I sincerely hope I don’t give any illusions that life in my home is perfect, because it is not.  We sincerely try to live a good life, but we have trials and failures like everyone else.

My heart is full today of happiness and hurt.  Ben and I definitely have our differences and difficulties, some stronger than others.   The happiness I feel is that he still willing to put up with me through all of my faults.  I sure can be difficult to live with sometimes and I’m so thankful he is willing to deal with those rough patches.

The hurt I feel is for a dear friend whom I love very much who is going through a difficult patch in her marriage brought on by the other party.  My heart aches for her and her family.  We live in such difficult times right now where marriages seem to be torn apart so often and so easily.  It is heartbreaking.

No matter what trials you are going through or what the opposition says, never forget your Divine Worth.  If we, as women forget who we are and our important role in family, in the home, and in the world, the consequences can be devastating.

“Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalms 46:10, KJV)

Cherie Burton, in her ebook Love Thyself says, “Remember, to come to know God more is to come to know yourself more, which in turn will help you understand others more. God is found in stillness. You are found in stillness. Who you are and who God is must be felt. There is no other way to discover the Truth of who you are without stopping, breathing and grounding yourself. The world will constantly try to distract you from this daily practice. You must feel the Beauty, Truth and Light that pulsates within you...the portion of the Divine that is your birthright.”

In the past four months I have come to know myself on a very deep level.  I’ve learned the negative things I had been carrying, the grudges I was holding, and even the generational issues like: feeling inadequate, guilt, self judgment, and many others.  All of these dark feelings were keeping me from being the best woman I can be.  They kept me from feeling the sensitivity to God’s spirit that I desired to feel.  

Life is about learning things as we can handle them and are ready to learn.  Line up line, precept on precept, here a little, there a little.  (Isa. 28:13) As I have learned more about myself and learned to be still a whole new world of sorts has opened up for me.  I feel that I now understand my place in this life a little better.  My role as mother is enhanced.  My marriage has improved.  But most importantly, my self-worth has been enhanced and I have confidence that I never had before.  

I desire that more women knew their worth.  Women have such important roles on the earth and many don’t feel that they are worthy and deserving of the beauty that life has to offer.  Through my learning and the desire to share what I have learned I’ve slightly arranged the Homemaking Cottage to encompass more of this in sharing ideas for women.  The month of January has been focused on Balance and how to attain it in your life.  In order to have balance you have to put yourself first.  By that I don’t mean hair and nails- so solely in a physical way.  I mean, take time to know who you are and to feed the spiritual side of you as a woman.

Who will speak words of love to you if you do not do it to yourself?  Searching for love outside of yourself will never come until you learn to love you.

Again, Cherie Burton says, “The most effective way to shift out of feelings of low self-worth and negativity is to take command of your mind. God can’t and won’t take control of your mind, as He always honors free will. You must choose to replace the negatives with positives...with things of Light.”

There are many good ways that this can be done.  To learn to quiet the mind is not an easy task.  It is something I learned to do over the course of two years after reading the book, “Feelings Buried Alive Never Die” by Karol Truman and following the steps she shares.  Since those two years I’ve added more knowledge to my knowledge stores on how to remove the negatives and replace them with positives and I will be sharing more on that in the future.

Who will speak words of love to you if you do not do it to yourself?  Searching for love outside of yourself will never come until you learn to love you.  Instead of telling yourself how you don’t like your body, or chastise it for not functioning properly or giving you the energy you need, turn it around.  Speak words of love to yourself.  Praise your body for being alive.  Praise the lungs for breathing, the mind for thinking, the feet for walking.  Whenever the negative self talk starts up-- stop it in its tracks.  You are worth more than that.  You are beautiful and deserving of loving words, especially from yourself.