Tag Archives: self improvement

Blogroll, Church, Discipleship, Enlightenment, Growing, Message, Personal

Sunday Evening Rewind!

I live for everyday – Sunday through Saturday, but I prepare all week for Sundays! Sunday is game day for the Pastor and all the prep work we have been doing all week finally gets to play on Sunday. I love every thing about Sundays and I love them even more now a days, because of what I get to do in sharing the encouraging Word of God.

When I was a little boy, I loved Sunday, because we went to church and I loved our church and all the folks that made it special for me. I love to stand with the Pastor and greet folks as they we leaving. I loved going to Grandma and Pa’s for a big ole family lunch of fried chicken, mac & cheese, green beans and homemade biscuits. I loved taking walks with my Pa around his property and riding to Jr. Campbell’s old store to get a chocolate solider and a pack of crackers.

I love Sunday’s now a days, because I really do believe that the Word is our hope and I so want people to get it and the difference it can make in our lives. I want people to see that is so much more than just going through the motions. I want people to grow in their spirit, so they can experience victory in their flesh and over come all the mental challenges that this old world try’s to beat us down with.

Today at Eureka, We talked about Devoted Discipleship and the fact that we all have a cross to bear. God did not promise this life would be easy, but He did promise that we would never have to walk alone. We talked about counting the cost by realizing that there is nothing more important than our relationship with God, because if it is right, then all the other pieces of our life will fall into place. We talked about the importance of making a plan to grow in our relationship with God and not just waiting for it to happen by chance. We need to let go of everything else and grab onto God with all we’ve got and He will do a work in us, to us and through us that only He can do.

After church this morning we had lunch with family and enjoyed some sweet encouragement and our fair share of laughter. This afternoon, I ran over to the Mineral Spring Park to watch my nephew Will Cantrell perform at his drum recital and then this evening, we headed back to Eureka to wrap up the evening with a little inspiration time in Bible study.

It has been another great Sunday at Eureka and I am ready to hit the bed and catch some Z’s, so we can get ramped up to do it all over again next Sunday. I love you all! God Bless & Press On! -Pastor MJH

anger, Blogroll, Control, emotions, Gratitude, Healing, life

Dealing With Anger Before It Deals With You!

There is nothing wrong with getting angry, in fact it is a natural human response that indicates that something has annoyed, challenged or frustrated us. The problem with anger is when we allow it to take control and call the shots for us, often causing us to say or do something that we later regret and feel shame for.

9 Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. -Ecclesiastes 7:9

So the big question is: How do I deal with anger before it deals with me? There are a lot of different things that we can try, bunt from my personal experience, there is not a one and done remedy and usually it takes a combinations of efforts to get untangled from the web that anger weaves.

The most important thing is to make a decision before you are angry that you are not ever going to allow anger to call the shots. This way, you go in from a strong place, which is much better than beginning from a place of weakness. Below are a few other ideas that will assist you in dealing with anger before it deals with you.

There is the famous “Count Method!” You can either count to ten or count backwards, but I have found that many times, this seems to get me a little more angry???

Take A Breath! In fact, take several deep breaths – in and out. Our breathing becomes shallow and rapid when we are angry and sometimes taking a moment to focus on and change our breathing works wonders in calming us down enough to get back our control.

Go For A Walk! Walking is one of the best things we can do for a lot of different things, but taking time to walk when we are angry allows us to process our thoughts and gives us some time to gain that control back that is so easily lost.

Stretch Your Frustration Away! When we get angry, our muscles tense up, tighten and we become a big ole ball of negative emotions. When we are in this state, it is very easy for us to say or do something that we are sure to regret later. Stretch it out – you will be glad you did!

Pray! That’s right, take some time to talk to God and also some time to listen to God. Prayer is powerful and God wants to help us be victorious in every area of our life, so just by making and taking the time to talk and listen to God, you are moving yourself to a higher level of living. It’s also a great idea to write in your journal, this gives you creative space to shake free of the entanglements of anger!

Practice Gratitude! This requires a major shift in gears, but if you make it, it will totally change things and fast, In fact, I keep a gratitude list in my head and heart of top blessing that I have in my life that help to remind me of the things that really matter. Thinking through this list gets me grateful and moves me to a better place quicker than almost anything else.

Now there are a thousand other ways to deal with anger before it deals with you. I encourage you to find your top three to five and have them in your arsenal, ready to draw whenever anger decides to raise it’s ugly head in your life. You’ve got this, because you were created for so much more!

Blogroll, change, Creativity, Enlightenment, Growing, life

Changing Your Change!

So I’m on the road today and I really have not had a chance to sit down and write anything on the blog, but I have a very unofficial goal of trying to post something everyday, so I figured I would pull out my phone and see if I had a little something in my heart I could pump out.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I spent the whole first half of my life trying to change myself in an attempt to live up to what I thought was everyone else’s expectations. The problem with trying to change ourselves, is that it will almost always leave us disappointed, because there is always going some way, shape or form that the world uses to try and convince us that we need to change ourselves.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” -James 1:17

The reality is that you are who you are and trying to change who you are will leave you disappointed and frustrated every time. A better way of doing life and working for meaningful change is to change your actions and reactions. When we work to change our actions and reactions, a more authentic version of who we really are begins to show up.

If you stop and think about it, I’m sure you can identify at least three actions that you need to change. You know these action are destructive and costing you more than you want to pay. When we talk about needing to change who we are, we are really distracting ourselves from giving attention to the actions and reactions that need to change in our life and living.

Identify your three actions to change, make a plan on how you will do it and get to work. The changing of your actions will not necessarily change you, but it will allow the real you to emerge and you and others will find that the real you is a true blessing and gift to this world…