sent me some of their suggestions, but nothing stuck until this past weekend and ended spending another $1.29 for 2019. Have already played it at least 10 times since. Cannot wait to see how God uses, Raising A Hallelujah, to help guide this year.

Do you have a song that helps you?

RockSolid Life Tip #1 - Toast To Your Health

RockSolid Life Tip #1

Toast To Your Health @ Work.

Do you just mindlessly grab treats at work or do you toast to your health?

A workplace break room often becomes the dumping ground for just about everything. Dessert leftovers from corporate parties, boxes of chocolate sent as a thank you, magically appearing and then disappearing donuts, and candy that was ban by parents from houses. All of that makes its way into a breakroom that you frequent for a “break”. But you cannot take a “break” because you fear that without your usual sugar fix you will struggle with concentration in your next meeting. It’s so mindless that you even think, “why did I just eat that.”

The desire for job performance often drives constantly reaching for sugar. You want to be alert and engaged and maybe you never knew there was an alternative to sugar. The alternative is allowing your natural energy to raise by lowering the need for your body to produce insulin. It’s the insulin production that causes your tiredness and loss of energy...not the lack of sugar. Insulin is produced to deal with the sugar you eat, so if you stop the need to produce insulin you get to feel a constant surge of energy instead of spikes and dips. So the solution at work is to keep the glycemic index of your food low to maximize your natural energy.

I cannot remember the exact day that I began to toast to my health at work, but I do know that everyday that I toast to my health I stay away from the mindless grabbing of the cake, brownies, caramel corn or candy bars that are within arms reach. My energy remains high everyday and I am able to contribute strategically in meetings or focusing on solo work. Almost everyday I get a comment that, “that smells so good” or “looks so good”. “Back at it again, John” is often said.

My answer has become yes, it’s so good you should totally try it and see if it helps you also.

Here’s the tip: Keep a loaf of Ezekiel bread in the freezer and a jar of almond butter in the fridge at your work. Grab those instead of anything on a counter. Toast to your health! That simple!

At 10am and 3pm today you will find me toasting to my health. One slice in the toaster and a nice spread of almond butter on top. Twice a day! Lots of fiber and a good dose of fat to keep me full and satisfied. It is a routine I have settled into and I find incredibly enjoyable.

Try it and let me know what you think.

What tricks have you found to caring for your health in the workplace?

Why do we tend to eat our feelings? Is it any wonder that STRESSED is dessert spelled backwards? Haven’t you ever felt like you are eating your feelings and it tastes delicious? Come join us for a fun hour of learning more about the connection between FOOD and FEELINGS followed by 30 minutes of gentle yoga!

WHERE: LIFT ACADEMY, Stratford Mall, Bloomindale IL

WHEN: May 9th, 8-9am

WHY: Because we like food, have feelings, and enjoy yoga :)

RSVP HERE: https://www.facebook.com/events/1137746003034342/

Sneak Peak

The journey has begun.  It takes energy and a healthy body to fulfill the great commission.  You cannot Go without it.  I will deliver my first ever manuscript encouraging church leaders to care for their bodies to an editor by my birthday Feb 14 and see what story God want to write with it.  

Chapter 1:

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves are evergreen, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8

Trees do not have legs, they cannot walk, but if they could walk like Ents in Lord of the Rings, every tree would walk itself close to a source of water.  Close to the nutrition it needs.  Close to a stream of living water.  Close to the resource it cannot live without. 

How are you doing as a tree?  Do you feel Evergreen?

Our bodies are temporary. Tiny houses for our souls.  We cannot pause time or teleport our bodies. We are very much like a tree.  If we are planted beside a stream we are good to go, but if we are planted elsewhere when the heat and drought comes we fear death.  And unless you grew up with professional chef, nutritionist and personal training in your house and never left it is likely you are at least a few feet or miles from the closest stream when it comes to health, like I was.   

It is not a matter of if the drought comes, for us trees, it is a matter of when.  Heat and drought translated from ancient Hebrew to modern day human means sickness, disease, hospital stays and death.  We cease bearing fruit when we are on the sidelines of life not being able to participate because our bodies are shutting down, losing leaves, dropping branches or ditching its fruit in the same way a tree does when it kicks into survival mode.

So how can we always bear fruit?  Reverse engineer Jeremiah’s words.  In order to keep bearing fruit you send out your roots into the source of nutrition.  Trees are nourished by the stream. We are nourished my what we eat and drink and through the replication of cells.  Tree’s have roots.  We have hands, feet and a mouth to go along with our 100 billion brain cells and 30 trillion total body cells.

As a believer in God’s truth you know that bearing fruit is a symbol of health, so what if you could increase your fruit bearing capacity.  What if instead of incremental growth you had exponential growth?  Since it is unlikely you can physically move your church building, park your car always next to the health food store or never eat out again; what options are there? 

Allow Jesus to guide us. 

Jesus told this parable in Luke 13, “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ Sir, the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ 

What follows in an excavation, fertilization and time lapse plan to ensure the tree, called your body, bears fruit and is properly nourished for the entirely of your life.

