Eliminate the Negative

 Hey There! Happy Saturday!

I hope you have had a good week! Mine has been long and sometimes exhausting but overall, I realized this morning in my talk with God that the good by far outweighed the bad.

When it seems like I have had a hard week, I fall back on something I used to have my AWANA boys do when it seemed like they were having a tough time. Give me 5 things. Just 5 things that went right this week. 

Here are the FIRST five that came to mind:

1. I had a goal to make it back to the gym Mon-Fri of this week, and I did.

2. I had a goal to walk on the treadmill at least 30 minutes each of those days, and I did.

3. On Wednesday, I was asked to be a panelist for a workshop at the National Energy and Utility Affordability Conference. I was honored and gladly accepted.

4. Yesterday I was asked to hold a 4 hour workshop to help with customer satisfaction for not only our agency but two others. Again, I was honored and gladly accepted.

5. I travelled 2 days this week, being away from home for 4 meals and didn't come home to a weight gain.

Those are the first five I thought of. Was that my original mindset for the day? Nope

One of my first thoughts was, when I got on the scales after doing all that working out and eating correctly was disappointment as they hadn't moved all week

Another one is I have to buy groceries- enough said.

Another was it is Saturday and I have more on my list to do today than I have hours and most of it is have to stuff.

Then I looked in the mirror and I don't know about you, but looking in my mirror first thing of a morning is just not one of my favorite things. I got a kick out of my mom the other day, we were in the middle of a conversation about my clothes or something similar and she says, "But you always look nice" and then she says, "except on Saturday mornings, when you are home, you don't always look nice on Saturday mornings". lol. Okay, she may have facetimed me a few times when it was mid morning and I was still in my PJs. I have a habit of staying in my PJs until my house is cleaned up because once the house is cleaned, I wanna go do something so I will have to change clothes if I have gotten dirty cleaning house. This is a habit that my mom does not approve of, lol. 

Just for her, I went and got dressed after I looked in the mirror, lol.

Anyway..... What defines a good day to you? What defines a bad one? 

I guess my close to perfect as possible good day would be one where I get up, do my Bible Study, 

  Funny enough, going to the gym and getting my Bible Study in go hand in hand as my gym is 30 minutes away and Our Daily Bread is available in audio, So my ritual there is get in the car and do my Bible Study, I have a habit of whatever verses ODB gives for the day, I switch over to my Bible app and have that chapter read to me in full, By this time I am at Dietrich and I spend from Dietrich into Effingham having my morning conversation with God, also known as my prayer time but I honestly believe by that time I am in the right frame of mind to really listen with my heart for his responses to my comments and requests. 

Back to my good day--get to the gym, go to work, get everything in my day planner done, take care of everyone who calls and has a problem, come home to a clean house, eat dinner that someone else has fixed (over the years, I did the cooking 90% of the  time, the last few years that has shifted and I love it!) clean up the kitchen, relax and be in bed by 9. 

I am sure that "take care of everyone who calls and has a problem" shocks some and I really had to think about it. Do I want people to have problems? Nope, but do I want to be able to help when they do? Yes and the later is much more likely than the former.

I think I am even taking a lot for granted here, I am sure some people can call it a good day when they are still around for their head to hit the pillow that night. When they have gotten to spend just even a few minutes talking with a loved one, or when they can say they have just made it through it.

The Bible reminds us in Psalms 118:24 that "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

And on to what defines a bad day? When you spill an entire cup of coffee on you walking down the steps on your way to the car to go to work? When your low tire light is on and you are already late? When someone calls upset because they didn't get the help they thought they would be eligible for?  Or what about those really bad ones, the day the doctor says the word, cancer; or the day a loved one is gone, 

The last ones sure make the first ones feel insignificant all of a sudden, don't they? In my daily life, it is heartbreaking to me when I can't help a customer. There are reasons, and normally it is because we have already helped all we can, but that doesn't make it easier. Those last two, I'm not even going to try to say, oh no, you shouldn't call that a bad day. Those are bad days. 

One of my favorite verses for bad days is Romans 8:18

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that is to be revealed to us."

And then of course, my all time, really, really favorite verse Isaiah 41:10, "Fear thou not for I am with thee, be not dismayed for I am your God, I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold you on the right hand of my righteousness."

(Little teeny, tiny side note here--have you ever realized most anger comes from fear? Just think about that.)

The thing is, the Holy Spriit is there, with us, having our truly bad days with us. The rest? Okay, so you poured coffee on you on your way out the door, at least you are still home to change clothes. The low tire light is a lot better than a blowout at 55mph. When things like this happen I always think of my friend Amy. She had cystic fibrosis and was a trooper beyond belief. It was unreal all the things she went through, but when you would ask her how she always stayed so positive she would say she was sure someone out there was worse off than her. She was amazing at eliminating the negative and counting her blessings. She didn't let people or situations steal her joy.

I had another friend, an older woman, who lived on the other side of town from me growing up but in her final years, she was my mom's next door neighbor. I remember being in probably 7th grade and being at her house. There was a magnet on her stove that said something in the effect of "For every moment you chose to be sad, or angry, you lose a moment of happiness."

