Don’t take it personally.  Are you serious?

Friends, it may not be what we want to hear, but it’s what we need to hear. (Yes, I ducked as I typed those words.)

We should hear, “Don’t take it personally” in both good and hard times. It’s vital that we hear these words when we’re living in our highest moments too. When all our work finally pays off, and we’re enjoying the benefits. We need to have someone who’s brave enough to say, “Don’t take it personally.”

This past summer, John Maxwell was reminding me that we’re never as good as our success and never as bad as our failures. He challenged me to not take life personally. I decided to accept the challenge and use the quiet moments of reflection to ponder the importance of not taking things personally.  To help me, I’ve posted a note saying “Good, bad, high or low don’t take it personally” on my bathroom mirror.

Let’s cultivate this type of authenticity in our lives and relationships.

I’m not suggesting that we disengage or stop living purpose-driven lives. What I am suggesting is that we live invested lives instead of “taking things personally” lives!

You may be asking, How is this even possible? Great question! Let’s talk about this more.

Invested People vs. Taking it Personally People

For this conversation investing is the practice of giving. Invested people pour into another person or the project at hand. A person who is taking things personally is putting on the opinions of others. They allow circumstances or people to determine their worth or lack of worth.

Ponder that for a moment.

When we invest in the people God’s put before us or the tasks He’s given us, we become invested people. We bounce back in disappointment and overcome obstacles. We stand tall in moments of rejection, or when someone has spoken ill of us. Invested people are giving people.

Individuals who are “taking it personally” people are “taking” people. People who take the moments of success or failure and wear them just like they would wear their favorite dress. They take credit for the results and become the opinions of others. They are result focused instead of duty focused.

One of my favorite quotes is from John Quincy Adams. “Duty is ours. Results are God’s.”

“Don’t take it personally” just may be the most powerful four words we could apply to our lives. What could we accomplish if we focused on our duty and not on the results? How could grace be seen in our lives if we didn’t take things personally?

Until our next chat,

Mrs. Joseph Wood

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Loneliness can creep up on us in both the good and hard times. Often, loneliness reveals itself most when we’re walking through a difficult season of life.

Jeremiah 31: 2

“Thus saith the Lord, The people who which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness;”

The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Je 31:2). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Life’s journey is sure to lead us to the wilderness at one time or another.

I have applied so much energy to avoid the desolate places in life. I have searched in vain for the detours, shortcuts, or the easy way out. Dreading these moments in life, I held my breath and walked through the wilderness. I had some notion that I could complete the journey, untouched, and as quickly as possible.

Mark 6:31

“And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while”

The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Mk 6:31). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

I remember the moment of solitude when the Lord asked me to stop rushing through the wilderness. When He invited me to pause and fellowship with Him in the midst of my most desolate places.

As I shared this memory with my daughter, without hesitation, she replied, “Oh! desolation, that doesn’t sound like a pleasant place!” She verbalized what my soul had screamed on multiple occasions in my lifetime.

At that time, I thought my survival was dependent on how fast I could get through these painful moments. The idea that God called me to this desolate place. The thought that He wanted to fellowship with me in the wilderness. These ideas brought a whole new outlook to my journey through the desert. Looking back, I can clearly see God was in the very place, the desert, that I had been trying to avoid. Not only was He there, but He had provided grace and rest for me in this desolate place.

Friend, are you needing rest? Do you feel like you’re trying to skirt around the wilderness? Do you feel alone as you travel? Take heart, God is there calling you to come away with Him to that place of rest is filled with grace!!

Discovering Grace In The Wilderness

• Create a gratitude book devoted to this season of life.
• Use colored pencils! Allow your creativity to add splashes of art on the pages as you journal.
• Enjoy this uplifting Spotify account, Grace in the Wilderness, with encouraging music
• Gather reminders of encouraging passages from Scripture. Place these reminders around the house, in the car, and in your workplace.
• Make time to be quiet before the Lord, praying and reading the Word. Be careful to guard this time! Don’t let any busy work steal this time away from you.

Until our next chat,

Mrs. Joseph Wood

P.S you may also enjoy this note I recently wrote called, Growing in Grace.

The post Rest- Finding Grace in the Wilderness appeared first on Mrs. Joseph Wood.

