Categories
Archives
Search
In Corrogue I count my Blessings.
These are numerous. There is every breath in. There is every breath out. There is every heartbeat that reminds me of the joy of compassion and the blessing of this experience called life.
Each day I count my breath for ten minutes. In this way it becomes refined. I am refined and in truth I feel fine. I do not subscribe to our socially sanctioned emotional education. This is when we are asked, “How are you?” you reply, “Fine.” This is whether you are fine or not. Most of the time you are not allowed to be “not fine.”
Sometimes I do not feel fine. I feel angry, frustrated, self-pitying, hurt, denying and any number of other emotional reactions that “little me” has in the moment.
When I come to my senses and enter my body, leave “thinking about,” leave “my future plans,” leave “my past regrets,” then I am here. I am present. I am alive breathing in and breathing out. I am not “wanting” and I am “going nowhere.” Just sitting authorising this life moment. Simply sitting being authentic. Just being my own authority.
When you count your blessings it begins as something “you do.” You have to, in the beginning, make it a habit. You learn just to wake up for a moment. You learn that you are alive. Most of us breathe without ever being aware of this wondrous connection to all that is. Becoming aware of the breath is a gateway to feeling fine. When you feel fine you feel blessed. In this way you set up a circle. You set up a technique of completeness.
Continue with this practice and you become the Blessing. Rather than be focused on the social consciousness of “never enough” you get to celebrate. You get to drop your constant focus on “earning a living” to becoming the “living of love.” For some moments you begin to recognise that you are “life” living “life.” You are the flow of the eternal moment.
From this sense of blessing you start to give. You start to give yourself away. As Kahlil Gibran tells us, “You give much when you give of yourself.” When you start to feel blessed rather than “think about” giving thanks for blessings you get balanced. Giving happens. Giving is natural. Giving is the energy of love. You pour yourself away and as you pour you paradoxically get filled up with the love of the Divine. You become one who is fulfilled.
Every one of us can find a blessing everyday if we wish. We only have to learn to look. We have to learn to look not only with the eyes but also with the heart. We are taught to look with eyes that grasp. Our eyes become seekers, not of soul, but of things to fill up the emptiness of our souls. Relax the eyes of wanting. We have more than enough. We only need to see this. You see when you drop judging, comparing and focusing on what you do not have.
Relax and allow this blessing of life to flow. Let it flow through a body that is fine and refined. Stop judging this body. Learn to love it as it is. It is not who you are. It is a wondrous gift given from the Beloved. It is intelligent and always working to bring you back to your senses. You cannot love it too much. It will bring you into the blessing of harmony.
So start counting. Make up your own blessing. Share them with me if you wish. I make one up each day and write about what it means. Thus I get to see through the heart. I never tire of Blessings. “Blessings” as a word is related to the word “blood.” Have the sense of blessing flow through a body and mind at peace.
Blessings upon you and all those you love and do not love.
Tony Cuckson is an Anam Cara. This Celtic term means “Soul Friend.” He specializes in providing insight for the spiritual journey, Irish Blessings, words of wisdom and finding inner peace. Visitors to Irish Blessings Matter website and Tony’s Blog get the opportunity to develop a purpose driven life through articles, newsletters and other programs. Get your free report called “7 ways to it’s a wonderful life” at http://www.irishblessingsmatter.com or visit Tony’s Blog at http://www.irishblessingsmatter.info for the best resources on spiritual growth, spiritual cinema, spiritual parenting, spiritual coaching and spirit in business.
This man is an Anglican priest but with a difference. You would not want to offend him put it that way. His online ministry helps to serve the community of street youth homeless/drug-addicted/criminal in a very unique way - by teaching them how to fight for starters.
At the end of this article I will leave you with Father Dave’s Top 10 of why we need to teach our youngsters boxing in order to make them less violent…
What does it conjur in your mind when you think Anglican priest? Maybe a religious person? An old man pontificating whilst shrouded by church incense? Or perhaps a born-again Christian jumping about singing ‘Praise the Lord on high’ and speaking in tongues amidst wails and shrieks of people being moved by the Spirit ‘Toronto blessing style.’
Let me tell you that though he wears a dog-collar this man is no weakling. Father dave Smith is the minister of Holy Trinity Dulwich Hill in Sydney, Australia. From his own bio:
“My mother died while I was still 16. It was the same day that I bought my first leather jacket. By this stage I’d developed a rather passionate attraction to the ‘Sex Pistols’ and to the nihilism of the British Punk scene. With my leather jacket and metal studs though I modelled my persona more on Dee Dee Ramone of the American punk group ‘The Ramones’.”
We often neglect our spirituality. You can sign up for Father Dave’s free affiliates only newsletter here A WARRIOR FORUM EXCLUSIVE:
http://www.fightshop.biz/ezGaffurl.php?offer=samuk1000&pid=ezine
Father Dave is the ex-champion of Hapkido worldwide.
Now what is the difference between Father Dave and most other persons who use the internet as a shop or store. For one, just check out Dave’s shop here and listen to the message. It’s honest, frank and you won’t get a much better browse on the internet. Only the best on the web here folks.
http://www.fightshop.biz/ezGaffurl.php?offer=samuk1000&pid=0
Here’s what some others have been saying about Father Dave, friends:
“He’s as comfortable punching as he is preaching - which is just as well for the hundreds of teenagers this fighting father figure has saved from a life on the streets.”
Greg McLean (Aussie Post)
“This nuggety minister has seen life from both sides of the tracks.”
Steve Lacey (Sydney Morning Herald)
“Dave is a man of wonderful vision and never misses an opportunity to help others where he can … I count myself fortunate to know him personally and to have him as a driving force in my Council area.”
