"Encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."
There have been times that I wasn't sure how I was going to get through a difficult situation. Most of my friends would tell me to pray about the difficulty and that they would pray with me and for me as well. Sometimes those friends would simply give me an answer there on the spot with it often not being the answer that I wanted to hear. Have you ever heard advice you'd rather not hear or worse yet, hear your own words uttered back to you from past conversations? It stings a little doesn't it? But each of those responses were necessary and each a form of encouragement to lift me up out of the situation and into the direction I needed to travel however hard the journey would be. Those same friends would not just leave me alone to fight the battle, but they stood in the gap and prayed for me even on days when I couldn't pray for myself. Those are my encouragers and my dearest friends. They don't always tell me what I want to hear but they tell me what I need to hear to move on. I have been resistant at times to listen to what one of them would share with me, sometimes even hurt by what was said because what I wanted to hear at the moment was the "perfect" easy fix instead of a word from God on how to grow through the hard times. Ouch.
There are other times that the shoe is on the other foot so to speak as well. I've been the one to listen to a friend and what I mean by listen is that I really sit there, ears open and mouth shut hearing what my brother/sister in Christ is going through. Some days I have no answers but am always ready to pray with them and for them to be the one standing in the gap for them. Other days I'm the one that gives the words that sting a little. I can always tell when a friend is secretly saying inside, "Heather, that is not what I wanted you to say." To be honest if I were going through their situation and was having to hear the words coming out of my heart (notice I didn't say mouth) I would be saying the same thing.
The difference between lifting a friend up and defeating their spirit is the communication that is shared between the two of you or perhaps even a small group. When the words spoken are coming from the heart and not simply the tongue they are coming from the Holy Spirit within the person which will breathe new life over that person and will lift them up through their deepest darkest places and begin them on a journey of restoration. Our journeys are not always easy, we could probably agree that most times they are a bit of a struggle but God gives us one another to encourage, to lift up and to be a friend who will stand in the gap when we are finding it difficult to cross through it ourselves.
A true friend may not give you all the answers that you seek, they may not have them. Maybe the answers they do have for you aren't the ones you are ready to hear because of the pain or indecision in your heart. But a true friend, the ones who desire to lift you up will be there to hold onto you, sometimes physically, but all the time prayerfully to see you through to the otherside of your battle. They are there to cheer you on, to cry out to the Father and to watch and perhaps learn as you grow.
I've heard time and time again that to have a friend you need to be a friend. hmmm, I don't know if I agree with that old saying. Sometimes I think we need to be a friend even when the other isn't much of a friend because maybe that is their battle and you need to stand in the gap and be that friend that helps them understand what a friend is. I don't say that for anyone to be a whipping post or to be burdened down by someone who can't seem to learn from past mistakes but we all had to learn what a friend was somehow, someway, right?
I'm thankful that God knew we'd need relationships/friendships to lift one another up. He knew that sometimes we'd need someone to come to the right and left of us and help us along our journey and that sometimes we'd be that one to the right or left of another. He gave us one another. Love thy neighbor is what his word says. The paths we walk are not always clear of hardships but it's so much easier to walk it with someone than to try it alone. God is always there for us and I'm sure someone would argue that he is all that anyone needs. Perhaps there is some truth to that, but God created us one for another in human flesh to encourage and cheer each other on.
Who today needs lifted up? Who do you turn to when you need encouraged? Are you willing to listen to the words that come from a friend's heart even when they may sting a little or would you rather stay in the mud puddles of life and be brought down further and further into the pain? Are you one who'd rather have an easy solution or a healing solution for a life-lifting change?
Blessings,
Heather
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Resilient; Isaiah 40:29
"He Gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak."
This past week at work we were required to take resiliency training. At first I was like many and didn't want to "have to" sit through yet another training session that didn't interest me. We were fortunate because the training wasn't too painful and infact, the instructor made it interactive and the time went quickly. What also made the training interesting was the fact that I was able to learn a bit more about those around me, you know the people you spend most of your days with and yet know so little about... yah those people.
The instructor kicked off the training by having us take a little test (no grades, no right/wrong answers) and then scored up our points at the end as an indication as to how resilient we'd rate ourselves based on the questions. My score came back fairly high. As the instructor asked each of us why we thought our score landed one way or another she came to me and I responded that I'd already been through the worst thing in life I could imagine so anything else wouldn't compare. I then added my faith is strong as well and that helps me. Now as I've had time to reflect on that question, my answer is more than I earlier responded. What I said was true, but it's more than just that. I missed my witnessing opportunity. Yes, I said my faith but it's more than just faith. God said in his word, "He gives strength to the weary..." that is why I can say I am resilient. God further says, "...and increases the power of the weak." I've overcome one of the greatest tragedies of my life because God gave me strength and continues to increase that strength when I'm at my weakest points.
So often I've heard people say that there are certain things in life they just couldn't handle or that they'd not survive. I'm here to proclaim... you'd be amazed at how strong you can be, not within yourself but through Christ. Our Savior endured more than we can imagine, suffered more than we'd want to ever know. Before the guards came to take Jesus in Matthew 26:39, "Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Just for that moment, a split second, as a man in flesh and bone, I believe Jesus may have thought maybe he just couldn't handle what he was about to face either. Can you imagine how he felt at that very moment? He knew he wouldn't survive, he knew his fate if he would save man from himself but he faced it, walked it, lived it and although died here on earth... he still endured, he still finished the good work he began here.
