Forgiving Yourself . . .

Do you forgive yourself or do you keep beating yourself up about things you have done in the past? The past could be yesterday!

Whenever that past was for you, do you keep bringing it forward in your mind? They say women think like a bowl of spaghetti. Picture a bowl of noodles. All the noodles are twisted up entwined in each other and touching each other. That is why when a woman thinks about something her mind jumps from subject to subject, because each thought is intertwined with another thought.

If I am upset with one of my children my mind will bring me back to that thought in everything I do that day. I may be a little touchier at work or take it out on the other kids or my husband, or maybe the poor cashier at the grocery store. Either way, we just have a difficult time not showing our emotions in everything we do, it’s all connected.

Confusing - yes. God made us that way for a reason.

While this is good for women in some ways, it can also hinder us. Because we are wired that way we tend not to let go of things. Especially things that are emotional.

I have a few things in my life that I am not very proud of the way I handled the situation or the decision I made. I’ve prayed about them. Tried to make them right if that is what is needed. Made the appropriate apologizes, but never really let it go.

 Did you know that when we ask God for forgiveness, a heartfelt faithful forgiveness, it is done? He forgives us, just like that. 

Two weeks later during prayer time with God we bring it up again. He is like “what are you talking about, I didn’t see you do that”. 

Of course our God doesn’t talk like that but you get the idea. Once you ask God for forgiveness it is done, don’t bring it up again. 

Of course it is going to cross you mind, us humans can’t forget, except where put our keys. When it comes to the big stuff, we tend to hang onto it forever. We bring it up and mull it over again and again. What a waste of precious time.

We could be moving forward, doing something useful instead of thinking in the past.

Remember David and Bathsheba. David sinned with a married woman, got Bathsheba pregnant and had Uriah, her husband killed. After the baby was born it became ill. David asked God to spare the child. He lies on the ground for seven days and would not get up or eat. I imagine he was praying for his child to live. When the child died, David got up, washed himself clean, put on clean clothes and then went and worshiped God. Then he went home and ate.

 

It was done. He had sinned; God punished him by allowing the child to die. However we don’t see David wallowing in self-pity. He took the repercussions of his sin then moved on.

Sometimes we have visual repercussions such as David did; a child was born from his lust. There are times no one can see our sin except God. It doesn’t matter, sin is sin, and there is no big sin or little sin in God’s eyes. 

Once God has forgiven us, we must forgive ourselves. Our Heavenly Father wants us to have a good life, be content, spread His word and live faithfully. We can’t do this if we are wallowing in self quilt.

Today if you have guilt that drags you down, go to God in prayer and request forgiveness, then get up and live the life the good Lord gave you.

Praise Him and pass it on.

Don't Block the Blessings

Are you a giver? Do you love to do things for others? 

• Make some cookies and take them to someone, just because. 
• Send a beautiful card to a friend just to make their day. 
• Give that person you know is struggling with an issue a phone call so they know they are not alone. 
• Visiting one of the elderly that you know spends a lot of time alone. 

The list can go on and on but these are some of the things a giver does. They try to meet others needs before they are known.

One characteristic about these givers, they normally don’t like to have the same thing done to them. When someone offers to do something for them, the response is normally something like “oh no I’m fine, thanks”. I’m sure there are all these physiological issues why they are like that, but I’m not a physiologist so I don’t know the answers. 

I tend to be a giver and my reason is simple. I like to make people happy. I enjoy doing something nice for someone and God tells me to give. There is nothing hard or confusing about that reasoning.

Acts 20:35
35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Giving in a right spirit is an example of our love for Christ. We are to be Christ-like, that is what being a Christian means. When you give to someone you are showing your soul and belief system. 

So if you are a giver, be of good cheer, you are doing God’s work. But here is the catch. It you are not allowing yourself to be a receiver, then, uh-oh, you might be “blocking the blessings”.

We need to learn to how to accept good deeds from others also. Because guess what, they are trying to do God’s work also. If you say no to them, then you are “blocking the blessings” that God is trying to send your way. The person that is trying to help you, or be kind to you is doing their job.

So this week, if someone does something for you, just say “Thanks, that made my day” and keep moving.

Seek!

