Tag Archives: blessing

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Mud Holes & Getting Unstuck!

I Ain’t Stuck!

When I was in college, one of my good friends had a little Datsun car, I can’t remember what it was called, just that it was a little car that we would load up with four big ole country boys and head out to find swamp land somewhere in the Charleston, South Carolina area. We were looking for a place with some mud roads that we could get lost and stuck on. Once we located the biggest mud hole we could find, we would then drive that little car straight in, just as far as we could go, with the goal of making it through, but we were not at all heartbroken if we got stuck, because then the new challenge of getting unstuck became our focus and was really what we had the most fun doing and quiet honestly the reason that we were out there.

Now days, getting stuck is not so fun and getting unstuck can literally suck the life right out of you. You know what I’m talking about right? You finally seem to get your life headed in the right direction. You are cruising along, crushing goals and everything just seems fine and dandy. And then all of a sudden, out of no where, you come up on a mud hole. You decide to give it all and try to plough right through it, but sometimes even your best efforts leave you stranded and before you know it, you’re stuck. You try to get yourself out of the mess and ended up getting stuck even worse. Does it sound like I’m describing a real life scenario? Of course it does, because we’ve all been there and in fact, many of us find ourselves, sitting on the side of the road of life – tired, dirty, worn out and ready to give up…

Don’t throw in the towel just yet, because when life throws a mud hole in your direction, there are actually some steps you can take to get unstuck and maybe learn to enjoy the process along the way…

The next time you find yourself stuck, try a few of these steps, before you give up, give in and give out:

1. Learn From The Past And Let It Go! Whenever we got stuck, we had learned some tried and true methods that would work to help us get out. We had been stuck and gotten unstuck enough times to know that some things would work – like getting something under the tire, so we could get some traction. And some things wouldn’t work – like giving it more gas and just digging the rut deeper. In life, we all make mistakes and miss the mark. Learn whatever your mistake is supposed to teach you and move on. Stop digging your ruts deeper by overthinking your sins failiures and mistakes!

2. Change Your Perspective And See Things From A Different Point Of View! Whenever we got stuck, we would get out, survey the situation from all angles and then we would go to work. One of us pushing at the back wheel, one of us jumping up and down on the back bumper, one of us in the car, going from drive to reverse and one of us surveying the situation to see what we might be missing. I honestly can’t remember too many times that we couldn’t figure it out and if push came to shove and we were lost for ideas then out came what we called “THE COME ALONG” – a ratchet strap device that we would hook to the car and then to a nearby tree to tow ourselves out. Just remember that where there is a will, there is a way! Look at your life, challenge, mud hole as an opportunity to do things better and figure it out by looking at it from all points of view…

3. Get Some Help And Realize That You Were Never Intended To Do This Thing Called Life Alone! Every now and then as darkness began to approach, we would realize that we were out of ideas, strength and were probably left with only one option. And that was to call someone for help. If you’ve done everything you can, then there is absolutly nothing wrong with asking for help, in fact, that is what our Creator designed us to do. Pray about it, talk to others about what you are going through and then accept the help that is offered to you. I know it’s not easy asking or accepting help from others, but often times, it’s as big a blessing for them to help us as it is for us to receive their help.

Live life long enough and you are going to run into some mud holes and you are going to get stuck, don’t sweat it, learn to enjoy it, learn from it and move on down the road…

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Are You Happy?

I used to have a friend that would ask me a simple, but powerful question on a fairly consistent basis. He would ask: “Are you happy?” I would answer: “I guess?” I mean, I wasn’t sad, so the opposite is happy, so I must be happy, right? Every now I then, I would wonder to myself: “Are you happy?”, but something else would come along and take control of my thoughts and I would drift onto something else.

I see and hear a lot of people in our world today that are not happy. I think if you asked most people, they would say: “I would like to be happy, but I’m not so sure how to get there. I think a lot of folks spend the first half of their lives, just trying to figure out what “happy” is. We think we know, get it rounded up and discover that what we thought it might be, turns out to be a wrong guess. Which is exactly why I think that a lot of us tend to give up and become satisfied if “happy” just kinda crosses over our tracks every now and then.

But the truth is, we were created for so much more than that. I think one of the problems with the idea of “happy” is that we think it’s a place to be, a destination to arrive at, but it is so much more than that. One of my favorite teachers, Wayne Dyer, puts it this way: “There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way.” I really do like that:  “HAPPINESS IS THE WAY!”  We just have to get our definition and understanding of happiness right and then the rest tends to fall into place.

So what is happiness? Happiness is a lot of different things and it really depends on who you are talking to. Happiness is a choice, a decision of direction that we choose for ourselves, regardless of the situation or projected outcome. Some are happy going and some are happy sitting at home. Some are happy in a noisy crowd and some are happy enjoying quiet time alone. Some are happy with abundance, while some are happy with very little. This actually gives us a clue as to what happiness really is…

HAPPINESS IS  A CHOICE!  Abraham Lincoln said: “We are just about as happy as we make up our minds to be!” That is why you can see two people go through identical situations and one will be happy and up on cloud nine and the other will be down in the dumps and ready to die. So, the one most important thing we can learn about happiness is that happiness is a choice that we get to make for ourselves.

There it is, YOU GET TO DECIDE FOR YOU! You cannot decide for anyone else, but you can decide for yourself and you, yourself can make a difference in helping others to get there for themselves. If you are going through something hard, difficult or challenging, you can be happy knowing that it is making you stronger, revealing wisdom to you and showing you a side of yourself that you never knew existed. If you are going through good times, blessings and success, you can be happy knowing that what you’ve dreamed of and worked for is a reality that makes life better, sweeter and easier.

Choose to by happy, regardless, you will be glad you did!

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Blessed From Desperation To Inspiration…

Michael Joe, a follower of Christ Jesus by the will of God and through the leading of His Spirit.  To the Saints who are living in the Upstate of South Carolina and who place, express and live out their faith in Christ Jesus.  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh how blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every possible spiritual blessing, blessings which we know are waiting for us in the heavenly places in Christ, just as we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, that you and I might be holy and blameless before Him.

In His unlimited love, He chose to adopt us as His sons and daughters though Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of His will and to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely gave to each of us in and through His beloved Son.

In Jesus we have redemption, restoration and relationship through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins and failures, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us, not because we have earned it or deserved it, but simply because He loves us.  

In all Heavenly wisdom and Supernatural insight, He made known to us the incredible mystery of His perfect will, according to the kind intention which finds it’s purpose in and through Jesus, with a view to an administration and application suitable to the fullness of the times, that is to the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.

Also in Jesus we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, for the purpose and to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.

In Him, we also after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of our salvation – having also believed, we were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given to us as a pledge and promise of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory as we move from desperation to inspiration.

-Scripture Adaptation From Ephesians 1:1-14