Thursday, November 19, 2009
Sister Recovery Fund
My sister has lost many hours at work and needs help paying bills now that she does not have his income to help pay rent and bills.
Please help us out, we really need to be blessed through this trying time.
Thank You!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Believe in Prayer
On a Saturday night several weeks ago, this pastor was working late, and decided to call his wife before he left for home. It was about 10:00 PM, but his wife didn't answer the phone. The pastor let the phone ring many times. He thought it was odd that she didn't answer, but decided to wrap up a few things and try again in a few minutes..
When he tried again she answered right away. He asked her why she hadn't answered before, and she said that it hadn't rung at their house. They brushed it off as a fluke and went on their merry ways.
The following Monday, the pastor received a call at the church office, which was the phone that he'd used that Saturday night.
The man that he spoke with wanted to know why he'd called on Saturday night. The pastor couldn't figure out what the man was talking about. Then the man said, 'It rang and rang, but I didn't answer.' The pastor remembered the mishap and apologized for disturbing him, explaining that he'd intended to call his wife.
The man said, 'That's OK. Let me tell you my story. You see, I was planning to commit suicide on Saturday night, but before I did, I prayed, 'God if you're there, and you don't want me to do this, give me a sign now.' At that point my phone started to ring. I looked at the caller ID, and it said, 'Almighty God'. I was afraid to answer!' The reason why it showed on the man's caller ID that the call came from 'Almighty God' is because the church that the pastor attends is called Almighty God Tabernacle!! If you believe that God answers prayers then pass this on. God bless!
*I believe in God and I know he does answer my prayers and I thank him each day for answering them. I know he doesn’t answer them all but I know he has his reasons why and he knows if I need it or not and when I actually do need it.
Inserts Words of Wisdom
Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain, it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving. Criticizing is futile because it puts a person on the defensive and makes them justify it. When dealing with people keep in mind that they are not creatures of logic, they are creatures of emotion.
Our life is what our thoughts make it.
Today’s bread is the only kind of bread you can possibly eat. Take one grain at a time by taking one task at a time. Today is a new life.
We may not be saintly enough to love our enemies, but, for the sake of our own health and happiness, let’s at least forgive them and forget them. That is the smart thing to do.
Instead of hating our enemies, let’s pity them and thank God that life has not made us what they are. Instead of condemnation and revenge, let’s give our enemies our understanding, our sympathy, our forgiveness, and our prayers.
The only way in this world you can ever hope to be loved is to stop asking for it and to start pouring out love without hope of return.
I had the blues because I had no shoes, until upon the street; I meet a man who had no feet.
Let’s not waste a second worrying because we are not like other people. You are something new in this world. Never before, since the beginning of time, has there ever been anybody exactly like you; and never again throughout all the ages to come will there ever be anybody exactly like you again. You’ve got to be you with all your faults and limitations. You can’t possible be anyone else. You are something new in this world. Be glad of it. Make the most of what nature gave you.
When you are kicked and criticized, remember that it is often done because it gives the kicker a feeling of importance. It often means that you are accomplishing something and are worthy of attention. Many people get a sense of savage satisfaction out of denouncing those who are better educated or successful than they are. No one ever kicks a dead dog.
If we hear that someone has spoken ill of us, let’s not try to defend ourselves. Every Fool does that. Let’s be original and humble and brilliant!
Inserts from the book Kiss My Tiara
Fairy Tale Number 6 -True love is instant, you will know it the minute you see the person. Nope- Trust, communication and kindness take time to unveil and build.
Fairy Tale Number 7 – Boys tease us because they like us. No- It’s an exercise of possessiveness, control and ego, abuse is not an acceptable expression of love.
Love turns everybody into a vulnerable dithering moron. Don’t treat your friends like leftovers.
We do not have anything to gain by judging or criticizing each other but we do have everything to lose.
Ignore your jealous heart and promote your friends happiness. What goes around comes around, help spread the good karma.
Every idiot we date is one less idiot we risk marrying.
Great Words from Unknown
Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile.
Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance.
There comes a point in your life when you realize who matters, who never did, who won't anymore... and who always will. So, don't worry about people from your past, there's a reason why they didn't make it to your future.
Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
If I want my dreams to come true, I mustn't oversleep.
The best vitamin for making friends... B1.
The happiness of my life depends on the quality of my thoughts.
If I lack the courage to start, I have already finished.
My mind is like a parachute...it functions only when open.
The pursuit of happiness is the chase of a lifetime! It is never too late to become what I might have been.
