ACE #396: What They Said

The problem with having a good memory is...you rarely forget things.  I have memories as far back to when I was very young, maybe around three - some of them good and some of them bad.  That's why when people say the term, "forgive and forget" it holds very little meaning to me.  Honestly, I struggle with forgiving people because I rarely forget what they did to me or what they said about me.

I remember when I was younger and people would say that I would never amount to anything because I was rebellious and running the streets.  And to be very honest, I wasn't really doing anything any different than most of the teenagers my age.  As a matter of fact, I was actually doing something a little different than most - I was playing piano at my church every Sunday morning.  It didn't matter what time I got in the house, late at night or in the wee hours, I never failed to show up at church every Sunday morning and assume my position on the piano at 11:00 a.m.  I never missed a Sunday. When I would hear about "grown ups" speaking negatively about me, it was hurtful. After all, I was still a child. It hurt when strangers did it.  But it hurt most when family members did it.  But WHAT THEY SAID never impacted my destiny, or what I would eventually know God purposed for my life.  

When I got of age (20-years-old to be exact), I rebuked the people that spoke negativity over my life.  I was respectful about it, but I meant it when I said, "The devil is a lie.  I have graduated with honors and have a full scholarship! Most of all I still honor God every Sunday by using my gifts. God is still working on me. Let Him work on you."  That is one of the reasons I rarely say anything about someone else's child...because I knew what was said about me.  People will usually rise or fall to other people's expectations. Now, I am teaching and preaching the uncompromised Gospel of Jesus Christ and serving as an educator and advocate for students. 

People can say whatever they want about you.  People can even think whatever they want about you.  It doesn't make any of it true. Be determined, with a made up mind, that WHAT THEY SAID does not matter. You can ignore it. Or you can address it. But you have to pray and keep it moving.  God always has the final say concerning His children! (And He will send someone to speak life over you).  God's Word stands...

Nevermind "what they said."

Take a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaz5J7I0r7Y

Jeremiah 29:11-14 

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Proverbs 16:9 

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Ephesians 2:10 

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Matthew 6:25-34 

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ...

Proverbs 19:21 

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.