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Leslie Juvin-Acker
- Apr 11, 2011
- 2 min read

Spiritual Gifts Money Can’t Buy: Hope

Looking for something to give your husband/wife, partner, friends and loved ones? How about spiritual gifts? These are the gifts of joy, communication, peace, hope, trust, contentment, and compassion.

Hope is day four of a seven day examination of each spiritual gift and how you can give that gift in your daily life to those you love and to those around you.

HOPE

“Where there’s life, there’s hope.” – Terence Heauton Timoroumenos

Giving the gift of hope demonstrates the refusal to succumb to needless worry and anxiety. Hope is the active word for positively focusing on favorable outcomes and physically acting in response to those thoughts.

Despite negative circumstances our loved ones face, we can be a pillar of hope by remembering that situations are short-lived and serve a purpose in our soul’s development. It is hope that reminds us of this truth and in this truth, peace and contentment can be found.

Give The Gift of Hope

Remind others that struggle that there are new possibilities on the horizon.
Share how you overcame a personal struggle and how hope helped you continue on.
Lend a hand in offering help or opportunities to help.
If your loved one is feeling lost, ask them to share their goals with you. Usually, just the act of simply speaking their goals and dreams will inspire action and hope.
Challenge your friend to take stumbling blocks head on by asking how they can change their situation.

I want to know your suggestions and ideas for spreading the gift of hope! Share them here!

See our article on the spiritual gift of contentment.

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Leslie, Inc. offers solutions for finding happiness through one-on-one coaching, mindful leadership retreats, and digital products. If you’re ready to GET HAPPY, check out Leslie’s guide packs. For more tips on achieving your state of happiness, sign up for Leslie, Inc’s weekly newsletter.

#inspiration #marriage #spiritualdevelopment

Leslie Juvin-Acker
- Apr 8, 2011
- 2 min read

Spiritual Gifts That Money Can’t Buy: Joy

Looking for something to give your husband/wife, partner, friends and loved ones? How about spiritual gifts? These are the gifts of joy, communication, peace, hope, trust, contentment, and compassion.

For the next seven days, I’m going to examine each spiritual gift and how you can give that gift in your daily life to those you love and to those around you.

JOY

“Joy is not in things, it is in us” Richard Wagner, 1923

The gift of joy is making ourselves and others feel happy to live and to go throughout our daily lives. Joy is a sense of gladness and is a contagious energy that others can feel. Joy allows us to see good and positivity in life, even if things are not always sunny or if things are difficult.

If we can give ourselves and others the gift of joy to be alive, we’re spreading love into the world and the result will be acts of kindness, compassion, and friendship. The awareness we experience allows us to take a step back and see all that we truly have – and there is a lot to be grateful and joyful for.

Give The Gift of Joy

The gift of joy is easy to give.

Tell a joke.
Share a smile.
Say a kind word.
Do an unexpected good deed.
Share your joys and positive news.
Help a friend or stranger in need.
Remind others of the good things in life.

I want to know your suggestions and ideas for spreading the gift of joy! Share them here!

#inspiration #marriage #spiritualdevelopment #spirituality

Leslie Juvin-Acker
- Mar 7, 2011
- 3 min read

Five Life Lessons Learned In The Garden

Gardening teaches us a few basic principles that we can apply to our lives. From letting go of the old, cutting back when things get unruly, to creating a hospitable emotional environment that welcomes visitors we can learn a few things just by spending an afternoon in the garden.

CLEARING AWAY

In the garden, as in life, there are seasons and those seasons bring change, growth, death, and renewal. When I was growing up in Florida, hurricanes were a normal part of our lives. Hurricanes brought with them seemingly endless downpours that flooded the streets and neighborhoods. The winds knocked down old trees, loose branches and leaves, and swept away sands along the seashore. Despite the mess and devastation a storm can bring into our lives, it can also clear out the dead, useless, and unnecessary parts of our lives. The rains, or tears, we that drenched us gives us the fuel and cleansing we need to start anew. It’s then, in the wreckage, when we ask ourselves how much we really need after our entire world has been washed or blown away. And it’s only after that when we can begin to rebuild, clean up, and start a new.

Japanese Knotweed: its beauty can overpower

CUT BACK AND MAINTAIN

The garden teaches us that, as with trees, shrubs, and wild growing climbers, we must cut back before things get too big, too wild, too thick, and too unruly to handle. If a gardener doesn’t manage a Japanese Knotweed for example, the beautiful and enchanting climber can turn into a pest that can overwhelm the entire garden and choke out other life. Sometimes, we have habits, vices, or relationships which in moderation can be healthy, but if we don’t learn to contain, trim back, and manage them, they can take over and make a mess of the garden that is our psyche and our physical lives.

ERADICATING PESTS

An imbalance in the garden can bring conditions that welcome pests and diseases that can wreak havoc or even kill our plants. Sometimes, we must eradicate pests or in our case negative people with force, but avoid too strong of treatments as to hurt our them and ourselves in the process. It’s during these times that we must be gentle, clever, and swift in handling pests. Whether by introducing other insects, or in our case, people or applying gentle treatments, we send the message that we’re not going to tolerate an invasion of pests that eat away at our energies, our bounty, and our beauty.

WINTER OR SUMMER, IT STILL LOOKS BEAUTIFUL

The characteristic of a beautiful garden is that even in winter when all the flowers have died, the bushes and trees have been trimmed back, and there is silence and white and covers the space, it still looks remarkably beautiful. It has taught me that when times are bleak or when times are bountiful, we can still compose ourselves with character and charm and still get through the season with grace. The winter reminds me that underneath all of that foliage or our money, our job title, or social or financial status, when it’s all stripped away there is a backbone, character, and grace.

WELCOMING GUESTS AND STRANGERS WHO COME AND GO

In the garden, as in life, guests, friends, and strangers come in and out as quickly as they come. Sometimes, they’re just there to get what they need – like an emotional or physical pit stop – and they’re gone, never to return. Sometimes, people are like migrating birds that visit every so often to remind you that life does, in fact, move forward and some people, like local birds, live in the area and play a regular part of your life. We have the decision to make our lives warm and inviting as to meet the needs of those who come in and out or we can make our lives as barren and inhospitable as possible so that nobody can come and stop in and bring beauty, humor, and interest into our world.

[box] Have you ever spent a day working in a garden? Learn any lessons along the way? Share them in the comments section below.[/box]

Japanese Knotweed Photo Credits: Left Image: Phil Sellens, Right Image: Me’nthedogs

#advice #journal #reflections