Barry Cotter (Mayor of Marrickville)
“I go to the man. I go to The Man’s man. I go to the street, to the edge of the breakdown. I go to a man of God who wouid rather see kids throwing punches than punching heroin into their veins. Anglican priest Father Dave Smith”
Jeff Wells (Daily Telegraph)
“Father Dave is gifted in providing the young with a sense of purpose.”
Councillor Dimitrios Thanos (Marrickville Council)
“fists of steel, a kick like a mule, the head of a fox and a heart of gold”
Ross Willis (Western Suburbs Courier)
Father Dave also has two digital products available. One, ‘Sex, the Ring and the Eucharist’ was in the Amazon Top 500 on the day of release. I urge you to check these out. The second is an inspirational original from the forefather’s of America. This is just what our spirit’s need. Let Father Dave welcome you. You can even watch him in the ring if you wish. Hee are the links to Father Dave’s webpages:
‘Sex, the Ring and the Eucharist’
http://www.fightshop.biz/ezGaffurl.php?offer=samuk1000&pid=1
U.S. Civil War ebook library
http://www.fightshop.biz/ezGaffurl.php?offer=samuk1000&pid=3
At the beginning I promised you Father Dave’s Top 10 reasons for teaching our youngsters boxing. Here they are:
When young people are in a disciplined training routine they have no time to cause trouble
Even when they have the time, they are too tired to cause trouble after a solid night’s training
Young people learn to work happily in a structured environment which has positive effects at school
In the boxing gym they learn to accept authority
Through competitive fighting, young people learn to set goals for their lives
Through developing their physical capabilities young people develop greater self-esteem
The training routine teaches them self-discipline
Through learning to control their response when they are hit, young people develop self-control
Boxing training is very cathartic for persons carrying a lot of emotional baggage or anger
When a young person joins a gym they join a new peer group of persons not involved in drugs or criminal activities
THIS IS A SAM BEATSON ORIGINAL. I DO COPY’S AND ORIGINAL HYPNOTIC SALES LETTERS FOR THOSE INTERESTED…
GENERAL TO CONVERT YOUR PRODUCT AND BONUSES INTO A HYPNOTIC PITCH WILL COST YOU JUST $19.97 VIA PAYPAL email me if you interested in tweaking your letters to make people feel really good about your product before jumping on the wagon full and making that purchase
sambeatson@yahoo.co.uk
Sam Beatson is a medically qualified professional. He is a professional network marketer also. His goals including patenting a therapeutic and painless cure for cancer and AIDS as well as drugs to treat viruses. He enjoys life with his wife and daughter, May and Lulu, playing saxophone, practising taiji and helping others to build residual incomes.
Nothing is predestined. The obstacles of your past canbecome the gateways that lead to new beginnings. Henry Davis Thoreau
I hear myself saying out loud, “it’s ok, it is really ok.” It’s ok that I am now having a harder time losing 10 pounds, it’s ok that I can’t remember names as well as I once did. I suppose it’s ok that my husband and I no longer have the earning power to make money that we once did.
Change is unwelcome, especially as you get older and yet, change is the only thing in life that is for sure. As we age, I think we are a little reluctant to embrace a different world. Ironically, at this age, we are facing the most changes in our life.
Some of the changes that stand out for me are:
(1) Rearing children in a different way.
(2) Marriage is not accepted by everyone in our society. Some prefer to live together.
(3) Even though technology is moving forward, (cell phones, e-mail) I think people are feeling even more isolated.
(4) Many employers shy away from hiring “older people”, thus making the older population feel unwanted and unappreciated.
Now that I think about it, maybe it’s not so much the change itself, as the realization that values and memories from childhood are disappearing. That makes us feel invisible. That tears our beloved memories apart, as if it never happened.
Remember your childhood. Remember how safe you felt. We never locked our doors. Doctors made house calls. Dry cleaning and fresh milk was delivered to your door. The grocer in the small town where I came from always let you have groceries, whether you had the money or not. He would keep a running tab but I am sure some of the people could never pay.(I am not suggesting that grocers go by this example now.)
Of course, 50’s Music was the best! I don’t remember such a thing as an “R” rated movie. There are times when I feel that God made a mistake and I was supposed to be born in the “Little House on the Prairie” era. Recently, when my grandchild came to visit, she didn’t know what a thermometer was, that is not the kind of thermometer I had. She knew what a digital thermometer was. Needless to say, she was confused when I had to “shake down” the thermometer before taking her temperature.
She also showed me how to open “child-proof” medicine bottles. When I complimented this six year old child on how great she looked in her aqua tee shirt, she answered, “only people over sixty use the word “aqua.” We have a good relationship but I bet she tells her mommy how strange grandmother is at times, especially to use the word, “aqua.”
I have to turn this around quickly, lest you think I am negative and bitter. First of all, if you don’t have a sense of humor at this age, you need to get one. Most of the time, I don’t REALLY listen to my husband and he doesn’t REALLY listen to me. Therefore, we have come to an agreement. Never preface a statement with “like I said” or “I guess you didn’t hear me but…….”
We have to laugh at some of the things we do or don’t do. I think it is funny that we are “Mommy” and “Daddy” to our pet dog, Sunny, I’m sure my grown children think it is funny, too. If you can laugh at yourself and what you are experiencing, you will be a much happier and more age-accepting person.
Besides having a sense of humor, what about the changes I mentioned? Let’s look again.
