Tag: raising the standard

Mirrors Don’t Lie

Chandra K

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Let me start off by saying, all of my blogs are based on my life experiences and they are in no way intended to reveal anything, except the truth! My truth! And this is my truth…

My truth is that I’ve missed the mark…more than once! My truth is sometimes I make the wrong decisions in certain areas and I know better. My truth is that I’ve been hypocritical and I’ve been a bad friend. My truth is that some of the rumors and assumptions that people have about me may be true. My truth is that I am not always the best family member. My truth is that sometimes I have an attitude and I don’t want to be bothered. So with all of that being said, what’s your truth? Not the truth that you made up or the one you believed so long until you’ve convinced yourself that it’s true. I’m talking about your real truth?

This blog was laid on my heart over 2 years ago but every time I tried to move forward with it, I found myself dropping the ball. Now I understand why. I was creating a blog entitled “Start With Me” but I didn’t want to start with me. I wanted to start with someone else and blame them for MY truths. I had the knowledge. The gift for writing was there but the mindset was not. The accountability was missing. We are pros at holding others accountable but we change the standards on self-accountability. Some kind of way, gossip turns into “sharing information” or “warning” when it comes from our own lips but when it comes from the lips of another, it turns into “messy.” Why is this? It’s because we don’t keep the same standards. We fail to hold ourself accountable. We don’t want to start with the man in the mirror. Instead of fixing the man in the mirror, we would much rather call the mirror a lie! And although we know mirrors don’t lie, we would much rather believe that someone made an error with the mirror than to fix the reflection. Why is this? My truthful answer is, in my mind, I was ok. A little mistake here and there was nothing major. I would remind myself that I will never reach perfection so I really didn’t have to extend my arm that far in pursuit of it. As long as I did enough “good stuff” to get by, I was in good shape. Until I met someone who had the exact same mindset as me. The crazy part was, I couldn’t understand how they were comfortable living the life they were living. I didn’t understand how a person could know better but consciously do the opposite.

Then I walked past the mirror…

I share my truths here because I’ve realized that I can’t change people and I can’t change opinions but I can change me! And as long as He blesses me with breath, I’ll continue to pray daily that God will keep me humble and remind me to start with me.

Privacy Settings

Chandra K

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How many people have you deprived because of your privacy settings? How many times have you selected the audience to help and left out certain ones for unacceptable reasons? I understand discretion fully and I realize that we have to be careful. However, that is not what I am referring to. For my literal thinkers, this goes beyond a Facebook setting, think deeper. If the objective is to minister and witness to the loss or the broken or the whole world, why do we only stay within our circle? Why don’t we expand? I used to have a private fb page because I didn’t want certain people to see what I posted. Even though there were still ways that people could see, I felt better knowing that they had to send me a request in order to see my page or go through someone else to see it. But I started thinking, if I know that God has called me to give hope, I can not be selective as to who I chose to help or give hope to. It makes no since for me to distribute hope to the same people everyday and they’re getting stronger and stronger but there is someone out there that actually needs a word of hope but they can’t run across it because of my privacy settings! I challenge you to check your privacy settings. Are you limiting your reach because of personal issues with a hand full of people instead of giving hope to the masses? We can’t choose who we want to minister to, we can’t choose the people that we think deserve help. We form circles that are so strong and encouraged but we won’t share it with others.

Think about your bible classes, your prayer groups, your encouragement sessions, or even your testimonies. We have to stop thinking about the hand full of people and remember the masses that are thirsty for your word of hope! Just this week, I was messaged and contacted by several people that are NOT my friends on Facebook. They all had similar stories, they were inspired and encouraged by the hope they found on my page. All though I was not connected to these people personally, their words warmed my heart and through their words, my decision was confirmed to leave my page public. I realized that if my privacy settings had still been set to private, they may not have ever seen my posts or read my word of hope.

My goal is to inspire others to inspire others. And I feel that if someone was inspired by me, they will inspire another and so on! As children are using their blocks to build something, they don’t just pick the blue blocks, they use them all! We should do the same. Let’s not just pick those who fit our liking but reach all! Expand to the masses! They need to hear from you!

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Being a Barrier Breaker

Chandra K

Barrier: a fence or other obstacle that prevents movement or access; a circumstance or obstacle that keeps people or things apart or prevents communication or progress; a starting point for a racecourse
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IMG_0209What if you knew you had the ability to go 10 miles but there was a fence in the middle of the road at 8 miles? What if you could actually see something that you’ve been chasing for so long and the only thing standing in between you and the object is a 3 foot wall? What if you desired so badly to cross from one side of the yard to the other side but there were bushes and hedges in the way? Would you let those things stop you? Would you get to the point of being that close and turn around because of a fence or a wall that’s shorter than you or some bushes? What type of barrier would have to be put into place for you to stop and turn around? How do you identify which barriers to penetrate and which ones are guardrails?

Ask yourself a question, am I being held back by barriers? What will it take for me to break out of my barriers? Do I even know what my barriers are? We can’t break out of what we don’t know. In order to be a barrier breaker, we must be able to identify the barriers. We have to recognize what’s holding us back and what’s limiting us. Take a minute to think about your barriers. Not the effects or the emotions that are attached to it but the actual barrier itself. Often times we address the wrong issue.

For example, I had a friend who went to school and graduated with the dream of being a daycare owner. She found a building to start the daycare and she even got a grant to open it. One day, someone mentioned something to her about her dream being to big for a beginner and they told my friend that she should start off in someone else’s daycare as a helper before she opens her own. My friend has yet to open her own daycare because she thinks that she is ill-equipped to own her own so she settles for helping at someone else’s daycare. My friend mentioned that if that person hadn’t ever said that to her, she would be a daycare owner. Now, she’s held back by the opinion of someone else. Even if that were true, the fact still remains that the barrier is not the person that came and shared their opinion with my friend. The barrier itself is fear! If we can directly address the barrier itself, we can then conquer the opinions and insecurities that are brought to us by others. Because we are so afraid to recognize and address the real barrier, we prolong valuable time and we live within the standard.

Think about what’s limiting you. When you decide to become a barrier breaker, standards are changed, bars are raised and limits expand further than the sky! Be the one that breaks out…you’re to great to be restricted!

Now that we’ve identified our barriers, ask yourself one last question. In reference to the above definition, is my barrier a restriction or a starting point?

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