The Mint Story

Last week we had been to this place for berry picking and when we got to the counter to get the berries billed, we found some mint leaves there. This mint leaves were a little unusual to the regular mint leaves (the leaves were bigger and the stem thicker too) that we get at the store, so we decided to buy a bunch. They were real fresh and nice and the lady at the counter wrapped them up in a paper and gave them to us.

When we got home late evening, we were surprised to see that the bunch was actually a little droopy. My husband, the clever guy J, took a glass of water and put the end of the bunch, dipping into the water. When I woke up the next morning, the bunch was fresh again and standing straight. I called out to my husband to have a look. And I used it to make some awesome biryani!! J

God taught me how similar this was to, how my life was. The water was God’s word and God’s presence in my life. Without it, I would be droopy and how when I drank from His word and His presence, I would be refreshed and stand tall and strong and be fresh too.

I remember a few weeks ago, something happened that kind of broke me up a bit. I was crying a lot and was pretty upset. In short, I was droopy. I was trying to read the bible and pray and worship but it was all a bit hard for me. I remember we had this Bible Study at our home one day and we had a beautiful discussion on prayer that day. That one hour that we spent discussing from God’s word and learning from it and sharing experiences, was like water to my thirsty being. I was completely refreshed. There were so many things shared that was just what my heart and mind needed to hear. No one in the Bible Study group knew what I was going through. I remember one beautiful lady who is also a friend sharing – ‘Stop having a pity party for yourself, get up and start praying. Stop thinking about yourself and start praying for the people around you. There’s so much prayer needed’. Things like this and so much more put things in perspective for me. Thank God for God Given friends and fellowship.

That’s why it’s always good to have a good fellowship too. To find a church to go to and be a part of a fellowship. In times when you find hard to pray, they will lift you up and you can do the same for them.

So back to the mint story, I, like the bunch of mint leaves, was refreshed and I could see that I was standing tall and straight. Connecting with God and His word has that effect on us. When we are droopy we can’t handle much and the little we can handle, won’t be very effective. But when we stand tall and are connected to God, we face things with God’s help and will be very victorious. We can do all things through Christ who STRENGTHENS us.

So if you are droopy, dip into the well of His Word and His Presence and you will be refreshed and victorious!!!

Jeremiah 17:8 - For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters that spreads out its roots by the river; and it shall not see and fear when heat comes; but its leaf shall be green. It shall not be anxious and full of care in the year of drought, nor shall it cease yielding fruit.

Matthew 11: 28 - Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] 

Psalm 1: 3 - He is like a tree   planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season,  and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

Philippians 4: 13 - I can do all things through Christ^[a] who strengthens me.

Harsh Words

There are times when certain harsh words can completely get into your head and have a very harsh effect on you. They could take a long time to recover from and sometimes even completely break a person beyond recovery. And sometimes when you think you are over it, they could come back to haunt you bringing back all those hurt and tears and pain. The worst part is sometimes those harsh words can break a person down completely. A beautiful person could start believing over a period of time that they are indeed worthless, bad and ugly. An intelligent person can start thinking, they are foolish and completely lose their self-confidence.

Harsh words can sometimes be abusive as well…

But the good news is, you can completely heal and forget and be peaceful and NEVER be haunted by it.

I think everyone at some point in their life goes through this issue of facing Harsh Words. I was talking to a really sweet girl sometime back. She was upset that something harsh had been said to her and we discussed a few things which was something I found useful too and I thought I should write this down. I want to share three points here.

Point 1 – Look UP to God

In Numbers 21, there is this incident where venomous snakes bit the children of Israel. They come running to Moses for a remedy and God tells to Moses to put up a bronze snake. God says to Moses that - …” anyone who is bitten can look at it and live”… John 3: 14 compares the lifting up of the Bronze Snake in the wilderness to the cross.

Negative words can have the effect of a venomous snake in our life. The words bite you and cause pain and the pain slowly spreads. You, of course, try to forget it, but they don’t go away. They keep coming back causing fresh tears and heartache every time they are back. They spread like poison in your body. You lose your peace. You lose your self-confidence. You start believing those words. And slowly, very slowly the poison has spread and starts destroying the person you are meant to be, and you begin to die. And eventually the beautiful, chirpy person is replaced by a dead lifeless person with no confidence. But there’s good news, God’s word says – When you are bitten by a venomous snake, you don’t have to die, you could look UP to the cross and live. Just look up to Jesus. Don’t allow yourself to think about what was said. It’s not easy but it’s possible. God knows you’ve been bitten and He wants to help. So look UP to the cross, look UP to God and you will live. God will remove every effect of those words and remove all the venom and You Will Live!!!

Point 2 – It’s not You!!

This was something that took me a long time to realise. It’s something that I learnt probably in the last recent year. It’s not about you!!
 

What someone says is a reflection of who they are. Healthy, Good, Nice people says nice things. Hurting people say hurting things. When someone says something ugly, hurtful and bad, it’s more a reflection of who they are than who you are. So NEVER Ever let yourself believe anything those words would say. For some maybe it’s not a thing of the past but an on-going thing. Always remember, it’s not about you. Always choose, make a conscious decision, to not believe any of it. It’s not about you!!

Point 3 – Be Assertive

Usually when someone is rude or hurtful, and especially when it’s an on-going thing, it can cause one to get angry and be aggressive. But by being aggressive the only thing you do is become a little more like the person you are dealing with. I remember this girl I was talking to, she is a beautiful person and I remember her saying that she planned on talking back to the person who hurt her in exactly the same way they did to her, so they would know how it felt. I asked her, how she would feel if one day she was exactly like this person she was dealing with? And she said she would hate that. And I told her that every time she talked back to the person, the way they did to her, all she achieved was to become a little more like that person and this would go on and on, till one day she would completely be that person. 

