Take Root and Write

Are you listening?

 

Question of the week:  Are you listening? 

Pondering:  We are so bad at listening.....to ourselves, to others, and to God!  We just keep talking and thinking and never stop long enough to listen for God's nudges. 

Coaching Concept:  To really catch on to our PURPOSE, we have got to tune in to the right frequency so we can hear what God is saying.  We have got to "Be still, and know that I am God" Psalm 46:10.  Most of the time we don't slow down long enough for God to get a word in edgewise.....right?? 

Challenge:  This week I challenge you to listen and write down all that God is saying to you.  Keep a log and recognize the messages all around you.   Listen and learn, my friends.  See where God is leading you.....

Diagnosis= Chronically Early

 

Question of the Week:  Are you "on time"?

Pondering:  What an amazing time we are in the midst of.  Change is all around us with the newly elected government officials.  The scriptures tell us that there is a time and a season for all things. It is time for some true confessions.....I am a chronically early person.  There I have admitted it.  I get places early.  I find a seat, get organized, read a book.  I hate to be late!!  And I find it rather disturbing when other people are late. 

Coaching Concept:  God has prepared, and is preparing each of us, "for such a time as this".  Are you ready?  Will you be early, late, or right on time?  God's timing is perfect, no matter what we can see or comprehend. It is about the journey, and the lessons He wants to teach us.  Who are we to not show up for his assignments?  Who do we think we are? 

Challenge:  I encourage you this week to be early and "on time" for God's appointments.  See who you might meet if you get someplace with a few minutes to spare.  Enjoy the extra moments to pray and chat with those around you.  It is all about your purpose.  Trust God's timing as He reveals more to you.

Falling in Love

Question of the Week:  What do you love?  Who do you love?  How do you love?

Pondering:  Fall is my favorite season.  God shows me the vibrant colors on the trees, the cooler weather, and the time change reminds me that life is moving forward.   I am learning to love myself in a new way this fall season.  I am watching God's plans unfold before me in a mysterious way that I cannot understand.  I am letting go just like the leaves on the trees do, as they swirl to the ground.  I am seeing how God is bringing vibrant new people into my life.  This falling in love with myself, is good!   It is part of my purpose journey, even when I don't understand it.  Especially when I don't understand it.  You see, I can tend to be a control freak, and God certainly knows that.  He is working on me.....working with me!

Coaching Concept:  How are you falling in love with yourself this fall?  What do you love to do?  Who do you love to spend time with?  What is your favorite color, season, restaurant?  Who are you?  How did God uniquely design you?  What clothes do you love to wear?  As it says in The Message "So chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you:  compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline......And regardless of what else you put on, wear love.  It's your basic all-purpose garment.  Never be without it."  Colossians 3:12-14 

Challenge: I challenge you this week to fall in love with yourself.  Write a list of your unique strengths, gifts, talents, and accomplishments.  See how God is clothing you.  Be a lover of life!  Share your love with the people God has gifted you with.

I Wonder.....

 

Question of the Week: Are you wondering?

Pondering:   I am right in the middle of a situation and I often wake up wondering, and pondering, of course...."How did I end up here?   What do I do now?"   My husband and I have recently separated.  I have debated about writing about this here in my column for many reasons.  Some of the reasons are.... I don't want to be judged.  I don't want to be pitied.  I don't want to be rescued.  I want your love, compassion, and prayers for both of us.  I don't know what God has planned, but I do know that I am right in the middle of a gigantic lesson.  I trust that He is working, even when I can't feel it.  I know that He is my provider and sustainer in times of turmoil. 

Coaching Concept:  It is good for us to wonder....to evaluate, to investigate, and to ponder.  It is also good for us to be honest, get real, and speak the truth.  I am trusting in God's message for me in Proverbs 16:4 from The Message, "God made everything with a place and a purpose".    I am learning who I am in Christ, and more about my inner workings.  I am right here waiting and wondering....

Challenge:  I pray that by me speaking the truth today, it will help you to speak the truth this week.  I challenge you to get real, even if it causes you to wake up wondering.  I love you my friends!

The "Yuck" Zone!

Question for the week:  Are you frustrated?

Pondering:  As we journey through this purpose process, we can get so frustrated.  I know this feeling intimately because that is where I am right now.  Frustrated, mad, confused....in the YUCK zone!!  Just when you think you have things figured out, and you are trotting down purpose lane, a boulder lands right in front of you.  The economy is in turmoil, relationships all around me are changing, and my brain is swirling with questions. 

