Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth - Matthew 5:5
In a society constantly in pursuit of success, does meekness get in the way of succeeding? Can a person be driven and meek at the same time? Think of some examples of meek people who have been very successful.
This week's experiments:
1) This week, when you want to raise your voice, work to be gentle and soft-spoken instead.
2) Odds are you were pain in the neck of your grade school teachers. But some of those teachers probably still stand out in your mind as being outstanding. Write a letter to one, thanking him or her for being significant in your life.
3) Most churches have a maintenance or cleaning person. This is an important and often overlooked ministry. Make some cookies, bring a snack, or write a card to show your appreciation for what they do when nobody else is looking.
4) Wait until they are gone and mow your neighbor's yard. Don't let them know it was you.
5) Choose the least likely person to be on your team. If you have a dodgeball game or kickball game allow a gentle spirit to help you reach out to those who are often overlooked.
6) Using your social network of choice, publicly praise someone else at least once a day. Better yet, praise someone toward whom you feel competitive or jealous.
7) What is your gift? Are you a guitarist? Do you play piano? Really good at math? Whatever it is, offer your talents to help someone else - with no strings attached.
This week's experiments:
1) This week, when you want to raise your voice, work to be gentle and soft-spoken instead.
2) Odds are you were pain in the neck of your grade school teachers. But some of those teachers probably still stand out in your mind as being outstanding. Write a letter to one, thanking him or her for being significant in your life.
3) Most churches have a maintenance or cleaning person. This is an important and often overlooked ministry. Make some cookies, bring a snack, or write a card to show your appreciation for what they do when nobody else is looking.
4) Wait until they are gone and mow your neighbor's yard. Don't let them know it was you.
5) Choose the least likely person to be on your team. If you have a dodgeball game or kickball game allow a gentle spirit to help you reach out to those who are often overlooked.
6) Using your social network of choice, publicly praise someone else at least once a day. Better yet, praise someone toward whom you feel competitive or jealous.
7) What is your gift? Are you a guitarist? Do you play piano? Really good at math? Whatever it is, offer your talents to help someone else - with no strings attached.
4 comments:
This past week has been a real challenge as I have tried really hard to work with a student whose ever other word is one of profanity. His language is not necessarily directed in harshness but rather casual. That is what makes this so difficult. He sees nothing wrong with his racially negative, sexually explicit, and profane language. He does say that he does not use that language in front of his mother, but other than that, he sees it as something that I need to "just get use to". It is difficult to talk with him instead of just writing him up and sending him to the office. I do write him up so that he will receive the consequences for the behavior that may eventually cause a change, but I have been trying to have gentle conversation with him before he leaves. He is responding less defiantly, but he is still using the language frequently. I guess that is something. Pray for him.
I apologize for the late offering this week - we had Charge Conference on monday and I had some work done on a tooth yesterday.
For my experiment I chose to write an old mentor of mine who I have tended to take for granted. He and I have not spoken in quite some time and it was nice to just say "thank you". Our conversations usually include updates on the ordination process or happenings in the church and there was no shop talk in the note. It made me consider the routines that I fall into with certain people. It is comfortable to simply talk about the things you have in common but those types of relationships and conversations keep things on a superficial level only. Getting to truly know someone and appreciate someone requires a deeper level of care for that person.
So sorry for being late this week...it has been a crazy week. I thought this week's experiment would be very easy. Not so. It didn't take long for me to fail at #1. That really hurt my feelings. I am so old I don't even remember my grade school teachers, but I am sure I was always a perfect angel. :) On to #3. We have a large cleaning staff at our church, so we were pretty sure they didn't get too many thank-yous. David suggested we have lunch, complete with a dessert, sent to them. That happened today. We heard back through a staff member how much they appreciated it. I am glad we picked this. It is an often overlooked ministry. It made us feel VERY good!!
Tim, DJ has a term that he calls "Real Talk". I love it when he comes to me and says, "Mama...real talk". It usually means we are going to have a deep open-ended conversation where I supply more listening than answers but seem to be the best "talks" that we have. I have tried to declare "real talk" with others and those few conversattions always seem to leave me feeling more content and connected that the superficial "surface" talks with many.
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