{"id":26244,"date":"2022-07-03T17:05:36","date_gmt":"2022-07-03T17:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=26244"},"modified":"2022-07-03T17:21:56","modified_gmt":"2022-07-03T17:21:56","slug":"i-dont-need-you-to-like-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=26244","title":{"rendered":"I don’t “need” you to like me………"},"content":{"rendered":"

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First Happy Independence Day tomorrow! \u00a0Now why that title!? \u00a0When I was younger, much younger, I did “need” for people to like me, actually I wanted more \u00a0 \u00a0 than that, I wanted not to just be liked, but admired! \u00a0As I said, I was younger, less mature, and may I dare say less wise. Age brings us a lot, much of wish I would like to skip, but maturity and wisdom are two things I treasure. \u00a0Wisdom is when we come to understand the deeper meanings of \u00a0life and appreciate them more.<\/p>\n

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When we are growing up, we have a natural need to be somebody, somebody special, we want to fit in, and we want to be appreciated for our talents and skills. \u00a0One of my favorite sayings when I was young was the only thing that scared me to death was being average! \u00a0Of course, that was not true, lots of things scared me, but it as a clever way to state that I wanted to be more than average. \u00a0At least I thought it was clever at the time.<\/p>\n

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O.K. so you still haven’t explained the title of the blog entry!? \u00a0I’m getting to it. I promise. \u00a0As a fully grown adult, senior citizen, seasoned citizen, I have come to realize that what anyone thinks of me as long as it doesn’t hurt my witness for Christ, is pretty much irrelvent. Confidence comes from knowing who we are, ourselves, not what others say about us. \u00a0After all anyone can say anything they wish about us, it may or may not be true, but it is their opinion and they have every right to hold it. \u00a0Here is a great experiment everyone should try; \u00a0How would you describe yourself? \u00a0See if you can answer that, in fact write it down and then ask yourself is that who I really am? \u00a0My \u00a0bet is you will write down who you really want to be.<\/p>\n

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Here’s mine: \u00a0I’m a Committed Christian, husband, father, grandfather and, (I hope), as good a friend to my friends as they have been to me. I’ve made living as a photographer, writer and teacher\/presenter. I’ve enjoyed a satisfying measure of success, in all those roles. I could always do better and strive, every day, \u00a0to do so!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Now you try it! \u00a0If you are honest with yourself, you will have a good measure of how your life has gone, so far. \u00a0You can always change the trajectory of your life anytime you choose to. \u00a0First you must \u00a0have a “Mission Statement” \u00a0what you believe in and stand for. \u00a0Mine is simple, I thank God everyday for His\u00a0forgiving<\/span>\u00a0my sins \u00a0and blessing me with a great family, and friends. \u00a0I try to do my best to never let them down and to live a \u00a0life marked by integrity, character, \u00a0honor, sacrifice and forgiveness. \u00a0I’m a work in progress, but with God’s help I will make it!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Now it’s your turn…………..<\/p>\n

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If you can come to grips with who you are and then spend your life trying to live up to your mission statement you are enjoying the greatest freedom a person can ever realize, I pray that for you! \u00a0Happy Independence Day!<\/p>\n

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Blessings,<\/p>\n

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the pilgrim<\/p>\n

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Postscript: \u00a0Of course I hope people like me, but I don’t live for that, and I know God loves me and that is enough! I just hope I never live in such a way that encourages other to think less of me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  First Happy Independence Day tomorrow! \u00a0Now why that title!? \u00a0When I was younger, much younger, I did “need” for people to like me, actually I wanted more \u00a0 \u00a0 than that, I wanted not to just be liked, but admired! \u00a0As I said, I was younger, less mature, and may I dare say less […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26244"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26251,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26244\/revisions\/26251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}