1. I have a limit:
I don’t know when it might come so I need to look out for it and get new strategies. Even if I am handling it ok right now, there is a point at which all of a sudden I start not coping. I need to be aware of that and that I can only do so much and then I have to walk away and not get pulled into solving a problem that I can’t solve.
2. Don’t play games and get sucked in:
I am learning how to handle situations with people who are agitated or upset…. I am learning to keep calm, keep a steady tone, not get pulled into the ‘game’ playing scenario.
3.What the real issue is:
I am learning that when people are upset there is often something else at the bottom of the whole thing, people deflect their agitation onto other things but if you dig just a little, in the right way at the right time you can find out what the problem really is! You can find on what is going on beneath the surface. The root of the problem might not be anything to do with what is happening on the surface.
When we can begin to grasp these things it does help us to deal with things in a much calmer way. It's like God gives us the x-ray eyes to see right through to the core of the issue!!
When I can look at the things happening around me like this it is kind of like an ‘out of body experience’ for me. And then if I get pushed that little bit further and I reach my limit its when I re-enter my body and then I may feel the pain.
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~Cam Richmond~
When God is beginning to deal with you in certain areas of your life then some things will start coming out into the light and it’s probably not going to be pleasant…. We know that the pain of staying where we are is much worse than the pain of going through.
When you are not prepared to work through these things it makes it hard to cope with today…. You can’t cope with today if you haven’t dealt with yesterday! The yesterday’s catch up on you.
If this is where you are at it may be very difficult right now but remember the people closest around you don’t necessarily know what is happening… And it can be hard but God can give the grace to make it through in the best way. When you are avoiding your yesterday’s then you are not able to cope with today in the best way possible. You just don’t have it in you.
The closer you get to God and his word that is when the light starts to shine more brightly, brighter and brighter so what God wants to work on in your life has only one way to go… Up and out! The good goes in and it forces the bad stuff out. The two cannot coexist!
It may mean that every now and again you have a little melt down, the spewy times that you have will happen but as time goes on they will lessen and the time frame between these points will be longer and longer, maybe one day it won’t be an issue anymore!
~Cam and Leanne~
Last week I reposted an old post of mine on anxiety, several people liked and commented on it and my fellow page writer Troy from FLS made these comments… “Anxiety is one of the topics i have been lost in over the last several months. It plays a huge role in how we live our lives"
I know that one thing for sure has played a part in mine. It seems I only just realised just how much of a part it had played too.
At the end of 2010 I finally went to the doctors decided to go on anti-depressants... I have battled my whole life with varying degrees of anxiety. But it was not until earlier this year when I was looking for something I had written that I re-read through some of my journals and was SHOCKED to read how often I had woken up with anxiety coursing through my being. Sometimes it was worse than others but it was always a constant. Since going on medication I am SOOO much better able to deal with the things life has thrown me and continues to throw me...
My friends didn’t get understand it at first I don’t think. I am the one who encourages everyone else and helps them... why did I need medication? Surely I could get over it as I had helped some of them through challenges, and after all I had God in my life and I believe in his power to help set me free and give me grace, peace and strength. In the end the combination of situations in my life at that time drove me to the doctors to seek my options, despite have a wonderful network of friends, family, my husband and all of those things was still such that I just couldn’t cope...
Perhaps it is in my makeup, my over thinking nature, perhaps part of my life for a reason so I can learn and then help others... either way. We each have to learn how to manage these things and grow and get better... and I will NEVER regret that decision!
Please look after yourselves, do what YOU need to do, don’t think you have to do what your friends and family did, or what they are telling you to do, but please do something, don’t wait, suffer and live with this battle.
I know for me that it was the right decision and sometimes I think I must be a wimp, I am walking with my crutch and maybe I need to throw it away but then something else happens to show me that the weakness, perhaps it’s a hairline fracture, is still there and my I can’t support my weight without it at this stage.
Assess where you are at, how is this really affecting you? What do you need to do? Whom should you speak to?
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~Cam~
When I consider the pieces that make up my life I am astounded. You never would have thought that piece could fit but it did and perfectly so. Our lives are so complex, we control so many of the moves yet God says all our days are written in his book. Psalm 139.
How can this be? I think what makes it work is Romans 8:28 all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose.
This is only just the tip, and the beginning of understanding the ways of a complex yet simple God and his ways.
Last year I added some pieces that were very hard indeed, I thought they would spoil the overall picture for sure but now I can see how the shadow section highlights the brightness around it.
It's a big puzzle and it's going to take a lifetime to complete. Some of it is a real hard slog and some of it is thrilling to watch slot into place.
What the picture will reveal in the end is more of God than me, a tribute to His grace, strength, power and love that saw me through my life to the end.
Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons.
~Ruth Ann Schabacker~
It’s quite amazing to look around me and see the varying gifts that I believe God has given to people and see how He is using them and their gifts. We all have our purpose no matter how big or small we see that it is, it fits into the
bigger scheme of things and it is a part of a building block of our world.
I have been seeing how each one of our gifts fits into the bigger picture that God has for this world and we all need to play our part in whatever big or little way it is!
My friend plays the piano, she has played since she was little girl, there was a period in her life where she played all the time and many people got to hear her and be blessed by her gift, it is music that soothes the soul, and then for many years although she continued to play for herself no one else got to hear that magnificent gift of music. It’s like the music just pours out of her fingertips seemingly with no hindrance whatsoever. Why, because it’s a gift of God, it’s part of her God given destiny.
One of our friends is strongly into the environment and conservation, he and his wife are doing all sorts of amazing things to make our world a better place, championing the cause in whatever big or little way they can. Presently they are trying to track down an endangered species in the bush at night, night after night, in the cold and the weather. It’s amazing the things they are doing? Its hard work but it’s easy for them… and why? It is their purpose and so it’s their passion.
My husband knows how to make people laugh and wherever he goes people talk to him and share their story with him. He is also able to share his story with them and tell them about the hope that he has found and somehow they just needed to hear what he had to say that day, God uses him to help them in practical ways, he is like an angel sent to help them.
My brother in law has a gift with teenagers and I have seen this in the way he relates to my own kids. He has a way of connecting, listening, being real with them, mentoring them, being a friend to them… he works with kids in a truly at risk group and although it is certainly challenging it is something he can do so well!
My sister has a passion for helping people groups that are in trouble too, both her and my brother in law have worked in projects in Kenya for quite a few years now, and they have a passion to make a difference in a very real way. They hope to perhaps start a charity and have all sorts of ideas coming to them that they can make happen as they have the knowledge, the expertise and the heart to get it happening, they have the connections in the right places to
direct funds into these areas of need.
One of my old friends and her husband are working overseas and have been for years, feeding, educating, and rescuing children from all sorts of situations. They have around 1000 children in their care now as they are building from the ground up homes, schooling facilities and all kinds of things to meet the needs of that community.
Another one of my good friends has just retrained and is going into working in aged care, she has a gift with people, she is kind and gentle and compassionate and she will give these people just what they need in whatever way she helps them.
One of my other closest friends is a woman of prayer, God puts people on her heart and she prays for them. Wherever she goes people begin to talk to her and tell her their story and their need and they may not know it but they will be upheld in prayer consistently and fervently. My mum too had that gift of prayer and over the years she has faithfully prayed for thousands and thousands of people, she also has a gift of generosity and she would give whatever help was needed including food and money very regularly.
These are all just normal everyday people doing their bit in an everyday kind of way. Were we to take these gifts and passions away from them imagine the impact that it would have on such a large area. It would affect family, community, nature, people in need in their suburban homes and people in Third World countries in poverty, with their health and education, and in some of these instances there are life and death matters.
Sometimes dreams have a use by date… not always of course but lately I have been thinking more and more what are we waiting for! Even if we only take a few baby steps, maybe now is the time to step out and do it. God gives us these gifts and we can let his natural abilities flow through us… just like this little quote says:
I am like a little pencil in God's hand. He does the writing. The pencil has nothing to do with it.
~Mother Teresa~
I don’t rely on myself, I allow God’s creativity to flow through me and by doing that I am doing some of my part to make the world all that it can be! What gift is yours to give?
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Quotes
Each citizen should play his part in the community according to his individual gifts.
~Plato~
The weakest among us has a gift, however seemingly trivial, which is peculiar to him and which
worthily used will be a gift also to his race.
~John Ruskin~
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Word For Life
Gift/Gifted
Something given voluntarily without payment in return, as to show favor toward someone, honor an occasion, or make a gesture of assistance; present. The act of giving. Something bestowed or acquired without any particular effort by the recipient or without its being earned. A special ability or capacity; natural endowment; talent: the gift of saying the right thing at the right time. To present with as a gift; bestow gifts upon; endow with. Having or showing natural talent or aptitude. having great special talent or ability: the debut of a gifted artist. Having exceptionally high intelligence
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The Word
Romans
12:4-8
For even as we have many members in one body, and all members do not have the same function, so we the many are one body in Christ, and each one members of one another.
Then having gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, if prophecy, according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, in the ministry; or he who teaches, in the teaching;
or he who exhorts, in the encouragement; or he who shares, in simplicity; or he who takes the lead, in diligence; or he who shows mercy, in cheerfulness.
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