Heading to bed now before I fall asleep. Suppose I'd better clear up all the photos I've spread over the floor first! #fb1 hour ago
One of my cousins sent me a pile of old photos of dad from years ago with his mum n dad n sister. Lovely but emotional looking thru them #fb1 hour ago
RT @BSAB_info: Just a reminder for all BSAB members, the band practice is tomorrow night (Wed) at 8pm in Motherwell SA hall, Camp Street, M… 3 hours ago
If I were to ask you what your greatest weakness is, what would your answer be?
Thomas Alva Edisononce said, “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up.” – Would you agree with that statement?
I certainly think there’s a fair element of truth in that statement, as I can think of situations in my own life where I gave up just because things were getting a bit difficult. I’ve also seen friends and colleagues give up on their dreams and aims, because they haven’t had the confidence in their own ability or they’ve listened to some people around them who think they know better and have told them not to be so daft trying to do x or y as they’ll never do it!
That surely is a good example of how not to encourage or motivate others!
The greatest motivator you will ever find is God, as He believes in you always, no matter how ridiculous or far-fetched others may think your dreams are. So don’t give up, trust the great motivator, God, to keep you going and reach your goals.
Today I want to continue looking at how, as Christians, we should live our lives, using words from the bible for guidance.
The text I want to use today is from1 Thessalonians 5:13-15 (The Message):
Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part. Our counsel is that you warn the freeloaders to get a move on. Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other’s nerves you don’t snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.
In the same way as I talking about how we must be supportive and encouraging towards our leaders/managers in yesterday’s blog post (Support Them, Always!), the same applies to our relationships with one another. i.e. We must try to always be loving and supportive of others.
God doesn’t expect us all to become the best of friends, but He does expect us to respect one another and support each other. Just because we don’t necessarily agree with someone’s viewpoint or perspective, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t love them and respect them. After all none of us are perfect, we all have our faults, we all have our good points and our bad points, but God love each one of us in spite of them!
If God can love each of us despite our faults, surely we must try our hardest to encourage one another, despite our religious, economic, political, environmental or physical differences. So reach out and help those around you, they need you, they need God.
In summary The Way He Wants You To Live #2 – get on with everyone you meet, support and encourage them at all times.
They Need Christ (John Gowans)There are people living in the world out there… They need you, they need me, they need Christ;There are children crying and no one to care…They need you, they need me, they need Christ.And they’ll go on hurting in the world out there,And they’ll go on dying, drowning in despair,And they’ll go on crying, that’s unless we care:They need you, they need me, they need Christ.There are people living who would rather die…They need you, they need me, they need Christ; And their Christian neighbours simply pass them by… They need you, they need me, they need Christ.There are people sitting by a silent phone, People cold and hungry, people left alone, Suicides for reasons that remain unknown: They need you, they need me, they need Christ.There’s the prostitute and there’s the prisoner too… They need you, they need me, they need Christ; There’s the ‘skid row’ fella who has lost a shoe… They need you, they need me, they need Christ.The compulsive gambler dreaming of his yacht, And the lad that’s stealing just to get his ‘shot’, And the kid that’s pregnant and pretends she’s not: They need you, they need me, they need Christ.There are runaways who want a place to go… They need you, they need me, they need Christ; There are alcoholics who don’t seem to know… They need you, they need me, they need Christ; There are God-less people who have lost their way, And they need God’s love but they’re afraid to say. If we close our eyes perhaps they’ll go away Without you, without me, without Christ;They need you, they need me, they need Christ.
I’m sure we each have some relationships we consider to be more important than others. In the same way the type of relationships we have with others varies in each relationship. i.e. Those who in positions of authority expect us to obey them, and we expect them to know what they’re talking about, so typically we do as they say. On the other hand, friends expect us to offer support, encouragement and fun, which is what we expect from them.
…and then there’s our relationship with God…God expects us to love Him and trust Him and tell others all about what He has done for us and can do for them.
Regardless of who our relationship is with, our manager at work, a friend or God, we must constantly work to develop those relationships. All relationships need to be constantly developed if they are to remain happy, healthy and rewarding relationships.
So how do we develop our relationship with God?
As with all things, we must pray and read our bible so that we might develop our understanding of God and allow our faith and trust in Him to become stronger.
So make today the day you start redeveloping your relationship with God.
In the last couple of days I’ve spoken about how we must continue to encourage others (see Carry On Encouraging and Encouraged). Today I want to move on to talk about the opportunities that arise for us to encourage or lead someone to God.
Please pray that I will make the message as clear as possible.
When you are with unbelievers, always make good use of the time.
Be pleasant and hold their interest when you speak the message. Choose your words carefully and be ready to give answers to anyone who asks questions.
It doesn’t matter where you are, or even who you’re with, whether it’s someone you know or someone you’ve never met before, when an opportunity arises to tell someone about God or simply encourage them, we must make sure we take those opportunities.
As Christians God expects us to encourage others and try to bring others into a relationship with Him. However we disappoint God if we don’t take advantage of the opportunities when they are presented to us. So pray that God will help you make the most of the opportunities you come across, so that you may the source of encouragement and guidance that someone needs.
We are presented with opportunities for a reason – not so we can watch them pass us by, but so we can grab them with both hands and make them into something special for God.
We’re always told that we should encourage others, but sometimes it can feel as if it’s an unthankful or unrewarding task. However please do not ever underestimate the impact a word of encouragement can have on a person, as often it we will not see the results of the encouragement we have given until a much later time, if at all.
