Category: Think About It

Many years ago I was on a building site and I was cutting through a piece of wood with an electric saw. Unfortunately, I cut through the wood and then took a chunk out of my finger. There was blood gushing everywhere. It really hurt. I rushed off to hospital and got some stitches.

Thankfully, the body went into a healing process and over time the pain went away.  I have got a scar there and I remember what happened, but it no longer hurts. 

You know it is the same in our emotional world. Sometimes things happen that hurt us and it’s painful. But God wants us to experience a healing process so that over time the pain goes away. How does that happen? It’s only through choosing to forgive those that have hurt us that healing takes place. If we don’t forgive, bitterness will become like a destructive poison eating us up on the inside.

So I urge you today, has someone offended you? Have the courage to forgive them and to release them. Allow God’s healing grace to flow into your heart.

Forgiveness … Think about it.

Someone once said that “encouragement is like oxygen to the soul”. Each one of us thrives in an environment of affirmation and encouragement. No one likes to be in an atmosphere where we are being torn down or ridiculed.

So think about what you are doing to those around about you.  Are you encouraging them? Are you lifting them up with your words?

Occasionally, I’ll sit at a funeral and listen to the eulogy or the tributes that are given and often think, “I wonder if that person knew those things when they were alive?” Don’t wait until someone dies to tell them what you appreciate about them. Take the time now to express your love and your affirmation for them.

The Bible tells us that God the Father burst out of heaven at Jesus’ baptism and said “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased”. God is an affirming God and he wants you and I to do the same. Don’t just think good things about people. People cannot read your mind. Take the time, write a note, make a phone call, tell somebody how much you appreciate them today. Encourage them.

Encouragement … Think about it.

It is very important that we let people in our world know that we love them. But how do you say ‘I love you’ in a way that people understand and sense our love?

In many ways, love is like a language and there are a variety of love languages that we can use to communicate the love that’s in our heart for someone special.

Gary Chapman has written about five different love languages we can use to say ‘I love you’ to those special people in our world.

We can use:

1. Encouraging words. Words have a powerful way of communicating love. 
2. Secondly, we can serve or help someone.
3. Thirdly, we can give a gift that communicates love.
4. Fourthly, we can spend time with someone and in doing so communicate our love for them. 
5. Fifthly, we can use appropriate physical touch. 

It is important for us to realise that each of us give and receive love using one or more of those five love languages. Take the time to understand the love language of those around you (your family and friends) and then endeavour to communicate love to them in a language that they really understand. In doing so, they’ll sense the love that is in your heart.

Love Languages … Think about it.

Have you been worrying lately? Worry is a common thing. How do you deal with your worry?

Well, firstly you need to ask yourself, “What am I worrying about?” A study was done recently about the things that people worry about. 

Here are the results:

• 40% of the worries were about things that never happened or would never happen.
• 30% of the worries were things in the past for which they could do nothing about.
• 12% were worries about health and worry actually worsens your health.
• 10% were about petty or minor worries.
• Only 8% of the worries were about anything substantial or legitimate and of that 8%, half, or 4%, of them were out of the person’s control.
• That means only 4% were something that they could actually do something about. 

The research therefore reveals that 96% of what we worry about is totally irrelevant. It’s not worth worrying about! 

So why don’t you evaluate your worries today. If you can do something about it go ahead and do it, but with the rest just leave it. Don’t worry.  Trust in God.

Worry … Think about it.

Well known psychologist, Daniel Goleman has done a lot research on the components of success, especially in the work place. His conclusion is that Technical Skill and Intellectual Intelligence (or IQ) are very important, but that the quality of Emotional Intelligence (or EQ), is the most essential.  In fact, it’s twice as important as the other two attributes. 

‘Emotional intelligence’ is: knowing how to relate well to a wide variety of people.

How do we do that?  Well, Jesus gives us some great advice in Matthew 7:12 when he says, “Do for others what you would like them to do for you.” 

Some people call this the “Golden Rule”. Jesus is basically saying to think about how you like to be treated. Think about the qualities and attributes that attract you to others, the ‘ideal friend’. We can also think about the qualities and attributes that repel us from others. You know, the ‘friend from hell’. 

Think about how you want to be treated and then you take the initiative. You begin treating other people in that way. Imagine a world where every one of us follows this basic principle of relationships. 

Emotional Intelligence … Think about it.

Have you been angry lately? Anger is a common emotion. Every person has times when they experience feelings of annoyance, irritation, resentment or anger. Let’t talk about anger for a few moments …

What we need to realise is that anger can cause great damage and so therefore it is essential for healthy relationships that we get our anger under control.

There are two common causes of anger.

1. Firstly, there is frustration. Frustration occurs when our goal is blocked. Maybe the driver in front of you is going 10 kilometres under the speed limit and you are in a hurry or maybe someone is an hour late for an appointment that you made an effort to be on time for. When you are frustrated you start to feel angry. 
2. A second cause of anger is hurt. When someone does or says something to us that really hurts us anger begins to emerge.

There is a big difference between feeling angry and then acting out angry behaviour.  Anger is not the problem. It’s what we do with it.  I encourage you to manage your anger today.

Anger … Think about it.

Many studies have been done about what some of the factors are of those that perform well in the arenas of business, music and sport.  What they discovered was that it’s not so much your intelligence, your gifts, your talents, your appearance, or your background. It comes down to your attitude – how you think – and your passion – how you feel.

Passion is like a fire on the inside that affects everything on the outside. In contrast apathy is a-pathos, no passion. Just kind of living life but going through the motions.

A great example of passion is the late Steve Irwin. Steve probably wasn’t the most educated Australian. He definitely wasn’t a model of occupational health and safety. But one thing about Steve is that he was passionate about crocodiles. I have always thought: imagine if everyone was as passionate about life as Steve was about crocodiles. I urge you today to live your life with passion.

Passion … Think about it.