LIVING LIFE

First you must choose life. You must determine if you are willing to live it, to accept it, with all of it's ups and downs, mountains and valleys, rewards and challenges.

You have gifts that are meant to be manifested in relationships. What are your gifts?  Even if roadblocks appear, you CAN find ways to share your gifts!  That is EXACTLY WHAT THIS NEW WEBPAGE is in the process of doing!

You have purposes yet unfulfilled. Find them and fill them. Let me help you.  I continue searching for ways to help me as well.  Life's storms can be overwhelming.  Don't give up.  Just search for new paths in your journey.  They will appear.  The work may be very very difficult; yet your desire to help others CAN overcome obstacles!

"You are created to be light for the whole world. A city built on top of a hill cannot be hidden and no one would light a lamp and put it into a clay pot. A lamp is placed on a lampstand, where it can give light to everyone in the house. Make your light so shine that others will see the good that you do and will praise your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:14-16).

"What does the Lord require of me?  That I act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with  my God" (Micah 6:8). It's for us folks!  We are happier and healthier when we are kind to others!

FORGIVENESS OPENS A PATH TO PERFECT PEACE

Forgiveness is not something that God forces upon us!  It is an opportunity for injured people to be healed. It is wonderful when we receive the gift of an apology from an injurer. Sometimes, we really get the chance to explain why the injury hurt so much, exactly how it hurt, and express our pain fully. When that does happen, it is truly a gift beyond words. 

However, if we wait for the injurer to say they're sorry, we allow ourselves to be held hostage by those who have hurt us. When we forgive,we let the injurer go their own way, free and clear of the debt they surely owe us, because we choose not to seek retribution.  In this choice, the prisoner we set free is us. We are set free from anger, sadness, resentment, fears (the list goes on and on). In that moment we choose to forgive, we are simultaneously forgiven by God for our willingness to refuse this injury its ability to stunt our growth, to rob us of the gift of each "me."

Forgiveness is Love's toughest work and Love's biggest risk.  If you aren't honest with yourself and God, through the process, it can turn you into a doormat or even an insufferable manipulator (I've got something to forever hold over their head).  Niether is a healthy existence.  (Lewis Smedes)

Forgiveness seems unnatural to us in our humanity.  Our human sense of fairness tells us people should pay for the wrong they do us.  Forgiveness is only attainable in the supernatural.  It comes from Holy Spirit and gives us the power to outweigh even human nature, tipping the scales of justice for our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well-being.  It begins with the choice to forgive. Forgiveness if a process. All our feelings must be felt and used to motivate us towards healthy change.

In some families, when injuries occur, they don't talk at all, just drift away for a while, then get back together and act as if everything is "normal" again. This type of response to injury creates "surface" type relationships with lots of unresolved anger, sadness and fear and passes this approach to the younger generations. Other families initially blow up with each other, yelling their "hurts" verbally, yet there is still the risk of unresolved anger, sadness and fear, related to the injury.  Blow-ups "cler the air" initially.  However, even after blow-ups, your tendency might still be to just drift off and not talk about what happened and why it hurt.  Eventually, everyone starts talking again and in both scenarios, there is an erroneous "assumption" of forgiveness.  This is extremely dysfuntional, as calming down is *not* forgiving.  The issue will keep resurfacing until a plan is made to address the issues, and to protect from future injury.  Saying you are sorry brings some relief and opens the door to closure, but still issues are present, if there isn't a discussion about who hurt whom, how they did it and why it hurt. If a resolution cannot be reached; yet we want a relationship with this person, we sometimes choose the agree to disagree option in order to move on.

Forgiving is *not* forgetting.  It does *not* erase the anger, humiliation, pain, fear and sadness that was felt deeply at the time of your injury. When we forgive, we are in no way invalidating the pain.  We are giving up our *right* to get even for a much more important  *right* to experience freedom and peace.  We are saying I am freeing me by freeing you; you no longer have any power over me. I am moving on!

Do you feel like you are being drained of your life energy? That you have a strong desire to change something about yourself or your external environment? If we are honest with outselves, most of us have felt overwhelmed at one time or another in our lives. Help comes from:

1. Acknowledging a desire;

2. Naming that which we desire;

3. Seeking that which we desire;

4. Naming any obstacles in our path;

5. Clearning any obstacles in our path;

6. Searching for pathways to our desire;

7. Stepping through open doors!

THERE IS A PEACE WHICH PASSES ALL OUR HUMAN UNDERSTANDING!

IT IS A PEACE THAT COMES FROM KNOWING, WITHOUT DOUBT,THAT YOU WERE CREATED TO LOVE AND BE LOVED! THAT YOU ARE SPECIAL.

ARE YOU READY TO LOVE AND BE LOVED...WITHOUT HINDRANCE?

JOIN US IN FINDING YOUR UNIQUE PATH FOR YOUR UNIQUE JOURNEY!

 

ARE YOU SEARCHING FOR SOMETHING NEW IN YOUR LIFE?

GOD PROVIDES A LANTERN IN THE DARKNESS, A LIGHT TO GUIDE YOUR WAY. YOU ARE NOT ALONE!