Day 58- Reputation & Credibility
📖Daily Reading
1 Kings 10-12
🎥 Video
Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.
📝 Reflection
✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt
1 Kings 10: 9
“Praise the Lord your God, who delights in you, and has placed you an the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king so you can rule with justice and righteousness.”
This verse above is a direct quote from The Queen of Sheba who comes to visit King Solomon. King Solomon’s reputation has grown so much that it has not only reached other royalty, but is so impressive that this Queen just has to visit and see for herself. She arrived with some skepticism we can also see in the story. ‘She came to test him with hard questions’ it says in the first verse of the story/chapter. Solomon’s reputation was almost too good to be true. Once she arrived and puts him through her tests, she is not just impressed but she says ‘I had not even been told half of the truth of how wise you were’.
Solomon had demonstrated wise rule and earned the love of his people and earned his reputation. He didn’t just talk the talk, we walked the walk as they say. The Queen of Sheba’s visit and consequent validation and praise gave the extra credibility. But this was not reputation and credibility only for Solomon himself but more importantly of God! Solomon continually reminded himself and others that this was all because of and for the Lord. So when the Queen of Sheba came she also confirmed God’s reputation and added to his credibility beyond the borders of Israel!
I wished we learned more about what happened with the Queen of Sheba herself after her visit. But that is another exploration for another day. I love that in this story we did learn that it was really all about God’s reputation and credibility, that can be achieved through his faithful and obedient servants. God himself has set it up so that humans are essential for his reputation and credibility, for good or for bad. When we do good for the ‘right’ reasons, he gets credit, when we mess up and need correcting, he gets credit. It is up to us which path we take and how we want to build his reputation and credibility. Either way he gets credit! We can be a good example and role model or we can choose the not so good path and become a bad example and role model. Do you want to walk the talk or just talk. Your actions will find you out eventually.
As a mom, this is the ‘trap’ I got caught in. I was just relying on my title as mom and role as a parent to give me reputation and credibility with my kids. I was doing a lot of walking in the walking in some areas of my life, but just a lot of talking in others. As my kids became teens, there was a lot of don’t do this - like drinking, while I had a wine glass in my hand. 🥴 Or even worse driving home from a family dinner out while I had a glass of wine or a beer with my dinner 🙈. Do you think my soon to be driver at the time wasn’t paying attention? Sure I could justify that it was only one (maybe 2) and it didn’t affect me. Is that really the point though? Would I accept that response from them? Anyway, as a parent of teens I started to have a lot of what we in fancy terms call- cognitive dissonance, or hypocrisy to put in more bluntly. And if I start to have this in multiple areas and I am also claiming to be a Christ follower, don’t you think they would eventually start to put 2 and 2 together and they would start to doubt God’s reputation and credibility next?
I know that this is exactly what I did as a teen when I saw my father in particular saying one thing but doing another as a professed Christ follower. I ran from God! My father tried to gain his reputation and credibility from his own achievements and intelligence. But because he was also God’s representative to me at the time, it also damaged God’s reputation and credibility in my immature eyes. Thank God, He is not limited by my understanding. He is who He is regardless of what my puny brains can think. His reputation and credibility stands on its own as people are ready to see the truth. For whatever reason, I needed an earthly father who couldn’t live up to my expectations or his own. I trust God in my journey to healing and relying on His reputation and credibility alone and finding my own in and through him. I think this is what Jesus means that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. If we are too self reliant, that is so so heavy, I can’t bear it any more, thank God I don’t have to anymore.
(Of course then there is the daily and sometimes even moment to moment amnesia that I have when my ego jumps back in and lies to me…🙏. So this definitely a journey and a quest about progress over perfection!)
📖Tomorrows Reading
Who or what is the source of your reputation and credibility. Are you walking the talk? Does it matter? Who is watching? Solomon was being faithful and word got around and a royal queen from a distant land got hear about how great and powerful God was because of it. What influence are you having vs what you could have with your reputation and credibility if you were to walk the talk even a little more?
Coaching Opportunity
Let's make 2023 the year of YOU by laying a solid foundational mind set! The world needs what only you have to offer! Give yourself the best gift ever, the best version of you is ready to rise & shine!
Book your free📞Wake Up Call today to learn if this is what you have been waiting for!
If you have stuck with me this far, then you are not reading this by accident, I believe God has a plan for you and is calling you forward!😉🤩
CONNECT WITH ME
Subscribe to Rise & Shine✨Together Daily Encouragement
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/felecia.b.holmes (personal)
Rise & Shine Together Private Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1093183278239989
You Tube: Rise & Shine Playlist
|