Friends are like balloons; once you let them go, you might not get them back. Sometimes we get so busy with our own lives and problems that we may not even notice that we've let them fly away. Sometimes we just don't realize what real friendship means until it is too late. Sometimes we are so caught up in who's right and who's wrong that we forget what's right and wrong.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
True love doesn’t come by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.
A true friend sticks with you through think and thin no matter what.
There are two choices in life:
1) To be grateful for what life has given you or
2) Be resentful for what life has done to you.
A friend is someone who can sing you the song of your heart when you have forgotten it.
It's not about finding someone who completes you but finding someone to share your completeness with.
Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there, they serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson or help figure out who you are or who you want to become.
You never know who these people may be; your roommate, your neighbor, professor, long lost friend, lover or even a complete stranger who, when you lock eyes with them, you know that very moment that they will affect your life in that very moment that they will affect your life in some profound way.
Sometimes things happen to you and at the time they seem horrible, painful and unfair, but in reflection you realize that without overcoming those obstacles you would never have realized your potential, strength, will power of heart.
Everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance or by means of good or bad luck. Illness, injury, love, lost moments or true greatness and sheer stupidity all occur to test the limits of the soul.
Without these small tests, if they be events, illnesses or relationships, life would be like a smooth paved, straight, flat road to nowhere. Safe & comfortable but dull & utterly pointless.
The people you meet who affect your life and successes and downfalls you experience, they are the ones who create who you are. Even the bad experience can be learned from... Those lessons are the hardest and probably the most important ones.
If someone hurts you, betrays you, or breaks your heart forgive them for they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious to whom you open your heart.
If someone loves you, love them back unconditionally, not only because they love you, but because they are teaching you to love and opening your heart and eyes to things you would have never seen or felt without them.
Make every day count. Appreciate every moment and take from it everything that you possibly can, for you may never be able to experience it again.
Talk to people you have never talked to before, and actually listen, let yourself fall in love, break free and set your sights high.
You can make of your life anything you wish. Create your own life and then go out and live it.
Love starts with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a tear.
Don't cry over anyone who won't cry over you.
Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget.
Don't let the past hold you back, you're missing the good stuff.
BEST FRIENDS are the siblings God forgot to give us.
When it hurts to look back, and you're scared to look ahead, you can look beside you and your BEST FRIEND will be there.
Nobody is perfect until you fall in love with them.
Words of Wisdom
“Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love.” Buddha
“By fighting you never get enough, but by yielding you get more than you expected.” Old proverb
“A drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.” ....Lincoln....
“I judge people by their own principles –not my own.” ML King
“If you argue and rankle and contradict, you may achieve a victory sometimes; but it will be an empty victory because you will never get your opponent’s good will.” Ben Franklin
“When one door closes another opens. But often we look so long so regretfully upon the closed door that we fail to see the one that has opened for us.” Helen Keller
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.” Confucius
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert Einstein
“To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have liv’d to-day.” Horace
“Shut the iron doors on the past and the future. Live in Day-tight Compartments.” Sir William Osler
“You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.” Indira Ghandi
“True peace of mind comes from accepting the worst.” Lin Yutang
“A problem well stated is a problem half solved.” Charles Kettering
“I’m too busy. I have no time for worry.” Winston Churchill
“I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.” – Tennyson
“Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.” William James
“When we stop fighting the inevitable, we release energy which enables us to create a richer life.” Elsie MacCormick
“Bend like the willow; don’t resist like the oak.” The Jujitsu way
“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven a hell, a hell of heaven.” ....Milton....
“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.” Emerson
“Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.” Shakespeare
“To be wronged or robbed, is nothing unless you continue to remember it. An angry man is always full of poison.”–Confucius
“In the long run, everyman will pay the penalty for his own misdeeds.” DC
“The man who remembers this will be angry with no one, indignant with no one, revile no one, blame no one, offend no one, and hate no one.” Epictetus
“O Great Spirit, keep me from ever judging and criticizing a man until I have walked in his moccasins for two weeks.” -Sioux Indians
“Never waste a minute thinking about people you don’t like.” -Eisenhower
“I am going to meet people today who talk too much –people who are selfish, egotistical, ungrateful. But I won’t be surprised or disturbed, for I couldn’t imagine a world without such people.” From the diary of Marcus Aurelius
“The ideal man takes joy in doing favors for others.” Aristotle
“We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack.” Schopenhauer
“The habit of looking on the best side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a year.” Dr. Samuel Johnson
“Nobody is so miserable as he who longs to be somebody and something other than the person he is in body and mind.” Angelo Patri
“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better and for worse.” – Emerson
“The most important thing in life is not to capitalize on your gains. Any fool can do that. The really important thing is to profit from your losses. That requires intelligence; and it makes the difference between a man of sense and a fool.”-William Bolitho
“Always remember that it takes a bigger man to walk away from a fight than it does to stay and fight” –Mr. Loftin
“When you are good to others you are best to yourself.” -Ben Franklin
“Man is not made to understand life, but to live it.” -Santayana
“Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal life.” The prayer of Saint Francis of ....Assisi.....
