Lessons Learned: Do What You Love - Just Don't Do This

I love writing. I love sharing my thoughts and my beliefs with others. I love the idea that my pain isn't being wasted... that all of the things I've gone through can some how be used for the glory of God. That my experiences will help encourage someone else along their journey.

I love public speaking. It is exhilarating for me to stand before a crowd and verbally share all of the messes God has gotten me out of throughout my walk with Him - And to equally share the blessings that have come simply from giving my life to Him. 

He's saved me from death, He's saved me from other's attempts at sabotage, He's saved me from dangerous situations and so much more. 

I was suicidal and He kept me alive.

I was poor and He fed me.

I was rich and He humbled me.

I was scared and He gave me peace.

I was lonely and He comforted me.

I was unhealthy and He healed me.

When I say I love sharing the goodness of God.... I mean I LOVE it!

If you have followed this blog for any amount of time then you know my #1 struggle has always been - Being able to share the full goodness of God's intervention in my life without throwing the guilty (at least in my mind) under the bus. It's one thing for me to say someone close to me did this... but the intensity of the emotions would be so much greater (in my mind) if I was able to say... "my ____" did this to me... then share how God miraculously turned the situation around and showed me the truth of the scripture, "...vengeance is Mine, says the Lord..." Deuteronomy 32:35.

The conviction to keep these names between me and God has always been greater than the desire to share them... but that doesn't mean the desire isn't there. I have learned that if I can't share how great God is without trashing someone else's name, then I'm not as good of a communicator as I thought I was. If we have to put others down to lift Him up then we haven't fully grasped just how powerful our God is - And we certainly haven't relinquished all control of our lives over to Him.

God gave us free will and He tells us many times throughout the bible to choose for ourselves. We have the power over the choices that we make in our life. We have the power to choose how we respond to other's actions towards us and we have the power to choose what we do and don't do with our own circumstances. So let me encourage you... when you are making these choices - choose what will glorify God. Don't choose to hurt others or put yourself up on a pedestal that you can easily fall down from. Use wisdom in making your decisions, take your time in deciding what is the right thing to do and always ask yourself, will this help or hurt the situation.

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." - Khalil Gibran

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up." James 4:10

Love and Prayers my faithful readers - Today is a great day to have a great day!