(1) Rearing children in a different way; this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I see my daughters wisely spending more time with their children versus trying to keep a perfect house all the time. That seemed to be the prize in my younger days. Let’s see who can have the whitest diapers (I hung them on the line) or who can do the most. I would sew all our clothes, cook, do housework and when taking them to dance or swimming class, I would take some craft work to do while waiting. You know what I wish now? Wish I had watched the classes, did less cleaning and played and read more to my four daughters. I think that my daughters are actually better at parenting than I was. Each generation seems to evolve. In my mother’s day, children were seen and now heard…..that wasn’t good. Look how we have improved and evolved.
(2) Marriage is not accepted by all in our society; Maybe this is a good thing. When I was in college, most of the girls came back to school after Christmas vacation sporting an engagement ring. That was the ultimate. Oh, how I worried that I wouldn’t ever get married and have children. You definitely had to have all of your children by the age of thirty. Marriage, for the sake of being married was definitely the ultimate for a young girl. Having said that, I really lucked out because I have a wonderful husband that loves me. We have grown together as time marches on. I really believe in marriage but I am glad the young women of today are preparing to earn a living and be independent. Marriage is a good thing but it is not for everyone.
(3) Even though technology is moving forward, I think people feel more isolated; What can I say about this? I do get so annoyed listening to cell phone conversations everywhere that I go, but then, if you need to get in touch with someone, you can. E-mail is great because it takes the place of letter writing and we are more likely to express ourselves. How about the cute e-cards that you can send out? I have to say that technology wins on this one, too.
(4) Many employees shy away from hiring “older people.” I do think that is true in some work cultures. However, I think they will be forced to accept older people more willingly as the median age of our society climbs upward. I think the baby boomers will get all of this straightened out. Until then, if you must work, try to find a fun job. Try to do something you have always wanted to do and don’t be so serious. You don’t have to run a corporation in your sixties. Let the baby boomers do it. We don’t have to prove anything anymore. We can just be ourselves. I didn’t mention this earlier but I think as we grow older, there is a certain “knowing” that we really will die. When you are younger, you feel that you have plenty of time but it is different in your fifties and sixties. Just look at the obituaries in the newspaper. I believe you are happier if you accept this fact the best you can. Accept it by making or at least talking about funeral arrangements and get your life in order. Once you face it dead on, it doesn’t seem to be like a monster in the dark. I think most of us face this. It isn’t so much the dying, as hoping that we won’t die an awful, painful death.
Keeping the death thing in mind, enjoy each day fully. The past is gone, the future is not here. So, we only have today. Life is a gift and that’s why each day we live is called the present.
Something wonderful has happened to me the last few months. Underneath the “knowing” that I really will die is an undercurrent of my strong Christian beliefs that there is another life……a wonderful life…and I know that for sure…I hear myself singing hymns that I used to sing years ago. In knowing how to live, I will know how to die……..I hear myself singing and I am happy that I am at this age…..it’s like a well-kept secret. It’s a happy, satisfying time of your life! I’m Moving on….. by Francine Larson, co-author of CHARACTER KEYS TO A BRIGHT FUTUREE-Mail: Threeteacherpress@verizon.net
Francine Larson
Has an AA Degree From St Petersburg College.
Taught Nursery School, Children’s Choir,
Paraprofessional for First Grade
Co-Author of Character Keys to a Bright Future.
Writes poetry, short stories and articles.
Unlimited Minutes published by Taborri.Com
Personal: Married, four daughters
Her web site is: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso4qht
(Three Teacher Press)
Her personal author’s web site at: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso4qht/franniesfineswordsfromtheheart
(Frannies Fine Words from the Heart)
Contact Information: Threeteacherpress@verizon.net
The bedrock of the Christian faith is the good news about God’s love. Christian teachings about who we are and about our relationship with our Lord and each other is rooted in the fact that God is love and that He loves His creatures. “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16.
When we are really hurting, we put up our defenses, become rebellious, and may even feel victimized. We keep trying to lighten the burden by using our own meager resources. We try all sorts of escape mechanisms, only to discover that we feel more and more isolated, lonely, and lost. Our greatest need is to let God into our life.
Do you realize that God really loves you and His love is there to heal you, renew you, restore you, and lift you up? You may be carrying a heavy burden. Let God remove the load. You may be experiencing a broken relationship. Let God mend your heart. It may be job dissatisfaction, financial difficulties, or a deep concern for a world possessed by unspeakable evil and destructive powers. But right now, in this moment of grace, in this moment of spiritual renewal, discover God’s gentle healing power in your life.
God is reaching out to comfort you as you have never been comforted before. Why not allow God to hug you right now? Let Him put His loving, compassionate arms around you right now. Experience the dissipation of all your hurts and disappointments as you permit yourself to be soothed, massaged, and gentled by your gracious loving Father.
Prayer:
Gracious Father, in this moment of grace, in this moment of spiritual refreshing, lift my burdens and bring your gentle healing power into my life. Support me, O Lord, through this troublesome life, until the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over, and my work is done. Then Lord, in your mercy grant me a safe lodging, a holy rest, and sweet peace at last; for the honor of our Advocate and Mediator, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Rev. Saundra L. Washington, D.D., is an ordained clergywoman, veteran social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries. She is also the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances: Homilies that Teach which can be reviewed on her site. Her new book, Out of Deep Waters: My Grief Management Workbook, is expected to be available soon.
You are welcome to visit AMEN Ministries: Your Soul’s Service Station for spiritual refreshing, soul edification, browse our newly expanded mini shopping mall or review our recommended books you may want to add to your personal library.
Blessings to all!
I had a rotten fifth grade. Although I made good grades, worked hard, was quiet and mostly obedient, Sister Saint Therese du Divine Coeur hated messy. And I was so messy.
