I am ever grateful that I am no longer the shy and timid girl that I was growing up. No longer do I avoid crowds, parties, and situations that would cause me to HAVE to interact with people. Now, I am so confident of who I am \u2013 not by just how I feel about myself, but others think that I\u2019ve always been this way. They\u2019re shocked to think that I was once an introvert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s still a little hesitancy to walk up to people and create conversation, but then I get a grip and out comes: \u201cGood Morning. How are you today?\u201d Yesterday, I saw a sweet lady sitting in our coffee area by herself. I spoke up and said, \u201cGood morning, Barbara! How are you? Are you singing: \u201cAll by myself?\u201d She laughed and said: \u201cAren\u2019t you a breath of fresh air!\u201d We spoke a few more minutes and I was on my way! I thought: \u201cWay to go, Girl! You brightened Barbara\u2019s day!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Truthfully, being confident because of Whose I am (\u201cI can do ALL things through Christ Who strengthens me.\u201d Philippians 4:13), has provided me with many wonderful friends. I remember those words \u201cIf you want friends, you must show yourself friendly.\u201d (Proverbs 18:24) I had to be willing to get out of my comfort zone and be willing to change. I had to become “tweak-able”! And God is STILL tweaking me daily! I sense it and, oftentimes, feel it! Ouch and oh me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of my favorite authors, Max Lucado, said this: \u201cYou aren\u2019t stuck with today\u2019s personality. You aren\u2019t condemned to \u201cgrumpydom.\u201d You are tweak-able! So what if you were born a bigot? You don\u2019t have to die one. Where did we get the idea we can\u2019t change? Where do statements come from such as, \u201cIt\u2019s just my nature to worry,\u201d or. . . \u201cI\u2019ll always be pessimistic. I\u2019m just that way.\u201d Or, \u201cI have a bad temper. I can\u2019t help the way I react.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Would we say, \u201cIt\u2019s just my nature to have a broken leg. I can\u2019t do anything about it.\u201d Of course not. If our body malfunctions, we seek help. Shouldn\u2019t we do the same with our hearts? Can\u2019t we seek aid for our sour attitudes? Of course, we can. With Christ\u2019s help, we can change our hearts to have a heart like His!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, I add to Max\u2019s words, if we desire to be that outgoing, optimistic, cheerful personality that others want to hang with, then, we must purpose to live outside our comfort zones. We need to be the gal or guy that we want to hang with. When we’re that gal or guy \u2013 others will gravitate to our “sunny” and even “funny” dispositions. They’ll want to hang with us because we exude the ONE Who lives BIG in us AND His personality ROCKS with joy, peace, abundance, patience, beauty, and a merry heart!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I love \u201cThe Chosen\u201d TV series and, especially the upbeat, funny, and loving guy who plays Jesus! This \u201cJesus\u201d has a great personality that people want to hang out with. This \u201cJesus\u201d seems to always have the time to stop and care about the people. And, I know that our REAL Jesus Who lives big in us has that tender-hearted, even funny and upbeat personality, too! I want to be like Him, so\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChange my heart, oh God! Make it ever true. Change my heart, oh God! May I be like You! You are the Potter. I am the clay. Mold me and make me. This is what I pray!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am ever grateful that I am no longer the shy and timid girl that I was growing up. No longer do I avoid crowds, parties, and situations that would cause me to HAVE to interact with people. Now, I am so confident of who I am \u2013 not by just how I feel about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16425,"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":[24173,24174],"tags":[622,893,24171,3679,3042,1475,43,1091,1685,1783,24172,5424,5987,3045,20358],"class_list":["post-16424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tweakable","category-want-friend-be-friendly","tag-comfort-zone","tag-confident","tag-create-conversation","tag-i-can-do-all-things-through-christ","tag-introvert","tag-max-lucado","tag-optimistic","tag-outgoing","tag-philippians-413","tag-proverbs-1824","tag-seek-help","tag-show-yourself-friendly","tag-sunny-disposition","tag-tweakable","tag-want-friend"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16424","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=16424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16426,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16424\/revisions\/16426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}