Random Reflections
Random Reflections
#4writestuff
That which is important is not often expedient, Nor is that which is expedient always important.
Some pray for the weak,
others prey on the weak.
Regret can be a moment or it can be the foundation for our life. I am choosing to leave it in the past and treasure today.
Hateful words reveal more about the heart of the speaker than they do about the topic.Kind words reveal a heart of love with hopes of relationship…
Have you ever noticed that those who accuse others of being closed minded, are rarely open minded enough to listen to the other perspective – at the top of their voice?
When you form a response without listening to the question, you are filtering content by what you want to hear. Often we do not listen to what is heard and misunderstandings occur. Background conversation/noise is not hearing…
Relationship is built by Active listening/Active hearing.Failure has two options: wear the brand and live in it, or write it off as an educational expense and try something else.
Waiting can be one of the hardest things… It’s so hard to resist pushing on to get something, even when it’s not the ideal. When we settle, we often settle for less than God’s blessing… we settle for man’s possibilities instead of God’s…
wait on the Lord… wait on the Lord… not easy sometimes
How long does a lie live? As long as you choose to believe it.
The truth will set you free…
Dysfunction does not have ability to comprehend truth… the crazy cycle spins so tightly, there is nothing outside that little vortex that is allowed in until God places His hand on the wheel to stop the spin… do not engage, do not dive into a spinning vortex.
God does not promise that everything we touch will turn to gold. Some things we touch will be golden, others will be learning experiences – frequently from the school of hard knocks… what God DOES promise is that He will never leave us nor forsake us… through the golden moments and through the educational experiences, He is our rock.
If facebook is the face you show the world, what are you giving them? A smile? A critical spirit? Encouragement? Complaints? Drama?
If facebook is our only venue for life and focuses on negativity and drama, it might be time to expand our horizons. Just my opinion…
Focus on problems and what we don’t have feeds negativity. Focus on finding solutions and positive outcomes feeds a can do spirit and an attitude of gratitude.
So often
glutony creates feelings of lethargy
fullness creates feelings of complacency
hunger creates feelings of desire
and starvation creates feelings of desperation
Unforgiveness = imprisonment: giving your power and happiness to someone else in order to hang on to a perceived or real debt/wrong.
I was told recently that my mind doesn’t work the way most people’s minds work. My mind never quits… day/night… and I love to explore, which means it doesn’t always travel in a straight line and can be hard for people to follow.
Sometimes the most terrifying thing my family faces is me in the morning after a cup of coffee, sifting through all the thoughts that ran through my head during the night.
It can be exhausting having a mind that never shuts down… but when I consider those souls who never turn their’s on, I’m ok with a little overwork.
Have you ever noticed that those who accuse others of being closed minded, are rarely open minded enough to listen to the other perspective?
Often the same people who are clueless why you even care and were hurt over something are the same ones who are hurt if you don’t care.
One of the most marvelous wonders is to see someone blossom and achieve their potential under the encouragement and love of family and friends.
One of the most heartbreaking things is to see someone withdraw, become bitter, and doubt their potential under the lash of critical words and spirits of those they trusted with their heart.
If you learn and try something different, eventually you will find that niche that you can call success…
It really shouldn’t matter who gets the credit when credit is due… other than it’s really nice to feel appreciated, and when someone who didn’t invest themself in the event/activity (or ?) takes the credit, it leaves you feeling unappreciated
Life seems to come in waves…
Sometimes it is smooth sailing, you ride the crest of the wave; other times, not so much. The waves come fast and hard, crash around you and against the rocks til you can hardly breathe. There are times when you are doing well just to keep your head above water until the storm passes. This too WILL pass… and there are amazing rainbows at the far side of the storm
Philosophizing about being a philosopher…
Forgiveness does not excuse or justify the actions of other individuals, nor does it set them free from the consequences of those actions.
Forgiveness sets free the forgiver, free from bitterness, anger, and innumerable physical effects of harboring unforgiveness.
For a gift to truly be a gift, it should be appreciated and not demanded…
the time, method, and gift are the choice of the giver and appreciation is the choice of the receiver.
Sometimes the hardest place is that place of “waiting…” The not knowing can be rough: if it’s good news, you can move on; if it’s bad news, you can grieve it and leave it; but that place in the middle can be so hard!
Unforgiveness = imprisonment: giving your power and happiness to someone else in order to hang on to a perceived or real debt/wrong.
You cannot build a relationship exclusively on words. Words without action have no substance. It is the action behind our words that provide the substance: true or false for our words.
Someone who is willing to learn a new thing can be so much more valuable than an who is stuck in their own way of doing things.
If a drowning man grabs hold of you, he will weigh you down until you both drown. It is only when he surrenders that you can help him float and you can both live. Surrender is the key: either you must surrender to the reality that attempting to save him will drown you both, or he must quit fighting you and surrender to his need for help, but One of you must surrender.
Chatting with a cousin today and remembering good times growing up… what I notice is that the best times weren’t the “perfect” times, but the times we made do with what we had.
In light of the recent shootings, additional gun control because of one emotionally ill person, seems a lot like making it illegal for everyone to speak because one person is verbally abusive.
A gun in the hands of an unstable individual can be deadly,
A gun in the hands of a responsible individual can be both a deterrent and a tool.
