Musings on Thought for Today.....

Thought for Today : Character: When you do not upset yourself thinking about how others must change and instead you concentrate on your own change, good things start to happen. First, you will feel better about yourself. Second, you will start to have positive feelings towards others and start to understand them. Third, others start having a more positive attitude towards you.
(brought to you from: www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk)

... if my coworker only did this, than....... My boss needs an attitude adjustment, than..... if my spouse would pay more attention, than..... if, than,..... they need to, than.... See the pattern? As the Good Book says, we need to remove the log from our selves before we can look at the speck in our neighbor.... Not always an easy task. Its easier to blame someone else than to change ourselves; change our attitude. It's easier to look the other way than to look within and see our own shortcomings. The only problem is, Change is an inside job. If I change , than.....

I tell people all the time; "the only thing constant in life is change". I don't usually follow that with ..."you can't change another person, the only person you can change is you".. but maybe I should. It is so easy to look at someone, else for our shortcomings. It's easier because than we don't have to change, we can always point the finger elsewhere. How many times have you or I said, " I can't believe it, they did it again, they need to stop it, it drives me crazy,....". The same things bother me that bothered me yesterday about someone, why don't they realize they need to.... I dare say most of us have caught ourselves in those situations.

This is where the Thought of the day : Character comes in. If we look at those situations from a different perspective. Hmm ... Next time you catch yourself saying "there they go again and it bothers me", (here's the key...) stop and think why?, what is inside me that it bothers me so much? What do I need to change? There it is, the answer.... I need to be more accepting of, That person cleaning all the time....maybe I need to clear my clutter and don't want to look at it yet,....... That slob not cleaning anything.....maybe I'm too sterile inside and need to let in a little life.... I can't believe they haven't moved on from that situation yet......maybe I'm stuck in my own..... It is so easy to look outside, and so hard to look inside, but we must.

The merry-go-round will keep going in circles until we let go of ourselves and change our position. We must look at ourselves, what we're hanging on to and why. We get comfortable with ourselves and don't want to change or don't see the need to change. We get stuck on that merry-go-round and think we'll always have fun, get a-long, be OK. After all aren't we all reaching for that brass ring? Take a Look away from the brass ring and see what's outside. There are all kinds of possibilities. We need to slow the ride down, look at ourselves, change our attitudes, our thoughts, ourselves.... We need to get off the merry-go-round of complacency and start the walk of inner change.

When a behavior in someone else triggers a negative response from you, look inside, and ask why.... When a type of person walks by and you have hate or animosity towards them, look inside yourself and ask why..... when your frustrated because they keep doing that, look inside and ask yourself why.... If you can't look inside at that moment, instead of responding in a negative way, say a small prayer of love and acceptance for that person, situation etc... then go back when you have time, when it's quiet, and contemplate your inner response and look for the why..... I need to be more forgiving, I need to be more accepting, I need to be more helpful, I need to be less jealous, I need to be more loving, I need to clean out my own house,.... Find out the inner why, the inner fears,....

Once you start looking at it from the inside, and making those inner changes, your true character will come out. . .We all have shortcomings, we put ourselves, our ego's in the way of what we truly are meant to be.

Try it today, when you start with the if only they'd... stop yourself, look within, and make that change. Get off the merry-go-round of complacency and take that first step towards true and God given change inside. You will be truly amazed at how things change around you.... Not because of their change but because of yours..... yep.... it's an inside job.

And who's at the core living in, with and though us, deep inside our soul? Yep the Light of Lights, the Hope of Hopes, The Love of Loves, is waiting there for you to look within, ask for guidance, make that inner change...... become strong in inner character through Grace and Love.

May God Bless you today and always with Love, Forgiveness, Hope, Grace and Acceptance, and bring Peace and Joy into your soul.....
Love and Light,
Nina