Faithbase

Hey faith-based friends and family, happy new year and blessings to you today. Hope this message finds you well. Hey today I just have one encouragement to you and that has to do with sadness. I don't know about you, but after Christmas, taking down the tree, my big girls were blessed with four kids and my two big girls are already grown and living outside of the home. We got so much time with them which was so sweet, but of course they're back to their routines and living where they live and so I just find sadness creeping in. And so I don't know about you if you experience any post-holiday sadness and sometimes there's sadness just missing loved ones or going through hard things in relationships because life is hard. But my encouragement for you is, is right now what's your plan for when sadness comes? I encourage you to have a plan maybe before it hits you really. Because then what will you do and what won't you do? What will you allow and what will you not allow? My encouragement to you is that you allow yourself to feel deeply. I see Jesus becoming sad, Jeremiah, weeping prophet. Allow yourself to feel the appropriate emotions. Put your feelings to language without projecting and blaming. Just being able to communicate what you're feeling is part of the healing process and share it with someone. But also take care of your entire body, emotionally, physically, spiritually. Continue feeding yourself spiritually. Feed your body well physically, exercise, get good sleep. Don't medicate with that big box of chocolates. Of course enjoy some holiday chocolate, but don't let it be your sadness treatment. But give yourself permission to feel. Seek the Lord. Have a plan. Create a strategy before it hits. And I say that as someone who goes through seasons and cycles of sadness. I wouldn't say I'm a sadness expert, but I would say I'd encourage you, it's good to have a plan before you get into it and then stick to the plan. Just to prevent ourselves from the consequences of poor patterns and poor behaviors and poor decision making. So blessings to you, the Lord encourage you. May this be a year where you're more aware of his presence and his goodness and his love than you ever have been. And you would just rest and delight in that. Blessings to you.