Posts Tagged ‘jenna lucado bishop’

I am SO stuck on in the land of “me.”

Really!

If I could journal all my thoughts in a 24 hour period (Okay, minus 8 of those hours when I’m sleeping. Yes. I have to get 8 hours or else I’m a monster), I think I would be shockingly appalled at how selfish my thoughts are.

They would probably look something like this:

Oh man, I don’t want to get up right now.
I have to make coffee.
What am I going to eat for breakfast?
I better spend some time with God so that I feel better about my day.
Shoot, I need to read through so many of my emails.
How am I going to get all this work done today?
I wonder if she is going to call me about our lunch date?

Okay, you get the hint. That was probably really boring for you to read. But now I have an activity for you. Count how many personal pronouns were just in that hypothetical journal entry of thoughts. (Personal pronouns take the place of people or things. I, he, we, they, me… If you didn’t know that, don’t feel bad, but please spank your hand for me… gently… of course And start paying attention in English class missy!)

What were your results?
I counted 9 (not including the possessive pronouns like “my,” but seriously, enough with the grammar lesson. You get the point.) And trust me, those just scratch the surface of how many ME, MYSELF and I thoughts I have during the day.

So what if we made a little mental shift?
What if we tried to pair each thought that revolved around us with a thought that revolved around someone else? How would that change our perspective?

Well, I tried doing that a couple of weeks ago.

You see, three weeks ago, this infection the size of a small shrub started growing on my forehead. Check it out:

There I was sitting in the Denver, Colorado airport on my way home from Revolve. Do I look happy or what? I know this picture is dark, but maybe you’ll be able to see a little difference in my face size when you look at this picture:

I was so stuck on my pain, my appearance, my embarrassment (after all, I’m speaking to all these girls and meeting them with a face twice its normal size!), my bad luck … ME, ME, ME! I was throwing the greatest mental pity party. You are so glad you weren’t invited. Thankfully, in the middle of my party, God interrupted with an unexpected guest.

Rebecca.

God brought Rebecca into this mental pity party, and all of a sudden, the party (which wasn’t a party at all) ended abruptly.

Rebecca is 8-years-old and has spent the last 10 months in and out of the hospital with a disease called Pancreatitis. (Feel free to Google it if you want details.) She has been on a feeding tube for the majority of those 10 months, experiencing severe pain and multiple surgeries.

Remember when you were 8-years-old? What were your concerns?

My concerns surrounded which #2 pencil color I was going to bring to school or whether I was going to swing, jump rope or play tag during recess.

My concerns were not about my health, pain, scary surgeries, hospital smell, death…

But sweet Rebecca faces her pain with a big girl smile. Check our her sweet video:

After I watched her video, my thoughts were less about me and more about her. I asked God to give me a greater perspective as I was fighting my infection, keeping all the Rebecca’s around the world in mind anytime I started getting stuck in Me Land.

When we put others before ourselves, our hearts change. They become more thankful, more caring, more loving, more joyful, more… like Jesus.

So here is my challenge for you Revolve girls:

• Let’s change our “I” or “Me” thoughts to “him” or “her” thoughts.
• Let’s get out of “my” world and into “her” world.

In fact, I have a really cool invitation to help you with this new challenge.

On May 7, I am going to be a part of this cool event called an Outlive Your Life Simulcast. That means that my dad will be sharing from his new book Outlive Your Life—a book all about how to get out of our selfish lives and into the lives of others. And guess what? I’ll be there too! Can you believe they are going to let me be a part of it? I can’t. But I’ll be sharing some thoughts, and I want you to hang out with us. So here is the link to find out more info: www.incastevents.com

Check it out. And then decide, “Is there an Outlive Your Life event close to me? Should I bring friends? Or should I just throw a big party at my house where we watch it live online, just from my computer, eat popcorn and then talk about how to change the world?”

This is a PERFECT opportunity to take on the challenge of getting out of “I” world. So will you think about the Outlive Your Life event?

Will you pray for Rebecca?

And will you take on the challenge?

I want the world to know that Revolve girls are here to make a difference!