what about them piggies?!?

"But you will never please everyone, nor should pleasing everyone be your goal. For example, to seek the approval of someone who is lazy or jealous is to cast your pearls before swine. You will find that God rarely uses a person whose main concern is what others are thinking."- The Travler's Gift

This book is probably the best book I have ever read. I have found it to be very encouraging and insightful for so many aspects of my life. The gyst of the story is a man is going through a terribly rough time in his life and then ends up in a car accident, when this happens it takes him to 7 different periods in time and he meets 7 historical figures from whom he learns 7 Decisions for success. Keyword: Decisions. I know many of us grow up being told that God made each one of us special and so on. To be honest, I BELIEVE IT. With everything I am, I believe it. I don't mean this in a cocky, arrogant way, I COMPLETELY give God ALL the credit. I guess where I am going with this is a good friend told me that I "stand by my convictions - no matter what" and that happens to irritate a lot of people. I don't have to do anything more than proclaim what I praise, believe in and hope to accomplish and it gets many people's feathers all ruffled. If you know me, then you know for the most part I don't really care what other people think. I do seek wisdom from those I believe to be wise and those I respect, but I don't take financial advice from broke people, I dont take marital advice from people who have been married 46 times etc. etc. One thing I have struggled with is trying to gain favor with a few whose favor shouldn't matter anyway. Isn't it funny how you can have a bold characteristic that happens to become putty when it comes to a handful of individuals?? WEIRD! And it's always those people who you could be the best of the best and they would still find a problem! You'll find yourself kissing the butt of one of them for some reason, when you're not even a typical BUTT-KISSER?!? Afterwards, you are like "ugh! why did I do that?" LOL! So, that's why this quote spoke volumes to me. Let me sum up all my messy nonsense: God made me awesome! He gave me this really great head on my shoulders that I think is brilliant enough to do great things in this life and to see things for WHAT THEY ARE and make intelligent decisions from the smallest things to the largest things. I do not need to seek the approval of one who is nowhere near the same arena of my life because I have been chosen by God to be his child and graciously been given talents and abilities I can use in positive ways. I was made in his image and I don't need to dull down who I am to make someone else feel better about themselves. Everything good I am, I give 100% credit to the Lord and every negative thing I give credit to my sinful nature. I hope to make a difference in other people's lives and serve others humbly.

One more quote for the road that I <3:>"I do not fear opinion, gossip, or the idle chatter of monkeys, for all are the same to me. I do not fear failure, for in my life, failure is a myth. Failure only exists for the person who quits. I do not quit. I am courageous. I am a leader. I seize this moment. I choose now. I am a person of action."

True story.