Tag Archive | Approval

At Peace With Who You Are

Mar3

Redirect Your Focus To Who You Are Rather Than Who You Are Not…

You are strong…. when you take your grief and teach it to smile.

You are brave… when you overcome your fear and help others to do the same.

You are happy… when you see a flower and are thankful for the blessing.

You love… when your own pain does not blind you to the pain of others.

You are wise… when you know the limits of your wisdom.

You are true… when you admit there are times you fool yourself.

You are alive… when tomorrow’s hope means more to you than yesterday’s mistake.

You are growing… when you know that you are but not what you are becoming.

You are free… when you are in control of yourself but do not wish to control others.

You are honorable… when you find your honor is to honor others.

You are generous… when you can give as sweetly as you take.

You are humble… when you do not know how humble you are.

You are beautiful… when you don’t need a mirror to tell you.

You are rich… when you never need more than you have.

You are you… when you are at peace with who you are not.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalms 139:14

Love Lee ♥

How To Be Unhappy

Feb28

Having trouble finding “Happiness”? Can’t find the magic combination? Perhaps one should study the art of how to be “Unhappy” in order to figure it out?

How to Be Unhappy

Make little things bother you.
Don’t just let them, MAKE them.

Lose your perspective on things and keep it lost:
don’t put first things first.

Get yourself a good worry,
one about which you cannot do anything.

Be a perfectionist, which means not that you
work hard to do your best, but that you condemn
yourself and others for not achieving perfection.

Be right. Be always right. Be the only one who
is always right, and be rigid in your rightness.

Don’t trust or believe people, or accept them
at anything but their worst and weakest.

Be suspicious.
Insist that others always have hidden motives.

Always compare yourself unfavorably to others.
This guarantees instant misery.

Take personally everything that happens to you.

Don’t give yourself whole-heartily
to anyone or anything.

YEP, THAT OUGHTA DO IT!

Love Lee ♥

How Much Are You Willing to Pay

Jan26

No one ever said it would be easy to be a follower of Christ…In-fact the price one must pay is quite expensive.

He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23)

To pursue a life with Jesus can be a huge challenge, especially when it is our nature to make everything personal and centered around our needs and desires. We are a selfish people with most of our decisions based on what works or is best for us. Often we do not even consider how our decision will affect others. In-fact many of us have never denied ourselves of much in life; if we want it we pursue it at all cost.

How awesome would it be if we pursued Jesus with that same passion? To say I will follow Jesus no matter what the cost…Popularity, Acceptance, Employment, Possessions, and/or Relationships…

Think about it…Jesus didn’t say follow me if it is popular with the world or accepted by our friends…Nope, he said we must put aside our selfish desires, personal preferences, and expectation of others and pursue Him.

So I ask, are you willing…

Stop making everything about you?
Lay aside your plans and dreams?
Stop what you are doing at any moment?
Allow Him to be in control of your life?
Put others first?

Are You Willing To Deny Yourself and Pay the Price to Be a Follower of Jesus…

Love Lee ♥

Be All You Can Be

Jan20

How many times have you heard…someone refer to another by their appearance?

She’s smoking hot
She has such a pretty face
Her hair is always perfect
He’s built
He’s got those bedroom eyes

You know…you’ve heard them all.

I know you have seen or been on a conference call where they put the picture of the person speaking up on the screen so everyone will have a face to go with the voice.

Today, I was face on the screen…I was the guest speaker delivering information to a group of salesmen.

The phone rang and the hotel manager on the other end of the line introduced himself and said, “I am going to patch you into the conference now”. I then heard a woman introducing me.

We immediately went into the subject matter and spoke to the group for about 15 minutes followed by a question answer session. Then to my surprise the audience applauded…

Oh My Gosh…I realized it was a conference room FULL of people…It was at that moment I realized putting my picture up on a screen in no way gave those people a clue who I was and I was reminded we are sooo much more than our appearance!

It is my voice, my knowledge, passion, enthusiasm, and excitement…Not just my appearance that defines me!

Now don’t get me wrong…anyone who knows me also knows I must be really ill if I have not applied my makeup or fixed my hair for the day. I am a firm believer in being the best me I can be at all times…

Do I do that for others?

NOPE! It is all for me…I love routine but I also love spontaneity so I kill two birds with one stone.

Routine: I have the same regimen every morning…
spontaneity: I’m always dressed and ready for any fun that might come my way!!!

While I may have been a face on the screen today…I am sooo much more. For that God gets all the glory cause He don’t make no junk!!!

My Father created me in His image…He loves me and is crazy for me!

Pssssst….

He feels the same for you!!!

My sweet friend…

Be All You Can Be…FOR HIM!!!

