February 6 LOVING PEOPLE THE WAY JESUS DID IS GREAT THEOLOGY.

Affirmation: I am strong and confident. I will seek wisdom.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2:10‬ ‭NIV‬‬We

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Wholehearted Guidepost from Brené Brown 

Guidepost 8: Cultivating Calm and Stillness and Letting Go of Anxiety as a Lifestyle

Imagine you have a pot of boiling water on the stove, and you want to cool it down. So you add a block of ice to the water. This cools it down briefly, but soon enough, the heat is back and the water is boiling. So you add more ice, and the process repeats. Soon enough, you’re out of ice, and the water is boiling over.

But what if you slowed down enough to turn down the heat on the stove? Or better yet, turned it off entirely?

This is the approach many people take with anxiety. They think “Anxiety has always been around in the past, I just need a better way to manage it.”

Which is like looking for bigger ice cubes instead of figuring out how to turn off the stove.

And understanding how to turn off that stove requires space in your life for calm and stillness. This is time for emotional processing and self-regulation. To feel what’s going on in your life, question, dream, and explore possibilities.

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Mastering the 7 Decisions from Andy Andrews

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.

The Responsible Decision

The Buck Stops Here.

From this moment forward, I will accept responsibility for my past. I understand that the beginning of wisdom is to accept the responsibility for my own problems and that by accepting responsibility for my past, I free myself to move into a bigger, brighter future of my own choosing.

Never again will I blame my parents, my spouse, my boss, or employees for my present situation. Neither my education or lack of one, my genetics, or the circumstantial ebb and flow of everyday life will affect my future in a negative way. If I allow myself to blame these uncontrollable forces for my lack of success, I will be forever caught in a web of the past. I will look forward. I will not let my history control my destiny.

The buck stops here. I accept responsibility for my past. I am responsible for my success. I am where I am today—mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and financially—because of decisions I have made. My decisions have always been governed by my thinking. Therefore, I am where I am today—mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and financially—because of how I think. Today I will begin the process of changing where I am—mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and financially—by changing the way I think.

My thoughts will be constructive, never destructive. My mind will live in the solutions of the future. It will not dwell in the problems of the past. I will seek the association of those who are working and striving to bring about positive changes in the world. I will never seek comfort by associating with those who have decided to be comfortable.

When faced with the opportunity to make a decision, I will make one. I understand that God did not put in me the ability to always make right decisions. He did, however, put in me the ability to make a decision and then make it right. The rise and fall of my emotional tide will not deter me from my course. When I make a decision, I will stand behind it. My energy will go into making the decision. I will waste none on second thoughts. My life will not be an apology. It will be a statement.

The buck stops here. I control my thoughts. I control my emotions.

In the future, when I am tempted to ask the question “Why me?”, I will immediately counter with the answer: “Why not me?” Challenges are a gift, an opportunity to learn. Problems are the com- mon thread running through the lives of great men and women. In times of adversity, I will not have a problem to deal with, I will have a choice to make. My thoughts will be clear. I will make the right choice. Adversity is preparation for greatness. I will accept the preparation. Why me? Why not me? I will be prepared for something great!

I accept responsibility for my past. I control my thoughts. I control my emotions. I am respon- sible for my success.

The buck stops here.

© 2006 Andy Andrews 1 

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Reading for Today

Walk in Grace. Live in Love. by Bob Goff

Feb. 6

LOVING PEOPLE THE WAY JESUS DID IS GREAT THEOLOGY. 

If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

JOHN 4:10 

If you've spent much time in church, you've probably met some really smart people who know a lot about theology. If you're like me, you've been in one or two Bible studies where it's like people are speaking a foreign language. As soon as someone starts saying what words mean in Hebrew or Greek, they've pretty much lost me. My faith isn't a complicated one. I just know I met Jesus and He changed my life. He made me kinder and less selfish, and He invited me to do life with Him. The longer I've followed Him, the more I've realized we don't need all the answers to all the questions. Instead, loving people the way Jesus did is great theology.

 

Jesus gave us some blueprints, and here's one of my favorites: He walked into a town called Samaria, where Jews weren't supposed to go. Strolling right up to a woman, which men didn't do, He snagged a seat next to her at a well. He crossed all the cultural barriers that broke the religious people's rules, and He saw her. He listened to her. Jesus told her about the living water He could give her. He didn't say what all this meant in three different languages. He didn't study her and didn't ask her to study Him. She eventually mentioned her husband, and He said, "Oh, right, you've had five of them, and the man you're with now isn't actually your husband." But here's the thing: He didn't judge her.

 

Jesus didn't walk her through the Romans Road or try to prove some obscure, hard-to-understand rule of faith. No, He sat, He listened, and He saw. He went straight to the heart of the matter and saw her heart in the process. Now, that's great theology.

 

What simple truth of God's do you need to remember today?