Hormones and exhaustion can often leave me feeling like a jumbled up mess. It’s important for me to recognize my limitations and biases as I go to the Lord in prayer. This lesson was painful for me to learn. There have been times when I wanted something so desperately it distorted my ability to listen. To be honest, I don’t think I wanted to hear His voice. I wanted Him to hear mine. I wanted Him to agree with me instead of me aligning myself with him.

There have been other times when I couldn’t hear anything at all. No matter how much I cried out to Him for answers, He remained quiet. Have you ever needed to hear from the Lord?

Were you uncertain you could hear His voice, even if he used a megaphone to speak to you? Yes! I’ve been in that place too. There are times when I only want to say, “Speak up Lord, I’m hormonal,” but the reality is, He already knows that.

Praying through our Emotions.

So, how do we hear the Lord’s voice in the midst of our emotions? Or how do we make sense of His silence? Well, I don’t have all those answers, but here are a few things that I’ve learned over the years.

Spend time in the Word- There are no shortcuts here. We must spend time with the Lord through the reading of His Word if we expect to hear His voice. Don’t think I am promoting the idea that we begin hopping around the Bible, grabbing at any verse to make it apply. Instead, let’s spend time with the Lord to understand the context of what’s written. Let’s read to learn God’s character, God’s desires, and God’s plan for us.

Spend time in Prayer- This goes without saying, but I’ll just say it to make sure we’re all on the same page. Friends, if we want to hear from God, then we must position ourselves so we can hear from God. It’s important to find time to pray on a regular basis. Joe, my husband, and I spend time each morning praying. I spent the evenings in private prayer for people and issues important to me. Those are both quiet times set aside for nothing but prayer. Yet, during the day, I am often thinking of someone or a situation that I will talk to the Lord about. Prayer is simply a conversation with God. Like all relationships, the more I listen (by reading the Word) and talk to God (through prayer) the more my relationship grows.

Give it time-  I have learned that waiting is an active task. God is at work even when it feels all is at a standstill. God is changing me. If only I could remember in the midst of waiting all the times past when waiting had its perfect work in my life.

Okay, now what?

You might be saying, “Okay, I know those things, and I do them for the most part, but I still don’t know when it’s God’s voice or when it’s my own.” Hold tight. I’ve got a few more suggestions you will find helpful.

If you’re like me, you can be in prayer, be in the Word, be waiting, and still not know if God’s leading you to go this way or to go that way. In those times, I am encouraged by the testimony of Moses, Gideon, or Thomas (just to list a few) who needed God to reveal Himself through events. I ask God to open doors no man can open and shut doors no man can shut. God has been so gracious to me over the years to give me hope in tangible ways and provide direction when I wasn’t sure which way to go. I know He’ll do the same for you. He’s no respecter of persons.

A final note, Let’s keep our emotions in their proper place! When my little girls were growing up, I would remind them that emotions should act as a thermometer to show us our current situation. Emotions are not a compass that takes us off in this direction or that direction. It’s important to govern our emotions if we want to be emotionally and spiritually healthy! When our emotions or hormones do get the best of us… let’s just remember that the God of the universe loves us even in the midst of our hormonal mess.

Until our next chat…

Mrs. Joseph Wood

P.S. You won’t want to miss my note, “Don’t take it personally.” 

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Are you comparing yourself, your marriage, your children, or even your trials to others? It’s easy to look around us for approval and reassurance, but the truth is that it often leads to disappointment, feelings of inadequacies, and discontentment. Comparing robs us of our joy!

A young momma come to me a few weeks back. She was in tears with how hard life is. She felt like everyone else can figure it out, but her. It was an excellent opportunity for me to share transparently with her. Our chat ended with me sharing my best tip to overcome the pit of comparison.

Dear reader, perhaps you are feeling discouraged. Maybe you’re just like the young woman who sat with me last week. I encourage you to cultivate a spirit of gratitude. Most importantly don’t look around you- look up!!

Psalm 121 (KJV)

“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.”

When we look to God for our help, approval, and reassurance, we can confidently say, like the psalmist, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”

Let’s stop comparing ourselves and our lives to those around us. Instead, let’s turn our eyes to Jesus it’s there that we’ll find our help!

Until our next chat,

Your friend,

Mrs. Joseph Wood

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