Ever received a communication (email, text, phone call, handwritten note, etc) from someone for no reason at all except they just wanted you to know they were thinking of you?  How did it make you feel?  When I get those "out of the blue" communications from people I feel embraced.  It feels nice that someone somewhere is thinking about me in a nice way - haha!  I'm sure people think about me, I'm not sure it's always in positive ways.  (Just being real people, I am NOT easy to live with.)  A while back I was studying in the book of Philippians and in chapter one, verse three I paused.  It says, "Whenever you cross my mind, I thank my God for you and for the gift of knowing you."  And I got to thinking that my relationships might change, for the better, when I am intentional in reaching out and just saying "hey" when someone crosses my mind. Just to let them know I thought of them, maybe prayed for them, etc.  I know how grateful I feel when ...

This afternoon I was talking with someone and as I listened to the story being told I suddenly felt grateful that *it* isn't all about me.   I'm better off when my minutes, hours, and days aren't all about me - when I can focus on others and their needs, hearts, etc.  When I do make things all about me I am frankly quite miserable. And don't misunderstand me, when it comes to taking care of myself - physically and emotionally - there is an element of it having to be all about me but overall in my days I really want it to be about others. I trust my Creator to take care of my needs (and usually he does it through someone else who isn't focused on themselves so see how it's a circle? Not a vicious one but a rather lovely one). So today I'm feeling grateful for the times when I can let go of some crazy insecure need for things to be all about me and I can make *it* all about others.

HUMILITY:  Not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.  ( John 3:30 )  All that thinking less of yourself is is annoying and a characteristic called false humility.  Ugh.  I'm sure you've been around someone who says they think less of themselves and acts that way too.  It's so annoying, do you agree?  Eventually people don't want to be around the person and quit showing any kind of interest in their lives.  And in a weird twist, thinking less of yourself is actually very prideful!  Which is the opposite of humility.  So if you've somehow fallen into the trap of thinking that it is humble to think less of yourself then I'm here to break it to you - it's not.   You  are actually being very prideful and self-centered.  Knock it off.  :) True humility, on the other hand, is when you think of yourself less.  The order of words changes the meaning significantly doesn't it?  It means that when ...