Never underestimate the difference you can make

“Underestimating the importance of your ability to contribute and the role you could play virtually eliminates any chance you will make a difference in anything” - THM There are many problems in the world around us. If you live here in Kentucky then we can create a list rather quickly of issues that need attention, problems that seem to persist that need addressing and people all around us need encouragement and hope. The value of our individual lives we seem to be have plenty of experience with discarding as useless or considering to be of no value worth sharing with anyone. Nothing could be further from the truth even if we believe we are a waste of time and energy, no one ask for our opinion or thinks we have anything to say. Even if that’s true, pay no attention to what others believe and don’t allow someone else’s thinking to be your driving force in life. YOU MATTER. Your opinion matters and because of your life experiences you have a depth of wisdom from your journey to share. It is possible that one could think more highly of themselves than we should, but flipping the coin to embrace the attitude you have no value is just as destructive. Self value is an approach to self worth that you place on your life. Underestimating this ability places you in a deficient that could be challenging to overcome. Keeping approaches and attitudes in healthy balances makes a big difference in our lives and in our ability to help others. One doesn’t have to know it all, or know everything to be of assistance or an aid to others, but one must be willing to be whatever part we can play to the benefit of others. One important role we can all play is listening. This doesn’t mean listening and multitasking at the same time, this mean stopping what you’re doing and giving them your undivided attention. There is no greater feeling in the world then believing someone cares enough to listen! Imagine the difference if we all took time to be a true listening ear to a friend or even a stranger. Imagine they're self worth from the conversation once you parted ways. Imagine the well being feeling all because we stopped in our travels to give a listening ear to another. The difference that can be made in the lives of others are countless, all because we have confidence in ourselves. Our contributions could be timeless all because we extended a helping hand, aided someone in their distresses, or offered to help, if they were willing to receive our aid. Think about that friend that needs a home cooked meal. The difference that can be made through a meal of encouragement will likely never be forgotten, especially if given to a hungry soul. Consider the opportunity to be a friend to someone that needs real friends. Too often we see someone and who they are running with, but yet we stay away at a safe distance and continue to observe from afar, thinking how dire straight their situation is, yet we remain unengaged. Our ability to contribute is a constantly appearing opportunity. Don’t become immune to the opportunities before you. With each push aside, deflection, or taking our eyes and looking the other way, we dull our senses too moments in which our lives could make all the difference to someone else. In life I’ve discovered that falling into patterns works both ways. You could haver a pattern of good or create a pattern of positive, it doesn’t have to be always negative. This Christmas we should be looking for opportunities to make a difference and we should be looking to create positive patterns as our natural reaction or response. Just imagine the difference we could make if this were true. Until then

So you've fallen way behind?

“When you finally admit you are so far behind in life that do you duo? Admitting you’ll never catch backup with what you should have done, what do you do next?” This was the exact question I asked myself back on December 6, 2020. In August 2020 I began sharing my personal reflections through social media like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. This thought was on day 105 of 365 that I was celebrating. Beginning in October of 2014 I began to face some challenging health issues related to diabetes coupled with arthritis that literally took me off my feet. Those challenges would continue through May 2020. I simply do not have enough space in this column to share all that the journey entailed but I’ve got plenty of stories and experiences that I would love to share with your church, club, organization or group of friends. Falling behind has many elements that can contribute to the burden of begin so far behind. It would be great if we could name one thing that put us in the “far behind status”. Honestly if we could identify the very first second that such begins we could nip that off immediately and that would help us stop the slippery slope. If I want to encourage myself I should tell my inner being that admitting the fact I am behind is the first step in correcting the issue…if you are laughing with me that makes me happy, because I’m not alone, you understand. The question asked was to solicit answers from followers and readers in dual purpose. One goal was to double check myself and my thinking and the second goal was to motivate others and myself that even when we are not where we want to be, and even though we have lost our footing on where we were, we should never stop moving our feet forward. I received response: Kenny Peace said, “No timer like the present. Get Up and get moving..Never too late to maker a changer got there better…”. Ed Arnold wrote: “Topical joke: “God put me on earth to do a certain number of things, I have the confidence in knowing that I’m so far behind I probably will never die.” Jim Mills, Jr., said “Today is a new day. Ask God to help you accomplish what he needs you to do and the rest will simply fall in place.” There are three responses to my question. Motivation isn ever easy, but “preaching to the choir” is a real thing for me. The choir needs a good word too, in order to stay on track. The choir needs to be challenged to sing with new energy and emotion, finding new ways to grow while staying the course with singing too. Motivating ourselves is never easy but necessary. I discovered that using the encouragement of others is a great tool at motivating myself to keep moving. The worse possible decision once we have fallen behind is to decide that there is nothin we can do now and simply give up. Then the piles will get higher and higher building mountains to climb in our daily lives and living. God’s Word is a great motivator when we feel like we are in such a state of being. One action that we can without question take when we find ourselves I such a spot is to forgive ourselves for the failure that’s on us. We normally are willing to forgive others but we find it nearly impossible to forgive ourselves. Our failures are not to her taken lightly, but we too deserve grace and mercy. It is just not an action for others, but us as well. Another action we can take is the the correct steps when we realize we have been going in the wrong direction. Falling behind includes the element of a lack of attention and standing still while things around us are moving. Taking action is important on our own behalf. If you are the type of person that runs to help rescue others but does nothing to help yourself, then that we can certainly correct. We as individuals must stay healthy in order to help others. If we don’t care for ourselves then we will discover we will soon be unable to care for anyone else. Acknowledging we have fallen behind is the perfect opportunity to clear out that which is in front of us and begin to deal with those things that are directly in-front of us. First steps, that the requirement to get up and walking again no matter where we find ourselves. Until then