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Trisha Keehn

Writer

Trisha Keehn is a creative writer fueled by a lifetime of faith. She is part of the Life.Church and YouVersion Bible App creative writing team, and uses her broadcast news background to help companies choose their words wisely. Trisha is a wife, mom, coffee connoisseur, lover of libraries, and a savvy traveler.

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15 Ways to Find Peace

When the struggle is still strong

Finding peace is simply making it a priority. It’s a choice in the midst of our circumstances that we have to consciously make. When we set our minds on peace, everything else will organize around it.

Colossians 3:15 reminds us to ‘let the peace of Christ rule our hearts’. Peace is to lead our lives and be the director of the performance.

Rest can come at any hour at even the smallest price. Though, it will always require sacrifice. We must give up one thing to spend time on something else.

If we’re not careful, we will forfeit our own peace of mind in an effort to help someone else unravel their problems. Other times, we get caught up in what practicing what peace needs to look like, that it prevents us from experiencing even a fraction of it at all. Here’s some guidance to cultivate the calm in your soul.finding peace, calm,

  1. Reframe what kind of time solitude requires. Often our own vision of what something should look like, or what we want something to look like prevents us from experiencing anything at all.
  2. Try 15 minutes sitting down to just breathe. Soak in the stillness of a moment. Oxygen clears the head. Much like breathing correctly during exercise is important for proper form and a deep stretch, so it is for your thinking. A shallow inhale doesn’t get deep enough to create an oxygen flow in the blood. Stretch your body.
  3. Grab a journal. Drive to the edge of town. Go anywhere you can sit in the early one morning hours to begin with peace. Focus on what you appreciate about the people in your life instead of wishing they would change. Catch critical, blaming, or self-victimizing thoughts. Instead of ruminating on what someone else did wrong, express yourself and ask yourself what you can do to create the change you’re seeking.
  4. Close your eyes and listen. I find a rock when I’m hiking to sit and take it all in. If you’re not near nature, try the ‘Calm’ app or light music to drown out the noise in your mind. These thoughts will clear the head space and unwind tangled up anxiety. Turn your thoughts onto the freedom that rain has when it calls. As it washes away and strips away the burdens.
  5. Schedule a date with yourself—a time when you don’t need to meet anyone else’s requests—and do something that feeds your mind and spirit. Go to a museum or take yourself to your favorite restaurant and simply enjoy your own company.
  6. Declutter your surroundings, like a corner in your home or table space in your office that you spend most of your time staring at.
  7. Take a prayer walk in the morning to meditate on scripture, God’s promises and positive affirmations that help you feel present and empowered.
  8. Write down everything that is draining you mentally. It’s a form of getting it out and letting it go. Instead of holding in your feelings and developing resentment, write them down.
  9. Tap into your childlike senses and get creative with art. Doodle. Play music. Dance. The creative adult is the child who survived. Have fun with someone you love. Forget about everything that feels like a problem and do something silly.
  10. Muster compassion for someone who hurt you instead of wallowing in bitterness, which will make it easier to forgive them and set yourself free.
  11. Set aside some time to actively enjoy the good things about the present. Recognize the purpose in every place the Lord has called you to; your work, your church, your neighborhood.
  12. Create a list of things you love about yourself instead of dwelling on how you wish you were different.
  13. Start reading that book you bought about dealing with the challenge you’ve been facing.
  14. Tell the truth in your relationships. When we hold in our true feelings, we create stress for ourselves. Be kind but honest and share what you really feel.
  15. Do something kind for someone else. Volunteer your time to help a charity you’re passionate about. Put all your energy into helping someone else and you will inadvertently help yourself.

These are just a few ideas to help you get started. When we have peace leading the way, problems won’t weigh down the decisions we need to make for the day. What do you do to cultivate the peace in your life?

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This post, 15 Ways to Find Peace, by Trisha Keehn, appeared first on LiftUpYourDay.com

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The Power of Honesty

friendship, trust, vulnerability, joy, laughter, trishakeehn.comThese seasons are shorter looking back from the other side. Don’t let these moments slip away.

Stretch out the sentences with your honesty; it’s a treasure that loses power the longer we wait. Even the tears unlock a vault of vulnerability that acts more like gravity between two hearts.

Unbridle the laughter when life brings you immense joy.

This place of surrender and trust is the shortest path between two people. This is how we love.

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Hope Gives Way To Strength

Sometimes crazy gets the breakthrough.