Love Lee ♥

Whose Opinion Defines You

Jan4

My Sister Cheryl recently posted the statement below on her Facebook Status which lead to a quite lengthy list of comments…Because I am very passionate about the subject matter I just crawled up on my soapbox…

I share this because just this morning I realized Cheryl and I are not the only ones who have or are dealing with the opinions of others…

This New Year, stop listening to others’ opinions… about who you are, what they THINK about you, about who you are or what they think YOU should do or be! Stop speaking things over yourself that contradict who God’s Word says you are. Open His Word to see what He says about you. He’s a LOVING Father & wants His best for you. Don’t believe me: believe HIM. ~Cheryl Kimbrough Fairbank~

Lee’s Soap Box Session

I have sayings that helps me deal with those who attempt to steal my joy and suck my spirit out of me.

I am not warring against flesh and blood: If people say or do things that contradict God’s nature …then it is not of God…Satan knows he can best get to us through those we love. By using them to whittle away at our spirit his mission is accomplished. My prayer is I will stay prayed up, read up, and filled with forgiveness and love so I am never that person for someone else.
I am not the enemy: If Richard and I get crosswise. I remind him I am not the enemy. This helps us recognize exactly who the enemy is.
On my list of opinions that count…Your Name IS NOT on my list: This one can get tricky…As an over achiever and a people pleaser, I have always valued the opinion of others especially those who I call family or friend. But as one who DETESTS conflict, lies, cheating, stealing, laziness and spirit suckers (Negative Knit Pickers) it helps me get the right perspective when making my list.

My list is a static list and names are added or removed as needed. God has blessed me with the Spirit of discernment so it becomes very easy to add and remove names due to the sensitivity to He has given me.

Sister, I so proud of you! You are so right…God is a good and LOVING God but He is also a JUST God. Everyone will be accountable for their actions and woe be to those who allow themselves to create conflict, speak lies, cheat, steal, waste their life away, or attempt to suck the life out of others…They will be accountable before the Lord on judgment day! People may think they have the world fooled but God ALWAYS knows!

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 1 John 4:7

OK can you give me a hand and help me get down off my soap box but before I do…I ask…

Whose Opinion Defines You?

Love Lee ♥

Striving for Excellence

Nov9

“Striving For Excellence”… No where in that statement does it say “Arrived at Excellence”. The road to excellence is a journey and God provides the necessary roadmap for the journey when He says,

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” Colossians 3:23

People can call you obsessive compulsive, passionate, annal, or any other term with a negative connotation but bottom line, if you are working with all your heart as unto the Lord and you are in pursuit of excellence you will find JOY.

Pearl Buck says it well…

“The secret of Joy in work is contained in one word-Excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.”

If you’re not enjoying your work perhaps you are working to gain mans approval rather than God’s. I challenge you to begin your journey toward excellence today!

Love Lee ♥

Who Are You Trying To Please

Oct25

Often times we spend so much of our energy doing what is expected by others, bend over backwards to try to please them, and work so desperately to gain their approval. Have you ever asked yourself, “Why?’.

Early in life children learn by doing as “expected” they gain the approval and praise of their parents.

It happens every day…children seek the approval and blessing of their parents and learn by acting, performing, reacting, or believing a certain they get that approval. They also learn that approval is withheld if those expectations are not met. Then as the child grows older and attend school or become more social it is not just the parents placing these expectations on a child but also their teachers and friends. In time this leads to those children that are “over achievers”. Their only focus is gaining approval of others…

Growing up I was one of those kids…Always felt I had to perform to everyone else’s expectations. Then one day while reading my Bible I read a scripture that changed my life…

“Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10

WOW… What a revelation!

SUDDENLY I AM FREE!!!

Free from the burden of trying to please the world…Fee from trying to gain approval of others…Free to please my Father!

Today, I live to please Him, I walk in His love and acceptance, and I KNOW I AM LOVED!!!

I ask you…WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO PLEASE???

Love Lee ♥

God Likes it All

Oct5

Why are we so hard on ourselves?

I need to lose weight…My hair looks drab…My make-up needs to be touched up…And on…And on!

You know, God doesn’t partition you into pieces and loves some parts of you and not loves the others. If He did that would make Him human because that’s what people do. Think about it…what do you think when you see a woman coming toward you with too much lipstick? Well, you focus on the lips of course!

We tend to pick people apart rather than accept them for exactly who God created them to be.

God, who created you, accepts and loves every little part of you, even those you deny and hate in yourself. So next time you try to dislike a part of you, just pause, look and remember that God loves it.

God loves in you even that which you dislike.

Go easy on yourself…

Love Lee ♥