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Great Expectation

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This morning I woke up with a great expectation. It just feels like a new beginning.

Throughout this week, my oldest son was sick and I wasn’t feeling too great, but I thank God for my husband, who kept the house running smoothly. I took sometime, while resting to think and reflect on life and the direction that I’m headed in.

Reflection is something that I do pretty often, but something was different about this time. As I read and reflected, the same encouraging thoughts kept coming to mind. These words were present in the books that I read. Believe it or not, when I went to social media, I found the same message being spoken to my heart again and again.

It was like God wanted me to know and understand something.

With this, a great expectation began to build within me. I realized that there is so much that I am capable of. I have been viewing myself in certain ways that have limited my abilities. I have searched for validation, when all I really needed was a yes from God. I have tried instead of just doing the thing, and all this has led me to a place of frustration.

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All of my life, I have been told not to quit. I have heard people say that I should not give up. Yet, I have come to realize time and time again that there are times when we should all give up on a thing.

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

That’s right! There is a time to persevere and a time to call it quits.

When we give up on one thing, we are able to passionately pursue something else. We cannot have all of our attentions divided all of the time. That lack of focus and consistency will lead to incompletion and ineffectiveness.

None of us want that.

Soooo…

When I heard, repeatedly, throughout the past week that the season for one thing had ended and the time for another had begun, I was filled with excitement. A joy began to fill my heart and I felt my strength renewed.

Today, I am walking in the newness of my great expectation.

I want to encourage you to take a look around you. What is the thing that you are doing, that have come to the end of its season? Is it time to move on to something else? Have you been trying to persevere in something that requires you stop trying…think about it.

If you hold on to something that you have to let go of, your efforts are in vain…

I want you to be filled with the same type of expectation that I have been filled with. There maybe something that you keep hearing repeatedly, but you aren’t sure how to apply it. Take sometime to write it down and reflect on it a bit. I am sure that it will begin to make sense to you.

Trust God and know that He is working it out for you.

I hope that you find this helpful. Remember, it is completely fine to call it quits on one thing so that you can focus your attention and efforts on something else.

Seasons change and with that great expectation comes…

Taking Steps To Grow Spiritually & Intentionally

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Taking Steps To Grow

Today, I read an article by Rick Warren. He talked about spiritual growth. As I read it, I felt encouraged to grow more spiritually, but I realized that although he talked about growing spiritually, he didn’t mention how this would happen, specifically.

Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. – Philippians 2:12-13

This was one of the key scriptures that he mentioned.  I’ve thought of this scripture often times when I think about growing.

“This verse shows the two parts of spiritual growth: “work out” and “work in.” The “work out” is your responsibility, and the “work in” is God’s role. Spiritual growth is a collaborative effort between you and the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit works with us, not just in us.” -Rick Warren

There is a part of the growing that is God’s job. He works in us and grows us the way that he desires for us to grow, but there is another type of growing that is our part. It is rarely discussed, or at least that I’ve seen. Sometimes, we look for practical help…

We have a job to do in the growing. From my experience, it, partially,  has to do with a change of mind and a change of actions.

We have to begin to look at our thought patterns and ask ourselves, do these thought patterns line up with what I believe, with the word of God, and with the life of Christ. When we find a point where they don’t, we must be very active in changing them. From there we have to be proactive about producing positive thoughts that line up with who we are spiritually.

We have to tell ourselves things like, “I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.”(Philippians 4:13  )  We have to “cast down every vain imagination that would rise up against the knowledge of God”(2 Corinthians 10:5) in our lives, to include who He is and what He has enabled us to do.  In changing these thought processes, we have to say these things out loud so that we can hear it.  Those words will stop us in our tracks and help us to begin to make changes.

Then we must begin to line our actions up with the word of God, what we believe, and the life of Christ. We have to begin to observe our actions and ask, do my actions line up with who I am spiritually. If not, we must take the steps necessary to change them.

