Repost: Mistake to Catastrophe

Mar 5, 2014 by Jim and Jerolyn Bogear

Still on vacation. Hopefully you enjoy this repost from January of 2013. We’ll be back live next week with “Passionate Intimacy.”

Last fall the news reported that a utility worker had punctured a gas line. It was not a huge puncture – just a small hole. But that small hole resulted in destroying 31 buildings and injuring 18 people. One small mistake and one small hole.

Too often our little inattentive mess-ups result in making small holes in our family. We can easily become lazy in our communication with one another. Maybe we are stressed or feeling down and our selfishness flares. Often we can lose sight of our priority of family and take them for granted.

Now maybe one little misstep will not destroy our spouse or our child, but when they are all added up, they can cause a catastrophe. We can become known by those errors rather than by the good we do. We never want the negative reactions or words to be what our family expects to come from us.

We can’t avoid all those little wrongs from happening, but we can take proactive steps to keep them from happening very often and causing our family to walk on eggshells around us.

1. Remain grounded spiritually. Time alone with the Lord on a consistent basis is a must to keep focused on what is really important. We are not on this earth for very long – it is not our final home. So as spiritual beings, we must nurture our spirit to remain healthy.
2. Know yourself. If you are one who is stressed out when you are overwhelmed, then remove some things from your schedule. If you need sleep to stay positive, go to bed earlier. Maybe you need exercise or need to eat healthier. How do you remain the most positive you? Create those atmospheres around you.
3. Know your family members and meet their needs. Hopefully, you will have that spouse of yours for a very long time. Avoid alienating them by learning to meet their needs. When you do, in most cases they will respond in kind. With your children – it may seem like they are going to be home forever (and some are), but mostly you have a precious limited amount of time to disciple, teach, and love on those kids while they are under your care. Don’t squander that time. Cherish it and do all you can to be the best mom or dad you can be.
4. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Time is short and relationships are valuable. Keep a healthy perspective on what is important and what really doesn’t matter. Focus on the important.
5. Leave a legacy. If we live each day with the end in mind, we will make wiser choices – even in the little day-to-day events. What do you want people to say about you when you are gone. Last week, Jim and I lost a dear, sweet friend to cancer. All I can think of are good things about him and how much he will be missed. That is how I want to be remembered when I am gone – as someone whose life meant so much that they are missed.

Don’t let little things blow up your marriage or your family. Live on purpose to leave a legacy each and every day.

How will you leave a legacy today?

~Jerolyn