Month: May 2014

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In Control, Out of Control, Being Controlled


The thing about control is that it has to start in our mind. When you dig really deep we find that the brain and the workings of the mind can become complicated to understand. However, I believe some of the key basic functions we can comprehend without a Doctorates degree which enables us to better understand how we control things in our lives.

Generally we must first comprehend a situation exist and then the result of our action or reaction kicks in gear. The key is that we have to comprehend and not just react.

When we are in control we feel confident. When we are out of control we feel stressed. When we are being controlled we are upset. The thing about control is that we ultimately control all of it. Even the quick reaction our body makes if a snake suddenly appears while we stroll along some path. We quickly stop. In this case it is a reaction and not a comprehension based on logical thinking. However, we programed the reaction over time by what we put in our brains reaction center and in reality it started out as a logical thought way before you took the walk. Some things are simple. A snake bit can kill you so stop. While we need these quick reaction responses programed in our brain to keep us safe, they can stop us from seeing the rest of the picture. The question we should ponder is; what have I or someone else programed into my mind that causes me to react and not allow the full process of gathering information which allows a conscious thought out decision. How often do we only look at one point of view because we have programed our mind this way; we are comfortable with our position on a subject so avoid any chance of possible change in that position.

In today’s world we continue seeing example after example where someone else is assumed responsible and self responsibility is secondary. Allowing someone else to control, manage, manipulate, and influence our lives is many time unseen by each of us. Our daily life takes on a direction of those around us. We do things in a manner that does not disrupt the local boat. We become so tightly locked into our local world we stop really thinking for ourselves.

If we really evaluate our lives, we see the many influences that make us who we are. In some cases we may feel that this is good, but sometimes we also can look back and see that it was not really what we would like. It was not with an outcome that we were pleased with. While we would like to go back and change the outcome, it is impossible.

One of the old sayings that my Grandmother would say was; “All things work together for good”. I know she got this from the bible, but she used it when ever something just did not work out so great, or when something bad happened. So when we encounter these bumps in our road, do you look back and get up tight or do you let it go and move forward? Do you try to fix it or do you trust that down the road you will understand the good that came form it. That things will turn around and good will come from something that didn’t work out like you imagined.

This is one of life’s biggest challenges!

If we could just learn to love one another, I do believe everything would work out for the good. When life drums up something that upsets our apple cart, can we learn from it and move on without letting it totally disrupt our lives? Can we learn to evaluate the event, possibly search our inner thoughts, maybe do some research, and then move forward with a positive attitude?

We control our actions and re-actions. Only when we allow others to totally influence us do we loose this control. When others with an agenda are in control, we become someone they want us to be. God gave each of us a brain and a mind to think with. He gave us the compassion to give love, to accept love and to create a loving environment for ourselves and those around us to enjoy. It is with the faith we have in God, that we were created with a purpose and that we did not just happen that gives us such great hope. That we are somebody and not just something that evolved!

No matter what you believe, go and search those thoughts, look in all directions, really evaluate what you have decided to believe in. One thing I have determined is that when you peal the onion of life back to the core, you were either created by God or you evolved. Where have you placed your faith?

As always your comments are welcomed. Enjoy this great and wonderful day!

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The Power of WORDS!


The meaning of the words we write, speak, think and act out is who we really are. It is who we have become. If one does not like whom they have become, only that one can change it. The hidden motives of the words we speak and think are the foundation of our personalities. How we are seen by those around us is something we should all be aware of if we are not. The words we choose to use, how we state them which ultimately allows them to be heard and understood for what we meant, makes the difference of how we are perceived, liked, loved and even despised. Choosing our words and think how we would want to be thought of should be important. Being positive, living and showing love and compassion can be a key to a wonderful life.

Saying I love you and not I hate you.

Saying let me help and not do it yourself.

Saying what do you need and not let them figure it out for themselves.

Saying thank you and not just walking away.

Saying thank you and not just continuing on with what you are doing.

Saying let me do that and not just walk on by.