Let me tell you what some of this looks like, from my perspective…

I remember a specific point in my life where things were really hard. My relationships were in trouble, I could not get where it seemed that I needed to be in my career… and spiritually…I was drowning. I had decided that I was going to do all that I could to grow in every possible way. So I built myself a spiritual emergency kit.

Now in the natural, there are certain things that I keep with me all the time, especially when I leave home…my phone, my keys, and my wallet or purse.

Because I was trying to grow, I found that there were certain things that would help me spiritually and I could depend on them all of the time, so I kept them with me… my bible,my prayer journal, and my promise bible.

I could be found at any given time with these in my possession. If we went out to dinner and I got a little frustrated, which I did very often at this time in my life, I would pull out my promise bible and read the promises that pertained to stress.

I would have these items with me as I watched tv, visited friends, and went to the grocery store. I remember being asked why I brought my bible with me everywhere. What the person asking did not know was that I was on a mission and my biblical survival kit was my life line. If I felt that I couldn’t hear from God in a specific moment because of my emotions, I could see the words on the paper.

Over time, this action changed my thought process and my thought process changed me. I relied on God more than I ever had in my life and through viewing His word all day, especially when emotionally weak, He changed me.

My action was…surrender

Do you see an example of what it looks like? Now I have to admit that at every point in my spiritual growth, it looks differently. I no longer need to read my bible at dinner because I’m different. Now the word of God arises within me and I make choices based upon what I know to be right in God’s sight, but I still need His word. It is life changing.

The practical steps that we take in our lives to grow must be intentional, purposeful, and continual.

What steps are you taking to grow spiritually? Have you changed the things that you do over time because you find that some work better than others or are you stuck and need ideas?

I would love to hear from you.

Be You

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Over the years I have learned that it is in the moments when I least expect to have an impact on another person’s life that I actually do.

These are the moments when I’m not trying, struggling, or pushing for an impact.

I am just natural and being myself. Whether that is caring a lot, too much, or not caring at all…it doesn’t matter. Being myself in those moments seems to change everything.

It is because of this realization that I want to encourage you to be you.

God placed some really great things inside of you. He gave you the ingredients to impact someone’s life for His purpose.

By trying and striving, sometimes, we mess it all up. We have to just let go of being perfect and simply be out best by trusting God and living as the wonderful creations that He made us to be.

I know it may be hard to just trust yourself, but trust the Holy Spirit in you and know that if you allow God to do great things in you, you’ll impact the world around you.

So today, I encourage you to smile and be great! You never know, someone around you may need to see your smile.

Having An Attitude That Changes Things…Part 2

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This is the second part of my thoughts on Having an Attitude that Changes things.  I did the first part on the radio broadcast.  I also posted the text of the show.

Below you will find the remainder of what I wanted to say…

We have to be able to laugh.  My husband was telling me that I have to learn to laugh at myself.  He said that he has had to learn this skill.  When others crack jokes of point out mistakes, there can be a lesson and a joy that comes to my heart in the midst of it.  Why? Because the joy of the lord is my strength.  I realized that if I can’t laugh about something, I need to get to the root of the why so that I can fix it and find joy.  Of course there will be things that are just not funny, but everything can’t fall into that category.

We have to do this on purpose because this isn’t an easy road.  We have to take these steps, one positive foot at a time.

So that was my challenge today.  I had to continue to have joy and be positive in the midst of the unscheduled events today. I had to turn all of the many negatives into a positive.  We have to take time to adjust or attitude.

How can we check ourselves?

By having an accountability partner.  I have my best friend…

Often times, I’ll run a few things past her.  I’ll ask her about a situation, not telling her what I think just yet.  I’ll get her opinion on it.  She may say that she doesn’t see anything wrong with the situation.  She may also say that she sees a huge problem.  That’s when I tell her my thoughts on it.  We discuss it and this really helps me.

We don’t always have to have a person to discuss these things with.  God gave us the Holy Spirit.  Our conscious will give us warnings….