“Vulgar people take huge delight in the faults and follies of great men.” Schopenhauer
“Do what you feel in your heart is to be right, for you’ll be criticized, anyway. You’ll be ‘damned if you do, and damned if you don’t’” Eleanor Roosevelt.
"Because revenge is shallow. He has grown weak in his hate and I have grown strong in my love.” Beneath a Marble Sky
“Great friends are like amazing jeans: they offer incredible support and cover you rear when you need it the most.” Holly Eagleson
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.” Martin Luther King Jr.
“Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.” Elie Wiesel
“Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.” Blaise Pascal
“We are what we imagine ourselves to be.” Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Monday, March 30, 2009
7 Contrary Virtues
Practicing these virtues is alleged to protect one against temptation toward the Seven Deadly Sins. These virtues are often for one’s who has learned to be content and happy and found a deeper meaningful satisfaction. They are also for one’s that are good and have strived to make them selves better. They are the complete opposite of the Sins.
Chastity against Lust
Meaning: One who is pure in thought and act. One who refrains from sexual desires. One who found satisfaction outside the bedroom.
Color: Light Green
Animal: Penguin
Related Words: virtuousness, morality
Symbols: Chastity Belt, Wreath of Rue
Heaven’s Reward: One who abides by this virtue will have total satisfaction in heaven.
Lesson: One who learns this lesson knows what true love is and does not engage in sexual acts carelessly. One who follows this has a deeper connection to others and one’s self.
Heavenly Virtue: Hope is taking a positive future view that good will prevail. Wisdom is the knowledge, and the capacity to use the best means for attaining the best ends; good judgment.
Abstinence against Gluttony
Meaning: One who is voluntary restraint from over-indulging in a desire.
Color: Nude
Animal: Crested Shelduck
Related Words: forbear, avoid
Symbols: Nun
Heaven’s Reward: One who abides by this virtue will have a special feast in one’s honor.
Lesson: One who learns this lesson only has what they need and has satisfaction in that.
Heavenly Virtue: Temperance is moderation of needed things and abstinence from things which are not needed. Freedom is the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action. The power to act, speak, or think without externally imposed restraints.
Liberality against Greed
Meaning: One who is generous and has nobility of thought and actions.
Color: Brown
Animal: Red Panda
Related Words: unselfishness, lavishness, bountifulness
Symbols: Gift, Earth
Heaven’s Reward: One who abides by this virtue will get all the rewards back in heaven.
Lesson: One who learns this lesson finds great satisfaction in sharing and giving than receiving.
Heavenly Virtue: Prudence is self management. Creativity is the ability to produce through artistic or imaginative effort, characterized by originality and expressiveness.
Diligence against Sloth
Meaning: One who is careful of one’s work and actions. One who puts forth attentive and persistent effort.
Color: Orange
Animal: Bald Eagle
Related Words: assiduity, assiduousness, industriousness
Symbols: Devotion
Heaven’s Reward: One who abides by this gets to relax in heaven.
Lesson: One who puts worth effort will find great satisfaction in ones work and will be praised for their efforts.
Heavenly Virtue: Fortitude is strength of mind, helps to take courage and not give up. Courage is the state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or change with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery.
Patience against Wrath
Meaning: One who is the state of endurance. One who can wait without getting upset. One who stays calm without complaint.
Color: Yellow
Animal: Sea Turtle
Related Words: self-control, tolerance
Symbols: Card Games
Heaven’s Reward: One who abides by this virtue is honored in heaven.
Lesson: One who learns to be patient lives longer and is happier in life.
Heavenly Virtue: Justice is being fair and equitable with others. Tolerance is the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others.
Kindness against Envy
Meaning: One who is helpful towards others without expecting something in return. One who is happy to help others for the joy of helping them.
Color: Peach
Animal: Snow Leopard
Related Words: courtesy, mercy, sympathy
Symbols: Heart
Heaven’s Reward: One who abides by this will have a special place in heaven.
Lesson: One who learns this lesson finds more satisfaction in helping others and seeing them smile.
