March Moving Tips

Who am I?
When a life change means a loss of identity

Often the most difficult obstacles in starting over is a loss of identity. After 27 years as a missionary, Donna's move back to the U.S. left her in a painful period of "limbo" that resulted in grief and depression. On the mission field her role as missionary, videographer, Bible teacher, mother, and friend was the way she defined herself. After her move, she didn't have any of these responsibilities to provide her with an identity; even her children had grown and left her with an empty nest.

In time Donna's grief gave way to a new perspective. The move became an opportunity for Donna to reassess her goals, dreams, and relationship with Christ and with others. She writes, [The move] "allowed me the freedom in Christ to be who He wanted me to be! Now, rather than waking each morning with plans for video production... I wake with a clean slate and ask, ‘What do you have for me today, Lord?' Each day is an adventure! My desire is to walk so closely with Him that I will know that the promptings of my heart are from Him, and I can confidently respond to those prompts. I don't have to hang back in shyness, or hesitate, but can quickly and confidently act out of His love! I am no longer looking back, but looking forward each day with a deep joy."

Are you struggling with the loss of identity as a result of your move or a new stage in life? This is an opportunity to redefine yourself and make decisions as you take on new responsibilities and involvements.

Here are a few tips to help you get started:

Keep Your Focus on God
Spend time in prayer and in Scripture, asking God for direction.

Create a Personal Mission Statement
Often, after settling in, you'll find you have time on your hands. The calendar isn't filled with all of the things you were involved in before. Take this opportunity to spend time creating a personal mission statement. Approach this prayerfully and ask yourself questions like:
For what purpose did God create me?
What are my unique, God-given qualities?
What is God calling me to accomplish?
Reflect on scripture to seek God's perspective for purpose in your life. The website urbana.org has helpful suggestions for creating a Christian personal mission statement.

Plan According To Your Personal Mission Statement
Review your decision-making in the past. Were there decisions that you made based upon the expectations of others? Were there decisions that you regret? This move can be a great opportunity to approach decisions (community involvement, friendships, healthful lifestyle, etc.) with greater wisdom and a desire to plan according to your personal mission statement.

Embrace Opportunities for Direction and Enrichment
Let's face it, new communities and involvements are going to provide a different environment for you. It may take some time to adjust if the community or involvement you left behind is still tugging at your heart. Approach each moment, encounter, and experience with the knowledge that God is directing your path and these are opportunities for direction and enrichment.

Expand Your Comfort Zone
Be open to trying new things as opportunities arise. Often times, the hardest part is just picking up the phone or making a commitment to go. Put aside any excuses and begin today!

Expand Your Talents
What is something that you've always wanted to try or to be better at? Why not take that college class, a music lesson, or join that book club or women's group? Look into it! Do something that can take you one step closer to expanding your talents.

Examine Your God-Given Gifts and Abilities
Seek an opportunity to use your gifts and abilities in your community. Ask those close to you for input as they may provide an insight you hadn't considered. Contact local schools, community centers, church, etc. and offer your skills.

Join An Outreach
Commit yourself to a cause about which you feel passionate. Research the causes available in your community. Search for ideas by using an internet search engine. Type in your town and state and then add a keyword to it such as: volunteer, clubs, organizations, activities, calendar, newcomer's club.

Be Good To Yourself
Get the beauty makeover that you've been thinking about. Ask women whose look you admire where they get their hair cut. (Yes, you can ask a stranger! Any woman would be flattered to be told her style was admired!) Go to a stylist and ask for a style that would be fabulous without a lot of fuss. Add highlights for a lift to your existing color or try a new color altogether! Department store makeup counters often apply their makeup for free! Ask them for tips and new trends.

Just Savor The Chaos!
Don't wait until you have all of your "ducks in a row" to get involved. Gathering information and weighing opportunities is important, but at some point you just have to jump in and move forward with your life!

March Moving Tips

Who am I?
When a life change means a loss of identity

Often the most difficult obstacles in starting over is a loss of identity. After 27 years as a missionary, Donna's move back to the U.S. left her in a painful period of "limbo" that resulted in grief and depression. On the mission field her role as missionary, videographer, Bible teacher, mother, and friend was the way she defined herself. After her move, she didn't have any of these responsibilities to provide her with an identity; even her children had grown and left her with an empty nest.

