I am not sure if today's blog will be something truly meaningful to anyone but me. However, today I want to reflect on something interesting in my life.
For the first time in some time, I am actually content. Today I sat for a little while and thought about why. What I came up with actually startled me a little. There is an author named Gary Chapman who wrote a book called "The Five Love Languages." It is a very good book and if you haven't read it, you might consider it. Now in this book, he says that we all have a love tank inside of us and that we all have different things that fill our love tank. While I'm not sure his list is all inclusive, I can't think of anything that would not fall into one of those five categories.
Also recently, I was talking to a very special person in my life and she made in interesting observation. She said that her heart was full. I remember at the time this struck me as something interesting. She recently told me that she ponders things in her heart and I guess that I have been pondering that statement ever since.
I think she was saying that her love tank was full and since I had read a copy of Gary's book that was directed at children, this concept really stuck out in my mind. I don't believe in coincidences and I believe that the Lord was trying to show me something but it took me a little while to understand what. See, I think for years that I have been running on a love tank that read - empty. There are a many reasons for this and I certainly won't try to address them in this post but suffice it to say that is the way I have felt.
Now have you ever heard the saying, what goes around comes around? Well, I believe that is a true statement. Some people call it karma but in all reality, it's a principal that comes from the bible. The bible describes it as sowing and reaping. In other words, what you sow, you are going to reap. Most of the time we all think of this as doing something bad. A while back, I played a little joke on my mom that we both laugh about and recently someone else played the same joke on me and we both laughed about sowing and reaping. Have you ever hear of something bad happening to a bad person and then heard someone else say that person got what was coming to them? Well, I think that can be true at times.
But what if the opposite was true? What if when you do good things for people, that same type of stuff happens to you? I almost find this hard to believe for many reasons but I know the bible is true and so it must be true that when I sow good stuff, I eventually reap good stuff. For years I have tried to be someone who sows good stuff into other people's lives and didn't really see the results I thought I would see back. I remember writing a blog this summer where I talked about breaking the cycle of being hurt and hurting other people. In that blog, I talked about how Jesus was hurt by John the Baptist's death and how he helped people even though he was hurting. I hope this doesn't come across as bragging because I am not. This is just a point that needs to be illustrated.
As I sat here today, I realized that I truly was at peace. I'm not restless, not in a hurry, not trying to figure out what to do tomorrow. I'm just content. Why am I content? Because that love tank or my heart, however you want to classify it, is full. Now I have always tried to be a giver but I can tell you that when your heart/tank is full it is much easier to give than when it's on empty and you are doing it out of obligation. There is someone who will read this and know that they are one of biggest reasons my tank is full. To that person, let me say thank you from the bottom of my heart. That wasn't the only source that filled my love tank but it was the biggest.
So what can we learn from this? Well there are a few things that I can think of. First of all, keep doing good things for people. If you do that, sooner or later things will start coming your way. They used to sing a song in church and one of the lines was, "You've gotta keep on casting your bread upon the water. Soon it's gonna come back home on every wave." This is true in life. Second, don't quit. My mom sent me a link to a blog by Pastor Bob Nichols and the first line said, "Don't quit on your first day and don't quit on your worst day." I like that a lot. Sometimes, you will wonder what's taking so long for the good things to start happening in your life but don't quit. They will come if you keep at it. Lastly, for now, it's OK to be happy. This content feeling bothered me because I was so used to not feeling it, it took a couple of days to get used being content and understanding that it was OK to feel this way.
That's another Opinion of the Minion
For the first time in some time, I am actually content. Today I sat for a little while and thought about why. What I came up with actually startled me a little. There is an author named Gary Chapman who wrote a book called "The Five Love Languages." It is a very good book and if you haven't read it, you might consider it. Now in this book, he says that we all have a love tank inside of us and that we all have different things that fill our love tank. While I'm not sure his list is all inclusive, I can't think of anything that would not fall into one of those five categories.
Also recently, I was talking to a very special person in my life and she made in interesting observation. She said that her heart was full. I remember at the time this struck me as something interesting. She recently told me that she ponders things in her heart and I guess that I have been pondering that statement ever since.
I think she was saying that her love tank was full and since I had read a copy of Gary's book that was directed at children, this concept really stuck out in my mind. I don't believe in coincidences and I believe that the Lord was trying to show me something but it took me a little while to understand what. See, I think for years that I have been running on a love tank that read - empty. There are a many reasons for this and I certainly won't try to address them in this post but suffice it to say that is the way I have felt.
Now have you ever heard the saying, what goes around comes around? Well, I believe that is a true statement. Some people call it karma but in all reality, it's a principal that comes from the bible. The bible describes it as sowing and reaping. In other words, what you sow, you are going to reap. Most of the time we all think of this as doing something bad. A while back, I played a little joke on my mom that we both laugh about and recently someone else played the same joke on me and we both laughed about sowing and reaping. Have you ever hear of something bad happening to a bad person and then heard someone else say that person got what was coming to them? Well, I think that can be true at times.
But what if the opposite was true? What if when you do good things for people, that same type of stuff happens to you? I almost find this hard to believe for many reasons but I know the bible is true and so it must be true that when I sow good stuff, I eventually reap good stuff. For years I have tried to be someone who sows good stuff into other people's lives and didn't really see the results I thought I would see back. I remember writing a blog this summer where I talked about breaking the cycle of being hurt and hurting other people. In that blog, I talked about how Jesus was hurt by John the Baptist's death and how he helped people even though he was hurting. I hope this doesn't come across as bragging because I am not. This is just a point that needs to be illustrated.
As I sat here today, I realized that I truly was at peace. I'm not restless, not in a hurry, not trying to figure out what to do tomorrow. I'm just content. Why am I content? Because that love tank or my heart, however you want to classify it, is full. Now I have always tried to be a giver but I can tell you that when your heart/tank is full it is much easier to give than when it's on empty and you are doing it out of obligation. There is someone who will read this and know that they are one of biggest reasons my tank is full. To that person, let me say thank you from the bottom of my heart. That wasn't the only source that filled my love tank but it was the biggest.
So what can we learn from this? Well there are a few things that I can think of. First of all, keep doing good things for people. If you do that, sooner or later things will start coming your way. They used to sing a song in church and one of the lines was, "You've gotta keep on casting your bread upon the water. Soon it's gonna come back home on every wave." This is true in life. Second, don't quit. My mom sent me a link to a blog by Pastor Bob Nichols and the first line said, "Don't quit on your first day and don't quit on your worst day." I like that a lot. Sometimes, you will wonder what's taking so long for the good things to start happening in your life but don't quit. They will come if you keep at it. Lastly, for now, it's OK to be happy. This content feeling bothered me because I was so used to not feeling it, it took a couple of days to get used being content and understanding that it was OK to feel this way.
That's another Opinion of the Minion
I enjoy reading your opinions especially today because it was a little uplifting for me(the part about keep giving good to receive good). What I wanted to kind of contest was this. The close female friend of yours that you mentioned today who stated, "My tank/heart is full". I feel she should have maybe with all pun intended, used the word content instead of full. I mean I very confident that love will continue to grow within her heart whether its from kids or grandchildren, new friends or whatever comes her way. I am glad she feels full, but hopefully she has an open heart and room to grow.
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