Despite my typical laid-back demeanor, I’ve been accused of being too rigid regarding word choice in a conversation. It’s true. Many a debate has begun over whether a word “can” be used to mean something outside it’s textbook definition.
If a planet killer asteroid is headed toward you, do you follow the rules that will cost you your life? Or do you break from protocol to save the world? Life is too short to waste on continuously dreaming impossible dreams. To camp out in the land of disappointed, deferred hope is suicide.
One of the easiest ways for adults to have a greater impact on a child’s sense of self value:Speak up with your affirmation even if others already have. Just because another adult praises a child for their accomplishment or expresses delight in a child’s effort doesn’t mean the role has been filled. The child wants and needs affirmation from EACH influential adult in their lives.
Pop culture wields amazing power. Words often take on new meanings due to popular use, and their meanings evolve over generations to match the current mindset of the people. We think we know what we’re saying, but do we really? It’s important to call attention to assumptions, though, because we build entire thought processes and philosophies upon the supposed meanings of words. Your entire life is shaped by the decisions you make based on what you believe words to mean.
If you haven’t learned this about me by now, you should know that I am intrinsically averse to the concept of replacing one-on-one connection with organizational participation. For example, when a Jesus follower gets to know a neighbor and begins to truly care about the status of their neighbor’s soul, the default solution is to invite the neighbor to church. What the caring person has unwittingly done is to bypass the expression of their personal care and instead attempts to introduce the recipient to an organization of people who have spent zero time getting to know her.
In the course of pursuing the destiny for which you were created, you have no doubt already experienced a conflict you chosen not to engage. Some will accuse you of being inflexible or refusing to be challenged. And it might be true. At the same time, it may be patently false. How easy to misconstrue the responses of others! How much self-examination is too much? At some point, you can’t continue to question everything. Questioning is a different mode than building, and if you never start building, you end up with nothing to show for your life. So at what […]