Sunday, January 25, 2015
Come Join Creative Words to Spread the Word on Tumblr!
As of January 2015, Creative Words to Spread the Word has moved to Tumblr!
Also, while the ministry itself continues to be known as Creative Words to Spread the Word informally, the full name is now Creative Words to Spread the Word for Christ.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Website being discontinued for now... blog will remain
As I have not been updating content at the website URL for some time, and the most vital information is currently at this blog, I didn't see a value in continuing to have separate hosting for the creativewordstospreadtheword.com URL. That said, I still own the domain and it may reappear if I can find a more cost-effective method of making use of it. Right now it just didn't seem to be a responsible steward of money to spend for the extra hosting.
That makes this blog the central location for all CREATIVE WORDS TO SPREAD THE WORD information until further notice. I hope that information here has been an inspiration to you.
Shannon Muir
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Creative Words Continue To Spread The Word
Greetings to those who have discovered this site more recently. I hope its resources have been of help. It is my desire to add and update the contents in the near future.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
New Website Finally Up
Point your URLs to www.creativewordstospreadtheword.com for a quick and easy destination with links to this blog as well as to an idea by myself and another of my original members of Creative Words to Spread the Word called In Christian's Life. I hope to bring more to the site as I go along and make it a full fledged resource destination with a richer design. Right now I'm just happy to have it going at all.
New Website in Process
Hello, I know it's been quite a while since I've posted anything here. There's been much going on in my life personally and professionally.
One thing I set in motion about a year ago was a fully dedicated website for Creative Words to Spread the Word. The reality of the last pieces coming into place should be here very soon now. Please keep watch to this feed for more updates, and thank you for all your patience.
One thing I set in motion about a year ago was a fully dedicated website for Creative Words to Spread the Word. The reality of the last pieces coming into place should be here very soon now. Please keep watch to this feed for more updates, and thank you for all your patience.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
My Own Creative Words: Forgiveness
For the last six months, pursuing forgiveness to bring healing into my life - particularly in a Christian way - has been a big focus of mine. It revolves around a specific situation that I am not at liberty speak of in detail.
Today I thought I had made a small step toward not just forgiveness but reconciliation in this situation, only to find later that my future actions were already pre-judged to turn out the same as my past actions despite active attempts made on my part in the last six months in a variety of ways (counseling, training, reading books) to explore potentially better ways to handle the same situations.
It's days like today I need to remind myself of parables, some of the strongest uses of creative words to make points about biblical truth. Though told orally to the crowds, they were also transcribed for future generations.
Today my thoughts turned to the parable of the unmerciful servant (see Matthew 18), where Peter asks Jesus how many times to forgive his brother - "Jesus answered, 'I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.'" (Matthew 18:22, NIV).
He then goes on in Matthew 18 to illustrate the point by telling the story of how one servant who owed money begged his master to be patient with him, then turned around and tried by force to get the money out of another man who owed him. When the fellow servant refuses, he is punished by being thrown in prison and the other servants tell the master. The master punishes the servant for not having mercy and turns him over the jailors for torture until he pays back what he owes. The point is that God wants each of us to forgive from our hearts with mercy repeatedly, or God will not be happy with us, just like the misbehaving servant.
It's written better in the Bible, and I encourage you to read it there. I don't want to be so creative as to trump a well-written parable.
As to myself, what I have to keep reminding myself is that it is important to work on forgiving over and over, even if reconciliation never happens. It is possible to forgive without reconciliation. Forgiveness is understanding the issue but not necessarily condoning the action, but the latter concept of reconciliation is trying to bring things back together. That is why it is possible to forgive multiple times over... but you're not required to forget. In fact, if we forget, we can't learn from past mistakes. That's what I believe anyway.
I'm not so sure God has reconciliation on the horizon for me on this one, but the hard part is keeping faith while managing expectations. A tough thing to juggle.
Today I thought I had made a small step toward not just forgiveness but reconciliation in this situation, only to find later that my future actions were already pre-judged to turn out the same as my past actions despite active attempts made on my part in the last six months in a variety of ways (counseling, training, reading books) to explore potentially better ways to handle the same situations.
It's days like today I need to remind myself of parables, some of the strongest uses of creative words to make points about biblical truth. Though told orally to the crowds, they were also transcribed for future generations.
Today my thoughts turned to the parable of the unmerciful servant (see Matthew 18), where Peter asks Jesus how many times to forgive his brother - "Jesus answered, 'I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.'" (Matthew 18:22, NIV).
He then goes on in Matthew 18 to illustrate the point by telling the story of how one servant who owed money begged his master to be patient with him, then turned around and tried by force to get the money out of another man who owed him. When the fellow servant refuses, he is punished by being thrown in prison and the other servants tell the master. The master punishes the servant for not having mercy and turns him over the jailors for torture until he pays back what he owes. The point is that God wants each of us to forgive from our hearts with mercy repeatedly, or God will not be happy with us, just like the misbehaving servant.
