Glorious Sunday morning, friends! We made it to the weekend. How’d you make it? Cool, calm, and collected? Bruised, battered, and limping? Perhaps you’re somewhere in between like me. I had a great week despite the fact that this past Friday was the 13th, and it was a full moon. In teacher-speak, that’s a recipe for disaster straight from a witch’s cauldron. Oh, and we had our first fire drill of the year with 1500 middle school students. Were we cray-cray for planning that? Cray-cray or not, everything went well. I didn’t see any kids wearing sombreros, knee highs, a snuggy, a sound system in his backpack, or a lampshade on his head (and yes, all these things happened.). If you want continuous entertainment, get a job at a middle school.
Your perspective about your week or about life in general really has everything to do with you. I sat in a workshop at the end of the day Friday with two of my brilliant friends — Libby and Laura. They talked about some heavy stuff — Suicide, to be specific. Our kids really struggle, and so do we. Libby and Laura, our dynamic duo, took us through a few activities before giving us a survey to discern our character strengths. I only looked at my top five: Spirituality, Humor, Leadership, Forgiveness, and Perspective. That’s me in a nutshell! What’s interesting is that I had just taken the Gallup Strengthsfinder Survey the week prior. That, too, was quite telling.
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Far too often, we focus on our shortcomings rather than our gifts. James said it best. Those gifts come from God. Use them. Don’t ignore that you have them; and for God’s sake, stop coveting someone else’s gifts. I struggle to do math of any kind, but I can string clauses together to paint a picture that even Vincent Van Gough would want on his mantle. See? I just did it. Take the character strengths survey here, and share your top five with me in the comments.
Join me tomorrow for my Music Monday post and part two of this series. Blessings, y’all!
Gratitude, fairness, kindness, forgiveness & honesty (Love was #6). Enjoyed your blog as always 😘