When you’ve been waiting and believing and trusting for a miracle, some days can just drain you. You might wake up thinking, ‘This is going to be the day’! The evening comes and you return with nothing more than the weight of requests unanswered and an exhausted spirit.hope, strength, trishakeehn.com

I want you to know that it’s okay to still get loud about these miracles. Your worship can turn the tide of the battle in your favor.

This kind of praise confuses the enemy because you haven’t received your miracle yet but here you are praising and shouting and lifting up the name of the only one who can turn your situation around.

The enemy wants to mute your praise because the currency of the miraculous is in your mouth. How loud would you get if your miracle was on the other side of your praises?

Get desperate about your requests when doubt creeps in. When you are so low that you feel you can’t get any lower and there’s no reason for you to believe that God is going to do anything about it…

Lift your voice. Hope will rise on the inside.

Hope when it doesn’t make sense. Hope in the midst of fear. Hope when the situation gets worse because hope gives way to strength. The Lord didn’t bring you this far to leave you. There’s a miracle with your name on it.

It’s time to get loud for your ‘all of a sudden…’ Your miracle is right behind you.

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Say Yes To Your Own Ideas

say yes, your ideas, trishakeehn.comThose who have never run a race in their lives are happy to give you all the reasons why you can’t win yours. Start a new habit of saying yes to your own ideas. Count all the ways you can and will achieve these dreams and then add one more because there will always be that voice rattling off why you can’t or won’t.

You may have never crossed a finish line, yet. Here’s the key to silencing the voice whispering defeat over your plans… simply start. Break the heartstrings your old nature and say yes. Even if your soul throbs with the lonely, gushing groans of Gethsemane.

So what is your passion? Where do your desires find rest? What are the names of those stars that illuminate your blackest of nights? When you close your eyes, what wakes the spirit and quenches your thirsty soul? What is your undoing? Then say yes to that.

Take one step today. And take one more tomorrow. Ask yourself, “Am I content to leave it at that?” And, if not, address “Where do I go from here?”

The scars will testify that you at least tried. Your ideas matter.

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The Beginning of Community

Starts in your soul

Minutes pass slowly, as I breathe in the gentle air of Heaven. The resistance in life that tugs on every string I try to pull has frustrated my once settled soul. All these outward cravings clouding the inward search are a clue that my living has become a cover up to the cries beneath what can be seen.
He says it’s courage that has led me down a difficult road, beyond the grave of woundedness and denial, to enter into this desert of being alone.
“Do not run,” He says, “just be still and quiet. Listen to your own struggle.”
It seems that while the silence grows deeper, I become more and more aware of a presence embracing my soul. And as a deep peace fills the empty space, I know it can only be Christ in me that recognizes Christ in all that is surrounding.
“Here I am!” I yell.
community, community with God, peace, community with othersThrowing his arms around me, the warmth holds me like I am His. Like He has been here the whole time waiting. We look at each other for a long while, until the corners of my smile tremble and the tears flush away the last remnants of fear.
Collapsing on this trail of mercy all my thoughts are safe with Him. “I am tired, Lord. I’m not sure which way to go. Tether my wandering heart. Every anxious thought, secure it to your promises. For the love, Lord! I want nothing without You. You know this. I’m not looking for answers. I’m listening to the questions. Breathe, O breath of God.”
He offers me the chance to stay alone and take the risk of entering into my own experience, without being immersed in more knowledge or illusive advice.
So I remain.
He assures my desperate heart that unknown beauty is growing just below. “One day this desert will be a garden,” He insists.
Bringing my heart to this place of community with God alone is the beginning. My soul sways with the breeze. Spirit, breathe Your heart in me. Carve your ways into the fibers of my being.
From now on, wherever You go, or wherever I go, all the ground between us will be Holy Ground. And this is where my community begins.
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Run Ready

#runready, brooksrunning, #globalrunningdayThis life is a race of sort. Not the kind we measure by who crossed the finish first or who did it best but rather who endured to the end. We do this by keeping our head up when the heat is on. We show up when the struggle hurts. We narrow our focus to Christ when the world offers greener and wider pastures.

We are more capable than we think we are. We have more in us. When we show up, we practice not giving up. I assure you, joy is waiting just on the other side.

