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
When one door closes another door opens;
but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door,
that we do not see the ones which open for us.
~ Alexander Graham Bell
“Lead me not into temptation;”
I can find the way myself.
~ Rita Mae Brown
We pay a heavy price for our fear of failure.
It is a powerful obstacle to growth.
It assures the progressive narrowing of the personality
and prevents exploration and experimentation.
There is no learning without some difficulty and fumbling.
If you want to keep on learning,
you must keep on risking failure—all your life.
~ John W. Gardner
Most great people have attained their greatest success
just one step beyond their greatest failure.
~ Napolean HIll
And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?
It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags.
And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before.
What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?
~ Dr. Seuss
I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
~ Charles Dickens
I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play
And mild and sweet the words repeat,
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
I thought how as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had roll’d along th’ unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
And in despair I bow’d my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”
‘Til ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Continue reading about Quoteable Quotes: Christmas Edition, Vol 1
