Tag Archives: self improvement

affirmation, Blogroll, Values

VALUES ADD VALUE!

One of my mentors was talking to me about decision making and he challenged me to think through my values before making any decision. He then challenged me to think through and figure out what my values are, so that I can think through them when I have a decision to make.

Most all of us have values, but if we are put on the spot, we might find it a bit difficult to name them, so it is a good practice to think through what is it that we really value in this life? Once we know our values, it is then a good idea to prioritize them and think through them every now and then to make sure that our life and living is lining up with what we say really matters to us.

I thought I would share my top ten values with you, in the hopes that it might encourage and motivate you to think through your own…

1. LOVE – For me this is where it all begins and ends. God loves me and when I love God back by loving others, it creates a powerful flow of energy in my life and living that makes this life worth living. Without love, life would be meaningless, but with love, it is full of potential and possibility.

2. FAITH – This is about trust and belief and without someone or something to trust and believe in, then we are like a ship with a rudder. Faith is the mechanism that allows our life to go somewhere meaningful. Faith gives us purpose, direction and motivation.

3. BLESSING – Our Creator blesses us, so that we can bless others. This allows divinity to flow to us and through us. This divine energy is what life and eternity are all about. Learning to receive is important and learning to give is important to. Blessing is all about learning to receive and share, which makes us more like the One Who created us.

4. FAMILY AND FRIENDS – Family and friends can be the greatest blessing and the greatest challenge. Sometimes you feel like you can’t live with them and you can’t live without them. The truth is: We need our family and friends and trying to do life without them is not really doing life at all.

5. JOY – We were created to be blessed, happy and fulfilled. We are supposed to have an inward excitement that expresses itself in outward joy. When we learn to embrace and appreciate the things of our Creator, then joy becomes the natural by product, so that we find joy in the blessings and challenges of life.

6. PEACE – This inward contentment, regardless of outward circumstances is one of the great gifts of our Creator. When we begin to align our values with His values, peace is the natural by product that helps us to realize what a special gift this thing we call life really is.

7. MINISTRY – Each of us have been given special gifts and abilities that can be a tremendous blessing to others and when we use these gifts and abilities to serve others, it gives glory to our Creator and brings fulfillment to our created purpose.

8. LEARNING – No matter how old we get, there is always something else to learn and the older I get, the more I realize just how precious a gift we have been given in the ability to learn. A willingness to learn new things helps to keep us young in heart, mind and soul.

9. HEALTH – Life is tough and it is even tougher if we don’t feel good. This is why health and taking care of our physical bodies is so important. Daily exercise, eating right and proper rest have to be on our list of priorities or we are going to miss out on what really matters, because we just don’t feel like it.

10. WISDOM – When I was a little boy, I remember going to Sunday School and hearing about God telling Solomon that he could ask for anything he wanted and Solomon asked for wisdom and God was pleased. Wisdom is not just knowledge. Wisdom is the proper application and use of knowledge. Our would could use a lot more of that and that starts with me.

I challenge you to think about your values, make your own list and then use that list to help you make better decisions in your life and living…

affirmation, Blogroll, choices, Enlightenment, faith, Growing, ideas, Mystery, Life,

Being A Blessing!

One of the things that really brings me joy is being able to be an encouragement to others, especially when I can help them live their best life. I try to be for others, what I wish someone would be for me. I am not sure that I always get this right, but it is the goal of my life and living and brings me great satisfaction and pleasure when I get it right.

Proverbs 11:25 says: The generous soul will be made rich, And he who waters will also be watered himself.

This morning I was thinking about the practical ways that I can accomplish my goal of being an encouragement to others and here are just a few of the ways that I came up with:

SMILE MORE! It is amazing how many people walk around all day long and never smile. I’ve noticed if I smile at others, then often they can’t help but smile back. I try to make it a habit to speak to every person I cross paths with. It’s amazing what a ”Good Morning!”, “Beautiful Day!” Or “How’s Life Treating You?” will wake folks up to realizing that it is more than just them in this world. God has given us one another to be a blessing and encouragement. A smile communicates a thousand positive messages without saying a word.

THINK THROUGH AND TEACH THE SACRED SCRIPTURES! When my “hellos” turn into a conversation, then I need to have something better than my own home spun theories to talk about. This is another reason, that I begin everyday with reading in the Scriptures. God’s Word is God’s Wisdom and it makes me a lot wiser, when I read it, live it and share it with others. Speaking what I am learning from the Scriptures helps me to live it and gives others something meaningful to think about.

WRITE ENCOURAGING NOTES AND POSTS! I decided many years ago, that if I could not keep it positive that I would get off of Social Media. Social Media is a platform that can be used for good of bad, the choice is yours. I choose to use it for good. I can commit on other’s post and share an encouraging word, attaboy or way to go. I can post things I am learning and ways that God is growing me. I can text, email and send encouraging messages with just a few key strokes. The “key”, I have found is just making sure that I actually take the time to do it. Don’t just scroll and casually read. As you scroll, think about how you can be a blessing and be one.

LISTEN AND WHEN YOU DO SPEAK, DON’T WASTE YOUR WORDS! So many conversations now a days have become a big waste, because we do a lot of talk, but nothing much really gets said. There are a couple of easy things we can do to change this: 1.) Listen! Close your mouth, stop thinking about what you are wanting to say and really listen. Listening is an art form and the people that get good at it, can be life changing. 2.) When you do speak, make sure that what you are speaking is EAT = encouraging, applicable and true. The goal of our speaking should always be to leave things better than we found them.