Sister Saint Therese made us fasten our winter boots together with clothespins, line up our book bags neatly in a row under the windows, and cover our textbooks with brown paper. Plain, blank brown paper. Months into the school year, we still weren’t supposed to have a single doodle on any cover. I was ten. I don’t think I need to elaborate.
I also never remembered to bring a head scarf to wear on confession day. So once a month, I confessed with a Kleenex bobby-pinned to my head.
But in Sister Saint Therese’s eyes, my penmanship was her purgatory. Her handwriting was like the Declaration of Independence. Mine was the way desperate people scrawl on bathroom mirrors when they’ve been kidnapped.
At Saint Anne’s School, composition was the most important subject. That was fine with me. I was a wonderful storyteller, and I knew it. But in fifth grade, our monthly essays became ordeals. Because our stories didn’t only need to be beautifully written, they had to be beautifully written.
Each student would write a first draft on “practice paper” — cheap grayish sheets from the communal tablet. We would bring our essays one at a time to Sister. She’d look them over, correcting our spelling and grammar as she clicked her teeth. Then from her desk drawer, she would hand us our black-and-white-speckled composition book. The paper in the book was stapled to the center, so unlike spiral notebooks, if you tore out a sheet, the composition book tattled on you. Talk about leaving a paper trail.
Once we were handed our books, we were supposed to turn to the next blank page and copy our finished essay. With a fountain pen.
Giving me a fountain pen was like giving a toddler a bowl of spaghetti. No matter how careful I was — how deliberately I formed every letter — something would always go wrong. An a looked more like a d, an m always had one too many humps, the line that crossed through the t in “the” always crossed through the h, too. And don’t get me started on the ink blots and the smears. (I challenge each of you with a ten-year-old to look at your child right now and picture him with an old-fashioned fountain pen in his hand.)
So I’d turn in my story riddled with smears, blobs, shaky letters, and mistakes, all of which I had tried to fix. Sister Saint Therese would be furious.
“Mother Mary would weep!” she’d cry, holding up my open book for all the class to see. Sister Saint Therese du Divine Coeur was a serious humiliator.
That’s when I’d get a Black Ticket. These were small pieces of paper about the size of a Band-Aid, black felt on one side and white on the other. You wrote your name on the white side and deposited the ticket in the Black Box, which sat directly in front of the statue of the Blessed Virgin. I think we were supposed to be offering up our sins, but for the life of me I never understood why Mary would want our sins in the first place.
At the end of every month, Sister Therese would open the box and read the names one by one. How we dreaded hearing our names come out of that box. A ten-ticket count was very bad. Once you accumulated that many tickets, you had to write your name in the Black Book. This could be considered the hotel registry for Hell. And I got booked. Repeatedly.
The school year is an eternity when you’re ten. And when most days include at least one moment of mortification, they crawl like Palm Sunday’s high mass. But the Blessed Virgin must have known that no child should be a nervous wreck forever, because when I got to sixth grade, my teacher was Sister Regina Marie.
Like all the nuns at Saint Anne’s, Sister Regina was strict. She looked to be six feet tall. Her habit stopped just short of her ankles, so you could see her thick black stockings and heavy-soled shoes. She had big hands with knuckles like my grandfather’s.
In Sister Regina’s class, we marched like West Point cadets. Slouching was lazy, and laziness was a mortal sin. She had little tolerance for fidgety boys and less for giggly girls. And she liked science way too much for my tastes. But all of this was okay with me, because with Sister Regina there were no Black Tickets, no Black Box, no Black Book — and no black-and-white-speckled composition books.
For our essays, Sister Regina had snow-white paper with the palest of blue lines. And she sold us (at cost, I hope) special ballpoint pens.
“These pens are one hundred percent guaranteed never to leak,” she said. “You will never get a glob of ink at the tip to mess up your papers.” I bought one right away, and when my grandmother gave me 50 cents for running an errand, I bought a spare. I knew a bargain when I saw one. Still, the thought of putting that glob-proof pen to that immaculate sheet of paper was too much to bear.
When Sister Regina announced our first essay assignment of the school year, I was expecting it to be “How I Spent My Summer Vacation.” Not so. Instead, we were told to “describe something beautiful.”
On my walk to school each day, I passed a tree that looked like any other for most of the year — except at autumn, when it turned the most brilliant red. So I wrote about the red tree and how it always caught me by surprise. Since I liked telling stories more than describing things, the story was about a tree that decided, quite deliberately, to stay green as long as possible, letting all the other trees go first, the better to startle everyone by turning every single leaf to crimson over the course of one night.
It was a pretty good story for an eleven-year-old, once you got past the thesaurus overload. (I had a tiny green book called Little Book of Synonyms, and I applied it liberally.) My tree was fiery, ruby, crimson, scarlet, vermillion, blood-drenched like a rose, a beet, an apple, a sunset. I was in vocabulary paradise and delighted with my essay.
But I had to write the finished version on that pristine paper. With a death grip on my special pen, I was overcome with fear. The tears came, and I cried all over my white paper.
Sister Regina came over to my desk. She leaned over me from her great height.
“What in the world is the matter with you?” she asked.
I looked away. I could hardly answer. ‘Tm afraid I will make a mistake,” I whispered.
“So what?” Sister Regina said.
So what?! So what if I made a mistake? I suddenly felt like I was the star of one of those catechism filmstrips, like the one where Saint Paul gets knocked off his horse. Because at that moment, angels began singing and the clouds parted and the sun shone down on my ruby tree. A teacher had actually said “So what!”
