Being for the Benefit of Mrs. Phillips-Schneider

"People are often unreasonable and self-centered

forgive them anyway..."

How do you 'forgive'? It's something I struggle with often. Sometimes it doesn't make any sense..." You're saying I've got to forgive _____? Even if they're not sorry? Even if they're never sorry? Even if they never know (or care) how badly they've hurt me? Even if they keep doing _______ over and over?" Ka-razy. Every once in a while I'll think that it's just not fair that I've got to walk around wounded and they're just dandy. Sometimes I just want to have the chance to yell "Do you know what you did?? I can't trust because of you! I can't _____ because of you! How dare you!"

Thank goodness I know better (now, heh). Praise God that there is a purpose for my pain. Think about Joseph! How much more did he suffer at the hands of his own brothers? And they didn't care.... they threw him in a pit...and went and had something to eat. God knew. And He wouldn't have let it happen to Joseph if He hadn't seen a higher purpose. Take comfort. HE KNOWS.

"...If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives,

be kind anyway..."

How hard is it to be kind in any circumstance? Very. Kindness...hmm. It pains me to think of how many times I've ruined my testimony by being unkind. Some people are just so easy to be rude to. Anymore, those people make me want to show them Jesus.

"...If you are honest, people may cheat you

be honest anyway..."

Dishonesty doesn't have to be ginormous. It can be itty bitty. How many baby lies do I tell every day? Half-truths? Someone from my church once put it this way, "Every time I think 'oh, that's just an innocent little white lie, didn't hurt anyone.' I've got to remember, Christ DIED for that little white lie. That teeny sin was big enough to need forgiveness for and Christ took MY punnishment. He died for that one little sin."

"...If you find happiness, people may be jealous

be happy anyway..."

Rejoice in the Lord for He is good!!! How many blessings do we get every day? We don't even deserve them! Ha!

I've been so blessed in my life. I can't tell you how thankful I am. For instance, my job! I've never been so happy with a job in my life. I love what I do and I really love who I work with. I'll talk your ear off about how amazing my coworkers are. Trust me. It's so neat to see Gods hand at work every day. Breathtaking.

"...The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow,

do good anyway..."

I'll be honest; here's a story from my own life:

I do a TON of extra things for one of my coworkers. Love her to death, but I don't get any "thank you's". Just "could you do such-and-such now?" or "thats great, but you need to do ________ as well". These are just little projects. Nothing that I'm required to do, I just do them out of the 'goodness of my heart' haha...right? Sometimes I'd like some recognition, I'll be honest. But I've got to humble myself. Basically, what I'm doing for said coworker, could be considered "gifts". What is a gift? Something you give and don't expect anything in return.

I need to be better about not thinking I 'deserve' something out of it.

Thats the whole point of doing good. If we expect something in return, that's all 'earthly goods'. My reward is in heaven. (I'm definately not saying I'm some awesome person who is amazing and does amazing things, blah blah. In reality, I need to do MORE.)

"...Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough,

give your best anyway..."

See above.

I always want to be striving to do better in all areas of my life. Assistance through prayer would be helpful :).

Now...here's the bottom line:

"...For you see in the end, it is between you and God

it was never between you and them anyway."

-Mother Teresa

I have a picture frame with that quote in it. My mom bought it for me. I don't even think she realized how much it meant to me. The first part jumped out and bit me. I hope maybe it helped someone else like it did for me.

Another thing I like to remember is something I read in "Get Out of That Pit" by Beth Moore; Whenever I think, "Why did I have to go through all of the things I went through??? Why couldn't my life have been more simple, less painful?"

"You're a much neater person healed that you would have been perfect."- Beth Moore

(I may have changed wording a bit, I don't have the book at the moment, but the idea is the same.)

Anyways, Thanks for reading.

Love,

Lauren