With the weather changing and a cold front bringing in some rain and cool winds, most of us will be breaking out the pants and long sleeved shirts here in the Central Texas area. This past summer seemed to have been a little cooler and not quite as dry as there have been the last few years. I think we only broke a 100 degrees a few weeks out of the entire summer where lately we have been used to having 40+ days of 100 degree days. I enjoyed it and hoped you did also. With the cool breeze and lower temperatures it usually means we are looking to adjust our house thermostat and start looking at the temperature before we decide on what we are wearing to work the next day.
Have you ever thought about the difference in these two pieces of equipment which allows us to work with the temperature around us? A couple of years ago, I read a book called “The Energy Bus” which is written by Jon Gordon and is a fantastic read. The former head coach of Pflugerville High School, Nancy Walling, allowed me to read it and I gained quite a bit of insight into what makes a team, company, class, family, etc… go. It referred to people as “energy vampires” and “positive passengers”. I have also heard it called “energy takers” and “energy givers”. Either way you look at it, you are probably thinking or know of someone who fits both of these titles. Is there anyone you know (hopefully not yourself) which are the type of people who drain the energy of those around them? They seem to always be focused on the negatives of life, they gripe and complain about the smallest and biggest of things, they see everything in the world as going against them, and they just have an overall negative aura around them. It kinda reminds me of the character from Charlie Brown, Pigpen. It just seems like their whole life is dirty and they see no positive outcomes in anything. Then there is the flip side of this person. Maybe you know a person (hopefully you) who is always positive, always smiling, seems to always have an encouraging thought or comment, optimistic on all fronts, and sees the glass half full all the time. Let me ask you to do an honest self reflection on yourself and those who you are close to and interact with on a consistent basis. Where do you fall?
A friend of mine posted on Facebook today about how we need to be a thermostat and not a thermometer when it comes to our lives. A thermostat controls the temperature in the house. You can turn up the heat whenever you feel a cold front come in or you can lower the temperature to make it more comfortable whenever the dog days of summer are beating down. These are the type of people who take control and determine what type of environment is going to be around them. A thermometer person is one who is just going to gauge the temperature of a place or person around them. They provide some information but they aren’t able to control or act upon anything and aren’t able to change anything which they may find around them. In the book of I Corinthians in chapter 15 and verse 33 you read: Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” We are called to put ourselves around those who will build us up. Does this mean we don’t carry the gospel to those who need it…..NO WAY! This just means we need to make sure we surround ourselves with those who build us up so we can be prepared when Satan tries to tear us down. If we are living the way we should, we will be positive thermostats and not merely just thermometers of lives!
