What Do You See?

Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day on this glorious day in my Sweet Home Alabama! We have the day off at work for Winter Break - appropriate in that our school was closed down this week because of two winter storms! :) - so I have the luxury of writing Happy Friday mid-morning after my quiet time, a good workout, and some time with my family. So very blessed and grateful! :)

This week I intended to share my notes from our sermon last Sunday...I still plan to do so however as I have thought and prayed about this Happy Friday, something kept convicting my spirit. Several years ago God really placed a burden on my heart. When conflict comes, what do you see? When you have an issue with someone, what do you see? Out of this was born a sign that still sits on my desk, right next to my phone, to this day. The sign has a mirror, about 1" x 1", on it and next to it is written this scripture:

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." - Matthew 7:3 - 5

Over the top of the scripture is a piece of glass. And across the top of the sign is written, "What Do You See?" This sign, to me, is a reminder when things go wrong; am I going to look into the mirror and see what I could do better/different or am I going to look out the window and find fault in others. When I have a problem or a conflict with anyone, I have developed the discipline of asking God to reveal to me where I could have said or done something different. I ask Him to shine a light on my heart - are my motives pure? Am I speaking truth? In love? And when I pray, I do not pray that the person will see things my way or do what I want them to do. No, when I pray, I pray for the relationship. That I would care more about the relationship than an offense. That I would do everything I can to make the relationship the very best I can. I fully realize that relationships consist of at least two people and I alone cannot make a relationship good or bad however I also realize that I only control and am responsible for one person...me. And in all this time of choosing to look in the mirror, I have never found that I got everything so cleaned up in what I was saying and doing that I could now look out the window and help a brother or sister pull a plank out of their eye. I was still too busy trying to clean up my junk, the parts of the problem that I was responsible for.

So, pretty simply, I want to ask you, what do you see? As you look at your life, your family, your career, your community, our society, and this world, are you looking out the window at what someone else could or should be doing or are you looking in the mirror at what you could be doing better? I want to challenge us all to look in the mirror. If we all worked on cleaning up our junk, this world would be a lot better place. Looking out the window is not only lazy, it is highly unproductive. If you don't believe me, please just look at our world right now. There is a whole lot of blaming going on and not a whole lot of people standing up saying, "I can, and will, do better." No, a whole lot of folks, perhaps most, are terribly busy trying to pull the plank out of someone else's eye, all the while theirs are filling up with sawdust.

I would now like to share with you my notes from our sermon last week. Our Pastor, Steve Huskey, has been preaching a series he titled, "Vogue." What we have been studying is what is vogue for Christ followers? As a follower of Jesus Christ, what should we wear? It has been a great series! And then last week he threw us a curveball; instead of talking about what we should put on, he talked about what we need to take off. This sermon was so good! For the rest of this Happy Friday, I am simply going to share the notes I wrote down.

Live a life that honors God.

It is time that what is on the inside shows up on the outside.

4 Mistakes We Make:

1. The Dress of Deception

- Stop telling lies

- Satan is the Father of Lies/God is Truth = Who is your Daddy?

- We are the least like Christ when we lie.

- Speak the truth in love - we should be helping people when speaking the truth, not wounding them.

2. The Apparel of Anger

- Eph. 4:26 - Don't sin by letting anger control you. Anger gives a foothold to the devil.

- Proverbs 29:11 - The wise hold it back

- Proverbs 14:17 - Short-tempered people do foolish things.

- You are a Christ follow first

- There is a place for anger and rage...we should be angry when people are taken advantage of

- Anger should lead to helping people, not hurting them

3. The Robe of Robbery

- Eph. 4:28 - If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good, hard work and then give generously to others.

- Don't make it about you...serve others.

- How do we help others?

4. The Clothing of Corrupt Communication

- Eph. 4:29 - Don't use foul or abusive language

- Vulgarity is not a reflection of the words you use but the heart you have

Other notes....

- Don't be angry, but if you are going to be angry, be angry about the right things.

- You need to be who God called you to be

- Use your words to give life

- Be functional - dress for your calling

- We dress to impress...we need to dress to bless

Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well.

Kev