You Are Appreciated

I watched Monday Night Raw this past Monday and saw a very stirring and emotional promo from one CM Punk at the end of the show which had twitter and wrestling sites buzzing all week. I watched his promo again today and my thoughts on it for today is that he is "shooting" to us that he does not feel appreciated by his bosses, peers, or his fans for his work that he does. Now here I go again with the things that make you go hmmm right? But honestly, how many of us feel that way in our daily lives. With the world going so much faster and our lives are far more busy than the generations before us, we have to make personal sacrifices for our family and friends, our churches and organizations, and our jobs but at times we can feel like with all the sacrifice and effort we put in, the thanks and pats on the back do not come as often as they should; I think it is in nature to be recognized for the work that we do, especially when we do it for others when we give ourselves so much. Here are two thoughts that we should keep in mind, 1. is that we should do things as if we are doing it for God and 2. is that we should be weary in well doing because we will be rewarded if we do not stop in doing those things. The key is not to quit because even if the people you want to appreciate you do not, others will, from afar and close to you. Remember you are appreciated and loved so keep going and you will be rewarded in the end.

Rise Above Your (perceived) Reality

I think sometimes we see our surroundings plus our background and equal it up to the fact that we are supposed to be mediocre. Let me switch our thinking of mediocre, which is an eagle flocking with hens or a swan swimming ducks; mediocrity is the eagle and the swan making excuses for still staying in the environment by looking at their history instead of their pedigree. Reading Judges 6 I find that Gideon, a man of faith, had to face the same thing. But what I take from that is, none of us start out as the hero we are destined to be, God grows us into it, we just have to stop making excuses. Our reality is real but that does not mean it cannot change. Since 1999 to now, I have seen and read more rags to riches stories than I ever thought I would. It is proof that we all can use our reality's wall as a bridge if we knock it down, in our mind. Once we do that, we can rise above anything that is put in front of us.

Morning Face

We all know this but our worst enemy is the person in the mirror, well try to think of it as a person just waking up looking in the mirror-that person is no shape prepared to do anything. Yet, if you think about it, that's the person we walk out of door with and show the world our morning face. I bring this up because we have to stop blaming other people and other situations for where we are in life. We put ourselves in most of these positions. And most times we ask God to get us out of troubles and while He provides comfort and ease, He still will have to walk through the valley because we put the destination in our gps. We have to start making better decisions for ourselves or what I like to call, the afternoon face, the face full of pep, lotion, and colgate or crest; that afternoon face will make knowledgeable and wise decisions for today to ensure we have that winning smile tomorrow.

Typecasting

Today I watched an episode of Meet the Browns and I happen to see Tasha Smith on there and her part on this episode is similar to the one she played in Daddy's Little Girls. I'm thinking to myself how many times is she going to play these type of women that does not trust a man or is a horrible mom. So many others have had to play negative roles even though they are talented to do other things so why do they get stuck playing these parts. I'm not even going to get into the race card or anything like that because I want to make this more personal for those reading this and that is: do you think people put you into certain roles after they have become familiar with you? How much do we show people one way that we are that they put us in a box for the rest of our lives? Are we ready to live with that role for the rest of our lives? Now I know we should not live our lives to please others but we also should not let people put us in a box if we do not put our best foot forward. I think that when we show our real character then people can label us however they want but it should be up to us to give them the options on what they perceive. We need to always bring our A+ game, in public and in the mirror. Word Life!

Get Bigger

I like to think that God made us bigger than our bodies. If you think about it, we really are given what human beings around the world have accomplished in every generation. Even with the small things like not going crazy when times have gone from bad to worse; we are still here. With that being said, think of how much more we can do if we just took what is supposed to be our brass ring that God has put inside of us. But we should not wait on that bigger person when we pass on because that is a buried treasure that no one wants to go digging for. Is this another maximize yourself speech that we hear every full moon and stay excited about it for only two hours? I certainly hope not because we are bigger than our bodies but we just have to believe that despite what our environment says. In a world where every thing is being made to be smaller, we need to go get bigger.

Wrestlemania!

Today I was thinking about Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32:24 all night until the sun is about to come up. Now I know there have been sermon after sermon about this but I thought about what Seraph told Neo in Matrix: Reloaded; he says you don't really know a person till you fight them. That's pretty interesting right if you think about it; I mean you can fight a person for so long that you can know their strengths and weaknesses and beyond that you figure out their will and their character. Jacob got that very same revelation about God in their wrestling match. Jacob lost of course but a very wise promoter Paul Heyman says it's good to get your butt kick sometimes and in the end, that helped Jacob go from being a father of a lot kids to being a father of a nation. Now I know the old saying is that our arms are too short to box with God but I think we still have to have that face off with God so that He can push us to who we are destined to be; once we submit our flawed will to His perfect will.