Coaching Concept:  Yes indeed....you and I will have frustrations along the way.  The bigger question is, "what are we going to do about it?"  Who are you when you are in the YUCK zone?  The bible tells us to let our YES be YES and our NO be NO.....are you doing that?  We are also to speak the truth in love......are you doing that?  As it says in Ephesians 4:15 (NLT) "Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church."

Challenge:   My challenge for you this week is to find out why you are frustrated and begin to speak the truth about it.   Start small, but start somewhere.  Be brave.  Trust God's timing and listen for his answers.

Tempted??

Question of the Week:  Are you being tempted?

Pondering:  Temptations.  I find them all around me at this point.  I find myself tempted by easy things like chips, chocolate, shoes, and my eternal search for the perfect purse.  I find myself tempted by bigger things such as better furniture, a different house, a more sophisticated office. I even find myself thinking about a different relationship, getting caught in the grass is greener section of my mind.  .  What are you tempted with?  We are all tempted daily.  I ponder daily and hourly about "this" and "that", which is really my mind going to places that it shouldn't.  Truthfully, my thoughts take me on a journey away from my purpose and away from God.

Coaching Concept:  We can learn a great deal about our purpose as we see what we are tempted with.  We can look under the surface and see what our motives are, and why we think the grass is greener over there.  As it says in Ephesians 6:11 NKJV "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil".    What is your purpose?  What are your motives?  What is tempting you away from God's plan for your life?

Challenge:  I challenge you this week to consider your temptations.  Talk to them.  Ask them what they are trying to keep you from seeing, hearing, and feeling.  Ask God to show you a way out!

Freaked out with FEAR

Question of the Week:  What are you afraid of?

Pondering:  Do you ever just get so afraid that you can't think clearly?  You begin to imagine the worst case scenario and you start to linger there, almost embracing it.  How does this FEAR help?  Let me tell you my friends, it doesn't!  I have been whirling and swirling around the FEAR loop lately and it is just YUCK!  I somehow forget that God has me taken care of.....that I have nothing to FEAR. That in fact he says "Do not fear!" 365 times in the bible.  One for every day of the year!  Why do I get so anxious when I can rest in the love of my Father?

Coaching Concept:  This week, as I was talking to my friend and a fellow coach, she asked me, "What are you afraid of?" and so many things came through my mind that I told her I needed some time to think about it.  Our fear tells us an important message, but we do not have to act on it or make a decision from a place of fear.  If you find yourself doing that, STOP.  Take your time.  This is so important to living out our purpose and being "lined up" with God's agenda.      

Challenge:  What are you "fearful" of today?  I challenge you to do something about it.  Write about it, talk about it, pray over it, read a book about the subject, gather knowledge.  You are a wise and wonderful woman!  Embrace that, not the FEAR!

I Give Up!

Question of the Week:  When is the right time to give up? To surrender?

Pondering:  I hate to give up!  I am so "over-responsible" that I have a hard time cancelling an appointment, not completing a task, or even allowing myself to be sick.  But what I am being reminded of during this season, is that my timing is not God's timing.  That I need to stop thinking that I know what is best for me or for anyone else.  My controlling nature is helping no one.  God wants me, and requires me to give up, to surrender.  As it says in The Message, "Take your everyday, ordinary life-your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life- and place it before God as an offering." Romans 12:1

Coaching Concept:  Giving up can be good, no matter how challenging it is.  Sometimes I have to learn the hard way, that giving up actually is what God would desire from me.  He does not want me to be out of balance, overwhelmed, exhausted, and unable to be fully present.  I am saying NO to a variety of things. I am taking things OFF of my calendar that don't need to be there.  I am giving up! 

Challenge:  What do you need to give up?  How can you "bless and release"?  Give up one thing this week and journal about how it feels.  What is God teaching you? 

Hate to Wait?

Question of the Week:  What are you waiting for?

Pondering:  Don't you just hate to wait?  We are so impatient and so "in a rush".  We want God to answer our questions and take care of our problems immediately.  I am in the midst of a very challenging season....and I have to wait.  My father God is holding me in His arms while I catch my breath.  I am wondering and asking so many questions and He is just holding me and telling me to wait.  My friend told me to look up Psalm 40: 1-3, which says this:  I waited and waited and waited for God.  At last he looked; finally he listened.  He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from the mud.  He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn't slip.  He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God.   More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery,  abandoning themselves to God. (The Message)

Coaching Concept:  I am waiting and learning, one day at time.  What ditch is God lifting you out of?  What mud is in your life? We can learn so much in the waiting....it is a time to be observant and reflective.  I am writing down my thoughts and my prayers in my journal.   I am talking with God.  He is listening and I am learning.

