New Perspective

When I was a kid, my little brother and I took swimming lessons at a local pool. I was the oldest "tadpole" in the pool. They started us in the shallow with a kick board and told us to hold on and kick as hard as we could. I remember feeling like I was going no where.... Kicking and kicking and being the "big girl/fat kid" it was terrifying to be looked at as the one that wasn't moving... Was I just to big to get my body to go? Why were all the other tadpoles moving right along and leaving me in their wake?

 Maybe, I was not meant to be a swimmer. Period. Either way I felt helpless and fat.... 

Until day 2! 

On day 2.... We learned to float(yippee!) and do the back stroke. I could float better than anyone and then when they told us to kick..... I felt the water start to move... Except then in my feeble mind I thought- well I most likely did not go very far- thinking of the lack in progress the previous day. But, guess what? I made it to the other end of the pool! My thought was no movement, but, the reality was I was swimming to the other side! It was magic! It was wonderful! 

Fast forward to today... I had a doctors visit this last Monday along with my Hubby. He and I have been on a new eat fresh, real food, low carb, life change to get healthy and make some changes for the last 4 weeks. When you go to the doctor - what is the first thing you have to do? Weigh! Hop on that scale - Face the numbers. (For many years I would face the opposite way- as to not have to look at the reading) I faced it this time and thought... ok... There it is... It's real. I'm good. Right? I have been working on it. The number was not as low as I would have liked to have seen being on this new life change course, but, I know I am working on it. After our 15 minutes with the doc, he says "I haven't seen you in awhile. Do you realize how much you have lost since then? 25 lbs.!" I'm in shock- really? Just like back in the pool.... My perspective was off!  My thinking was based on inaccurate information. 

How often do we believe what we play in our minds as false info? The old computer saying, "garbage in, garbage out!" -fits here! What are we putting in as a rational place, goal, settings as a standard for ourselves? It might not be food as your mountain, it might be drinking, lying, gambling, drugs or whatever your addiction is... Sometimes a new perspective us what is needed.  

1 Corinthians 13:11-12

When I was a child, I talked like a child; I thought like a child; I made plans like a child. When I became a man, I stopped those childish ways. It is the same with us. Now we see like we are looking into a dark mirror. But at that time, in the future, we shall see clearly. Now I know only a part. But at that time I will know fully, like God has known me.

God knows us.... Really knows us- nothing is hid from Him... And guess what? He still loves us! He knows our lies, secrets of our hearts, when we make excuses... Play games with our own hearts. He knows us - He made us. Just as someone who is a master clock maker would know his own work and what makes a watch tick.... God knows what makes us tick. 

Take a breath. 

Take a moment.

Ask someone you trust for true advice.

Ask God for help with your plan. Pray.

Make a plan!

Peace plus,

Miki

Believer

Why do we as human beings believe what we hear? It can be about us or others  and we take it in and sort it and believe it to be true if there is no contradiction stored up there in our rattle trap minds…. it must be true, no question, just believe. So, if we hear it through our ears, see it in print or on TV news- it is true information.  That is why when someone says something about someone and we overhear it…or they may even say it directly to you- like: “You’re just like your Mom- stubborn as a mule!” or “What’s wrong with you, do you have brain damage?”  We play it over and over in our minds until it is our TRUTH…. This does not have to be the case and most of the time it is not the TRUTH! We have allowed it to conquer us- we have only made it our truth and not taken the time to find out for ourselves if it is really what we are or can become.

We are made to believe.

What happened to real deep thinkers? I am not talking about OVER thinkers… I am talking about DEEP thinkers… not people who think well beyond the norm of all… by giving you way to many facts and contradicting themselves over and over… until your just confused or drained from listening. I am talking about DEEP inside the soul thinkers? Thinking and questioning about how we affect our world and the people in it –everyday! We need to be a world of thinkers… question what you know! Prove it to yourself.  Challenge yourself. See what you CAN do?

 

Whether you’re addicted to “Real Housewives of” (not so real in my book) or Days of Our Lives… Gossip is like honey for our ears… sweet! So, what really draws us into gossip?

• Pride- That we are somehow better than that person? Look at what they are wearing! I would never wear that!
• Envy- Does that person have more than we do? I could have that handbag too… if I wanted it.
• Jealousy- I should have that or this? I deserve it more than them.

 

How do we walk away from this addiction or sin? It’s not easy…

Compassion is the key…. Our concerns should be for the other person. What are they going through? What bit of truth remains? Ask the person? Think about how it would affect you if you were the one being talked about? To love as Christ – be a servant to all around you- we must put ourselves in the other person’s shoes.  Does it humble us? Does it encourage us to know where they have been? What they have been through? Some stories we will never know this side of heaven. Others rake us wide open at the thought of having to go through what the other person has endured.  That’s a seed of compassion. One saying I love is: “people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

In the movie “Gravity” the star Sandra Bullock had a severe loss in her life and she did not want any down time or silence… in her life on earth- she filled it with work and noise and driving around listening to the radio. In the movie she had to deal with SILENCE and the inner voice of who she really was? What she was really made of? Did she” give up” or “get up”?  She had found herself or lost herself in Busyness! Business.  Ever look at that word? Busi ness or Busy ness. Sometimes we fill our lives with unneeded busy. Unneeded work, hustle, striving, going, sports, games, clutter, things, tv, radio… stuff and not what we should be doing. We should be spending time with the ones we love, making sure we are about HIS work.  Taking the time to praise Him for all He has done and or is doing in our lives. Making time to be sure that the people whom He has placed in our lives know that we love them – because God has made them perfect in Him.  We should be making an impact in each other’s lives for the good. Loving on one another and not knocking each other down with our un-belief and jealous ways. It’s sin… it gets in our way and it destroys what God has for our lives and others around us.

It reminds me of a little story: A young girl and her Father are on a beach walking the coastline…. They came upon a littering of thousands of starfish on the sand, all starting to dry out in the heat of the day…. She starts grabbing them one by one - tossing them back into the ocean… Her Dad, shakes his head at this silly girl and tells her- “There are too many! You’ll never make a dent in the mass that is here… it will not make a difference, no matter how hard you try!” The girl looks back at her dad and says, as she is tossing another one in the blue waves, “It just made a difference for that one!”

No matter how SMALL the difference we seem to make, no matter who tells us we can’t do it, it doesn’t matter, the wave we can catch can make all the difference to “that one”- who will hopefully affect another, and another, and so on….