Monday Morning Message 8-13-01

Do The Next Right Thing

Sometimes I get stuck in my head. I don't know if my actions are coming from God's will or from my own will. Then I get stuck in my actions because I don't want to cause damage in my life. I want to be able to be productive and to get closer to what I want my life to look like and to be able to figure out the most direct route to get there.

Then I start thinking about the other factors that come into play, the other people involved be it my family, friends, employees and the circumstances as they currently exist. I also factor in my personality weaknesses and then I factor in the other characters in the mix. Usually I do all this automatically and I seem to forget that I am not responsible to run the show. I am one of the players. God is running the show. I need to turn my will and my life over to the care of God and just DO THE NEXT RIGHT THING.

I am not responsible for how things work out and how other people act and react. I am only responsible for the way I act and react and I'm not even in charge of that completely. I am an instrument of God and I need to take good care of my condition so that I can be used by God but sometimes his plans for me are different for me then mine are so that I don't always act and react the way I think I should sometimes when I am in the light I act and react the way God would have me act and react. When I am in this groove I can relax in the knowing that I am safe in God's love and that everything will turn out the way it is suppose to and all I have to do is THE NEXT RIGHT THING. How freeing, not having to second guess your decisions and actions.

So the thing you can be responsible is for your own condition, so that is worth talking about. Sure at this point you thought I was going to talk about eating right, exercising and talking Geritol. Well you already know that you have to take care of your physical body.

What I want to talk about is something my husband talks about as "keeping your own side if the street clean." When we harbor resentments to other people it is very difficult to be a hollow weenie that God could function through. We need to be functioned through if we want to be an instrument of God. If we feel we have been wronged by life and we have people we feel have victimized us in some way it clogs us up. It weighs us down. It takes us from being spirits functioning in a physical being to physical beings trying to contact our spiritual sides. It is quite a cost we pay to be "right" and to keep score and to judge other people actions in relationship to how it effected us. It is human nature to function this way, most people do and that is why most people have to try to contact their spirituality. You have to surrender that way of thinking if you want to be free.

Here is an action step. Write down a list of people you feel have harmed you. Now look at what your responsibility lies in that circumstance and see where it was not just happening to you. Now forgive that person. If you are having trouble forgiving that person then pray for them. Release them from your mind, for your sake not theirs. Now one more thing. Forgive yourself. Pray for yourself and turn it all over to God. Now go into your day and DO THE NEXT RIGHT THING!

I love and appreciate you ,
Sharon