In time Donna's grief gave way to a new perspective. The move became an opportunity for Donna to reassess her goals, dreams, and relationship with Christ and with others. She writes, [The move] "allowed me the freedom in Christ to be who He wanted me to be! Now, rather than waking each morning with plans for video production... I wake with a clean slate and ask, ‘What do you have for me today, Lord?' Each day is an adventure! My desire is to walk so closely with Him that I will know that the promptings of my heart are from Him, and I can confidently respond to those prompts. I don't have to hang back in shyness, or hesitate, but can quickly and confidently act out of His love! I am no longer looking back, but looking forward each day with a deep joy."

Are you struggling with the loss of identity as a result of your move or a new stage in life? This is an opportunity to redefine yourself and make decisions as you take on new responsibilities and involvements.

Here are a few tips to help you get started:

Keep Your Focus on God
Spend time in prayer and in Scripture, asking God for direction.

Create a Personal Mission Statement
Often, after settling in, you'll find you have time on your hands. The calendar isn't filled with all of the things you were involved in before. Take this opportunity to spend time creating a personal mission statement. Approach this prayerfully and ask yourself questions like:
For what purpose did God create me?
What are my unique, God-given qualities?
What is God calling me to accomplish?
Reflect on scripture to seek God's perspective for purpose in your life. The website urbana.org has helpful suggestions for creating a Christian personal mission statement.

Plan According To Your Personal Mission Statement
Review your decision-making in the past. Were there decisions that you made based upon the expectations of others? Were there decisions that you regret? This move can be a great opportunity to approach decisions (community involvement, friendships, healthful lifestyle, etc.) with greater wisdom and a desire to plan according to your personal mission statement.

Embrace Opportunities for Direction and Enrichment
Let's face it, new communities and involvements are going to provide a different environment for you. It may take some time to adjust if the community or involvement you left behind is still tugging at your heart. Approach each moment, encounter, and experience with the knowledge that God is directing your path and these are opportunities for direction and enrichment.

Expand Your Comfort Zone
Be open to trying new things as opportunities arise. Often times, the hardest part is just picking up the phone or making a commitment to go. Put aside any excuses and begin today!

Expand Your Talents
What is something that you've always wanted to try or to be better at? Why not take that college class, a music lesson, or join that book club or women's group? Look into it! Do something that can take you one step closer to expanding your talents.

Examine Your God-Given Gifts and Abilities
Seek an opportunity to use your gifts and abilities in your community. Ask those close to you for input as they may provide an insight you hadn't considered. Contact local schools, community centers, church, etc. and offer your skills.

Join An Outreach
Commit yourself to a cause about which you feel passionate. Research the causes available in your community. Search for ideas by using an internet search engine. Type in your town and state and then add a keyword to it such as: volunteer, clubs, organizations, activities, calendar, newcomer's club.

Be Good To Yourself
Get the beauty makeover that you've been thinking about. Ask women whose look you admire where they get their hair cut. (Yes, you can ask a stranger! Any woman would be flattered to be told her style was admired!) Go to a stylist and ask for a style that would be fabulous without a lot of fuss. Add highlights for a lift to your existing color or try a new color altogether! Department store makeup counters often apply their makeup for free! Ask them for tips and new trends.

Just Savor The Chaos!
Don't wait until you have all of your "ducks in a row" to get involved. Gathering information and weighing opportunities is important, but at some point you just have to jump in and move forward with your life!

March Moving Tips

Who am I?
When a life change means a loss of identity

Often the most difficult obstacles in starting over is a loss of identity. After 27 years as a missionary, Donna's move back to the U.S. left her in a painful period of "limbo" that resulted in grief and depression. On the mission field her role as missionary, videographer, Bible teacher, mother, and friend was the way she defined herself. After her move, she didn't have any of these responsibilities to provide her with an identity; even her children had grown and left her with an empty nest.