Sister Regina leaned in closer, her veil providing a small, private space for the two of us.
“Look,” she said quietly, “we all want everything we do to be perfect, but sometimes it just doesn’t turn out that way, because we aren’t perfect. If you aren’t satisfied when you’re done, and you think you can do it better — not perfect, just better — well, then, just do it again. You can do it as many times as you like.”
I’ve had many wonderful teachers who have guided and inspired me. But Sister Regina Marie’s kind words at that moment have meant as much to me as anything I have heard before or since.
In those few words, I learned one of the most reassuring lessons of life: that you don’t have to be perfect. You only have to satisfy yourself. And there is no limit to the number of chances you get.
I’m still messy. So what?
Copyright © 2006 Marlo Thomas
Marlo Thomas graduated from the University of Southern California with a teaching degree. She is the author of four bestselling books, Free to Be . . . You and Me, Free to Be . . . a Family, The Right Words at the Right Time, and Thanks and Giving: All Year Long. Ms. Thomas has won four Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, a Grammy, the Peabody Award, and has been inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame for her work in television, including her starring role in the landmark series That Girl, which she also conceived and produced. She is the National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Ms. Thomas lives in New York with her husband, Phil Donahue.
For more information, please visit http://www.rightwordsbooks.com.
Most weddings would not be complete without the Best Man
or Maid of Honor to stand as witnesses. This honorary title
of Best Man comes to the groom’s best friend in life. This is
the truest friend he could ever have. This friend knows the
groom better than anyone and is loyal. Their friendship has
grown over the years because of trust. The best friend has
learned to respond to the voice of his friend and believes
what is told to him. This forms an unbreakable bond, they
are “brothers” so to speak.
Everything God set up in the Old Testament was a
foreshadowing of Christ in the New Testament. God laid
down the foundation of what was to come through His Son
Jesus. God spoke of the relationship between Him and His
children of Israel as a Bridegroom and His Bride.
“And I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to
Me in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and
mercy.” Hosea 2:19 (Amplified)
God made it no secret that the relationship we are to have
with Him is like a coveted vow between a husband and a
wife. Our faithfulness to Him will secure our eternity with
Him. He does not look kindly on infedelity. You can read
God’s remarks on this when He dealt with the people in
Israel for marrying daughters of foreign gods (Mal. 2:11)
Once Christ came on the scene, He fulfilled all the prophesy
and law in the Old Testament. Christ Himself came as the
Bridegroom and the church is to be His Bride, taken in a
sacred, holy marriage. Did Christ have a best man? Yes, his
name was John the Baptist. Let’s look at the role of the best
man in John and how it compares to our role today as the
Best Man to the Bridegroom.
No. 1. His first role as bestman is to do everything the
bridegroom asks of him. He stands by and listens for
instructions and follows them without question.
“He who has the bride is the bridgroom; but the groomsman
who stands by and listens to him rejoices greatly and
heartily on account of the bridegroom’s voice. This then is
my pleasure and joy, and it is now complete.” John 2:29
(Amplified)
No. 2. He has to stand back and allow the bridegroom to
have the center spotlight.
“He must increase, but I must decrease. (He must grow
more prominent; I must grow less so.)” John 2:30
(Amplified)
No. 3. It’s the best man’s job to unite the bride and
bridegroom and step aside. There is no jealousy.
(Read vs. 29) “This then is my pleasure and joy, and it is
now complete.”
No. 4. In the days of the traditional Jewish weddings, a tent
was set up for the newlyweds. The celebration would
continue for a week. The bride would enter into the tent
before her new husband and while she was waiting there
for him, the best man would guard the tent and make sure
that no false lover would gain entrance. Today, we must
guard our hearts against intruders who want to seperate us
from the love of Christ with false teachings and doctrine.
When we have a bestman such as a pastor, teacher,
minister or friend who guards our relationship with Christ as
sacred, they will stand outside and prevent an illicit love
affair from ever happening. We all must take the role of a
Best Man and guard others from being fooled on their
wedding night.
No. 5. The Best Man will rejoice and be happy for the
Bridegroom. He knows the Bridegroom came for the Bride
and the Best Man is happy to step aside and let the union
take place.
(Read vs. 29) “This then is my pleasure and joy, and it is
now complete.”
By doing these things, the Best Man;s job is complete in
doing what he promised to do. He united them in
matrimony.
When we listen to others who are taught in the Word of God
and bring it to us, we are like sheep who hear our master’s
voice. Sometimes however, the voice we hear is not of our
master. Many Christians get fooled into hearing the wrong
directions. They are easily trapped into believing that God
speaks in powerful and mighty ways and they can’t discern
whether it’s really God or not. How can we tell? Here is one
way to make sure.
“And He said, Go out and stand on the mount before the
Lord. And behold the Lord passed by, and a great and
strong wind rent the mountains and broke in pieces the
rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and
after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the
earthquake; And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was
not in the fire; and after the fire (a sound of gentle stillness
and) a still, small voice.” 1 Kings 19:11-12 (Amplified)
The Best Man learns to hear the voice of the Bridegroom. He
doesn’t have to scream and shout. He speaks with a quiet
and gentle tone. Don’t get pulled into emotional excitement.
We are in such a time as this where there are so many
other voices out there competing for our attention and if we
don’t recognize the voice of the Bridegroom, we will soon
perish.
“(Hark!) An uproar from the city! A voice from the temple! The
voice of the Lord, rendering recompense to His enemies!”
