You Define 2009
Happy New Year!
I’ve already addressed, more than once, my love of starting over. I want to encourage you to define what you want for 2009. Make a list of things you enjoy doing and promise yourself to do more of those things for yourself this coming year. Decide for yourself, that even in the midst of depressing circumstances in our world and economy, that you are going to live a complaint-free life. The power of our words and our thoughts is overwhelming to me. Even scripture says the power of life and death lies in the tongue, so choose life! You have the power to define the next year of your life.
Regardless of your vocation or occupation, think of yourself as “a service” to others, rather than “a servant”. You’d be amazed at how that changes your thought process and your expectations of others. If you are a ‘service’ to the people around you, you are telling yourself that you have value that others can benefit from. You provide your service to others because you have a gift that you are choosing to use to help people. As a result, you don’t necessarily expect anything in return for the service you provide. On the contrary, if you have a “servant mentality”, you feel that your “job” is more like an obligation, whether to your children, your husband, your boss, or your parents. When you have a servant mind set it is easy to develop a sense of entitlement…. “By golly, I’ve slaved over this house ALL day, EVERY day! The least you could do is help out a little around here! Or at least say Thank you!!” For me personally, I love the art of hospitality. I enojoy keeping my house clean and food on the dinner table, because I can see on my husband’s face that he enjoys coming home from work. He doesn’t dread leaving the office for fear of walking into a war zone with screaming kids, a filthy house, and an ungrateful wife. Instead, this is his safe haven, his place to find peaceful rest and refilling. However, when I allow myself to dwell on certain circumstances or become jealous or bitter of other peoples’ lives, I become a servant. I find myself looking forward to my husband coming home so I can “dump” the kids on him, retreat to my room, and hide for the rest of the night, because I deserve it after all the crap I put up with (get the ugly picture?)! I carry an angry chip on my shoulder for all the things I haven’t been thanked for, and I have thoughts of ‘going on strike’ just to show the males in my life that they could never survive without me. But see, if I am a service, it gives me great pleasure to know that the man and boys in my life really could not survive long without me. I am needed. I am loved. I am valued beyond any other person in their lives. That is truly rewarding.
I hope this all made sense and I’m not just running around in circles here.
You have the power to choose what your next year of life will be like. Regardless of how many curves life throws at you, you can be victorious! You can be the most valued service in the lives of the people around you. Go for it! Define your 2009!
~audrey