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

Love came down at Christmas

Days have a way of creeping up on us and days have a way of passing by so quickly. It is quite possible that I have connection with days that may seem weird to many. When I was a teenager, my mother bought me my first journal. I started then writing things down. Recording events, happenings in my life, people, feelings, if you can name it I’ve written about it to myself. In the 56th year of my life, I recorded my thinking in a different way. I shared through social media my daily thoughts of encouragement. Things that I wondered about, believed, had confidence in and encouraged myself with. On the 301st day of the 56th year of my life I wrote: “The greatest gift is love. The most precious gift is time. Opportunity is where these two change lives”. Following Thanksgiving, Christians began a Season in their lives referred to as Advent. Advent is about the coming of the Lord as the Savior of the World. I’ve been thinking this year as the 4 weeks before Christmas arrived that Advent is really a “seekers” celebration. We Christians might hold the time dear because of our personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but Advent this year I have been thinking about back to a time before I knew Jesus personally. As a person who was just living life, day by day, doing what I’m thinking most of us do, just living and whatever happens, well, just happens. That’s rather carefree living but as a “seeker’ there is something in life that I know is missing. “Seekers’ have this feeling inside but we can’t seem to put our finger on what’s happening. So we keep looking, we live our lives in such a way that we are hoping whatever is missing, we will bump into it. The Wise men in the Christian narrative of the birth of Jesus were seekers. The difference between them and many wondering people is that they had seen His Star in the East and we're on a journey to find the Christ child because they had seen. Christmas I sum up in the words “Love Came Down at Christmas”. The greatest gift in this world is love. Love has been defined by Jesus and what He did for us that we could not do for ourselves. Love’s characteristics have been defined by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Love is the gift that changed everything. The dually important and equal gift in life is also time. If you searched the Bible you will find plenty about time, how it has operated, how time has been recorded through the lives of so many individuals and how time has been noted through history. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 has a great collection of issues, themes, discoveries, and truths about time. It is often referred to as a time for everything when quoting headlines of scripture. Time is that unique moment that when it happens, it is now or never. My quote references love and time as two of the greatest gifts. The element that brings these two into perfect harmony is opportunity. If you have love, but don’t give it away, what is its value? If you are looking for recognition that you have love in your possessions, congratulations on hanging on to love, but if you are only holding it, what remains its value if not used? Time is not a difficult concept to understand. It ticks away in seconds. I would suggest the easiest way to grasp the concept of time is to simply sit around, do nothing and let time just tick away. I’ve responded to the question before, “what are you doing?”, with the answer nothing, which could be either really sad because I was just in a state of lack of purpose, and had been wasting time, or it could be the perfect moment because I could be free and available, which is opportunity for me. Love, time and opportunity, three great companions of change! I am not sure how you spend your days or record your time, but both are important tools that when mixed with opportunity will allow us to use what we possess for change. Until then

Focus, distraction, discouragement, vision and hope

The world is a busy place, even if you live here in Southeastern Kentucky. Sometimes we have the tendency to think that the rest of the world is busy busy while things here never change, the world has already passed us by and we are in slow mode and nearly void of the rest of the world’s problems because of such. If that’s your thinking, I would suggest for your consideration that there is a difference between feelings and reality. Feelings have the easiest track into our lives to misdirect us, lead us down emotional stair cases and to put such weight on our shoulders that we feel completely stuck in the mud, with no hope of getting out. Along the by-ways and highways of life we each will face moments in our travels that we overtake us or that we will overcome. My personal encouragement, “Don’t be distracted and don’t get discouraged. Focus eliminates distraction and vision creates hope”. Focus is that which causes us to fix our eyes and energies toward our goals or need to discover solutions. Focus is that which requires us to create an action plan of steps. Focus is a process of eliminating distractions from the answer. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in life is focusing on all the reason why I wasn’t able to accomplish my task. Maybe your like me and you could spend days pointing out to all our sympathizers the issues that others created, the problems that others should have dealt with on their own time but no, their issues become ours and they are to blame for our lack of achievement. I feel better already having written that and gotten the truth out there…..of course that’s the way we feel…..and all that has created the perfect distraction that is almost a guaranteed remedy for failure in reality. Focus is the answer for discouragement. Once we have allowed our feelings to take over our emotional well being, we have lost whatever ground we had hopes of achieving. There is no more of defeated state of being that realizing all we had worked for seems to have been lost in a single moment because of our action or lack there of. Discouragement is that which creeps up on you. If discouragement had the characteristic of jumping out at you and announcing itself we would all no doubt t punch discouragement right in the throat, or at least that would be my first thought. However discouragement doesn’t work that way. Ot happens little by little and it arrives at your doorstep without the slightest observation that it was even walking up your sidewalk. When we take hold of our reality and align it with focus it is amazing what happens to distractions and discouragements. We will always have distractions in life. We will always have things that will interest us and can easily get our attention creating a perfect distraction from the things at hand and the foundation we are attempting to build and build upon. Don’t be distracted, remain focused. Focus will lead to success, but the process is not an overnight experience. Focus creates hope because with each step of success we are learning along the way we can overcome issues instead of being overtaken by them. We learn that because of that type of success we discover vision because we are not drowning in hopelessness. Vision is a product of focus by which discouragement is eliminated and replaced with hope. If we are removing one thing from our lives, life has a requirement that it be replaced with something else. Our choice regarding what we are removing and replacing is all on us individually. Our attitude in life has influences that impact our way of thinking. Situations and various circumstances we have encountered also have an impacts on our attitude. These truths however do not eliminate our personal responsibility for that which we can control. Focus, distraction, discouragement, vision, and hope. These five elements are generally in close proximity to each other at all times. The amount of attention and focus we give to these different characteristic elements play a huge role in our life’s journey. Will you be distracted at times in life, yes. Will you become discouraged as you live, go and do, absolutely. Should we leave these two D’s by themselves? No! Focus is the answers as it lays out a welcome mat in our lives, inviting vision and hope to come on in. Until then

