They say the thing that bothers you the most in others is the thing you struggle with but don’t see in yourself.
My family have said some things that have made me aware of being critical. I never thought of it that way. I always thought i was picky or just wanted better of myself and those around me. Isn’t that where criticism starts? We judge something, anything and find it lacking.
I’m insecure enough. No wonder the idea that another is looking that closely at me or anything and everything sets me off. I KNOW that i am lacking. I really don’t want it pointed out to me UNLESS it comes with ideas on how to improve. No one wants the problems in themself pointed out. We know better than anyone our flaws. I, personally, welcome solutions.
Do you have people in your life that have been there for years. Decades. No matter what, its all about them except when its a crisis and then, most of the time, they’re there for you in that moment. But in their day to day lives you wonder if you even enter their thoughts.
How long do we wait? Are we waiting or “tolerating” their behavior while we wait for the change? Why are we waiting? How much time do they truly need? How long do we “coddle”?
Jesus said, ” Today is the day of salvation.” Today. Not tomorrow or next week or decades from now. We have no promise of tomorrow.
When he called the disciples he said, “follow me”. He didn’t give them time to think about it. Decide. Now or he walked away.
So we’re back to those we “tolerate”. They’re lazy, slothful and self-centered. They always put you at the end of the choices; job, family, others, cats. God is not even on the list. Excuses. Maybes. Never commitment.
How much more time and energy are we going to waste. Purge! Drop the baggage of all those you are dragging (yes, dragging!) along. They obviously don’t care for you. They’re not seeking God. The haven’t changed. They don’t want to change. Face the facts!
No where did Jesus tell us to carry those not willing to walk. He told them, “pick up your cross and follow me.” There is an example of for carrying someone else cross but HE didn’t ask us to it, but we do need to be willing to carry someone else’ cross. But is that cross their sins? Their indifference? Their resistance to change? Jesus nailed our sins to the cross. The cross itself is not our sins. It is an alter.
Mary and Martha were sisters and, as all sisters are, with very different temperaments. While Martha was all busy in the background doing this and that, Mary appears to be doing nothing. Yet, Jesus said she had chosen the better part. The implication? It is better to sit at the feet of Jesus than to be bustling around, worried about all the little details. Or is that what he’s saying?
While he never told her specifically to sit down, wasn’t God always telling us in scripture to, “Be still and know that i am God”? I say there is a time to sit still and a time to be bustling about. We need both temperaments.
I personally am of the “sit and do nothing” temperament. I read, study, mull it all over, research and put it all together. In that process there are times i do all the background busy work. I need to find something mindless to do with my hands, everyday tasks, loading the dishwasher, backing bread, vacuuming. But i would much rather someone else do all that. I want to walk, wear out my body and force myself deeper into my head. I need to breath and hear the sounds all around of God talking to me as i put all the parts together.
I need Martha. I will gladly sit and discuss all that is rambling in my head and by helping you to understand what i have discovered it helps me clarify it even further. Many times while talking to another things come out of my mouth that are so profound to me that i am amazed because i didn’t even know that i knew that information and i know it is God speaking through me.
We need each other in whatever capacity we are able to walk, with whatever temperament we have, with all our different skills and communication levels. God is the creator of all the diversity that exists among us. We are each part of the body that has a function; a purpose. We many be sisters but we are ONE body in Christ.
The biggest part of communication is the words we use. Problem is, words come from everywhere. We think ahead of the “someday” conversation and edit it every time we hear, read or think something new with all those lovely new words. I’m learning the most important part to any conversation is the commitment to those words.
If you’re afraid to talk because you think you’ll say something wrong at least write it down somewhere. You can go back and read it over again and again and edit but it would be saved. One day, even if you never speak those words, you will find that a story has unfolded; blossoming into something beautiful.
Welcome to my life! I am taking the first steps in my blogging journey. Since the scariest step is the first one, i would say … I am on my way!
As an artist i would say im not very good with conversation and that is really what blogging or writing of any sort is all about. Communication.
I have some personal quirks that make my writing even more of a challenge. I have dyslexia. I don’t spell well or use “creative spelling,” hate contractions, punctuations and I have recently been diagnose as Adult ADHD and on the Autism spectrum. (This stuff wasn’t in our medical purview when i was growing up.) I go slowly and at a very irregular pace and I’m easily distracted. Did i miss anything? if i did it will become apparent immediately (spell check is helping already! All those little red squiggly lines!! so distracting.)
In the USA specifically, we are pulled and pushed apart. We have been taught through all the “lessons” of our lives that we can not rely on anyone but our selves. The great disconnect. Look out for self, imagining all types of wrongs against each other, moving to the edge of a sidewalk to walk past the homeless or drug addicts and the “weird”, looking the other way when someone is abuse or neglected. let others starve while we horde.
Enough. We have been lied to.
What have we become?
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things i can not change, To change the things i can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
The world and your own mind are full of reasons why you can not. Digging down to the foundation of your heart of hearts you must build on the bedrock of what you can. Above all else be true to yourself. Stand on your convictions. For the winds will surely blow and what is not built on a strong foundation will fall.
Obstacles are not in the way to stop you, but to find out just how determined you are to go on. People are only know by their failures IF they quit. People don’t remember the failures of great people.
“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”
Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we might win, by fearing to attempt.
Shakespeare
We are all broken and if we’re not already, somewhere in the future we will be. There is so MUCH beauty and potential within each of us. Our brokenness is how it shines forth into the world.
Stop fearing the unknown and the pressures of this life. God, himself, has placed us in the fires to try us. Refine us. Yes, to break us so that the fears and weaknesses can leave us and that tiny grain of faith can grow. Yield to His hands that he may shape us.
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith — the salvation of your souls.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, collaboration means; “the situation of two or more peopleworking together to create or achieve the same thing“.
“For where two or three are gather together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matt 18:20
One person, alone can do amazing thing, even the scriptures say, “…One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the Lord your God, he it is that fights for you, as he hath promised you” Joshua 23: 10
BUT if we unit, and work together, we can do MORE than we ever dreamed to accomplish alone.
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him that is alone when he falls; fir he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat; bit how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord in not quickly broken.” Ecc 4:9-12
The Making of a Community 