A blog is a great place to put pictures of what you are doing and to add a few comments here and there for everyone to look at and enjoy but it is also an extension of the person who is hosting the blog. It should also let people know who the person is, what things are important to them, what are their values and beliefs, what do they enjoy etc... I have a tendency to simply post pictures with the comments but there are other things that are important to me. One is the book the "Last Lecture" I have not watched it all nor have I read the book but I was hoping at our next book club meeting we might all decide to read it together so I was holding off for a bit. I saw about 10 minutes of it on Friday night at the Ethics meeting. It was powerful stuff and I mean powerful, life changing stuff. If we knew we were going to die would we let the petty stuff bother us? If we knew we only had a short time would we spend it mad at each other or would we enjoy those around us and be happy for everyone. Tom always says you "Choose" to be happy. You and only you can decide what you want to be that day. I have a saying on my computer that say "I cannot control what they say BUT I can control my response to it" I can choose to let it bother me or not. That brings us to what I wanted to post today. Some of you know that I enjoy Joel Osteen. I like listening to his half hour podcasts each week and there are some that are my favorite. I wanted to share a bit from one of my favorites called How to handle criticism. It is powerful as well. It really is hard to shake it off. I have heard different variations of it like let go and let God. These are all ways to "choose" what our response is. Most of you know that I am not a confrontational person. I hate confrontation in fact I hate it so much that I simply go out of my way to avoid it. But confrontation is a variation of criticism and so I am going to share some of Joel's words from How to Handle Criticism part 2..
This is my bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today I will be taught the word of God. I bodly confess my mind is alert , my heart is receptive, I will never be the same.
Don't allow the criticism to change you. We need to be tough on the outside but you have to stay tender on the inside. Too often we become hard and critical and cynical if we are not careful and wev'e seen people be two face and wev'e seen hypocritical talk behind our back. It's easy to let their poison get on the inside of us and start to change us but you've got to keep those stones out of your well. You've got to keep your heart pure and learn to stay true to who God has made you to be. I found sometimes when people see little quirks in our personality or even something about our appearance they start to kind of make fun of it and most often we over compensate and it starts affecting our personality and the way we carry ourselves. We cannot let people's cutting remarks and their insensitive words to cause us to be self concious and start to change. We should not allow what other people say or what other people think change us from who God made us to be. Be confident in who you are. Learn to roll with the punches. What I am saying is #1 you've got to be able to laugh at yourself and #2 don't let the criticism change you.Start shaking stuff off. If your going to do anything great in life your going to have the critics. The slingers will always be there but I am asking you today not to drink of their poison and when those stones come make sure you have a lid on your well. Keep your heart pure. Remember not everybody's going to understand you . Not everybody's going to accept you . Just run your race. Stay focused on what God's called you to do. If you handle criticism the right way and not let it get on the inside I know this. God will not only fight your battles for you but he'll take care of your critics for you . You'll live that life of victory he has in store for you.
This is just in the middle. I will post some from #1 and #3 in the next few days. If you want to go watch it then you can find it on youtube just type in Joel Osteen How to handle criticism.
