I think I’ve narrowed down my two values. If you got two Values. What would you choose? Just two Values that you could live your life by?
Before you answer: Values guide our attitude, motivate us to do what we do, are our decision-filters.
Use a thesaurus if you need it.
Mine are, Empathy and Real. I tried to come up with a more fancy word than Real, but nothing works for me. I like Real.
Real comes from the Heart-to-Heart I once had with God. Well… I’ve had a million heart-to-hearts with God, but one in particular where I had just had it! I was angry! And frustrated! And I need it to stop! I hated my life! And who I was! I hated my past! The decisions that were forced on me as a child! The decisions I made because of that! I needed God to answer me! it wasn’t unfamiliar banter, but this time, I heard something else.
He told me He got me through my life to this point, and it is my responsibility to take it and run with it. He brought me somewhere that is not in a ditch, not in a shelter, not in a prison, not in a hospital. And it is my time to accept my past and run forward.
He handed me the pain of my past and told me it makes me who I am, and it is my turn to accept it, and run with it. He did not apologize for giving me the energy, the mind, and the personality my past created.
He said, if I would begin to develop a heart of gratitude, my eyes would be open to an utterly new world. My past plus His provision is His gift to me. It is me! And I am to share it with the world. Be Real, He said. I gave you, you! Take it and run with it!
He explicitly gave me permission to be me. I can speak and write and share energy in the way He gifted me. I am free to be Real.
It was the day I began to learn to unapologetically share me with others. Once I realized the me God created was authentically not a mistake, I could begin transforming into the person He can really use.
