Your Champion

I want this new blog to be an encouragement to you.  I want to be Your Champion.  I want to fight for you.  I want to be your cheering section.  I want to be the one that helps you get off the bench, get in the game, and win!  I want to be the one on the sidelines that is shouting “look at her!  She is rockin’ it!  She is letting her light shine!”

Your Light

All of us have a different light, a different motivation for living, a different way of parenting, a different way of loving. This blog is not going to be full of a bunch of “to do lists” and “how-to’s” and impossible organic recipes to make you the perfect woman, spouse, or parent.  What do I know about how to be the best you?  Only you can do that.  This blog will be full of inspiration and encouragement for you to embrace your natural talents what I will refer to as…Your Light…and not just dream about them, but to actively engage in them.

Your Life

I don’t know about you, but I have spent way too much time dwelling in the dark and trying to be someone I’m not.  Allowing fear to limit me.  My mother said recently to me, ‎”if we let fear dictate our lives…we make a mistake every step of the way.” No more.   I understand that there are rules, I just don’t think they apply to me…or to you.  Throw out the rules. Live the Life you want to live.   Live the Life You Love.  On this blog Your Life will stand for your dreams that you will accomplish.  For example, my dream is to be a published author and speaker.  I want to tell my story and encourage you to make a difference with Your Life.

Your Love 

You have so much love to give.  I believe in the unconditional love of God, and showing that love to others.  On this blog Your Love will stand for all the ways that together we are making a difference.  Loving our children by building them up, loving our neighbors by helping, and loving our world by serving.  On this blog, I will spotlight ways you can serve and ways you are serving. I have found that in the darkest times of my life, a chance to love someone in their darker time has given me perspective, inspired me, and changed me.

When we are able to put this all together we will find true meaning.  When you are able to dedicate Your Life (dream) to Your Light (your unique gift/talent) you will find Your Love (meaning).

It’s time to live. It’s time to let Your Light shine.  It’s time to Live the Life You Love.  I will be your Champion.

Tell me by commenting below:  What’s Your Light?  Your Life?  Your Love?  Help me so I can be your Champion.

“For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light.  Live as children of light.”  - Ephesians 5:8

Cue:  ”Here Comes the Sun” – The Beatles

Maybe you drove your mom crazy by catching bugs…and now your a scientist…or you  drew on your bedroom walls…and now your an artist.

For me  I may not Scrapbook or bake Apple Pie from scratch…but I sure can talk.

I used to get in trouble for talking at school…now my job is to use my words to encourage you…and I love it.

That’s what I call letting your light shine.

Maybe your parents sang “This Little Light of Mine” to you when you were a child.  I remember vividly singing this song in Sunday School and loving all the motions.

Don’t Hide it under a bushel NO!  I’m going to let it SHINE!

Don’t let Satan blow it out NO!  I’m going to let it SHINE!

So many of us let circumstances stop us from shining…money, family responsibilities, debt.  I want to encourage you not to let those things stop you, and to Let Your Light Shine anyway!

I believe that every life has a gift and a purpose.  A special skill that God gives us so we can give it to others.  And as a parent I feel strongly that part of my job is to help my children find that “light” their “special skill given by God” and help them SHINE brightly.

I also want to encourage you to do the same.  Shine My Love!  Share your stories here on how you let your light shine…or how you want to.

xoxo

My version: “Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a girl who wants a minivan.”

I failed to write my own story…at least one that was interesting.   I was trying to stuff myself in a mold that I didn’t fit in.   Writing what I thought was supposed to be my story…the supposed perfect suburban lifestyle.

My story went something like this:   Girl goes to college.  Girl meets good boy.  Girl gets married in church.  Girl has babies.  Girl stays home to care for babies while boy seeks corporate success.  Girl gets minivan.  Girl wears sensible shoes.  The End.

Boy leaves girl.  The Beginning.

Here’s an idea I have for the opening segment of my book…

A Camera is panning Washington DC from above.  There’s a man coming home from a long overseas business trip in a plane wringing his hands…looking out the window…he sees the US Capital Building, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial…then he gets in a town car…travels west out of the city through traffic into beautiful suburbia with groomed landscaping, green grass, a swimming pool crowded with families.  The car stops at a brick home with blue shutters, an American Flag by the front door, red and white Geraniums flanking the front door in red pots.  Inside there’s a woman making dinner while holding a newborn baby girl, two other children are dancing around her excited for Daddy to come home…but he’s late…

The woman puts the kids to bed and leaves dinner waiting on the table.  The man finally walks in and looks desheveled.  Something is very wrong.  He eats dinner, sits on the couch next to his wife and finally gets the courage to spit it out, “I’m leaving you.”

“Tonight?”  She says.  

The man, “Yes”

“Well we’re out of milk.” She says.  

That woman was me.

What a ridiculous thing to say, but practical considering at the time I had a 4 year old, 2 year old, and 8 week old baby asleep upstairs.  I was so blindsided and shocked that’s the only thing that came out of my mouth.  He left to get milk.  I called my best friend and fell to the floor screaming.  I woke up the baby.

My friend took me upstairs to bed, I kept screaming in my pillow, she picked up my baby, and waited by the front door for him to come home.  She took the milk while holding my baby swaddled in a pink blanket, and said to him, “Don’t make it hard on her, just leave.”

He called out to me…I didn’t answer…he left.  And that’s where my story really begins.

How did I get myself into this?  My therapist describes it as a car accident…you don’t see it coming, and when it happens you can’t drive yourself crazy saying if only I had left 5 minutes earlier…it just happens.  It’s how you move on that matters.

I think I was scared of writing my own story.  I was young when I got married.  I was scared of getting and finding a journalism job right out of college.  I was scared of living life on my own.  I didn’t know I could write my own story.

