Learn To Delay Reaction

A lovely little girl was holding two apples with both hands.

Her mum came in and softly asked her little daughter with a smile; my sweetie, could you give your mum one of your two apples?

The girl looked up at her mum for some seconds, then she suddenly took a quick bite on one apple, and then quickly on the other.

The mum felt the smile on her face freeze. She tried hard not to reveal her disappointment.

Then the little girl handed one of her bitten apples to her mum,and said: mummy, here you are. This is the sweeter one.

No matter who you are, how experienced you are, and how knowledgeable you think you are, always delay judgement.

Give others the privilege to explain themselves.

What you see may not be the reality. Never conclude for others.

Which is why we should never only focus on the surface and judge others without understanding them first.

Those who like to pay the bill, do so not because they are loaded but because they value friendship above money.

Those who take the initiative at work, do so not because they are stupid but because they understand the concept of responsibility.

Those who apologizes first after a fight, do so not because they are wrong but because they value the people around them.

Those who are willing to help you, do so not because they owe you any thing but because they see you as a true friend.

Those who often text you, do so not because they have nothing better to do but because you are in their heart.

Those who take out time to chat with you, does not mean they are jobless or less busy, but they know the importance of keeping in touch.

One day, all of us will get  separated  from each other; we will miss our conversations of everything & nothing; the dreams that we had.

Days will pass by, months, years, until this contact becomes rare… One day our children will see our pictures and ask ‘Who are these people?’ And we will smile with invisible tears  because a heart is touched with a strong word and you will say: ‘IT WAS THEM THAT I HAD THE BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE WITH’.

It’s All About You

Don’t let someone else’s dishonesty ruin your character. Your reputation doesn’t just depend on you, but on the people you call your friends. Everything they do will always reflect in the way you are perceived. You can’t move in the company of people with defective ideals expecting to be branded differently.

You are the company you keep and that company will ultimately determine how far you will go in life…….ever wondered why you have not made significant progress with your life, ever wondered why your life is not moving in the direction of your dreams. A lot of folks are where they are today because the failed to break away from certain kind people, there’s no point holding on to people who aren’t making your life better; there’s no point holding on to people who aren’t moving your life forward….Your circle has the power to make you or break you; you can’t move in the company of people doing nothing with their lives expecting to be different; you can’t move in the company of people sitting down on their dreams and expect to do differently. The people around you can influence your life more than you know….mindsets are contagious…. You will eventually become like the company you keep. Its time to subtract from your life, those people that don’t make you better… You are not “selfish” for deciding to cut some people off; There comes a point when you have to stop being UNFAIR to yourself, Sometimes subtraction is the only way for things to add up.

When It’s Not About the Shirt

markflorendo

It’s easy to catch Christians nowadays! You can see them almost everywhere. They are those who have Christian statements or Bible verses in their shirts, ballers, bags or caps. You can also see them posting verses in Facebook or sharing photos that says like this: “Like or Share this if you believe in Jesus,” or “Type Amen if you believe that Jesus Loves you.” These are few of the many reasons why it’s easy to identify professed Christians from other people we see in the streets or in the web. But why is it that even when it’s easy to identify them, there is nothing distinctive about them being Christians but their shirts that shouts FAITH? Why Christians with verses in their clothes and proud of their faith (which is honorable) can’t even share the gospel? But first to break rules in traffic? Gets impatient when waiting a bus? Cheats…

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Be Real

If you are a tree be a tree don’t be what others expect you to be a tree can not be the sea.

Do you know who you are why you are here?
Have you found the authentic you deep within the you that came from the Source of Life?

Be who you are not who you think you should be to please others which is not possible anyway.

You are unique like no other you were made
by the Divine Hand of God so be who you are meant to be a Being of love, compassion
and integrity.

Crd: source of inspiration.

The Cup

I am a cup formed of clay by the hands of the Great Potter.
Only the space within allows the cup to hold water.

