50 Things I Loved To Do As A Kid

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Proverbs 19:20-21

“Listen to advice 

and accept instruction, 

and in the end 

you will be wise. 

Many are the plans in a man’s heart, 

but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”

Well by the time you are reading this, yesterday will have been my birthday. However I am writing this at the end of the day and it is still my birthday. I got kind of side tracked working on a brochure. But hey it has been my birthday and that's what I was into doing with my day. Along with reading all the notes and birthday wishes people left on my face book page. Anyway you can see some images of the 3 fold brochure I worked on for my Life Coaching business or practice, called 50 Thing I Loved To Do As A Kid. I am basically re-working something from my Coach Training Course into a format that will work for my plans and purposes and hopefully help me to strike up conversations with people I meet through out my day. 

Back when I was doing Mary K we were trained how to warm chatter. I made up cute little fold over cards that had lipstick samples. I was pretty good at talking with strangers and did pick up many of my clients in such a manner.  Giving them a gift often opened the doors for a conversation and quite often you found someone who would be interested in what you had to offer.  I tried to do it in a way that I was a blessing and not a nuisance. So I have been thinking about meeting people for coaching through a similar kind of grid. As a result I have been wondering what is the gift, or the sample that I have to give away?  So my idea was to create this brochure of a discovery activity that helps people to remember things that they loved to do when they were kids. Quite often we are so busy that we loose sight of those things. For me one of those things was bike riding. I had forgotten how much I loved riding bikes and as a result of remembering I have really enjoyed going out and riding my bike this summer. Sometimes remembering those things we enjoy helps to bring balance and fulfillment to our lives. Anyway I have created my own little tool for this task and will begin to test it to see if it works.

So our verse today is about the plans we make in our hearts and listening to wise instruction. My plans don't always go exactly the way I originally thought they would go.  I guess I don't generally get to bent out of shape by that because I tend to view life as a journey.  There are some things in my journey that I have control of but then there are other things that I have less control. I can't know how it will all play out but I can do the things that show up on my radar today.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the creative process and the value of being able to hold the mental image of where things are at present and the mental image of the final project at the same time. In doing that I can't always see how I will get from here to there but I know that I will get there. I begin by doing the things that I can do and I don't worry about the future steps just the ones that I need to deal with today. In the case of my mosaic projects like the current one called The Tree of Life I don't yet have a clear mental image of what it is to be yet. So I begin by thinking, praying, studying what I can find written on the subject. You will find funny little sketches on scraps of paper on my desk, or in the margins of my journals. It is a process of discovering the piece of art and trying to discover things about it. I try to take in to account the ideas of others around me. My friend Donnie says it needs to have some dementional aspects to the project. My husband, Marco wakes me up in the middle of the night to tell me a dream he has had about the heavens opening up and a mighty tree with swirling octopus like roots descends and digs itself into the ground. The fruit on the tree when picked is replaced by new fruit. His telling of it was much more elaborate but I was half asleep at the time.
I guess my point is that I always have a plan or a sense of where I am heading or want to go and at the same time I am aware of the present place in my journey. Sometimes it seems like I have a very long way to go but I hold on to the vision. I hold on to the bits of vision that the Lord reveals to me along the journey but I don't spend a lot of time worrying about how I will get from here to there. I do the things that I need to do today, they may seem small and insignificant at first but they are steps of faith that move me just a little bit closer to the thing I see off in the distance. 

Prayer
Dear Lord,
You know the plans we have and the things we want to do. You know the dreams we dream and the hopes we have. You know the steps we will need to take to get from here to there. You know the unexpected curves that will send us along paths we had not anticipated. Help us to listen to advice and instruction and to make wise choices. In the end it is your plans and purposes that will prevail and we choose to trust you to lead us day by day, step by step.

Ps. If you are interested in doing the 50 Things I Love To Do As A Kid actiity,  you can send me an e-mail at princessmargot@hotmail.com with your name and mailing address and I will send one out to you. I do coaching anywhere in the US by phone or instant messaging. Please visit my coaching site for more information.