Perfection

No one is perfect... that's why pencils have erasers - unknown

Yes there are things that we have set out to do that didn't turn out quite as we hoped it would. But what do we do after that??? You learn from the experience, realize you made a mistake, give yourself some credit for trying, try not to approach it the same way at your next attempt, accept the grace to start over and then begin again.

Life is full of these types of moments....how we bounce back is a test of our character and a reflection of how much we are willing to accept failure.

Happy Wednesday!

Mistakes

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them - John C. Maxwell

You may be able to get away with covering your wrong doings for a little while. But there will come a time when you will not be trusted for anything you do or say if you don't start admitting to your mistakes.

Admitting to your mistakes keeps your integrity, makes you respectable and allows you to be trustworthy.

Happy Sunday!

Fugitive of a Hardened Heart

It has been my prayer throughout reading this book that we would all come to see jealousy as a symptom of a broken heart.  Somewhere, we have come to believe the lie that our God is not trustworthy in His justice towards us.  The fallout of the untruth is that we cannot believe that God loves us, because our idea of His goodness has been skewed by life's difficult and inexplicable circumstances.

This scripture gives us the reason for our blindness in seeing the glory of God in our own lives:
Hebrews 12:14-15 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

We can make the false assumption that the secret sin of jealousy is contained to our thoughts, hidden away from others.  Scripture assures us that this is not the case.  The moment we detect the bitterness of jealousy entering our thoughts, we must take those thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ.  If we do not, we are in danger of not seeing the Lord. We must intently examine our thought lives, to ensure there is no place for a bitter root to grow.

Heart Builders:

• How has jealousy made you fugitive, either as its perpetrator or its victim?

Exerts from our book - Living with Unmet Desires

A More Excellent Life

From the Leader's Edge Column, by John Maxwell

Do you need help in your career? Your marriage? Or maybe you're searching for a better life in general? If so, consider pursuing excellence, which is a generally consistent state of high quality that may bring to mind unmatched performance, unusual expertise, or consistent high-quality performance.  In our mnds, we often associate excellence with talent. To be the best, surely you have to be gifted, right?  Excellence has taught me that talent, while important in no way explains excellence. 

Consider this: are people born with a natural gift of marriage excellence?  No matter what area of life you want to improve, you can develop it to a level of excellence with a little know-how.  In fact, the primary pathway to excellence has 3 main steps, none of which depends on talent.

1. Find your passion - you are nothing unless it comes from your heart. If you perform functions only and go to work only to do processes, then you are effectively retired.  And sadly, most people are retired by age 28.  You have to bring passion, commitment and caring - that's what makes you a human being. People of excellence love what they do.  They have learned how to fuel the fire that keeps them moving. What does a passionate person look like? - they work with their whole heart, they work with undistracted attention, and they work with maximum energy.
2. Never cease practicing - passion won't take you anywhere unless you combine it with disciplined practice.  Practice is not the thing you do once you're good, its the thing you do that makes you good.
3. Honor your values - we all could give examples of talented, charismatic people who sabotaged their careers by abandoning their values.  Passion and practice bring excellence, but character eventually topples talent. People cannot climb beyond the limitations of their character.  Eventually, the limelight of success brings to light the cracks in their integrity. 

The fact that excellence isn't something a person is born with should be encouraging ... all you have to do is determine what your passion is and then put in the hours of practice. As long as you stick with it and honor your values along the way, you will reach a level of excellence.

I LOVE THIS ARTICLE!  :)

Integrity

Integrity is a trait that grows with you. It is a conscious effort to live right, do right, and constantly maintaining the drive to practice what you preach. One of my mentors would often say "when you make a declaration about something, you either believe it or you don't. If you don't, dont' fool anyone; and if you do, then live like it". Integrity has been defined a few ways: as a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcomes; it is also regarded as the quality of having an intuitive sense of honesty and truthfulness in regard to the motivations for one's actions; it is also the inner sense of "wholeness" deriving from qualities such as honesty and consistency of character. The way you carry yourself completely depends on what you believe in and what your morals and convictions are. As righteous women, it is essential that every move we make is keyed into what we value in life and the principles we desire to live by.