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Hope Haven’s Religious Services Department is checking in this month to ask “How is it with your soul?”  Do you find yourself struggling to say that it is well?

Sometimes life is hard and you don’t feel that your soul is well. So we look for ways to improve ourselves. We read books that tell us what we want to hear and books that give us too much to do.  We are left feeling like cracked pots that have nothing to give to those around us.

We sometimes complete our search still not knowing what we set out looking for to begin with.  What if there was a list of ways to act towards people? Well we have been given words and actions:

• To be patient and kind.
• To avoid envy or boasting or strutting about.
• To refrain from arrogance rudeness or  becoming self-absorbed. 
• To keep calm and not get easily upset.
• To not tally wrong or celebrate injustice.   
• To always fight for the truth.  
• To trust and endure whatever is placed in your path.

This list in its entirety can seem impossible at times.  Yet this is how love is explained.  Stephen Graves gives a definition for service as ‘simply having the energy and focus for others that we find for ourselves’. The best part about these qualities is that once you start to learn them you apply them in every part of your life.  Not just at home not just at work and not just with family. We learn to give of ourselves in a way that shows love in all that we do.

What can you do?

• Identify ways this month to be patient and kind.
• Look for chances to show that you do not tolerate injustice.
• Create opportunities to serve those around you. 
• Pay attention to those around you.

Listen for ways to make others souls sing and yours will sing as well!

This March Hope Haven is hosting retreats in Spirit Lake Worthington and Sioux Center. The theme of each retreat is centered around “How to Worship”. Please feel free to join us by registering with Dan or Beth. More information coming soon.