Talk is cheap...Results are priceless

The other night I was in bed, oddly remembering a scene from my past life. No, not like a different lifetime ago...don’t wig out, from a few years back. YES...that was a different life, I assure you!  

Anyway...back to the scene. I was TRYING to go to sleep and the past life husband was there with his handy dandy notebook (yup, I just made a Blue’s Clues reference) brainstorming…LOUDLY… about a blog he wanted to start for the money pit, I mean race team he and his brother had. So, there I was…half asleep, spouting off half-witted blog titles for him, trying to ignore the ones he was bringing to the table when out spouted something so profound that I actually woke myself from my uncommitted slumber. Don’t ask why I was remembering this...who knows why we think some of the things we think??? The mind is a strange creature. 

Now...for those perceptive few of you reading this (which would be approximately all of you since there are most likely only a FEW) you may have figured out my sleep induced epiphany by now. Yep…it’s the title of today’s blog.

Talk is cheap…results are priceless.

I need to truly take my own advice on this one and stop running my mouth and get serious about my, thus far, half a** efforts to make my dreams a reality.  This is supposed to be a commitment to myself. I don’t know why I continue to sabotage my efforts or let those around me sabotage them unknowingly. I mean...I didn’t used to be such a slacker. 

So....it’s time to put my money (what little I have of it) where my mouth is. Talk is cheap. I need to start seeing some results....after all...I said so myself...they are PRICELESS!!!

Thoughts for the day:

Why doesn't onomatopoeia sound like what it is?

If the #2 pencil is so popular, why is it still #2?

What NOT to do

Ok...this blog is a little different than what I typically have been throwing at you. It’s about friendship. It’s about being there for someone when they need you.

I've been writing about friendship. And I have friends. And something sparked this thought this week, so here goes. 

Ask yourself this....

Have you ever had a friend in crisis?  Didn’t really know how to react, what to say or do for them? I’d bet we’ve all been there and could really use some pointers on what to do in those situations. Unfortunately, I don’t have any straight forward answers, but I do have some insight into what NOT to do and how to learn from that. 

These “what not to do” moments of clarity have come from personal experiences and can also be found abundantly in a rather popular NY Times bestselling book a lot of people like to call The Bible.  More specifically the Book of Job. (pronounced "Jobe" , rhyming with globe or robe

Ok, here’s the scenario (which can be found in Chapters 1 and 2 of Job in case you'd like to see if for yourself). There’s this guy named....well...Job. Job lost everything: his children, livestock, even his health. So, Job has these friends. These “friends” decide they are going to give him some advice, try to cheer him up, you know…a little friendly intervention. Now, I’m guessing in their minds these friends had good intentions and all, but boy were they hitting the head of that nail just a bit left of center. Without a doubt, these friends had a questionable view of friendship, and I’m not even going to mention their excruciating lack of tactfulness…ok, maybe I am. They really needed a little sensitivity training.

So, these friends are “cheering” him up, but they made a couple of mistakes in their attempt to do so. Their first mistake was one we all make at times. They assumed they could relate to Job’s losses. AS IF! I mean, this guy just lost EVERYTHING. Not just his home, not just his ten children at once, not just a part of his health... ALL OF THESE THINGS…EVERYTHING! And these friends acted as if they understood. 

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t know how Job felt. I wouldn’t even be able to begin to imagine how it would feel to lose everything.

On top of that, they made light of his pain. Seriously?!?! These friends tell Job that if he would just repent to God then maybe he would be vindicated. Wow. Really??? So, essentially they were just telling Job that they KNEW he had to have done SOMETHING to bring this upon himself. What kind of friends were these people?  They may as well have just said “Job, stop lying. You know you screwed up, just admit it so God will forgive you already.” 

Is this something you’d want YOUR friends to say to you? Yeah, me neither. If I had been Job, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t consider any of them a friend after all that. 

Which brings me to the phrase: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” 

I would dare say they are words to live by. In my house, they are words to live by (I find myself sounding like a broken record repeating them to my kids sometimes). In my Mom’s house, they were words to live by. And if I were a betting gal, I’d be willing to bet they are words to live by in homes the world over. That many moms can’t possibly be wrong, can they?  (Kids...you aren’t allowed to answer that until you have your own children.)

I guess the point I'm getting to is this…as friends we will never be perfect. After all, we ARE human. However, we CAN treat our friends the way we would want them to treat us in a similar situation. With love, compassion, understanding and a strong dose of sensitivity. Probably a little humor and sarcasm if you're my friends. 

There will be times when we're faced with a friend who is suffering, a friend who is hurting, a friend who has lost something or someone and maybe we can’t truly relate. Maybe we can’t know how they really feel…but we can be there for them. We can pray for them and with them. We can show them the kind of love that God shows us when we need comfort and understanding. Take a lesson from Job’s friends (a what NOT to do lesson, that is) and do for that friend what you would want a friend to do for you. Making the world a better place really only starts with one small act of kindness.

Thought for the day:

True friends develop a private language that outsiders find utterly baffling. You can communicate everything from extreme boredom to a desire to escape a social situation using nothing but a micro-expression, a slight eyebrow twitch, or making weird eye contact from across a room.