Archive for the ‘God’ Category
“If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles.”
—- Doug Larson
What is really important in this life? Is it your job? Is it your bank account? Is it spending all day on the computer? I believe it is relationships: relationships with God and relationships with each other. This is why being a mom or a dad is so important, this is the first relationship a child forms. These relationships are given lip service as being important but few actually live like it is important.
To Practice This Thought: Take time to “go fishing”, relax with some one you love. Deepen that relationship.
A child who wakes up from a nightmare is often comforted by their mom with the words “Don’t be afraid”.
There are many passages in the Bible that start with “Do not be afraid”. Usually when and angel appears or God’s voice is heard.
Those words are meant to be comforting and calming. They mean that no intentional harm is coming to you.
Using reverse logic, does this mean that we should be afraid if we happen to see an angel and they don’t say, “do not be afraid”? I don’t really think of angels as being something to fear.
I use to want to see a ghost, but then I decided I would probably be scared out of my wits if I did. I have never heard of a ghost saying, “don’t be afraid”. So I decided I would rather see an angel. Then I started realizing that there are many angels among us. Any one who gives of themselves or their resources to help some one in need is an angel in my book. There are angels all around us. I can even be an angel to some one else.
Have you ever been in a situation where you needed help and some one appeared to help you? You had an angel moment.
Several years ago, my car died as I was making a turn so I pulled to the side of the road and tried to start it again. Nothing happened. I was trying to decide what to do. I asked Archangel Michael to help out as I had read he was good with computers. But as I turned the key again nothing happened. I called my husband who was out of State, as if he could do anything at the time, just the comforting “don’t be afraid” voice of his was helpful. But while I was on the phone, someone pulled up behind me and asked if I needed help. It was a mobile mechanic!
He worked on my car, trying several different things and it still would not start. But I was not worried. He replaced Spark plugs, still no start. Then he replaced wires. By this time I had been stalled and he had been working for about 2 ½ hours and I had this distinct feeling that “Ok, this has been long enough, time for the car to start”. So this time when he turned the key the car started. I had to pay him for his work but I still considered him an angel for being there when I needed help. Maybe Archangel Michael did help me get the car started by sending a mechanic.
Are You Spiritual, Religious, Both or Neither?
Posted by: Ann
January 22nd, 2010 >> God, Spirituality
I may be opening a can of worms but here goes.
As I get more into holistic health and energy therapies, I feel as if I am getting more and more spiritual. It is almost as if I cannot separate the two. I cannot imagine being one with out the other.
The other day I had a discussion with someone about energy therapies, EFT and Meridian Tapping specifically and saw their hackles rise when I mentioned how it was bringing me to a more spiritual place. She was real against the word spiritual. Maybe her definition and mine were different.
I went to my Webster Dictionary and looked up spiritual. There is the vague definition of “relating to, or consisting of spirit”. Then there is the second definition of “relating to sacred matters”. The third one says “concerned with religious values”. Maybe I was going with the second definition and she was gong with the third but I don’t think so. She seemed to be real against spiritual.
This reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend who is now in seminary. I once mentioned that I was spiritual but not really religious. She just could not see how the two could be separated. Like many people, I have had bad experiences from my youth that left a bad taste for anything religious but I do like the spiritual aspect. I meditate, talk to my guides, angles, God and look for inspiration from the spirit realm. Some people may say I am religious because I go to church regularly. But I have been known to say that if my religion ever interfers with my spirituallity it will be the religion that goes.
I guess I see the religion as being a man made tool to try and get us closer to God or the Universal Power. It is when our man made tools become more important than what they were installed for in the first place that they start to hinder instead of help. Then it is time for them to be replaced.
So are you spiritual, religious, both or neither? Take part in my survey. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/L85CQS3
“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
—– Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist & poet (1803 – 1882)
Sometimes it is hard to trust God. We often think we know better and are unwilling to wait for God’s answer. There were many times in the past when I was forced to trust God, often it was a tentative trust, sometimes it was born of desperation. But God always came through, often in unexpected ways. You would think that the repeated events in my life where God has come through for me would strengthen my trust in the Creator. But I still struggle with letting go and letting God take control of the situation. I have even hung out the fleece, so to speak and had the answer that God was there and handling things.
So why is it so difficult to let go? Maybe that is just part of what I need to learn this time around.
Fruits of the Spirit
Posted by: Ann
January 8th, 2010 >> EFT, God, Life, Meridian Tapping, Relationship, Spirituality
I often say that EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and MTT (Meridian Tapping Techniques) only remove the negative in our lives and leaves the positive because we are born with the fruits of the spirit and as we live our lives we collect negative baggage in the form of negative emotions. Often this negativity occurs from the day we are born and I think some would say from before that.
What exactly do I mean by the fruits of the spirit? According to Galatians 5:22-23, the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Let me take this apart and compare it to what emotions a newborn baby may come into this world with. I can see a baby being born with love and joy, but peace and patience or self-control? I just don’t see it. Let’s dig deeper.
Have you ever known a peaceful baby? I have. So the ones who are not peaceful may have had some contributing baggage already in their young life. It could have been as harsh as a drug abusing mother, or a physically abused mother or maybe something along the lines of a medical problem that cropped up for the baby or the mother while in the womb. I can see any of these leading to a restless, unhappy baby.
Some of these positive emotions are automatically compromised because we start out as helpless babies. Who would not lose patience and self-control when they can’t communicate what they need to those around them. So these positive emotions go out the door real fast.
