Broken Love

Unity.  This word has been convicting me this month. There is SO much dividing us, pulling us away from each other, away from our mission, away from God. What would life look like if we shifted focus from fighting for our beliefs and rights and focused on fighting FOR those God has placed in our kingdom? I'm not saying to become a door mat or give up our beliefs (believe me, enneagram 8 here... I like to fight for what I believe in), but I am saying that we can stop defining those around us by the labels we have given them and simply seek to understand their heart.  Ask questions, listen, and see each person through the lens of knowing that just like you, they have a life and stories that have shaped how they see the world. Often those stories hold pain, fear, and hurt. Doesn't yours? I know mine does. If THIS is how Christians responded in conflicting situations, seeking to UNDERSTAND first and be RIGHT later, I don't think the world would know what to do.  Philippians 2:3

There and Back Again: A Young Girl’s Tale by Sarah Grundy PROLOGUE: Once upon a time…there was a young girl. She loved her parents, brothers, friends, and though she started out shy she loved nearly everyone she came in contact with. From the moment that pieces of her identity began to form when she met her little brother to the day that her value and self-worth were shaken into place, this is her story. I invite you into a few of the moments that created her basic identities, fears, hopes, and dreams. I hope that you are able to relate to pieces of her story, find hope, and know that whatever you are facing today you are not alone. EPISODE 1: The Little Blue Bunny (1993) I was almost 2 years old, a little blonde girl who loved Barney, football and wild flowers. I adored my parents and they adored me. One day, my aunt and uncle took me to the hospital to meet my new little brother. I remember carrying a little blue bunny to give to the baby. I understood generally what a bro

PROMPT: For your final journal of the semester, you need to write between 100 and 300 words on the top three things you want to carry forward with you that you learned in this class this semester. This journal is shorter than usual - and this is on purpose. The point here is to really boil down three things to carry forward in your life as you move on from this space of weekly self-reflection and journaling. If I don’t intentionally structure this, I know I will go on and on and on. So here we go! 1. Simply being more aware of my Intrapersonal Communication. There are many things in this class that I want to apply to my life, but if I don’t know what’s going on inside I won’t be able to effectively apply them. My hope is to notice in the moment how I’m communicating with myself and others, but also to make intentional time for internal reflection. 2. Continue to push into a growth-mindset. One of the most liberating things I am taking away from this class is the KNOWLEDGE, not ju

PROMPT: Your journal for this week will take some of the material from last week and apply it to the material from Mindset. Guy Winch listed 7 Common Psychological Injuries we sustain in life in his Talk at Google: • Failure • Rejection • Guilt • Loneliness • Brooding and Rumination • Loss and Trauma • Bouts of Low-Self Esteem For this journal, reflect on the following prompt: Which injuries from the list above have you sustained in the last few weeks or months? How did you heal/administer first aid? If you didn’t, in the future, how can you? How might approaching your psychological injuries with a growth mindset help you heal? In the last couple months, I experienced several of these in a situation with someone in my life. I saw tension in the relationship but thought that there was still a team mindset trying to solve problems together even when we disagreed. But I misjudged the relationship and the other person was hurt and angry. Out of that came many harsh words about m

Prompt: For your journal this week, you will be looking at the “Grow your Mindset” prompts at the end of chapter 6. Pick one of the prompts from page 171-172 and answer it providing 2-3 links to the material we’ve been covering from Gardner (Multiple Intelligence's), Winch (Emotional First Aid), and any of our earlier material from class. Growth Mindset Question: After Rejection, do you feel judged, bitter, and vengeful? Or do you feel hurt, but hopeful of forgiving, learning and moving on? Think of the worst rejection you ever had. Get in touch with all the feelings and see of you can view it from a growth mindset. What did you learn from it? Did it teach you something about what you want and what you don’t want in your life? Did it teach you some positive things about your relationships? Can you forgive the person and with them well? Can you let go of the bitterness? (Mindset, 174-175) We all experience rejection at some point in our lives. My earliest moments of rejection are

Prompt:For your journal this week, I’d like you to (AGAIN) look back over your “epiphanies” journal from last week and pick ONE to write an evocative autoethnographic account of. This one must be different than the one you wrote in week 6. Remember to take the reader into the experience of the epiphany, and offer analysis/links to at least 2 concepts from our course in the narrative. This is meant to give you a another chance to attempt writing something using autoethnography that you can use later in your final paper! When I was a little girl, about 7 years old, I desperately wanted a doll house. My friend Joanna had a big beautiful wooden doll house that I tried not to be jealous of every time I went to her house. My family couldn’t afford even a small simple dollhouse, so I was saving up my birthday money. I cherished every penny as it got me closer to a beautiful dollhouse like Joanna had. One day sitting in church dressed up and desperately trying to sit still and pretend to und