Does it seem reasonable to treat everyone as irresponsible, or criminal? Again, we want to treat the symptoms, not the issue.
Many people talk about their dreams, others live them. How sad it is when events and time to steal our dreams… how precious, when those dreams are resurrected and become our new chapter in life.
Allowing bitterness to take root in our life, is like allowing an invasive weed to overgrow a beautiful garden.
Peace is not necessarily the absence of conflict, but can look like focus while navigating through the conflict…
When we have more than we can reasonably handle,
it is time to start pruning
rather than planting more…
Some things in life just don’t make sense and trying to make sense of or with the nonsensical is an exercise in futility. Let it go…
I love the example of kayaking through a rough spot: focus, and keep paddling. If you lose focus or cease paddling, you will go sideways, and that is all bad when navigating those hard places.
Some days you work without thinking,
some days you think about working,
some days you work at thinking,
some days you just think you’re working.
So often, checking the facts completely changes the picture…
There comes a point in life when you come to terms with the things that aren’t, and rejoice over the things that are.
Complaining bitterly is most effective once you do a complete reverse: trade bitterly for positive and complaining for action.
I was told recently that my mind doesn’t work the way most people’s minds work. My mind never quits… day/night… and I love to explore, which means it doesn’t always travel in a straight line and can be hard for people to follow. Sometimes the most terrifying thing my family faces is me in the morning after a cup of coffee, sifting through all the thoughts that ran through my head during the night. It can be exhausting having a mind that never shuts down… but when I consider those souls who never turn their’s on, I’m ok with a little overwork.
It can be exhausting having a mind that never shuts down… but when I consider those souls who never turn their’s on, I’m ok with a little overwork.
Meditating on 1 Corinthians 9 as i check my fitbit: while i want to count steps, ultimately i want to make my steps count.
Those who have read past posts know that i often find spiritual relevance in physical life. This is no exception.
I thought about a race… i love to observe people and, observe other runners. My first run, Tiffany advised me to “run faster than the people in jeans…” competitiveness is rampant in our family – good advice. it is fun to observe the variety of people out for the run.
There are those focused, hardcore runners who are aware of other runners only to the extent they avoid them. They focus on their steps, their time, their breathing, their own space.
There are those who ridicule the other runners, intentionally trip, push and shove as if that reflects favorably on their own run. They run up the backs of other runners in hopes of vaulting to the front… watch out! I’m the only one that counts!
There are those who run with heart – they have fun. They observe and honor the challenges of other runners while cheering their efforts. In fact there are those who will lend a hand to a fallen co-runner at the cost of their own finish time. I observed teen boys who finished their 10k, then ran back to accompany an 80 year old man on his 10k.
What about running like a child? They giggle and laugh and run with joy smile emoticonsuch a treat! Time and place are irrelevant, they relish the joy of the moment…
There are those who makes excuses for their loss before the race even begins… poor me, life is sooo unfair! Or they beat themselves over past failures, which often makes steps and hearts too heavy to run a good race.
As i contemplate styles, i work to improve my own run. This begs the question, “who/what am i running for?” A trophy? Applause and adoration of others? Or the satisfaction that i ran well and ultimately crossed the finish line – regardless of the place at the finish? Running looking back slows the pace and can ultimately lend to a fall… how will i run the race, the steps before me? Will my steps count? Towards what?
NOW is always a great time to evaluate technique…
Have you ever noticed that those who accuse others of being closed minded, are rarely open minded enough to listen to the other perspective?
History isn’t always written by those with the best memories, by those who have experienced it, or even by those with the most exhaustive research… sometimes it is re-written for political expedience.
An event is not always defining; a consistent pattern of events is.
Some days you work without thinking,
some days you think about working,
some days you work at thinking,
some days you just think you’re working.
When you consistently run in last place, it’s easy to adopt the goal of just trying to finish/survive the race.
I was trying to create a logo…an elephant never forgets, A mushroom never knew to begin with.There is a time and a place for both.
Trying to lose weight without exercise is like trying to swim in a strait jacket. Exercise is what keeps the diet from sinking
The heart of a nation beats to the cadence of it’s warriors.
Even knowing, knowing, knowing that a promise or hope will not be fulfilled, does not negate the sorrow when it actually comes to pass. Pre-grieving rarely works, because as long as there is a tiny sand of promise, we cannot toss it to the wind.
Each promise or hope unfilled is a crushing blow, and fragments of our misplaced hope wash away. In the end, when all those pieces are crushed, washed and sanded away, we will be left with the core of our soul – a more pure, radiant version… like a diamond, formed by pressure, these trials refine us to where what is left, that which we are holding on to is a pure hope and a pure heart – the Hope of Heaven that does not fail.
I laugh every time I see the bumper sticker “I’m spending my children’s inheritance”…
the difference between my resources and your inheritance is that, last I checked, I was not dead.
We declare what we love by where we invest our most precious resource, our time.
Stepping out on faith sometimes means you step forward without seeing the next step… I recently compared that to our skydiving experience: the first few seconds blow your mind, until your mind catches up with the fact that you just took at 10,000′ step. At that point you either freak out or enjoy the journey.
An event is not always defining; a consistent pattern of events is.
When what man teaches, conflict with where God is leading you, follow God.
There are times that you pray like crazy for the right answers, but the answers just aren’t ripe for picking yet.