Disappointment can feel like a crushing weight and it’s all too easy to let it rob us of our joy. But even in the midst of disappointment, we can CHOOSE to see the beauty and goodness around us. This leads us to realizing that we don’t have to let disappointment steal our joy.

Listen in to this last episode in our series about relationships over rules. Today, we're talking about our relationships with the "stuff" in our lives and how we can change our perspective and practices to find more joy in the way we relate to the physical blessings in our lives. 

In this episode we’re continuing our discussion about relationships over rules by looking at our relationships with our friends. The world throws a lot of motherhood rules at us and it can be easy to let these rules divide us instead of focusing on how we can love and encourage the other moms around us.

Some kids are rule followers. Some kids are boundary pushers. 

A focus on relationships can help both.  

In this episode we’ll discuss the ways we can help our children to see the “why” behind the rules and how showing love should be the focus.

This week we’re continuing our "relationships over rules" series, specifically looking at our relationships with our husbands. Becoming parents drastically changes our relationships. Sleep deprivation. A whole new set of responsibilities, new stresses. Keeping alive another human who is completely and utterly dependent on the two of you. New roles to navigate. Now he’s not just your husband but also your child’s Daddy and that adds a whole new dimension of complexity. In the midst of parenthood, it can be all too easy to let our marriages get pushed to the back burner. Join me today for 6 relationship-based ways to bring some new life and joy to your marriage.

At this time of year, the world sends us a lot of messages about New Year’s goals that we should make. Go to the gym every day. Go on a diet. Detox from social media. These things aren’t bad but when we approach any goals we have for self care from a relationships over rules perspective we end up in a much healthier place overall.

Tune in to this week’s episode for encouragement to intentionally grow in your relationship with God this year. It can be easy to fall into a view of reading the Bible or praying as boxes to check off on our to do-list rather than tools for deepening our relationship with our creator. A relationships over rules mentality enables us to set goals and intentions for spiritual growth and hold ourselves to a high standard without falling into a focus on checking off boxes.

Happy New Year! As we head into 2021 I wanted to take the time to encourage you all to take a different approach to setting goals or intentions for the coming year. Typical new year’s resolutions like “lose weight” or “be more productive” tend to fizzle out after a few months. Today, we’re looking at what it means to have a “relationships over rules” approach to determining what goals we want to pursue.

This year has been challenging and difficult in many ways but that doesn’t mean we have to consider it a wasted year. Join me in this episode to talk about choosing to reflect on the good in this year; the moments of beauty and goodness as well as the growth that has come from hard things. This was not a perfect year, but we can still choose to write a beautiful story for ourselves or all of the joy that has come out of it. 

Reflection Questions: 

1. What were some of the things that brought you the most joy this year?

Christmas looks a lot different this year. So many of the things that we associate with a joyful Christmas - parties, parades, concerts  and other big events may be cancelled or look a lot different than usual. There may be fewer presents under the tree or fewer people in your home when you open them. There may be less of a lot of things that feel like Christmas to us. But there won’t be less Jesus. And because of that we can still rejoice always, we can give thanks in the circumstances of our 2020 Christmas, whatever it looks like.

How we greet this Christmas season matters. We can still choose joy even in the midst of sadness or frustration or whatever we might be feeling as we head into Christmas this year. Because joy doesn’t depend on our feelings. Join me in this episode to talk about focusing on the joy of Christmas even, and maybe especially, this year.