Things I want to talk about

I want to talk about things...

I want to talk about how awesome it was to see kind people this weekend. 
At the airport, lines were really long.  The man behind me almost missed his flight.  I called it to attention and about fifty people let him go ahead so he would catch the flight.  It made me like humanity.  Later, I was in a store, at the airport, looking for gum.  Would you believe that Orlando’s airport doesn’t sell gum because people put it on floors and stuff??? I was dumbfounded and bummed about having to fly without chewing gum.  This awesome guy came up and offered both my sister and I his gum, several pieces, out of nowhere, to make the flight nicer. It was awesome.

I want to talk about the song, ‘We Need a Little Christmas’ (is that what it is called?).  

This song is the reason I have no problem celebrating Christmas at the beginning of Advent and keeping that spirit alive until after the Christmas season.  We, my friends, need a little Christmas, right this very minute.  I need a little Christmas, I need a little joy, I need to focus on hope.  And, the joy that comes with all the decorations, Christmas music, present getting ready, etc… just makes the waiting all the sweeter for me.  I decided today I am going to do ‘angel on the shelf’ instead of ‘elf on the shelf’. We have the tree up, the crèche out, and Christmas movies in the background.  People, at least in my experience, are being friendlier.  We need a little Christmas, and I am so thankful that the anticipation of the waiting is filled with hope and joy. 

I want to talk about how I judge other people often for their finances.
 I do so because we work our a$$es off to pay debt, and attain financial freedom.  So when people act like they have some extreme story that doesn’t allow them to get a hold of their finances, I judge them. A lot.  When people complain about finances with their iphones in hand, and their fancy cars/houses/clothes, as they going out to restaurants, I judge them.  But, Jesus decided to teach me two lessons.  One, is that people that are healthy/fit could easily judge me just the same. I complain about how hard it is to lose weight, but the thing is, even though it is hard, I can do it. I just have to stop eating crap and start working out.  It is that easy.  So, I might want to go a little easier on my judgments of others or at least get to a place where I am comfortable with people’s judgment of me.  Otherwise, I am a hypocrite.  Second,  often we do the same thing with our spiritual lives that we do with our finances/weight.  We complain we aren’t close to God, but we aren’t REALLY into doing the hard work, for a length of time needed, to build relationship.  These revelations tell me two things. 1) I should stop judging.  2) I need to stop making excuses for my lack of health and more importantly, my relationship with God.

I want to talk about a life-changing thing I heard this weekend at a youth conference. 
Ready?  Everyday, when we look in the mirror in the morning, we should say to ourselves ‘The person I am looking at is 100% responsible for my happiness today’.  This changes EVERYTHING.  And, despite circumstances we might find ourselves in, this statement is 100% correct. It shall change the way I operate.

I want to talk about another thing I heard this weekend that was life-changing and hard. 
I took a session by the one and only Mike Patin on ‘Judo’ listening.  On listening to people with the intent to hear what they are saying and disarm any attacks they might have to get to the root of the issue. It is NOT easy to do this.  My natural reaction, especially when being attacked is to attack back or say ‘screw you’.  “Judo listening” is going to be a psychotic challenge, but I am going to work on it.  “Judo Listening” is the way Christ listened, so, in effect, it is about holiness. I need to be more holy. I am going to try.  My first experience of judo listening was this weekend, it worked out really nice.  So, maybe we should all try it?

And lastly, I want to talk about this picture. 

Please tell me how we can sell the rights to this picture to Disney and in return get an all-expense paid vacation for my family and my sister and three of her closet friends to Disney.  I think that would be an even exchange. I mean, have you ever seen a picture like it?  Annie took it, well done!

Now, I am done talking about things. For now.