In time Donna's grief gave way to a new perspective. The move became an opportunity for Donna to reassess her goals, dreams, and relationship with Christ and with others. She writes, [The move] "allowed me the freedom in Christ to be who He wanted me to be! Now, rather than waking each morning with plans for video production... I wake with a clean slate and ask, ‘What do you have for me today, Lord?' Each day is an adventure! My desire is to walk so closely with Him that I will know that the promptings of my heart are from Him, and I can confidently respond to those prompts. I don't have to hang back in shyness, or hesitate, but can quickly and confidently act out of His love! I am no longer looking back, but looking forward each day with a deep joy."

Are you struggling with the loss of identity as a result of your move or a new stage in life? This is an opportunity to redefine yourself and make decisions as you take on new responsibilities and involvements.

Here are a few tips to help you get started:

Keep Your Focus on God
Spend time in prayer and in Scripture, asking God for direction.

Create a Personal Mission Statement
Often, after settling in, you'll find you have time on your hands. The calendar isn't filled with all of the things you were involved in before. Take this opportunity to spend time creating a personal mission statement. Approach this prayerfully and ask yourself questions like:
For what purpose did God create me?
What are my unique, God-given qualities?
What is God calling me to accomplish?
Reflect on scripture to seek God's perspective for purpose in your life. The website urbana.org has helpful suggestions for creating a Christian personal mission statement.

Plan According To Your Personal Mission Statement
Review your decision-making in the past. Were there decisions that you made based upon the expectations of others? Were there decisions that you regret? This move can be a great opportunity to approach decisions (community involvement, friendships, healthful lifestyle, etc.) with greater wisdom and a desire to plan according to your personal mission statement.

Embrace Opportunities for Direction and Enrichment
Let's face it, new communities and involvements are going to provide a different environment for you. It may take some time to adjust if the community or involvement you left behind is still tugging at your heart. Approach each moment, encounter, and experience with the knowledge that God is directing your path and these are opportunities for direction and enrichment.

Expand Your Comfort Zone
Be open to trying new things as opportunities arise. Often times, the hardest part is just picking up the phone or making a commitment to go. Put aside any excuses and begin today!

Expand Your Talents
What is something that you've always wanted to try or to be better at? Why not take that college class, a music lesson, or join that book club or women's group? Look into it! Do something that can take you one step closer to expanding your talents.

Examine Your God-Given Gifts and Abilities
Seek an opportunity to use your gifts and abilities in your community. Ask those close to you for input as they may provide an insight you hadn't considered. Contact local schools, community centers, church, etc. and offer your skills.

Join An Outreach
Commit yourself to a cause about which you feel passionate. Research the causes available in your community. Search for ideas by using an internet search engine. Type in your town and state and then add a keyword to it such as: volunteer, clubs, organizations, activities, calendar, newcomer's club.

Be Good To Yourself
Get the beauty makeover that you've been thinking about. Ask women whose look you admire where they get their hair cut. (Yes, you can ask a stranger! Any woman would be flattered to be told her style was admired!) Go to a stylist and ask for a style that would be fabulous without a lot of fuss. Add highlights for a lift to your existing color or try a new color altogether! Department store makeup counters often apply their makeup for free! Ask them for tips and new trends.

Just Savor The Chaos!
Don't wait until you have all of your "ducks in a row" to get involved. Gathering information and weighing opportunities is important, but at some point you just have to jump in and move forward with your life!

March Moving Story

(Editor's note: Rose has been a special part of the Just Moved Ministry family for a long time. Several of her blogs about being uprooted have appeared on our website as a Moving Story. She writes with honesty and a deep reliance on the Lord. You can read more of her blogs at http://www.rospiration.blogspot.com/)

Lost and Found

You may have noticed my posts are distinctly lacking in the "God is in the flowers and rainbows" flavor. In fact, more of my posts are about trials I face or disappointments in myself. This no doubt comes from the fact that, while I am every bit female, I‘ve never been a "girly" girl. I look like death warmed over in pink, I simply look silly in ruffles, and though I love jewelry, the beautiful blingy cocktail rings my sweet friend Patty has given me are a glaring contradiction on my thin, veiny hands. And frankly, my life has been so challenge-filled since 1995 that I find little comfort in stress-busting devotionals that advise me to take a bubble bath or have my nails done. God IS in the flowers and rainbows, and probably in bubbles, too, but I need a God who is there to be found IN my pain, loss, anxiety, disappointments, grief, and frustrations. If He isn't to be encountered and experienced there, then what hope do any of us have?

