Always Growing: Practices for Making Meaning

We are constantly looking for and making meaning in our lives.

We want to have an impact on somebody’s life and we want to walk away from conversations feeling like we left an impact of good.

We stop for acts of kindness or service or feel the gap when they are lacking in our lives.

We want to be remembered by someone, somewhere, most days.

We want to leave some kind of legacy that will outlive us, not necessarily a page in the history books, but a mark on someone’s memory.

Engaging with processes that intentionally help us see meaning in our lives more clearly supports the work of building a sense of integrity in our lives as well. Integrity is that sense that we are living the life we were meant to live, that we are being true to ourselves when we walk forward in a decision, and that we have made peace with our regrets, or have at least left them to God’s care. Integrity, particularly around such things as faith, identity, and belonging, keeps us from losing hope and connects us to God and one another deeper because those connections are more honest.

In this edition of Mental Health Monday, Heidi and Dr. Kim Marxhausen discuss several practices for making meaning in our lives. Watch the video, and let us know which of the practices you try. Engage with one of the practices in your family. Teach one or more to your children or try utilizing them in a classroom.

Find some meaning and some intentionality as you walk forward towards integrity today. You are not your thoughts. You are not your emotions, and you are not your behaviors. But God is at work in all of these things.

You are always growing.