We live in a culture that often embodies extremes.  We always seem to be either ‘too much’ or ‘too little.’ We tend to overdo things or underperform.  But there is much to be learned about being centered and moderate!

When it comes to discipline, we need both encouragement and accountability.  To emphasize one without the other is to be either enabling or insensitive!  To receive encouragement without accountability is to be coddled, to encounter the opposite is equally disheartening.  We need both!

We need to be able to give and receive encouragement, but we also need to learn how to accept and demand accountability. This is how we protect one another and inspire one other to be our best selves!  This is the gift of being in a safe and loving community.  This is one of the gifts of true friendship!

So today, let’s stop mistaking your helpers for ‘haters.’  Let’s stop rejecting valid critiques and perceiving them as attacks.  There are people that God has placed in our lives to both challenge and encourage us – these are the ones who are looking out for our best interests and who drive us toward becoming our best selves!  

Get it?

⁵ Better is open rebuke than hidden love. ⁶ Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. 

 Proverbs 27:5–6

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam