Why Give Compliments Than Criticize?

Can you think of the times when you criticized someone? How did you feel about that? Was it good? For a at that certain point, you will probably laugh and have fun, but what happens after?

I am not really sure about how you felt about that, what I know is that many people do regret about what they have done just after doing it, weird right! Since I was a kid, I view all people kind, no matter what they do, whether good or bad, I know deep within that they also have kindness in their hearts.

Criticizing seems to be fun, I guess you will agree with me. It makes us laugh at times we feel bored. We feel successful when the person we criticize feels angry towards us. That is what I like to do when I was young. I don't give compliments I rather criticize and laugh at others.

The time I grew a little older, my mindset about teasing someone changed. When I entered college, things were very different. I am not a bully anymore, I am the one getting bullied by most students. Not to uplift myself, but I am that kind of person who should have confidence because I have the guts and skills that other students don't possess, just that I'm little.

To make the story short. I learned my lesson. I trained myself to change!
What does the bible tells us? It says Love One Another! Right?

Believe me, its good to love other people. If you haven't experienced giving compliments, its a loss on your part. When I first did that, it gives me so much joy. But of course I was true to my word that time. In fact, it made me draw more closer to people, and they loved me unconditionally. Just like what we all know, "what you sow, is what your reap".

How do we respond with those people we meet? Are we harsh? Or do we respond with love in our hearts?

Always Remember:
A gentle answer turns away wrath, but harsh words stirs up anger. (Proverbs 15:1)


By: Edwin Joseph

Heaven Knows Your Heart

“Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he departs.” Ecclesiastes 5:15 NIV

Think for just a moment about the things you own. Think about the house you have, the car you drive, the money you’ve saved. Think about the stocks you’ve traded and the clothes you’ve purchased. Envision all your stuff, and let me remind you of two biblical truths.

Your stuff isn’t yours. Ask any coroner…No one takes it with him. When one of the wealthiest men in history, John D. Rockefeller, died, his accountant was asked, “How much did John D. leave?” The accountant’s reply? “All of it.”

All that stuff—it’s not yours. And you know what else about all that stuff? It’s not you. Who you are has nothing to do with the clothes you wear or the car you drive. Jesus said, “Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot” (Luke 12:15 MSG). Heaven does not know you as the fellow with the nice suit or the woman with the big house or the kid with the new bike.

Heaven knows your heart.


From: Max Lucado - Grace For The Moment

THOU HAST ENLARGED ME

“Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.” Psalms 4:1

We all seek to enlarge the boundaries of our interests, concerns, and welfare. We seek to improve our life-style and bring a measure of happiness to our family and friends. Many are more successful than others, and they seem to have a knack of knowing just what to do, and how to make it happen. We respond by saying, “I wish I could make things happen like so-and-so.”

God seeks to bring us into that “fulfillment of life” we seek, often through means completely foreign to us. God often uses sorrows, difficulties, adversities, and trials in our lives “as the very means and the source” … of life’s greatest enlargement. And what is the blessing that we learn through it all? Not only that He has wonderfully interceded and delivered us, but the freedom, liberty, peace, and joy we experience of seeing HIS presence and power manifested “IN” the experience. We dared to “trust Him,” and there resulted a growth in grace and a deepening of our faith… “IN” the distress.

In the natural, we try to distance ourselves from the distresses of life, when God is seeking to be Our Sufficiency “IN” them. Athletes spend hours, days, and months in training. Unless they are ‘faithful in their training,’ they will not be the ‘best’ when put to the test. This was so graphically brought to my attention a few years ago when I was on a flight from N.Y. to San Francisco.

I was seated beside an elderly gentleman from Taiwan. He told me he was returning from the Seniors Olympic Track Meet that was held in Raleigh, N.C. He showed me the gold medal he won for first place in the 1500 meter run, another gold medal in the 500 meters, and a silver medal for the 1000 meter race. He was 76 years old. I was blown out-of-the-water. Amazed, I asked him, “How can a man your age endure such a long strenuous run.” He said, “For fifty years I got up at five each morning and ran for six miles. I conditioned my body with the proper exercise and was careful to eat only those foods that were good for me. I ‘disciplined’ my life so that I could not only run far and long … but be the BEST.”

