I am often amazed at the number of people that I run across who have allowed someone else or even themselves to make them feel inferior and even worthless. When God created man (woman), He created man (woman) in His image and that is priceless. I will not allow anyone to make me feel less than who God created me to be. You may not think it or even know it, but God has helped me to see that I have worth. You have got to get to the place where you see yourself as God sees you.
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Rev. Knighton Archive
Make time for yourself
Can I make a confession? I am extremely guilty of utilizing my time for other people and their agendas and neglecting time for myself. It is amazing how easy it is to get bogged down with doing things for other people and fail to complete the tasks that are yours to do. Have you ever found yourself doing things for other people while the things that you need to do go undone? That is the story of my life. My newsletter is late this month because I take on tasks for other people while my personal tasks go undone. I must also confess that a small part of that is procrastination.
I think that it is always good to do for others and to help others, but there has to be a balance. You and I can get to a place where we allow our purpose to go unfulfilled when we lose our focus. How can we be effective in what God has called us to do when we are spending so much time doing non-essentials? It is time that you and I revisit our priorities. There has to be a level of balance in our lives so that we don’t neglect self.
Do you know anyone or are you that person who always puts others needs ahead of yourself? Are you one of those people who put your spouse or significant other’s needs ahead of yours? It is so easy to get to that place where you neglect self for others. I found myself taking on tasks for other people that really did not benefit me at all. Think about it for a minute, what are you gaining by neglecting the things that God wants you to do? The answer is very simple, you gain nothing. I have come to the conclusion that I will not continue to spend more time on other people’s agenda at the expense of neglecting my own.
Many of you who are reading this newsletter can agree with me that you would have had that book written; that business open; that college degree; or that new career if you didn’t spend so much time neglecting self. It’s time that you and I get to the place where we make time for ourselves. If we don’t intentionally make time for ourselves, we will lose out on the things that God has for us.
Let me share a few ideas with you that I believe would help you to fully understand what I mean by “make time for yourself”:
- Set aside at least 30 minutes daily solely for you
- Work on your goals and dreams daily
- Pamper yourself at least once a month
- Rid yourself of people that drain the life out of you
- Surround yourself with people who value who you are
- Make time your God regularly.
If you do these things, life will take a turn for you. Whatever you do, make time for yourself.
Rev. Knighton is a member and the administrative pastor of Greater 2nd Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Albany and pastor of St. James Baptist Church in Baconton.
Information should lead to transformation
There are far too many people who want and need change in their lives, but are doing nothing about it. If you and I want change in our lives, there are things that we have to do in order to make change happen. The question for this month is, “What are you willing to do with the information that you already have to change your situation?” Truthfully speaking, information without transformation leads to stagnation.
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Time to make a change
As we approach the spring season, there are some changes that we will see taking place. With springtime comes pollen, bugs, and a fresh and beautiful array of flowers. Spring is always a time where change is always noticeable. It is also in the spring season when the time moves forward and daylight is extended.
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Prepare for the future
It is obvious that we are living in some very crucial times in the history of our country. We are experiencing things in this day and time that I never thought I would see. What I am referring to is things such as high unemployment rates, high gas prices, churches going bankrupt, layoffs in education and budget cuts, lack of motivation among our young people and other like issues. What this is simply proving is that the Word of God is true concerning the last days. I am not trying to predict the end of time; I am simply trying to prepare us for the future.
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Check your surroundings
I want to share with you the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people. Oprah Winfrey had a quote that she used a few years ago that stated, “Surround yourself only with people who are going to lift you higher.” This is something that we must take seriously if we are to become all that God intended.
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Best days are ahead
On May 18, I had the pleasure of turning 50 years old and I can honestly say that I don’t feel like I am 50. With that being said, I feel like my best days are ahead of me.
There are many people who have allowed life to make them feel that their best days are behind them and their worst days are ahead of them. I feel like my best days are ahead of me because of the wisdom that I have attained in these 50 years of living. I am convinced that all of us have made mistakes that have caused us to say, “If I only knew then what I know now.”
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How do you view yourself?
