365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 323

I am sure that other mothers in the world have said this same thing that my mother always said, “if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all.” It is a struggle when you are in a negative non-respecting environment as I am at my job. I have to literally bite my tongue often to keep myself from jumping on the bandwagon. I am not always successful at keeping my big mouth shut but as all things it is a process of growth. I am learning to step out of the room and go to the bathroom or put my headphones on and turn on the music and of course, stop and ask God to help me. Goodness starts with getting your mouth to speak only what is good. No negativity, no gossip, no backstabbing, no criticism, no evil words. I am on a mission focus this month to let only good come out of my mouth. I will pray when my day begins: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, My Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14 And when my day ends I will confess for all those words that should not have come out of my mouth and praise God for all the good words that were spoken.  I will evaluate my words every day and put a happy face for good days, a straight face for good with a slip here or there and a sad face for those bad days when nothing good is coming out. My goal will be to consistently work on getting a happy face on my calendar every day. Join me in the mission this month to let only good words flow from our lips.

Matthew 12:25-37 “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. “

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 23

I spoke a bit with a co-worker who called me yesterday to ask about how to do something for which she has been given the task to do at work. She, like I think most of us at work, is struggling with the negativity she feels towards our boss and the culture from which he is from which is so different from ours. I told her that I struggled with it too and looked to God’s word and was reminded that God loves all of us and Jesus calls us to love not just the easy to love but the hard to love. I have found that by simply praying for my boss that the negativity has diminished and I am remembering him more as a human being that God created. With my first day back to work today since being off for my shoulder surgery, I am going to start a daily prayer for my boss and other people I work for that trigger negative emotions and keep my focus on what Jesus calls us to do in loving all our neighbors. We don’t have to like what they do and say but we have to love them as God loves them and all of us.

Job 34:19 who shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands?

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 354

Yesterday I did a large import of customers using our newest database with the modifications that have been made to it to help streamline the matching process. I was afraid that I would find issues importing a larger list of customers and I was right. It wasn’t a major problem but it was an annoying and time consuming issue which really defeats the purpose of the new modifications.  I am thankful that I sent my email to our operations manage last week with my concerns about going live with the new database and the fact the current new modifications were not going to give me any more substantial time to add more work.  They are gearing up to pass all the cancellation requests for all the other jurisdictions that the Irving office handles but I was frank in my email and made some suggestions as to the two pieces that really need to be worked on to bring in some automation that would save time. I got an email yesterday showing that my office manager actually read my email and took my concerns and suggestion seriously. She also let me get a bit off my chest last Thursday when my PMS was in full gear and the negativity was too much to bear.  The next day she bought our team lunch at Jason’s Deli to thank us for all our hard work and to sing our praises.  I have been guilty of judging her in negative ways but I think that like the rest of us she is doing the best she can under the circumstances. So, thank you Lord for being listened to and validated at my work place and forgive me for judging others in any way.

James 1:19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 349

I just love when my hormones shift. NOT. The telltale sign of the shift came with the typical small zit under my nose so I knew what was happening. I was super cranky yesterday morning, teary-eyed and so when I got to work and was slammed on all sides with the negativity that seems to be most prevalent these days I was ready to stand-up and shout “Shut Up!” but I managed to walk out of the room to go get some space and coffee and ran into our admin assistant. She could tell I was not happy since I am usually the light in that dark place and so I laid it on her my feelings and than said I need a hug. She was my angel for the day. Just being able to let go of those feelings and get a hug made a big difference and the hormone shift gradually adjusted itself throughout the morning to where I was back to my some-what normal self. Thanks be to God for giving us people in our lives that can help us when we are in those dark moments.

Psalm 119: 133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.