Know this space inside for it holds our essence gives shape to our form and life to our souls

Your Story Is Part of God’s Story

Your Story Is Part of God’s Story
by Louie Giglio

Joseph understood that his life’s purpose was bigger than simply playing out his own dream, even a God-given dream. He knew he was on earth to be part of God’s story. This was a game changer for Joseph, and it can be a game changer for us too.

Maybe your dream is to go to school or get a degree or accomplish a certain task or find a spouse or start a business or move to a certain place or create a movement or carry the gospel to people who’ve never heard it before. Those may be great dreams, but there’s a bigger dream that overrides everything else: it’s that your life counts for the glory of God. That’s the overriding dream of God’s heart. If we don’t embrace that dream, then we are in trouble, because all our smaller dreams are subject to change. That overarching dream never needs to change, and Joseph understood that.

Look at Genesis 42-45, one of the most powerful stories in the Bible. Joseph wanted his brothers to bring the whole family to Egypt, where they’d be safe from the famine, so he played a trick on his brothers. They didn’t know what was going on, but he wanted to see if their hearts had changed. He wanted to see if they had learned to think about others instead of just themselves.

The brothers passed the test, and eventually Joseph revealed to them who he was. Finally he was reunited with his dad.

With all the family safely in Egypt and provided for, the brothers started thinking, As long as Dad’s alive, we’re good, because he’s our buffer. But Dad’s getting old, and when he’s gone, we’re in trouble. And when Jacob died, the brothers panicked (Genesis 50:15–18). They said to each other, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” Just to be on the safe side, they sent word to Joseph: “Your father gave this command before he died. ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father” (Genesis 50:16–17).

Anybody in today’s world ever pull that on a brother or sister? Mom or dad passed away and you said, “By the way, the last thing Mom said was that I’m to get the house and you’re not.” Ugly stuff. These guys decided to pretend their dad had said this about forgiveness, and they hoped Joseph would go along.

“Joseph wept when they spoke to him” (verse 17). I don’t think he wept over their message; he wept because he loved his dad and for the ugliness of his brothers’ fear.

Then his brothers “came and fell down before him and said, ‘Behold, we are your servants’” (Genesis 50:18). Joseph could have let his thoughts stray an unhealthy way. He could have thought: How interesting. I seem to remember a dream where you all bowed down. What’s this? You’re actually bowing down. Well, hello. I was right after all.

But Joseph didn’t dwell on that; he focused on a higher story. When they said, “We are your servants,” Joseph didn’t answer back, “Yeah, you’re right; you are my slaves.” Instead, he said, “Do not fear” (verse 19).

That’s how confident Joseph was. He asked, “Am I in the place of God?” Then he asked if the brothers were seeing what he was seeing in the situation—that God was behind it. He told them they didn’t need to fear his position or power or comeback, because God had put him in this place. Joseph said to them, “‘You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.’ Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them” (verses 20–21).

I don’t know if more powerful words were ever spoken by a human. We know that the God-man, Jesus, said amazing things. But Joseph was a human, like you and me, and yet he was so in touch with God’s sovereignty. How do you come to understand that what people intended for evil, God intended for good? Joseph was saying that the sovereign God was over all the affairs of the world. Brothers are not in charge. Circumstances are not in charge. God is in charge. Joseph never lost sight of God’s love and purpose, and he knew God was using him to bring glory to himself and salvation for many people.

This is a powerful, powerful way to live. Sure, this mind-set doesn’t preclude doing our best to right wrongs, seek justice, and find cures. But in the process of taking action, we must understand that God is in charge.

We need to fight a battle to see this truth. When bad things happen, the Enemy comes through the door and tells us that God doesn’t love us anymore and has no plan for us, and then we tend to bail out on God. But Joseph tells us, “Don’t abandon God, because even in the pit, God has a plan. Even when you feel abandoned, God is still on the scene. Even when you can’t see what God is doing, he’s always doing something.”

