40 Day Fast and Focus # 4 LET GO! GOODBYE IS A NECESSARY LIFE SKILL

Goodbye is a necessary life skill few possess. 

Many of us drag yesterday into our today, and will bring today into our tomorrow. We laughingly call that baggage, but the truth is we have no intention of unpacking, processing and letting go of people, places and things regardless of if they were good or bad to us. We refuse to take compliments as a congratulatory formality and we let criticism(s) take away our power. Today I want to encourage you in two ways; to let go, forgive and move past that/those that hurt you and to release/maintain freedom to grow past that which helped you. No longer let compliments go to your head nor let criticisms go to your heart. I want to introduce these truths and hopefully this last day of 2015 you will accept you are able to walk in freedom and deliverance from the past-good or bad.

Application: HOW TO SAY GOODBYE

1. Process pain and focus on your own crazy.  Processing pain requires you don't stuff or deny what happened. Quit looking for closure and an apology that may never come. Close your own doors. Stop knocking on doors God closed. Tell yourself the truth. Remove fantasy and fabrications about someone or something. Call it what it is/was and let the pain be stark so you recognize it and then finally release it. You may need counseling to do this. Get it. You're crazy not to get counseling, not because you do, and truth is we're all crazy in our own way! As someone who coaches I can tell you it's very difficult to get someone to see their own crazy because they're too focused on the crazy of someone else.  Life hurts. Let go of it.

2. Press past yesterday or even today's success. Don't live in the past, or rest on laurels. Many of us are so stuck in the "good old days" and the "good old ways" we cannot and do not move forward due to clutching onto what worked then or felt good back then. We so want to plagiarize and replicate what was good to or for us we attempt to make things happen just like they did back then. We rinse and repeat yesterdays goals, objectives and tasks hoping for the same success. Our hands are so full of yesterday we can't receive today. Beloved, God is a creator and a designer, not a replicator! God has new manna, fresh water and new beginnings for you if you stop hanging around yesterday and wishing for what was. Leave that back there. Resolutely and intentionally turn to today and take no thought of yesterday like this scripture tells us to: Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 

Beloved, I am praying with and for you.

Please feel free to forward CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr to friends and colleagues, but please forward in its entirety. CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr is written and distributed by Arete1 International. No portion of this publication may be copied or reproduced without the expressed written consent of Cheryl L. Carr. Copyright 2015 Cheryl Carr and ARETE1 International. 2015 rightwordsbycheryl©

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40 Day Fast and Focus # 3 CUT YOUR WORDS IN HALF

Would you be wise and in control of your whole body? Control your tongue.  

We are told in the scriptures (James 3:2) that "Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way." If you want to change your life for the better immediately begin with learning to shut up or speak up appropriately.

Application: How to Tame your Tongue
1. Cut your words in half. Take a three second pause before you say one word. Cutting your words by 50% will reduce your sins of speech by 90%!  I have learned that words and sin are not an arithmetic, but a geometric, relationship. Any words added beyond necessary speech contain verbal sin(s) that increase rapidly the more and longer we talk (Eccl 10:13). 

2. Say what you need to say. If you happen to be a person who hardly ever speaks, this proverb does not apply. Perhaps your need is to use your words in order to be gracious. Saying what needs to be said brings value to others and not saying right words at the right time produces a regular source of disappointment and frustration to others. Speak up but speak up wisely and succinctly.

Resources to help tame your tongue:
1. http://www.amazon.com/Days-Taming-Your-Tongue-Relationships/dp/0736915605
2. http://www.amazon.com/Me-My-Big-Mouth-Answer-ebook/dp/B001J2UVOI
3. http://www.theblessedlife.com/series/products/power-your-words-book

Beloved, I'm praying with and for you.

Please feel free to forward CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr to friends and colleagues, but please forward in its entirety. CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr is written and distributed by Arete1 International. No portion of this publication may be copied or reproduced without the expressed written consent of Cheryl L. Carr. Copyright 2015 Cheryl Carr and ARETE1 International. 2015 rightwordsbycheryl©

Follow me on LinkedIn :www.linkedin.com/in/cherylcarr2014; Facebook : Cheryl Carr and Arete1; Twitter: iamdrcherylcarr and Arete1Int; Instagram-iamcherylcarr.

