My Essential Ingredients

The lights went off in the house as we sat in the car. In the driveway.  Hard things were said.  As well as gentle and loving things.  We cried a few tears and laughed a few times.  This is friendship and relationship.  I appreciate it when people speak into my life to make me a better person, and in keeping with that idea, here are the things that I want to define me.  A friend made a list awhile ago, and I was interested in this idea, but didn't really know how to define them.  After some thought, here they are:  characteristics or goals or values, whatever you want to call them.  I call them my essential ingredients.  There may be other personality characteristics that add flavah.  But these are the things that I want to be basic.  Intrinsic to who I am.

So if you're interested, read away.  And if you see something going crazy with one or more of them in me...say so.  Here's your permission.  Not your sign. ;)

I am a Christian.  That means I will endeavor to live my life in submission and obedience to Jesus Christ.  Letting him influence all aspects of my behaviour and thoughts.  I will seek counsel from the church leadership he has placed me into community with, and my final authority is the Scripture. 

I will speak honestly and live transparently.  I detest deceit and find that no good ever comes from trying to maintain an image of perfection.  When I make a mistake or struggle, as much as when something good happens, I will tell the truth in love.

I am called to love, and I will give that love without reservation or fear to those around me.  Understanding that pain will be part of that giving, I accept that and choose to continue to love.

Loyalty and faithfulness matter.  I will not be a person who can be easily swayed or moved from the truth.  I want my friends and family to know that they can count on me in the good and the bad times.  That I will not run away or quit if the going gets rough.

When given the opportunity to forgive I will forgive.  And reconcile, to reconcile a relationship.  Without closing my eyes to consequences or living in a rosy-hued world.  

I am an artist.  I choose to push myself to improve in all areas of creativity and perfect my chosen medium to the best of my ability.  I choose to make my art a celebration and a reflection of goodness and joy in life.  I choose to address difficulties in my art in a way that can find the positive and highlight that rather than despair or depression.

I am a woman of many cultures.  I rejoice in diversity and the differences in people that make us unique and offer rich flavor to life.  I choose to travel and learn and nurture the gifts that I have been given in reference to my Hispanic and American and British/Canadian cultures.