Through the lens of God’s grace, we can look back on the thirteen lost years of Joseph’s life and see that these were actually saving years, not only for Joseph, but for his entire family and many others. If we can grasp that one idea, it frees us from feeling we are in charge of any circumstances. We are released to trust our lives into the hands of a loving God.
Coming tomorrow in Day 4 of the Commit to Your Comeback Challenge devotions: When we have no comeback, the comeback is that Jesus is enough.

Welcome Home

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. – James 4:8
Welcome Home
by Louie Giglio

A man had two sons, and the younger one came to him and demanded his half of the family money. So the dad agreed, called his attorney and his financial planner, and split up the estate—half to the older son and half to the younger son.

Guess what the younger son did with his share? He gathered everything he had, set off for a distant country, and “squandered his wealth in wild living” (Luke 15:13 NIV).

Reading between the lines, we can see that he felt just like we do when we get ourselves into that kind of situation. Whatever happened, when it was all over and the party ended, we were left feeling empty and fearful. 

That’s what happened to the younger son. At the end of the day, he didn’t even have a single friend. He’d had a lot of friends before because he’d bought every round. But when the money runs out, it’s amazing how fast the friends run out too. The son had not expected to find himself at this place in his journey—party over, money gone, no friends. “He had spent everything” (Luke 15:14). Catch that word? Everything!

When a severe famine came, he hired himself out to a farmer in that far country where he had gone, and he was sent to feed the pigs. The young man was so desperate that he even ate some of the pigs’ food just to fill his empty stomach.

He had never planned on this. When he had started his spending spree, he didn’t stop to consider that maybe he should put aside a little in case famine came. He didn’t know famine was coming. We never know. But we can be assured that unexpected things are ahead whenever we walk away from God.

If this son had really been keeping in touch with his need, if he knew how much he was loved, he would have never left home. If he’d understood that he was truly home when he was home, he would not have left to look somewhere else for a place to belong.

It didn’t take long for disaster to come into view, and for the wayward son to finally know he had hit rock bottom. When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.’ And he arose and came to his father” (Luke 15:17–20).

I love that last line: “He arose and came to his father.” Now that’s a comeback! 

For some of us, our comeback story is like the younger son’s. He made the move away from his father. He took the initiative to defy God. His actions were deliberate.

When we find ourselves in a similar place, our first step toward a comeback is to stand up in the mess and turn our hearts toward home.

For him and for us, it’s not like God doesn’t know where we are. This father lived in a country where news traveled fast and folks knew what was happening in the neighborhood. Rumor had come back to the father that the younger son’s money was gone and the party was over. The father could have gone at any time to fetch him, but he knew that his son had to come to the end on his own. When the son hit bottom, he thought he would never be a son again. He approached his father with the thought that maybe he could live as a hired servant.

That’s where the story takes a grace-laden turn.

While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him (v. 20). When the son started to come near, his father didn’t miss it. It’s clear from the story the father was eagerly waiting and just needed to see the top of his son’s head over the horizon. He pulled his robe up, and this noble father started sprinting down the road, past the servants, past the gate, into the street toward his son.

The son must have thought the worst.

… He’s so angry he doesn’t want to wait for me to get to the house to crush me; he wants to crush me right in full view of the street.

But that’s not how it went down. Before the son could even start his much-rehearsed speech, the father cried out, “This is my son,” and threw his arms around him. 

The son was dumbfounded.

The servants followed, and the father said, “What are you looking at? Get a robe! Put it on my son. Get a ring! Put it on his finger. Get shoes for his feet! … My son was dead and he is alive again. He was lost and he is found, and we are going to celebrate!”

That’s God.

If we “draw near to God … he will draw near to [us]” (James 4:8). And God doesn’t hold back either. God doesn’t hide around a corner or give a lecture or treat us like some kind of second-class worker. He just waits to see us on the horizon. When he sees us coming toward him, he runs down the road with his arms open wide.

Yep, the father (the picture of God in this story) threw a party and put on a dance for his son. What dance were they doing, you ask?

They were doing the comeback!