Think on this...

We started this month challenging ourselves by living up to the name of this month - yes...be august all your life. We built on this and also touched on different other matters.

I finally found and have been reading a book Beryl recommended last year. As this month wraps up, I'd like to seize the opportunity to encourage us to cease from wishing we were someone or somewhere else. Just be august each and every month- where you are...

On page 43 of his engaging book: “If you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat”, John Orteberg says, "At the end of the day, God will not ask you why you didn’t lead someone else’s life or invest someone else’s gifts. He will not ask, What did you do with what you didn’t have?

Though, He will ask, What did you do with what you had?

Comparison is not an adequate excuse for the tragedy of an unopened gift."

Don't be a tragedy - open that gift and be august!

Teachable moments

I touched on this in passing in a prior posting - where I said I watch TV with my children - actually, I watch cartoons with them - like The Flintstones, Tom & Jerry, Jetsons...cartoons I watched as a child.

It's really interesting watching your children watching television - I almost feel it is a divine assignment - you may not agree with me and really, that's fine by me. Well, let's go on...

Think on these...

Source: http://www.great-inspirational-quotes.com/parenting-quotes.html

Be straight...

It has been said that "a straight line is the shortest distance between 2 points". This is also true in spiritual matters. If you want to get from where you are to where you desire to be the shortest way is by being straight. If you truly want to be straight, you have to be:

• "candid: making no attempt to deceive or to soften the truth;
• honest: honest, fair, and upright;
• consistent: not straying from agreed or published principles or policies"*
  

Think on this...

Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.*      

When I saw this my first thought was:  "Why would anyone say such a thing?" On 2nd thoughts, it could be true...
A lighthouse is: "a strategically placed coastal building, often a tall round tower, with a powerful flashing light, designed to guide sailors or warn them of dangers such as rocks"**.

When you look at it that way, I'd like to put it differently and say "all churches must be lighthouses to be relevant in any age". Indeed, every church must be a powerful light guiding and warning people from danger (i.e. death) to safety (i.e. salvation). Now seeing that the church is made up of people not pews, may I ask: "Are you a lighthouse?"

Source:
*Benjamin Franklin
**http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?lextype=3&search=lighthouse

Think on this...

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.

~ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross*

 
I like this quote and find it to be so true especially as I recently found out that this lady made some significant contributions in the study of death; in fact she was a pioneer in near death studies - yes, I also reject untimely death in Jesus name. However, it is a fact of life - we will all leave this earth one day - by death or rapture. She even put life in perspective in relation to death:
 
“It is the denial of death that is partially responsible for [people] living empty, purposeless lives; for when you live as if you’ll live forever, it becomes too easy to postpone the things that you know that you must do. In contrast, when you fully understand that each day you awaken could be the last you have, you take the time that day to grow, to become more of whom you really are, to reach out to other human beings.”
 
So purpose to live fully and leave empty...have a great life ahead...remain a bright light.
 
 
 
Source:
*http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elisabeth_Kubler-Ross

Living light, giving light

My department was scheduled to move to a different office space when a number of people were going to be on vacation. So while everyone was still around, we went to see the new location - one of the first things we all noticed, was that our new office space was not as bright as our previous one.

It was then funny to realise that the office also had motion-detector lights - i.e. when there was no activity in a place, the lights automatically go off; one way of supporting the energy conservation you'd say - not that I disagree. However, needless to say it is rather annoying.

Well, you cannot begin to imagine how annoying it is until you're the only one in the office.

What's your dream?

Dream? Yes keep on dreaming....then wake up and do something about those dreams. If you keep "sleeping", you can be assured that those dreams will not come to pass through you.

I can imagine that some of us have what we'd refer to as "over sized" dreams and we cannot help but wonder like Mary did and ask: "But how can this happen?..."* Note that even in her uncertainity, Mary still had some level of expectation by using the phrase "how can". If this happened to some of us, our response may have been a sacarstic "Really? Can this happen? Tell me about it" - I can actually hear myself responding that way; actually, sometimes I respond to things that way - God is working on me.

