I begin most of my mornings outside with a cup of coffee, the Scriptures and a favorite chair. Every morning is different and reminds me that each day has a personality all it’s own. Today it is a cool 31 degrees with little to no wind and is what I would call a still morning.
Still mornings make for great conversation. I find that on mornings like this, I do a little less talking and a lot more listening. And if I’m honest, then this “less talking and more listening” should be a standard practice, but it is not always my way of operating.
As I was listening this morning, God reminded me that my strength is in Him. Now this is not what I would call a new revelation, but it is something that is good to be reminded of. A reminder helps bring it to the front of my mind, which is where I need to keep this kind of amazing truth. Everyday, there is so much other stuff that enters in, which at times can cause this amazing truth to get pushed to the back. A reminder brings it to the place it deserves to be – front and center.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power…” Ephesians 6:10
The key word after “STRONG” in that verse is “IN”. We are not really strong in our own strength, not the way we could be and should be, but when we get “IN” God and “IN” His mighty power, then the miraculous happens…
Without God, I am nothing, but a big ole hot mess, but with God I am anything and everything that matters… Love you guys and gals, praying for all of our blessing and growth today! 🙏🏻
I love alone time, just sitting by myself, having time to think through the things I am facing. Slowing down and being by myself takes time and is sometimes very hard work. It’s good work, because it grows me so that I may grow through whatever life happens to throw my way.
I’ve noticed that every now and then, life throws me a curve and no matter how many positive practices I’ve put into place, sometimes it all just tends to get to me. Those negative emotions begin to flow in and start taking up space in my head, heart and life.
The negative emotions of sadness, shame, guilt anger, fear, regret and hate come flooding in and battle for control. When the negativity begns to overwhelm me and I find that my mind by itself is not strong enough to overcome and give me my freedom, then I have to resort to other discipliines.
I can analize my depression all day long and if I am not careful, I will just dig the hole even deeper. Sometimes I need more than positive affirmations, encouraging words and “attaboys” to pick myself up off the floor and get back to this thing called life.
Sometimes I need God to pick me up, dust me off, hold me close and wisper in my ear that everything is going to be okay. I need God to brush my hair out of my eyes, wipe away my tears and breathe His courage and strength into me.
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” -Isaiah 41:10
While I do my best to avoid these times of negativity, there are days that they cannot be avoided. They just have to be lived through faced, learned from and dealt with. I have discovered a few disciplines that assist me in getting my life into alignment with God’s Spirit and help me recover, learn and grow at a greater pace.
1. Take And Make Time To Write! When I write, I think through things, I look at things from different perspectives and I work my way through to the best place. Writing is release! Sometimes I write, draw, paint, craft or plant. All of these are forms of self expression which help me to get in touch with who and what I am. Release is a powerful and beautiful thing, but it does not happen my accident.
2. Serve Others! When I do something for someone else, it helps me to take my eyes off of myself, which actually helps me to see things from a much clearer perspective, which helps me to get real with myself and others. It may be writing a hand written note of encouragement, giving something special to someone to let them know I am thinking about them or just lending a helping hand…
3. Practice Gratitude! This one tends to end up on every list, because it really is a great big difference maker. Take time to make a list of all the things that you have to be grateful for. If you do this right, then you will have a very big list, because even when life is though, we are still a very blessed people. Sometimes we just need to remind ourselves of how blessed we are…
You have a greater power than you realize and when life gets tough, you just have to take the steps to remind yourself of just how powerful you are. You’ve got this, because He’s got you…
If we are not careful, we will waste a great deal of our lives getting caught up in and wasting time playing the blame game. The problem with playing the blame game, is just that – it’s a game and it really does not accomplish anything meaningful in our lives.
Instead of getting caught up in and distracted by the blame game, we need to see people for what they really are. Good people help us to experience happiness. Bad people provide us with experience. Ugly people teach us a lesson. And the Best people bless us with memories.
They say that a person is blessed if they can count on one hand thier good friends. Good friends give us someone to share life with and they help us enjoy the good and survive the bad. Good friends not only bring us happiness, they give us someone to share happiness with and that makes the gift of happiness even more special.
“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” -1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Live long enough and we will encounter bad people, who do bad things to try and cause us to have a bad life, but we don’t have to empower them to call the shots in our lives, instead we can take the bad and let it remind us of what really matters, so that we don’t miss what is really important in life.
There are a group of people that come and go in our lives that can be considered ugly people and it is their desire to destroy us, kill our dreams and rob us of the beatiful gift of life, but if we choose, we can learn from the things they do and say to try and steal, kill and destroy all that is good and blessed. They key here is not to get defeated or distracted, but to learn whatever lesson life is teaching through this challenge and we will be so much better for it.
The best people are the ones that we get to share life. We take the good and the bad and walk through it all together. These people make life worth the living and enable us to face and take whatever comes our way. With these people, we are blessed with the beautiful gift of creating and sharing precious memories…
Good, bad or ugly – be grateful for it all and you will discover the best and the blessed you were created for…
Michael Joe Harvell 