Being Kind and Gentle

There's a lot of pressure in our society to do great things and be a success. It's wonderful to have goals and work on things but it's never good when this pressure becomes stressful. There's always talk of being kind to others, but how about being kind to ourselves? It's always good to include ourselves in that kindness.

I have been feeling really tired and a little under the weather recently. I don't know if it's allergies, heat, or that I'm still trying to recover. Regardless, my first "go to" emotion is guilt because I'm not getting things done I think I should. Can you relate? I tried to push through and work on things but finally realized I was doing something to myself that I would never do to someone else. If I knew one of my family was not feeling well, I would tell them to rest and take it easy. Why not myself? Finally, I decided I would just rest and work on my cross stitch and watch my favorite British tv shows. I pulled out my bears and blocks project and worked on it.

It ended up being a productive day, just in a different way than I had envisioned. Plus, spending the day resting was really helpful in making me feel better the very next day. Even if I would have had to spend more than one day resting, that would have been okay. I realized that putting pressure on myself to achieve whatever goals I had in mind for that day, is counterproductive and that I need to listen to my body and mind.

We all work so hard in our lives but it's also good to rest. God rested on the seventh day after spending six days creating this amazing world and all that is in it. He set the example of showing us that we need rest. It's not a sin to rest (only to be lazy) and I do think I need to remember that it's okay to be kind and gentle with myself. Perhaps this is something you need to remember for youself, too.

Many blessings - Julie

The Weakest Among Us

 

 "For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;  God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written," "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
- 1 Corinthians 1:22-31

I have been really thinking about my weaknesses and wondering how in the world the Lord could possibly use me. I have so many weaknesses now that my eyes can only look to the Lord for any strength. I have no strength of my own - only God's - and perhaps that is the point. God uses the weakest among us to bring glory to Him. If only that is so in my life.

I never want anything to be about me. I want everything I do that's good to be for the Lord - glory for the Lord. I never want to dishonor Him by doing something that is not kind or good. It can be in little things that I do this: 

• Being kind to the nurses in the hospital despite how they may treat me
• Being kind to my home care nurses & never being demanding
• Treating my family with love and care even when I don't feel good
• Treating my friends with respect and love 
• Praying when I say I'm going to pray for people 
• Doing what I can in the circumstances I'm in for God

I can't do these things in my own power. There are times when I want to just be cranky and not kind. There are times when I want to lash out. I will confess here that I did just that about 2 months ago at our WalMart. My husband and I were doing self-checkout - something my hubby loathes, by the way - but we only had about 5 things so I figured it would be faster. As you know, you have to keep things on the scale to keep the crazy computer from going nuts. As my hubby was moving a bag from the holder to the scale, the machine went off again and the woman came over and said, "You have to keep the bags there." I said to her, "Well, how are we supposed to do that when we have to move the bag down to put more stuff in a new bag? That's just ridiculous!" Insert my very snotty tone here and you get the picture. I was actually shocked at how I snapped her head off as I never, ever do this. I did apologize to her and asked her forgiveness, but the damage was done. I had been snotty rather than kind and made someone else feel bad. This did not glorify the Lord at all and I have felt bad about it ever since. 

It takes God's strength for me to treat others with kindness when I don't feel like it. It's so easy to just make others feel bad when we ourselves are feeling bad. I can't do it on my own. My sinful nature wants to come out and I have to really stay in the Word of God and pray for God to give me a good attitude. Keeping my thoughts focused on my blessings really helps me with this and, believe me, I have so many blessings! A family who cares for me, friends who care about me, many prayers being said for me, wonderful nurses and doctors who have helped me, and the fact that God has been with me through this. Those are huge, huge blessings and I am so thankful! It's not really a bad thing to be the weakest among us after all.

Blessings - Julie