God Gives Us What We're Prepared to Receive

Does anyone else do their best thinking while they style their hair and put on their make-up? This morning I had a thought come to me while I was doing those mundane chores. Side note here: perhaps I do my best thinking then because I really don't like the getting-ready process and so my mind wanders to other more exciting territories. Here we go.

A widow came to Elisha one day all in a dither because a creditor had come to her since her husband died, she couldn't satisfy his demands and so he was going to take her sons as slaves. She was totally helpless and came to Elisha looking for guidance.

He asked her a very important question. "What do you have in the house? What do you all ready possess? What are your current resources?"

She replied that all in the world she owned was a small flask of olive oil. Wow, she was in bad shape! Elisha then told her to go do something very strange. She was to borrow all kinds of vessels from her neighbors and friends. Little ones, big ones, tall ones, short ones, anything they had available. Then she was to take all of these behind closed doors at her home and with her sons' help fill all of the vessels from the small flask she now owned.

I'm afraid if I had been told to do such a silly-sounding thing I might have missed out on what this lady experienced. Without questioning Elisha she "did as she was told." Her sons brought her jar after jar, vessel after vessel. She poured and she poured and she poured. She stood and watched the provision of God flow from her tiny flask out into the empty vessels she didn't even have access to when she woke up that morning.

Then something very unique happened. She asked her sons to bring her the next vessel and they told her that they had filled all that they had previously gathered for the project at hand. At that point, the small flask she started with went dry. She received what she had prepared to receive. Not one vessel shy; not one vessel too many. The rest of the story is that by selling the vessels full of oil, she was able to satisfy the demands of the creditor. The rest was to provide for their living expenses in the future. Did they gather all of the vessels they possibly could have or did they quit when the task became hard and the heat of the day made it difficult to go on? If they had gathered more, could they have had more? All of these unanswered questions caused me to have a very different focus on my day.

What am I ready to receive? What vessels do I have ready for the Lord to fill? Am I anticipating much so I bring my best preparations and energy to the task at hand? The Lord will fill whatever we bring. He gives us what we're prepared to receive.

Positivity

Takes a lot of personal growth to have the wisdom to choose to be positive. There are so many victims and whiners in the world! I despise that - I don't want to hear it! Yet, if I don't consciously choose to do otherwise, I can sure slip into it myself.

I've learned that everything has a flip-side. There are always up to the downs, advantages to the disadvantages. To choose to only look at the dark side and not even look for the light side is so limiting. ie So many people complain about their jobs, what day of the week it is. Wishing every day was another day. How can you be present in that situation? Wonder what job productivity is like when all one is thinking about is wishing they weren't there and wishing it was any day but this one. On Monday it should be Friday. Yeah, it's Wednesday-hump day. Paaaaaalease!

What about doing this: being grateful for the job even if it's not the end-all, dream job you'll have some day. Waking every morning saying, "THIS is the day that the Lord has made. I WILL rejoice and be glad IN it."

Negativity is so contagious. How about this experiment - see how many people we can affect with positivity!

"Hey, how ya doin'? Great rain out, huh?"

"Report done by 4:00? You bet! Would 3:00 be better?" I know what you're thinking on that one, but get the point?

I think good performance, though often labeled as "brown-nosing" or "sucking up" is just not in rich enough supply. My son, Jon, has an interesting spin on "brown-nosing." He says that some people might think that that's what he does, but he says that he notices that all they do is think thoughts like that and he gets the promotion and raise! Gotta love that boy! He's got it figured out because he's not afraid to bring his best game to the table and he doesn't worry about the naysayers who will criticize the producers. Walking the high road has its own rewards, but it certainly is not where you find most of the people. Most of the people are in the mediocre crowd- mediocre attitude, mediocre productivity, mediocre results. Wanna stay comfortable? That's where it's at. Wanna have a greater impact and massive results? Live above that.

Colossians 3:23 "Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people." Wow, what a marvelous, refreshing perspective.

I guess it's slightly abnormal to be walking the high road and not caring about the interpretations or spins others might put on your choices, but to have what most people have, do what most people do and above all, be concerned about what they think about you. To have more, be more and do more. In that regard we need all need to be "abnormal." Being "normal" is highly overrated!

We're talking about "Positivity!" That is in opposition to the very accepted and popular style of thinking - negativity. We have to remember that we attract more of the same to us from whatever well we choose to drink from. I'm not sure we make that connection, but it is one of the greatest truths in life that what we focus on expands and multiplies.

What should we choose to attract today and what do we want to attract in abundance next week? It starts with our thoughts today. Try "positivity."

Knowledge That Has Served Me Well

1. When forced to chose between what someone SAYS and what someone DOES, I chose
their behavior every time. I don't hear nearly as well as I see.

2. We live with amazing power - the power to choose. I can choose whether to get pulled into the drama of life or not. I can choose to get mad at the airline ticketing agent who tells me that my flight has been cancelled or delayed. Or not. Watch the reaction when you choose to roll with the punches instead of venting on the innocent. So much of life is out of our control - the behavior of others, the weather, circumstances -- except for our own reactions. Why not choose to rise above the downward pull of natural human responses, the downward pull of what could be understood
as "normal" and choose instead to be the refreshing one, the positive, up-beat one? The world needs that, you need that, others need to see that modeled.

3. I choose my path and that automatically determines consequences. We can choose to be grateful, for instance, and more things come into our lives for which we can be grateful. We make the right kind of friends and we don't have nearly the challenges we would have if we made friends with people of poor character. We work hard and the fruit of our labor abounds. There is this equation in life of _______ = ________. You don't see inequity there. It's called the law of sowing and reaping. I love it that I get to choose my path. Even good friends don't always understand my choice, but here's the good part. Their understanding isn't necessary for my choice to be a good one. The one God has for me. The real good friends don't understand my choice but love me all the same. That's their choice. And I personally think it's a good one! :)

Here it is, Lisa!

OK, Lisa.

Here it is! My entry into the blog world. See, I had been thinking and praying about blogging for quite some time. I don't want to start something I don't keep up with and I carefully weigh what I allow to become a routine with me. So, I would think about it and then not. . . and then think about it . . . and then not. So, my friend, Lisa, says, "So, when are you going to start blogging?" Nosy, pushy, interruptive Lisa. :) Or, was this my signal?

Lisa and I push and challenge each other in an interesting way. Lisa used to be my student. Now she's my friend. Now she teaches me. Now we teach each other.

But wait, there's also Wendi and Patsy. How fun it is to watch their lives through Facebook and their blogs and meet up at Starbucks (Patsy only for now). What joy I get from watching their authentic Christ-following ways. Gotta live long enough to see this happen and I'm getting to. That was the biggest blessing of being in Christian education for 19 years. We got to have a part in so many lives. We had the unique responsibility and privilege of handling the only two things that live forever - the Word of God and people. And best of all, we got to inbed one into the other. What a wonderful concept!

So now I'm the student since life is a never-ending learning process and I get to learn from those I taught. Let's learn from each other.