365 Days Of Light

I love God because he first loved me and through his love he has given me:  new life, new hope, forgiveness, grace, understanding, strength.

Maybe being loved first is what many of us need.  Love is an amazing gift, but it also comes with a responsibility.  Often times we are not able to grasp the thought of loving another person.  Maybe we don’t know how.  It could be we are fearful.  Perhaps we are lost.

We just need someone to come and love us first.  When this happens and we accept we gain the same thing that God provides through his love: new life, new hope, forgiveness, grace, understanding, strength.

When someone loves you, sometimes you just have to love them back.

The scars make you strong.

Don’t be embarrassed… the scars make you strong.  

I recently saw the movie Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. At the beginning of the movie there was a powerful scene.  The apes were hunting in the wild and their leader, Cesar, told his son Blue Eyes not to move while he attacked a wild beast. Blue Eyes ignored his father, wondered off, and was attacked by a grizzly bear.

The apes came to his rescue, but Blue Eyes was left with massive scars across his chest.  Clearly, swiped by the bear’s large claws. You could see that Blue Eyes was immediately ashamed and embarrassed. As he returned home, another Ape named Koba told Blue Eyes “don’t be embarrassed… the scars make you strong.” When you think about these profound words, this is truly a great message.   

All of us have been scarred from something and maybe scars do make us all stronger.   But scars also leave a mark.  Often, we don’t look at our past wounds, scars, or failures as signs of strength.  Instead, we interpret them as signs of humiliation, weakness, and shame.  As I reflect on some of my past experiences, there were many situations that caused me embarrassment…particularly sports.  But everyone has scars from something and most likely they don’t view the scar as a symbol of strength.

However, our scars should be a symbol of strength… a symbol of what we have overcome. If we share our painful experiences instead of trying to hide them, we will discover that there is strength in our disappointments.  Wounds always heal back stronger.

Don’t be embarrassed by the failures or mistakes you have experienced … always remember

Today I will give up all thoughts that hurt.” — A Course in Miracles, Dr. Helen Schucman

Do you notice the picture above? This was an experiment conducted by a Japanese researcher to show the power of negative thoughts.  There are two jars of rice above the only difference between the two jars is what is written on them; one jar says “I hate you” and the other jar says “I love you”.  Each day for 30 days people spoke the words out loud to the jars I love you” or I hate you.”  The rice in the container with positive thoughts barely changed, while the other jar of rice had rotten.

If the rice can’t deal with the thoughts that hurt how can we? We are no different than the rice.

How much better would our lives be if we made the conscious decision to give up the thoughts, words, or people that hurt us?

Proverbes 18:21 “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”

1 Peter 3:10 “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.”

Proverbs 15:4 “A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.”

This episode deals with living your own reality, and having BIG expectations for anything you try to achieve...

WHAT'D YOU EXPECT?

I learned a great lesson today. It’s not good enough to want to be successful as bad as you want to breathe.

. It’s not good enough to put in 120%. It’s not good enough to work harder than everyone else. None of those things are good enough. You’re putting in all this work, but you don’t expect to win. You studied for the test, but you didn’t expect to pass. You went to the job interview, but you didn’t really believe you were going to get the job. You prepared hard enough to win the championship, but you didn’t believe it was possible.

You have to expect to win in life. You have to expect to pass the test, get the job, win the championship, blossom in your relationships. You have to expect great things for your life. You can’t just do all the external things and expect success, what you have on the inside is the most important. In your heart, mind, and spirit you have to expect to win. You must expect great things for your life…You have to demand great things for your life. Wishing and wanting will only get you so far…Expect to be great. Failure is not an option…ever.

Believe in your sacrifices…Expect to win. Thanks for that

message

Recently at church the pastor asked us a question.  He asked us if we have ever worked hard for something…the kind of hard where you pour your heart on the table, where you give it everything you have….the kind of hard where you don’t cut any corners?

So, you have done all this hard work, but you have nothing to show for it.  In fact it seems as if you’re moving backwards.   I certainly know that feeling…that’s a very disappointing feeling to have and I’m sure we all have experienced it at one level or another.

If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, it’s yours forever. If it doesn't, then it was never meant to be.

