Life Class
Oprah has an exciting series of stories where she interviews well-known people about their lives and experiences called Master Class. She often asks probing and prompting questions that will help facilitate the sharing of a personal story or a significant life lesson.
Life is like any other class
As this year comes to a close, I want to ask a few simple probing and prompting questions, as they pertain to your life. I would like you to keep in mind that life is indeed a classroom. If we are paying attention, we should be learning something in this class. It’s like any other class it is filled with tests, pop quizzes, and assignments. Just like any other class you can go to sleep in this class and miss some critical content. So like any other class, it is essential that you are paying attention. Are you?
Comment and Summarize
The intent of this blog post is for you to comment and summarize your year in Life Class.
Question: What did you learn in this year that is significant and essential to every year of your life after this one?
Question: Is it or why is it important to share this life lesson with someone else?
Motivation One Moment At A Time
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I’ve learned that idolotry can show up in our lives in stealth mode. Being abruptly and unexpectedly unthethered from something upon which we relied far too much for self-worth reveals more about our character, and faith, than we knew.
This is important to share because some of us, unless forcibly shoved, may forever continue to only partially trust God. And partially trusting God is an oxymoron.
This year has been a wonderful year of solitude, reflection and of reclaiming spiritual truths. I’ve learned that whatever the equation the answer is never right if you take yourself out of the equation. We’ve been taught to believe that being selfless to the point of our own detriment is somehow the “godly way of life” I’ve realized that living according to His will includes not only being there for others but to take care of yourself. You can’t be the faucet from which people drink if you are not replenishing your stock.
Also, in this past year, I’ve begun actively practicing being faithful in the sense of truly understanding that what is meant for me good, bad, or indifferent is coming full steam ahead and with the understanding that even the bad is for my well being.
Faith isn’t hoping things will work out, it’s praying, trusting and knowing all that you ask for will be given to you in His time. There’s a hadith that says: “When Allah answers prays it in one of three ways: yes, yes but not now or have something better for you”…and Alhamdulilah, for some reason He keeps giving me something much better!
This year I’ve learned that true change occurs when you modify your behavior AND commit wholeheartedly to the life-style change. For the last two years I’ve modified my diet radically due to a bout with breast cancer. I am a vegetarian who consumes no/very little sweets. Just recently I’ve started to question my “no sweets” rule. Today I learned the results of the Black Women’s Health Study on cancer (of which I was a participant). According to this research a diet rich in fruits in veggies radically reduces the risk of developing breast cancer. That info reinforces my behavior and encourages me to “commit” to my lifestyle change. No looking back!
As we complete our finals on the last day of Life Class 2012, what I have learned this year that is significant is that we must show up and be active and accountable in our own lives if we want to progress. Procrastination has to be my middle name and I’m sure it isn’t unique. I have four chapters of a book written and many unfinished poems that I have been working on this year. In order for me to see if my gift has any potential I have to finish wrapping it. We can only accomplish things in our lives if we stick to, and be steadfast with our goals and aspirations, because tomorrow is not promised. We can’t rely on others to uplift us, or to motivate us, we must do those things for ourselves. If you want to make Life Class 2013 a success, show up. I think that it is Important to share your life lessons with someone else, because THAT is what life is about. When we engage in conversations, debates and differences of opinions; we learn, we grow, and we see that there is a lot to learn when we all participate in Life Class. Even if we come up short, are not as successful as we want to be, miss out on that golden opportunity; press on, because those misfortunes are valuable lessons as well. Happy New Year everyone and let’s make Life Class 2013 a successful and prosperous year!!! God Bless.
I have learned that no matter what, God will continue to lead and guide me on the path He has chosen for my life. All I have to do is surrender my fears, concerns and plans to Him because when I look back over my 2012, God has brought me so much further than what I even imagined starting out in the beginning of the year and He has been faithful to continue to move me forward even up to today, the last day of 2012.
This year I learned that promises from God require action on my part. I can’t just sit back and wait. I start each year with a fast and last year God was speaking so much during the fast I could barely keep up. I was so looking forward to all that He promised during that season that I just spent all year sitting back and waiting. As the year, closed I saw movement but not the promises fulfilled. I asked why. The answer was I didn’t do my part. I was so focused on the promise, I missed that I had to be intent about staying on the path that led to the promise which required action from me. So this year as I enter into the fast, I am realizing that I need to declutter in every aspect of my life so that I can stay intently focused on the path to the promises He has for me. I no longer want to be the cause of the delayed promise. I think this is important because we all have things, we want and when they don’t happen sometimes we just get mad or make excuses. It is important to have the conversation with God to say what do you need from me that I am not giving you? Where did I go left instead of right on your path? Help me to get back on the path of promise so that I can see your purpose fulfilled without further delay. But He is faithful and He will be the lamp for our feet if we will only follow.
All through 2012, God repeatedly spoke to me about simplifying my life. Learning to be still and rest in Him. Learning to listen a great deal more than I speak. Intentionally creating a quite place in my life, my home, my mind and world. A quiet place where God has my attention and I can commune with Him.
