Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones...

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. They are just words so they mean nothing. Actions speak louder than words. We are pretty sure that you have heard at least one of these "great" quotes. I know I have because I use to live my life like this to the fullest. I come from a family of very strong, opinionated women. So I truly believed that it shouldn't matter what I said as long as my actions were loving. If that person couldn't get over what I said, I would wonder why my words overruled my good deeds. I thought they were making me out to be someone I wasn't and I was being misunderstood. Not only that, I was the girl that would voice my opinion about pretty much everything. I would tell you what I thought and you had to take it or leave it. My tone was not any better. Let's throw in the rolling of the eyes from time to time. Maybe a huff or a puff if I wanted to be dramatic. Most of the time, I would miss the entire picture because understanding was not a part of my vocabulary. Because of this, I would make people feel less than when they would think differently than me. I didn't even realize that I was doing this, but my condescending tone, contentious behavior, or insulting words spoke otherwise. I want you know no one wants to talk to or share things with a person who thinks they are always right or makes them feel beneath them. It makes people feel like they can't tell you anything and they will eventually decide not to do so.  

Image Courtesy of David Castillo Dominici/freeditigalphotos.net

What made me change? Because God is so crazy faithful and loves us! He loved me long before I made the decision to commit to Him. God used people in my life to show me how immature my love for others really was. It wasn't until after my junior year in college, I realized that I was very selfish. I needed to check my love because mature love speaks kindly regardless of the circumstance. I thought I was being misunderstood by others. I was wrong. People were understanding me very well and I was the one who couldn't communicate. I was careless with my words and I felt like my actions should override it. I was wrong again. My careless words were deflating the spirits of the very people around me and was an indicator of how weak my relationship with God really was. I had to learn that words are like darts. When you throw the darts at the board and remove them, there are holes that will remain there forever. Words are the same because they have an everlasting echo on people, good or bad. Jesus Christ was the very example of how powerful our words really are. When Jesus Christ healed the sick, calmed the storm, and raised the dead; He used words. We are commanded if we confess by word of our mouths and out of our hearts, we are forgiven of our sins (1 John 1:9) We are also commanded if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. (Romans 10:9) Words are sooooo powerful. We have a choice everyday to decide how we are going to use that power. Are we going to give death or life? (Proverbs 18:21) The best thing about being human is that we can change ourselves! We do not have to be enslaved by our experiences of the past. My opinionated, strong women and men we have the capacity to respect others, their choices, and opinions. Here are seven helpful tips, I have developed that has helped me...

Image courtesy of graur razvan ionut/freeditigalphotos.net

Seven Helpful Tips
1.) Accept the fact that you are not loving with your words. I spend so many years not accepting constructive criticism in this area of my life. We have to learn to accept who we are before we change what we do. You can't fix anything if you don't believe it's broken.
2.) Ask God to search your heart and show you anything that is not like Him. Seek Him.
3.) Inquire with someone you trust if you speak in a loving manner. It may not be what you say, but how you say it. (tone, your facial expressions, non-verbal, etc.)
4.) Seek to understand before being understood. This is so key.
5.) Change your way of thinking. Our thoughts become our words and our words become our actions. This is usually shown in more than the words themselves, but the tone and non-verbal. For a man thinketh so is he. Proverbs 23:7
6.) Understand that we will be held accountable for the things we say. Jesus says, "But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgement for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." (Matt 12:36-37)
7.) Remember we have the capacity to choose to love others with our words everyday. Let's choose to give life.

#OldTongueNewCreation

Eph. 4:22-24

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Boyd Sisters' Spring Cleaning

We would like to thank all of our followers for being so committed to the blog. We have received a lot of feedback and questions for God’s work. We just wanted to notify you that the blog is going in a different direction. Whoa, whoa, whoa! There is no need to get your undies in a bunch because we are not going anywhere. :) However, there's some spring cleaning we need to do because of His new direction for the blog. Therefore, some entries will be removed to stay consistent with His vision. ;) We will archive all of them so feel free to email us to request any of the past entries. Thank you again for your support and feel free to email us about any questions or comments about the past or future changes.

The Boyd Sisters
#OldSelvesNewCreations
Eph. 4:22-24 

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Inspirational Mondays - Athaliah Talbot

Athaliah Talbot of Seven Sentences

1. Why did you choose Christ?
I was raised in a traditional Christian home so the building blocks to know and to make the choice again and again were there from the beginning. As an adult I continue to dare to wait, listen, learn and hope in the Christ that we learn about through scripture. Who Christ is can be so easily disfigured and maimed because of religious insecurity and desire to control other's journey. But I honestly believe that Christ has come in compassion with loads of hope and life that we can not begin to imagine -- and he comes for all..not just the good ones! And from that I live and I choose to believe. Not always easy.

2. How did you change? 
I've been on my journey of seeking and listening and hoping for a loooong time! Change has come quickly, it has at times been a slow burn and other times it's been an obvious partnering with God and responding in humility and trust with the result being quite significant. Ultimately I think whatever change I experience, I have to make decisions to embrace them; I am responsible to live out the change.

