Practical Steps to Understanding your Longings

How do we find a healthy tension between disconnect and connection? Even as an extrovert, I still have my own thirst for quiet space, especially now that I am a mommy. The house gets so loud sometimes, and I find myself sinking through the pressure of each day. What do we do with these yearnings keeping us up at night? How do we navigate the rocky waters of longing?

Embrace your design

Our longings come built-in. We were made for so much more than the daily-grind. As moms, we might spend our days changing diapers and rocking babies, but underneath the many hats we wear, rests a hungry soul. We must learn to embrace we were tailor-made with a set of gifts uniquely our own.

Identify the lies

Our society places hefty goals on us that praise perfection first, and soul-care last. Guilt and comparison are big bullies, they sing sweet lies. Let’s pull back the curtain and acknowledge that understanding our longings is a process. We must choose to honor those yearnings tucked deep within our hearts, and shed the deception that we are not enough.

Reclaim joy

We are souls bursting with creativity, compassion and hope. Our families deserve to see us fully alive and those things pointing us toward wholeness: our longings — they are worth fighting for and celebrating! Go against the grain of our instantaneous culture and hold to time loosely, with grateful hands. Practice ushering joy into your home right now by focusing on how many ways your desires have been met.

Preserve your time

It’s easy to shove our longings beneath the heap of everything else that must get done each day, but just like a well-watered garden, it must be tended to if you want anything to bloom. Look for small ways to be purposeful about making time for those things that quench your thirsty soul.

Live in community

Sometimes it’s hard to share our journey and our longings with others, but it is in those raw moments of honesty we find true friendship. In community, we discover our cheering-squad, our home team, our pit-crew. Through friendship we can fan the flame in one another and emerge together as lanterns burning brighter.

Here is a mini-action plan to help you bloom:

• Daily – Take a few moments each day and journal things you are grateful for.
• Weekly – Phone a trusted friend and take some time to speak life into each other. Use this time to pray, inspire and encourage.
• Monthly – Take yourself out on an “Inspiration Date” and deliberately do something you love.
• Yearly – Once a year invest specifically in a way that supports your gifting and calling.

Asha is a lover of adventure, family dance parties and spending time by the sea. She is married to the man of her dreams and a momma to one darling daughter who keeps her on her knees and on her toes. You can find her blogging about the intersect between faith and motherhood.