Twelve-hundred

THIS is the 1,200 post of my blog!!  At least, since we moved it off of the church website and onto blogger.com and then to WordPress (which I LOVE!!)  When I think about this blog and what it means to me, it’s quite therapeutic.  I write about things that are on my heart.  Sometimes it gets me in trouble.  I’ve occasionally had people come to me, offended by the words written.  And, then again, I’ve had some come to me in tears, telling me I wrote that “just for them.”

Rest assured that I write these things from MY HEART.  They are not the official views or opinions of Ebenezer Baptist Church, although I’d like to think they line up pretty close to those views 99% of the time.  With all of that written, here is something that might be useful in life:

I recently blogged about the value I place on trustworthiness.  I think most of us feel that way.  We want to surround ourselves with people we can trust.  Inversely, when someone proves to be untrustworthy over and over again, we tend to migrate our lives away from them.  Several months ago, I found myself in a personal conflict with a local business man.  He told me what I wanted to hear and I was content to continue doing business with him.  Then the truth came to light.  I tried to continue but it just didn’t work out.  When I find myself engaged with people I know I cannot trust (and they make no effort to rebuild that broken trust), it REALLY stresses me out.  Best thing I ever did in that situation was find a new place to do that business.  I am much happier now, and I am sure he is, too!

Walking away from situations like that, there are two lessons to be learned:

1.  Did you do EVERYTHING you possibly could to repair that relationship??

2.  Are YOU being transparent and trustworthy in the relationship, be it personal, business, church-related, or whatever??

None of us are perfect.  And we are all recipients of the Grace of God Almighty.  And we need to do everything we can to give that grace away in our lives, TOO!!  That convicts me and reminds me that no one is perfect, and neither am I.  Yes, I place a premium on trustworthiness and there is a point in time when a relationship moves beyond it.  But I must do everything I can to keep it from getting to that point.

And THAT, my friends, is post #1,200!