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Showing posts from January, 2015

How To Not Feel Like a Failure

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It is easy to fail. We all have heard that in order to succeed a person must learn how to fail. We all hope we can learn to fail forward, instead of digging a hole and falling into it. Parenting, like all challenges in life, can feel like we are on slippery ground. Failing and feeling like a failure are to different things. As a mother, I can reflect back to different times in my parenting life that I failed to be the mother I wanted to be. For example, I said or did something that would have been better to not have been done. None of us can rewind time. What we can do is repent, that is asking God and others for forgiveness, but also forgiving ourselves. And in repentance, we follow through with a change in our behavior, continually turning from our sinful ways toward the way God wants us to live. Also as a mother, it is easy to look at our children and assume if they are doing well in life, we succeeded; however, if they are not, we have failed. Neither conclusion is a

Who Is Using Who? Hypocrite or Honor?

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Relationships are challenging. We cannot see into someone else's brain so we do not know the motives of another person. Though we are pretty quick to guess or assume, if people do not genuinely (truthfully) communicate, we have no real way to know them as a person or to understand their motives. In communicating to someone guarded, it is easy to hurt them by assuming we know why they did or did not do something. For example, if someone does not call or answer to messages sent, is it because they are upset, do not want to talk or maybe they have messed up so many times in the relationship they simply do not want to mess up again. In reality, no one knows but the person himself. We can all come up with different assumptions. Unfortunately, when a person does not share, they leave themselves open to many assumptions. It is natural for humans to fill in blanks. It is the way our mind is programmed to work. Look at this: U_d-rstan_i_g   w_at   _s  writ__n  c_n  b_  fi_l_d   _n

Name This Year - 2015!

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Every year God normally gives me a theme: one word that sums up what I am going to be learning, experiencing, etc. Last year it was Hope. I didn't share it big time because frankly Pres. Obama had made such a mess of the slogan "Hope and Change" I really didn't want to be part of his slogan. But silly me, God gave us hope that was real long before a liar gave America a hollow promise that sounded good for political purposes. Worldly hope is wishing an uncertain comes true; it totters on a sandy foundation with blind, groundless conjectures. But godly hope is based on a Living God; it enlivens and comforts those who are well grounded in the certain hope of salvation and lived through a life of obedience in the soul of the believer. We have a certainty of fulfillment and can have a ever- deepening daily fellowship with God now! 1Peter 1:3-5 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to

Who or What Sets You Worth

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Who or what do you let set your worth, your value in life? Worth Factors Present your life before a large group of people and give them the ability to set your worth. Each will set it according to their own values, the way they live and determine their own value. Is it how much money you make? How much you own? What car you have, the kind of house you live in, or the clothes you wear? Maybe even, what you collect? Is it the family you come from? They wealth you were raised with? The expendable cash at your fingertips? The schools you attended or attend? Your lifestyle level? Is it the degrees you have? The kind of degrees? The job you hold? The titles you can claim? Your knowledge? Your ability to speak on a topic authoritatively? Is it the work you do? The legacy of accomplishments you can point to? The amount you produce? The lasting value of your work? Is it the people who you consider your friends? The places you hang out? The kind of people who you are connected