Finding what you want in what you give...

Every year I expected it. On my birthday, especially on my birthday. On Mother's Day. On Valentine's day. I wanted to be treated and feel like the most special person ever. Ever. And saying that now just sounds so...selfish.

Every year he never expected it. Never. Not on his birthday, not on Father's Day, not on Valentine's Day. He was content and expected little except maybe a card or some small something. But no big day long celebration of him.

But this year, I did it for him. I took the focus off of me and focused on him. His birthday was more than it's been ever, I think. And it wasn't that it took a lot of money or a grand present. It was just little things throughout the course of two days. A table set fancy, confetti, a special text or two at work, his favorite Chinese dinner. It was two days of celebrating him. And he felt so special. I know it cause he told me that night. I gave what I always want. And in the giving I found what I had been looking for all along. I felt loved and special right along with him. And this morning I find these words to be the truest....

“You only have what you give away. All that you’ll ever have is only what you’ve shared”

~ Ann Voskamp

The Real Deal...

The movie Fireproof is one of my fav-o-rite movies. Remember how the black guy at the firehouse loved the Lord and took so much teasing for it? There's one scene in which Kirk Cameron's character tells another fireman character, "Well, we can say what we want to about him. But we both know. He's the real deal." I looooove that line. I hope people say that about me. I hope I come across as the real deal. Real deal people have so much influence for the Lord. I once read a quote that said, "Live your life so that when others talk bad about you that nobody believes it." I wonder when bad things are said about me, is it so easy to believe it...or not? I hope...how I hope not.

Great Words

A couple of times already, I've shared some of my favorite quotes. This quote is my all time favorite line from a movie. It comes from Forrest Gump. And no, it's not about Bubba Gump Shrimp or "Run Forrest, run!" Remember his childhood friend, Jenny? Remember how he absolutely adored her? This line was said during a scene in which Jenny was giving him all her reasons for not being able to stay with him. I think it sums up what the need of every single human heart is.

"I may not be a smart man, but I know what love is."
~Forrest Gump

Yes. We all know and need.......love.

Great Words

I read this in a Daily Bread devotional a few years ago. I don't know who said it, but I've never forgotten the words. It's one of my favorite quotes ever.

"If God were small enough to be understood, He would not be big enough to be worshipped."

Great Words

"I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make a life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture, or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a person humanized or dehumanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming."

~Goethe~

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building up others according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Ephesians 4:29