Quit trying to please everyone!

“It is dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you” (Proverbs 29:25 GN)

*When we worry about what other people think, we let them control us. We waste a lot of time and energy trying to figure out what other people want us to be. Then, we waste a lot of time and energy trying to become like that rather than just being what God made us to be. You’re manipulated and controlled by somebody else.

Worrying about what other people think is dangerous because we’re more likely to cave in to criticism. It means we don’t always do the right thing; instead, we do the thing that everybody wants us to do.

And we’re in danger of missing God’s best because we’re so worried about what other people want us to do that we can’t stop to think about what God wants us to do.

Fact #1: You cannot please everybody. Even God can’t please everybody. One person prays for it to rain; another prays for it to be sunny. In the Super Bowl, both teams are praying that they will win. Who is God going to answer? God can’t please everybody. Only a fool would try to do what even God can’t do. You can’t please everybody.

Fact #2: It’s not necessary to please everybody. There is a myth that says you must be loved and approved by everybody in order to be happy. That’s just not true. You don’t have to please everybody in order to be happy in life.

Fact #3: Rejection will not ruin your life. It hurts, sure. It’s not fun. It’s uncomfortable. But rejection will not ruin your life unless you let it.

Quit trying to please everybody! Remember that nobody can make you feel inferior unless you give them permission.

The Apostle Paul says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31 TEV) This means we can think like this: ‘God likes me, and I like me; if you don’t like me, then you’ve got a problem. If God likes me, who cares that everybody doesn’t approve of everything I do.’

Remember, nothing you ever do will make God love you less. Nothing you ever do will make God love you more. He loves you completely right now.

Of Poets and Poetry

As I make every effort to be excited about my life sometimes I feel like Robert Frost in this poem:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

For Brian

My brother in law. A gentle giant.

Death is nothing at all....
I have only slipped away into the next room,
I am who I have always been.
And family you are just the same.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name, call me BP.
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no differences in your tone.
Wear no forced air of sadness or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed; at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, and think of me. Gentile and willing.
As a family we will always be more than the sum of our parts.
I will always be a part. I am not missing, I am not gone, family endures.
Let my name be ever the household name that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effort, without the ghost of a shadow on it.
Life means all that is ever meant.
It is the same as it always was. There is still an absolute unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident?
There is no reason that I should be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near... just around the corner.
All is well

My Birthday is coming quickly

I don't worry that much about numbers. This includes age, weight, height. I let the doctors worry about them. That is why I have medical insurance.

Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches in life will always pull you down.

Keep learning. Never let the brain go into idle. The devil's name is Alzheimer's.

Enjoy little things like a blond grand child's smile and a red hammock.

Laugh often. Sometimes laugh so hard milk can squirt out your nose. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

In life tears happen. But you have to endure, grieve, and move on. You have to be alive when you are alive.

Surround yourself with what you love; it may be a black and white hairy dog, or an old pickup. Remember your home is a place of peace.

Don't take guilt trips. Better to go fishing, driving in the hills, walking by the sea shore. Guilt trips is just not where I want to go.

Tell the people you love that you love them every time you see them.

And probably the most important: I may be getting older but I still refuse to grow up, sometimes to the detriment of others around me.

Who am I?

I am sitting at my desk attempting to discover what I am. To determine in reality, what should be my chief concern. I need to come to some understanding of the why of my being. Is the chief concern of a man to see that his own soul is right in the sight of God. Is it "to thy own self be true"? It was the wise Solomon said, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." I see the thong of the world about me and thier protrayal of those masses in all communicaiton mediums and it seems its all about the right medicines, the right toilet paper, the right cell phone, the right crowd, the right breakfast, the right car, the right everything. You can add your own list of right things. But, in reality are these right things my chief concern? How many shirts can a guy wear, how many cars can I drive? The common concensis is not to think but take the hints of everyone else to dictate reality. But if every one is following, who is leading? We all seem to think a great deal about the covering of the body, but do not think anything about the ornaments of inside. The feeding of the physical frame engrosses much care, but the supply of internal intrisic food is often neglected. I am more than what I wear, eat, drive, wipe, listen. I am more than this vessel. As long as I am overwelmed with the outside the inside will starve. My outside is sucking up all the resources of my being and my soul is malnourished. Deep toughts, but it is a step to meaningfullness.