Thanksgivings and people. Trosper Buchanan, Jonah Lewis and Bo Brown

Presently I am in the midst of what I have hash tagged as #thanksgivings. Thanksgivings are those people, places, experiences or books that have each enriched my life on their own merits. Growing up I had the concept in my mind that thanksgivings are a one day a year moment in time. Of course I would right? After all Thanksgiving only happens one day each year and after that day of turkey, ham and cranberry sauce, we were off to “ho ho day”, when Santa Clause comes to town. As I have aged my mindset has changed from a one day a year time of thanks, to a year long attitude of thanks as each day passes and especially during the fall season I have #thanksgivings that I especially point out, highlight or acknowledge. The importance of life and the quickness of time has played two big roles in my change of attitude. In our youth we often skip over the meaning of moments in life. I can easily become sad reflecting on the conversations I’ve missed or the lack of understanding on how important some situations are. By reflecting, I pray I have sharped my skills in recognizing the importance of opportunities. Today my skill set recognizes the many #thanksgivings I have daily. Too often we get caught up making big to-do’s over one activity, event or experiences that we miss the next one coming toward us head-on. Take for example meeting people. I realize that some folks are so-called shy and they just don’t feel comfortable introducing themselves, or saying hello without someone else speaking, but that just not me. First, I know what it is to want to be left alone, I get those moments, but everyone deserves an acknowledgment. Does it take time, yes it does. Will it slow you down some, yes it will. What will you miss because you walked on by?, only Heaven knows but I’m one to not take many chances on missing anything that Heaven might have in-store for me, so I’ll probably be that guy reaching out his hand to shake, (even during Covid) and yes, I’ll probably be that guy saying hello or asking a question without any formal introduction. My #thanksgivings include some of the neat people I’ve met. Call me selfish if it helps you get outside yourself, but you might miss the very answer you’ve been search for through an introduction. Recently I traveled to Mercer County to watch Trosper Buchanan play in a high school football game. I said hello to two student athletes who were kinda standing off by themselves. I met Jonah Lewis and Bo Brown. I learned about Jonah and his desire to come to Union College in Barbourville, Ky…(I know what’s that odds of that, he and I meeting each other, oh the connections we talked) and Bo Brown, who is just a junior is already planning out his career choices and direction too. He had his heart set on the University of Louisville. Both kickers on the football team and both soccer players too. Trosper Buchanan’s grandfather is Ernie Trosper. Ernie’s connection to Union College and the Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival are legendary indeed. Every football game needs sports officials and during a dead moment in the sideline I asked the linesman, did I hear the announcer say that Doug Chaney was the referee for tonights game? When this guy said, are you Tim H Mills?, my response yes, he said, it’s me, Mike Helton..lol. Doug’s father and I officiated sports together, I remember Doug and his brother when they were growing up. Mike I have known forever too. Life, ministry, community, all just a part of the blessings to me. I’m just thankful for the blessing of meeting folks throughout my life, all a part of my #thanksgivings 2021 Until then

Clueless Thanks

My personal list of things I have attempted to go after head on is so long that there is no real way for me to publish such a list of those moments. I’ve wanted to charge forward on so many situations believing I could help and because I had a desire to help too. If there is any such self-reflection in your life I’m sure you could create a list as well of such times in your life. In 2020 I began sharing from my personal journal written thoughts throughout my social media daily. I shared thoughts I was thinking, pictures that reflected a specific moment of thought, scripture, quotes, whatever was my focus of the day, I shared via twitter and Facebook. The 365 thoughts were a part of my desire to write a daily devotional book of encouragement, motivation, a reflection on Christianity and my personal thoughts as just another person living life as each day unfolded. On the 63rd day of my 56th year of life I recorded: “I thank God for all the things I haven’t a clue He has shielded and protected me from, which are countless no doubt. What can you name you know He has protected you from? #THM #56-63” Today as I continue to work toward completion of that project I find myself again thankful for all the things I haven’t a clue He intervened on my behalf. I do have a list of things I can name that there is no doubt He stepped into within my life and shielded me from. That list includes situations where I knew better than to get involved with, and only time proved His intervention was so “right on time”! My moments include relationships, purchases, trips and conversations. Sometimes our decision making ability seems to be infected with a virus of stupidity…go ahead, laugh at me if it helps you see those moments in your life where we reflect back and say “what was I thinking?” But what about all the times we are clueless about where we cannot see the direct hand-i-work of God in intervention mode? When I think about these moments, I think the only way to experience such wonders in question is by simply living a life of faith where we are doing what we should be doing and not questioning every step and decision involved in the moment. Should I pray…why wouldn’t we be praying all the time? Do we really need God to come and hold our hand and walk us through life like our parents did the first time we went to school and we had to leave the safety net they had built around us? We know what our parents had taught us thus far in life. At that age, if you have a question ask. If you don’t know what to do, ask. If you need help, ask the teacher. However, that which we know to do we should do automatically. Our parents taught us, if someone else is talking, listen. If you need help raise your hand. If you are told to go stand in line and be quiet, do it, you know how, follow the rules, or listen to the instructions. Such guidelines are here to help us navigate this new world of school safely. Faith and God’s all protecting hand is also there and we should find our spirit of thanksgivings readily available given the fact we know we can easily mess things up in seconds that took quite a while to construct. The ever protecting hand of God is always at work, actually His skill is so awesome we might even think we traversed such obstacles in life because we are a good decision maker or planner, all the while, forgetting to thank God for His interventions. Let us never forget to thank God for the things were are clueless about. Until then