If I could only define my life in the smallest segment of words possible, what words would I use? What does your life represent to you? To others? Is it that whole brick of cheese? Or can you judge it by a single slice from the big loaf?
I was reading a post by a stranger this morning, just someone I follow on LinkedIn. He always has positive thoughts projected to the business world. He described the power of words with this thought:
Be impeccable with your word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean.
Avoid the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others.
Use the power of your word in the directions of truth and love.
~Strati Georgopoulos
Use Your Brain Power
So much of our life is measured not in large chunks, but in brief slices of times as quick as a second, even microseconds. Micro-moments. Put them together and you make up your day, your year, your lifetime. Small sets of words create pages, chapters, and books, but most of what we should be describing are the summaries. Life may be well represented by your accomplishments others will speak about at your memorial service, but the life you live is found in brief slices of time.
Micro-moments!
Have you laughed so hard till you cried? Micro-moment! Have you been joyful and then in one brief instance you experience petrifying fear when someone scares you? Micro-moment. Exhilarating experiences and sheer terror at the same time? Micro-moment! Sound asleep and then breathlessly awake with a scary dream? Micro-moment.
Life is made up of these micro-moments.
Ups and downs. Joy and sadness. Fear and relief.
Often just seconds apart!
It’s like slicing cheese from a brick – one slice comes out perfect, and the next one fails miserably…
Along the path of our life, there are many micro-moments that we are in complete control of. You know. How we respond to the challenges we face daily, and how we live our life based on similar challenges we face for a generation. We have the ability to control our response to these moments.
Still, there are surprises along the way. For some reason, I’m thinking of our responses to the Hurricanes (Harvey and Irma) that is so fresh in our minds. We learn how to respond to each “surprise, surprise, surprise” based on how we handle all the surprises leading up to this moment. Respond poorly, and that’s okay, but did you learn for the next time how not to do it again?
Here’s My Thought Today
It makes me think for a moment… Can you dissect the very smallest moment of your life and whittle down to size the fears, anger, doubts, and confusion? When these things are at their smallest size you feel the power to overcome them much more easily.
This is why we should learn to manage the micro-moments!
They are composites of the big-ticket items we struggle with. We look at the biggest challenges as something we cannot overcome or conquer. However, take them on in the smallest of sizes, then they are more easily conquered, one habit at a time! Criticisms. Hurts. Angst. Sorrows. Sadness. Anger. Emotions that can hurt and destroy us unless we learn to manage them.
It is easier to overcome the negatives of life when they are whittled down to manageable sizes... Click To TweetIn the middle of all of this heavy thinking, I kept pondering – there must be a better way to consider the whole by the slivers of life we live. Maybe this will help.
How man slams an old screen door?
Depends how loud you shut it.
How many slices in a loaf of bread?
Depends how thin you cut it.
How much good inside a day?
Depends how good you live ’em.
How much love inside of friends?
Depends how much you give ’em.
~Shel Selverstein
It’s Often About Control
If we are in control of our responses to the micro-moments, then the job is well on the way to being a success! Learning to control is a big part of who we are. To ourselves, others, and even to the complete story of our life.
When I consider the characters I study and read in the Bible, an autobiography, or even in a good novel, I often gloss over the micro-moments of the negatives and focus on the positives.
It’s simply the way I’m built.
Somewhere in my past, I learned that positives far outweigh the negatives. If I start down the path of focusing on the negatives, then my entire life will paint a negative picture. If positive? Well, that’s my goal! That’s the way I want to continue living my life.
The Apostle Paul teaches being control as contained in his famous list called, “The Fruit of the Spirit”.
But the fruit of the Spirit is…
…love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
against such there is no law.
(Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV – Emphasis mine)
What’s the purpose of fruit? Deep subject, but essentially we enjoy it as an edible, but it’s also simply a seed-growing-zone. Taken an apple, let it fall to the ground and the pulp will be the nesting ground for the seeds in the middle to grow on their own to become another apple tree. Reproduction!
Self-control is the last one. I’m puzzled by this, then I realize what’s first. Love. That’s the seed of everything good!
Sum It Up
Thinking it through makes me see the reality of the slices of life I’ve called micro-moments. It’s all about the “little things” and how they paint the entire picture. You have the power to break down the big picture into the smallest slice possible. It’s up to you. How about it? Are you ready for a good slice of life?