A Minion's New Year's Resolution

Hello everyone.  It's that time of year again.  It's New Year's Eve.  Many of us will spend tonight going to parties or celebrating the passing of the old year and the ringing in of a new one.  I firmly believe that 2012 will be my best year yet.  It won't be the best year that I am ever going to have but it will be the best year yet.  (Thanks Dan Stratton for that saying)  Why do I think this?  Because I have faith that my God is able to do what he said.  It's the great thing about serving a God who is alive.  He can still perform signs and wonders like no other God can.

But that's a post for a different day.  My assignment today is to talk about New Year's resolutions.  Many of us (including me) have made them in the past and with the best intentions we start into January with a changed life.  For many years my New Year's resolution was always to quit eating badly, exercise and lose weight.  I exercise at a gym in Fort Worth that I dearly love.  It's where I lost all my weight and I still enjoy working out there.  I would almost bet you that there will be several new people in the gym the next time I go who will not be there by the middle of February.  I know that I was one of those people for many, many years.  I had the best intentions but no real commitment.  I could only resist giving my body what it wanted in the way of food for so long and then I would give in.  I might lose 10 pounds only to gain it all back plus five more at the end of my "diet."  Let me say this about diets.  If you go on a diet, you will lose weight but when you get off the diet, you will probably go right back to where you were before.  Don't go on a diet.  Change your life.

So am I saying don't bother making a New Year's resolution at all?  Don't attempt to improve your life or change things about yourself that you don't like.  Of course not!  If you have read many of my blogs you know that's not the case.  Well then, you ask, what are you telling me Mr. Minion?  What I'm telling you is that New Year's resolutions shouldn't be taken so lightly.  If you are going to change something about yourself, there is a high probability that it will take a lot of work and perseverance.  The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Does this mean that I don't think you can do it?  Of course not!  I know you can change anything you want to change.  I did.  I once was extremely overweight and now I am not.  What I want you to do before you make a New Year's resolution is count the cost.  Prepare yourself for the battle.  If you just make a half hearted resolution, you are setting yourself up for failure and that hurts.  I want to see you succeed in anything you set your mind to do (as long as it's a good thing).  When I finally made a change in my eating, it was after several months of preparation to do so.  I took me a long time to finally get honest with myself and admit that I had an eating problem.  After that, I had to go before God and ask his help in getting free from carbohydrate addiction.  There may be another way to do this without God but I don't know what it is.  I tried on my own for many years to lose weight with no success.  After this process, I was able to make a commitment to lose the weight and God gave me the ability to persevere through trials until I lost weight.

Let me summarize by saying this.  Please take your New Year's resolutions seriously.  It's OK to make them.  Just count the cost and be prepared so that you can be successful.  If you are a Christian, take your resolutions before God and ask for his help.  Then know that you will have to stand through some adversity if you are going to see your resolution fulfilled.  Remember this - there is never a testimony without a test.  I know you can do it. 

Wishing you a very Happy New Year - The Minion

Is It Real?

Today I want to talk about something that is a little strange to me.  The question is - Is it real?  Is what real, you ask?  When someone tells you something nice is it real?  Several months ago, I wrote a blog about the Box.  It was probably the most significant thing I have written thus far because it meant so much to me.  In this blog, I wrote about how we should look at the stuff that is on the inside of people and not the outside.  I think it is important to see the great things God has put in all of us.  Now it may have been the same blog or maybe not but I also wrote a little about how to take a compliment.

Recently, I have been around someone who has taken the time to take the lid off my box and see what's on the inside of me.  This person has been very complimentary of me and to be honest, it is a little unsettling.  I am not really sure how to take it.  She's used words to describe me like nice, sweet, caring, etc.  She even went as far as to say that I was a good man.  I am extremely grateful for the compliments and I believe that they are from the heart and sincere but they made me a little uncomfortable.  That made me consider my own actions a little.

When I am around someone, I try to be very positive.  I have worked hard to be someone who sees the best in others.  While I am not perfect, I feel like I have come a long way.  Like I have said before, I'm not where I want to be but thank God, I'm not where I used to be.  But I got a lesson today in how it feels to have someone do the same thing back to me.  Now it is unsettling but in a good way. 

I recently told someone that I thought they were a very special person and the response I got was not surprising.  That person basically said she struggled to believe what I was saying but she was working on believing it.  I have had this answer before in a different context and I wasn't shocked.  What surprised me a little was that this person didn't believe me.  Now she didn't think I was lying, she just found the nice thing I said difficult to believe.  At the time, I didn't understand why but now I think understand why she felt this way.

Have you ever been around someone who tells you one thing and then does another?  How about someone who tells you that they love you and then they do hateful things to you?  What message does that send?  Actions speak much louder than words so the actions certainly override the words.  Also, for some reason pain has a much more lasting effect on people than love.  At least on the surface this is the case.  So when we feel pain, the thought of it stays longer than love although love will impact you on a much deeper level.  But after someone hurts us, especially if it's for a long period of time, we really have a difficult time believing someone else when they say something nice.

Let me ask you this.  Has something happened in your life that makes it hard for you to believe things when people say nice things about you?  Maybe your self esteem is so low that it makes it hard for you to believe the nice things that people say about you.  The truth about the matter is that everything God ever made is amazing.  He made you and by definition that makes you an amazing person.  God wrote a whole book about you and how amazing you are.  The book says you were made in his image.  If someone tells you any different, ask yourself who's lying?  Is it them or God?  I choose them.  If someone tells you something good about you, it's probably true.  Now I do believe that we need to watch out for people who say nice things to manipulate us.  However, there are many people who just recognize the amazing gifts that God put in our box.  When that happens, let it soak through your skin like rain into the ground and get to your heart where it can grow into something amazing.

Today as we were walking, this person told me that I was pretty special.  I know what she says is sincere and I should have been able to believe her and just say thank you.  However, this is hard for me because it's hard for me to feel worthy of the compliment. There is a fine line between believing that we are worthy and being arrogant.  For years I have tried to hide behind humility to avoid compliments.  Now true humility is good and I try to be a humble person.  But I would avoid compliments or block them out because I didn't feel worthy of the compliment.  Instead of dealing wih not being worthy, I simply chose to believe that accepting a compliment could make me arrogant.

I am learning to accept these things from people and let them cause a harvest of good things to grow from my heart.  In truth, we all need to learn this lesson.

That's another Opinion of the Minion