Attitude

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude
on life. It is more important than the past, than education,
than money, than circumstances, than failures, than
successes, than what other people think or say or do.
It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It
will make or break a company ... a church ... a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day
regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change our past ... we cannot change the fact
that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the
inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one
string we have, and that is our attitude ...
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and
90% how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in
charge of our Attitude."
- Chuck Swindoll

Conflicts in Marriage and Life

Just love the new word for today: magnanimity! The trait of having a great spirit- generous in spirit, easily forgives. Opposite of meanness- Latin communis-common. So either I have magnanimity or meanness in my marriage- great spirit or common, petty spirit. Which is more difficult? Clearly meanness is such a part of our daily language- how very sad!

Proverbs 15:16-18: "Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and turmoil with it. Better is a dish of vegetables where love is than a fattened ox served with hatred. Hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger calms a dispute." NASB
This is certainly my prayer today! Give me magnanimity not meanness!!

Learning

Whoever ceases to be a student has never been a student.
- George Iles

I love this quote. But then again anyone who knows me knows that I love to learn and love to read. However, beyond that fact, I truly believe that anyone who refuses to learn is just terribly ignorant. The truth of the matter is that we (Americans especially) are just plain lazy. Sometimes learning is not easy especially when learning life lessons. Go pick up a book and be a student!

Beloved

"We are the Beloved. We are intimately loved long before our parents, teachers, spouses, children, and friends loved or wounded us. That's the truth of our lives. That's the truth spoken by the voice that says, "You are my Beloved." Listening to that voice with great inner attentiveness, I hear at my center words that say: "I have called you by name, from the very beginning. You are mine and I am yours. You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother's womb. I look at you with infinite tenderness and care for you with a care more intimate than that of a mother for her child. I have counted every hair on you head and guided you at every step. Wherever you go, I go with you, and wherever you rest, I keep watch. You belong to me. I am your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your lover, and your spouse. Nothing will ever separate us. "You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests." It certainly is not easy to hear that voice in a world filled with voices that shout: 'You are no good, you are ugly; you are worthless; you are despicable, you are nobody- unless you can demonstrate the opposite." Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence." Henri J.M. Nouwen, Life of the Beloved, pgs.31,36,37

Why is this so hard to believe? I just love this book and highly recommend it! The core truth! If only we can remember this truth when life throws us such curve balls constantly.

Sovereign God

I must admit. I wasn't ready for the new year. I'm not happy my husband is without work after being laid off again. I'm not happy the state of our finances. I'm not happy the federal government supposedly has all this "help" available for struggling home owners but it apparently does not apply to us or to anyone we know personally for that matter. So, I'm just not happy that 2011 is here. Ugh.

But at our staff meeting yesterday, our teaching pastor shared about his recent trip to Ethiopia and India. Outside Ethiopia's capital city of Addis Ababa there is a centuries old Orthodox church. When our pastor visited, they could not enter the church as the church was in the midst of a 45 day fast-here we complain if our sermon's go over by 10 minutes because we want to eat lunch! There were men standing around reading their bibles. When asked how long one man had been standing there - our pastor learned he had stood for 36 hours reading his bible without moving!

At the church as a fountain of healing waters. As sceptical Americans, we automatically question that this fountain actually has healing waters. When asked, our pastor was told "of course the waters heal!" What faith. There was no doubt that the children who entered the fountain with aids would come out completely healed!

The most profound was a Jewish Doctor who works in Ethiopia with children who have severe physical abnormalities and has actually adopted 8 children so they can be on his health insurance. When our pastor asked him if he ever questions God amidst seeing all the suffering amongst these children the answer was "Why would I question God? He is Sovereign". But of course!

Oh ye of little faith! We are soo completely spoiled and forget how thankful we really should be!! I absolutely love the Christmas Carol "I heard the Bells on Christmas Day" with words by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. A recent blog posting entitled "The Bells of Hope"convicted me even more!

"God is not dead nor doth He sleep"- He IS Sovereign! Why would we ever question Him??