Now I know…  I’m writing… and chucking the sensible shoes for platform wedges.  :-)

“Life is pure adventure…the sooner we realize that we are able to treat life as art.”  - Maya Angelou

In my humble opinion, it carries baggage. Negative baggage.

It seems to imply that you are alone, but I don’t feel alone. I am grateful to my network of friends and family that surround me supporting me during this season of my life.

I have an amazing Nanny and friend that my kids love. It takes a pretty special person to show up at someone’s house at 6am…and greet the kids when they wake up, feed the breakfast, and get them dressed for the day. She is special!

So, I don’t feel “single”.  I feel more intentional in my motherhood than I ever have before.  I embrace it and take it seriously.

What are your suggestions? Have any new terms for “Single Mom”? I’m thinking “Professional Mom”, but I’m open to your suggestions.

UPDATE:  PRO-MOM it is!!!  Thanks to J.C. Larimore…my lifetime pastor!

Get it…short professional and double meaning…I am for moms…empowering and encouraging.  PRO-MOM…with a hot pink superman style logo…oh yeah…I feel a theme and a website coming!

So, this Easter has meant much more for my little family than just a celebration of the end of winter. It’s actually the celebration of an end to a very dark period of our life, and embracing the promise of new life and new possibilities.

The main thing I want you to know….I am okay!  In fact, I am stronger and better than ever.  The kids are doing great.  Although this may come as a surprise to you, I have been dealing with this for quite some time and have healed. Which is why I’m now talking about it and moving forward.   I feel strong and confident in pursuing my new life on my own with the kids.  I am fine financially and am getting plenty of support.  I’m not going to make a ton of changes.  We are living our normal lives.

You will probably begin to see changes on Facebook, my blog, email, on air, etc.  I plan on writing more and starting to tell my story of how I have found meaning during this time of suffering and how God is now turning what was once a pile of ashes into a thing of beauty.

I have discovered that there is a whole new dimension of life that God created for me…that I haven’t imagined or tapped into yet.  I have been settling for less of what God has intended for me.  No more!   I want to help others live the abundant life that God has planned for us.

Although parenting 3 young children on my own wasn’t exactly my plan, it’s actually not as hard as it sounds. To some it may seem like “no task for a mere mortal.”  But, I’m not one of those “mere mortals.”  I believe strongly in the risen power of Jesus Christ, and his ability to transform lives.  I am a living example that it is real.

Let every man and woman count himself immortal. Let him catch the revelation of Jesus in his resurrection. Let him say not merely, “Christ is risen,” but “I shall rise.” – Phillips Brooks

So on this Easter, I am breaking the silence and the chains of shame and secrets that were binding me.  I am saying it outloud…I am a Single Mom of 3…and I am rising!

Thanks for your love and support.  I don’t want pity, I don’t need a ton of help or anything, just your friendship, prayers, acceptance, and positive encouragement!

Love,

Amanda, Emily, Andy, and Zoe

Yesterday I visited my son, Andy’s, preschool class.  As I parked my minivan and walked across the street to his little school my mind was distracted with some serious worries that are going on in my life right now, until I heard the screams of joy.

My mind was awakened from it’s state of worry when I heard YAY!!!!  WOOHOO!!! and I looked up to see a class of 4 year olds running out to the playground with reckless abandon.  Those kids had no cares in the world.  They were thrilled beyond compare that they had the chance to go outside for 20 minutes to swing, jump, and spin around on the merry go round until they got dizzy.

Life can get to a serious pace as an adult that can made you dizzy.  From work responsibilities, kid activities, and financial burdens…it can really get me stressed out.  You can let it get to you or change your attitude and treat life it as an adventure.  Maya Angelou once said “Life is pure adventure…the sooner we realize that we can treat life as art.”

I dare you today as you walk outside of your home or office to let out a little YIPPEE!!!  Skip, Jump, do a little Irish jig  Start painting your canvas of life with some brighter colors…

Sure you can live your life without God, but you can lead a better life with God.

But, if you’ve ever read your horoscope in the newspaper you’ve probably read the wrong sign.  Astrologists now say that the signs are one month off.  The Star Tribune reported“The ancient Babylonians based zodiac signs on the constellation the sun was “in” on the day a person was born. During the ensuing millenniums, the moon’s gravitational pull has made the Earth “wobble” around its axis, creating about a one-month bump in the stars’ alignment”.

Wouldn’t we all love a little glimpse of our future.   Sometimes maybe even cried out to God asking if he could just tell you what your future holds.  I think that’s why people sometimes read their horoscope.  It gives a moment of clarity for your future in this most uncertain life.  Wouldn’t it be cool if you could open up the newspaper and there was a little personal note to you from God?

Something like, “Good morning…just wanted to let you know that there is nothing that’s going to happen to you today that you and I can’t handle together…have a good day…talk to you soon.”

What kind of daily note would you like to receive from God?

That’s what I got out of President Obama’s speech yesterday at The Memorial Service honoring those that lost their lives in the Tuscon, Arizona shooting.  In his speech he said…it is time to talk with each other “in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds…We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us.”

My co-host Brennan says his goal is to speak life and possibility into people’s lives.  I love that.  I think it starts at home.

Every night as a part of the bedtime routine with the kids I tell my kids what I am “most proud of them for” that day. Maybe it’s playing nicely with their siblings, or helping Mommy put away the groceries.  I try to find something that involves helping others.  It’s something my husband says his mother used to do with him every night.

It trickled down to our family.  I think that’s the whole idea.  Once we speak life and possibility into the lives of our children, they speak it into the lives of their friends, and the lives of their children, and their Grandchildren…and just maybe the world around you will become a better place when more people hear the words, “I believe in you.” instead of “You’re not good enough.”

Tell me you speak life and possibility into the lives of your family by commenting to this blog.