Beyond Ourselves

When left on our own, our flesh naturally takes to unhealthy and destructive paths.  This particular journey normally includes looking to other humans for our worth and value. We might even be people who vomit all over others and rely on them to clean up our messes.  If they don't, we may choose to lash out at them and buy into the lie that we must remain the way we are in those horrible moments.

On the other hand, we can decide to take a step back and take a good honest look at ourselves. Despite all our wrong choices and decisions, Jesus sees the truth about us.  He wants us to see and know Him.  When we do, we can grasp the reality that He is the One who empowers us to go beyond our flesh and become much more than we can ever believe possible.

The only one we want to ever determine our value and worth is the One who created us.  We don't ever have to prove our worth to Him.  The Lord said He valued us so much and proved it when He willingly stretched His arms out and was crucified for our sins. When we look to Him only for our worth, we truly see our value.

A New Crown

I hung up my crown several years ago.  It took quite a long time for me to recognize it on my head.  Once I did, it weighed me down, and I knew it had to go.  I actively pursued not only its removal, but the assurance that I would never wear that particular crown again.

I took off the crown that all drama queens wear and picked up a different crown.  This one came decorated with grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness.  This crown never leaves me with feelings of shame but with the truth of being valued by the King of Kings.

Now I'm seeking my King's grace and mercy, but especially His patience and kindness in dealing with the drama queens I work with all week long.  It's clear to me now on the way I must have driven those around me crazy when I got into "my mood".  My insecurity certainly blared loud and clear during these episodes.

I don't miss the first crown I wore, but love my new one.  Thankful for the reminder today of God's emotional healing in my life in this area!

Real Living

I grew up in the church, but I never saw Jesus.  I attended Sunday School ever since I could remember, but I didn't see the reality of the lessons lived out in those who taught me.  I listened to multiple sermons, but never once heard the gospel of grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness. I often times hungered to know what the verse meant, but felt empty when I left church each week.

One day, in the fall of my sophomore year of high school, a crusade came to our town.  The nights I attended, I heard that Jesus died on the cross for my sins.  The last night of the crusade, something new rang in my heart and I understood for the first time that the offer to receive the free gift of salvation and a hope beyond what this life had to offer was for me.  A little apprehensively, I approached the altar and asked the Lord to forgive my sins and give me a reason to live. He did.

I instantly found myself surrounded by all these people who actually took living for Jesus seriously.  They had committed their entire lives to living for Him.  I feasted on what they taught me, because for the first time in my life I witnessed Jesus in skin in the new church I began to attend. These wonderful folks nurtured me in my new faith.

I needed that early upbringing in my faith to endure the difficult challenges the Lord would bring into my life when my husband entered full-time ministry.  My life is blessed with those who continue to faithfully show me Jesus in skin in the good, bad, and ugly of life.

This picture I found on the internet says it all!

Projected Thoughts and Feelings

I made a comment in passing.  There were no deep thoughts or accusations in my mind regarding the character of the person when I said it.  I meant no harm in what I said.  I certainly had not intended to hurt the receiver or to even say anything mean about them.  Yet, it did hurt them.  My comment instantly said more to them than what originally was intended by my words.

The interesting thing about this incident is that the recipient of my comment actually projected into my words all kinds of feelings and meanings that the words never meant to me.  The person took my words and accused me of not thinking the best of them.  They placed on me the very judgment they believed I placed on them.

Suddenly, what they thought I said in my comment now began to fill my mind.  My mind now raced with all kinds of thoughts about them.  Suddenly what they believed I meant by my comment took on a life of its own within my thoughts.

This suddenly got me thinking.  How often do we project our own feelings into something said to us? Sure, there are indeed times when people deliberately set out to say things to hurt us.  However, don't we often jump to wrong conclusions based on our interpretations of the words said to us? How often do we actually hear what might never have been said or intended to be heard?  I believe more often than we care to admit.

I've now lived long enough to say, that this is precisely why many relationships have been fractured and many times destroyed.  We hear something and instantly project our feelings into what we believed they meant by what they said to us.

Now, of course, if we feel good about what was said, all is well.  However, if what we believe we heard causes us to question ourselves, then we instantly believe the person intended on hurting us. I put out the challenge that maybe it isn't what they intended at all.

We need to seek the Lord to do a work in us.  We can avoid a lot of self-induced pain if we just stop jumping to conclusions and letting our imaginations runaway.  We want others to believe the best about us, so let's begin by thinking the best about them.

The Artist of the Sky

I'm sure a talented artist could paint this sunrise on a canvas, catching the colors and puffs of the clouds in their drawing.  I'm sure it might even look as good as this did in real life.  However, no one but our Heavenly Father can actually paint the depth and richness of these colors into our sky, but the Creator of it.

This sunrise lasted all of about 10 minutes this morning, and then it disappeared forever.  Capturing even a portion in this picture of its beauty, got me thinking about how awesome of an Artist we love and serve.  

I'm not sure the reason He painted this scene in the sky this morning, but for me personally it reminded me of how He can do great and powerful things way beyond what we can ever imagine.  I drank in the beauty of this sky and instantly thought of His omnipotence of all creation.

What do you think about when you catch a glimpse of something breathtaking?

Enjoy or Move on

Word to the wise~~When misunderstanding happens, and inevitably they do come, the survival of the relationship will depend on how well each person willingly gives the benefit of the doubt to the other person. We can choose to believe the best instead of the worst about one another.

Rest assured that if a minor misunderstanding ends the relationship, it was on its way out way before the misunderstanding.  It just means one or both parties were just waiting for the right opportunity to walk away to present itself.

Accept the fact that when someone is unwilling to work out their differences and come to a true place of understanding, it's time to let them go and move on.  Life is too short to spend with people who don't want to be with us.  We need to embrace every moment we have with those who want to journey through life with us.~~C.H.A.R.

Extinguish the Fire

The words hurt deeply, but at some point in time, we decided to not allow it to show.  We spatted off the childhood saying we learned to cover our pain, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me."  Yet, we all know it did.  

James 3 talks about the iniquity of the tongue.  With it we praise and curse others.  It only takes a spark to cause an enormous fire to burn down buildings and forests.  Once the fire gets out of control, there is no care to what it destroys in its path.

May we ponder this....if some words can injure a person, then some words can heal a person too.  May we not only strive not to harm with our words, but also to use our words as a balm over the words spoken to harm others.