Challenge:  I challenge you to wait this week.  Try getting in the longest line at the grocery store.  See how that feels.  I challenge you to write down your thoughts and ponderings for God in your journal. 

Learning and Turning...

 

Question of the Week:  What do you do when a disaster hits?

Pondering: This last week we have watched Hurricane Ike roar through Texas and the 7 year anniversary of 9/11.  We sometimes share natural disasters as a town or community.  Yesterday a well known and loved eye doctor in my town died while landing his plane at the airport.  How do we make sense of it all?  What does purpose have to do with disaster? What can we learn from a disaster or a tragedy? 

Coaching Concept:  Learning is a part of living, and we often learn the most in the horrible times.  I know how much I have learned from my failures and my mistakes.  I have failed in public and I have failed privately.  As a coach, I work with people who have journeyed through all kinds of ups and downs in life.  The key is in the learning and the turning.  We can either learn from it and turn towards our Father, or not learn and turn the other way.  Which will you choose?  In Psalm 121:7-8 it says, "The Lord will keep you from all harm-He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."   

Challenge:  I challenge you this week to send a message of encouragement to someone who is in the midst of a storm.  I pray that you will ponder the lessons that God is surrounding you with.

Need a Makeover?

Question of the Week:  Do you need a Character Makeover?

Pondering:  I am writing this week's column from Kentucky.  My friend and colleague Kelly Thorne and I have just completed a BIG Character Makeover Launch that you will be able to join virtually through TRW.  Find out more on the main page or go to www.ibloom.us.  I KNOW that my life is in need of a BIG transformation.  My marriage is in need of a healing balm.  My hearts cries out. In Matthew 11:28 it says this, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."  I need a rest!! 

Coaching Concept:  Are you ready to be brutally honest with your life?  Are you ready to look at your strongholds?  A significant part of the coaching relationship is the questions that we ask.  Another crucial part is the accountability.  Are you ready to continue seeking your purpose and be held accountable for your actions?

Challenge:  I challenge you today to come along on this character makeover journey.  I challenge you to be gutt-wrenchingly honest with yourself.  I encourage you to speak your truth this week!

Are you going "back to school"?

Question of the Day:  Are you ready to go "back to school"?

Pondering:   I love "back to school"....don't you?  I don't actually have the privilege of going back to school this year, but I love the idea of it.  I love the papers, binders, and supplies on sale at every store.  Fall is my favorite time of year and I know that once those yellow school buses start moving again, that my favorite season is fast approaching.  And for me, living in Texas, this means that the heat will start to decrease....praise God!

Coaching Concept:  As women, on the search for purpose, we are always in "school".  Life is our classroom.  We are always in a process of learning and growing....or we are stagnant and standing still.  I choose to learn, and to learn as much as I can.  God is refining us, moving us, growing us.....are you ready?  As it says in Romans 12: 2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."  Are you ready to be transformed?

Challenge:  What are you learning today? This week?  Are you willing to take yourself back to school?  I challenge you to sign up for that Spanish class, take the zumba class at your local gym, attend the seminar.....do something that scares you!  I dare you.  See what you learn about yourself and the purpose that God has for you.

Leadership Lessons

Question of the Week:  Are you a leader?

Pondering:  I have spent the weekend on a Women's Leadership Retreat in the mountains of Colorado with women of all ages and backgrounds.  In August, I led a Women's Leadership Coaching group.  Leadership is on my pondering mind lately.  I am reading books on leadership, looking at leadership websites, and just doing a great deal of research and reflection.  I am thinking of good leaders in my life, and not-so-good leaders.  I am taking a hard honest look at my style of leadership.  I want to take each day and learn something. 

Coaching Concept:  So I ask you today, my friends, are you a leader?  You might not realize how much of a leader you are.  Do you know that people are watching you?  Not in a "stalker" sort of way, but in a "pondering" way.  Your friends, your neighbors, your kids, your family, are all watching you and learning from your example.   

Challenge:  I challenge you to take at good look at your leadership factor.  Who is watching and learning from you?

Flip Flop Envy

Question of the week:  Do you have flip flop envy?

