Motivational Monday :) *WARNING - you may be offended*

I struggled with getting started today.....Mondays are always a drag in a sense and I try to put on a happy face when I get up - because I swear your mood can be soooo affected by your perspective on the day.  BUT - I struggled today....I struggled to get going, I struggled to get motivated and I really struggled to put on my happy face.....
So for lunch, I went home and did a little house cleaning.  Laundry - check; dishes - check; trash taken out - check;  PRODUCTIVE right.... and yet still I sat....without motivation...without anything to talk about... without any POSITIVE motivation to pass on....

Now - I am a FIRM believer that sometimes - you just have to stop trying so hard and just listen and wait.  So that I did.  I relaxed and enjoyed my lunch......and suddenly it came to me why I was soooo off kilter.  Do you ever feel like you are going nowhere..just peddling your wheels in place???  Do you ever feel like you are so consumed with everyone else's faults that you fail to take care of your own?  And not just faults, but maybe - for me anyway - by nature, I'm a helper... I love to listen and talk and help... and I get so caught up in others issues and what I can do help them, that I forget to give myself a direction....Do you ever feel like you are just riding the fence through life?

I came across this quote today - totally randomly {{yeah right - Thank you Lord!}}

"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for everything."

As I read it....I realized......I don't ever STAND when it comes to me.  I can give everyone else advice and voice my opinion, but when it comes to ME - I sit on the fence and wait to see what everyone else is going to do..I wonder how my decisions will affect everyone else...and I worry and sit.  Unchanged.  Unmoving.  I just sit.
This is not true in EVERY aspect of my life, but it is true in some pretty big places.  There are certain things I believe in and I will tell you and don't care WHO I offend.  BUT when it comes to ME and the things I need to fix about ME - I will simply tell you I'm not sure how I feel about that issue, I will make excuses, I will justify......and then I just sit on it.
There are soooo many GOOD things happening in my life right now...and yes I'm thankful.  Make no mistake about that.  I will tell you a million times how thankful I am and how blessed I am.  But sitting around being thankful and doing NOTHING with it - has made me....well... sad.  Stagnant.  Guilty.  and just plain dissappointed in me.  And I don't like where I am.
Why?
Well - I'll tell you  {{if you are offended by religious beliefs - HERE is where you might want to exit because I won't apologize for my beliefs}}  I believe that God blesses us with gifts.  Some that are tangible gifts & rewards and some that are meant to be USED to give back to him.  In other words, I believe that along with gifts, God also ASKS things of us.  And I believe that he will only ask so many times before he will stop asking.  I have BEEN at that point in my life.
I have walked SOOOOO far away from God that I didn't hear his voice anymore.  And trust me, that's a lonely place to be.  Now - I'm NOT saying that God EVER turned his back on me.... he was ALWAYS there, all I had to do was take his hand...and just listen.   I chose not to.  I walked away.  He NEVER turned his back on me... and I could tell you for DAYS how he took care of me and my son...even when I turned my back on him... 
But the gifts he gave me were fruitless at that point in my life.
 
I know what these gifts are.  I know how they can be used.  I know how they glorify Him  &  I know what is asked of me every day.
My problem is picking a side of the fence, standing for something no matter WHO it offends or hurts along the way.... I KNOW right from wrong.  I also KNOW the GOOD that comes from taking his hand and trusting that doing HIS will may just offend a few people - but in the long run - the example that YOU are for all the other people far outweighs the ones you offend.  (and I'll share a little secret with ya... the ones that you offend, are often under conviction about that very thing you have offended them with... just sayin...)
 
A few months ago - I listened to a sermon that referenced a prayer that was prayed in Kansas in the opening session of the House.  I'm sharing it with you today.  And I'm sharing it EXACTLY as it was written.  Joe Wright, the pastor of Central Christian Church in Wichita was the guest chaplain that day. He prayed a prayer of repentance that was written by Bob Russell, pastor of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.  The prayer stirred up PLENTY of contraversy, but I can't help but wonder, how many people it touched.  No one ever bothers to point out those results from something contraversial.
 
Heavenly Father,


We come before You today to ask Your Forgiveness and seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ''Woe to those who call evil good,'' but that's exactly what we have done. We have lost our Spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values. We confess that; we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism; We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism; We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle; We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery; We have neglected the needy and called it self preservation; We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare; We have killed our unborn and called it choice; We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable; We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem; We have abused power and called it political savvy; We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition; We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression; We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of this state and who have been ordained by You, to govern this great state of Kansas. Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of Your Will.

I ask in in the name of your Son, The Living Savior, Jesus Christ

I'm not asking you to AGREE with everything that was prayed that day.  I am simply pointing out that sometimes, we have to stand for what we believe in.  Pick a side of the fence and tell people what God lays on your heart... and then - you know what?!  CONTINUE to stand for what you believe.

My motivational message to you today is simply this:
If there are things in your life that you don't agree with or you don't like - get rid of them.  If you are living in a way that doesn't glorify YOUR God and your beliefs, leave those habits by the wayside.  If there are things you aren't doing because your scared of who you might offend or your scared of falling on your face... trust in God and just do it.  God will never let anything done in His Name go in vain.  You never know who is watching and what a difference one decision in your life could make to someone else.
Stand for something.
I'm making changes today.