Great Advice

I know people that can give great advice.  I mean fabulous advice.  It's like it was just sitting on the tip of their tongue waiting for the perfect moment to come out.  Their words flow out like silk and make you feel so much better after you have talked to them. You know those people right?  The people who immediately pop in your head when something in your life needs fixing. When I listen to people like that give advice, I think to myself, "I wish I had thought of 10% of that advice." "Wow! That was such a great thing to say."

I feel like I don't give good advice.  Is that weird?  Most of the time I can barely put together sentences where the words are pronounced correctly and are said in the correct order.  Now for as much as I talk, wouldn't you think I have had plenty of practice to get this right?  To be able to speak correctly in a normal conversation with normal people. The people in my life who have taken the time to understand my bizarre vocabulary must feel like they have taken a foreign language or something.  The way my sentences trail off in 2 different directions must drive people crazy.

You know me, I can't correctly pronounce words, I can't spell, and I think I may have accidently taught Samantha that "thingy ma-jig" is a real word.  My vocabulary is so limited that I know you grammar people are probably counting how many times I used the words "advice" and "correct" in these past few sentences.  And you are thinking, "Come on Angie use a syn-o-nim, you can do it!"  Or is it ant-o-nim? I can't remember.  I'll ask Samantha in the morning.

Anyway, I am getting off the topic.  I just don't feel like I give good advice.  When people call me with a problem and want advise I say a silent prayer in my head. It goes something like this, "Dear Holy Spirit, I really need some good words of wisdom right now. Please work through me and let these words spoken make more sense than if I were saying them. And it would be really great if I could uh-nun-see-ate them as well, thank you in advance, Amen."  Yes, this is a real prayer I say.

Now don't misunderstand me, sometimes I can give advice, (I can) but most of the time.........my head, my heart, and my tongue all get tied together.  And my almost sentences are better left unspoken at that point. lol

So, here is what I have come up with:

Instead of focusing on what I'm not good at, I'm going to focus on what gifts I am blessed with.

So, giving super great advice in immediate moments of craziness may not be my best gift. But you know what?  That's ok.  It really is ok.  I have decided that I can still be a blessing to people in those moments.  Isn't that refreshing?  I can still take the time to make them feel loved and cared about.  I can make sure they know that I believe in them and will stand by them during difficult times.  I can be a listening ear and a person who will faithfully pray for them.  These things I can do.  Even if I don't have the answer to their problem.

I have also found that when I do have moments of good council, they come later.  After I have prayed over the situation, and thought about it in times of quietness.  Then I will get in touch with them (probably at a really inconvenient time) and share my thoughts and poorly worded sentences. :)

So guess what?  If you need super great advice on how to fix a problem, I probably can't fix it.

But I can love you, believe in you, stand by you,  listen with an open heart, and faithfully pray for you.

That's a start right?