JUST BE YOURSELF – THE YOU THAT GOD MADE YOU TO BE! You really are a special creation of the Most High God. And God created you to be a blessing and encouragement to others. When we get this right, our lives bring God great joy, so just be you, the real you, the fun you, the happy you. As you make life better for others, you will become even more of yourself and you will find that you are blessed in your blessing of others…

Aging, emotions, faith, Family, God, grace, Gratitude

What In The World Happened To You?

Some of you know what has been going on with some of my health challenges and some of you may have missed part of the story”, so I thought I would try to clear things up and let you know “the rest of the story as one of my favorites Paul Harvey would say.

The first part of the story, I do not remember and I will have to tell you based on what I have been told by those that were standing by. I want to thank everyone for your prayers, love, support, encouragement, patience and understanding. It has been and continues to be a learning journey and has grown and is growing me in so many different ways. 

On Monday May 30th after suffering with a three day headache, I discovered that I had sinus infection that was making my ability to swallow difficult and my talking sound funny because of a swollen tongue. I of course started my home remedies, because even though I am not a doctor, I could play one on TV. On Wednesday evening, I preached, recorded and uploaded my Wednesday evening message and it sounded like I had a button or piece of candy in my mouth the whole time, I promise I didn’t, so on Friday, I decided after everyone’s coaxing to do a virtual visit with the Doctor. The Doctor prescribed Mucinex D and a nasal spray, which I started late Friday evening. Friday was a pretty normal day, other than sore throat, drainage and swelled tongue. I went to bed Friday evening just wanting to feel normal again.

This next part, I don’t remember, so I am going from Joy’s telling of the story. On Saturday morning June 4, 2022, I woke up, came into the living room and ask Joy what was going on? I told her that something was not right, that something was off. She got worried and started asking me all kinds of questions to see if I knew who I was, where I was, what our Granddaughters name was and when I couldn’t answer that, she got on the phone with my sister and My Brother In Law told her to call 911. During this time I was wide awake, talking, shaking hands and supposedly just trying to get my bearings. I am thankful for my Brother In Law Bill Cantrell showing up Johnny on the spot and Joy’s Mom Nancy Jo being here for Joy and the girls. There is a lot more to the story, and I was there, but I wasn’t there, so I’m not going into all of that, except to say: Praise the Lord, I did not say or do anything too embarrassing.

The rescue squad showed up and rushed me to the hospital with stroke like symptoms, where they did a CT Scan upon my arrival. Our good friend Julia Ellison Nicols made sure that I was well taken care of and was my Guardian Angel. The Doctors felt like my short term memory loss was due to the extremely high blood pressure and started me on a drip of medicine to try to start bringing it down and continued a barrage of tests, poking and sampling whatever they could get from me.

I can remember bits and pieces of the Emergency Room. I recognized Dr. Lutz from previous meetings when visiting parishioners, but it all just seems like a dream and I thank the Lord for that, because I have never been afraid to die, but I have never wanted it to hurt.

In the afternoon/evening they moved me into ICU and for the first time that I can remember, Joy and I talked and she filled me in on what all had happened, what was going on and what the plan of operation was. She informed me that I would not be able to preach the next day and that she had already sent messages and taken care of all of that and so I laid there and we talked and I slept and we talked and I slept They eventually brought me supper and I was trying to come up with a plan to get someone to break me out of there and take us to the Peddler, my treat. I told Joy to go home and get some good rest in a good bed. I actually rested pretty decent, although I am not a back sleeper and I was all wired up.

Sunday morning June 5, 2022 found me still in ICU, trying my best to come up with an escape plan. They were monitoring my blood pressure levels and decided to get rid of my drip and try me with a pill and see if they would stay stable, this was the key to my getting into a regular room and going home. I honestly was in pretty good spirits the whole time and kept thinking about how grateful I was that things were not much worse. Supposedly the meds that I took for the sinus infection cause my blood pressure to jump into the danger zone and I honestly was very blessed that things were not a whole lot worse. On the agenda for this day would be more test, particularly a MRI of my head, throat and chest. You will be pleased to know that I do have a brain and a heart.

Sunday afternoon they moved me to a regular room and we waited for results of the MRI. The MRI revealed that I had a small stroke on the back left side of my brain. It also revealed that totally unrelated, I had an aneurysm on the right side of my brain, but not that they were overly worried about. They also noticed that the arteries going up my neck were a little twisted, which they called Fibromuscular Displaysia, but they should be okay, because it did not seem to impact the flow of things. My heart looked good, other than some thickening of the heart wall, which was probably a result of the high blood pressure.

All I could think about was holding my Granddaughter Addi Jo, walking around our yard in Cheddar, seeing our family/friends and getting back to my Pastor/Preacher work and ministry, especially with my dear Eureka Baptist Church.

The good news so far is that there does not seem to be any permanent damage. I should not require any surgery, but I do have a slew of specialist that I now have to see, a few medications that I have to take and Joy thinking she has been promoted to General. (Haha)

On Monday June 6, 2022, I spent most of the day just waiting. We had to do an echo on my heart, just to make sure things were clear and my nurse assured me that no matter what time they gave me the clear that she could and would get me out of there within 20 minutes. Later in the late afternoon, we finally got the news that we could split and split we did.

God and everyone has been so good to us. The major thing I am learning is that I am not going to bounce back from this like I would anything else. I have good days, where I feel like I am back to normal and then challenging days where I feel like a very old man, who can’t do anything for himself. I believe this is just my body adapting, adjusting and getting used to a different way of living. I have prayed about it and I am trusting God to bring me back better than ever.

“For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.” -Isaiah 41:13

Today as I was preaching, I felt more back to my normal self. I am still having some sinus challenges that is impacting my throat, tongue and speech, but I trust that in God’s time, God will take care of it, because I know without doubt that He is taking care of me!