Why do we care what others think?

“It is a dangerous trap to be concerned with

what others think of you, but if you trust the Lord,

you are safe.”

Proverbs 29:25

The other day I was working on my business plan and thinking to myself, why am I even bothering I will never be successful at this. No one will ever like this idea. Why am I even trying! I was at a really hard point in the process and I just didn't know what to do. So I started in with all this negative thinking. I don't know why we do that to ourselves. It is seriously silly that we do that to ourselves. I mean my business plan is an inspiration that I had years ago sitting in college and to this day I still believe it is God's purpose for my life. So here I am struggling with all the planning, all the writing, researching, and soon to be marketing; to possibly getting this idea off the ground. I am having a lot of problems at this stage because I will soon have to face the public with my idea. All the people I grew up with will soon know my idea and I will have to face my community to say I want to make it better with another business. It is a scary feeling wondering what people will think of me and how they will perceive my idea, but in the end I have to trust the Lord with this. He put this in my hands years ago when sitting in college he gave me the inspiration to not be a vet and to be a counselor, he gave me this inspiration years ago when I decided to research this topic and talk about it years ago. He knew this was meant for me. It just took the steps to get there. Now it will just take these last few steps to get there again. Can I accomplish....Maybe! I hope so! In the end though I know I don't want to care what others are thinking of me. I want to be able to hold me head high and say that I can trust in the Lord.

Can you say that you trust in the lord and don't care what others think about you?  I certainly hope so.  Please don't fall into the people pleasing trap.  As the verse says above... "It is a dangerous trap to be concerned with what others think of you, but if you trust in the Lord you are safe." Proverbs 29:25.  How true is that?  We do trap ourselves with our own negative thoughts.  We keep thinking about what others could be thinking.  It might not even be true.  We just assume.  In all honesty we never really know what people really think.  As a society we have broken so far away from communication and talking that it is so hard to tell what people really think anymore and really know.  We have to stop overwhelming ourselves with such a negative thinking of who we are what we are capable of.  Since I have started challenging myself I have learned that I am capable of much more that I thought I was.  Since I have started to rely on God to lead me I feel calmer....it is kind of relaxing.  In the end The Lord always answers our prayers.  Sometimes it is not always the answer we want or when we want it, but it is answered.  So stop caring what people think of you and let the Lord guide your life.  Your life will be calmer and you will be able to interact with others in a mood that you have never had before.  We are a unique species because God created us to have such communication and negative thoughts and sin, but he did that so we could learn how to live through him.  So live your life through God and keep practicing positive thoughts.  You can do it! I know I still need to practice :), especially when I get frustrated with things that are hard! 

I will pray for you all 

God Bless, 

Amanda 

The next generation....

"We're not keeping this to ourselves; we're passing it along to the generation!" 

Psalm 78:4 

Lately the one thing I have been struggling with is HOW MY KIDS SEE THE WORLD?  HOW WILL EVERYTHING I DO AFFECT MY KIDS?  This world is so full of problems anymore I am scared about the next generation.  The technology is overwhelming that kids don't even know how to communicate and play anymore because we just give them Ipads, Iphones, tablets, gameboys, and every other electronic device to keep them out of our way or to keep them occupied as babies so we can still enjoy "our" time as adults.  Do we even enjoy the small things in life anymore?  Family dinners, reading to our children, playing outside, or just having a simple conversation?  I think not.  I mean there is an app out there now that gives rewards for people to sit down and watch tv at the actual time that the shows are on, why?  Because DVR has become too convenient that the businesses are needing people to see the commercials! There are apps to get people to exercise, there are apps for shopping, parenting apps, communicating apps, but in reality these apps do nothing.  They are not human they are a computer! When you think about it if you depend on your phone so much as to tell you when to wake up, when to exercise, where to drive, what to listen to, how to parent your kids, and what to buy then you might as well be a computer! Do you really want your child to be that way?  I don't want my children like that at all! I want them to think for themselves so why do they need phones at age 7.....who are they really going to call?  I have a house phone they can use that.  I want them to learn how to use their imagination, that's why they have toys like blocks, animals, tractors, a barn, crayons, paper, dress up clothes, and paints.  They have a leap-pad tablet that they share but the time on that is limited and I have them play abc mouse a few times a week as well.  They both know how to use our Iphones and to reduce arguing I have an old cracked iphone with the same games so they each play with one for limited periods of times.  They prefer to be outside and to use their imagination over these computerized toys for now (thank goodness)! My oldest will be in kindergarten next year and I fear what he will be introduced to. I would prefer to keep his mind young and unaware of all the computerized junk that is out there! I mean seriously, Didn't the Iphone 5 just come out?  They are now advertising the Iphone 6! Am I missing something?  Geez I still have the Iphone4.  I myself am way behind on technology at this point.  I try to keep up, but how can you because what you learn one day is out dated the next!  I don't want my children to learn that we are just a computer generation and that in a marriage you don't communicate, or friends skype each other, or that God doesn't matter in a family.  I want my family to learn that God is important, that we need to communicate with one another, that imagination is important, that we pray about things, we work hard, we earn everything, reading is vital, learning is Key, and most important we have to love one another and to do that we have to have real conversations.  God created this world to progress, but in the progress each person has a purpose to fulfill.   I just hope that in all this computerized generation I will be able to keep my kids from the junk that is created.  We need to think about the next generation when we develop apps, when we expose our kids to things, or what we are teaching our kids! Sometimes when my husband and I sit up at night and watch Yukon Men, I wish I lived way up there in the middle of no where Alaska where there is no technology and they live off the land.  I envision how much I would be able to devote my life to teaching my children about nature, life, God, math (the right way and not this new way that confuses everyone), reading, and whatever else I could teach them without the use of technology.  I hope that even once they start school I will still be able to teach them some things here at home because I know their peers will be their biggest influences! This next generation is going to be more computerized than the current generation and we will only have ourselves to thank.  So spend sometime and get off your apps and do some thinking for yourself.  Figure out to exercise, how to cook a meal, how to have a conversation with your spouse or your kids, or how to watch tv because we need to figure out to progress forward again as a human and spend more time with the Lord.  Let's press upon the next generation the importance of being a real human and not a computer.  Let's teach them to communicate and to interact with others and how to earn things.  Lets teach them that the Lord is important so they know that they can do all things through Christ! Our kids are important, computers and phones are not! So let's put them down and make our kids important again! 

God Bless All of you, Gotta Go put a ninja Turtle Tattoo on now and Jump in the leaves after we finish watching the football game together!