Everyone needs someone they can say ANYTHING to without the fear of rejection. BE that someone. Jamie The Very Worst Missionary Are you that someone?  Do you have that someone?  If you aren't that someone, why?  If you don't have that someone, why? To BE that someone you have to be able to speak truth in love .  You have to be willing to be a safe place.  You have to be willing to listen without trying to fix, without passing judgement, and without condemning. To HAVE that someone you have to be willing to hear truth, even when - or especially when - it stings.  You have to be willing to invite someone into your life that you know won't back down from your crappy moods and defensiveness.  You have to be willing to talk and be vulnerable. We need safety in our lives and we need people who will stand up and be that safe place for us and we need to be that safe place for others.  

Write your hurts in the sand. Carve your blessings in stone. Jamie the Very Worst Missionary I love the picture this brings to mind.  Sand gets wiped clean and smoothed out by the water and stone is pretty much forever.  So the idea here is to record your hurts, if you are going to do that, in sand where it can be wiped clean and smoothed out and "forgotten" and record your blessings in stone where they can stand as a reminder on the days when the hurts threaten to overwhelm.  In our lives we will have both hurts and blessings and the people who choose to let the hurts be washed away are generally more joyful, fulfilled, and pleasant to be around!  Those who choose to carve their hurts in stone, however, are miserable to be around and miserable themselves.  Why would anyone choose misery as the description for their life?  And it is a choice.  Yes, crappy things happen but we have a choice.  Will we write them in the sand so they can be washed ...

There's a difference between being drained and being poured out. One is exhausting and   debilitating, the other  is exhilarating and affirming. Pour into others and you'll fill up. I promise.   Jamie The Very Worst Missionary (Jamie Wright - find her on FaceBook or check her out here ) The only way to really fill up your life is to pour into others.  We have been created to be a relational people and the only way that gets fully satisfied is when we relate to others, i.e. pour into them.  I love Jamie's thought for today's quote.  She's right on the money.  And there's another side to it that she didn't point out but I will (although I am sure she would "hear hear" me).   The only way to fill up is to pour out or be drained.  You can't fill up what is already full.  And to stay full with no replenish of fresh resources means only one thing - you gonna get stagnant and stanky.  Just sayin'.  And you know I'm right.  In...