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Capacity for Leadership
Leadership was the area of insufficient capacity in my life that most grabbed my attention at the end of last year. This was where my latest season of seeking increased capacity began. I had accepted a position on my local MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) leadership team. I hadn’t been an attendee for two years due to working on the day it is held but deeply missed it as it was a place that saved my sanity in the tough first year of my daughter’s life. When I received the phone call inviting me to this position, my spirit leaped at the opportunity. I didn’t have any doubts that this was…
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Reflecting on 2015: What I learned this year
I have come to accept that my memory is not great. Looking back on the year that was leaves me with general impressions, swaths of emotions over time periods and only a few distinct memories. I indulged in a couple of hours of reflecting on 2015 and looking ahead to 2016 using Amanda Viviers questions, a highly worthwhile exercise-especially if you are a writer or creative in any way. I was left with impressions of these being my take away lessons from this year: Deep community can develop in only a year– I find it hard to fathom that some of my closest friends today were really only acquaintances at this time…
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Be careful what you write/pray about! More letting go.
I had somehow developed this idea that following all the growth this year, the roles I had taken on and the writing series I had completed that I was now in for a year of consolidating. I had grown reasonably comfortable and was quite ok with that. Silly me!! For quite a while I had been sensing God nudging me to take Netflix off my tablet to help cut down the time suck that it has often been in my days. I kept thinking that I would just control the time and that would be fine. Finally this week, I obeyed. I took the app off of my tablet. I…
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My Ongoing Journey
It seems unbelievable that this is the last post in this year’s Write 31 Days challenge. I did it! I actually wrote a post for each day of October. Reflecting on My Journey of Increasing Capacity has been emotional, uplifting and even surprising at times. The words have flowed in a way that they haven’t in the past. A recurring phrase in many of my posts has been “a work in progress”. My journey is far from complete (is it ever really done as long as we are alive?!). It is ongoing. So what now? For the first time I have been consistent in writing and posting and am loving it.…
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Thankful Thursday
My thankfuls for this week: MOPS conference- after so much prep and organisation, it was wonderful to see the visions in my head coming into reality. I loved the time getting to know others in my team better, as well as chatting to people from other groups. I love the new theme and catching a renewed vision for my own life and for MOPS next year. An amazing husband who not only released me to participate in the conference (which meant very long days with set up and pack up) but also showed me again what a wonderful fun dad he is. Our daughter loves him beyond words and so…
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Soaking in His Presence
Taking the time to stop and rest has revealed even more how much I needed it. I underestimated how depleted I have become. I sat to write the post I had originally planned and there were no words. I don’t want to have words on a screen for the sake of it. If they are not from my heart and containing encouragement or a purpose, I don’t want to put them out there. I have been loving soaking in God’s presence today through listening to two albums from Bethel music: “You make me brave” and “Without words”. I share a small of part of that with you in the videos…
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Embracing Rest Today
It has been an intense few days and I am physically and mentally exhausted. Emotionally and spiritually doing pretty well as everything I was doing was filling up those areas, although I will admit to some irritability and lack of patience thanks to the tiredness. I wrote about the steps I have been taking to increase my capacity to rest here. Today needs to be a rest day for me if I have any hope of having the capacity I need for the rest of the week. These are my plans for getting rest today: focusing on the bare essentials of housework and allowing myself to leave most of it…
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Inspiration Monday: My Community
Finding “my people” has never really been easy for me. I am friends and acquaintances with many but have often struggled to get to those deeper levels of friendship with people. There have been a few spread over different seasons of my life. It takes vulnerability to allow myself to be me and real to foster these friendships. The community that I have around me now has kind of crept up on me. There has been a natural deepening of friendship with a few key people. I know that my capacity wouldn’t be where it is now without the support, encouragement, prayer and wisdom of these people. I am so blessed…
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Sunday Scripture
Created using the Bible App- Jude 1:20-21 MSG The unending, real life. These verses are a picture of how I want to live. Arms open and outstretched, right at the centre of God’s love seems like a good way to increase my capacity!How closely does this reflect your life? This post is part of a series called “My journey of increasing capacity” written as part of the Write 31 Days challenge. To read other posts in this series please click on the button below, in the side bar or on the Write 31 Days 2015 tab at the top. There are hundreds of other writers doing the Write 31 Days…
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What I’ve Learned from MOPS Leadership
For the first year of my daughter’s life, MOPS was a huge part of keeping the small shreds of sanity that were left. It was a very challenging year and the encouragement, commiseration and space to breathe were exactly what I needed. I was sad when one of my work days ended up being a Friday and I had to stop going to MOPS for a couple of years. In that time, I stayed in touch with participating in craft nights, helping to do AV for the State Conference and chatting to the mums at church who went. I missed it! I had already started considering changing my work days…
Encouragement for women in leadership
