Category Archives: Personal

Growing, mindfulness, Personal, Suffering, Uncategorized

Challenges Come And Challenges Go!

This past Sunday, I shared a message entitled ”Speak Blessing!” The message was basically an encouragement to realize there is power in our words and we need to choose them carefully. I do my best to practice what I preach, so my goal was to live a positive life and only speak blessing this week. Great goal right?

Of course you know what happens whenever you get committed to living a positive life? Life seems to throw as much negative as it can and before you know it, your best intentions have become paving material for a road to you know where…

Live life long enough and you will discover that this is in fact life. Just because you are thinking, living and speaking positivity does not mean that you won’t have challenges, disappointments and frustrations. Life is made up of ups and downs, mountain tops and valleys, success and failure.

I’m not going to go into detail of all that has gone wrong this week, but I will tell you, I am doing my best to stay positive, upbeat and teachable. There are a few things I have to keep reminding myself about and I’ve become very fond of the saying: ”What doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.”

Here are a few good reminders for you to remember when you’re trying to keep in the positive lane of life, even while it seems that everything and everybody keeps trying to force you into the negative…

CHALLNGES GROW YOU LIKE NOTHING ELSE CAN!

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in her classic on ”Death And Dying” said: ”If you shield the mountain from the wind storms, you never see the beauty of the carvings. There is a purpose to your pain. This does not make it easier, but it helps to know and remember that it’s not all for nothing. We are continually being shaped, grown and developed and this is what we call living.

GROWTH AND HEALING ARE A PROCESS!

We are born into this human experience as a baby, but we don’t stay a baby, we grow, develop and learn, but it takes time, because it’s a process. When we fall down and scrape our knee, as it heals, it gets a very ugly scab, which we are tempted to pick at and remove, but it is actually our bodies way of healing and healing takes time because it’s a process. This life is a process, so nothing, no matter how bad it may seem is ever final, not even death.

THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING TO LEARN!

The question we need to always run to is: ”What is this trying to teach me?” The quicker I learn the lesson, the quicker I get free to live the positive life of blessing I was created for. What is life and the challenges you face trying to teach you???

Personal

I’m Not Perfect!

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I’m not perfect! There I’ve said it, but it doesn’t really make me feel much better! While there are a lot of things to like about me, there are some things that I don’t like about me! The Bible teaches in James 5:16 that we are to “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”. So here my confession:

Sometimes I am wrong! When I decide to take a stand, then I am almost always right, but I am often wrong in how I take the stand. I don’t mean to be, I just am. I need to learn to be right and express it in right ways, so that my wrongness does not cause unnecessary hurt!

Sometimes I am rude! I don’t mean to be! It’s just that I am sometimes so focused on what I am doing and where I am heading, that I miss the opportunity to be sensitive to the needs and feelings of those around me! I need to be sensitive all the time, not just some of the time!

Sometimes I am defensive! I feel like some people are out to get me and I am the only one willing to defend myself! This causes me to say, do and think things that shouldn’t! I need to keep my focus on my service to my Creator and if He is pleased find my satisfaction in that and not the ego boosting or busting opinions of others!

Sometimes I am impatient! I know what needs to be done, I know how to do it and I don’t have time for excuses! This impatience is often what leads to my being defensive, rude and wrong! I need to learn to slow down, trust that God is in control and know that I am not!

Sometimes I am negative! I don’t want to be! In fact, I can’t stand to be around negative people, but the truth is that this world is full of them. We are surrounded by negativity and it can creep into your life without you ever being aware of! I need to be positive all of the time, not just most of the time!

Sometimes I am hurtful! I would never intentionally hurt someone, but I have discovered that I unintentionally hurt people and often don’t even realize it! I say or do things that are perceived by others in a negative way and it hurts. I need to think about my actions and reactions and how they might be perceived by others and do all that I can to help things to be perceived correctly!

Sometimes I am forgetful! I usually have a pretty good memory, but sometimes the mind and life get a little too cluttered and I forget things that are important to others. I end up not saying or doing something that I should! I need to get rid of the things that don’t matter and work to stay focused on the things that do and that is the relationships of friendships that make the world go around!

I am a pretty messed up guy! I would be depressed, but I know that God loves me and I trust that He has forgiven me and so I will work hard to make progress in these seven areas of my life! And by the way the James passage tells me to confess and the people who I confess to are supposed to pray so that I may be healed! Your job is not judgement, your job is prayer!

Share your confessions with me and I’ll make you this promise: I won’t judge, I’ll pray and together we will experience God’s healing!

Growing, Personal, Uncategorized

What I Learned About Waiting While Waiting!

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My life up to this point has been one big rush!  It’s been a rush, because I hate to wait!  I can’t stand having to wait!  I am just not good at waiting!  Often, when I am in a hurry to get somewhere or to get something done; and I get stuck behind someone or something that causes me to have to wait, I can’t help but to get frustrated.  In my frustration I begin to think about why is this so frustrating?

I have started asking myself this question:  Why are you in such a hurry?  You are not running late, and you are not under a deadline, but you are getting irritated, frustrated and for what?  As I answer this question, I see that I am my own worst enemy!  I get in the way of myself!  My hate for “wait” actually gets in the way of my aligning my life with what is really important!  In my anxious frustration, I actually miss the good things of life.  They pass me by and I am totally unaware, because my focus is in the wrong place and on the wrong thing!

The next time you find yourself in a “waiting position”, make sure that you don’t waste or abuse your wait, instead get whatever it is that you are supposed to get from it!  Waiting does not have to be a bad thing, unless you choose to make it a bad thing!  You have the power!