Great Thoughts from a Great Mind : )
Haven't written in here in a long, long time. Don't have a lot of time this morning, but I thought I'd give it a shot and scribble down a few thoughts....
First, I'm thankful to God for a lot of things lately. Friends, material things, my family. The usual stuff I guess, but I think I'm seeing the people and things around me through a more grateful perspective.
We worship God not just by singing songs to Him and telling Him with our voices how great He is. In the last couple two or three Psalms, they talk about everything on Earth praising God: the lightning, the mountains, deers, cattle, the rocks, etc. A big part of how we can praise and worship Him is by doing what He created us for. Cats bring praise to Him by being cute and cuddly, purring and bringing their masters little critters that they caught from outside. Dogs bring praise by licking their owners in the face and behaving as if they had they hadn't seen their master in weeks everyday when they come home from work. Trees bring praise by giving shade and branches for kids (or me) to climb on on a sunny Summer day. I guess even this computer can bring praise by allowing me to type this journal entry. By discovering and using my talents and passions, I will bring praise to Him. There are things in my heart that I want to do for Him and others. They will not be easily achieved, but I feel it in my soul that they are the things I can do to praise Him. From some small things like writing a relative whom I hardly know who just lost her husband, to someday creating some sort of orphanage or big brother/sister kind of organization for lost and hurting kids. These are the things on my heart - the ways God has given me to praise Him. In what ways has He put it in your heart to praise Him both today and 1, 5, or 20 years from today?
Discipline - seems that not much worthwhile is accomplished without it, and somewhere along my life's journey I lost it, if I ever had it. With the help of God and the efforts of my counselor, I'm trying to get this in my life again. I'm finding that discipline in even very small things is what sets me up for success in bigger things. Making myself go to bed at a decent hour, avoiding the computer when I know I'll probably only do bad things on it, calling that insurance adjuster about my car insurance claim (that I've procrastinated on for the last two months), doing things to become more professional in my career, reading in my Bible on a daily basis and breaking through that occasional feeling that it's impossible to see how it all relates to my daily life. Discipline in smaller things can lead to success and discipline in the bigger projects of life. Do you have discipline and if not, what are you doing and who are you becoming accountable to in order to get your life on track?
There is no escape from pain that goes along with growth. We can seek to dodge it, but eventually you just find yourself back at the same place. We are not allowed to skip the lessons we don't like and just do the fun ones. A good, healthy, productive life is built one brick at a time. Each one has its place, whether it be an easy one to put in place or a difficult one. And sometimes it seems that the foundation and the final finishing touches on a home can be the most difficult parts of building a good home. Right now, I feel like I'm redoing some of the foundation of my life and it is difficult, laborious work at times. But I'm trying to remember that the more solid my foundation is, the better that house will be that's built upon it. Are their painful areas that you are dodging right now, only to find yourself facing them again and again? Maybe start facing one or two of them with the help of some close friends.
Even with all the pain and mishaps in this life, I'm convinced we can be happy, have good relationships with others, reach our God-given potentials, and be glad we went through the experience. I know it seems that most people don't have this, but God didn't put me on this planet to be miserable and to be a disappointment to Him, myself and others. I think any of us can come up with things in our lives that we just wonder, "Why in the Hell did you let me go through that God, why did you let that happen to me???" And we will probably not know in this life the answer to such questions. And we can blame God and others and ourselves and use those things as excuses to be failures and unhappy in this life. Or we can trust that God really does love us and that He can use the nasty, painful things in our lives and make something beautiful of it all. I look back and ask Him why He allowed me to grow up in a screwed up, cult-like church environment, why he allowed me to fall into addictive patterns of living, why my relationship with my parents is so dysfunctional at times, why He didn't save my baby. I'm not going to get good answers to these things in this life. But I don't have to for Him to still be able to work good from all of it. Sometimes I need to do less thinking and analyzing, and more thanking and trusting Him. What are the wounds and issues that we are confounded by in our lives? We need to take them to Him and He will lead us to others around us to help us grow in trust and thankfulness.
Time - been thinking a lot about time lately, but I think this one may have to have its very own post one of these days.
Well, these are some of my thoughts for the last few weeks. Anyone else have any themes they have been thinking about lately? I'm curious to hear them if you have.
First, I'm thankful to God for a lot of things lately. Friends, material things, my family. The usual stuff I guess, but I think I'm seeing the people and things around me through a more grateful perspective.
