Trials, frustrations, challenges, problems, and generally crap happens. We came to Earth to have life experiences. Somethings are difficult to learn until you do it yourself. Have you ever tried to explain to someone what salt tastes like?
I love the quote, "We are not human beings having spiritual experiences, we are spiritual beings having human experiences." - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
When KavinCoach first started talking to me about my strengths I was totally confused. I didn't think I had any. I saw myself as a weak person that had crap happen to me. I felt helpless and overwhelmed by my human experiences. He started pointing out that I did have strengths but he didn't tell me what they were. He knew that until I saw the strengths it didn't matter if I had them or not. I needed to see where my strengths were. As I recognized my strengths I started using them more fully. I didn't understand how this would work. KavinCoach challenged me to a game of war with cards. In the game each person has a stack of cards face down. Both people turn over the card and the one with the highest card wins. If the cards match, then there is a war by putting down three cards and turning over the 4th card, which ever card is higher wins. KavinCoach changed one rule, he got to look at his cards before playing them. He easily beat me since he used a slightly higher card each time or put the low cards in the war piles and beat me with a higher 4th card. He knew his strengths and beat me in no time. He explained that knowing my strengths is more important than knowing my weaknesses. He encouraged me to use my strengths to build up where I am weak. Too often I focused on where I was weak, people pleaser, no boundaries, afraid, no self confidence and so many others. When I started working on my strengths I was stunned that I had any. I do, determination, never give up, kindness, and other traits I hadn't recognized as strengths. I even felt kindness was a weakness but KavinCoach pointed out that it takes a strong person to treat others with kindness. I felt bewildered and confused. He suggested to me that my foundation of what was good and what wasn't was total crumbled mess and I needed to start over with a new foundation of what to value and what was of little or no worth. Kind of like remodeling a house from the foundation up and still live in the house. Doing a complete overhaul on yourself takes work, time, and a willingness to change. Not everyone is willing to make such major changes. I still pay attention to the weaknesses in my life but I now recognize that I have strengths to help me compensate for them or to help shore up where my weaknesses are letting me down. I also recognize that like building body muscle it takes many, many repetitions to build muscle. Sitting around doing nothing doesn't change how my body responds.
We all start small and then grow. Challenges help to strengthen us, sometimes in ways we don't recognize or understand.
5 comments:
Great post, Ruth. I struggle to recognize my strengths too. This gives me a lot to think about.
"Too often I focused on where I was weak..." Yep. We were *well trained* in our perceived "faults" and "failings" by the groan-ups around us who had the introspective and empathetic abilities of a gnat-on a "good" day. (Do gnats even have those days?! I dunno!)
Sometimes, simply surviving takes more Courage and sheer Tenacity than you think you have: You've been told you "lack" over and over again. The NPs engage in intense brain-washing. (<I'm absolutely serious when I say this-I lived my own version of this too.)
It doesn't matter how many times you get hit: What matters is how many times you Stand Up Yet Again. That's an act of Courage, of blind belief/faith in the face of unremitting conditioning, a tape looping endlessly installed years ago by people with their own Agenda. That Agenda did not bode well for us. It tried to destroy our spirit relentlessly but we didn't know it then. How could we? We were all Little Ones once.
We didn't have a clue there's even an "Eject" button for those tapes. Sometimes when we find it, we're afraid to push it, imagining we'll set off an IED-that's what we were told over and over again, "You CAN'T, you LACK:" So if *this* isn't true about me, the world etc., then what is?
KavinCoach assessed the Foundation. He "saw" what you didn't-then. How did that Foundation even evolve?
You created it, Ruth. Somewhere, somehow in the midst of all that crazy, painful chaos, you were able to start construction on a genuine Ruth Truth House. It was a fine beginning. Then you continued to make that house a HOME with Kavin's assistance. Nonetheless, YOU did the work. Remember, YOU started the construction on that home and you did it with flotsam and debris, you did it without blueprints, an "architect" and horror of horrors, without ANY "Permits!" ;)
Like any Home, it's gonna require up-keep and periodic improvements/updating. It's always gonna be YOUR Home, Ruth. It's built on and by your own Strengths, informed by your own Truth.
You can live in it, look around and say with well-deserved and earned pride,
"This is MY Home."
And better yet? YOU get to decide who and what gains access. You've had the Courage to hit the "Eject" button numerous times. IMO, that's why you're here today.
Courage, Faith and Tenacity prevail in the Home of Truth Ruth built. You can have all the skilled "help" available but in the end, you're the one that provided the materials and you're the one pounding the nails *with* them ;)
You've built your Home on your Rock of Truth.
TW
Thanks TW. I hadn't thought of my struggle this way. Thank you for seeing and sharing.
When faced with a challenge, i remind myself that "Baby steps are better than no steps at all."
Thanks Jessie. Cheering for you.
I agree mulderfan. Amazing how far I can go one baby step at a time.
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