Saying please and not just reaching and taking.

Saying this is how I understand this and not I am going to teach you a lesson.

Saying let me help you with that and not you will find out on your own.

Saying I am sorry and not making an excuse.

Saying I am sorry and not expect the same in return.

Saying I am sorry and proving it.

Saying I am sorry with love and not contempt.

Saying I am sorry for doing that and then doing it again.

Saying thank you for even the smallest of things and meaning it.

What is most important is showing and living the word LOVE “unconditionally” with no words spoken!

 

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A World of Love, Support, Victory and Defeat


We are fast approaching upon the halfway point of 2014. The 14th of February has faded behind us. Birthdays, anniversaries and other special days have come and gone. There are still those special day of the year in front of us.  During these times we are reminded that we have those who love us. We have friends that care for us, those that are there when we need them. The Winter Olympics in Russia are now a memory along with everything that goes with them. From the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat. Remembering the love and support that each athlete is given by fellow countrymen and those of foreign nations. The forgoing of country differences for the love of competition,  comrodery and mutual respect for the skills each have developed. The love and compassion felt by those who do not reach the glory they worked so hard to achieve. The passion each of them have in making a decision to strive for excellence putting in another four years of physical and mental strain again not being guaranteed success. The enjoyment each of us feel while watching and cheering our favorites in competition. We should all salute those who strive for excellence, those who embrace the world as an equal human race, those who believe we are all created equal, those who see no difference in the color of skin or country origins, and embrace life and all it has to offer. Those that open their mind to the possibilities and do not just accept idle words of impossible, can’t be done, it’s not worth the effort as they listen around the water fountain. Those who have the courage to speak up trying to make a difference in our world expressing their point of view while listening to those of others, all in an effort to make a difference. I struggle to comprehend why so many of us have closed our minds to the possibilities that life presents to each of us. While some have had a hard life and some not so bad, we each have a chance, even if it starts out as such a small chance to grab this life we live and enjoy everything we can get from it. The joy of a husband and wife as they take that first step of marriage,  the birth of their first child, then that first step, the first year of school, the graduation and the joy and feelings that come as they move forward with life leaving the home they have known as theirs just to start a new life that they now will lead. The joys are endless if we look around. Why our world thrives on negativity is really a reflection on those of us who listen. Our news media most generally tell the negative side only because it sells. Right or wrong we are continuously bombarded with negativity. We tune in because we can’t believe what we are hearing or maybe we are just curious or maybe it somehow affects our personal lives. In any case, it fuels the fire of negative press. We have those who have the abilities to open their mind to a world of discovery and a desire to know true fact and the difference of a theory presented as real from those that truly are. When we each reach this point in our life, and I pray each of will before we die, we begin to understand our life on this earth, why we are here and how this all started. I have stated many times that it takes faith to believe in evolution as the reason for everything and that it take faith to believe in God as the creator. It is important! It is a wonderful time we live in. Go out and explore! Find your answer!

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Driving Out Complacency


Now I know no one wants to acknowledge they have become complacent in anything. I for one can struggle with this. Everyday produces situations that if they go unrecognized we can be taking another step toward complacency involving one thing or another. As humans we can become so ingrained in our thoughts and beliefs that we miss things going on around us. We start believing we have the answer before we know the question. We don’t stop long enough to realize that there is generally always two sides to a story if not more. We jump to conclusions without acknowledging what is right in front of us. We allow our education system to educate us and we never slow down long enough to educate ourselves. We hear what we are told but never question its validity.

Complacency could be something simple such as our eating habits or possibly exercise or lack thereof. Maybe it is in our lack of desire to learn new things, explore what others find interesting, listening to other explanations and not just live in our own world. Or our desire to dig deeper into what we believe and put our faith in enabling ourselves to reinforce our convictions or alter them. Ridding ourselves of complacency does not mean doing what everyone else does. It just means being aware of why someone does something and why they believe one way or the other. It is being open to discussing both view-point and not just having a one-sided conversation or walking away from it completely.