I think of that often, there are times we cannot help our sadness and frustration, at those times, you just have to let God hold you through them and lean on Him, But there are so many times we can make the choice to be happy. Don't waste those moments.

I am leaving you today with a different song, this is a song I listen to while I am at the gym, it is not a Christian based song, but it is a good song and it helps me get my head into the right mindset for the day. And I am sure we probably all think of God as pretty stoic but somehow, I wonder if he didn't have fireworks in mind when he made some of us. I kinda hope he did with me.

You believe what you are told, especially about yourself, so I am going to tell you over and over, you are amazing! Hope that helps you have a great day!

Accentuating the Positive

 Happy Saturday morning!

Hope everyone is having a great, maybe a little laid back, start to the day. What a week! (Do I say that every week?) This week, we moved one of our ERBA outreach offices. I had the IT stuff all coordinated with the new building's CIO and we thought we had it all worked out----until we didn't. By the end of day one, we had plans B,C,D and E in our head but no proof that any of them would work, or more importantly, work quickly. Plan B was the second most viable and I was told on Day 2 that it would take 2-10 days to put in place. 3 hours later, after much prayer, and honestly praying someone else hadn't done their job completely, we were up and running! Pretty close to a miracle. So, Day 1's disaster turned into Day 2's big win. 

Our whole week has been a series of ups and downs, and maybe most weeks are like that but this week it felt very pronounced.  We had been praying hard for a couple of things and one of them, we were told no and the other, we were told wait. Those aren't fun.

Something else that happened though is I am working on a training for staff that may have turned into a training for some outside our own agency as well. The official topic? "Utilizing a Strength-Based Approach to Implement ROMA Throughout the CAA" for those of you not in the Community Action World.--ROMA= Results Oriented Management and Accountability. A very fancy acronym for "make sure what you are doing actually works". But the bottom line of this training is how to better look for the strengths in people instead of weaknesses. Which of course, got me thinking.

The name of my blog is louder than the voices because I always hear the voices in my head that says I am not good enough, not smart enough, not pretty enough, you know the ones. Most of you probably hear them too. And I wonder what that really does to our ability to see the best in others when we struggle so badly to just see the best in ourselves.

I'm not talking about being proud, or arrogant but I am talking self worth, and the belief that God doesn't make junk. EVER. Twofold there, That means both you and the person you meet. And I will admit, after talking about bullies last week, it is hard to  face that God made those behaving badly as well. He created all of us as beautiful souls, we don't always chose to let Him shine through us though.

Years and years ago, as I was starting on my social services journey, my first credential was Family and Community Development Specialist. During my classes, I was to pick one of our customers and do case management on them. 

The customer I picked was a husband and wife with two small children. She worked at a local store and he had held several jobs but was working for a local farm chemical plant. In my head, I had already set out what perfect would be for them.  Both of them having stable work, a better place to live, and being stable enough to not need our services. At the same time, Andrew and I were still renting as well, and even though we had a nice place, it wasn't our own.

One of the questions that we were to ask was called the "miracle question". If you were to wake up tomorrow morning and a miracle had happened and everything n your life had changed, what would be different". My OWN immediate response was, we would own our own house and it would be paid off, we would have plenty of money to do the things we need and the things we want and our whole family would be healthy and happy.

I had already imposed my miracle on my customer and I pondered all of this a lot when I asked the mom this question. Her answer was immediately, "my bathroom wouldn't leak". I was humbled and confused. Were they so far down that they couldn't think of dreaming any bigger? Were they really that content with their lives and happy? And, who was I to decide their future? Yes, I am in the business of helping people get out of poverty, and the miracle I had for them never happened the way I thought it would,  but let me tell you what did happen. This couple have stayed together for close to 30 years now, their children are all 3 (they had one more after they were my case study) college graduates and have good careers, one has a very exciting career and I love watching her life unfold. His parents passed away and left their house to this couple and they are on solid ground. I am also sure their bathroom no longer leaks. 

The Bible tells us many times to count our blessings. 

Just a couple of quick Psalms

103:2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

and

116:12 What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?

So, I am going to turn this a bit. The next time you see someone and think, "What is wrong with you?" (and just for the record, the true thought should really be, "What happened to you?" as life makes us all different) maybe look for the good, "What is right with you?" Just a thought and one that might just lead to a little better world. Don't impose your dreams on others, Don't make their choices based on what you would do. I am not talking about your kids, or those close to you who seek your advice and opinions.  I am talking the people you meet in the grocery store, that mom whose kids are throwing a fit and we are all quick to judge might just need a quick, "you are doing okay", I have encountered that situation before, and of course, was in that situation before. When a mom of a strong willed child looks at me apologetically in a store, as her child is throwing a fit for something and the mom is having to say no, I remind her, they will be 30 before you know it, and that strong will can turn into a leader because they aren't afraid to speak their mind.  Lol, my mom always told me never come home from school and tell her somebody talked me into doing something, she would always know better. Needless to say, me having to deal with Robert's fits were payback for my own, lol.

Running out of time this morning so not leaving you a song today, I may add one later, I may not.

Have a great week!