We worship God not just by singing songs to Him and telling Him with our voices how great He is. In the last couple two or three Psalms, they talk about everything on Earth praising God: the lightning, the mountains, deers, cattle, the rocks, etc. A big part of how we can praise and worship Him is by doing what He created us for. Cats bring praise to Him by being cute and cuddly, purring and bringing their masters little critters that they caught from outside. Dogs bring praise by licking their owners in the face and behaving as if they had they hadn't seen their master in weeks everyday when they come home from work. Trees bring praise by giving shade and branches for kids (or me) to climb on on a sunny Summer day. I guess even this computer can bring praise by allowing me to type this journal entry. By discovering and using my talents and passions, I will bring praise to Him. There are things in my heart that I want to do for Him and others. They will not be easily achieved, but I feel it in my soul that they are the things I can do to praise Him. From some small things like writing a relative whom I hardly know who just lost her husband, to someday creating some sort of orphanage or big brother/sister kind of organization for lost and hurting kids. These are the things on my heart - the ways God has given me to praise Him. In what ways has He put it in your heart to praise Him both today and 1, 5, or 20 years from today?
Discipline - seems that not much worthwhile is accomplished without it, and somewhere along my life's journey I lost it, if I ever had it. With the help of God and the efforts of my counselor, I'm trying to get this in my life again. I'm finding that discipline in even very small things is what sets me up for success in bigger things. Making myself go to bed at a decent hour, avoiding the computer when I know I'll probably only do bad things on it, calling that insurance adjuster about my car insurance claim (that I've procrastinated on for the last two months), doing things to become more professional in my career, reading in my Bible on a daily basis and breaking through that occasional feeling that it's impossible to see how it all relates to my daily life. Discipline in smaller things can lead to success and discipline in the bigger projects of life. Do you have discipline and if not, what are you doing and who are you becoming accountable to in order to get your life on track?
There is no escape from pain that goes along with growth. We can seek to dodge it, but eventually you just find yourself back at the same place. We are not allowed to skip the lessons we don't like and just do the fun ones. A good, healthy, productive life is built one brick at a time. Each one has its place, whether it be an easy one to put in place or a difficult one. And sometimes it seems that the foundation and the final finishing touches on a home can be the most difficult parts of building a good home. Right now, I feel like I'm redoing some of the foundation of my life and it is difficult, laborious work at times. But I'm trying to remember that the more solid my foundation is, the better that house will be that's built upon it. Are their painful areas that you are dodging right now, only to find yourself facing them again and again? Maybe start facing one or two of them with the help of some close friends.
Even with all the pain and mishaps in this life, I'm convinced we can be happy, have good relationships with others, reach our God-given potentials, and be glad we went through the experience. I know it seems that most people don't have this, but God didn't put me on this planet to be miserable and to be a disappointment to Him, myself and others. I think any of us can come up with things in our lives that we just wonder, "Why in the Hell did you let me go through that God, why did you let that happen to me???" And we will probably not know in this life the answer to such questions. And we can blame God and others and ourselves and use those things as excuses to be failures and unhappy in this life. Or we can trust that God really does love us and that He can use the nasty, painful things in our lives and make something beautiful of it all. I look back and ask Him why He allowed me to grow up in a screwed up, cult-like church environment, why he allowed me to fall into addictive patterns of living, why my relationship with my parents is so dysfunctional at times, why He didn't save my baby. I'm not going to get good answers to these things in this life. But I don't have to for Him to still be able to work good from all of it. Sometimes I need to do less thinking and analyzing, and more thanking and trusting Him. What are the wounds and issues that we are confounded by in our lives? We need to take them to Him and He will lead us to others around us to help us grow in trust and thankfulness.
Time - been thinking a lot about time lately, but I think this one may have to have its very own post one of these days.
Well, these are some of my thoughts for the last few weeks. Anyone else have any themes they have been thinking about lately? I'm curious to hear them if you have.
posted by wwiiguy at 10:06 AM
1 Comments:
Several times now in your posts, the pain seems to have stripped you down to a place where you share such clarity and insight that it really leaves me wanting to sit beside you, hug you, and say "Amen."
You are so spot on. And I feel holiness here, its seeping out through your humility..
I'm really glad you wrote these things on the blog so that others can read them... and even more so that you can re-tap into the clarity of these moments. In my own journals its kind of the same thing... when I take time to go back and read them I am suddenly astonished that I figured this thing out long ago and just forgot about it...
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