Let’s start that journey because your fruit bearing capacity is at stake.    

Planting a Vision

5 years ago, God planted a vision in my heart--to help people feel healthy in their bodies and to be restored from the yuck and pain and blahs of life that often weigh us down. Because, well--this exactly described me.

God gave me a vision for helping people transform first with their physical health (you know to start moving more and eating food for fuel instead of numbing emotions). I left my professional career as a licensed clinical professional therapist to do this--help people live wholistic RockSolid lives

RockSolid with their physical health. RockSolid in their relationships and marriages and with their kids. RockSolid in their morals and beliefs and faith. RockSolid in their emotional capacity and stability

This picture hangs in my bedroom as my vision board--to remind me of how to be a RockSolid#proverbs31woman and that God is ALWAYS about hope and restoration on this planet

"She considers a field and buys it, out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for the task." Proverbs 31:16-17

-Jackie

Praying for butterfly's, but got two trees instead!

Went for a run today, praying that a butterfly would land on me and I would hear God speak but I discovered two trees instead…

Hang with me while I explain, because I know it sounds a bit odd.  I heard a sermon yesterday from a pastor who had butterflies land on him during a run through a forest preserve then he heard the Holy Spirit speak to him about the direction for his life to take. 

So I thought I would give the concept a try today because I am beginning to believe that the Holy Spirit is more active then I have actually believed in the past.  So I laced up my favorite running shoes and set out with utter confidence I would have a story of a butterfly landing on me.  Even wore a bright orange running shirt to look more like a flower in hopes of attracting them!  For many people that sounds totally weird, but for anyone who has sensed an intuition, heard a whisper or had a dream that is more super then natural, it makes sense.

So I went for a run in a local forest preserve fully expecting a butterfly would land on me and that specifically it would land on me in a new stretch of trail that is by our new house.  Who cares it is almost 100 degrees in IL, I had butterflies waiting for me!

I wanted to hear from God today, especially after reading Psalm 1:3, “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all he does, he prospers.”  I so wanted a word from God and thought a butterfly would usher it in and it happened!

That verse has special meaning to our family because when we first heard it in 2015 at church during a message series called “Evergreen” and it gave Jackie and I a vision for RockSolid Life.  (RockSolid Life is our ministry to help people “Be You, Take Courage and Go!” in the area of health, fitness and nutrition).  We even went to TJ Maxx and bought an expensive looking (but cheap) watercolor painting to hang in our living room to mark the meaning of that phase.

What we did not know was that when we moved this past year the same tree that is in our watercolor painting from 2015 would be the exact tree in our backyard.  Literally same tree a year later.  You can tell in the watercolor that the tree is changing seasons but there are no yellows or reds in the leafs.  I never knew a tree to not produce color in the fall until I saw our very mature sycamore tree in our backyard go from green to brown without a color change.  Seriously the Lord provided us the exact house with a backyard tree which matched a painting we purchased a year before.  Kind of supernatural cool!

Ok, back to my run.  So I am running down the new section of trail waiting for a butterfly to land on me.  And guess what?   I see one!!!  I am giddy with excitement.   So I stop, take out my headphones and stand for a few minutes waiting for heaven to part, time to stand still and a shower of butterflies to envelop me.  Guess what…I watch the butterfly flutter away into the woods and not come back.  Started to think, maybe that was the wrong butterfly.  Maybe that was the non-holy spirit one.  So I stood still for a bit longer waiting for another one to show up and land on me.  Then a heard a bird and looked up and heard the Holy Spirit whisper “walk towards the bird”.  It was an orange bird I had never seen before in my life.  Like never…even at my grandma’s house where she feed birds over the winter and we would watch them for hours as kids.  I started to think, perfect I am going to have a new species of bird land on me.  That makes for an even better story then a butterfly.  A mystery orange bird would be perfect.  So I walked closer to the bird with my shoulder prepared for its landing.  It was chirping away and I was ready.  Guess what?  It flew away too. 

So, I am now left alone on the trail with no butterflies and no birds to give me the direction in life.  I had prayed and believed that I was going to hear from God and the new section of trail was 30 feet from ending. I started to think I had got it all wrong. 

That was until I looked up and saw two younger sycamore trees rooted and established next to a stream just a few feet off the trail and a few feet before the new section of trail ended.  I smiled, laughed at myself and heard the Holy Spirit whisper, “You and Jackie are young, like these trees.  Have patience my son and I will be with you as you grow.  The vision I have given you and Jackie is true and the new path I am taking you on is the right direction to go, just have patience.”

Peace entered my heart in that moment and I will never forget the fact that God used a butterfly to get me to pause, a bird to call me closer and two trees to teach me a life lesson.

The bible comes alive through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirt.

Jeremiah 17:7-8: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.  He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

Psalm 1:3: “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all he does, he prospers.”

It’s so hard to not give up when all the butterfly’s and birds fly away and you are left standing on an empty trail.  Maybe just stand for one more second and see what happens.