I had an interesting encounter with my son Nathan. You learn many lessons from even the experiences of our children. Since we have been back in West Texas, my son has had many interesting life lessons. My son Nathan which you will in the future indeed read a lot about is a self-taught young talented musician. With that being said there is a lot to learn in the music industry even when it comes to the church. My son has been bombarded with offers from local and area Pastors/Bishops for him to come and play for them.  Now while my son was very excited, I, on the other hand, was very hesitant. I know that he has to make this decision on his own. Yes, I gave my two, three maybe even my fifty cents of wisdom and walked away. (Thank God for prayers and his life mentors) I must say as well thank God for Nathan’s wisdom from within. Now fast forward to Sunday Morning. I was just dosing off after coming in from work. Nathan and I ate breakfast and a small conversation and I went on to sleep.  I heard him talking on the phone to a Pastor. The Pastor was asking him to come and play for him Sunday morning. Nathan said sure and the Pastor asked about how much was his services and Nathan responded $50. The Pastor quickly said no thank you I can find some other way.  OKAY here is the lesson in this…

People will see your worth and will attempt to take advantage of your gifts, time, talents, money, and status. Sometimes we are so excited it blinds us to the games that people play in our life. What we see as being an opportunity to learn, some see it as a sly moment to get a freebie out of you. Taking you as naive…I know I have been there many times myself.

When we put a price or value to who we are what we are doing, many will fall away. Value is anything that adds merits to WHO you are and what you are about. You can add value to your time, talents, character and reputation. Even living by a Christian moral standard is a gauge of character. People will take what we allow them to have. Learn to protect your best assets. They will take advantage because we fail to recognize our worth. WE fail to set our price or understand our worth…We fail by allowing the opinions of others define us sometimes even lessen us. We fail by allowing our downfalls and obstacles to determine our progress. We fail to remember the times we have fallen more than the times we got up.

Don’t price your value too low….better yet don’t let others put a value on you.

No weapon formed against me shall prosper…but what happens if those weapons that form are from within. Those invisible instruments that can grow to reveal an arsenal of hidden and unresolved issues. Self-destruction on a spiritual yet microscopic level.  Understand this, some of the smallest insignificant sorrows can fester and grow. Coming out at the most untimely occasion or hitching a ride onto another life event that can create an explosive response. We tend to ignore those small things that hurt us and blow it off as unimportant. Only to have it come up later as a greater force.

Many of us go through life not fully addressing or maybe understanding, THAT thing which has hurts us. We minimize it, push it down deep into an out of sight out of mind place, yet unresolved and eventually becoming infectious. Leaving it to infect and grow from within. As a woman, society has labeled us as being emotional, irrational, caught up in our feelings if and when our emotions emerge in a physical more visible form. Yet the designer, our creator designed us to be the carrier of E-motions. The design was created to express. There are impressive outcomes that occur with the expression of positive emotions. Emotions are an outward expression of a psychological development to a stimulus. It is the act of a feeling or feelings coming to the surface.  The act of feeling is not a problem. Even to express one’s feelings is still not at all a problem. The problem is to hoard them and not address them. The problem is unleashing them haphazardly. The problem is when they (emotions) became a weapon (an instrument or device used to attack or as a defensive mechanism). The moment when there is a loss of control. The weapon has been formed and ready to be unleashed.

We have been conditioned to believe that by minimizing the presence of our emotions we take power from them existing, however, in reality, we add more fuel to power them up. They become negative spirits that creep into your peace of mind. We should learn to understand them, for if not, they will only become bigger over time. A few of these small unresolved issues have attached themselves to you from your childhood and are now rising and roaring up in your adult life. Never thought that They, are unresolved and cause havoc on your present-day reality.

YOU will not get the best out of your life until you first recognize them and confront them. WHAT is them, those buried muted reactions turned into ticking time bombs. How do you recognize unresolved issues you ask? First don’t allow them to become unrecognizable by ignoring them, muting them. Guard the sanctity of your atmosphere, your mind, and your heart. Do not allow that which hurts you to also infect you. Understand your worth and well-being go hand in hand. Understand that your outward expression of your emotions is natural and instinctive deriving from a trigger that sets your feelings in MOTION. However, do not allow those emotions to assemble against you creating you to fall or fail. Have a hold on your feelings so it will not be the instrument that defeats you. So it will not be the reasoned judgment rises against you. Now that we have the keys to recognize those potential weapons now let us confront them.

Yes, confront them, those bundles of emotional tinder from the past that will spark a flare up without advance notice in our present. Anger, bitterness, grief, shame, guilt, sadness, discomfort etc, this list can go on and on.  Understand your emotions are valid and they are yours. You own how your feel so understand you are also responsible how you react. Don’t hoard or harbor them, but address them. If you are sad know why, if you are treated unfairly don’t allow it to continue, if you are angry to find a positive outlet, but by all means acknowledge and respond accordingly.

More to come…

Next Blog Listen to Your EMOTIONS