As I mentioned in Day 1, we are going to spend the next month studying:

Fortyologie:  The study of midlife and how to live it wholeheartedly with grace, strength and beauty.

Today we will dig a bit  into the words wholehearted and grace.

Wholeheartedly – with full or complete sincerity, enthusiasm, energy, heart and earnestness. We are going to give it all we’ve got in the 2nd half of our lives. Let’s learn, grow and go hard at life together.

Living wholeheartedly is something I aspire to, as it doesn’t come naturally.  So, what does that look like? It’s not so much what you do but the attitude and heart with which you do it.  It is a WAY OF LIVING…of approaching life, relationships, joy and challenges.

Wholehearted Living is defined in Daring Greatly by Brene Brown this way:

Wholehearted living is about engaging our lives from a place of worthiness…The main concern of Wholehearted men and women is living a life defined by courage, compassion and connection.

I would add that I want to fully inhabit my gifts, God’s calling on my life, the circumstances I find myself in, and each relationship in which I’m engaged.  It’s about showing up and doing what is in front of you enabled by the power of Christ in you.

Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.  Philippians 4:13, MSG

Grace – elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action. We will discover how this applies physically, emotionally and relationally in our daily lives.

What are some traits we can employ in our daily lives that will have us living a life of grace?  We can use restraint…show class and discernment…a definition says: cultivated beauty, taste.  Our hearts are not bent towards these traits, this we know.  But we know the One who changes the affect of our hearts and we turn to Him to live this out.

And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.  Ephesians 4:23, MSG

With the unshakeable strength of God we forge on facing all that comes our way humbly and with lots of love.

Do you know anyone living wholeheartedly or who is a picture of grace?  How can you tell?  What do they do?