Pondering:  True confessions time.  I can't wear flip flops and I am so jealous.  Every where I go, I see men and women wearing the most fabulous flip flops.  What used to be a fashion faux pas is now totally stylish and chic.  There are fancy flip flops, ugly flip flops, high heeled flip flops, man flip flops, and even the interchangeable top flip flop with a variety of colors and patterns to choose from that you can snap onto your flop.  That leads me to ponder.....which part is the flop and which part is the flip......hmmm.  So try as I might, I can't become a flip-flopper.  Now this causes me a great deal of shopping challenge when almost every shoe is the store is a flip flop of some sort.  I need help!!  You must be wondering why in the world I can't seem to wrap my toes around and settle in with this silly shoe.  Well, the "toe-thingy" bothers my toes.  Simple as that.  The toe thingy is always there, then the rest of your toes just fling out into never never land.  No support for the tootsies.   

Coaching Concept:  Well you might be wondering if this has anything to do with purpose....it does.  We often compare and think that someone else has a better shoe or a better purpose.  We question our purpose, looking around and trying to fit ourselves and our lives into shoes that don't fit.  We struggle with flip flop envy or purpose envy. We try to be floppers.  In Galatians 5:26 NASB, it says "Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another".    

Challenge:  I challenge you to not compare yourself to any one else this week.  Just embrace your own purpose, as much as God has revealed to you!  Don't try to wear the wrong shoe.  Allow God to show you where He needs you and what He needs from you.....in His timing. 

Camels at Harmony Exit

Question for the week: Do you need to go on a road trip?

Pondering: I went on an overnight business trip to Amarillo, Texas last week. I DO enjoy driving on these trips because it gives me lots of time to pray, think, sing, and come up with fabulous ideas. I DO NOT like the fact that I have one of the smallest bladders ever, and because of this I have to stop far too many times. As I am driving down the road, singing and getting my groove going, I look to my left and I see a field of camels. Yes there are approximately 20-25 camels at the Harmony Exit in the middle of Texas. So I immediately call my husband to say, “You are not going to believe this….”.

Coaching Concept: How often do we “see” right through something or someone because we feel like we know what is there? We expect it to be the same. We expect people to be the same. We tend to get in a rut and just keep driving down the same road, with the same people, doing the same thing. In Exodus 33: 18 Moses says “Now show me your glory”. I believe that God blessed me with an abundant picture of His glory. Not only did He allow me to see one camel, but more camels that I could count. Very nice indeed! I love how my father God speaks to me and gets my attention.

Challenge: I challenge you to drive down a different road, so to speak. I challenge you to watch for camels. I challenge you to look around….your purpose might be right in front of you. Ask God to reveal His glory to you this week!

Ice Skating on my Birthday!

Question for the week:  What do you do on your birthday??

Pondering:  I just celebrated a birthday!!  My birthday always brings joy, lots of eating, and a sense of reflection.  I take stock of all that has happened since the last birthday rolled around.  Well part of the joy this year, was that I got to go ICE SKATING on my birthday with my husband and two new friends.  It was a blast!  We were the oldest ones on the ice, but not too shabby, if I must say so myself.  I love ice skating!  In college, I took an ice skating class and learned a few fancy moves, which I have now forgotten.  I just love the gliding and the swooshing.  Some of the things that I don't love are....the skates that don't fit right, and the not being able to do things on the ice that look so easy when you are watching them on TV.   Hmm.....hard to imagine that I can't do a double axel right?   

Coaching Concept:  How do you celebrate the passages of LIFE?  Not just for others, but for you.  As women, we often ignore our own birthday and yet throw gigantic celebrations for others throughout the year.  And how do you have FUN?  How do you stay YOUNG?  Throughout my birthday weekend, the verse that kept showing up for me is Psalm 37: 4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."  This was in the front pages of a book my husband gave me and a journal that a friend gave me.....so I am embracing this verse and choosing that this will be my verse for this coming year.  I am choosing to celebrate the life that God has given me, good and bad, challenges and triumphs.  I choose to keep on ice skating.....with God.

Challenge:    I challenge you to celebrate your life and reflect on your  purpose.   Each day is a gift, and to be delighted in.  Each day we can move closer and closer to our God-given purpose.  I challenge you to do something crazy.....something that scares you!  I urge you to get out on the ICE......and I will meet you there.

   

What IF?

Issue of the week:  The pesky challenge of ‘IF” and “WHEN”.

Pondering:  I am pondering the “ifs” and “whens” of my life and how they impact my purpose. How often do we find ourselves saying; “I will go on that mission trip WHEN I lose weight”. Or how about “I would be living my purpose, IF I had extra income like she does”? The IF’s and WHEN’s are getting OLD for me. I don’t want to wait, for the WHEN or the IF. I don’t want them….we’ll just call them the “PESKY ONES” for now, I don’t want them to keep me from what God has for me anymore. I want to be free. 

