Tag Archives: motivation

Do the right thing

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Do you do the right thing just because its the right thing? Is that a bad thing?

I have always tried to do the right thing because it was right even when I didn’t want to do it, sometimes to my own detriment. Interestingly enough I never want somebody to do something for me if they don’t want to do it. I feel intentions matter and if you’re heart isn’t in, don’t do it for me.

In Sunday school we talked about doing the right thing because it’s right and my friend said its like by building muscle memory. The more you do it the better you grow and develop that muscle. I hadn’t thought about it that way before. The more you do something the more you want to do it. Which makes good sense. Joyce Meyer says the mark of spiritual growth is sometimes doing things you don’t want to do. I appreciate that and I am working on it.

I remember when I first started going to Sunday school I didn’t want to go. I only went because the teacher asked me like three times to go. I went and I did enjoy it and I have been going since he invited me, almost 2 months ago.

doing-the-right-thing

That’s the thing with doing what’s right even when you don’t want to, God will change your desires to match his desires. If you are continuously doing something and you still don’t like it and it has been a few months, pray about it. Even though God is more concerned with our character than comfort, he doesn’t want us to be miserable. If you are not growing in a situation then it may be time to reevaluate.

I talked about doing the right thing even when you don’t want in my post WWJD. In that post it was more about doing the right thing when somebody is being reckless and you decide to be the bigger person. In the situation I’m referencing now, I am thinking more about going to church when you don’t feel like it, volunteering, going to baby shower/retirement party/social activity when you don’t want to, visiting your grandma, things like that. Sometimes it is good to push outside your comfort zone because things are usually worse in our heads than in real life. You may even get there, enjoy yourself and want to do it more often.

SOAP bible study method

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Do you feel like you do enough bible study? I know I don’t. I have been trying to do 30 minutes a day 5-6 days a week. The struggle is definitely real. Its hard. There are so many methods out there. I am going to be trying a few of them out and letting you guys know how they work. The SOAP method is one I found on Pintrest a few years ago and I really like it. Its so simple, it can easily be done in 15 minutes. Its a great way to get some time in with God and it helps you dig deeper into the word. If you want to longer than 10-15 minutes you could do longer passages but when I first started out, I did one verse everyday. I wrote them down all in the same place, so when I when I needed that encouragement later it was handy.

SOAP-Bible-Study-Method

S: I do believe, help me overcome my belief! Mark 9:24

O: I do believe; I’m just scared it wont happen. I do believe, I just don’t want to be disappointed.

A: This verse is instruction. God is telling me to ask Jesus to help me with my unbelief. God made me a promise that I am waiting to be fulfilled and I believe but its hard. Jesus went through the same thing I am going through which is why he wants me to ask him for help.

P: Jesus please help me with my unbelief. I am trying so hard but I have wanted this baby for so long that I don’t think I can take another disappointment. Please help me pray without ceasing. You say ask and we shall receive. Please intercede on my behalf. I know you have been were I have and you didn’t let your circumstances change how you feel about your father. You were able to keep your faith. Please tell me what to do to be all more like you. I’m ready and willing to do whatever it takes. Thank you for being an intercessory for me. With you I know I can do all things because you give me strength. Thank you. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

Be Humble.

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God does not like the proud. AT. ALL.

opposesproud

I never thought I was a person that had a problem with humility. I am not a bragger, I don’t take credit for others people work, I am not obnoxious. These are the things I think about when I think of person with a humility problem. As God has been working on me, I discovered that humility is a multilayered concept and once I start peeling back the onion that I wasn’t as humble as I thought I was. I was listening to Joyce Meyer the other day and she had this list of characters traits of people who are humble. Once I heard this list I knew I had some work to do.

Humble people:

  • Ask for help, don’t insist that things go there on way-I don’t ask for help because I don’t typically do things I don’t know how to do already.
  • Quick to forgive, slow to offend glad to wait on God for vindication
  • Patient and long suffering with weakness of other people- I work in a high school. I am not always patient with people weaknesses because I hate to see wasted potential. I have students who are in the top 10% of the class not doing anything and it makes me so mad, and then I lose my patience with them. I have to remind myself they are just children.
  • Peace maker and peace lover
  • Romans 12 never overestimate yourself, adapt yourself to other people
  • Knows when to be quiet- I do not know when to be quiet. I talk entirely too much which is not always a bad thing. I am the person that used to always speak first in group settings, but now I try 3 before me. I also try to make sure that anything I have to add is necessary and beneficial to the conversation.
  • First to apologize-I am certainly not first to apologize because I don’t always feel that I am wrong. My husband is always first to apologize even when it isn’t his fault, which makes me really upset. He is one the most humble people I know though.
  • See and admit own weakness-I see them, but its much harder for me to admit them. I am working on it though. I talk about that some in this post. Is fear of failure selfish?
  • Gives credit where it’s due
  • Happily servers other people
  • Very thankful
  • Quick to repent- I am now. I think my problem before is that I didn’t realize I was doing things that didn’t please God. I am thankful for conviction.
  • Treats everyone with respect

I stumbled across this post at the Godly Chic Diaries about humility and it made a lot of sense. She brings up another layer of this humility onion. I will be talking more about as I work through these different layers.

How humble are you? After looking at this list do you see some things you need to work on?