I am actually quite thankful for an evolving faith. I can think of a past me that was religious and pious, shutting out everyone who did not think or "live out" their faith as I was taught to. I think this is the area of my most significant change... from piousness to being touched by grace and compassion. This has made me vastly open to God's heart for others in all walks of life. I am challenged to discount none and to love others with a love bigger than I could ever manufacture.

Of course there have been other outward changes throughout my journey, and they have been great and measurable but these days I look forward to the quiet changes...the ones that will be my legacy of heart and character.

We hope your were inspired! Enjoy your Monday! Interested in learning more about us? Click here to learn "Why We Change" and click here to read "How We Change".

#OldSelfNewCreation
Eph. 4:22-24

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Inspirational Mondays - Andrew Abbott

Andrew of Old World Leaders

1. Why did you choose Christ?
There are many religions in the world. Ones that see reason as the highest state of all things, and the greatest pinnacle to which we can achieve. There are others, such as various Eastern Religions, which think that logic and reason ought to be stayed as far away from as is humanly possible.

To say that we believe in Christ because the universe had to have had a creator is not necessarily a good arguement. Why could Allah not have done it? The fact that there was a designer does not mean he was your designer. Where are weto which one of the religions best fits the facts? If we have a problem, we would look at the data and then if we found that one theory was right in every particular we might say that, that was a good theory and ought to be followed. If the designer lied one time on one thing then we would have the right to walk away. So we look at the internal and external consistency of the writings, and the fact that over 40 authors who wrote the cannon of scriptures- that they wrote them over the span of hundreds of years - they are totally consistent with one another although they were written in different languages on different continents in different social settings, and in different time periods. Some books were written by learned men, others by fishermen, yet there are no errors. Those are good reasons to believe in Christianity, however, they are not the reasons we must believe in Christianity. We must believe because we are commanded to believe, and no matter what other evidence is brought that by faulty human interpretations seem to disprove the Scriptures, there are times when we have to believe in spite of what the facts seem to say. We must believe because we are without excuse. (Romans 1:20) That is why I believe.

2. How did you change? 
Mainly love. Without Christ there is no love, without him there can be no love. 1st Corinthians says it best. Chapter 12 says: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a thinking cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly seekethnot her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Bearth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophest in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly' but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

We hope your were inspired! Enjoy your Monday! Interested in learning more about us? Click here to learn "Why We Change" and click here to read "How We Change".

#OldSelfNewCreation

Eph. 4:22-24 

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Inspirational Mondays - Melaine McDonald

By Melaine of Cupcakes, Cornithians, & Crafts

1. Why did you choose Christ?
The other option wasn’t as good. I was brought up in a Christian home and went to church from a young age. But when I reached my teenage years I decided to rebel. It wasn’t long before I met a guy. This guy gave me a way out, things at home were not too good with my parents, I was 17 and rebelling, they were sad to see me going down that road. This guy came at the right time, and six months later at the age of 18 I moved in with him. Life wasn’t happy, I was settling and I knew it. We got engaged and shortly after we set a date to be married. I still wasn’t happy. I thought that having someone love me and acting all grown up would make me happy, but he didn’t love me – not truly. One night I was with my mum and it all came out; the emotional bullying, the psychological torture that this guy was putting me through, how he was always angry and had a gambling addiction. I always felt God's hand over my life and a few weeks before sharing all this with my mum I had gone and bought myself a bible. A pink one. But this guy was so anti-God that I had to hide it behind the sofa so he didn’t see. I knew God had been calling me back to Him for years but I had resisted. To scared that I was going to be alone forever; that I could do no better. Then one night the guy and I had an argument when I told him about my hidden bible, although he was being verbally abusive to me I felt Gods peace. The next morning I packed a suitcase and left, I turned up on my parent’s doorstep and asked to move back in four years after I had left. I chose God.

2. How did you change?
For a long time I was never alone, I had lost myself. I had lost my identity. I was told by this guy how I was to wear my hair and what I was to wear, he told me on many occasions that he wouldn’t marry me because I was too fat. My confidence was rock bottom. I knew I didn’t want to stay with my parents forever so I looked and prayed for other options and one came along in the form of an internship with a church 250 miles away. So once again I packed my bags and moved there. I was so scared, but I wasn’t as scared of moving as what I had been of that guy.

God did amazing work within me, He healed me, He healed my confidence, and He took away the eating disorder I was battling. For a long time, I felt like I wasted those four years of my life, but I have learnt so many valuable lessons and now want to share my story to help encourage others. Now three years on from that, I am married to a wonderful Godly man. I am happy in life and I have finally learnt to like myself. I don’t look back apart from to thank God from taking a mess and turning it into my message.

The moral of my story is that no matter how much you try to run from God, hide from God, and try to reject Him – He will never turn His back on you. God will always pursue you and love you. He will wait for you to come back to Him. Just don’t wait too long – for your own sake.

We hope your were inspired! Enjoy your Monday! Interested in learning more about us?? Click here to learn "Why We Change" and click here to read "How We Change".

#OldSelfNewCreation

Eph. 4:22-24

Follow @TheBoydSisters