Category Archives: Expectation

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How Much Is This Going To Cost Me?

The older we get, the more we begin to realize and recognize value. We start to understand that some things are worth it and some things are not. I’ve heard more than one old timer say: “You get what you pay for!” and “How much is this going to cost me?”, and I have lived just long enough to discover that this is absolutely true most of the time – we do get what we pay for and anything of value is going to cost us. What is extra important to remember is that we don’t just pay with dollars, we also pay with our time and life.

This human experience that we call life is too short to waste on things that do not really matter, but if we are not careful, that is exactly what we will end up doing. We allow ourselves to get caught up in stuff that does not really matter and end up loosing the precious gift of value.

25 And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 26 If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. -Luke 12:25-27

We have already established that worry is a waste of time and resources. But how do we take on and take out worry, so that it stops robbing us of the precious gift of life. Jesus said: Look around you and see God’s faithfulness! In other words: Realize that you have the power to choose what you will focus on and the direction you will live your life…

If God takes care of this great big world, then He is going to take care of you! Just open your eyes and see all of the things God is taking care of. Look back on your own life and remind yourself of all the times God has taken care of you. Do you really think that the God Who has been taking care of you and seeing you through is going to stop? Of course not, we know better, but we often allow our minds to wander to the worst of places. Remember: God’s got me and I’ve got this!

Every now and then it is good to stop everything we are used to doing. Turn off all of the noise and take a few moments to sit in the still, quiet presence of the One Who brought us to the dance. Spending this time in God’s presence will help us to think about and remember what really matters. We need to Consider our investments! Your life and the way you spend it is an investment, so you need to ask yourself: Am I living a life of diminishing returns or am I living a life of blessing and growth? You were created for a life of blessing and growth. If worry does you no good, then why waste your time???

So remember: A good question to ask yourself is: How much is this going to cost me???

Blogroll, choices, Enlightenment, Expectation, Gratitude, Growing, Healing, journey, Lessons, life, mindfulness, self help

Life Is Tough!

Let’s be real honest: Sometimes life is tough, I mean it’s just plain hard. I mean there are days that we say to ourselves: “This is just not fair!” You know the kind of day I’m talking about. The one where you don’t want to get out of bed or if you did make it out, you’re thinking to yourself you should go right back. Trust me, I’ve had more than my fair share of those days and every now and then, they still try to creep up on me. It is important to realize that some days are going to be good and easy, and some days are going to be bad and hard, but a day is just a day and when you finish this one, there is another one coming.

Life has a way of making us focus on the bad and it is true that what we usually tend to focus on, we often get more of. I have discovered in my own life and living that a bad day does not have to mean a bad life. In fact, I am learning that some of life’s greatest lessons are learned in and through the bad stuff, so if I can just learn whatever the bad is trying to teach me, then I can grow on beyond it.

When I am having one of those bad days, I try to ask myself as soon as possible: “What needs to be fixed?” If there is something that can be fixed, then I want to fix it and not waller around in misery. When I find myself in the “bad place”, I ask myself: “It there a crisis that can be prevented?”, and if not, then why am I wasting my time worrying about it? Another self question that helps me fix my perspective is: “What new thing do I need to make life better?” In other words: Is their a new attitude that I need to adopt, a new belief I need to grab hold of or a new perspective that I’ve never considered before???

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 4:4-7

I’ve discovered in living through just enough bad days that just as easily as our focus can be shifted from the positive to the negative, it can be shifted back from the negative to the positive. We’ve got the power. When life moves us from the positive to the negative, this shifted focus automatically moves us out of gratitude and into worry! Once worry takes over, we have a battle on our hands to not keep digging the hole deeper. It’s just part of life that there are going to be good days and bad days. The secret is to live and learn from them and not get stuck in the bad days and empower them to become weeks, months and possible even years.

Here are a few tips to grow through the bad to the good and get the most out of all that God has for you:

1.) Embrace The Experience!

Whatever flows to you has a purpose and the sooner you discover and embrace it’s purpose, the sooner it and you can move onto something else and something better. We cannot always avoid the negative, so sometimes we have to embrace it and get from it whatever it came to teach us.

2.) Deal With Reality!

Often, we think if we pretend everything is okay, then it will be, but when we eventually get back to reality, problems that we have not dealt with and worked through are still there and have often grown in size and complexity. If you are going through a bad time, then be honest and figure out what and why, and deal with it. The sooner you go through the process, the sooner the process will accomplish what it is there to do and you can move on to bigger and better.

3.) Do Your Part!

I’ve discovered through the years that most all of my bad days where in some way influenced by me and my attitudes and thoughts. When I started to accept responsibility for my life and began to hold myself accountable for making better choices and decisions, my life began to change. It was not that I did not have bad days, but the days became shorter and fewer.

4.) Count Your Blessings!

If you know me, then you know my belief in the power of gratitude. When my girls were little and would get ungrateful attitudes, I would have them go to their room and make a gratitude list. Taking the time to thank about all of the blessings we have in our life is often one of the quickest ways to shift our focus from the negative to the positive.

5.) Live, Learn, Laugh And Love!

This life is God’s gift to us and what we do with it is our gift to God. Live – It’s what you were created for. Learn – It’s one of God’s greatest gifts to help us become, which is really living. Laugh – Life really is funny and laughter is fun. Love – God is love and He created us in love to love. When we receive His love and share His love, it creates a powerful flow of the stuff of God flowing to and through us and this is what our existence is all about…

Life is tough, but so are you. You’ve got this!

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Cherish Each Moment!

A few months ago, I had a stroke and did not even know I was in this world. I finally came to myself in the ICU at the hospital and my wife Joy began to tell me about my very eventful day in the Emergency Room with the Stroke Trauma Team that I knew absolutely nothing about.

In the past several months as I have worked to recover, I have learned many lessons about many things. One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned is just what a precious gift we have been given with this thing that we call life.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. -1 Corinthians 15:52

One of the most meaningful lessons that I am learning is the preciousness of moments and how careless and flippant I have often been with them in the past by simply taking them for granted.

The reality of this human existence is that we are not guaranteed the next moment and if we don’t get the next moment, then the last moment was it, so we better allow every moment to unfold and learn be grateful for the gifts it brings.

One day last week, I was sitting in our living room and there were toys scattered all over the place. In the middle of the floor was a wooden bowl, spatula and a little car. When I looked at them I smiled inside and out and then began to cry tears of joy as I thought about my Grand Daughter Addi Jo stirring up some “make believe” deliciousness in that bowl and then offering me a bite. I was still getting blessing and joy from the moment even after it passed.

Life is a series of moments strung together by memories, so make sure that you are cherishing each moment as the special gift from God that it is, because we never know when this moment might be our last…