Coaching Concept:  Bottom line truth is….I might never lose weight. Who cares? What if I could stop fretting, spending money, agonizing, freaking out, and waiting to fit into the smaller clothes? How many hours, days, and weeks of my life would I gain back? But….what if I put my life “on hold” forever and never fulfill my purpose, all because of this one IF and WHEN?

Challenge:  I challenge you to look at your IF’s and WHEN’s this week and see where those PESKY ONES are keeping you stuck. Get out and about! Tell them to be gone. In Galatians 5:25 NKJV it says “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” I encourage you to let God be your ONLY, not one of your IF’s. Show him that He is your guiding WHEN, no matter how it looks or where He sends you. 

Who are you mentoring?

Question for the week:  Who are you mentoring?

Pondering:  I am pondering the concept of mentoring a lot right now. I am “officially” mentoring a few women right now. This is in addition to my coaching clients, book study attendee’s and the students I am training to become life purpose coaches. Actually I love mentoring and I think I tend to do it as a natural part of my personality. But I want to be INTENTIONAL so I am studying it, practicing it, teaching it, and telling you abou it. Why? Because I think it is crucial! I think of a few of my mentors now, Janelle Thayer, Deanda Roberts, Katie Brazelton, and Lynn Camp. These are women who changed the course of my life, by being in my life. By investing in me. By letting me learn and ask. By letting me make mistakes. By sharing their stories with me. 

Coaching Concept:  Who are you mentoring? Who are some of your mentors? What is mentoring? According to Paul Stanley and Robert Clinton, “mentoring is a relational experience through which one person empowers another by sharing God-given resources”. We also see it throughout the scriptures...”And the things which you’ve received from me, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. (2 Timothy 2:2). 

Challenge:  Decide to mentor a woman that God places in your life. Read books on mentoring, be mentored. If you need help on ideas for any of this, please let me know. Observe yourself this week to see how and where you can mentor. Thank the women who have mentored you along the way. See the ways that mentoring fits into your purpose. It is a HUGE part of how you can find and live your purpose. Find women who have what you want, who are living a life that is filled with the joy of passion and purpose, and ask them how they got there.

 

Purpose Ponderings #1

Question for the week:  Are you living "with purpose"?

Pondering:  This is what God has called us to do.....to live with intention and to be filled with His Purpose.  Are you doing that?  What and how can it be seen?  I know that we gals, get swamped in the "to-do's" and then we even get to stumbling around in the "to not do's", such as not eating too much, spending too much, etc.    So how do we go about this living with purpose?  What does that look like when we are cranky?  When we are overwhelmed?  When we are on vacation?  When we have a mis-communication with a family member? 

Coaching Concept:  Each week, you will hear a bit of "coaching" from me, since that is who I am, and how God has wired me.  Jesus was and is our best Coach, asking "What do you want me to do for you?"  The scripture encourages us again and again to "speak the truth" and "Let your 'yes' be yes and your 'no' be no" James 5:12 (NRSV).  So begin this week by speaking the truth with yourself in your "purpose assessment".

Challenge:  Observe yourself this week to see where you are "on purpose" and where you are not.  This could be a daily list that summarizes how you are feeling about different areas of your life.  It could be a time of prayer and journaling as you reflect on how and where God is using you currently and where He might be sending you next.  I encourage you to write it down in what I lovingly call...."a brain dump".  Think of this as a rough draft.  Don't get stuck in the details! 

Until next week.....

Welcome to our OPEN HOUSE!!

Hello there from Purpose Ponderings! 

My name is Diane Cunningham and I am so glad to meet you and welcome you here.  This Open House is fabulous...a great time to wander around and check out our writers and see how each "room" is decorated. 

In Purpose Ponderings we are going to be talking about all things PURPOSE.  I am a Certified Life Purpose Coach and a woman who has wandered through a few "Purpose Pits" herself.  I then found my way to the Purpose Potluck, seeing so many choices, and wanted to take a bite of each.  Then I finally made it to my PURPOSE PARTY!! 

Now I have the great joy and honor to help other women in their purpose journey.....God is so good!

Let me know what questions you have for me....

My goal is to walk along side you so you can:

• Find and Live Your Purpose
• Re-Discover Your Strengths, Gifts, and Talents
• Create a Life that you Love!

I am looking forward to "chatting" with you as we journey together....