Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Love the Messenger, Hate the Message

So, first, please allow me to say it's good to be back!

As you may know, I'm reasonably active in my son's school and spring is always the busiest time of year there. I am also teaching a great course at UCF. And writing product reviews. And I'm interviewing for another teaching job for summer/fall. And I started my own business this spring. And, of course, there's my family and house. LOL

Today I was listening to a wonderful motivational CD and heard a quote that I really want to share with you: "You can love the messenger, but still hate the message." Linda Toupin, National Sales Director for Mary Kay says this about the messages we may receive from our families.


We all want to be inspiring, uplifting parents. You know the ones - they say "good job, Junior" and "you can do anything you set your mind to, Sister." Yet, we are human. Sometimes we say things like "why can't you do things right?" or "That's not good enough." Ouch.

As we age all the comments fill us up - for better or worse. Then as adults, we sometimes don't reject those messages because we really do love the person who said them - the messenger. Yet, as Linda Toupin reminded me today, it's totally possible to say "that message doesn't work for me" while still saying "I love my Mom."

Are there messages from your past that you need to reject? The Bible says that God made us in His image. If that's so, then we are made just right. We can reject the messages that say anything else.

Happy Communicating~
Andrea