Seasons of the Soul

Concentrate on this Sentence...

'To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did'

When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you,
but merely opening your hands to receive something better.

Concentrate on this sentence.....

'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.'

Twenty Things To Remember

1. Faith is the ability to not panic.

2. If you worry, you didn't pray. If you prayed, don't worry.

3. As a child of God, prayer is kinda like calling home every
day.

4. Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of
shape.

5. When we get tangled up in our problems, be still. God wants
us to be still so He can untangle the knot.

6. Do the math. Count your blessings.

7. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.

8. Dear God: I have a problem. It's me.

9. Silence is often misinterpreted, but never misquoted.

10. Laugh every day - it's like inner jogging.

11. The most important things in your home are the people.

12. Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional.
(Preach it!)

13. There is no key to h appiness. The door is always open.
Come on in.

14. A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.

15. He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

16. We do not remember days but moments. Life moves too fast so
enjoy your precious moments.

17. Nothing is real to you until you experience it; otherwise it's just hearsay.

18. It's all right to sit on your pity pot every now and again. Just be sure to flush when you are done.

19. Surviving and living your life successfully requires courage. The goals and dreams you're seeking require courage and risk-taking. Learn from the turtle, it only makes progress when it sticks out its neck.

20. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation.
Your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are. No matter the storm,  when you are with God, there's always a rainbow waiting.
Leave gentle fingerprints on the soul of another for the angels to read.

We should not want to get to the end of our lives and find that we have lived just the length of it. We should also want to have lived the width of it as well.s

~Author unknown

Thoughts on Forgiveness

Every time you forgive, you dissolve the condition you have placed on your own capacity to love. Every time you forgive, love is awakened in you more deeply and your capacity to extend love is increased. That is the nature of the journey.

...from Love Without Conditions by Paul Ferrini

 

We hunger to be known and understood. We hunger to be loved. We hunger to be at peace inside our own skins. We hunger not just to be fed these things but, often without realizing it, hunger to feed each other these things because they too are starving for them. We hunger not just to be loved but to love, not just to be forgiven but to forgive. Not just to be known and understood, but to know and understand each other to the point of seeing that in the last analysis we all have the same good times, the same bad times, and that for that very reason there is no such thing in the world as anyone who is really a stranger.

 

...from Longing For Home by Frederick Buechner.

Food for Thought

 

   Great Spirit

  Grant that I many not

  criticize my neighbor

   until I have walked a

  mile iin his moccasins.

 

~ Native American Saying

Dream Impossible Dreams

That is the stuff from which new life is formed, and from which more is born. Life is renewed again and again through the incredible power of imagination put into action, so dream what appear to be impossible dreams and dare to believe that they will come true!

KJ

Food for Thought

The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention.  ~Duguet

There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.
~Hindu Proverb

There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.
~John Andrew Holmes

We come into this world crying while all around us are smiling. May we so live that we go out of this world smiling while everyone around us is weeping.
~Persian Proverb

We can do no great things, only small things with great love.   ~Mother Teresa

Great minds discuss ideas.  Average minds discuss events.  Small minds discuss people.
~Eleanor Roosevelt

Treat  people as if they were what they ought to be and you will help them become what they are capable of becoming ~Goethe

Take time to laugh; it is  the music of the soul!~Old English Proverb

Food for Thought

"In filling myself, I had emptied myself. In grasping things, I had lost everything. In        devouring pleasures and joys, I had found distress and anguish and fear…
Such was the death of the hero, the great man I had wanted to be. And it was my defeat that was to be the occasion of my rescue."

~ Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain

There are two types of people—those who come into a room and say, “Well, here I am!”
And those who come in and say, “Ah, there you are.”
~Frederick L. Collins

Ten Ways To Feel Happier

1. Focus on the beauty in the  moment. . look with eyes that make you feel uplifted.
2. Be grateful. Count your blessings every day and say thank you for the least of what you have/are.
3. Think beyond yourself. Make someone else feel good.
4. Laugh. Believe it or not, a sense of humor can actually be practiced and developed.
5. Connect with others. Social involvement is a great mood lifter because you get out of yourself.
6. Feed your soul. Inspirational quotes, prayers or thoughts can be soothing. Nourish your inner life.
7. Be creative. Paint, draw, take photos or even just doodle—whatever makes you feel good!
8. Reread and enjoy a special card or letter you have saved that affirms who you are.
9. De-stress and decompress regularly. Be good to yourself and your body.
10. Make time for rest. It is essential to a positive outlook and restoration to your energy levels.

~Author unknown

Thoughts to Ponder

* Maybe God wanted us to meet the wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift.
*Maybe when the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the one which has been opened for us.
*Maybe the best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.
*Maybe it is true that we don't know what we have got until we lose it, but it is also true that we don't know what we have been missing until it arrives.
*Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they will love you back. Don't expect love in return; just wait for it to grow in their heart; but if it does not, be content it grew in yours.
*It takes only a minute to get a crush
on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone, but it takes      
a lifetime to forget someone.
*Go beyond physical looks; look for the beauty within another.
*Go for more than material wealth; find the inner treasure.
*Choose someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Find the one that makes your heart smile.
*There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real.
*Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have this one life in which to create your reality, so utilize your time here well.
*May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make
you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to make you happy.
*Always put yourself in others' shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the other person, too.
*The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
*Happiness is made for those who cry,
those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried, for only
they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives.
*Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss and ends with a tear.
*The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go on
well in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
*When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you are the one who is smiling and everyone
around you is crying, but smiling because you were here!.
From Seasons of the Soul print edition 2001

Food for Thought

“When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way you will command the attention of the world."
-George Washington Carver

People think I’m disciplined. It is not discipline. It is devotion. There is a great difference.
—Lucciano Pavarotti

As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrow straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds.
—Buddha

Use every letter you write, every conversation you have, every meeting you attend, to express your fundamental beliefs and dreams. Affirm to others the vision of the world you want. You are a free, immensely powerful source of life and goodness. Affirm it. Spread it. Radiate it. Think day and night about it and you will see a miracle happen: the greatness of your own life.
—Robert Muller