It’s very easy to be negative especially when our feelings are being hurt.  But we have to realize that we can turn around a situation or the day of someone else when we have a positive attitude.  We should ask others how they are doing with a smile and a encouraging attitude.  We are the light of Christ in the world.  Today God has given us the ability, because we have His Holy Spirit, to help others.  Let’s encourage other people. We never know what others are going through or what situations they are facing.  They may be having a really bad day or simply need a smiling face to encourage them.

You and I can take up this challenge and move forward.

 

 

Having An Attitude that Changes Things…Part 1

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Yesterday, I did a radio segment on this topic.  I discussed the difference between having  positive and a negative attitude.  I also discussed the impacts that each attitude has on our relationships and life situations.

If you would like to listen to that segment you can do so by visiting the Having An Attitude That Changes Things radio page.

If you heard the show and would like to read the remainder of my thoughts on the topic, you can jump ahead and read it here.

If you’d rather read the text of the show, you can do so below. This post includes Part 1 & Part 2 of the show

Have you ever felt yourself being challenged?

Now I don’t mean like “Hey I bet you can’t tap your head and rub your belly type of challenged.

What I mean is the type of Challenge that causes you to either step up or run away.  It shouts at you and says something like this…No! You can’t do that.  You wouldn’t even if you could.  You’re too afraid or you’re no strong enough.  It may even say, You know they say you should practice what you preach, but you can’t live up to that standard, It’s too high…

I know this challenge too well.  I hear the voice of Pestering Paul all of the time.  He really gets on my nerves.  Right when things are going really well, one or two unexpected things happen  and BOOM…there goes Pestering Paul in my ear.

Now I  know you may be thinking or even saying out loud…Makeda…where are you going with this? Let me explain.  This morning as I was working on a podcast, I got a call about a family emergency.  I had been planning on doing my show one way. But I had a feeling that things would be a bit different today, so I tried to prerecord my show so the I could upload it this morning instead of doing it live tonight.  After loading a few songs and putting it all together, I headed out the door.  I told myself that I would upload it once I got home because I had already done all the hard work.  I just needed to submit it, so that you all could hear it.

My day went well.  I’ll admit, my day went well.  Although there were a few hiccups with the family emergency, parking troubles, and rushed dinner for my family, it still went well.  Still, I came home looking forward to posting my show.  When I sat down to do it, the file would not load right.  I tried it from two different computers.  I listened to it on multiple devices in my home, but for some reason, I couldn’t get it to work on the computer.

Now, I’m new at this, so I’m going to get it to work, but I began to hear Pester Paul’s voice.  All of a sudden, I began to realize that I was being faced with the choice of being like Negative Nancy or Positive Patty. Who are these ladies? You ask…

Let me tell you about them.

Negative Nancy is a woman that encounters situations and always happens to find the worst in them.  Everything that happens to her, just happens to be the worst thing that ever happened.  She believes that everyone’s intentions are always negative toward her.  She can always point out the things that need some fixing.  She’s quick to say what’s been done wrong.  Negative Nancy has a demeanor that shows she isn’t in the mood for anything because something is bound to happen.  And it does.  Negative things happen to Negative Nancy all of the time.  Not only that but when someone meets her, she seems to drain all of their energy from them.  She negative makes them want to flee from her presence.  People can only stand to be around her for a short period of time.  .

Then there is Positive Patty.  She’s friends with Negative Nancy.  How is this possible? You ask…Well, Positive Patty is able to see that Negative Nancy has an eye, ear, and a mind for detail.  She realizes that Negative Nancy is so detail oriented that she never gives herself to see the bigger picture.  This isn’t something that Positive Patty only does with Negative Nancy.  No, she does this with everything and everyone that she comes in contact with.  She is always able to find the positive in a situation. And she believes that people are good and have goodness in them.   No matter what happens, Positive Patty can find some good in it.  She has even said that there is some to be taken away from failures.  Failures become great successes when they teach us what not to do and how to do better next time. Failures Teach us about our strengths and weaknesses.  They also help us learn and set limits.