It's written better in the Bible, and I encourage you to read it there. I don't want to be so creative as to trump a well-written parable.
As to myself, what I have to keep reminding myself is that it is important to work on forgiving over and over, even if reconciliation never happens. It is possible to forgive without reconciliation. Forgiveness is understanding the issue but not necessarily condoning the action, but the latter concept of reconciliation is trying to bring things back together. That is why it is possible to forgive multiple times over... but you're not required to forget. In fact, if we forget, we can't learn from past mistakes. That's what I believe anyway.
I'm not so sure God has reconciliation on the horizon for me on this one, but the hard part is keeping faith while managing expectations. A tough thing to juggle.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
My Own Creative Words: Empathy Building in San Francisco
I found it interesting that when being sent by my company to a seminar about leading with emotional intelligence, which emphasizes empathy among its aspects, that Christ put me in a situation to do a little empathy building of my own.
As many know, I struggle with several medical conditions. Most people don't know it unless I tell them (unless they've seen me at my worst when I can't hide symptoms which is rare). I try very very hard to live a 'normal' life and only ask for adjustments when required.
One aspect of this trip was that it was my first one flying with a new medication that is in syringes. That actually went quite well.
The surprises came at the hotel.
When I arrived at the hotel in San Francisco, the woman at the front desk told me:
"We have you down for an accessible hotel room."
I asked her to repeat this. I'd made a special request for a microwave for health reasons, but I never asked the folks arranging travel to get me an accessible room. She confirmed that yes, I'm down for that, but she couldn't see why I'd need it.
Now I found myself in a bind. I didn't know if corporate requested this. I didn't think they did, but technically someone with my condition could request a room like this. In the end, I decided to go with it and save us all a lot of hassle. How bad could it be?
In point of fact, it was not bad at all as far as what it offered. In terms of communication, it had bright illuminating lights on the wall for ringing phones and a doorbell for the hard of hearing (I originally thought the latter was some sort of panic emergency button for people to get in, it wasn't until the 2nd day I found the strobe for the doorbell). The room was much wider than a standard king size room, as was the restroom with handles against the walls for everything, and a shower equipped for sitting and standing. The front door also had peepholes at two levels, regular height and wheelchair height.
What I wasn't prepared for was how I'd feel emotionally being in that room. My first reaction was, "I'm no cripple!" but then I realized that if I was worse off, this would be a great place as I started to think about all the things offered. Right now, for the moment, the place would be good enough for me. It helped me be a bit more at peace with my own current situation, and empowered me to see my strengths which have been difficult to see as I've struggled with a new diagnosis.
By the time I was done with the trip, I confess I felt very spoiled by the experience. Now when I see someone traveling who is wheelchair bound, or hard of hearing, I'll relate to what they go through and definitely know a great hotel to recommend to them - Hilton Union Square. No, this is not a plug paid by money and I've gotten no swag... the 'payment' was in how my own mind was open to better relate to people in this world.
As many know, I struggle with several medical conditions. Most people don't know it unless I tell them (unless they've seen me at my worst when I can't hide symptoms which is rare). I try very very hard to live a 'normal' life and only ask for adjustments when required.
One aspect of this trip was that it was my first one flying with a new medication that is in syringes. That actually went quite well.
The surprises came at the hotel.
When I arrived at the hotel in San Francisco, the woman at the front desk told me:
"We have you down for an accessible hotel room."
I asked her to repeat this. I'd made a special request for a microwave for health reasons, but I never asked the folks arranging travel to get me an accessible room. She confirmed that yes, I'm down for that, but she couldn't see why I'd need it.
Now I found myself in a bind. I didn't know if corporate requested this. I didn't think they did, but technically someone with my condition could request a room like this. In the end, I decided to go with it and save us all a lot of hassle. How bad could it be?
In point of fact, it was not bad at all as far as what it offered. In terms of communication, it had bright illuminating lights on the wall for ringing phones and a doorbell for the hard of hearing (I originally thought the latter was some sort of panic emergency button for people to get in, it wasn't until the 2nd day I found the strobe for the doorbell). The room was much wider than a standard king size room, as was the restroom with handles against the walls for everything, and a shower equipped for sitting and standing. The front door also had peepholes at two levels, regular height and wheelchair height.
What I wasn't prepared for was how I'd feel emotionally being in that room. My first reaction was, "I'm no cripple!" but then I realized that if I was worse off, this would be a great place as I started to think about all the things offered. Right now, for the moment, the place would be good enough for me. It helped me be a bit more at peace with my own current situation, and empowered me to see my strengths which have been difficult to see as I've struggled with a new diagnosis.
By the time I was done with the trip, I confess I felt very spoiled by the experience. Now when I see someone traveling who is wheelchair bound, or hard of hearing, I'll relate to what they go through and definitely know a great hotel to recommend to them - Hilton Union Square. No, this is not a plug paid by money and I've gotten no swag... the 'payment' was in how my own mind was open to better relate to people in this world.
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