Write
Words have such power. They have the ability to lift someone up or bring them to their knees. Keep that in mind when deciding on how you will use them.
For me, the written word brings forth healing. It enables a look deep within my soul, a place that is often reserved for a select few.
Recently, my friend discovered the therapeutic benefits of writing on a blog similar to that of my own. Having faced a tragic loss with delivering a stillborn baby girl, she needed an outlet, so she turned to writing. At first, she spoke of her gut wrenching heartbreak, pain, and her faith in God that saw her through. Now, surprisingly, she just shared her incredibly happy news in becoming a foster mom! It has been a privilege to read, witness her story, and share in her newfound joy! Thank you, Lord, for how you are working in her life!
Yet another friend decided to start her own blog as a way to share her sense of humor as she embraces life with a newborn. Just today she shared how she could have sworn she heard her daughter crying right when she turned the water on in the shower. Yet, when she turned it off, the baby wasn’t crying at all. So, she turned it back on, and sure enough, the crying baby noise returned to haunt her. I smiled reading her words as I can completely relate to this and more as a new mother myself all those years ago.
Whether it’s deep, gripping pain you need to release or witty humor you feel lead to share, use the written word to express yourself.
Your words can be used to express so many deep, overwhelming emotions. When it’s hardest to speak those words, let me encourage you to write them out. Share the contents of your heart. There are those around you who need to hear how you feel about them. They long for your sweet words that will reach right in and touch their very soul. Don’t allow yourself to close the entire world out and become unfeeling. Stop holding back words that have the potential to bless someone’s heart.
Whether with pen and paper, with a blog at your disposal, or with the use of your cell phone, write your heart out and allow it to be a blessing to all who read it!
Remember
Remember me in days gone by
Laying with you staring at the sky
Watching the stars and wishing too
For just a little more time with you
Sharing our hearts in the night
Holding on to each other with all our might
Never wanting that moment to end
Nor wanting to return to just being friends
Underneath the lover’s moon
The night ended way too soon
Forced to face the morning light
Determined not to give up without a fight
Years later, now we hardly speak
Our love for each other has grown so weak
Like strangers passing in the night
Our undying love has taken flight
Too many differences we couldn’t overcome
Now we’re left feeling numb
When once love ran through our veins
All it does now is cause us pain
When things come halting to an end
Our broken hearts unable to mend
All I ask is that you will
Remember when, even still
Those memories made us who we are today
And I’ll still remember you when I’m old and gray.
Listen
We have all been guilty of this; not truly listening when someone is speaking, yet planning in our head what we are going to say when it is OUR turn to speak. Truth, huh? I know for me, I have definitely been guilty of just that. Yet, now I do try to listen intentionally to what a person is saying. I also try to listen to what they are NOT saying as well.
Anger is an emotion that can get the best of all of us at times. However, have you ever stopped to consider what message the person is really trying to display in their moments of anger? It’s hard to step back from someone in the heat of the moment when they’re wide eyed, red faced, and flaring their arms at you. But, if you try really hard not to get offended when they start and actually listen to them, you might just uncover that their anger is based off of either fear or shame.
Yep. That’s right.
Recently, I sat in silence at first when a person tried to start up with me. After trying really hard to tiptoe around the situation, I finally pointed out to the person that their anger was based off of shame. At that moment in time, they were ranting because in the past, they shamefully were not there when they should have been. Now they are having all of these feelings of inadequacies rushing in when someone else volunteers to step up and be there. That’s something deep within them for all the times that they chose not to be there in my time of need. When I went through a previous life threatening surgery and even when I fractured my hand and hip during a horse riding accident where a crazy horse threw me off, the person was emotionally distant and just chose not to be present when I truly needed them. That’s something they regret to this day, but it is something they will have to come to terms with. Getting angry because someone else volunteers to be present to help in a time of need is not going to solve the guilt and shame they feel deep within. That is something they will have to deal with on their own. And it should be a lesson learned to be present when someone needs you! Then you won’t have any regret, remorse or displaced anger later! You will have stepped up to the plate and been an honorable person and HELPED someone you proclaim to love.
I am not perfect and certainly never claimed to be, so I will admit my shortcomings this week as well in this department. I allowed fear to take over, and instead of voicing my concerns and what I was struggling with, I allowed it to spill out of me in the form of anger. It’s not right, but that is what happened, and I am woman enough to admit it. That particular day, I was awaiting a call from my doctor’s office. Deep in my heart, I knew they were going to tell me something was required that I absolutely did not want; surgery. My fear got the best of me, and my mouth would not stop spewing negativity! The more I talked, the angrier I became. But it was my fear at the root of it all. Once I recognized this, I apologized and then explained my craziness. It still doesn’t make it right, but at least I acknowledged what I was doing, where it came from, and apologized.
The next time someone comes at you with angry words, try really hard to read between the lines while listening to them in order to discover exactly what is at the root of it all. Is it fear or is it shame driving it?