Isaiah 66:6 (Amplified)
Today we have so many outside distractions. We hear
voices coming from every direction. We hear voices from
the city which is the world in general. These can be quite
overbearing. We hear voices from the temples, which is the
religions of the world, all claiming to know the real truth and
then there is THE VOICE of the Lord. Those who do not
recognize His voice are considered His enemies.
But Jesus refered to sheep hearing voices of strangers
many times. He says that even the sheep will run from the
strange voice. Are we not smarter than sheep? Christ calls
us all by name. He doesn’t want a long distance
relationship with us and He doesn’t want any false
shepherds to tell you that you are unworthy to come to Him.
Don’t be deceived by a false lover.
“But you do not believe and trust and rely on Me because
you do not belong to My fold (you are no sheep of Mine). The
sheep that are My own hear and are listening to My voice;
and I will know them, and they will follow Me.” John 10:26-27
(Amplified)
God has already spoken to His children and He wants us all
to know His Voice. When we are asked to be the Best Man,
we will hear only His voice which has come for us to be a
part of the grand wedding ceremony. He speaks to us for
our own sakes’. Don’t take orders from a voice you do not
recognize as the Bridegroom’s.
“(Rather, I will say) Father, glorify (honor and extol) Your
(own) name! Then there came a voice out of heaven saying,
I have already glorified it, and I will glorify it again. The crowd
of bystanders heard the sound and said that it had
thundered; others said, An angel has spoken to Him! Jesus
answered, This voice has not come for My sake, but for your
sake.” John 12:28-30 (Amplified)
The people who were standing by were not sure what they
had heard. Some thought it was thunder, others thought it
was an angel who was speaking to Jesus. Let’s not make
that same mistake today. Learn to hear your Bridegroom’s
voice through the leading of your pastor, preacher, minister,
or teacher who has been asked to be the Best Man for the
job. He is speaking to you for your sake, because he already
knows the true Bridegroom’s voice and has vowed to unite
you with Him in a sacred and holy union.
I pray that you will hear only the voice of the Bridegroom and
do all the honored duties that will bring His Bride to Him.
This is a great honor and it requires obedience and
faithfulness. This is a job for a steward who is willing to care
for the things that do not belong to him. It’s a willingness to
stand back and decrease because you are finite and allow
the Bridegroom to increase because He is heavenly and
infinite.
If you can fill the shoes of a Best Man, Jesus will fill your
heart with love as a Bride.
Vivian Gordon writes inspirational and spiritual articles
in which to help strengthen the Believer’s walk in Christ.
They are often taken from today’s point of view and
used in conjunction with what God says about certain
situations and how we are to handle them. There is
always an answer for every problem. These articles are
not all about asking God “why?” but in finding the
answers.
What would your life be like if you lived each
event backwards? If you knew what was coming in
your life next how would you react?
John Eldredge writes in his book Waking the Dead,
“God what do you have for my heart today?” He
continues by saying, “you may be stunned by what
he guides you into. I began the day at six in the
morning asking God, “What do you have for my heart
today Lord.” I had a few minutes to spare this
morning (very unusual) so I had a cup of coffee at
Starbucks. During that time a brain storm came to
me and I wrote feverously for thirty minutes,
jumped in the car and decided to take a tour of
the new Wal-Mart food store in St. Matthews as I
headed back to work. When I arrived at the store
it was not raining, as I began to leave it was
pouring. I didn’t buy anything so I went out the
entrance way. At the same time I realized it was
raining an elderly woman coming into the store
asked me to help with fix her umbrella, it was
stuck open. I’m thinking, not now lady my top’s
down in my car and there are fish swimming in it,
but calmly with a smile I help her. Then she wants
me to fold it for her, you’ve got to be kidding
me. She proceeds to thank me (as I swiftly move
away) and she says, “by the way there is a
convertible in the parking lot with the top down.
As I ran out I yell that’s mine thank you: Now,
how many seventy year old woman notice or even
care about a comfortable sports car in the midst
of fifty cars in a lot? I get in, sit in a puddle
of water, close the top and start to drive off. As
I do so, I look over and see a plastic hair
protector (I don’t know what the real name of them
are. Elderly people wear them to cover there hair
up from rain) covering my books and what I wrote
at the coffee shop. It was then I realized what
God had just allowed to happen. The same women I
just helped had taken off her head wear and put it
over my books protecting them from the rain. “What
do you want from my heart today Lord, was just
answered.” I didn’t know this lady, nor did she
know me or my car, that wasn’t the massage. The
massage was, we reap what we sow. What ever you
want for your heart you must sow. Isn’t that just
like God to answer our prayers by teaching us
something. He didn’t directly answer it he put it
back on me with a life experience.
What ever your heart needs or desires give it
away. Give it away until your heart becomes a
reservoir of life. Is your heart a canal or is it
a reservoir? Is it over flowing or just passing
by? Today giving something precious of yours away
this week. Maybe it’s time, maybe its, money,
maybe it’s processions. “What do you want for my
heart Lord?” It may be then we realize there are
Angels among us all the time.
What would your life be like if you lived each
event backwards? If you knew what was coming in
your life next how would you react?
John Eldredge writes in his book Waking the Dead,
“God what do you have for my heart today?” He
continues by saying, “you may be stunned by what
he guides you into. I began the day at six in the
morning asking God, “What do you have for my heart
today Lord.” I had a few minutes to spare this
morning (very unusual) so I had a cup of coffee at
Starbucks. During that time a brain storm came to
me and I wrote feverously for thirty minutes,
jumped in the car and decided to take a tour of
the new Wal-Mart food store in St. Matthews as I
headed back to work. When I arrived at the store
it was not raining, as I began to leave it was
pouring. I didn’t buy anything so I went out the
entrance way. At the same time I realized it was
raining an elderly woman coming into the store
asked me to help with fix her umbrella, it was
stuck open. I’m thinking, not now lady my top’s
down in my car and there are fish swimming in it,
but calmly with a smile I help her. Then she wants
me to fold it for her, you’ve got to be kidding
me. She proceeds to thank me (as I swiftly move
away) and she says, “by the way there is a
convertible in the parking lot with the top down.
