Feb 17, 2017 | Love
“Some of our interactions to bring hope to others cannot be measured.” Dan Miller
When you own a small business like I do, it’s easy to get caught up in measuring “success” by numbers–numbers such as how many people may be reading my posts or want to be on my email list, or what products or books are selling. Some churches measure attendance and offering amounts. Individuals track their to-do lists to see if they have accomplished what they want to in a given day. And of course, businesses report their profits and losses, hoping the profits are growing. As a rule, we humans are into tracking our progress and measuring “success.”
In some ways, the practice of tracking our progress on goals, budgeting our finances, and keeping lists are good tools to help us stay disciplined and on track. However, we must remember that we cannot always measure the impact our words, actions and disposition can have on others.
For example:
Do you still remember a certain positive or negative comment someone made to you growing up? Does that still shape you?
Do you have a certain opinion of a product or company because of one negative experience you–or someone else–has had with them?
Have you ever had someone tell you what you mean to them, or what some action meant to them, and you hadn’t a clue about the impact that one thing would have on someone?
Did a certain experience in nature, with music, or from a book have a profound impact on you and not necessarily on the people with you at the time?
Some time ago, I was blessed when someone shared about my writing having impact on someone they know–something I would probably never have guessed. A couple days later, in an email dialog, an individual said, “Thanks for all you do to make our lives better.” I am grateful God allows these occasional glimpses, and am reminded that we may never know the impact something may have on someone else. That’s why it’s important to walk closely with God on a daily basis. We will never be perfect. We all may be the negative memory someone has, and people are responsible for what they do with those memories. But if we walk with God daily, and try to listen to His leading, we can leave more positive deposits than negative ones.
Let’s be especially open to bringing hope to others today!
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12 NIV
By Beth Beutler
Feb 3, 2017 | Life In Abundance
Eric B at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
I have often wondered if whether the way I think or communicate is normal. I have often felt guilty because I don’t have a lot of friends or that I don’t pursue the ones I do have. Have you ever felt guilty in that way? Maybe you are in a relationship where you continue to be frustrated with your spouse because he doesn’t seem to care enough that you don’t want to go to the local Mexican restaurant on your anniversary. You prefer something more intimate and special. I mean after all, you’ve lived with him for X number of years and he should know by now!
I have taken different personality tests (Meyer’s Briggs, DISC, etc.) over the years, either on my own, through a job, or for school. All of these tests have provided some degree of confirmation as to my personality and how I tend to act but, they’ve never explained to me WHY I get in dark moods, or why I tend to have just a few friends.
I have come to understand that these tests merely measure our personality; which only tells us how we are likely to behave. I want to know WHY I do these things. Who did God make me to be?
The Bible tells us that God made each of us unique and in His likeness. Science has even proven that each of us has a unique design through the discovery of DNA. Spend some time with a group of women in a Bible study and you will determine quickly that each of us think and respond to God’s Word is differently. Our vision and motivations are simply different.
Psalm 139: 13-16 tells us that God created our inmost being; the parts that no one can see, and that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” God has even laid out all the days of our lives! Then in Proverbs 22:6 it states, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” The Hebrew word for way is: bent. This suggests that each of us has a unique bent, or temperament, that causes us to act in certain ways.
Temperament then, is inborn. It’s how God designed us specifically for His purposes; unlike our personality, which we can change to reflect how we want people to perceive us.
The Psychological and Spiritual community recognizes five temperaments. They are Melancholy, Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic, and Supine. Each of these has their own way of dealing with life and relating to others.
If you’ve ever wondered why you act the way you do, or would like to get a better understanding of how God made you, Life In Abundance offers a temperament profile and detailed explanation of your specific temperament and how it interacts with others. Call the office today at 864-451-7898 and schedule your Temperament Assessment.
By Karen Grotler
