Last night I attended a seminar on anxiety and depression, and the speaker touched on the subject of worry and how useless it is. This reminded me of a remark made by my Pastor in a sermon a few years ago.
“If you insist on worrying you begin to look like you were baptized in lemon juice.”
Need more be said?
After attending two funerals this week and another today, I have just heard of one on the horizon. Whoa! So much grief in such a short span of time made me sit back and go through some devotional material to try to put it all into perspective and here is what was written in my spiritual journal in 2006; a quote from Our Daily Bread, brackets, mine.
If we are willing to submit to God, any loss in life will be seen as an opportunity to give back to him what is rightfully his and trust him to provide what is needed (comfort, peace, security, whatever is needed). If we commit ourselves to him daily and thank him for every blessing, our confidence in him will survive any test. Submission to God means taking our hands off what belongs to him.
And don’t we all belong to him? Now I will let go and let God pilot me through this sea of grief and pray that his peace and comfort will bless these grieving families.
God runs a beauty parlour–come, have a faith lift.
Happy weekend! 🙂
Those who suffer from tunnel vision will eventually see the light.
It is said that fools rush in where angels fear to tread. I’m no fool, but neither am I an angel. Today I will watch my step!
A Family is a deeply rooted tree with branches of different strengths all receiving nourishment from an infinite source.
A Family is where character is formed, values are learned, ethics are created, and society is preserved.
A Family is where all members contribute and share, cooperate and work, and accept their responsibilities toward the good of the group.
A Family is where holidays are celebrated with feasting, birthdays acknowledged with gifts, and thoughts of days gone by kept alive with fond remembrances.
A Family is where each can find solace and comfort in grief, pleasure and laughter in joy, and kindness and encouragement in daily living.
A Family is a haven of rest, a sanctuary of peace, and most of all a harbor of love.
I believe most, if not all, of these quotes were written by Manny Feldman.
On July 5th, I posted “Some Good Advice”. It seemed to be a bit of a flop. Always curious as to the “why” of things, I wondered if a different title and some serious editing would change the results; so here is my first reblog….
The first time I was asked to prepare and present a prayer to our congregation a few years ago, my knees knocked, my voice trembled–no–shook, and my mouth was so dry the words seemed to stick to the roof of it.
Once, I was asked to write a poem and read it aloud to over two hundred and fifty people. The thought terrified me, but it was for our Pastor’s tenth anniversary, and rather than disappoint, I pushed through the same fear and symptoms as the first time.
At some point I came across the following advice taken from different sources, and it eased my speaking burden somewhat. It also appeared to put a new slant on my writing; I found words seemed to come much easier. I’d like to share it with others who may sometimes feel the fear of facing an audience with their own written word.
ON SPEAKING/WRITING–
Polish and elegance can sometimes leave an audience quite cold. Experience and sincerity never fail to move them. We can never bring to anyone else an experience which we have not had ourselves.
We must always be willing to learn about ourselves. The last thing that most of us know is ourselves. It takes humility to know oneself.
Ask God for a calm spirit and the right words to say.
Unlock your inner strength; talk of those things that will make people the better for listening to you (R.W. Trine)
God gave you a message to share…don’t keep it to yourself. (Our Daily Bread) (I think!)
The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue to know the word that sustains the weary. (Isaiah, 50:4)
I am the Lord your God…I have put my words in your mouth…(Isaiah, 51:15,16)
Even as the Lord was preparing you to serve in his church, he was preparing others to be in a position to receive what you have to give them. He has paved the way for your ministry to be effective. In other words, others need what the Holy Spirit prompts you to prepare and give them. (Relying on the Holy Spirit…Charles Stanley, page 90).
Looking back, I can see how all of this advice worked for me in three talks I gave: Not to Worry, The Way I See It, and one about My Precious Life, before it was published.
Was it advice well taken? I think so.
God has always granted me the grace to be happy in spite of myself and/or certain circumstances, which is why I sometimes found myself happily living an unhappy life. (How’s that for an oxymoron?)
Some things are not always as they seem.
The major cause of most of my unhappiness was not getting along with some people…not for the lack of trying. People pleasing is my passion, but admittedly I am not always very good at it, and when I tick people off, I really tick them off!
Here are a few examples of how not to do that; some Biblical, some not. Again, my comments are in parenthesis.
If someone hurts you repeatedly, you are commanded by God to forgive them instantly, but you are not expected to trust them immediately, and you are not expected to continue allowing them to hurt you…The Purpose Driven Life – page 143. (This book has taught me so much.)
I am resolved in all human contact to meet petulance with patience, questionings with kindness, hatred with love, eager always to do the kindly deed that brings the joy of service and that alone makes human life truly human…Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite. (Easier said?)
Love your enemies for they tell you your faults….Benjamin Franklin. (And that can be a good thing.)
…Encourage each other daily….Hebrews 3:13. (Don’t we all need daily encouragement?)
Compassion is to share with another whatever it is that circumstances are bringing to bear on that other. It means to be with, to share, to overlap, no matter how difficult or painful it may be…Madeleine L’Engle, Author. (Remember “A Wrinkle in Time”? This author was a great encourager.)
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can…John Wesley. (This is a tall order, but you don’t have to be tall to fill it.)
Let everyone you meet be happier for having met you, for having spoken to you. This you can do by spreading joy….Edgar Cayce. (Ah, joy…that elusive, fleeting feeling of euphoria…I love it!)
Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend…Albert Camus. (Even if I tick you off!)
And finally, “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments…”2 Timothy 2:23 NIV (I love this advice but don’t always take it!)
Please, just walk beside me and be my friend…
The longer I live, the more I learn, and the more I learn, the more I want to learn. Now, onto more famous quotes. (Once again, my comments are in parenthesis.) By the way, I saved the best for last; it’s a real thought provoker.
No man’s life can be encompassed in one telling. There is no way to give each year its allotted weight, to include each event, each person who helped to shape a lifetime. What can be done is to be faithful in spirit to the record and try to find one’s way to the heart of man…Mahatma Ghandi. (I always wondered what this meant until I wrote my book, and then it became clear.)
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience…Pierre Tielhard de Chardin. (This one keeps my thinking cap on!)
Never be entirely idle but either be reading or writing or praying or meditating or endeavoring something for the public good…Thomas A Kempis-early 15th century. (I found this one in a cemetary.)
All that we are is a result of all that we have thought…Buddha. (It reminds me of As a Man Thinketh by James Allen.)
I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all I ever knew), their names are what and where and when and how and why and who…Rudyard Kipling. (It is said that this is a journalist’s mantra.)
The individual human personality has bound up inside itself, a connection to all the wonders of the universe…Sidney Poitier in The Measure of a Man. (I like to think of this as truth.)
Focus on the front windshield and not on the rearview mirror of life…Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State. (That goes for driving a car too!)
It is one thing to talk about God. It is quite another thing to experience God…Leonard Sweet, Methodist Theologian. (The experience is what encourages the talk.)
Life is God’s gift to you, the way you live it is your gift to God…Leo Buscaglia. (Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.)
Live that you wouldn’t be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip…Will Rogers. (That’s why I never had a parrot.)
We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give…Winston Churchill. (This doesn’t mean just money…does it?)
I expect to pass through life but once, if therefore, there can be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow human being, let me do it now…William Penn. (I hope this cures me of my procrastination.)
And finally…
What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep you dreamed? And what if in your dream you went to heaven and plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awoke, you had the flower in your hand?…Samuel Taylor Coleridge. (No comment.)
My Precious Life 