It took a while for me to realize that this was what God was doing. God spoke through direct scripture, through messages, through music, through personal experiences and internal witness of the Holy Spirit. I struggled and wondered what was going on but thankfully like Samuel with Eli’s help (I Samuel 3), God finally got through to me and by His grace I obeyed.
I learned to be more rather than do more. And what a refreshing feeling of the power, presence and purpose of God I experience now that I am in tune. Choosing more naturally and readily to listen more, reflect and meditate more than I speak and do.
This Comment was emailed to me:
I learned that SHIFT happens!
– There comes a time in everyone’s life where there will be a shift…
We will decide to do (or not do) something different in our lives. This causes a chain reaction in the lives of those around us. I decided that I would not tolerate any negativity from so called loved ones; this in turn caused some of my loved ones to not tolerate me (maybe not as much)! I am ok with this knowing that I can love them from a distance and continue on my journey. I learned that some people come into our lives for a season and some come to add to the season (if you will). I think of the season as the spice of life and not the time of life.
Just because someone comes into your life for a season does not mean that they can’t add a little spice while they are there or you adding (spice) to their lives.
Matthew 5:13
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
If you and or someone you know and love are not being the salt of the earth then I suppose you or it must be thrown out (figuratively more so that literal). I’m not suggesting that you remove people from your life literally but you may want to consider limiting the time that you spend with them.
I have really good friends (they mean well) but I can only tolerate them in small doses
2. I learned that my “fear factor should not cause my “FAITH” to fail!
With this I learned to face my fears (big or small) by keeping my FAITH in GOD. I stood face to face with my worries and conquered everyone by the grace of GOD!
Hebrews 11:1New King James Version (NKJV)
By Faith We Understand
11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Question: Is it or why is it important to share this life lesson with someone else?
I find that it is important to share these life lessons with others not only because they serve as testimonies of what GOD can do but it also gives an account of the journey that we are on.
I look at it (testimony) as a GPS system for others. If I have traveled through hell and back; I should at the very least be able to tell my version
I have learned that Faith, like love, is an action word. You cannot just speak it, you must ‘exercise’ it. For many years, when examining my spiritual gifts, my main gift has been faith. 2012 has shown me that by exercising that faith, God has given me the “peace that surpasses all understanding” we all talk about. I now KNOW what that means and Praise God for being my strength, my Comforter, my ALL!
I believe that God has set me on this breast cancer journey for a reason! For HIM to get the Glory AND for me to walk with others on similar journeys. I know that my healing is in place; I simply must walk the path God has laid before me to GET to the place of promised healing. It is the walk that will give him the Glory for it is ONLY through Christ that I am sustained and am able to push on. i realize that some are unable to even handle the ‘treatment’ and become bedridden and sick – just from the treatment of this disease. God has kept me; I have worked through a full round of chemo and am currently working through round 2! BUT GOD!!!!!!!
I have also seen the pure agape love of God exercised by my friends and family. The prayers, love and support has been God’s tools for keeping me bouyed and sustained! Hallelujah!!!
In darkness, you can find light. Darkness is as the light, to God. Don’t be afraid of darkness…God is there too. Everyone needs to know that life is not all smiles, easy patent answers, and certainty. Life is knowing that you belong to God and He hears you…and answers. Let’s be slow to judge, slow to answer, but quick to listen, and even quicker to love. Grace and peace…
Question: What did you learn in this year that is significant and essential to every year of your life after this one?
The start of 2012 was one of great anticipation of the transformable work God was going to do in my life. Needless to say I didn’t expect that the approach He chose was going to be one of surrender, sacrifice, and sanctification. It was a year of realignment and focusing, not on my agenda, but on His. What has God created you to do? Have you begun to chase after God for direction for your life? Do you know Me and have you ever taken the time to get to know Me? These were all probing questions that the Father asked of His son and friend (me). The close of 2012 allowed me to realize that deliverance, healing, and love was at the door step of every believer that truly is called by God. The Holy Spirit is waiting to be released in our lives and we have yet to realize the authority we have through Christ, because of issues that we have yet to deal with. Therefore, quality time with God (not requesting or praying, just spending time with Him) is important to our development and intimacy with Christ to truly obtain direction for our lives. This is not a sermon just a testimony of God’s unrelenting commitment to His child and all who believe can experience the unconditional love of the Father.
Question: Is it or why is it important to share this life lesson with someone else?
This is important because you are more then you appear to be and there is a purpose that God has created you for, however we get caught up with our agenda and own direction for life. The most tragic thing is to die and never realize all you could have been. There are so many people in this world that God wants to use and has created to do mighty things, but often times are trapped in a state of unbelief, hopelessness, fear, un-forgiveness, and feelings of not being loved. God uses all these things for our good and works them out, but we must first take that step to allow Him to bring healing in our lives, submerge us with His love, change our perspective on How we view Him, ourselves, and our situations, and gain our attention to give direction for our lives so we may begin to live out our pre-determined purpose. This all sums up to receiving the Love of Christ.