40 Day Fast and Focus # 2 THINK BEST NOT BETTER

What do you believe “thinking” to be?  Think about that. What is thinking?

Having carefully researched thinking as a term and activity of the brain I submit to you that I have learned thinking is inner speech. How we talk to ourselves inside about what it is we see, hear, and feel is what thinking really is. We talk deep within ourselves when we think, and more importantly GOD SEES EVERY SINGLE ONE OF OUR THOUGHTS. How we think, our inner speech is so very important to the quality of our lives and yet it something we place on autopilot. Rarely do we examine how we think, and even less of the time do we bother to correct incorrect, flawed thinking. Take some time today to examine your thinking/inner speech. I guarantee you whatever good or bad is going on IN you will come OUT of you. If you want to finish 2015 strong and if you want to have a ridiculously amazing 2016 begin with making sure you’re only and always thinking Philippians 4:8-And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Application: How to Think BEST or correct poor inner speech

1.       Spend time thinking about how you think, the language and words you tell yourself in your mind.

2.       Use the list in Philippians 4:8 to compare your actual thoughts against (true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise). If it isn’t, you must learn to stop thinking against that list.

3.       STOP (cease all motion) any thoughts that aren’t the best way to think... take any thought against Phil. 4:8 captive (2 Corinthians 10:5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ).

4.       Accept: You get to tell your mind how to think and what language words you will use. It is a privilege and a blessing to think and God requires us to use our righteous minds well.

5.       Practice doing this daily. I have learned when any thoughts against Phil. 4:8 start in my mind I apply this process 7 times and at times ALL day long. I even sometimes SPEAK out loud to that thought...”Thought, you’re not true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or worthy of praise.” I then speak only what is. Amazingly my thoughts correct and become BEST.

Beloved, I am praying with and for you.

Please feel free to forward CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr to friends and colleagues, but please forward in its entirety. CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr is written and distributed by Arete1 International. No portion of this publication may be copied or reproduced without the expressed written consent of Cheryl L. Carr. Copyright 2015 Cheryl Carr and ARETE1 International. 2015 rightwordsbycheryl©

Follow me on LinkedIn :www.linkedin.com/in/cherylcarr2014; Facebook : Cheryl Carr and Arete1; Twitter: iamdrcherylcarr and Arete1Int; Instagram-iamcherylcarr.

40 Day Fast and Focus #1: GET RID OF I CAN'T

My Dad always said can't is a word for the weak. Whenever I feel I can't believe/do/change something here is what Iearned to do to change that thinking. 

1. Take a deep breath, adjust my thinking and tell myself the truth. OK, so things are a mess and I am surrounded by obstacles, but what can I do right now? What do I have control over?
2. If I rearranged my plan and focused on the things I can do now, would some of those obstacles go away, or at least lessen, over time?
3. Face the impossible with what's possible. Do what I can do right now, right there no matter how hard it may be.

Try this today in all areas of I can't. While it's not helpful to be Pollyanna about life's problems, trying a little attitude adjustment can go a long way and maybe turn some of your "I can'ts" into "I cans."

Scripture Focus: Mark 11:23
"Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.

Beloved, I am praying with and for you.

‪#‎ican‬ ‪#‎believe‬ ‪#‎thinkright‬ ‪#‎nothingisimpossible‬ ‪#‎drcarr‬

Please feel free to forward CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr to friends and colleagues, but please forward in its entirety. CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr is written and distributed by Arete1 International. No portion of this publication may be copied or reproduced without the expressed written consent of Cheryl L. Carr. Copyright 2015 Cheryl Carr and ARETE1 International. 2015 rightwordsbycheryl© 

Follow me on LinkedIn :www.linkedin.com/in/cherylcarr2014; Facebook : Cheryl Carr and Arete1; Twitter: iamdrcherylcarr and Arete1Int; Instagram-iamcherylcarr.