Good evening! For the next 14 days, I will be on a mission trip to Vietnam. During that time, I will have new blogs each night from guest authors! (Also, on many nights, I will post pictures from my trip here!) For the next 26 evenings, my spot will be filled by my dear sister in Christ, Trina Agee Cornell! Trina and I went through many mission trips together and I have been a guest in Trina's and her husband, Bob's home. Please keep me in your prayers!
Power of Positivity #5
I enjoy communicating with my family and friends through social media – especially Facebook. I follow a number of people and organizations that focus their efforts on spreading positivity to the masses. I love reading posts from Proverbs 31 Ministries, tobymac, Lysa TerKeurst (the founder of Proverbs 31 Ministries) – and Power of Positivity. I came across this organization through a friend of mine – I noticed that she shared posts from them on a regular basis, and I decided I would “like” the page and check it out for myself. Power of Positivity has spoken to me on a number of levels – the Lord allows just the right one to cross my path when it is most needed. I wanted to focus this series of blog posts on the posts that have resonated with me – and the lessons that I have learned from them.
“It’s okay not to be perfect. It’s okay to make mistakes. It’s okay to do something that you have not done, because if we don’t do those things, we never grow.”
Change is not easy – growth definitely hurts at times. It hurts because it is different – it hurts because it is new. It hurts because it is out of our control. Change and growth are necessary for life – they are vital to our personal – as well as our spiritual – development.
As look back over the last six months, I know I am not who I was back then. At that time, I was broken – I was struggling. I was caught in the web of patterns and behaviors that were no longer working for me. I had lost a significant amount of weight at that point – I felt great physically, but internally, I was hurting. I wanted different for myself. Something had to give – and it finally did. I started working with a good friend of mine – she has challenged me in ways I never thought possible. I thought I had myself figured out – little did I know, I had a lot farther to go than I thought I did. Today, I stand before you a changed woman – I am learning more about myself every day, and I am learning to show myself grace. I am not always going to get things right – I know I am fallible. I will make mistakes – but I can bounce back from them faster than ever. Mistakes are not failures – they are merely feedback. They are opportunities to learn and grow – and examples that I can share with others.
The Lord knows we are not perfect – He expects us to mess up. He knows it is going to happen – He is prepared for it. James tells us to “count it all joy” when we face tough times (and mistakes) – because we know that they will make us stronger and better than before (1:2-4). It is hard to find joy in these moments – but we can, because the Lord glories in our weaknesses. When we are weak, He is strong – He will always prevail.
Steve
Luke 18:1
E-mail me at shawley@westburychristian.org
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