To some of you, these words by T.D. Jakes will sound harsh. I realize that. And yet I'm including them here because this is the kind of stuff which has set me free the past 12 years. I have found marvelous freedom when I apply truths such as these. And no, it's not easy (is anything, really?). But Jesus did promise to help us through it all.
Also, I've discovered when I truly place something in God's hands, it returns to me in a brand new, better-than-ever way after having been touched, re-molded and changed by His fingers.
Let It Go In 2006
By T. D. Jakes
There are people who can walk away from you.
And hear me when I tell you this! When people can walk away from
you: let them walk.
I don't want you to try to talk another person into staying with
you, loving you, calling you, caring about you, coming to see you,
staying attached to you. I mean hang up the phone.
When people can walk away from you let them walk. Your destiny is
never tied to anybody that left.
The Bible said that, they came out from us that it might be made
manifest that they were not for us. For had they been of us,
no doubt they would have continued with us. [1 John 2:19]
People leave you because they are not joined to you.
And if they are not joined to you, you can't make them stay.
Let them go.
And it doesn't mean that they are a bad person it just means that
their part in the story is over. And you've got
to know when people's part in your story is over so that you don't
keep trying to raise the dead. You've got to know when
it's dead.
You've got to know when it's over. Let me tell you something. I've
got the gift of good-bye. It's the tenth spiritual gift, I believe in
good-bye.
It's not that I'm hateful, it's that I'm faithful, and I know
whatever God means for me to have He'll give it to me.
And if it takes too much sweat I don't need it. Stop begging people
to stay.
Let them go!!
If you are holding on to something
that doesn't belong to you and was never intended for your life,
then you need to......
LET IT GO!!!
If you are holding on to past hurts and pains ......
LET IT GO!!!
If someone can't treat you right, love you back, and
see your worth.....
LET IT GO!!!
If someone has angered you ........
LET IT GO!!!
If you are holding on to some thoughts of evil and revenge......
LET IT GO!!!
If you are involved in a wrong relationship or addiction......
LET IT GO!!!
If you are holding on to a job that no longer meets your needs or
talents
LET IT GO!!!
If you have a bad attitude.......
LET IT GO!!!
If you keep judging others to make yourself feel better......
LET IT GO!!!
If you're stuck in the past and God is trying to take you to a new
level in Him......
LET IT GO!!!
If you are struggling with the healing of a broken
relationship.......
LET IT GO!!!
If you keep trying to help someone who won't even try to help
themselves......
LET IT GO!!!
If you're feeling depressed and stressed ........
LET IT GO!!!
If there is a particular situation that you are so used to handling
yourself and God is saying "take your hands off of it," then you
need to......
LET IT GO!!!
Let the past be the past. Forget the former things. GOD is doing a
new thing for 2006!!
LET IT GO!!!
"The Battle is the Lord's!"
About a hundred years ago when I was first married (okay--more like 25 or so) I was given the book, Make-A-Mix Cookery.
Talk about a fun cookbook!
Make-a-Mix gave me recipes to make my own mixes so to save $$'s and time in the kitchen and to keep me from racing out to the supermarket in rainstorms or when I just plain didn't have time (or a vehicle) in which to do so.
By creating my own mixes, I also skipped the nasty old preservatives people threaten will all catch up with us one day.
I remember spending whole afternoons blithely making mixes while Naomi sat gurgling in her high chair and our portable tv played game shows and cooking shows on the kitchen counter.
Those were the days. These are the days, also.
This afternoon for old time's sake I again (wearing my 1950's apron) made my own mixes so that when Tom and I get cravings for baked this-and-that, I can whip something up before even one set of commercials during 24 have ended.
But technically, long ago I stopped using the original Make-A-Mix recipes -- I just kept using their basic idea. I mean, I haven't used that canned white shortening stuff in eons, and always I halve the sugar amounts, etc.
No, for years now I've simply consulted my own tried-and-true, semi-healthy recipes for muffins, pancakes and brownies, etc., and then I sift and stir together all the dry ingredients into individual zip-lock bags, and label them. Man, how satisfying! How lovely all those little labeled bags look inside my 1940's metal bread box.
Even after 27 years, I still love playing June Cleaver. I apologize. Or no, I don't.
But that's just the beginning. I create tiny envelopes out of foil, label them, and then add my own special spice mixture for meats or spaghetti. Those shiny foil packages are too cute! And when I go Suzy-Homemaker ballistic, I even cook ground turkey and add spices from my foil envelopes and tomatoes and onions and then freeze it all into containers which I slip into our freezer in one-meal portions. Those are then ready for everything from lasagna to enchiladas to tacos.
Well, anyway, there's a kitchen secret for you.
Tom has some days-off approaching and rather than me spending an inordinate amount of those vacation days in the kitchen while he has fun elsewhere, I've got my mixes waiting to be tossed into a bowl or a pan in record time.
Suzy Homemaker (a.k.a. June Cleaver) is alive and well, lest you thought she died ages ago.
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Here is a website with tons of make-it-yourself mixes. It's one of many on the Net.
"When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise." 2 Corinthians 10:12
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Anymore, I try not to make comparisons.
Why? Because too many of them make people sad, even when that's not what I wanted one bit.
Did you watch American Idol last night? Simon made a comparison comment about Kelly and last year's winner, Carrie, which, I believe was hurtful. (Simon said something hurtful? Nah, he'd never do that!) ツ
To compare their voices is one thing, but what it sounded like, (I could be wrong), was more a comparison of their personalities, Kelly's being better than Carrie's.
Argh. Tom and I groaned and lectured Simon through our tv screen. Yet again.
People just plain are not alike, nor were they meant to be! God had countless reasons for creating each of us uniquely, and yes, like the above verse says, we show our lack of wisdom when we compare one person (or ourselves) to another.
Hopefully you'll not read in my blog something like, "Spring is a wonderful season, but there's not one good thing about Winter." Why not? Because each season has a separate, necessary, beautiful purpose.
And the same can be said for people. God gave each of us customized combinations of gifts, callings, talents, appearances and dreams. (We constantly hear that, but do we believe it?)
Oh, I still tend to compare houses sometimes, drive by and label some as lovely and some as awful. But even there, I remind myself that the houses I speed past and declare "boring or ugly," well, each one belongs to a family of real people and who am I to fling out such disparaging labels like frisbees? Besides, perhaps the house's insides are gorgeous--but how would I know unless I went deeper and looked?
Yes, we can have opinions, but I'm finding my opinions, in the grand scheme of Life, are basically, meaningless. And if my opinions are unjustly hurting people's feelings then I'm falling short of what you'll read in 1 Corinthians 13.
Real love, God's love, doesn't storm around wielding opinions like sharpened knives.
More than ever in 2006 it's popular to stand up for your right to have and express opinions, and to a point, that's fine. But to go overboard and wildly swing those opinions around like they are the only Truth? Well, that's something different (and usually hurtful) altogether.
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