I remember seeing this quote years ago and thinking it was one of the dumbest quotes I ever heard. First off, who would let something go that they loved so dearly? There is no way I would have ever let anyone I loved just leave my life.  I would have suffocated that relationship. I would have begged and pleaded for that person to stay, I would have tried to convince that person that this is where she needed to be.  I would of begged and plead for her love and attention.  When you’re younger you believe you have to fight for who you love, but now that I’m older I have a new perspective.

Every now and then you have to let people go.  It is our natural instinct to want to fight for what we want and hold onto the very last inch of that relationship. We want to fight until there is nothing left to fight for so at least we can say “I gave it my all so it’s not meant to be”. 

But sometimes it’s better to let it go.

That relationship was not meant to be at that time.  Sometimes people need time to grow and develop themselves and you can’t always do that together, so you have to let that relationship go in order for it to truly blossom.  Maybe you’re having a lot of problems in your relationships and you really do love that person so you cling to them and pleading for his/her love.  Maybe that clinging and hanging on is a sign that it’s time for you to let it go.  Letting that relationship go might actually be the best thing, because in the end you get to see what it really meant to both of you. Don’t destroy your relationship by holding on too long.

One of the hardest things to do is to really love a person with your all instead of loving with limitations, only allowing yourself to love to a certain degree:

I’m falling too hard let me put my brakes on

I don’t want to get hurt so let me put the brakes on

I love you but--

I care but--

 It’s easy to love with brakes and conditions to your love, but it’s hard to love a person with your all.

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”- Epicurus Be happy where you are currently.  It’s amazing how fast we forget all the sacrifices and hard work it took to get to where we are today. The things we have now were at one point the things we only wished for.

  Why is it that people prefer known hells to unknown heaves?  You know why? Because it is comfortable. 

There was a man that was captured behind the enemy lines in a war and was sentenced to be killed or another option.  The caption told the man tomorrow he could face the firing squad or he could walk out this door over here.  They guy asked “what’s out the door?’” The caption replied “no one knows only unknown horrors.” The next day after the shots rang out someone asked the caption “what was beyond the door?” The man replied freedom… people often didn’t dare to walk out the door of freedom because it is unknown.

Do you go where you're celebrated, not tolerated? With each day comes the promise and excitement for change and growth. So often, we allow our inabilities to render us inactive, or allow them to prevent us from taking positive action and making healthy changes. Sometimes it's not always about knowing what to do in order to be successful. Often, it's about who we surround ourselves with that helps determine how far we will go. How often do we evaluate the people around us? Are those closest to you sincerely committed to your success, or just negative bench warmers? Our dreams and aspirations require encouragement and validation in order to grow. That's why. What a beautiful gift it is to be celebrated. A great example of this is a story about a young man who found exactly where he was celebrated... Owen Groesser is in many ways a typical teenager. He loves playing basketball, and started playing the game with his father at a young age. Because of his love [...]

The following post is written by Ashley Rankin. Ashley is a recent Biotechnology graduate and has contributed to studies in cancer research. She co-authors the blog 365 Days of Light with her brother, Jeremy. You can also find her on Twitter and Facebook. In the Far East they have something called the Chinese Bamboo Tree. The Chinese Bamboo takes five years to grow. During this process, you must water and fertilize the seeds daily. The sprouts don’t break through the ground until the fifth year. But once they break through the ground, within five weeks they grow ninety feet tall. Now, anytime throughout the process, if you stop watering, nurturing, and fertilizing, the bamboo tree would die in the ground. Your dreams are like the bamboo tree. We all have aspirations to accomplish great things.  We may desire to advance spiritually, financially, or in  professional endeavors. Most of us have dreams and aspirations to achieve greatness! Often, people will [...]

ANYTHING is possible to those who believe...

It is possible

“I don’t know what that dream is that you have. I don’t care how disappointing it might have been as you’ve been working toward that dream, but here is what I know: that that dream that you’re holding in your mind… is possible.  See, sometimes we can’t say “I can do that”, but what we can say is that “it is possible that I can have my dream” as we run toward it as we work on it and run toward it day in and day out.” -Les Brown