What is authentic living?
My first thought went down a path of words that complement this
idea. Words like genuine, real and
honesty. The website dictionary says
authentic defines as “not false or imitation. Real actually and true to one’s own
personality, spirit or character. Worthy
of acceptance or believe as conforming to or based on fact.
When I looked it up in our Funk & Wagnals Standard desk
dictionary from 1981 there was a simpler definition. Authoritative; reliable
or undisputed origin; genuine.
I prefer the 1981 definition because it’s straightforward
with really no wiggle room for debate. Notice the second also ends with the
word genuine.
Authentic Living is deciding to live your best, to be a
person with conviction, perhaps one who is honest even if it means you are not always
right. Admitting you are wrong is a
tough one but the lessons that follow are many.
For every life lesson we grow and growth cannot be measured by location
or a specific time frame.
When my husband and I said “I do” I had no idea that we
would move more than 15 times. But we have and I found location has nothing to
do with authentic living, but it does have a lot to do with growing.
This life is also not about how much money you have in the
bank, where you vacation or the kind of car you drive. Those things are all nice, but they don’t
define a person and if they do that’s really sad. Let me go back to the word, genuine because it’s a strong
word and it’s why I’ve decided to dive deeper into what authentic living really
is.
This year I am writing a new series from Galatians, one of my
favorite books in the bible. Specifically,
I am going to pour out the fruit of the spirit from verse 5:22. This scripture covers
9 incredible words that offer an honest look into what authentic living really
means.
In 2004 when my grandmother passed, I referred to this verse to sum up her life. I found comfort
in each word: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control.
Every month until the end of the year I will share a new post in the “Good Notions” category beginning with the word "Love" for February. When we get to that 9th word, we will be in the
month of October. This means in November I will share what I wrote for my
grandmother and then close the series in December.
At first glance, this may sound like a long journey and you would be spot on. I feel the time is finally right for me to share these thoughts and believe in my heart it will be a positive path forward for everyone reading.
To kick things off, I created a phone screen below that
you can enjoy for free. All you have to do is click the image to download and save as your home screen.
I will make a new one each month to reinforce this series just for fun.
So, before you go, if you have not joined my newsletter,
you can do that here. This will keep you from missing this series and the other things I share. Feel free to share with your friends and thank you for reading. I'm looking forward to
February where we will chat about the word, love.
See the Good,
Carole