As I ran out I yell that’s mine thank you: Now,
how many seventy year old woman notice or even
care about a comfortable sports car in the midst
of fifty cars in a lot? I get in, sit in a puddle
of water, close the top and start to drive off. As
I do so, I look over and see a plastic hair
protector (I don’t know what the real name of them
are. Elderly people wear them to cover there hair
up from rain) covering my books and what I wrote
at the coffee shop. It was then I realized what
God had just allowed to happen. The same women I
just helped had taken off her head wear and put it
over my books protecting them from the rain. “What
do you want from my heart today Lord, was just
answered.” I didn’t know this lady, nor did she
know me or my car, that wasn’t the massage. The
massage was, we reap what we sow. What ever you
want for your heart you must sow. Isn’t that just
like God to answer our prayers by teaching us
something. He didn’t directly answer it he put it
back on me with a life experience.
What ever your heart needs or desires give it
away. Give it away until your heart becomes a
reservoir of life. Is your heart a canal or is it
a reservoir? Is it over flowing or just passing
by? Today giving something precious of yours away
this week. Maybe it’s time, maybe its, money,
maybe it’s processions. “What do you want for my
heart Lord?” It may be then we realize there are
Angels among us all the time.
Greg Ryan is a best selling author of the Changing from the INSIDE OUT series. A powerful five step plan to better your life, get healthier, and have more energy!
For FREE mini Course click here! http://www.resolutions.bz
Let’s have a look at how our thoughts hold us captive and sabotage both our health and wealth:
1. If this is a total revelation to you, then look back and see where the thoughts originated. Were they implanted by family members, teachers, church leaders, or fear?
* Repetition of thoughts can translate into infallible truths in your belief system, whether true or false.
2. Were these individuals financially blessed? Could they have been the products of wrong teaching and/or fear themselves?
* “Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat..” Lu. 12:22. The Lord is our Provider. He does not want us to worry and fear.
3. Whenever an opportunity came your way to invest, did you listen to the negative voices in your head - thoughts of fear of losing?
* It is good to be quiet and hear the still voice that says: You can do it; you’re capable; you are worthy to want more in your life. Don’t be afraid to heed wise counsel.Can you do something about changing your belief system and results? Absolutely! Study His Word, believe it, and ask His guidance in everything you do.
- Words are powerful! Consider this: God spoke the universe into being! His Word is all powerful. It is the implementation of His thoughts. We speak substance to our thoughts! When we speak negatively, whether in jest or an expression, we give power to those words as we declare them as truth. Conversely, as we voice our needs, they will manifest themselves! The more we speak good things over our lives, the more we believe them and reach out for them in expectation!
- Choose not to entertain all the negative news coming your way! Yes, you can choose to replace it with positive thoughts and words. You can direct your destiny with how you think and what you say!
So, in summary, let’s do a couple of short exercises.
1. You’ve just had your 15-minute coffee break with all the office personnel complaining about their salaries and working conditions. How does that make you feel?
2. You poured your cup of coffee, assessed the negative atmosphere, said a cheery hello, and exited. On your way back to the office you say to yourself: “I love my cheery office with the sun streaming in and my colleagues are a great gang. My salary is commensurate with the type of work I’m doing, even though I need and would love to make more. How do you feel?
In the first scenario everyone present tends to enter into a mental and/or spoken agreement culminating in frustration and dissatisfaction. This can affect them for hours or days, and usually includes feelings of blame towards their employer.
People who think negatively tend to blame their problems on others and feel victimized - even if they were. They tend to live in the past.
In the second case you took control of a situation, chose to keep a happy and peaceful disposition, and probably ended up with thoughts like: “What can I do to improve my income?” And, you know, in that frame of mind you might even come up with some great ideas, such as networking and starting your own niche business!
Those who make a conscious choice to be happy and look at the positive, look inward first, see what they can do to improve their situation, and look for solutions. They live in the now. That’s where the power is; and they speak their future into being!
Ann Stewart is the author of “With Wings As Eagles,” An autobiographical account, it motivates, inspires and encourages others to stand victoriously in their trials.
Get her fr*ee newsletter ($79 value) here:
http://www.lifealteringwords.com
Kathy was sitting in her recliner at her home in California with 3-year-old daughter Lindsay cuddled at her side. Both were watching a show featuring an actress who had designed a line of Victorian jewelry. “I would love to design jewelry,” Kathy thought. But immediately, the all-too-familiar lack of self-esteem whispered, “You could never do that,” and she promptly shoved the desire aside.
The desire lay forgotten through several years, the addition of two more children to the family, and two more moves that ended just outside of Houston, Texas. But fifteen years later, Kathy has four children ages 24, 18, 13 and 11, and is the owner of www.TheAngelStop.com, a Christian retail jewelry and home decor company based in Sugar Land, Texas. When Kathy talks about how the company began years ago, she leaves out the business jargon she has recently been forced to learn as a former nurse and stay-at-home mother. Instead, she focuses on the God whom she says has been in the business of healing her life and the lives of others through the company.
“The whole process of this company has been healing. I didn’t intend to have a company, but God had intentions for the company,” Kathy said.
