Here are my thoughts...
Luke 12:34, says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
- If you are into gossip and stirring the pot then your heart will be into creating more problems than working to fix them.
- If negativity rules your life then your heart will lead you to every negative thing around you.
- If the world revolves around you then your heart will also revolve around you.
- If you create illusions and ideals and situations out of a skewed reality or perception because that's easier than knowing the facts then your heart will lead you blindly.
- If making excuses and passing the buck is your day job then your heart is just a drawer full of things that you can't do because you are making a choice not to try.
[This next statement will blow you away....]
I ain't perfect either. I get caught up in me, me, ME all the time. Sometimes getting knocked back into reality is exactly what I deserve and it happens a lot.
The last couple of days have been full of "stuff" and I replied with "Stand up or shut up."
To me its just very simple [I am simple minded]:
You either want to be a part of the solution or part of the problem. If you are choosing to be part of the problem.....Stand up or shut up. That isn't being callous or mean or hateful [in my opinion...and everybody has one]. Don't be a busy body. Stop trying to drum up support for your negativity.
If there is an issue on your heart that so strongly leads you to discredit someone else's intentions then create a solution or let that be your challenge to "right" what you see as wrong.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible comes from Colossians 3, verse 23: "Whatever you do, work at it with all of your HEART as if working for the Lord and not for men." In my eyes and my heart, there is something bigger than what is going on around me. And it's not about me or what I would do - it is about serving the Lord.
True story [putting my heart out there for all the world to see]:
Several years back I was in a situation where I was told that I was the worst reading teacher in the county.
"Don't believe me? Here is your name."
Yep. Right there on that big neon pink sheet was Mrs. Short. Guess you can't argue with hard facts.
"I don't know what you are complaining about...you really don't have a leg to stand on."
Yep. Right on that one too.
I had some choices to make right then...should I
A. Go find some friends, tell them what happened, and have and "I hate so and so" party? [Tried that one. Didn't make me feel any better.]
B. Go run and hide and just feel sorry for myself.? [Tried that one too. Didn't make me feel any better.]
C. Be challenged? Throw down the gauntlet? Take pride in myself, [grab my dignity off of her desk], and figure out a solution?
[And the winner is??? Letter C.]
You see it was never about me but was about getting out of the way and really living Colossians 3:23. This is how God works....
At the time I was just beginning graduate school.
In reading education.
God laid it on my heart, through a dear friend, that until I began doing things in my classroom for His glory and not my own, that things would never change. [Much thanks to Danielle for being a bold witness and for your honesty.]
In graduate school, I soaked up every single bit of knowledge I could about reading strategies, best practices, formative assessments, inventories and QRIs, data, etc. But more than that, I let go and I just let God figure it out for me.
I say all this because on that day, sitting at the principal's desk, the words, "Stand up or shut up" were loud and clear. No. She didn't say those things to me but that is what she meant.
I believe that if someone really and truly wants to...
Mend a broken friendship
Right a wrong
Change a perception
Reach out a hand
then they will STAND UP and take up their cause.
I believe that if someone really and truly wants to....
Stir the pot
Create a problem
Make excuses
Pass the buck
then....well you know the rest....
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