Getting myself off my mind

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I told my friend I was trying not to pray for myself and she looked at me like I was crazy. I am definitely trying to do that though. I have my quiet time in the morning before I go to work. I read the bible for about 10-15 and then I journal before I get in the shower. Recently in that quiet time I have been trying to limit how much I pray for myself and focus more on praying for others. Some days the prayers are focused like I may pray for my husband all day or one of my friends or my mom or little brother and nephew. I say the same short prayer for myself every morning before I get in the shower. Lord help me have less of me and more of you. John 3:30

That’s it. God already knows what I need and what I desire. If I receive less of me and more of him, then I can handle any situation that comes at me. It will help me keep my flesh at bay and respond to things in a way that He would think is appropriate.

This article on Crosswalk speaks to exactly how I am feeling.

February wrap up

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I like reading other bloggers February wrap up or round up so I decided to do a monthly wrap up as well.

Favorite posts

Borrowing trouble

Conversant

Things I’m watching/reading

Sarah Jakes Roberts-I just discovered her on Youtube after listening to her husband Toure Roberts. I really enjoy her. She is young and fresh and energizing. She is also very transparent. I am excited about going back and watching her videos on Youtube.

John Gray-I just discovered him on Youtube as well. He is super funny. He may be a bit long winded but I really appreciate his story telling and his laid back approach.

https://youtu.be/mRdb4KYfZTY

Some personal things with me

I started going to Sunday school. I have not been to Sunday school in years. I go to a leadership meeting at church once a month for the caregroup I am in because I am the maturity coach. In the class we talk a lot about leadership and spiritual growth and I really enjoy it. One week in class, when we were discussing leadership, I asked, “what do you consider a leader?” He said, “Great question, you should come to my Sunday school class where I talk all about that.” He mentioned it like 2 more times before the meeting was over, so I felt like I had to go. I am glad I did. It has been dealing directly with some things that I had been praying about. I almost cried the first class. It was uncanny how much of what we discussed, I had previously been to God in prayer about. The class is about how to be a leader when you are not in charge. It has been very insightful to say the least.

I volunteered at the food pantry our church has the other day. It was really good to give back and just get myself off my mind. It also provided good perspective to check my privilege and social bias. I am going to try and volunteer there twice a month.

I also signed up to work in the daycare the church has one Sunday a month. I haven’t started that yet. I did send in my background check paperwork, so that’s a good start. I am hoping that I will be able to start in March.

Things I’m working on

Balance!

In between, work and church activities my past week was hectic. I was asleep before 9 for crying out loud! I didn’t get to hang out with my husband or do any blogging. My two favorite activities. To prevent this from happening again, I need to be more proactive with my blogging. I always have lots of things I want to write about or posts that are started but I need to spend more time scheduling posts. I also need to be more intentional sometimes about spending time with my husband or hitting him up during the work day.

work-life-balance-chart

WWJD

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Being the bigger person is hard. I guess that’s why its called bigger person in the first place. The bible says, die to self. That doesn’t mean when its convenient or when you want to, or only when the person is being reasonable. Its never convenient to put your own needs to the side especially when someone is being a jerk. Titus 2:12 instructs us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and live sensibly and godly in the present age. Cussing somebody out or snapping back at them when they say something reckless to us or deciding to not talk to a person because they work our nerves, is not godly. We know this, but sometimes we need a reminder. I know I do. My friend told me to cuss them out and pray for forgiveness later, but that isn’t godly either. I often have to stop and think, what would Jesus do?

Its hard to think of what would Jesus do when the people around you aren’t thinking or acting like Jesus.  I’m always try to weigh out my options and rationalize the situation for my ungodly response. I know God also wants us to be genuine in our dealings. Do I do the right thing because its the right thing? Do I not do it because I truly don’t want to? I really don’t know. I can see both sides. Usually I push myself to do the right thing even when I don’t want to because I don’t want to disappoint God. I want him to feel like I am acting out the things that I read in his word. When you know better you do better.

I know you are thinking that there were times when Jesus would get mad, he even flipped tables in the temples court, (Matthew 21:12) but it was godly anger, not anger based in the flesh. I read this blog post at challies.com that talks about righteous anger. Ephesians says get angry but do not let it cause you to sin. What?! How are we supposed do that? What does that even mean? Righteous anger means you are mad about someone actually sinning not about someone making you angry personally.

I heard a girl on a podcast I listen to say that when someone doesn’t treat us in the way we should be treated that it is an opportunity to come to God and pray for that person. The person doesn’t realize what they are doing or the impact of their words and actions. I will talk more about praying for you enemies in a later post, but I will say it does work. I have to remind myself even when its hard that its important to extend a little grace. Its not up to us to decide when we want to be godly or loving to someone. Its easy to love someone when they are treating you right but the life we are called to isn’t always going to be easy. I will tell you it won’t always be like this. There is something to be said about doing the right thing when everyone and everything is screaming at you to do the opposite. I sleep better knowing I made the right decision.

We all fall short, everyday, but the more you do the right thing when you don’t want too, the easier it will become to continue to do the right thing when the choice comes to you again. What would Jesus do? He would extend grace, he would pray for the person, he would correct them in love. He would turn the other cheek every single time, even if he did not want to. The next time you don’t want to be the bigger person, stop and ask yourself, what would Jesus do. Hopefully, that will change your response. If not, you know you can always ask for forgiveness later.

For more information:

3 Marks of Righteous Anger

Scriptures reference:

Titus 2:12

Ephesians 4:26

Matthew 18:22

Matthew 5:44