I thought, how complacent we are when it comes to the ‘disciplines of life.’ Paul said, “Know ye not that they which run a race run all, but one receives the prize?” So run, that ye may obtain.” When God seeks to “bend our hearts and align our lives to His will … it is with the intent of “Enlarging Our Lives” for our good and His glory. It is IN these disciplined times we are awakened to our need and brought into an intimate relationship with Christ … an ENLARGING PROCESS !

Then he says in Heb. 12: 1 … “Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”

Yield your Life to His Control … your Heart to His Lordship. David said, “Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.” I trust we may ‘go through our distress with Christ,’ and say with Paul ... “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphant procession in Christ.” [2 Cor.2:14]


From: Literature International Ministries

You’re Gonna Be Like Him

Romans 8:29-30
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son. . . And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Becoming Like Jesus

We’ve been learning that nothing is an accident when it comes to your relationship with God. He decided to make you his child before the world began. Then, he arranged every detail in your life so that you would hear the gospel and accept Jesus as your savior.

The movie, Back to the Future 2, involves the time traveler in a situation in which his mother falls in love with him. He has to make sure nothing comes of that relationship or it will change his present. As the events unfold, it becomes very clear that changing just one relationship in a person’s life could make a radical difference in the future of many people for several generations.

God doesn’t travel in time to arrange the details of our heredity, our birth, and the days of our lives. Because he is eternal, all-knowing, and all-powerful, God has already planned every detail of who we are and what will happen to us. Romans 8:29-30 highlights four significant things God does to make every one of his children look like Jesus. First, he predestines or chooses us before creation. Next, he calls us and makes us want to be saved. Then, he justifies us by declaring us not guilty of any sin. He can do that because Jesus gave his life on the cross to pay the death penalty for our sins. The fourth and final thing God will do for each of his kids is to make us be like Jesus.

God uses everything that happens in our lives from the moment of salvation until our death to mold us. God uses all sorts of experiences, influences, teachings, and discipline as his tools. He helps us think, feel, and act more and more like Jesus all the time. We won’t become perfect in this life, no matter how hard we try. But, the moment we die, God will instantly finish the job. 1 John 3:2 says, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he [Christ] appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

God has given his word that he will make us holy, pure, and godly from the inside out. You could say that is his primary purpose in our lives. God filters every second of our lives through his love and power in order accomplish his goal of making us look like our big brother, Jesus. What a full, meaningful, and adventurous life we get to live as the chosen, called, and adopted children of God!


Today’s Prayer:
Eternal God and Father, thank you that there are no accidents in life because you are in control. Thank you that you use every single part of my life to make me like Jesus. You use my goof-ups just as easily as you use my greatest successes. I praise you for being the absolute king and organizer of my life. Amen.


From: New Wine Skin

Are You Just Swinging the Handle?

As you look at your life today in honesty and transparency, perhaps you would have to say that you have lost that edge, that excitement, that zeal, that spiritual passion you once had.

If indeed you have lost your edge, how can you get it back?

The first principle I want to focus on is based on the man who lost his ax head, as we learn in 2 Kings 6:4-5,

…when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water.

Now, it would have been senseless for him to have kept chopping with a wooden handle with no ax head on it, wouldn’t it?! He would make no progress.

And yet that is what a lot of Christians do today. They have lost their cutting edge, and they are just going through the motions, making no progress at all.

They are chopping away with just a wooden handle!

They think, “Well, I know I’m supposed to go to church, so I will go. As long as I keep busy, maybe nobody’s going to know the state of my heart.” And they will do this not just for weeks or months, but some people have been doing this for years.

No progress, no growth. They are just swinging that handle without an ax head.

If this is you, do not just keep swinging the ax handle. If you are not making progress, admit it. Until you are willing to face up to the fact that you have not been growing, you can never regain your spiritual edge.


From: Crosswalk - Answers For Each Day