A NEW YEAR!

I have been sitting here reflecting on the first month of my time back in Texas, which included working 22 straight days, and marveling at how something as simple as an attitude change can impact your world.

I had a roller coaster summer in terms of searching for what God's will was for my life this year: Would I pursue a job and be hired to work at a school back in Iowa? Would I begin a Doctorate out in Virginia? Would I return to Texas? Obviously those questions have been answered, for now, but I came away with a new, fundamental understanding of myself and a new motivation:

I don't want to be negative.

I have found that I allow myself to wallow in my ineffectiveness at times; hoping that something will come along to lift me up out of my indecisive nature. What I have come to realize is that I now want to be part of the solution and that I don't have the time or the energy to BE negative or WORRY about those that are choosing to be stuck in their own runt of apathy. IF I talk about anything or anyone that is negative, it has to be in the context of relating the problem because we are now talking SOLUTION!

This simple attitude shift has made a world of difference so far in my time management, my effectiveness in dealing with judicial situations, and in my role as a leader and mentor to my RA staff. I am prepared for meetings. I have a clear vision for what I want to see from myself and others..........it even has me working out almost every day of the week because I want a better vision of myself and my physical health. This is infectious! This whole attitude came out of the fact that I love my family and any time that I would get depressed, I would get angry and default into the whole, "Why ME?" model because I wondered why I couldn't find a ministry closer to those that I love.

The motivation that I have now has everything to do with living for someone else. My little nephew, JJ (in the picture above), is almost 10 months old now and he is everything to me. I want to live a life that he can someday be proud to say that I am his uncle. I wonder if this is what people feel as they get married and start families. It is a very sobering thing to know that your actions will now affect and be crtiqued by others. I truly want to live a life that means something to not only myself.

I encourage all of you to look at your life and ask yourself two things:

1) "Is it really worth my time to be pouring energy into those people that are negative and probably aren't going to change?" Wouldn't it just be better to acknowledge those people for who and what they are and take care of the things in your own life that need work?

2) "What kind of life and witness am I projecting when I merely perpetuate the problem and do not become part of the solution?" I find that focusing on the goal helps me to create strategies that build the foundation upon which any vision can stand.

People shouldn't give up on people but there comes a point in every person's life where they have to live in the consequences of their own choices and we cannot force someone to change. We have to be consistent in who we are-What is the point in griping about others when we have so much to do ourselves?