These are the type of things that Positive Patty, thinks, believes, and says.  Her positive outlook seems to bring great things and people to her.  Not only do great things happen to Positive Patty, but she also does great things for others.  Positive Patty’s life seems great just like her attitude.  This woman makes people want to be around her with an attitude like this. We enjoy being around her, laughing and just being in her presence. She makes me want to be around her.

I think you’d agree that the more positive a person is, the more we all want to be around them

It’s not that they ignore the daily situations that come up in life, they just have a specific way of looking at these things that many of us don’t.

The good thing is that we can decide who we want to be.  Do I want to be a Negative Nancy?   The woman that now one wants to be around who cannot find a way to encourage anyone.  Or do I want to be a Positive Patty.  The woman that can encourage people all the time.  Do I want to make people healthy with a joyous heart.  Or do I want to crush their bones with my negativity.

Who knew that words and thought were so positive…God

I’m not sure if you realize it or not, but Negative Nancy and Positive Patty can both be mothers.  They have a very strong impact on their children.  They are the difference between a child going to school early in the morning and seeming everything through a broken glass.  They aren’t able to find any good in the world or encourage themselves, let alone be a light in the dark world and inspire other children.  This child is frustrated all day.  Or a child that goes to school and encourages other people.  When bad things happen, they are able to find the good in it.  This child also prays that great things happen in the lives of others and form him or herself.  I don’t know about you, but that’s how I want my children to be.  I want them to walk out of the house and face the world with a positive and encouraging attitude.

W can help friends in the difficult areas of their  life.  Give people a reason to want to even try.

How do you do that.  You do it by first seeing it yourself.  You do that by making sure that you take the opportunity to look at life in the right way.  There is a scripture in the bible.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:8

What is this scripture telling us.  It’s saying that there is a specific way of looking a life and there are things that we should be focusing on.  We should be focusing on the lovely and good things.  The beautiful things should get our attention.  Being positive will also bring us joy and keep us healthy. That is why the bible says that joy is like medicine. Being positive is healthy. Haven’t you heard that laughter is like medicine to the soul.  This isn’t just a saying.  They university of Maryland has found this to be true.  People who laugh often, live longer than those that don’t laugh very often or find joy in their lives.   I don’t know about you but I want to see my grand kids grow up.

We have to be able to laugh.  My husband was telling me that I have to learn to laugh at myself.  He said that he has had to learn this skill.  When others crack jokes of point out mistakes, there can be a lesson and a joy that comes to my heart in the midst of it.  Why? Because the joy of the lord is my strength.  I realized that if I can’t laugh about something, I need to get to the root of the why so that I can fix it and find joy.  Of course there will be things that are just not funny, but everything can’t fall into that category.

We have to do this on purpose because this isn’t an easy road.  We have to take these steps, one positive foot at a time.

So that was my challenge today.  I had to continue to have joy and be positive in the midst of the unscheduled events today. I had to turn all of the many negatives into a positive.  We have to take time to adjust or attitude.

How can we check ourselves?

By having an accountability partner.  I have my best friend…

Often times, I’ll run a few things past her.  I’ll ask her about a situation, not telling her what I think just yet.  I’ll get her opinion on it.  She may say that she doesn’t see anything wrong with the situation.  She may also say that she sees a huge problem.  That’s when I tell her my thoughts on it.  We discuss it and this really helps me.

We don’t always have to have a person to discuss these things with.  God gave us the Holy Spirit.  Our conscious will give us warnings….

It’s very easy to be negative especially when our feelings are being hurt.  But we have to realize that we can turn around a situation or the day of someone else when we have a positive attitude.  We should ask others how they are doing with a smile and a encouraging attitude.  We are the light of Christ in the world.  Today God has given us the ability, because we have His Holy Spirit, to help others.  Let’s encourage other people. We never know what others are going through or what situations they are facing.  They may be having a really bad day or simply need a smiling face to encourage them.

You and I can take up this challenge and move forward.