This leaves goodness, faithfulness and gentleness. These qualities would be hard to see in a young baby. By the time the child is of an age to actually express these qualities in their life, family, friends, society and even TV have already influenced them. The child has had plenty of opportunity to learn the negative traits
What are your thoughts on this?
www.naturallyresilient.com
The Spark in Your Life
Posted by: Ann
January 5th, 2010 >> God, Life, Physical/Material, Relationship, Spirituality
What makes some people “great” and most of us mediocre?
I think it has to do with the spark of God (or Creator, Universal Power, whatever your choice is) in each of us. It is not that some have more than others; it is what we do with it.
The spark in each of us is infused with our true desires. Our desires are important, there is a reason they are there. Our desires can lead us to our best use in this life.
Sometimes because of circumstances or obligations or maybe society influences, we deny our “best use” and choose to do something else. It is those who do their true desires that accomplish much as it is in alignment with our purpose for being here.
Sometimes we think that our desires are thwarted. I have heard of women who had a true and overpowering desire to be a mother but were unable to have children. Maybe that desire was put there for them to mother others who did not have mothers, or those who had poor mothering. There is a reason for that strong desire.
You can rewrite your desire contract, but be careful, as there is a reason that desire is there. When I was young, I had a strong desire to learn to fly. In college I took a sample class where they take you up in a plane and show you some of the basics. But when I was out on my own and working, I just could not see how I could afford lessons and plane rental fees and I asked for the desire to be taken from me and it was. But guess what, not too many years later I fell in love with some one who had a plane and loved to fly! Now I enjoy going up with my flying husband but much to his chagrin I have no real desire to learn. It would have added another dimension to our marriage if I had a strong flying desire like my husband.
Our pets are a major part of our lives. They can help us in so many ways if we let them. I am not talking just about working animals such as service dogs or sheep dogs but your normal house pet whether it is a snake or a horse (I guess this is more of a barn pet than a house pet) or something in between.
When I look at my pets, I mean really look, I see multi layers of relationships and I see a lot of symbolism.
I often think of my relationship with my cats as similar to God’s relationship with us. I am like God to my cats. I take care of them and take joy in them. I also sometimes wish I could make them understand what is going on and that there is no need to be fearful. I had a huge cat once that was real concerned with food. This cat was large boned and not fat and he required a lot of food. Whenever the food dish got low (in his eyes) he would come and complain to me until I did something about it. He was worried. The food was not out, just low. He did not understand that I would not let him go hungry.
I believe God would like for us to understand that we will be taken care of. If we are not so consumed by worry and fear we can see the opportunities around us and live a more abundant life. If we could just live in the joy of the moment we could live a happier life.
I love listening to the Christmas songs on the radio this time of year.
I will often comment to my husband how I like a certain song and he will quickly point out that is not a Christmas song but a winter song. I have started listening closer to what is being played and he is right. Many of them are not really Christmas songs.
Where is the Christ in Christmas? In our efforts to be politically correct and trying not to offend any one are we losing site of what is important to so many?
In Fahrenheit 451, the whole book-burning attitude got started because they did not want to offend anyone. To keep from offending they just squelched any new idea or anything that did not include everyone.
Maybe we are trying to go the other way by creating new holidays during this time of year.
A few years ago a new/old holiday made itself known. This one was called Kwanzaa; it was geared to African Americans but welcomes all.
Now I have heard about another one called Festivus. This one originated from a Seinfeld episode in 1997. Quite a few people are actually taking this and running with it. I am not sure that airing your grievances and telling others how they have disappointed you in the last year is really a good way to further relationships.
Maybe creating new holidays are appropriate. I understand the reason December 25 was established for Christmas was to take over a Druid holiday, changing that holiday into a more “acceptable” Christian holiday. Now I understand Christ birth was probably in April. So maybe we should move Christmas.
Yesterdays post got me thinking about death. I know this is not usually thought about this time of year. In fact discussion of it at all is often put off until some one dies and even then it is often made light of. Why do we have such a repulsion of that topic?
When my dad was alive and I would visit, we would have many a discussion about death and what my dad wanted after he died. He even commented once that my older brothers would not listen to him when he tried to talk about such things and he was glad that I would.
Why do we as a society tend to ignore death until it hits us over the head. Maybe our aversion comes from the fear that once gone always gone, or maybe it is because we truly don’t believe in an afterlife or maybe the afterlife we think we are going to is going to be horrendous.
I was brought up with the Hell, Fire and Brimstone mentality. The religious figures around me tried to present as fact that God was judgmental and we all deserved hell. For some reason this just did not resonate as true to me. Why would God have created us if He were going to hate us so? My God was a loving God. He always was and always will be. It wasn’t until later that I realized that the “Fear of God” was just mans way of controlling the masses, trying to get them to do what the ones in power (the religious order) thought was right.
Fear has always been a tool for control. God who is all-powerful has no need for control tools. Can what we do here in this earthly plan really cause any of these negative man made emotions to come out in an all powerful, all knowing God?
What kind of God do you have?
Some people think that God does not talk to us mere mortals. That He only talked to the prophets of old.
I don’t believe that.
He talks to us all the time.
Some people are in such alignment with God that they don’t know that God is talking to them. They take it as their own thoughts. In other words they own the thoughts.
Others are on such a different wavelength that they have to be hit in the head before they finally ‘sit up and take notice’. That is when they realize their thoughts are coming from somewhere else. I think this is what happened with Neale Donald Walsch in his Conversations With God books.
Others start to seek Him out, usually after they realize they are hearing such thoughts and they realize they are not from themselves. I am not getting all psycho on you. This is meditation. These conversations leave you at peace with yourself and the world. If you are more upset afterwards, these thoughts are not of God. God leaves you will peace, joy, love, harmony, the fruits of the spirit. He also leaves the judgment up to us, He does not judge.
Just realize that God is talking to us all the time, no matter where we are. It is our choice whether to hear Him or not.