Don’t ever let that discourage you from encouraging another just because you don’t think it will make a difference. You may never know the difference a few words of encourage make in someone’s life so please continue to encourage your those you come into contact with.
Thank you Judith, I am touched and honoured to accept this award. I’d just like to say a big thank to you though for all your support and encouragement with my blog and other things too. :-)
The ‘Lovely Blog’ Rules:-
1. Link back to the person who nominates you for this award.
2. Pass it along to 7 other ‘Inspiring Bloggers’.
3. Share 7 things about yourself. So here’s a list of 7 “Inspiring Bloggers”….so many to choose from, so who will I choose…So in no particular order we have
It’s over 20 years since I graduated from university!
When I was young, I collected stamps
I haven’t played tennis since 2003 – prior to that I usually played 3 - 5 times a week
I started going to piano lessons when I was 7
My favourite ice cream this summer is Ben n Jerry’s Caramel Chew Chew
Many thanks to all you folk you write blogs. Please keep on blogging because this is one medium that we can never truly know how many people we touch or inspire.
We’ve been thinking about influences the last few days (Looking or Not and Your Influence), but today I want to focus your thoughts on those who have influenced you.
Who have been or are your biggest influences?
For each person you’ve identified as an influence in your life, consider the following:
Do they know how much they have influenced you? (don’t assume anything!)
Are they a positive or negative influence?
Positive Influencers
Positive influencers can be many things. Here’s a few examples:
make you feel happy
help you grow spiritually
mentor you in a work capacity
If they’ve been a good influence on you:
Have you told them that?
Have you thanked them?
Go on, tell them the next time you’re speaking to them, it may well make their day!
Negative Influencers
Negative influencers can be many things. Here’s a few examples:
make you feel worthless/useless
encourage you to do/say things that you don’t agree with
continually mood or talk negatively
How long have you know they are a negative influence you? Or have I just focused your thoughts so you could identify them for the first time?
Take control of your live! Don’t let negative influences continue to influence you. I don’t mean you have to stop talking to the people you feel are negative influences on you – I just think it’s more about you taking control of your life, and deciding for yourself what and who influences you. I have people in my life who are bad influences on me, so I know I need to take my own advice and not let these people influence me in this way any longer.
The Changeby Steven Curtis Chapman:
C’mon, together we can overcome our negative influencers and be more positive people!
Hebrews 6:11 (New Living Translation) Our great desire is that you will keep right on loving others as long as life lasts, in order that to make certain that what you hope for will come true.
How do we keep on loving others as long as life lasts? It’s a daunting task and one which seems impossible to achieve when we are caught up with our own corners and problems. It’s difficult to find the emotional energy to “keep right on loving” at these times. It’s equally as hard when some of those we love don’t reciprocate or are unlovable.
Hebrews 6:10 (New Living Translation) For God is not unfair. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown you love to him by caring other Christians, as you still do.
In the above verse from Hebrews, we find encouragement to keep on loving, when we’re informed that God does recognise how hard we have worked to try and love everyone, even if we haven’t succeeded.
But this still doesn’t make it any easier to love as long as life lasts. So how do we achieve this? We do so by faith and patience, in the knowledge that this is the best way to show God how much we love Him – God likes when we tell Him we love Him, but likes it even more when we show Him by loving other Christians.
Whenever we call a friend in trouble and take time to listen to their struggles, or we look after a child to give their single parent a break, or when we pay a bill for someone whose struggling to make ends meet, or when we invite people to our house to eat knowing their struggling to be able to afford a decent meal for the whole family, or when we visit those in hospital who have no family to care about them, we show God how much we love Him!
We can sometimes find that other Christians are the hardest people to love but God can love them through us so don’t give up trying to love them. The day we stop caring, loving and doing things for our brothers and sisters in Christ is the day we “become spiritually dull and indifferent” (Hebrews 6:12).
What do you do for other Christians? It’s not enough just to pray for them and say we love them. God sees our heart and watches our life. He knows what we’re doing and when he sees us love and care for His people, He will not forget to reward us!
God wants and needs us all to spread His message throughout the word. That means he needs me and he needs you to tell others about God, to teach them His word.
Do you feel overwhelmed at this responsibility? I certainly do! But there is no need for us to feel like this, all we must do is ask God to teach us!
So ask God to let His Word, the Word of Christ, dwell in you so that you may know His forgiveness and love. Ask Him to provide you with the wisdom to teach and encourage others, so that His Word may dwell richly in them as well.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:16 (NIV)
Teaching others about God should be something we all do willingly and energetically, so ask God today to help you teach others of His love and understanding.
How much of you does God want you to give Him? How much of your life have you given to Him?
If your answer to both these questions is not “Everything”, please ask yourself why.
There is no doubt that God does want you to give your whole life to Him. He wants all of you. So why have you not given God your all? Are you scared of what he’ll ask you to do? Do you feel you’re not worthy of God’s love? Are you scared of what your family or friends might think?
Whatever your reasons, God can and will help give you the strength and encouragement to do all He wants you to do. Psalm 199:76-77 (NIV) May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant. Let your compassion come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight. The following are the words of a beautiful song “All There Is of Me” by Sydney Cox, which I find expresses my desire to give “all there is of me” to God:
All there is of me, Lord, All there is of me. Time and talents, day by day, All I give to Thee.
All there is of me, Lord, All there is of me. On Thine altar here I lay, All there is of me.
For time and for eternity, Take all there is of me.
In the same way as I talking about how we must be supportive and encouraging towards our leaders/managers in yesterday’s blog post (
