What a pleasure to read something so lovely and heartfelt. I have battling with this issue for decades. Start small. Make a single person feel SEEN. This will become addictive. By then, you will be well on your way to positively handling groups and looking forward to every minute.
The question, "Instead of weaponizing peoples’ weaknesses against them, can I commit to praying life and healing into the gaps I see?" is exactly the shift in perspective I needed to be able to step away from a difficult situation with a person I can't step away from.
This is so beautiful and encouraging. I believe this is the Way of Jesus - to acknowledge our weaknesses, submit to our need for regular re-routing as necessary, and keep doing the best we can to keep ourselves on His narrow path of love as we try to best use the gifts & stories we have to try to serve others. I have recently been reading through the book of Proverbs to see what it says about the wisdom of telling our stories. There is much about the wisdom of keeping quiet, AND much about the importance of speaking truth with pure motives and graciousness in order to bring wisdom, life & healing to others. It’s both.🙏🙏🙏🙏
That's hilarious. Reminds me of the story about the family who had a daughter named Alexa. It seems Alexa wanted many things... all of which showed up on the porch (and the credit card).
The balance of your post was actually very helpful for me. Someone close to me (very close), who lived through a difficult childhood, has a very bad habit of thinking the Sky Is Falling (or we must go to the hospital immediately! etc.). This helps in understanding her in ways I frankly never thought about.
That's hilarious! I used to be a software engineer and have a collection of unintentionally silly error messages. It's easy enough to see how no one noticed that what they considered a routine piece of information would naturally be misinterpreted. I may have to write a post on that, even if it is a little wonky.
As to your broader point about hyper vigilance. My wife struggled with that due to childhood abuse. Not sure she would have used the traditional phrase of "I turned it over to the Lord," but she was eventually blessed by God to have it turn into the gift of discernment. She sometimes had long term friends ask her, "How did you know?" about people who had deceived them.
Seems like Amazon could use the advice of Smokey the Bear and "Never play with fire.." :)
What a pleasure to read something so lovely and heartfelt. I have battling with this issue for decades. Start small. Make a single person feel SEEN. This will become addictive. By then, you will be well on your way to positively handling groups and looking forward to every minute.
Omigoodness, yesssss! Yes. A thousand times, yes.
The question, "Instead of weaponizing peoples’ weaknesses against them, can I commit to praying life and healing into the gaps I see?" is exactly the shift in perspective I needed to be able to step away from a difficult situation with a person I can't step away from.
Stings, but in a good way, IYKWIM.
Dear Kaeley,
This is so beautiful and encouraging. I believe this is the Way of Jesus - to acknowledge our weaknesses, submit to our need for regular re-routing as necessary, and keep doing the best we can to keep ourselves on His narrow path of love as we try to best use the gifts & stories we have to try to serve others. I have recently been reading through the book of Proverbs to see what it says about the wisdom of telling our stories. There is much about the wisdom of keeping quiet, AND much about the importance of speaking truth with pure motives and graciousness in order to bring wisdom, life & healing to others. It’s both.🙏🙏🙏🙏
That's hilarious. Reminds me of the story about the family who had a daughter named Alexa. It seems Alexa wanted many things... all of which showed up on the porch (and the credit card).
The balance of your post was actually very helpful for me. Someone close to me (very close), who lived through a difficult childhood, has a very bad habit of thinking the Sky Is Falling (or we must go to the hospital immediately! etc.). This helps in understanding her in ways I frankly never thought about.
So thank you.
Are you my twin??
I love the illustration. It caught my attention. It's a good piece of writing.
Funny and Beautiful, led me to some good meditations, thank you.
"Fire detected!"
That's hilarious! I used to be a software engineer and have a collection of unintentionally silly error messages. It's easy enough to see how no one noticed that what they considered a routine piece of information would naturally be misinterpreted. I may have to write a post on that, even if it is a little wonky.
As to your broader point about hyper vigilance. My wife struggled with that due to childhood abuse. Not sure she would have used the traditional phrase of "I turned it over to the Lord," but she was eventually blessed by God to have it turn into the gift of discernment. She sometimes had long term friends ask her, "How did you know?" about people who had deceived them.
Seems like Amazon could use the advice of Smokey the Bear and "Never play with fire.." :)
All the best to you and yours.