Acknowledging complacency is critical to our physical and mental health. It can be the pill the doctor ordered. The simple task of admitting to ourselves that it exist gives each of us a tool which will allow our lives to flourish in so many ways. Stagnation in our thinking, our health, our conversation, our faith, our work, and almost every area of our lives can be exterminated.

Join me on my journey to continue stomping out complacency from my life by doing the same in yours. Make a personal pledge to always be open-minded enough to explore different avenues as they present themselves. To be open to other opinions and to discuss them sharing your beliefs and understandings. Have a want to grow your knowledge, and a wish to life healthy. I truly believe that if we would live healthier our spirit would be healthier. If we expand our knowledge our conversations become healthy allowing two-sided discussions and not just someone accepting what someone tells them. We are born with a body and a mind and we need to feed both of them with good food.

If you have an area of complacency in your life please share it here with a comment or with a friend. We all have some level of complacency we need to deal with. One of the biggest for me was believing everything I was taught in school. Then I was supposed to believe everything I was taught in church. Each contradicted the other. It was only after I decided to challenge myself on these topics that I started ridding myself of confusion and my life became stable. In this case I concluded that one belief or the other had to be correct. Either we were created or we evolved. This is truly a live and death altering question. I can tell you that I believe we were created and for really good reasons. I have tried to explain this in the book “Deceptive Influences” if you are interested in the rest of my story.

Now as we continue this day moving to the next I wish you good travels down the road of eliminating complacency from life.

 

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What a Wonderful World We Could Live In


What would we do if this world we live in was perfect? 

How would our lives be altered from what it is today?

If one was to let their imagination wonder and just flow around life in a perfect world, I could believe that smiles would come on our faces, grins would happen where frowns once existed, stomachs would gurgle with delight as we feed it with perfect foods, people would be laughing instead of crying, everyone would bend to help someone up instead of walking on by, love of and by everyone would be the only way. No more hate, no more crime, no need for jails, no need for court systems, just peace everywhere. Money would not be required as we all live to help each other. Harmony, just plain sweet harmony! No more searching for the meaning of life, where we came from and why we are here. Evolution of the world including man would be meaningless as we just absorb the beauty around us.

Ok – I just woke up from my dream. However, I now wonder if God created each of us and everything around us to live just like my dream, then what went wrong? Did He plan for people to hate people, did He plan for different classes of people or were we all created equal. Why would God the creator of all of everything (if you believe in creationism) design something that has such flaw’s. Or was it a flaw? If we would have been created to live in this world never to have any issue with another, never to be disturbed about anything, just living each day, day in and day out in a some sort of trance,  we would be living without the power to think and to experience everything He created. So He gave us the ability to see, touch, smell, hear and taste things. For this to work He needed to give us a brain that could comprehend each of these things. With a brain that can comprehend we then have the ability to want. With a brain that can want we form opinions. With opinions we take up positions. It is these positions that get this world in trouble.

Of course if you are an evolutionist none of this really matters anyway. We are just here by chance and via the process of change because it is needed because of something that requires it to change,  we should not have any ill-feelings about this world we live in just because we embrace change in our philosophy of life. Only the best survive.

However, if God created everything and he created man in His image, then he must have known we can screw things up! He must have a mind to think with or He could have never created anything. So he gave man only two simple rules. Love Me with all your heart and love your neighbor and of course don’t eat that apple. Pretty simple rules with no underling small print needing a king or some supreme court to rule on. Just follow those two simple rules. Now if we look at the idea of loving God, it’s not hard to comprehend that if we really believe or maybe in the case of Adam and Eve, knew he created everything, it would be pretty easy to love him just by looking around and seeing all the beauty around us. And let’s not forget that had He not created man we would not be here and able to love and appreciate everything around us.

So was it God who screwed up this world, causing conflicts between men, woman, ethnic groups, religious groups, or countries, or was it man just because he has the ability to think, a mind to manage his thoughts, and drive his desires?

“Without God then we are just something in time that really in the end means nothing. But with God we are somebody!”