Relationships and the Claustrophobia that comes with commitment:
“…that’s when it occurred to me. I am stuck…the courtship was over, and the honeymoon had ended…went from an option to an obligation…from someone to play with to someone to care for…such permanence can lead to panic…”
(Paraphrased) There are three ways to cope: flee, fight or forgive. To flee is to wake up later in another relationship and face the same reality. To fight is to make tension a way of life: to turn the house into a combat zone, the office into a boxing ring.
To forgive: “Oh, I could never do that, you object. The hurt is so deep. The wounds are so numerous. Just seeing the person causes me to cringe…Try shifting your glance away from the one who hurt you and setting your eyes on the one who saved you.”
“But I’ve done nothing wrong…I am not the guilty party here…Neither was Jesus…the burden of bridge building falls on the strong one, not the weak one.”
“Relationships don’t thrive because the guilty are punished but because the innocent are merciful.”
Continue reading about Just Like Jesus – Max Lucado (Part 2)
Let Him live long enough in a heart, and that heart will begin to change…God can no more leave a life unchanged than a mother can leave her child’s tear untouched.
If you think His love for you would be stronger if your faith were, you are wrong. If you think His love would be deeper if your thoughts were, wrong again.
God’s love never ceases. Never. Though we spurn Him. Ignore Him. Reject Him. Despise Him. Disobey Him. He will not change (toward us). Our evil cannot diminish His love. Our goodness cannot increase it. Our faith does not earn it anymore than our stupidity jeopardizes it.
Continue reading about Just Like Jesus – Max Lucado (Part 1)
For the next few weeks, I will be sharing insights from the book Winning with People, by John C. Maxwell. Enjoy!
The Pain Principle: Hurting People Hurt People
“He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself” ~ George Herbert, Poet
The Mirror Principle: The First Person we must examine is Ourselves
“If you are not comfortable with yourself, you can’t be comfortable with others” ~ Sydney J. Harris
Self-Image is a relational lid. Your image of yourself restricts your ability to build healthy relationships. And even when a person with a poor self-image does somehow achieve success, it won’t last because he will eventually bring himself down to the level of his own expectations.
“If we could kick the person responsible for most of our troubles, we wouldn’t be able to sit down for weeks.”
People who often experience relational difficulties are tempted to look at everyone but themselves to explain the problem.
The Lens Principle: Who We are Determines How We See Others
If I am a trusting person, I will see others as trustworthy.
If I am a critical person, I will see others as critical.
If I am manipulative, I will see others as manipulating me.
The only way to change how you view life is to change who you are on the inside.
“We tend to feel most comfortable, most ‘at home’ with persons whose self-esteem level resembles our own. Opposites may attract about some issues, but not this one” ~ Nathaniel Branden
Continue reading about Quoteable Quotes: from John Maxwell’s Winning with People
No one is useless in this world
who lightens the burdens of another
~ Charles Dickens
Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy.
They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
~ Marcel Proust
Love is the only thing
you get more of
by giving it away.
~ Tom Wilson
In seeking happiness for others
You find it yourself.
~ Unknown
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
~ Mother Teresa
If I had to select one quality, one personal characteristic that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, whatever the field, I would pick the trait of persistence. Determination. The will to endure to the end, to get knocked down seventy times and get up off the floor saying, “here comes number seventy-one!”
~ Richard M. DeVos
Perseverence is not a long race;
it is many short races one after another.
~ Walter Elliot
I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.
I have lost almost 300 games.
On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot…and I missed.
I have failed over and over and over again in my life. An that’s precisely why I succeed.
~ Michael Jordan
Patience is the companion of wisdom.
~ Saint Augustine
Patience and Perseverance have a magical effect
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
~ John Quincy Adams
There will be a time when loud-mouthed,
incompetent people seem to be getting the best of you.
When that happens, you only have to be patient and wait for them to self destruct.
It never fails.
~ Richard Rybolt
Learn the art of patience.
Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal.
Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement, and failure.
Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook which eventually leads to success.
~ Brian Adams
Like farmers, we need to learn that we cannot sow and reap in the same day.
~ Unknown
Continue reading about Quoteable Quotes: Patience and Perservence
