As a follow-up to Dolly’s “dumb blonde” joke and story from my blog yesterday, I thought I\u2019d share one of mine. A blonde tells her doctor that her body hurts wherever she touches it. She touches her knee and yelps. Touches her ankle and shrieks. Touches her elbow and screams. The doctor looks at her and says, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with you in all those places. The truth is — your finger is broken!\u201d As silly as that dumb joke is, the message is clear — she tolerated the pain way too long. I was reminded of that joke when I was having terrible pain in the arch of my foot. I did what I could to remedy the pain but it wouldn\u2019t go away. I tolerated that pain for a couple of weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s Friday of Thanksgiving week. My kids and I are sitting in my living area. That foot is throbbing. I rub the arch area to try to lessen the pain. Suddenly I feel a little pinhead-size spot. I ask my daughter to look at it and she sees a bump with a black dot surrounded by red infected skin. Then, I remember several weeks ago when I my foot rubbed across the edge of my coffee table that I felt a prick. I noticed table’s wood was slivered on the edge. I never thought something went into my foot. As I did with my kiddos when they got a splinter in their hand, I burn the end of a needle to sterilize it. Staci digs (ouch) and digs (whine). She shouts: \u201cI got it!\u201d It is a quarter-inch sliver of wood that had been embedded, causing me misery that I tolerated for weeks. Not five minutes later, the pain is gone. Free at last! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Long story, but I believe that God is nudging me to share it. I sense there are those who have tolerated and put up with nagging pain, nagging relationships, nagging financial woes, and nagging concerns for what tomorrow holds. Those tolerations can bleed us of energy and make it impossible for us to be the best versions of ourselves that we can be. It\u2019s really difficult to live a happy, successful, fulfilling life when we\u2019re spending all our energy tolerating things that shouldn\u2019t be tolerated. Sometimes we simply need to put our foot down, or in my case \u2013 put my foot up so someone can get the \u201cnagging\u201d issue out for me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have no idea what you may be tolerating in your life, but I encourage you today to get help from a close \u201csomeone\u201d like I did with my daughter or better yet, seek help from God to help you dig out what you have tolerated too long. Pray for God\u2019s wisdom and Holy Spirit\u2019s guidance to help you get out of the \u201ctolerating\u201d mode into a joy-filled life of freedom. It starts with you. Don\u2019t tolerate a negative attitude. Don\u2019t tolerate judging and gossiping. Get caught up in being thankful and being way nicer than necessary. (Go see \u201cIt\u2019s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood\u201d and try to be NICE like Mr. Rogers!). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t tolerate self-deprecating thoughts. Don\u2019t tolerate living in the past. Don\u2019t tolerate being too busy to appreciate life\u2019s sweetness. Don\u2019t tolerate worry \u2013 find something to be grateful for. Don\u2019t tolerate people who make you feel worthless. Stand your ground and if need be, let them walk away rather than all over you. Don\u2019t tolerate dishonesty in life and business. Our reputation and integrity is always more important than our next paycheck. Don\u2019t tolerate anger, arguments, grudges, and resentments. Don\u2019t tolerate unforgiveness. Forgive others, not because they deserve it but because you deserve peace. Don\u2019t tolerate anything that takes away your peace. It is the single most required fruit of the Spirit that I demand in my life. I know how to walk away from anything that tries to take it away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I could go on and on about what we have tolerated far too long, but I know you get the message. It\u2019s a new day when freedom can be ours as we refuse to tolerate those things that shouldn\u2019t be tolerated any longer. Freedom is oh so beautiful! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
freedom, tolerant, tolerance, blog, mypeacezone.com, Christian, dumb blond joke, nagging pain, God’s wisdom, guidance, joy-filled life, worry, grateful, worthless, dishonesty, unforgiveness,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a follow-up to Dolly’s “dumb blonde” joke and story from my blog yesterday, I thought I\u2019d share one of mine. A blonde tells her doctor that her body hurts wherever she touches it. She touches her knee and yelps. Touches her ankle and shrieks. Touches her elbow and screams. The doctor looks at her…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13787,15782],"tags":[1210,2346,4229,15790,15788,15786,8773],"class_list":["post-11517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-freedom","category-tolerated","tag-blog","tag-freedom","tag-joy-filled","tag-mypeaczone-com","tag-nagging-pain","tag-tolerance","tag-unforgiveness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11517"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11520,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11517\/revisions\/11520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}