Raise Your Standard

Recently I have been thinking about and talking to my small group a bit about living a higher standard when you know your purpose and your value. Pastor Steve has been teaching on this as well.
When we lose focus of our purpose, calling and value it is so much easier to succumb to temptations. Maybe not the "BIG" ones but maybe temptations like self-centeredness, pride, jealousy, comparison, being offended easily, doubt, fear, anger, bad attitudes and the list goes on. I know first hand! :)
But, when we stay focused on God, who we are in Him, and that we were created for a purpose...it is way easier to resist those temptations. The more we start to live at a higher level, the more and more difficult it will be to go back to the "old ways".
You are called to walk the narrow, more difficult path but the Bible tells us few find it...could that even be referring to Christians?? :). I don't believe that just because we are a Christian means we have found and are walking the narrow way. I want to be "the few". Don't take the broad, easy, wide and comfortable way. Keep a close watch on your heart and mind and stay on the narrow, harder to find, less traveled path. Live at a higher level, raise your standard. Not in a prideful way, because we know that as soon as we think we are above something that is when we are most vulnerable to it.
Know your value and you will not be shaken by how others do or don't respond to you. Be a purposeful, positive person. Focus on where you want to be, keep yourself focused on the goal. If you focus on your failures, that is what you will move towards. If you focus on the negative, that is what you will move towards. You move towards where your focus is. The more you focus on what your're doing wrong and where you fail...the more you'll move toward that. Focus on what to be, don't focus on what not to be.
Remember how I talked about having a mission statement, and using it as your "filter"....I think all this is the heart behind that concept.
Usually when people fall into any kind of sin, it is because they simply lost focus of their purpose and value and they think.... "It doesn't really matter anyway".

It matters, you matter. Lets stay focused on who God created and called us to be, let's stay focused on Him and His ways, let's stay focused on the goal, the prize, the dream. If someone you know has got off track, try speaking vision and purpose back into them, breathe life on their dreams. Reconnect them to their purpose and watch them raise their standard once again.
Bless you all.