Think on this...

There is no tragedy so great as the tragedy of of an unopened gift.*

For as long as you do not know or do what God has called you to, you are an unopened gift.

*John Ortberg: "If you want to walk on water, you've got to get out of the boat", page 32.

You are the gift...

While listening to a handsome young man, Nick Vujicic* (pictured here) recently, the Holy Spirit reminded me of this lovely scripture:

A man's gift makes room for him and brings him before great men.**

and then He (the Holy Spirit of course) shed more light on it for me.

A gift is something you have and/or something you have received - that's the simplest way to explain it - not that you won't understand a more complex definition but let's keep it simple 'cos we're going somewhere...

Think on this...

Someone made an interesting remark that kept me thinking for most of the day, he said:

"Too many people turn decisions into discussions."

Isn't that so true? Rather than decide and do, some of us start discussions and don't do anything. Thinking about it, I'm sure I've done that more than once in my life - and you?

May God give us the wisdom know the difference between decision and discussion points.

Amen.

Think on this...

“To wish you were someone else is to waste the person you are.” (Author unknown)

Do you realize that for as long as you wish you are someone else, you are:
not progressing towards the purpose that God ordained that only you can fulfill,

you will never be that person - the best you'll achive is second-best, and

 wasting your time and time wasted is life wasted.

Save your time and your life; live your life to the fullest and glorify God.

Who are you?

I happened to read the following poem when our women's group went volunteering last quarter. It made an impression on me so I decided to share it.

My Declaration of Self-Esteem

by Virginia Satir

I AM ME

In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me.

 Everything that comes out of me is authentically me because I alone chose it.

I own everything about me: my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice,

all my actions, whether they be to others or to myself.

I own my fanatasies,my dreams, my hopes, my fears.

I own all my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes.

 Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me.

By so doing I can love me and be friendly with me in all my parts.

 I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know.

But as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously

and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and for ways to find out more about me.

However I look and sound, whatever I say and do,

and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me.

If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought and felt turn out to be unfitting,

I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest,

and invent something new for that which I discarded.

I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do.

I have the tools to survive, to be close to others,

to be productive to make sense and order

out of the world of people and things outside of me.

I own me, and therefore I can engineer me.

I am me and

I AM OKAY

© Virginia Satir, 1975.

To summarise this poem, you must know and accept who you are and be willing to change if and when necessary.

I also like these quotes by Virginia Satir:

“Over the years I have developed a picture of what a human being living humanely is like. She is a person who understand, values and develops her body, finding it beautiful and useful; a person who is real and is willing to take risks, to be creative, to manifest competence, to change when the situation calls for it, and to find ways to accommodate to what is new and different, keeping that part of the old that is still useful and discarding what is not.”

“We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us”

The second one sounds like another way of putting Proverbs 29:25a won't you say. It's only what God says about you that matters - so who are you? I pray we all discover and accept who we are  - that's a stepping stone so we can rise and radiate to God's glory. God bless.

References:
http://www.kalimunro.com/declaration-of-self-esteem.html
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/virginia_satir/
http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/satir.html

Are you "paralyzed"?

Proverbs 29:25 has been and remained one of my favourite verses; committing it to memory has helped me in more ways than one. I'll tell you why...

Depending on the version of the Bible you read, it comes across differently. The first time it struck me, I read it in the Good News Bible*  - which is no longer a common version - possibly an indication of my age ;). Well, God always provides for His own - I recently found another version I really like:

Are you "august"?

No, I'm not asking to my calendar...I'm asking myself and you of course - by extension. As usual, I was curious to find out what "august" means; I know we like to use the word in sentences - well I do.

According to Encarta, august means:

"dignified and splendid: full of solemn splendor and dignity."

Isn't it so typical, to use big words to define unknown words? Well, so I dug deeper...