What Are Your Motives?

What are your motives for doing things for others?  Is it so you get the credit, or is to to serve, not expecting anything in return?  

We all have a choice on whether we take all the glory for ourselves, or are humble and give God the glory.  We have a choice on whether we like to point out how great we are, and what we do, or if we serve others quietly, and let God be the center of our serving.  

Improve Your Life By Identifying Your Core Values

Do you know what your core values in life are?  Do you live by those values?  Are your decisions guided by those values?  Do your relationships reflect those values?

Core values help us to know what is important in life, what drives us.  If our actions do not line up with our value system, we can experience stress, lack of focus, confusion, and miss out on our purpose in life. 

Have you identified your top core values?  You can't live by your core values if you have not identified them.  Start by identifying your top 10 values.  Write that list down, then set it aside for a couple days.  Pay close attention over a week time frame as to what really is important to you.  Revisit your list and see if the top 10 values you chose are truly your how you live your life.  If your list needs a realignment, then make it.  Once you do that, then narrow it down to your top 5.  These should be the things that shape your decisions and how you live your life.  

One question you can ask yourself to focus on if you are aligned with your values is this: Do my actions, my schedule, and where my money is spent reflect the values I say are most important to me?

Here is a list to begin with.  There are many other values that could be added to this, but this is a start:

Appreciation   Accountability   Artistic    Authenticity    Accomplishment   Achievement   Adventure  Belonging   Beauty   Building    Being in Control   Bold    Caution   Career    Changing the World    Compassion   Creativity    Calm   Community   Creation  Competence   Collaboration    Communicating     Competitive   Consistency    Cherish  Cleanliness   Considerate   Confident   Challenge  Cheerful   Clear-minded    Diversity    Diligence    Dedication    Devotion   Determined   Dynamic   Excitement   Education   Efficiency    Encouragement     Excellence   Ethical   Enjoyment  Enthusiasm  Explore  Expertise    Family      Faithfulness   Fun    Freedom    Forgiveness      Faith    Financial    Forward Thinking     Frugal       Fulfillment      Fair    Fitness   Flexible   Gentleness   Gain   Giving   Genuineness    Goodness   Growth    God   Generous   Gracious   Honesty    Hard Working    Humility     Humor    Health   Happy    Help     Integrity    Impact Others   Influence   Inspiring   Independent   Intelligence   Joy   Kindness   Love     Loyal    Love of Learning   Life   Leadership   Marriage      Mentoring    Make a Difference  Nurturing      Obedience     Orderliness     Optimistic   Patience    Peace   Perfection    Performance-Driven    Persistence   Power     Physical     Productive    Purity   Passionate     Positive    Quality   Quiet    Respect    Risk Taking       Relationships    Recognition   Relaxation   Respect for Others     Resourceful   Security      Self-esteem      Self-expression   Sensitivity    Servanthood     Service     Silence   Sincere    Solitude     Self-control   Spiritual    Stability     Success    Safety    Serenity  Simplicity  Spontaneous   Structure   Support     Strength   Temperance         Tolerance     Tranquility   Trust     Truth      Trustworthy   Timely     Thoughtful    Teamwork    Uniqueness    Useful     Vitality    Vision  Winning     Worship      Wisdom 

Ask this as you work to narrow the list to five....do I appreciate this value?  Does this value truly reflect my character?  Do I enjoy this more than other things?  

Once you identify your top 5 values, what are some key action steps you can take to make very clear boundaries around your values?   How will those boundaries impact the life you live and how you treat others?  

Gifts of Today

Today 
       find 
           3 gifts small

Replacement Plan

Let it go, and let God replace what stops you and brings you down, to a life of faith, purpose, and endless opportunities.  

Who Are You?

If you had to define who you are in 3 words, what would those words be?  Be honest.

What did those words include, your character traits, your perceived worth or identity?  Where do you find your worth, your identity?  Do you find it in your kids, job, spouse, your friends, your things, your weight, your looks? Maybe you find it in where you live, what brand of clothing you are wearing, or what vehicle you drive. 

Do you find that you compare yourself to others?  Do you strive to be perfect?  Do you think you have to keep up with what others perceive as perfection to have a positive identity in yourself?  Are you always striving for more stuff, for a  thinner, younger you?  What is the message about who you are that you send to yourself?  To others?  

Watch this video and see if you can relate to it in any way.  
     

Do you chase the lie of perfection, the lie that you should always be more?  Doubts and lies the world tells us about who we should be and how we should look, make us chase the wrong things and cause us to never be content with who we are.  It's easy to try to find our identity in things, in others, in our social status, but until we can accept ourselves for who we are, until we can put our full identity in being a child of God, we will never be satisfied and will continue to run a race that cannot be won.  We will always want more, want to look different, never be satisfied, but if we plant our identity in being a child of God, we don't have to keep chasing what will never satisfy. When we know we are His child, that is more than enough.