If you feel like there’s no way you can win now… the debt is too high, the mistakes too many, the burdens too heavy… hear this assurance, Jesus already secured victory before you even began. Rest up. Soak in His grace. Lay down the weight in your prayers tonight. Tomorrow, pick up only His peace. Take it slow. It doesn’t matter how fast or how far you go. He’s waiting for you at the finish. ‪#‎RunReady‬ @brooksrunning ‪#‎globalrunningday‬

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The Voice of Courage

Still Lives

memorial day, flag, remembering heroes, When the sun falls below the horizon, evidence of its work remains for some time. The skies continue to glow a bit longer after it is gone.

In the same way, when a great person’s life comes to that final sunset, the skies of this world stay illuminated with traces of bravery and courage long after they are out of view. This kind of extraordinary person does not die from this world. When they depart they leave much of themselves behind. From the grave, their voice still speaks.

Remembering the extraordinary men and women who have gone before us with their courage and still have a voice in our world today.trail run, memorial day, remembering heroes

I want you to remember that life isn’t just about getting what you want. Sometimes it involves giving up the things you love for what you love even more.

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Consider That It Might Be God

When circumstances in your life start to shift, at least consider that it might be God.
 
considering God, listening to God, God's voice, trishakeehn.comWhen you are confused or curious about the way things are going and which direction to walk in, ask God if there’s something he’d like to say to you.
 
And be willing to trust Him.
 
Sometimes it’s the heart we’re bringing into the throne room that’s holding us back from hearing God’s voice. If you haven’t followed through on His nudges in the past, what’s inviting God to share the plans He has for your life?
 
Agree in advance that you will be faithful with the follow through. Then open your hands, open your heart, and be attentive to any small way he might use to communicate with you. Listen and keep your eyes open. What’s the downside?
 
It is these little acts of obedience that invite God’s power to fully flow in our lives.
And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. – Isaiah 30:21
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Crack the Confusion

3 Steps That Will Determine Every Decision

Are you struggling to make a decision? The battle over your time can keep your strengths and dreams locked up in procrastination, confusion, and forgetfulness. Life is based on making decisions, and not making them holds you hostage to compromise in your calling.

You can spend more time dreaming about tomorrow and rob the opportunities to walk out the steps today. Moses used his speech as an excuse. Jeremiah and Gideon used their age. There’s no shortage of excuses that can tie up the process.

Whether you are a parent, a spouse, a leader, or someone passionate about a cause, your choices need internal clarity and courage versus external social pressure.

Lord, grant me the boldness that I may speak forth (Acts 4:29).

The truth is that what you do today will determine whether you have success with tomorrow. And, some invitations that look like opportunities today can actually distract and derail you from the best use of time.

“Doing something good is not good enough”, says Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism – The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. This is not selective enough criteria for your time. So how do you start making strategic decisions that support the work of your life?

McKeown offers advice on how to make the decisions based on what’s essential to your life. He suggests starting with this question, ‘What is most important right now’? McKeown recommends three steps to benchmark a discerning ‘yes’:

  • Identify the three most important priorities in your life.
  • Use your priorities to decide what the criteria for saying ‘yes’ to an opportunity will be.
  • Set a plan for the next 90 days centered on this criteria and these priorities.

Fear can have you struggling to say ‘no’. You might be afraid this answer will shut down other opportunities, or result in a frayed relationship. You might be tempted to accept a request based on a ‘what if’ scenario you’ve dreamed up. Just say ‘no’.

I have boldness and access with confidence by faith in Christ (Eph. 3:12). I boldly say, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man will do to me” (Heb. 13:6).

You must eliminate every excuse that is hindering you from doing what you have been called to do. There is no rationalization worth stopping the success God has already set before you. God’s grace is sufficient.

I come boldly to the throne of grace, that I may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16).

Successful people are doers of the Word (James 1:22). This means you can’t sit passively and expect a lucrative life. If you want to experience the full provision of God’s covenant operating in your time, then you must be proactive with your response to these decisions.

When you waver or avoid choices that need to be made, you open up a door to doubt. When we don’t have clarity, the enemy capitalizes on the uncertainty with more questions to cause confusion.

You can’t be slow to act when God is telling you to move. You are commanded in Romans 12:11 to be “fervent in spirit [and to] serve the Lord.”

When we feel like we’re going nowhere, this keeps our minds feeling defeated. And if we’re not careful, we can become tired and idle. So let’s make that plan centered around our priorities and start making bold decisions based on the Lord’s calling in our lives.

I will be strong and courageous; I will not be afraid, for the Lord is with me wherever I go (Josh. 1:9).

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This post, Crack the Confusion, by Trisha Keehn, appeared first on LiftUpYourDay.com