We are almost through the first month of this New Year. Have you recouped from the holidays yet? Wow, I know I am just now getting back into the swing of things and starting to think ahead toward the next 12 months.

Today I want to talk to you about how you seek things out in your life. What does “seek” really mean?

Seek – to aim at, to strive after, to crave.

Well let me tell you the first week after the holidays I had a dull aching headache every day. I couldn’t figure out what it was or what might be causing it. Finally one evening about 9 o’clock I had a craving for some cookies, Christmas cookies to be exact. I had become accustomed to just nibbling all throughout the holidays. Cookies, cakes, just a small piece of pie here and there, you know how it goes. Well all the goodies where gone and I hadn’t eaten any sweets for about a week. Then it dawned on me – I was going through sugar withdrawals all week that was where my dull aching headache was coming from. At that moment I was seeking sugar…craving it. The light bulb went off in my head; this is what seeking is all about.

A real desire for something. You want it now, you want it bad.

Contemplating my new found light bulb moment it brought me to my everyday life and the things I seek after. What do I seek after and how much time do I spend on certain aspects of my life. 

God – Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Philippians 4:13

Yes, I seek after God’s kingdom. I study my bible, I go to Bible classes, and I go to services. Is God in my life every day, yes I do a pretty good job of that but of course there is always room for improvement? So I will seek God out more often on my own with quite and study time and more prayer time.

Health – This one needs a lot of work. Not just the typical losing weight, but really being healthy. I need to be healthy for me so I can accomplish the other goals I want to work on. Making some small goals that I can do every day that will help me feel better physically and emotionally will lead me to the goal of being a better me.

Family – My family is very important to me. With the busy schedules that we all face these days I find that we have to work harder on setting times aside just to be with our loved ones. Work, school, extracurricular activities take up a lot of time and so we have to schedule around these events and make time for each other. 

Hobbies – Everyone should have a hobby they enjoy. Something they can do, something they can turn to and turn off the world. Something enjoyable. Mine is writing and sewing. I really enjoy doing both of those activities. So this year I am setting smaller weekly/daily goals to do those things. The rewards are wonderful. Writing an article that I get feedback on, sewing a cute little dress for one of my granddaughters. These things make me happy.


God put us on this earth, each with special talents. I encourage you to seek out your talent and use it. You may have to try several different things before you find the one that really brings you pleasure. Having a talent doesn’t mean you know how to do it right away. You may have to study about it, learn it, and then develop it.

Then you know what is really wonderful? Use that talent or hobby to do God’s work. Now we’re talking real fulfillment and pleasure.

What will you start seeking this year? Share it with me in the comments below.

May God bless.

Happy New Year Y'all

Yup, another year has gone by us. If you are reading this then you are blessed, you survived.

Our world is in turmoil, but it has been since the beginning of time. The Bible is filled with war stories and challenges that are similar to the ones we face today. However I don’t want to go down that negative road and discuss the obvious threats that face us day to day. It is a New Year, a new day and new opportunities are in front of us. So let’s move on to the good stuff.

New beginnings are so refreshing and invigorating aren’t they? 

• The new born baby that gives meaning to life.
• Blank pages of an unwritten book.
• A change in eating habits that will bring us to a healthier life.
• Starting a new hobby that we have been putting off.
• Finally landing the job that will start us off in a new career. 

All new and exciting times in a person’s life; fresh and unblemished.

I haven’t written all my goals yet for this year and I’m OK with that. I have a list of items that I am working on and tweaking so that they are reasonable and obtainable.

Books tell us to take baby steps when setting goals, small goals that are reasonable and reachable so that we reach the main goal at the end.

Last year I didn’t fully complete any of my goals. But that’s OK because I did better than I would have if I hadn’t set any goals. That within itself is an improvement.





Improvement is the one thing that I believe we should be looking at in our lives. Are you better today than you were yesterday, last week, last month or last year? If you can answer yes to that, guess what, you are a success. You may not have succeeded in every area you wanted to, but you did succeed in some.

So today I want you to give yourself a pat on the back. I mean literally reach that arm over and give yourself the one-two good job pat on the back. Tell yourself you did a good job and keep up the good work.

Isn’t that what you would like your boss to do once in a while? Well, you are your own boss - the boss of your life. So be kind to yourself at the beginning of this fresh New Year.