Heavenly Virtue: Charity is concern for and active helping of others. Love is the deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection, devotion, and compassion toward a person.
Humility against pride
Meaning: One who is humble and modest. One who does not think that one is better or more important than others.
Color: White
Animal: Cuvier's Gazelle
Related Words: demureness, meekness
Symbols: Pie, Soul
Heaven’s Reward: One who abides by this virtue will be born again in heaven.
Lesson: One who learns to be humble will find more friends and praise.
Heavenly Virtue: Faith is belief in the right things. Truth is a comprehensive term that in all of its nuances implies honesty, accuracy, sincerity, integrity, and reality.
7 Deadly Sins
To overcome these things one must learn to be content, satisfied and be unselfish.
One must be reasonable and know one’s limits. One must strive to be better.
Lust
Meaning: The desire for the pleasures of the body. It is obsessive and excessive thoughts or cravings that are compulsions or transgressions of the sexual nature. Usually one who falls under the “love at first sight” mistakes lust as love.
Color: Magenta
Animal: Cat
Related Words: Pleasure, Craving, Eagerness, Delight, Passion
Symbols: Waterfall (something rapid, unpredictable, uncontrollable)
Hell’s Punishment: For those that die by this sin will go to hell to be smothered in fire and brimstone.
Lesson: One who does not learn other satisfying things outside of the bedroom will never find true satisfaction. One who mistakes lust as love needs to learn what love truly is or one will be alone, because lust does fade and love is forever.
Gluttony
Meaning: The desire to consume more than that which one requires. It is to over-indulge by gulping down and swallowing when it comes to over-consumption of food.
Color: Pink
Animal: Pig
Related Words: Over Eating, Gorge
Symbols: Banquet, Feast
Hell’s Punishment: For those that die by this sin will be forced to eat rats, toads, and snakes in hell.
Lesson: Over-indulgence can get one into a lot of problems if one does not learn how to manage it and control it. One must find a balance. If one eats too much that one’s belly aches then one needs to work-out to work it off.
Greed
Meaning: The desire for material wealth or status. It is the one who wants excessive wealth for personal gain, usually stopping at nothing to get it.
Color: Gold
Animal: Frog
Related Words: Avarice, Covetousness, Possessiveness
Symbols: Trickery, Manipulation, Gambling
Hell’s Punishment: One who dies by this sin is sent to hell to be put in cauldrons of boiling oil.
Lesson: If one does not learn to be content with what one has the desire can leave one with nothing.
Sloth
Meaning: The desire to avoid any form of work. One prefers to waste time and likes to be lazy. One can also be in despair and stuck in depression.
Color: Light Blue
Animal: Goat
Related Words: Idleness, Sadness, Apathy, Sleepy
Symbols: Feathers, Bubbles
Hell’s Punishment: One who dies by this sin gets thrown in the snake pits of hell.
Lesson: One who does not overcome this sin will never get anything done and waste one’s life. To overcome this one needs to be active and strive to be one’s best and live life to the fullest.
Wrath
Meaning: The desire for punishment and vengeance. One tends to be very irritated and impatient. One that has uncontrolled hatred and displeasure towards others.
Color: Red
Animal: Bear
Related Words: Anger, Rage, Revenge, Retribution
Symbols: Fist, Weapons, Physical Violence
Hell’s Punishment: One who dies by this sin is dismembered alive in hell.
Lesson: One who does not learn to overcome this anger will regret one’s actions and get into more trouble. One needs to learn that violence is not the answer and the bad karma created will come back.
Envy
Meaning: The desire for others traits, status, abilities, or situation. One is often resentment towards others and wishing to deprive them of the object that one desires.
Color: Dark Green
Animal: Snake
Related Words: Jealousy, Covetousness, Invidiousness
Symbols: Theft, Robbery, Backstabbing, Poison
Hell’s Punishment: One who dies from this sin gets put in the freezing waters of hell.
Lesson: One who does not overcome this sin will never see one’s own talent and be thankful for what they have that the other one might not have.
Pride
Meaning: The desire for one’s own and the love for one’s self. One who believes in one’s own importance and abilities. One who thinks the only beauty they see in the world is of one’s self.
Color: Violet
Animal: Peacock
Related Words: Vanity, Narcissism, Hubris
Symbols: Mirror, Reflection
Hell’s Punishment: One who dies by this sin will go to hell to be broken on the wheel.
Lesson: One who does not overcome this sin will only be able to love one’s self and make more enemies than friends. One must over come this by seeing beauty and wonder in all things in life.