The retail site www.TheAngelStop.com began as a hobby for Kathy in 1996. She said she had a need to create, but after having four children, two of which were still toddlers, there was little time to finish projects. So she was delighted to find that she could design brass and silver-plated angel pins in one sitting. Kathy began to give her pins to family members and friends, and one relative suggested she send the designs to someone involved in the Atlanta Gift Mart. By January of 1998, the angel pin line was in one of the top showrooms in the Atlanta Gift Mart. Today, Kathy’s hobby has grown into The Angel Stop - Christian Gifts: Angel Pins, Framed Pictures found at www.TheAngelStop.com.
Through the business’ growth Kathy says that God was doing a greater work in her life personally. There was a need for healing in her life because of events that stretched back into her childhood, and God began to mend her heart as He began to grow the company.
“I had shame, low self-esteem, the urge to hide or run or both. As Christ began working in my life, I would ask for healing and the forgiveness needed to get rid of the bitterness. But every time He started moving me in that direction, the pain would rear its ugly head and I would retreat back to my prison cell. It was the only secure place I thought I knew.
“God took me to rock bottom in 1997, and through a period of great emotional pain, God gave me Isaiah 61:3. From outward appearances, I had everything, but inside my life was in ashes. Over the next few years God created beauty from those ashes and led me to the place where I could be planted firm in Him, and His glory could be displayed.”
“The company became part of the healing because through the process of growing a company, He pushed me out of my corner where I wanted to stay - the place I was most comfortable in. And to survive, I had to rely on Him. Through the process of Him forcing me out to the world, I found out life was all about Him and that my sufficiency was in Him. I want my life to be about the display of His glory, and my desire is that The Angel Stop be a company that glorifies God and a vessel through which He ministers.”
Today, Kathy’s desire is to inspire women to step out with confidence and boldness into whatever God has set in front of them. She says that she has learned through her own journey of healing that faith doesn’t mean the absence of fear, but the courage to take steps in the midst of fear.
The path Kathy has taken since the desire to design was sparked eleven years ago has been marked with fear at times, but Kathy says it’s been well-worth the struggle.
“A few years ago the Lord reminded me of when I was sitting in San Jose, California with my daughter, and I said I couldn’t design jewelry. But He has shown me that He can achieve anything through me.”
To see some of Kathy’s angel pin and framed art designs, check out www.TheAngelStop.com
Do you know the difference between compassion and sympathy? Did you even know that there was a difference between the two? If not then I think you are in for a big surprise!
These two emotions are actually so different from each other that they are actually antithetical to each other. Let me explain.
Recall for a moment the last time you felt what you might call sympathy for someone.
Thoughts such as “that poor individual” or “that unfortunate soul” are often associated with what is called sympathy. What such thoughts also convey either openly or covertly is the message that “that person” is a victim, is in some way lesser than others, is deficient in some way and therefore is a diminished human being.
This unfortunately, devalues the Divine Being that is that individual, that lives in their body and that has limitless potential to create whatever they desire.
Now I know that that last statement is one that will be met with great resistance if not some skepticism. After all, you might say, if that were true, then why are most of us suffering here?
Well I might say it is because we have devalued ourselves and diminished our true power by denying the veracity of the very statement in question.
In order to show this more clearly I would like to turn to the emotion we call compassion. Now because many of you confuse compassion with sympathy, i.e. sometimes use them interchangeably thinking that they may mean the same thing, I will define what is meant by the former.
By compassion I mean the following: to recognize that the essence of any human being is a Divine Presence, that human beings are capable of limitless creativity, that they have total choice as to whether they wish to have mastery over their lives vs. being victims of circumstance, and that they desire never to be thought of as anything less than all of this.
Now that I’ve defined what I mean by compassion and I’ve also given a description and example of sympathy I would like to pose some questions to you to drive my point home.
Imagine someone expressing sympathy towards you. Notice how that makes you feel. Does it buoy you up? Does it make you feel better about yourself? Does it boost your self esteem?
Now imagine that the same person showed compassion towards you, given my definition above. Notice how that makes you feel. Does it buoy you up? Does that make you feel better about yourself? Does it boost your self esteem?
If you’re in touch with your internal emotional life I think that you will see that the first situation likely evokes feelings of inadequacy, weakness, vulnerability, ineffectiveness and low self esteem.
Conversely the second situation will evoke feelings of lightness, strength, confidence, resilience, and high self esteem.
If you are with me so far you will recognize immediately the crucial difference between compassion and sympathy. By the way compassion is another word for Love. Is there another word for sympathy?
So in essence what you are doing when you are recognizing who other people truly are, i.e. Divine Beings, you are expressing your love towards them in the greatest sense of the word. Isn’t this also what you would like others to do for you, to recognize who you truly are?
If you’d like to learn more about this kindly visit the web link below and hear a special message I have posted for you there.
Dr. Nick Arrizza is trained in Chemical Engineering, Business Management & Leadership, Medicine and Psychiatry. He is an Energy Psychiatrist, Healer, Key Note Speaker,Editor of a New Ezine Called “Spirituality And Science” (which is requesting high quality article submissions) Author of “Esteem for the Self: A Manual for Personal Transformation” (available in ebook format on his web site), Stress Management Coach, Peak Performance Coach & Energy Medicine Researcher, Specializes in Life and Executive Performance Coaching, is the Developer of a powerful new tool called the Mind Resonance Process(TM) that helps build physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well being by helping to permanently release negative beliefs, emotions, perceptions and memories. He holds live workshops, international telephone coaching sessions and international teleconference workshops on Physical. Emotional, Mental and Spiritual Well Being.
Business URL #1: http://www.telecoaching4u.com