Peppy Penguin or Prickly Porcupine

Bad company corrupts good character. I Corinthians 15:33


Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. Phil 4:8

Are you a people magnet or a repellant?

How do you interpret life experiences that occur? Do you accept and ask what lessons can be learned? Do you complain and whine when things do not go your way? What kind of people do you like to be with? Do you enjoy people who have lots of energy and are positive? Or, do you enjoy being with people that are miserable?

Paul and I are in a stage of life where life spins very fast. We both work outside the home and there is so much to do at home. We have two kids in different sports and we are also involved in church activities. Outside of all of those things, there is not much time for social activities for us. Time is precious. For Paul especially, he is gone 50% of the time. When he is home, he wants to be with his family. I try to honor him by making lunch dates or social visits when he is gone so we can do things as a family when he is home.

While I am losing some of my pep (energy) as I get older, I still choose to see life in a positive manner. I love life and I love others. I naturally gravitate to other peppy penguines. I am not speaking about when people go through ups and downs, we all have down days. But it is difficult to be around people who gossip all the time, complaining about everything in their life, or always talking negatively about others. In essence, they choose to be miserable, and in doing so, seek to recruit others to share in their misery. We all know someone like this, many times they live on our family tree somewhere.

What can we do with the porcupines in our life? Love them anyway, but in small amounts! I choose to surround myself with positive individuals who love life and others too, yet still have human moments. I try to encourage the porcupines to count their blessings when they see one. I think that is probably one of the underlying reasons that our porcupine friends see life so negatively. They haven't stopped to see all the things and people in their life that they have to be thankful for. They see all the things in life that they don't have that they think they need or want. Even in our darkest days, we still have things to be thankful for.

Our actions start with the thoughts that we think. I love the verse above that talks about focusing on good thoughts, pure and lovely, excellent and pure. We are very careful about the tv shows and movies that we watch. They feed into our thoughts and then part of our being over time.

Which kind of person do you want to be? What personality do you exemplify for your kids and the kids that you influence in your life? What kind of people do you surround yourself with? Time is short, we have to make every moment count!