November 21 Love Doesn’t Need To Be Loud…

Affirmation: I am connected to God, myself and others.

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Ponder, Personalize, Practice: This verse is a question Jesus asked His listeners. Talk to God about your concerns and worries. Put them all in Jesus’s hands. Make this personal between you and God.

“Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:27)

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Wholehearted Guidepost from Brené Brown

Guidepost 7: Cultivating Play and Rest, Letting Go of Exhaustion as a Status Symbol and Productivity as Self-Worth

This guidepost has two big elements.

First, play. There are a few key properties of play:

It’s time spent without purpose

It’s something you don’t want to end (lose track of time)

It dissolves your hyper-self-consciousness. You lose yourself in the action.

Play is the opposite of how most achievers live their lives: Everything has to be for a specific aim, time must be tracked intensely, and we’re constantly concerned with how we’re appearing to others.

As such, play is written off as trivial, or foolish.

But Stuart Brown, author of Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, begs to differ. He tells us that play isn’t a luxury. It’s actually a necessity for us to operate in the fullness of our potential.

This is because “The opposite of play is not work, the opposite of play is depression.”

Put another way: the more that play disappears from your life, the closer you move towards a state of depression.

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Mastering the 7 Decisions from Andy Andrews 

The Responsible Decision 

The Buck Stops Here!

“Each of you must be responsible to do your creative best with your life.” Gal. 6:4

If decisions are choices…and our thinking dictates our decisions—then I am where I am because of my thinking.

The Responsible Decision for Personal Success represents the beginning. Taking responsibility for your past will segue you into an extraordinary future of your choosing.

My thoughts will be constructive---NEVER destructive.

Responsibility is about HOPE and Control. Make better choices.

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Reading for Today

Walk in Grace. Live in Love. by Bob Goff

November 21 

Love Doesn’t Need To Be Loud. It Just Needs To Be More Important To Us Than Our Opinions 
“A time to be silent, and a time to speak.” Ecclesiastes 3:7

I was traveling for an event and had the television on in the morning while I was getting ready to leave the hotel. One of the sports talk shows was on, and some guys were passionately arguing about a quarterback’s stats, or a coach, or whatever. I thought, I wonder if this is how they talk all the time? I imagine these guys at their homes around the breakfast table, and the kid, saying, “Dad, could you please just tone it down? You are ruining my Cheerios.” 
These people we see on television, or in the news or on viral videos, who seem to scream over everyone else – there’s got to be a different side to them. I got to test this theory when I had the chance to get to know, someone who does one of those news talk shows. Talk about opinionated. As we became friends, though, I realized my hunch was right. He was more nuanced, dynamic, personable, and kind than he often came across in his job. Once we became friends, I realized there was a lot more to him than the opinions he shared with the public.

Love doesn’t need to be loud. It just needs to be more important to us than our opinions. Jesus had strong beliefs, and He vocalized them often, but love always was His priority. We can afford to be wrong. We can even be loud once in a while. But keep it about love, not all the other noise in the world. 
How can you use actions instead of words today?