One of the things that I am discovering more and more about people is that they have a poor appraisal of who they are. In other words, their self-esteem is extremely low. I think it is because they have allowed someone else to tell them who they are. I think that it is important for people to get their identity from the One that created them, which is God. When you allow someone else to tell you who you are, you will always have a blurred view of who you really are. It is my goal with this month’s column to help you to really understand who you really are.
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It is what it is
I was listening to a message the other day from my mentor and friend, Pastor Arthur Jackson III from Miami. His message title was Don’t Miss It. This message was about how the Children of Israel missed the opportunity to get to Canaan (the place of more than enough) when God presented it to them. The road to their destiny should have taken them just a few days, but it ended up taking forty years.
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What are you doing with your talent?
I am often amazed at how we so easily bury the gifts and talents that God has given us. When I think about the many people who go to jobs day after day that they can’t stand; how they work in areas that they were not called to; how they allow their jobs to stress them out; how they don’t make enough money for what they do; but most importantly, how they have become so satisfied with that way of living. It makes me wonder if we really know what God has placed inside of us.
If you and I only understood that God placed a part of Himself inside of us so that we can be all that He ordained, we would not become so complacent with where we are. I believe that most people who are struggling to make ends meet and are living from paycheck to paycheck have inside of them what it takes to get out of that rut. The problem is that we have allowed our potential to die inside of us. I preached a message a few years ago titled “Don’t Abort Your Pregnancy.” The gist of the message was simply that God has impregnated us with potential and we can abort it, have a stillborn, or birth our potential. God wants all of us to birth the baby that He has placed inside of us. The sad news is that most people have aborted the potential that God has placed inside of them. Let me ask you a question: What are you doing with your talent?”There are those of you who should be employers but you have settled for being an employee. There are those of you who should have your own business but you are afraid to step out of your comfort zone. There are those of you who should have already finished writing that book or recorded that CD, but you are afraid of success. There are those of you who have gotten so caught up in marriage or a relationship that you have completely forgotten about your own success. All I am simply trying to do is awaken the potential that is already in you. Our biggest problem is that we don’t want to do what it takes to birth what God has placed inside of us.
Let me ask you another question. “What are you waiting on or what are you afraid of?” Everything that you need to make it happen is already inside of you. I am starting to believe more and more that there are people who are afraid of success. That may not sound right to say that people are afraid of success, but there are many people who are.
Let me talk to those of you who are either married or in a relationship. You can spend so much time trying to make someone else’s dream come true until you forget about your own. Think about it for a minute. How much time do you spend nurturing your own baby that God has placed inside of you? If you are always trying to nurture someone else’s baby and forget about your own, it will soon have a detrimental impact. I am also a firm believer that you cannot make someone else happy until you are happy with yourself. My reason for saying this is simple. If you are not happy with your job or where you are in life, there will always be a void inside of you. In other words, God has created you in such a way that there will be a void in your life until you are doing what He has birthed you to do.
I am not saying that you won’t have some lovely days, but you will still feel a void from time to time because He has created you for a purpose. Imagine all of the potential that lies dead and buried in graveyards. There are books that were never written, songs never recorded, businesses that were never opened, doctors and lawyers that never practiced, chefs and bakers that never believed in themselves, among other talents that have been wasted. It would be a shame for those of us who are still here to not take advantage of another opportunity to birth our potential.
This is already November of 2009 and if you are like me you are asking the question, where has this year gone? The truth of the matter is that time waits for no one. You and I are getting older and it makes no sense for us to continue to go to jobs that we don’t enjoy. Take the time to wake up the giant inside of you and get to your destiny. God never designed for us to live our lives having just enough, but He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. The question that I want to raise now is, “Now that you know differently, what are you going to do about it?” You cannot say that you don’t have a talent because God gave all of us at least one. If you don’t know what your talent is the only thing I can suggest to you is to ask God and He will reveal it to you. Don’t allow death to sneak up on you and you have not birthed the potential that God has placed inside of you!
Rev. Knighton is a member and the administrative pastor of Greater 2nd Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Albany and pastor of St. James Baptist Church in Baconton.