January 22 2014

January 22 2015 Greetings My Friend, I am amazed at the mess puppies can make. At times I feel like I have toddlers at home again and my house will be clean and in no time there will be toys strewn all over, they have found things that need to be chewed and even a potty accident here and there. Today I don’t get as upset as when I had toddlers. I know that they will settle down. After they are settled I will pick up their debris and things will stay fairly picked up for a while. When I had toddlers I didn’t realize how short of a time they would be little so I felt like I was never going to be able to stay on top of the mess of life. Today I know better so I am less likely to feel overwhelmed. I have been asking God to help me stay calm recently. We have someone staying for some time with us and she is critical and full of doom and gloom. I can handle a little criticism and doom and gloom but after a bit I will grow weary of it. I don’t want to make a scene or a fuss but I find that sometimes I need to tell someone to “stop it.” I kept talking to God and finally I told the person they needed to stop and added some of the feeling words I was having with her comments. I wasn’t liking the moment but it came. Later I realized that sometimes we need to be more direct in our comments to get someone to hear us. This was the case for me. I also know that my direct confrontation was tempered and I kept to the point instead of hauling out every other offense I could conjure up. This was the way I operated at one time in my life but all my chats with God helped me to face the confrontation. I think that those confrontational moments need to be when we are defending our faith etc. Today I find that sometimes that confrontation moment is also for those moments in life where you need to have someone back off. As I look to Scripture I see times where God’s people, Jesus spoke out about things. At this point I see that God doesn’t want us to sit in the shadows and let people walk all over us as well. God doesn’t want cruelty for cruelty’s sake but He does want us to defend ourselves as well. For the longest time I misread the Scripture “if someone hits you turn the other cheek” I felt that we were to let others hurt us. I am learning that might mean that God says if you are hit once, turn your cheek and walk away. It is a new thought for me. I also remember that the Holy Spirit guides our words and actions if we are listening to Him. I understand that God never goes against His Word so if I am lining up with His Word and the Holy Spirit is telling me to speak my mind then my comments back tend to be tempered and not cruel. As I looked at the confrontation I saw that I stuck to the point and stated my feeling rather bluntly without berating the other person down to the pit. Learning to say “stop” still is hard for me but God helps me too. Sometimes he takes the anger away and sometimes he takes the overly harsh words away but allows me to respond with ‘truth in love.” Being a work in progress means that I am consistently growing and learning in Christ. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet