After I realized it was my responsibility to get out of my shell and talk to people and actually began doing it! …I realized how fun it was and liberating!!

People like other people being friendly to them and generally they will be friendly back. It started out me forcing myself to be friendly to get cured of the insecurity, and soon I wanted to reach out to talk to others.

Last night on my walk around the neighborhood, the man next door had really been working hard landscaping his yard…a massive project taking a good portion of the summer. I hadn’t met the neighbors yet, but hollered up to him that their place was looking really nice. He said he was doing fine, and would feel better after a shower. I realized he’d misunderstood me so I said again how nice a job he was doing and how well everything looked. A big smile broke out on his face and he said ‘Thank you, Thank you!’ Sometimes after lots of hard work, you can wonder if anybody even notices.

I continued on and met a young family with two kids walking and greeted them, ‘What a beautiful night it is, isn’t it?’ (with a big smile on my face) They all smiled back, waved and said ‘yes it is! We all felt better.  A quick ‘meet and greet’ and the evening is off to a good start. 

People need acknowledgement and many times we have to break the ice. (Might as well pour a little lemonade and cookies while we’re at it!)

There is work to be done to repair good neighborliness after the last two years’ lockdown. Let’s get at it. Many people are still in hiding and need to be brought out.

Perhaps one of us taking a moment to smile and speak to them will help them come out of their fears and back into circulation 🙂

Growing up, I was horribly shy…even into my early 20s. I didn’t like it and didn’t have many friends as a result, and felt there was no cure.

It was a terribly lonely way to be…so insecure, felt so inferior, was sure everyone was talking about how skinny I was etc., etc., etc. So I asked God about it – why I was that way. He showed me there was nothing wrong with me, that I had been listening to lies about myself. I wasn’t talking about everyone else’s ‘flaws’ or thinking the worst of them….more importantly they weren’t thinking the worst and talking about me! It was like a lightbulb had been turned on inside. I had made it all about me, living all about me…actually very selfish 😦

Then the thought came to me that many others perhaps felt the same way and I needed to get out of my comfort (actually discomfort) zone and talk to them. It began with a simple smile, an acknowledgement of their presence, then standing still facing them and asking how their day was or what they had been doing etc. rather than a quick encounter and running off to hide (in my insecurity) by avoiding people. I discovered there were a lot of us fighting the same battles and it needed to be realized and talked about so we could be cured and free to interact with other people.

It is was a fight inside of me each time to force myself to get out there and speak to people, to look them eye to eye. Slowly it became a little bit easier each time. Now, decades later, the ole insecurity, inferiority, shyness, whatever you want to call it, still tries to rise up from time to time, but the best way to stop it is to get out there in the public  and start smiling and talking to people.

It is not only good for me, but good for them.

Have you fought this battle as well? How do you break its hold? Do you find others going through similar thoughts?

Holing up until you feel better does not work!

Let’s work together to fight off our insecurities by befriending others.

This week I pruned the rambly red rose bushes out front…had to prune some good blossoms off (I don’t like sacrificing good blooms!) but that’s part of the process! We have to control those bushes so they grow in the right direction, get thicker and produce more blooms!!!

Kind of like kids, we have to prune away their rambly branches taking them in wrong directions. They will scream or yell, but they will grow up straight and strong.

Like the rambly red rose, sticking prickers in my arms and legs each time it’s pruned,  so little kids will kick and pinch us when we prune their lives, but in time they will produce good blooms.

Little kids turn into big kids (us) still needing pruning  – maybe not as often – but to maintain good form and direction. (if we let things go too long loppers might be needed instead of pruning shears). But we are salvageable 🙂

We’re never too far gone God can’t find us. We’re never in so deep God can’t get us out!

Do you feel like you’re being pruned? Fortunately, new growth always comes after pruning.