February 17 LIVE YOUR LIFE WITH LOVE THIS WEEK-LIKE YOU'RE EXACTLY WHO JESUS THINKS YOU ARE

Affirmation: I enjoy being creative.

Photography is a creative passion.

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Wholehearted Guidepost from Brené Brown

Guidepost 9: Cultivating Meaningful Work, Letting Go of Self-Doubt and Supposed-To

DIG Deep

GET DELIBERATE

We've been using this phrase "meaningful work," but what's meaningful to me may not be meaningful to you, and what's meaningful to us may not be meaningful to others. So, to help get deliberate, I want you to pick three words and define meaningful work for yourself. You can write this anywhere in your journal, or you can write the words on a little cutout heart (like I did) and tuck it into your superpower page to remind you.
From Jacque: For me meaningful work is courageous, compassionate and connected. These three words guided me as an educator, as a pastor’s wife, as a mom and grandmother, as a fundraising and trip planner and as a creative bring.

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Mastering the 7 Decisions from Andy Andrews 

The Joyful Decision 

5. TODAY I WILL CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY.

Happiness is a choice. I am enthusiastic about each day. I am alert to its possibilities.

I will become the master of my emotions.

I will greet each day with laughter. I know that enthusiasm is the fuel that moves the world.

The world belongs to the enthusiastic, for people will follow them anywhere! My smile has become my calling card. It is, after all, the most important weapon I possess. I am the possessor of a grateful spirit. 

Joyful Decision

Today, I choose to be happy.

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Romans 12:12

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Reading for Today

Walk in Grace. Live in Love. by Bob Goff

Feb. 17

LIVE YOUR LIFE WITH LOVE THIS WEEK-LIKE YOU'RE EXACTLY WHO JESUS THINKS YOU ARE

I want you to know, brothers and sisters. that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man. nor was I taught it; rather. I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

GALATIANS 1:11-12 

 

There's a story in the Bible about a guy named Saul who had it out for Christians. He devoted his life to targeting them, oppressing them, and hurting them. While he was consumed with anger and hate, Saul met God. You know the story. On his journey to persecute another group of Christians, God struck him blind and told him to go find a man named Ananias in the city of Damascus.

 

The people traveling with Saul got him to Ananias, who was a Christian and a guy who understood the threat Saul posed to him and the people like him. Ananias went to him anyway and laid his hands on Saul's shoulder: "Brother Saul," he said, "the Lord has sent me to restore your sight and fill you with the Holy Spirit." After everything Saul had done to Christians, can you imagine how Ananias must have felt to have the job of telling Saul he wasn't who he used to be?

 

Saul got up and immediately began devoting his life to serving God. He carried the message of God's love to people across the ocean, facing ridicule, shipwrecks, beatings, and more than a little jail time along the way. Saul believed God when He told him who he was. He lived the rest of his life with extravagant love. He did it because there was a guy named Ananias who was brave enough to tell him who he was.

 

What would it look like for you to live your life this week like you're exactly who Jesus thinks you are? God doesn't think you're a mess-up just betause you've messed up. He's got a new name and a new job for you. He wants you to be His.

 

What would it look like for you to live your life this week like you're exactly who Jesus thinks you are?