365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 322

Thank God it is Friday! There is a reason people are excited about Friday and the end of the work week and the beginning of the weekend. It is the end to the controlling aspects of our job and the beginning of a weekend free to do what you want and need. I am pretty sure that God will have a purpose for us even in Heaven but I do believe we will not feel the controlling aspect that we feel in our work life on Earth. We will be doing our job cheerfully, without stress, anger or frustration because we love God and when you love someone you have the motivation. My workplace environment has been filled with negativity and so I am trying my hardest not to fall into line with all of the negative. I hope to be the one positive thing and with God’s help get things turned around. I did my best yesterday speaking with a co-worker about her anger and frustration over the new work that will be put upon her on Monday. We all have a choice on how to deal with everything. Just do your best, communicate constructively and let go of all the rest. It felt good to stand up to the negativity and hopefully impart some wisdom onto this co-worker. Again, I am so thankful it is Friday. I will have the weekend to recover from the week long negativity at work. Thank you Lord for helping me have the right words and heart to speak up about negativity in my workplace and try to get things turned around to a positive track.

Matthew 18:15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 114

My mind has been cluttered lately with negativity, dealing with pain in my body, stressful workloads and the list goes on... It's a cycyle thing! Thankfully! I know I am in a part of my cycle that I just don't think and feel the same as my normal self. I have not been fully engaged in my praising efforts and not inspired. I hate that but I know it will end so I push through. In my effort to push through this morning, I pulled out a daily devotional book for women sitting on my desk. I ended up at a page that has this quote at the top: The body is healed only as the thought is healed-Connie Fillmore Bazzy. Wow, thanks God! It proceeded to talk about visualizing God healing everything in your body and ends with a short affirmation, I celebrate and give thanks for God's healing life. I will be saying that in my head all day as I head out to my job that is definitely been a sore spot lately and will be saying it at my acupuncture appointment I have today in the hopes that by God's will it will heal my foot pain. Do you get into negative ruts? Keep going to the bible and Him and he will help you get out of it.
Matthew 9:22 Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you."

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 83

At my bible study last evening, we got off on a 'bunny trail' and ended up talking about negativity and how it can affect us. My first inclination was to pray about it everyday. If anything is bothering you or making your life not all it can be, pray about it. My second thought was keeping the focus on Jesus. It seems to be the major theme throughout the bible study Fearless by Max Lucado. How do we keep our focus on Jesus? Prayer, being in the Word as much as possible, being around other believers and more prayer. This morning I read from my email called Words of Wisdom from Crossing Your Bridge about change and peace and found this so 'right on' with the negativity discussion I had just had the night before. God provided a scripture that can be the focus of our prayers. Here's that little snippet I read:
2 Thessalonians 3:16

May the Master of Peace himself give you the gift of getting along with each other at all times, in all ways. May the Master be truly among you!

INSIGHT:

People who irritate, that happen to be in our lives, are there so we can activate God's peace. God's peace can help us see them as He sees them and allows us to not have them bother us. We can't control them but we can control how we react to them and how we allow them to bother us. People can't bother us unless we let them.


ACTION:
Activate God's peace in our lives when we are faced with someone who is irritating us.

Thank you Lord for bringing your Word to me that can help us change our outlook on the negative people that are around us.
Jeremiah 33:3 Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 80

I purposely do not watch the news on TV because most of it is negative. They do occassionaly have the feel-good stories but it's not their primary news segment. When you are trying to keep positivity in your own life, watching the news just doesn't work. But you have to keep up on current events somewhat and so can't avoid it altogether. I found a website where you could get the news with a Christian perspective called Worthy News. There a some others as well that I will check into and let you know what I think. I want to surround myself with positive stuff so I did a search for websites with Christian stories of hope and found one with lots of poems and stories. I am thankful to God for all those good hopeful stories out there in the world and pray that each of them can find avenues to share their stories and touch those with a bit of hope and encouragement. I found this poem about hope on this website. See the links in the resources section.

It’s magic and it’s free
It’s not in a prescription
It’s not in an IV.

It punctuates out laughter,
It sparkles in our tears,
It simmers under sorrows,
And dissipates our fears.

Do you know what Hope is?
It’s reaching past today,
It’s dreaming of tomorrow,
It’s trying a new way.

It’s pushing past impossible,
It’s pounding on the door,
It’s questioning the Answers,
It’s always seeking more.

It’s rumors of a breakthrough,
It’s whispers of a cure,
A roller coaster ride
Of remedies, unsure.

Do you know what Hope is?
It’s candy for the soul,
It’s perfume for the spirit,
To share it makes you Whole.

Psalm 62:5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.