Simply Cintia: Day 23: Encouragement: "Day 22: Happy Reminders Archives: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3"
I was encouraged by this and I hope you are too. It's not every day in our culture that we are uplifted by our peers.
So much of our interactions are competitive and defensive, so when I watched this blogpost of my friend Cintia I literally felt a weight lifted off of my heart.
It's hard to walk around with worldly armor! Unlike God's armor, which defies the gravity of stress, fear, worry and doubt, worldly armor can take on a literal manifestation in your life. Think about it, if you were a knight of olde, your armor would weigh more than you, it would need to to protect you from a battle axe or sword. The mental and emotional armor we wear daily carries the same weight. All in preparation to do battle with the world! But the Lord tells us we don't need this armor, it's just weighing us down — it's just keeping us down! We need to trust in His supernatural armor and take down our natural defenses. So take down the back-breaking sarcasm, the back-biting, the name-calling, finger-pointing, reactive, angry, vengeful armor of the world and put on the light-as-a-feather, loving, forgiving, uplifting, rejoicing, ENCOURAGING armor of the Lord.
My heart was filled with this message, just watching Cintia speak.
I was looking into the eyes of a person who genuinely wanted me to succeed in life — a person asking me to encourage others to do the same.
This is not an unusual feeling when checking out Cintia's blog or talking to her in general; she has a healing spirit that makes it virtually impossible to feel anger or frustration in her presence! It's like the woman breathes peace, and I thank her for those moments when she helps me to do the same.
Watch the post, pay it forward and encourage the people around you to encourage the people they encounter!
Cintia sounds like an amazing woman. I really like the burden/armor analogy. That is something I struggle with-- I block and ignore any 'haters' but when people are so persistent it's hard to put it out of your mind entirely.
ReplyDeleteLuckily I know a few people who sound like Cintia so I make it a habit to surround myself with them!
I find sarcasm and humor.....even at the expense of others, keeps me sane. I enjoy seeing things as ironic, hypocritical, or completely satirical. To me, noticing these things about life and certain people is very entertaining. I don't think that pointing out where someone completely contradicted themselves is vengeful or hateful. IN FACT, I think true friends will always try to keep you honest, and not let you lie to yourself or others, but also be able to laugh about it. I mean its only as 'mean spirited' as you interpret it.
ReplyDeleteI mean sometimes you just have to call a swamp donkey a swamp donkey because you're tired of hearing the same ole B.S. that you know isn't true.
PLUS, there is also the point at which you can be forgiving and christian-like enough to completely ignore a bothersome psycho, but that can also mean you don't stand up for yourself when you need to put people in their place and let them know they can't treat you like that and get away with it.
ReplyDelete@Kristin, I think like all baggage we carry, after a lifetime of it, it becomes a badge of honor, and we find joy in it. But I think if we try hard enough, we can all think back to a time in our lives when that armor was unknown and unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteI got to a point in my life a few years ago, when I felt like, my quick wit was fueling my depression. I had trained myself to see the worst in everyone and judge them for what I saw.
When I addressed this problem I was able to turn that critical eye on myself, and also cut some habits and anxieties that I realized weren't beneficial or important to my life.
I can only speak for myself when I say the armor was weighing me down. I got to a point where even my loved ones couldn't see through it. If the people I loved the most saw me as mean spirited I worried what kinds of first impressions I was making in life.
I know it sounds hokey, but it made my life better to just let me guard down and experience life without the barriers of witty retorts and sarcastic observations.
What a great revelation! Take off the weight of the world and put on the armor of God. Thanks again for the love my friend. You are an amazingly wise woman and I admire you.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Wise and well written words. Congratulations on your reply to a particular comment. I will reread more than once your post and your own comment. I came here through Cintia's post and may God bless you both forever and ever.
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing blog post. I look forward to reading it in the future. :)
ReplyDeleteWell I find at first that sarcasm and witty retorts can be very effective in promoting a bond with another person. I have had the pleasure of meeting very many people lately that share my sense of humor. Most of it isn't completely sardonic and mean spirited. In fact most of it is me making fun of myself, which is pretty easy lol!
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't like are the fake complimenters. We've all seen them, but I just can't stand someone that goes around pretending to be all happy and sweet so much that you know it has to be fake. And most of the time these people are so smarmy and over-do it so much that its just repulsive. Not so much ned flanders but more like the creepy old man on family guy.