Caution: Avoid This Person

"Thought is the seed of action"

This post has prompted some good thought that might not have otherwise come up.

At 29 there is a person I would not want to be. I am sure there is. I have never thought of my person past the age I am now. Maybe in certain classes or interviews when people ask where you might see yourself in 5, 10, or 15 years. One on one though, Sasha to Sasha, I have never truly put much thought into this. I have never been much of a visionary and most of the time I am just thankful for another day in this life, so 5 years from now is not a person I think about much. Today, though, I was captured by this question. We are always asked who we might wish to be in the future, but rarely does the question get posed of who we would not want to be. Sasha, who would you NOT want to be 5 years from now?

There are certain phrases that are said to me from time to time that stick like gum to the bottom of a shoe. Things like; "You don't dress yourself very well" or "Your smile is contagious", they stick to my brain. I never know what phrase it will be until months have passed and there is that one comment that one person said that they probably don't even remember saying, but it is stuck to me and not releasing anytime soon. My most recent sticky phrase went something like this, "you are someone who will always need inspiration so be sure to seek it out." At the time I thought, ya, you're right, and I am OK with that. What's wrong with looking for inspiration in life? After a while, I thought more, and got a little upset about it, but today I feel at peace with it. My first ingredient to avoiding the person I don't want to be in 5 years would be never lacking inspiration.

In February, I went to the Dave Ramsey conference in OKC as a volunteer. Fortunately, as a volunteer we were able to attend the entire program as well. One of the things that I took away from that day that was not money related was a piece of good leadership advice. Dave mentioned that one of the things he noticed about all good leaders that he looked to for advice was their desire to continue to learn. He said one of the questions he would always ask a person in a leadership role was what they were most recently reading. If they said nothing than he took that as a sign of bad leadership. Therefore, this serves as my second ingredient to my recipe, continue to read and learn.

Yesterday, I was sitting in church as I normally do on Sunday mornings. Craig was back after a 3 week vacation and boy did he have a message to preach. He talked about remaining in Christ. He drilled into us how important it is to remain in Christ in order to live a life that honors God. Have a bad marriage? Remain in Christ. Lost your job? Remain in Christ. Financial struggles? Remain in Christ. You get the idea. How do you remain in Christ? Turn from worldly desires to the desires of Christ. Read the Bible. Pray. Spend time with people who love Jesus. Serve. Stay in the Church. Continue to be amazed by your Creator and his Creation. These are all pieces of my third ingredient to my recipe for avoiding a person I don't want to be in 5 years.

"Thought is a seed for action"

I have always been asked who I want to be in the future, but never who I don't want to be. Now, in a small way, I have some sort of idea of who that person is that I don't want to be and where I should invest my time. I don't want to be a person that lacks inspiration and the desire to live life fully in God's intentions. I do not want to be a person that ceases to learn. I don't want to quit reading, especially since it is something I love so much, but also for the mere fact that reading stimulates thought, conversation, and fellowship. Above all else, I do not want to be a person that remains so distracted by this world that I do not remain in Christ.

And since thought is a seed for action I have begun the process of what it might take to avoid becoming that person in the future. I will continue to seek inspiration anywhere I may find it. For me, most of the time this comes through the form of reading blogs or conversing with the wonderful women that are placed in my life, but I will take it wherever it comes from. I may need inspiration more than others, but I refuse to see this as anything except my unique need to thrive as the person I was created to be. I will continue to read, even if it is at a slow pace. Reading challenges my thought and most always teaches me more than I knew prior to the start of the book. I will strive daily to remain in Christ in order to bear the fruits of God. For when I am remaining in Christ I can easily love others, be joyful, have peace in my heart, demonstrate patience, overflow with kindness, show goodness to the world, remain faithful, and resist self-indulgent behaviors. And, well, that is a person I desire to be more than anything else.

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5