Sharpening The Saw


Hi Friends! I know, I know it’s been a long while, three months to be exact. Who would have thought that I would have stayed away so long from you? However, life happens.

A bit of housekeeping before we jump into today’s topic; I had promised that I would do two things soon and I am happy to report that I did. I wrote out my life’s mission and vision statements and I apologized to the cousin I was malicing (let’s call it what it really was). See, I’m a woman of my word and I feel so much better for it, yay me 😊

Now, what I want to explore with you today is the importance of leading a synergistic life or as the title states Sharpening the Saw. This article was inspired by Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that I read earlier this year. By the way, that is one of my recommended reads.

My interpretation of Sharpening the Saw is that we should constantly be working on four core aspects of our being; body, mind, heart and soul. I use the term synergy to mean in harmony and I specifically didn’t use the word balance because each area may not be equal as I believe it will be different for each person. As a Christian, my soul is most important to me and the others are more or less weighted the same.



It is paramount that we pay attention to these areas of our lives and figure out which dynamic works best for us.

On the Spiritual Dimension, I have spoken extensively about the different things we need to do in our relationship with God, which is primarily what this blog is about. I make sure I attend services at church; which usually ranges from 1-4 times per week. That in addition to the other spiritual actions I perform, give me the foundation to do everything else I need to.

The Mental Dimension is one that is usually highly esteemed by a lot of persons but I’m not sure if it is equally weighted in their own lives. This is where we need to feed and exercise our minds and the food we are feeding our minds with, should be healthy food. We don’t all need to go into a classroom to do this, but we can find ways by exploring the various opportunities in everyday life. Some examples are reading the newspaper, enrolling in a course online, learning a new skill, etc. Writing through this very same blog is one of the ways in which I explore my mental dimension.

The Physical Dimension is one that often gets a lot of neglect. However, it is very important that we take care of our bodies. We only get one and it is it that houses our soul currently, our mind and our heart. The Bible speaks about the body being our temple, therefore it loaned to us by God and we should honour him by taking care of it. I find where a lot of us think we are too busy to exercise but we won’t ever find the time to do it, we must take the time. I try to get exercise in mostly by waking up earlier and doing a workout. Also essential, is eating healthy and taking time out for wholesome rest and relaxation. I know it isn’t easy, but it sure is worth it.

Finally, there is the Emotional Dimension. It brings me back to the old saying that ‘no man is an island’. We all want to feel loved and like we belong to something. This is an area that has been studied extensively in so many fields, particularly in psychology with one of the theories coming out being Alderfer’s ERG Theory. Alderfer speaks to our need for Relatedness; which stresses the importance of interpersonal and social relationships, but unlike Maslow’s Needs Theory, that need doesn’t only exist at a particular time in life. Simply put, we need to build relationships with others and give of our time and talents, laugh and love. There are some many ways to do this; including spending quality time with family and friends, joining a service group, etc.

Friends, even though we’ve explored these different dimensions to our lives, it is important that we realize that we only have one life each, here on earth. Therefore, there is no church-life, work-life, regular-life, there is just life. All these dimensions are integrated and if we proceed accordingly, we shouldn’t feel torn, like we are living different lives, we should have a life that’s synergistic and that’s how we Sharpen the Saw.



(Source: learningrevolution.net)


Philippians 4:8 KJV - Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.


Chosen, hasta luego!


(Referenced: Covey, S. R. (1997). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Salt Lake City: Franklin Covey. & Alderfers's ERG Theory https://www.toolshero.com/psychology/theories-of-motivation/erg-theory/)



Be blessed and be a blessing. Please subscribe to this blog for more, share this article and leave a comment. Don’t forget to use the blog resources when you click on the back arrow ß
 then the resource icon.


MeMe is a young Christian of the Pentecostal Apostolic denomination and is based in Kingston, Jamaica. Thoughts of a Chosen Generation will speak to young to middle age Christians, and aspiring Christians where they will get guidance for Christian living for the benefit of their spiritual and personal development. To learn more about Christianity, you may make contact using the below handle, leave a comment requesting that you be contacted or send a message using the contact form found under resources.                             
                                                               
We are Social, you may find us on Twitter:

http://bit.ly/ChosenXThoughts




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Do We Overcome Temptations?

Image
Hello Chosen, welcome back! If you’re new, it’s good to have you J Overcoming temptations is a very interesting topic, if I do say so myself. Allow me to just jog your thoughts a bit. Do you think non-Christians are not tempted? Do you think that new believers have finally escaped and will no longer be tempted? Or mature Christians have passed that stage and will not face temptation? Let’s see if we can answer those questions while we explore the main question that we are trying to answer, How Do We Overcome Temptations? Let us first try to understand what Temptation is before we get to how to overcome it. Bishop Robert Ellis describes temptation as an enticement to do evil or a desire to abstain from doing good. Let me guess, you didn’t expect that second part, did you? Well James 4:17 says “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is a sin.” http://bit.ly/Jam4-17 . For that reason, we can say in essence that temptation is a pull towards evil or
Read more

Testimony Time: How I Came To Christ

Image
Hello there Chosen, so happy to have you with me. I wonder if you’re thinking to yourself why I hadn’t written about this before. If I were you, I’d be thinking that exact thing. Actually, I asked myself why I didn’t. The idea to write my testimony only came to me about a week ago and I was excited about it but somehow didn’t quite get to it until now. However, I trust that it has happened in God’s perfect timing. It took me quite a while to get here. And though I’m not quite a finished product, I’ve been through many iterations. Nonetheless, I can confidently say I am where God wants me to be at this point in my life. I can’t quite cover everything in this article since it has been literally every moment in my life that has culminated and led me to the present but I hope I cover a number of the significant areas. As a child, I grew up with the knowledge of God, as with most children in Jamaica, thankfully. However, my parents weren’t, and still aren’t Christians. They in
Read more

When That Co-Worker Relationship Isn’t So Great

Image
Would you look what happened here? We’ve made it to June; bless the Lord! Welcome Chosen friends! I was told I wasn’t quite successful in making the last article not as long. * tears *. So let’s jump right into this one. Throughout our discussion I will make reference to a particular situation I had that’s applicable. All relationships don’t go as smoothly as we had them planned in our minds at inception; assuming that we don’t plan on having any hostile relationships. Speaking specifically about work relations, sometimes tension runs as high as JPS power cables. This is certainly unhealthy; after all, most of us spend most of our lives at work. Great, if majority of our work relationships aren’t like this but what do we do when we find ourselves caught up between the poles of these JPS cables with a co-worker? (Courtesy of: inc.com) I’ll share with you 8 things which I did and now recommend in such a situation: 1.        Perform a Self-Assessment Could I
Read more