Posts Tagged ‘friends’

Some days feel like all I have gathered up are missed opportunities. Missed opportunities with my kids. Good job honey, I can tell you are trying and I am proud of you. Awesome Job on the test! I knew you could do it! Way to go, you got the potty in the potty!

It happens with my husband, girl friends, sisters, neighbors and strangers too. It could be as simple as the missed opportunity of sharing a kind smile or hello. Or something deeper like the chance to connect with a loved one and forgive and forget.

It is days like these that hurt me the most. I want to build into my children, husband, other family and friends. And when I don’t, I cheat myself out of seeing the power of life giving thoughts and words.

I know that today won’t be the last day I feel this way but my prayer is that as I move through tomorrow I recognize the opportunity when it happens and that I then pull myself back on track and seize the moment!

Today is a Monday. I don’t know about you but Mondays tend to be pretty crazy for me and my family. I am going to try and start off my week staying tuned into as many opportunities that come my way today!!!

I hope you will join me!

I need to learn to shut my mouth. Lots of times it gets me into trouble. Sometimes I know I have said the wrong thing and other times I don’t. Lots of times I think I am being so funny and usually I am getting a laugh at someone else’s expense.
Who wants to get to know me now? Yuk. The worst part about this is that the ones that are affected the most are the people I hold closest to me.

“If you don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all” great words to live by but the problem with that, if you are a person like me is that at the time you don’t think you are being mean or not nice. I actually tend to think I am adding levity to a situation or getting people to like me.

Several years ago I did a personality profile on myself using Florence Littauer’s Personality plus book and found out that I am a Sanguine personality with a bit of Choleric thrown in for good measure. The Sanguine personality is popular. But on the inside this personality is driven by the idea of being liked by everyone, so much so that a person may adjust there value’s just to be liked. The struggle that I have faced most of my life is the ability/need to be chameleon like when it came to interacting with different groups of people. Eventually it wasn’t a struggle and something that I became very good at and almost never realized it was happening. In my case, another side effect to my Sanguine personality is the uncanny ability to throw anyone “under the bus” for a laugh.

The Choleric personality tends to be leaders or people in leadership roles. So basically what you have with me is a bossy, loud mouthed, insecure, pain in the you know what!!!

So, now what? Just chalk it up to that’s just the way God made me? Fortunately for my family and friends, no. I am committed to being a Sanguine/Choleric person who loves to tell a good joke at no one’s expense and can lead everyone through a good game of Twister. Also, fortunately for me, I am surrounded by people who love me so much that they know when to tell me I’ve screwed up and keep on forgiving me.

If you are as lucky as me to have someone who will tell you, in love, when they think you are wrong or you have hurt someone, embrace it!!! This truly is a gift from God. As sinners we can attempt to tune out God (for short periods of time) but a girlfriend getting in your face and breaking it down for you, is hard to ignore!

Become aware of the affects of your actions good and bad. We are all imperfect but it is in the awareness where we can really get our good work done.

Dedicated in love, to my husband and Trac

Psalm 19: 14 (NIV) May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

We don’t always know the impact we may have on someone and we may not know the impact someone has on us until a much later date. My older brother had a huge impact on my eternal life, actually on my whole family’s eternal lives. He became a Christian while attending college. He came home with all these strange ideas about a relationship with Christ and being born again. I am pretty sure my parents first reaction was one of concern, has he joined a cult, and then just annoyance because of their own ignorance at the time.

I was 15 years old when my family traveled to Minnesota to visit my brother at college and attend this Christian Concert he kept talking about. That night at the concert I accepted Christ as my savior! Praise God!! I wish I could say my life immediately turned around, but it didn’t, Christ waited and continued to have people plant seeds in my life.

If you think about the impact my brother has had on Gods Kingdom it is amazing. My family and all of our children, our children’s children, etc. My brother had a very successful career in broadcasting, I am sure he was planting seeds then too. And today he is a realtor and football coach which gives him the opportunity to meet many different kinds of people. I am confident God continues to use him.

During bible study recently the speaker made a statement that has stuck with me. She was talking about how non-believers see Christians ad she said this, “Our relationship with Christ doesn’t matter, what matters is our resemblance to him.” As a believer my relationship with Christ is the most important thing in my walk with him. As a non-believer, a person doesn’t really care about my personal relationship I have but they can be intrigued with the way I react to certain situations and crisis that comes my way. You just don’t know and can’t imagine the impact that one simple gesture or kind word that can help leads a person to Christ. The way we present ourselves as Christians is of the utmost importance. It is never about me or you. It is so much bigger than that. It isn’t about rule keeping or rule breaking. It isn’t about passing judgment or being the judge and jury. It isn’t about a pulpit and the numbers of people who hear you preach. It is about Love. Love that makes a person curious, love that is free flowing, and love that is always present and shows itself first when conflict arises. Love that demonstrates itself in a simple gesture, which can lead to a question, and then to a conversation, that then plants a seed.
Our desire to resemble Christ can have a huge Impact. This Thanksgiving impact is what I am thankful for. I pray that my actions will follow my hearts desire and I will have impact with my family, friends, strangers, believers and non-believers.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. John 13:34 (NIV)

Living as a Christian doesn’t always get you a lot of glory. In fact, doing the right thing whatever that may be, rarely leads to praise or accolades from peers. It is what we are supposed to do. Live right. Love each other. Have a humble heart. Love Christ.

Honestly, I struggle with this some days. To make myself humble and put someone else’s desires before mine does not come naturally to me. Holding my tongue when I feel I have been wronged is even more of a challenge. And when I do what is right it doesn’t always feel as good as when I let off a little steam and tell someone exactly how I feel.

It is my hearts desire to live as Christ would have me live but it is a discipline. Not only do I need to continually remind myself of how I need to handle certain situations but some of my best meaning friends can keep me from living this way just by feeding my ego and telling me what I want to hear. I want to hear that I am right and if I think I have been treated unfairly, I want someone to agree with me! But a friend in Christ isn’t always going to massage my ego. They are going to continually challenge me to live better and keep me on the path that Christ would have me on. I am so blessed to have friends like this. I want to be a friend like this.

Recently, a group of my girlfriends and I were talking and the subject of meekness came up. Meek, not a pretty word. Short and simple but when I picture someone I considered to be meek, it is not a person who stands tall and strong, quite the contrary. In Rick Warren’s online daily devotional he described meekness this way,

“The ability to control our reactions, to handle hurt without retaliating is called meekness. Jesus promised, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5 NIV). Meek people control their reactions toward life and this gives them far more control over a situation than if they simply react.

If you are a meek person, you are no longer a victim. You control your choices. The best definition of meekness in the Bible is Proverbs 16:32: “. . . It is better to win control over yourself than over whole cities” (TEV).

WOW!!! Not what I had pictured at all! Brace yourselves, I want to be meek!! That is something I never thought I would write, but it is true! I want the desire to always be right, gone. I want to live a life where I am in complete control of my actions and reactions. What freedom in that. No more being the victim.

Jesus desires us to live this way. He breaks the chains that bind. If we open ourselves to His teachings and the plan He has for our lives, one day we will stand before Him in all of His Glory and will hear Him say, “Well done my good and kind servant.”

Truly that is all the praise I need.

If you would like to read more about meekness or Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life daily devotional click here.