Tag: self help

Perspective

~ Em ~ Leave a comment

It’s amazing what a little change in perspective can do to your life. I have grown more in the past year than I have in the past five years all because I decided to change my perspective. I decided to have a more positive outlook on things and to look for the silver lining in every struggle I faced. Even though God blesses me on a daily basis with so much, I still wanted more. I couldn’t see that He gives me all that I need to come through every storm.

black-star-glasses-md

For awhile I thought I was somehow being punished because there was this lack of growth and backtracking in my life. I hated my job, lost all focus and drive and was completely unhappy. I asked Him to make things better for me but what I was missing was that things are already pretty great. I saw that God was keeping me in the valley because all I was focusing on was what it would be like on the mountain top. Don’t get me wrong, He wants us to envision the mountain tops in our lives but what He taught me in the valley was to focus more on what I have a my lowest and how that will get me up the mountain.

You just have to realize that what you have and who you are is enough. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t work on bettering yourself. This means that when you put less on what is inhibiting you from growing closer to God and start counting your blessings, God will bring you up that mountain. Of course this doesn’t always happen overnight, so “until God opens the next door, praise Him in the hallway.” (Orebela Gbenga) I’ve learned this lesson the hard way but I now know that having a more positive perspective will help me get through every storm and climb every mountain that crosses my path. 

Therefore, I pray that as a generation, we learn to become less greedy and more grateful for things we do have and to not focus on what you don’t. I pray that God speaks in our lives on a more regular basis so that our hearts are satisfied with the route God has us on. God, I just ask you to guide us in our diligence so that our rejoicing and praise is the same in Your quietness and as it is in Your presence.

“With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself, or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.”

 Orebela Gbenga

What’s Your God SHAPE?

~ Em ~ Leave a comment

potter_sLast Sunday I was invited by one of my favorite customers to attend her church. We have shared a lot with each other about our faith walks and recently I have been trying out different churches so she invited me to hers. After attending her church’s Sunday service, I was very moved by the pastor’s message: How did God SHAPE you and how are you using your SHAPE? It was a part of his series about learning to live in God’s will. The sermon was supported by Erik Rees’ book, S.H.A.P.E. Finding and Fulfilling Your Unique Purpose for Life.

Upon entering the church, I was starting to back slide into this doubt that I had before the church camp I attended a month earlier. (see post)  I wasn’t sure if I was where I needed to be spiritually and vocationally. But after hearing the sermon I remembered that God is simply keeping me in places for a reason. He is using my SHAPE to fulfill His purpose for me.

God’s SHAPES us according to His plan. (Jeremiah 1:5) We are all unique and none of us are completely alike. He does this so that we can learn from each other and share our talents with others. These SHAPES are not meant to be compared or envied. They are meant to raise others up. We each have our own SHAPE, we just have to identify it and put it into our hands for use. Here’s what our SHAPES look like:

S- Spiritual Gifts Special talents that God has given you to share His love.

H-Heart What God wants your heart to break for, your passions.

A-Abilities What God made you good at so that you will be good to others.

P-Personalities/People Your make-up, how God wired you.

E-Experiences The mountains you have moved and you have climbed using His strength.

So how has God SHAPED you? What are your spiritual gifts? We all were given gifts of faith, hope and love to fight the good fight but we were also all individually given gifts that are unique to us. Are we using them? Have we even identified them yet? Our hearts are made to love, do we love to the best of our abilities? What about your personality, what traits set you apart from the world? Do you hide those traits or are you using them to minister to others? Have your experiences become testimonies for change?

These are the questions that were raised but many more came to mind for me. Those questions I asked myself were not answered very quickly. I had to really think about my past, my personality, my relationships, my talents and my service to others. Then I realized how great the potential God has created for all of us. It’s really breath-taking if you think about it. Just look at some of the most successful, charitable people in the world and the potential they lived up to. It’s like looking out across the ocean and seeing how wide and vast it is, that’s our potential. We just have to learn to be like Peter, take that first step onto the water without taking our eyes off of the Lord. We gain confidence in taking that step out of the boat when we recognize that the SHAPE God gave us was made to support and fulfill the potential He sees in us.

I am not afraid to admit that I don’t live up to that potential because I don’t recognize that my SHAPE is special and useful. But I truly believe that we can live up to our potential when we identify our special SHAPES and use them. So this is my prayer, that I learn all of the ways that God has made me unique. That I recognize that I am shaped according to His plan and that He will reveal to me in due time why I am to go through the things He puts me through, why I meet the people I meet and why I am the way I am.

“Family of Israel, you know that I can do the same thing with you. You are like the clay in the potter’s hands, and I am the potter.” This message is from the Lord. Jeremiah 18:6

Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8

You Are What You Think

~ Em ~ Leave a comment

This video was shown during service last Sunday. I found myself almost crying by the end of it because it struck a cord. Of course I was affected by the fact that I don’t see myself in a positive light. But what really struck me were how the strangers perceived each other. It made me wonder how I was being perceive by my peers, by my customers or better yet, my own loved ones. Do my negative thoughts, my negative perceptions of myself affect the people I come in contact with? Does my constant self-deprecation eventually cause other people to see me in that same light?

Furthermore, the message that Sunday was that to really start living a Christian life, one must change their thoughts. There should be this renewal of your mind. Because your mind is always going and can constantly be diverted, you have to find a way to keep your mind open. Simply put, “set your mind to flow with the spirit.” Now, I’ve never been a very positive person so this is very hard for me to do. But it’s a battle that I’m ready to take on because I do not want my thoughts to affect one’s opinion of me. The undoing of the years of low self-confidence just might take years! But again, if I am to draw closer in my relationship with God, in my relationship with other people, I have to change my thoughts and perception of me.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5