InstaEncouragements Blog

Why Do I Care What They Think?

7/16/2021

Some people pride themselves on their disregard for what others think. As someone who has never felt confident declaring “I don’t care what people think,” I have often wondered if this characteristic is genuine.

Do people with this professed attitude really not care about the opinions of the people around them, or do they just say that to receive praise?

I don’t really have an answer to that question, but in my own personal experience, other people’s opinions of me, when positive, can result in a burst of positive emotions:

Satisfaction
Gratitude
Positivity
Productivity
Confidence

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A List-Maker’s Guide to the 2 Greatest Commandments

6/18/2021

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A List-Maker’s Guide to the 2 Greatest Commandments

Love God
Love Others
Wash the Dishes
Shop for Groceries
Read Matthew 2-4
Pray for Aunt Melinda
Balance the Budget

It would be funny if it wasn’t so painfully true. I am a list-making maniac, and while I don’t want to change that part of myself, every personality has pitfalls. The above example is one of my quagmires. I don’t make lists as blatantly laughable as this one, but some of them come pretty close.

Is it wrong to put your Bible reading and prayer time on your checklist for the day? Honestly, if it serves as a motivational reminder to spend time with God, then go for it!

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2 Things I Can Do Today to Consistently Put God First

5/14/2021

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2 Things I Can Do Today to Consistently Put God First

Why do I want to do good, but don’t do it?

I have often been comforted by Paul’s passage in Romans where he basically admits to a daily struggle between his desire to please God and his desire to sin:

“I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:21-24

In a sense, this is the bittersweet reality of the Christian life—being constantly pulled in opposite directions.

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3 Ways to Love Like Jesus Loves

4/16/2021

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While passing each other at church, we exchange social niceties and generic smiles. During our workdays, we put on happy faces and interact professionally with both the kind and the difficult clients. When asked to serve, we obligingly give of our time, finances, and testimonies.

These scenarios make up a lot of our hours, days, and weeks. There’s nothing wrong with being tired after a long week and exchanging a smile and a “Fine, thank you,” with someone in the church hallway. There’s nothing wrong with maintaining a professional demeanor at work. There’s definitely nothing wrong with serving God with our available resources.

But sometimes, at the end of a long week, I find myself wondering if I’ve made any kind of a difference in my little circle of people.

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5 Questions to Ask About Your Prayer Life

2/12/2021

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5 Questions to Ask About Your Prayer Life

Prayer. That one word represents so many things to me: peace, beauty, communion, praise, duty, failure, distraction, forgetfulness, absence, frustration.

What do you think of when you think of prayer?

Are you so busy during your day you often forget to pray?
Are you so plagued by guilt over sin or lack of prayer you don’t want to pray?
Are you so out of practice in prayer that you don’t know how to pray?
Are you so in love with your God that you pray continually throughout your day?
Are you so ritualistic in your prayer times that you don’t remember what you prayed?

Prayer is one of the most precious aspects of the Christian life.

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Embracing the Blessings, Burdens, and Blahs

1/15/2021

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Embracing the Blessings, Burdens, and Blahs

A new year is the closest thing to true magic. On the eve of a new year, I feel like Anne of Green Gables believing that

“Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it.”

Of course, I know I’m going to ruin that clean slate after a few steps into it, but for some reason, that doesn’t lessen my anticipation.

I have many New Year’s resolutions for 2021, but whether or not I achieve them all, I know that 2021 can be better. I’m not saying that because 2020 is the year no one ever wants to relive. I’m saying that because 2021 isn’t going to magically erase the darkness of 2020.

If anything, that darkness of disease and turmoil may increase. But I believe 2021 can be better.

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Anxious for Nothing: Replacing Worry with Joy

12/18/2020

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Let's be "Anxious for Nothing: Replacing Worry with Joy." Well, that’s easy to say.

I know from personal experience that it is rarely helpful for someone to tell me "Don’t worry, be happy." When I allow anxiety into my heart, it becomes a crippling force that controls my moods, my words, and my actions. I don’t want to be told to "Let go and let God" when that happens. I want to curl up in a ball and binge-watch television shows until I can no longer escape reality. Then I want to cry and complain and feel sorry for myself.

This past week, I have been living under the control of anxiety. Changes at work, a brief sickness, and some disappointments created inside me a feeling of emptiness, fear, and unease. I allowed my mind to dwell on things unlovely and untrue.

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