Never Stop Studying/Learning

Following his Pops footsteps...
It's a responsibility we take seriously

I just finished a 10 day devotional on YouVersion.com (link here) called My Spirit, My Responsibility.  I have enjoyed each and every day of this devotion.  I told Bo that I wished it was longer.  

So many times we don't want to take responsibility for how we feel, respond, act...let me see who I can blame this on.  Most of the time, we can find someone who has contributed to our bad behavior or at least someone who participated in it.  Even as parents we do this when it comes to our children. We look at the participants in the incident and we automatically say, "I knew that boy was bad news...he/she would have never done that if __________ wasn't around all the time."  We then watch the other kid more than we watch our own because we just know they were the bad influence, never considering that our kid might be the culprit.

What?!!!  

In this devotion, Pastor Houston tells us that even who we hang around, give authority in our lives, our influences...they are our responsibility.  WHAT?!  
How can I take responsibility for that?  It's true, we become what we hang around.  It's just natural.  You pal around with a negative person all the time, you become negative.  You hang around with an uplifting person, you become uplifting to others.  It rubs off.  I had a friend who said, "They lay around with dogs and are surprised when the get up smelling like one."  

Smelly...lol

I was a preschool teacher and in my first solo class I had a horse farmer dad. No one had to tell me he was a horse farmer...my nose knew.  The mom would bring the little girl to school and the dad would pick her up most of the time.  But on a occasion dad would bring her.  He would walk in to my clean room with his horse poo boots on...dropping mud and poo around the room as he helped her put her stuff away.  He was a nice man.  I liked him a lot.  But when I saw him coming into my room at the beginning of the day, I cringed. Because when he left...the smell and the droppings were still there.  Even after I cleaned up the pooy/muddy mess, the smell took longer to fade.  So, being the teacher I had the honor of putting up a sign to inform parents that the kids sit and play on the floor, please leave your muddy boots at the door when dropping off your kids...worked like a charm.  The point to this story is, what you are around, you become.  Not that the dad became a horse but the nose told a different story...lol.

Let me leave you with a few of my favorite quotes from this devotional.

Your spirit is the key to unlocking your life and your future.

No mature Christian who is seasoned in the Word

has any reasonable excuse to live 

their life offended.

If you allow the negativity or offense of another person 

to enter your spirit it will sabotage your life.

Did you know that there are people you are called

to do life with and whose destinies are 

connected to yours?

If God gave us what we actually deserve,

we'd all be in trouble.

Comparison is a deadly game you cannot win.

Honor people because of their value in God,

not because of their title.

A humble spirit cannot remain unteachable.

Never develop a wounded spirit.

The path of life leads upward 

for the wise;

they leave the grave behind.

-Proverbs 15:24 NLT

Don't let evil conquer you,

but conquer evil by 

doing good.

-Romans 12:21 NLT