But at the same time, just sitting quietly and being bullied and pushed around is not the answer either. Jesus didn’t sit quietly when the Pharisees and His enemies tried to put Him in trouble. Sometimes we think that maybe if we are quiet and ignore what’s happening, maybe it would just go away. From my experience I have seen, it just makes matter worse, making the attacker more and more powerful knowing no one is going to question what they do or say.
So what is being Assertive? Wikipedia says this - a form of behavior characterized by a confident declaration or affirmation of a statement without need of proof; this affirms the person's rights or point of view without either aggressively threatening the rights of another (assuming a position of dominance) or submissively permitting another to ignore or deny one's rights or point of view.

For some, being Assertive comes naturally but for most, it needs to be learnt, as a skill. Learn about how you can communicate in an Assertive way. Make sure you communicate. If the person actually means well, they would get your side of the story. If the person does not mean well, they at least know that you are not going to take it lying down.

Most important, Pray. Pray for God’s wisdom to handle the situation. No amount of harsh or ugly words, rude tones, manipulations can stand before the wisdom of God!!! So Pray and Pray and Pray for God’s wisdom. For God’s guidance. For the strength and courage to speak up and to do what is right. For strength to not react in anger. For strength not to let any of it affect the beautiful person that you are. For strength to forgive. For strength and the wisdom to move on!!!

Ephesians 4: 26, 27 - … You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.

Proverbs 12: 18 - Rash language cuts and maims, but there is healing in the words of the wise.

Isaiah 54: 17 - But no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall show to be in the wrong. This [peace, righteousness, security, triumph over opposition] is the heritage of the servants of the Lord [those in whom the ideal Servant of the Lord is reproduced]; this is the righteousness or the vindication which they obtain from Me [this is that which I impart to them as their justification], says the Lord.

Mark 10: 27 - … “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you let God do it.”

You Are Special !!! Awesomely Special !!!

You are special

You are valuable

You are loved

Every time after I have spoken to Dad, I feel so awesomely special… so awesomely loved and so valuable. My Dad thinks the world of me and he shows it in the way he talks, in what he talks… sometimes just the way he calls me is just so full of love. He always has this awesome effect on me and no matter how down I have been before I talk to him, after I have spoken to him I just feel so special and so valuable and loved.

The more a person thinks you are special, the more they make you feel that way. You know how special and valuable and loved you are to a person by just being around them.

More than anyone, God is the one to who you are the most special. Many more times than you could be to anyone on this earth. He is the one who knows the true measure of how special and valuable and beautiful and loved and awesome you are… you know why? Cos He created you!! His evaluation of you is the true, accurate and the right one. And He thinks you’re awesomely special.

You will know and feel your true measure of how special and great you are, when you are with Him. The more you are with Him, the more and more you realise just how awesomely special and valuable and awesome and loved you are. This is one of the reasons why we need to spend more and more time with our God, our Heavenly Father. This is why we need to stay constantly connected to Him. No matter what you are doing, remember to have a conversation with Him, just like you would with someone who is constantly hanging out with you.

This is why we need to start our day with Him and end our day with Him and live our day with Him. When we know the true value of what we are and who we are, we are more equipped to live a successful and more importantly, happy lives, regardless of what is happening.

If you don’t make a conscious decision and effort to put your mind on God and stay connected to Him and if your mind is empty, then there is also the devil waiting to fill your head with what he exactly thinks of you. Someone rightly said – An empty mind is the devil’s workshop. The devil thinks you’re totally worthless and no good and all things bad. If that’s the way you feel about yourself today, then you really need to realise that’s not what you really are. And that you have been listening to the wrong person.

There are times I have been down and felt not very special. At such times all I need to do is make sure I spend more time with God and hear what He has to say. To just hear over and over and over again, till His love flows thru all of me, drenching me in His love and making me realise just how awesomely awesomely special I am… from head to toe. How this awesome God of mine, who loves me like crazy created me so awesomely special. We just need to spend time with God. If you don’t feel like praying, just sing. Or take a walk and have a normal conversation. The devil will try his best to stop that because he knows what happens when you connect with God and spend time with Him.

God has really blessed me and filled my life with so many special amazing people who I would like to call God’s agents. There are some people, who if I even just see or see online on Facebook or Skype, I have this BIG smile on my face. They have such a positive and a wonderful effect on me. Just talking to them or being with them makes me feel so special and good. There are people with whom my talk or chat would start in a very complaining tone and they have this way of encouraging and pointing out the things you are good at and shifting your focus from what’s wrong to what’s right and making you feel like everything is beautiful around you and in you. I would love to be more like that. To be God’s agent to everyone I come in contact with, so that when a person has been with me, they feel special and awesome, just the way God created them to be, just the way God thinks they are, just the way they truly are.

You are special

You are awesome

You are valuable

You are beautiful

You are loved!!!

John 3:16 - This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.

Matthew 10: 29 – 31 - “What’s the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries.

Psalm 139: 13 – 16 - Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
    you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
    Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
    I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
    you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
    how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
    all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
    before I’d even lived one day.

Jer 29:11- I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

Genesis 1:26 – 28 - God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
        reflecting our nature
    So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
        the birds in the air, the cattle,
    And, yes, Earth itself,
        and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
    God created human beings;
        he created them godlike,
    Reflecting God’s nature.
        He created them male and female.
    God blessed them:
        “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
    Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
        for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”