Monthly Archives: August 2009

Booster Shot: Lead Yourself First

Lately, I have not been true to my blog postings; especially, the one posted on January 21, 2009 entitled “Lead Yourself.” The 7 principles are found in John Maxwell’s book “The 360 Degree Leader.”

As my workload grew in recent weeks, I did not proactively manage my time and priorities and the results led to a behavior that I am not proud of. I had an outburst with an employee today and others witnessed this behavior.

John Maxwell stated that if we desire to lead up, we must lead ourselves first and the first principle in leading ourselves is to manage our emotions. I was unabled to manage my emotions. No one “wants to spend time around an emotional time bomb…” “Good leaders know when to display emotions and when to delay them.” Well, I must say my timing was off.

The good news is that I apologized to the person that I had the “outburst” with; however, others who were in the room during the outburst were not privy to the apology. My job now is to make sure that my outburst did not affect that person and others who witnessed my behavior negatively.

I plan to review the January 21, 2009 blog again and I invite you to review it as well. Reminders are good.

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God Is Not Finished With Us Yet

 Below are statements taken from one of John Olsteen’s books; you may be familiar with the statements. These statements were affirmations for me during a dark time in my life and I want to share these affirmations with you. I also want to share with you scriptures that each statement quickly brought to mind. So think of this as a gift of appreciation and use them when you need to and use them often.

God we know that you are at work in our lives. We know that we are one day closer to our miracle. We know that “your timing is perfect,” so we are going to stay in an attitude of faith & keep trusting YOU to do what is best. (I hear the 23rd Psalms)We will live with an attitude of faith even during our DARKEST HOURS. (I hear Roman 8:26-37)

If we don’t have hope, we don’t have faith. If we don’t have faith, we can’t please God and we want see God’s power revealed in our lives. We must keep hope alive in our hearts. We will never give up our DREAMS. We will not allow discouragement or other setbacks keep us from believing what GOD has said about us.

(I hear Hebrew 11:1-40)

“He that began a good work in us will continue to perform it until it’s perfectly complete.” (Philippians 1:6).God wants to do a NEW THING in our lives. We want limit God with small thinking. (I hear Philippians 3: 12-14)
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Please share your thoughts; we will love to hear how God speaks to you through these statements. If these statements bring a scripture or bible story please share those as well. Thanks.

The photograph is by Jim Whalen
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Miracles Witnessed

So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?” John 6:30

God help us not to forget the miracles we have witnessed in our life time. Don’t let today’s burdens make us forget your love for us and your willingness to share our yolk.

God help us not to forget the miracle:

Of having a place to call home
Of having that job to pay those long overdue bills
Or finding that special friend and the love of our life

God help us not to forget the miracle:

Of being parents—when we and others thought it was not possible
Or re-uniting with family and friends that we thought were long lost

God help us not to forget the miracle:

Of having spiritual mentors and heroes who strengthened our faith
For witnessing the physical healing of family and friends; we thought would long be gone
Of holding the hands of a dear brother as he departed this world or to be in the presence of friends as they too left us.

God help us not to forget your peacefulness, your assurances and the promises you have laid on our hearts.

I pray that as we remember the miracles in our lives that we will use our “gift of living” to help others who have forgotten their miracles— to bring hope to the hopeless; to provide shelter for the homeless and like Jesus feed the thousands.

When we remember our miracles we, like Jesus, can speak boldly the words of Isaiah 61:1-3a:

“The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon (us)…; God has sent (us) to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor…; to comfort all who mourn; 3 and provide for those who grieve…”
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We need to give hope and to bring good news to those who feel all is lost. So will you please share your life miracles? Thanks.
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