“This is no time to lose your Head”

Have you ever found yourself offended, irritated, hurt and aggravated by what someone said to you or about you? Or perhaps, not just what they said, but, how they said it? How about when someone criticizes or corrects your work, and you feel as if the person criticized and corrected you?  Most often, we then struggle to see the merit in the correction.

It is hard to receive it humbly when one is corrected or when someone confronts us with a flaw, dropping the ball in an area, a weakness or just any area of vulnerability. It is not to say that these feeling are not legit, but when we get stuck here, it is a clear sign that our emotions are governing our head.

I grappled with some of this a few days ago and I listened to a message that so blessed me (and my perspective) that I had to share: ‘This is no time to lose your head’.

Most of us live our lives from a ‘heart‘ place and not a ‘head‘ place. Many times we are so governed by our emotions that even when there is truth in whatever was said, we cannot receive it. We are unable to own up to the truth, do better the next time, apologize, or just simply decide to work on the area. Sometimes we don’t even think it through, we immediately become offended and don’t even care to process through, or consider the fact that, what the person said may be true.

We are unable to grow and mature because we keep trying to win a battle by having a ‘heart’ experience in a ‘head’ fight. Real decisions that move us along don’t come out of our emotions, they come out of our head. It is with our mind/head that we serve God and many times we miss seizing opportunities that He opens for us because we don’t ‘feel‘ like doing this or that, we don’t ‘feel‘ like going to this, we don’t ‘feel‘ it today, we don’t ‘feel‘ like dealing with this etc. We can easily forfeit what God wants to give us because of how we feel.

In this place we tend to lose perspective, in turn, lose our balance, and start tripping through life instead of focusing, flowing and flourishing…

The more I thought about this it just made sense. Our feelings will never cooperate with our dreams because success in any area of life takes discipline. And discipline is beating our feelings into captivity. So….is it true?

-did you drop the ball?

-did you miss the deadline?

-can you be a little bit more consistent?

-can you be more tactful?

-are you too busy?

-could you have gotten there a little earlier/on time?

-can you be more disciplined?

-could you have prepared better?

-could you have said it a different way?

Is it TRUE?

It is comforting to do the things we want to do and hear the things we want to hear…..but we don’t grow in times and situations of comfort. However, we have to develop the ability to be effective in discomfort; this is the true mark of growth 🙂

There is a shift going on in each of our lives, but it starts with and in our heads, not our feelings.

~~May 2015 be a year of enlightenment~~

Blessings

JC

 

It’s time to shed your leaves… (Reblog)

Early morning on November 4^th as I was downstairs having some quiet time with God, He said “this is a season of Self Control”. That did not have anything to do with what I thought we were talking about, but I took note of it.

Throughout the day I thought of all the areas in which I needed that self control/discipline: Sticking to my budget, eating the foods that were best for my temple, managing my time effectively, keeping my morning appointments with God…etc. As the day turned into days and then weeks, it seemed as if the more I focused on Self Control, the more elusive it became. It really didn’t make sense. And of course, the over achiever that I am, caused me to beat up on myself.

A month later I was sitting downstairs again, early morning, and God said “You have been focusing on the wrong word in the sentence.” Okay. He said “the word you need to focus on is ‘season’. Seasons change and each season is to be used for preparation for the next”.

Then He said “look outside”. “Look at the trees, they are shedding their leaves in preparation for the next season; winter. If they don’t shed their leaves in the fall, they will not survive the winter”.

The tree in my front yard had bright red falling leaves and the one in the back yard had no leaves. So I did a quick search and found that deciduous trees shed their leaves in autumn or ‘fall’ so that they will have enough nutrients to survive in the winter. Both the tree and the leaves would not survive in the next season.

One of the things I love most about God, is that He KNOWS His children. Instead of focusing on what I couldn’t get right, He merely showed me WHY it was important for me to get it right; to exercise Self Control. If I didn’t flip my bad habits and hone in my good ones, I would not survive or be successful in the next season He has for me.

This made sense to me. It seemed like my own personal parable 🙂

So this I share….what things, habits, people, relationships are you trying to drag to the next season? What skills and habits do you need to hone in this season so that you will be ready for the next? Whatever that is….

Prepare, prepare, prepare!  Shed those leaves. Life will seem overwhelming if you don’t. Because you will only have enough energy for your own survival and none to help or tolerate anyone else.

A man without self control is like a city broken into and left without walls (Prov 25:28)

Blessings

JC

 

~Delayed Gratification~

Crowders Mountain…

This past Saturday some of the women from my church and I took a trip and climbed Crowders Mountain. This was my first time climbing any kind of mountain recreationally, so I was excited. Killer smoothie for breakfast, ice-cold water, camera slung, and chilled sliced plums awaiting my descent; I was ready.

all smiles and ready to go…

I already knew I was going to blog about this, even had a name ready; “View from the Top”.

Well on the way up, we missed the turn for our intended route and ended up taking a much longer and harder route to the top of the mountain (a whole other life lesson here, but I shall not digress). It started out fine, but then there were hills after hills and no designated resting place. My breathing was labored and legs felt taxed. But ALL of that evaporated the instant I made it to the top and saw the view.

For some reason, of the whole trip, that instant feeling was heightened and highlighted. I was just amazed to myself that I couldn’t even drum up in my mind how tired my legs felt just moments earlier. I thought of that feeling the whole way down and on the ride home; just couldn’t shake it. The next morning, as I mulled it over, God said He didn’t want me to talk about the view from the top, but about Delayed Gratification. So here goes…