When I lost my son, I honestly didn't think that I'd survive. I had no idea how strong God would make me and how by spending 3 1/2 years with a life that was bigger and brighter than any one life I've ever known before or since I'd forever be changed, strengthened, encouraged, and determined to face whatever life had to throw my way because I was shown just what I was made of, and just how strong my God is. People are right, we can't survive situations or events, but we can overcome them through the strength and power that God gives us to bounce back from them.
I'm sure you have heard many people say that God never gives you more than you can handle and I'm sure many of you have said, really, I'm not sure about that at this point in my life with what I'm going through. Yet, we press on through the struggle and find that when we take it a moment at a time and get past that moment when we ask for the "cup to pass from us" we find that we begin to be strengthened and that God begins to increase our power to overcome and be a witness for him. It's through our struggles, our hardships that we grow and become more compassionate, loving people. It's that way in all things in nature. Think of the beautiful butterfly, what a struggle to come out of that cocoon but when it finally does look at how beautiful it is when it takes flight and dances in the sunbeams around the flowers drawing in life sustaining nectar. We are like those butterflies, struggling to come through a "cocoon" but when we do.... oh so beautiful dancing in the sOnbeams of this life.
How resilient are you? Do you count on your own strength when facing the battles of this life or do you turn to the one who created you and proclaimed that you would have the strength to take to make it? Casting Crowns sings a song that sums it up in a few short lyrics, "You were made to be Courageous". Your resiliency comes from the father who is always with you, who never forsakes you and who will never leave you.
Blessings,
Heather
This past week at work we were required to take resiliency training. At first I was like many and didn't want to "have to" sit through yet another training session that didn't interest me. We were fortunate because the training wasn't too painful and infact, the instructor made it interactive and the time went quickly. What also made the training interesting was the fact that I was able to learn a bit more about those around me, you know the people you spend most of your days with and yet know so little about... yah those people.
The instructor kicked off the training by having us take a little test (no grades, no right/wrong answers) and then scored up our points at the end as an indication as to how resilient we'd rate ourselves based on the questions. My score came back fairly high. As the instructor asked each of us why we thought our score landed one way or another she came to me and I responded that I'd already been through the worst thing in life I could imagine so anything else wouldn't compare. I then added my faith is strong as well and that helps me. Now as I've had time to reflect on that question, my answer is more than I earlier responded. What I said was true, but it's more than just that. I missed my witnessing opportunity. Yes, I said my faith but it's more than just faith. God said in his word, "He gives strength to the weary..." that is why I can say I am resilient. God further says, "...and increases the power of the weak." I've overcome one of the greatest tragedies of my life because God gave me strength and continues to increase that strength when I'm at my weakest points.
So often I've heard people say that there are certain things in life they just couldn't handle or that they'd not survive. I'm here to proclaim... you'd be amazed at how strong you can be, not within yourself but through Christ. Our Savior endured more than we can imagine, suffered more than we'd want to ever know. Before the guards came to take Jesus in Matthew 26:39, "Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Just for that moment, a split second, as a man in flesh and bone, I believe Jesus may have thought maybe he just couldn't handle what he was about to face either. Can you imagine how he felt at that very moment? He knew he wouldn't survive, he knew his fate if he would save man from himself but he faced it, walked it, lived it and although died here on earth... he still endured, he still finished the good work he began here.
When I lost my son, I honestly didn't think that I'd survive. I had no idea how strong God would make me and how by spending 3 1/2 years with a life that was bigger and brighter than any one life I've ever known before or since I'd forever be changed, strengthened, encouraged, and determined to face whatever life had to throw my way because I was shown just what I was made of, and just how strong my God is. People are right, we can't survive situations or events, but we can overcome them through the strength and power that God gives us to bounce back from them.
I'm sure you have heard many people say that God never gives you more than you can handle and I'm sure many of you have said, really, I'm not sure about that at this point in my life with what I'm going through. Yet, we press on through the struggle and find that when we take it a moment at a time and get past that moment when we ask for the "cup to pass from us" we find that we begin to be strengthened and that God begins to increase our power to overcome and be a witness for him. It's through our struggles, our hardships that we grow and become more compassionate, loving people. It's that way in all things in nature. Think of the beautiful butterfly, what a struggle to come out of that cocoon but when it finally does look at how beautiful it is when it takes flight and dances in the sunbeams around the flowers drawing in life sustaining nectar. We are like those butterflies, struggling to come through a "cocoon" but when we do.... oh so beautiful dancing in the sOnbeams of this life.
How resilient are you? Do you count on your own strength when facing the battles of this life or do you turn to the one who created you and proclaimed that you would have the strength to take to make it? Casting Crowns sings a song that sums it up in a few short lyrics, "You were made to be Courageous". Your resiliency comes from the father who is always with you, who never forsakes you and who will never leave you.
Blessings,
Heather
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