After I take the bubble bath and have my nails done, what has changed? Have those admittedly fun exercises changed my circumstances? If they haven't changed my situation, have they changed me? No. And while I love bubble baths, I need something more substantial in my life. The most effective stress-buster to me is seeing God's hand moving to transform me in the middle of the messes my life seems to step into again and again like the ubiquitous gum on a summer day in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

I long to dance in the rain - not because I'm a pessimist, but because I know rain will come. I need a God who isn't afraid to get wet, who can transcend, transfigure, translate and transform, as the lyrics in John Mark McMillan's moving, anointed song, "How He Loves", powerfully declare: "When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me." I need a God of grit and guts and glory. That's who I'm encountering in this deepest trial of my life - a God of incredible, deep compassion and love - and that's who I pray you find within these thoughts and discoveries of mine.

March Devotional

Moved but not shaken...

When the strong winds come in March, it usually leaves everything in my yard in disarray. Patio chairs and flower pots blow over, branches fall, and leaves scatter. It looks like the whole yard has been turned upside down and everything has been shaken loose from its foundation.

For those of you moving through the "winds of change" in your life, you might feel like the very foundation of your world is shaken. Just like the wind is beyond our control, so are many of the circumstances that blow into our lives. From a traumatic job loss, home foreclosure, or unwanted move; a devastating divorce, or being a self-supporting single mom; a debilitating illness, or the painful death of a loved one; being an empty-nester, or a caregiver to aging parents---change can leave our life turned upside down and often brings unexpected chaos to our world. Nothing seems the same around us and we don't know where to begin to start putting the pieces back together again.

When we are moving through change, remember that our God is unchangeable. (Malachi 3:6) When the winds and the storms of life hit us, we must stand strong on the solid rock of Jesus Christ and His promises; then our foundation will not be shaken-regardless of our circumstances! He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken. Psalm 62:2

Scripture to Remember:

Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against the house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock. Matthew 7:24-25

Question to Consider:

What are the winds of change that have shaken up your world?

Prayer:

Oh Lord, I am going through major changes right now, and my world has turned upside down. I run to you, my rock! Protect me, calm me, and let me rest in the shelter of your arms. Give me the strength of your Word to get through this. Amen

Thought for the Day:

Today, I will cling to your Word.

- Susan Miller

Heart Talk March 2011

My dear friends,

My granddaughter, Savannah, who is eight, has always ruled the roost with her three brothers, who are nine, six, and five. She keeps them in line - from reminding them of their table manners, to keeping their rooms picked-up. I get a kick out of listening to her talk to them when she is in her "mothering mode," and I already see in her so many nurturing qualities of her mother at this young age.

I went over to their house last week and entered through the door that leads to the garage. It's the door we all use for coming and going instead of the front door, probably much like your house too. When I was ready to leave, I walked towards the garage and saw the neatly printed, large sign in Savannah's handwriting taped to the door at eye level. There was no way anyone on their way out could miss reading the words that said:

Got your lunch?

Got your jacket?

Got your homework?

I couldn't help but laugh as I realized these words were a reminder for her three brothers as they left for school each morning! Obviously, Savannah had heard her mother ask these questions every day as all four of them scurried off to school after the typical morning chaos of getting ready.

As I was driving home, I couldn't help but think how I needed to post on my door a little check-list reminder of things not to forget as I leave each day. It would read like this:

Got kindness?

Got right attitude?

Got joy?

If I choose to be kind in my actions and words during the day, it will encourage those I come in contact with. If I choose a positive attitude, it will be contagious for others. If I choose joy in the midst of my circumstances, it will be a testimony of my faith and trust in Christ.

I think I'll add a few more. Wow! I could paper the whole door with post-it notes!

What would your checklist say?

From My Heart to Yours,

Susan Miller

A Word of Encouragement

---

Moving is an uprooting and unsettling time in your life. You long to feel rooted and grounded, and yet you’ve just begun to break new ground in a new place. You are probably experiencing the normal shock of adjustment from being transplanted. God wants you to “grow” in your relationship with Him as you put down new roots.

"Many of us refuse to grow where we are put;
consequently, we take root nowhere."
Oswald Chambers