From Pity to Praise

Random Acts Of Kindness

Write about a random act of kindness you’ve done for someone.

The warm feeling of well-being that washes over you when you’ve done something kind isn’t just in your head. It’s in your brain chemicals too.

Acts of kindness can release hormones that contribute to your mood and over all well being. The practice of kindness is so effective it’s being formally incorporated into some types of psychotherapy.

The trick we need to know is that act of kindness have to be repeated because biochemically, you can’t live on the 3 to 4 minutes oxytocin boosts that come from a single act.

Most research on the science behind why kindness makes us feel better has centered around oxytocin which is sometimes called “the love hormone.”

The last random act of kindness I’ve done was I when I was working at a snow come stand for at race track to do a fund race to help make money for the local veterans in my community to buy meals for home bound veterans during the Christmas holidays. I bought a man’s order which I turn caused him to buy the people’s order behind him, until the last person didn’t buy the person’s order behind her. But the act of kindness when on for about 45 minutes. It was just good people paying it forward to bless the person behind them. Which I turn made people feel good.

We can build better selves and better communities at the same time. By doing a simple act of kindness and people paying forward that kindness to another person.

How I Fight My Battles

Every one of us fights battles in our lives, Satan is always looking for opportunities to trip us up.

Some things are spiritual and some things are not. Some things could be a result of our insecurities, or our sin. We must be able to discern the difference between them.

During my life experiences God has shown me a few things about how to fight. There are three points on how to fight in the middle of fighting in the Spiritual.

1. Rest in His Strength

We must stand on scripture. Standing on God’s Word to know the truth. So, when satan tries to have us fall for a lie, we can refute that lie with the truth.

That’s why memorizing scripture is important. You cannot stand on something you don’t remember.

Psalms 119:11 says

“I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”

Having the Word of God readily accessible when we need it is critical as we fight against the lies satan uses.

If you need to buy some index cards, write down scriptures that you want to stand on and look at them often.

When Jesus was being tempted by Satan in the wilderness He stood on scripture. Every time satan tried to tell Him lies and, He refuted it with the truth. Even Satan uses scripture, but he always uses it out of context. We must know the context of the scriptures we are trying to stand on.

Pray. Prayer is a great weapon for fighting in a battle. While there will be distractions to deter us from doing this, prayer is a powerful way to defeat satan. Some say you have to pray when you first rise in the morning. But it doesn’t matter what time of day or night, just do it. See what works best for you.

Worship. Worship can bring us into the presence of God, focusing on this turns us away from the attacks around us, and gets us closer to Jesus, who is bigger than what you are facing. Evil forces can’t stay around in the presence of Jesus.

“Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world“ – 1 John 4:4

When you are in a battle remember God is greater than satan, evil, and demonic forces in the world.

You’re testimony of overcoming fear is won with praying scripture.

When fear and anxiety overcome me out of nowhere I go to my vehicle and turn on worship music, and drive. Or open my Bible and begin reading God’s promises, because it brings peace to me.

2. Be alert and sensitive to what is going on in your mind and heart

Satan loves to try to attack your mind with ideas that do not align with scripture. This is why we are to take every thought captive.

For example: when we compare ourselves to others. “Why did God bless this person and not me?” And then thinking “God does not do good things for me.” or “God does not care about me.” Satan loves to whisper these lies to us.

2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us,

“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

We do not wage fleshly battles, but spiritual ones. The weapons of our warfare are spiritual. If we are going to win against Satan we have to tear down the strongholds of wrong thinking.

If I have a thought that I know is not from God, I stop meditating on that thought and I stand on a scripture in the truth of what God says, I think about things that are worthy of praise. For example: “Why did God bless this person and not me with looks? God said, “I praise You because am fearfully and wonderfully made….” (Psalm 139: 14-16).

Paul reminds us in Philippians 4:8 that we should call for reconciliation, joyful faith and disciplined thinking. These things will inspire worship of God and serve others.

If you are dealing with anger it’s important to address this quickly because if you let it fester (or grow) in your heart, good thing will not come from it.

Satan can use anger or offense in your heart and cause you to think about horrible through. Bitterness can start to grow in your heart. And as a result, you will begin to distance yourself from God and others.

3. Find support of others

Do not walk alone in what ever your fighting. Share with others that you trust. Satan tells us to hide our struggle, but we cannot heal if it’s not out in the open. These can be mentors, other believers, a pastor or priest, or a trusted family member.

Proverbs 24:6 says,

“For by wise guidance, you can wage your war, and in abundance there is victory.”

I always found that talking to God out loud helped me, when I was alone. God will never leave you or forsake you. But you also have to listen for His voice when doing this.

There is an added power when two come together and pray. Find an accountability partner, or join a prayer meeting where you can be there for each other. Sometimes we need to humble ourselves and let someone know what your going through.

We need each other. We are not made to fight alone. We cannot do anything on our own, that’s why God put us together on earth. We need to encourage each other we when we are down.

It is powerful, and God can bless us in many ways when we surrender, humble ourselves and reach out to someone.

God is with us through our journey, God trains us to become stronger. Practice takes courage. And God gives us tools and weapons to use in our battles.

We have a God who is all-powerful living with us!

Traditions Not Kept From My parents

What traditions have you not kept that your parents had?

Some Hungarian traditions are music, dance, cooking, and embroidery along with being very involved in their children’s lives. My nagymomma did beautiful embroidery work, but I have not kept up the beautiful work. I never had the patience for it. I remember my father loved Hungarian music and dancing. While I learned a few dances, I haven’t kept up with them.

My mother was Shawnee Indian, I never learned much from her at all Except for the Indian fry bread recipe.

Spiritual Health

While spirit cannot be defined as part of the body or mind. Body, mind, and spirit all have an effective impact on one another. Improved spiritual life can help contribute to the healing process.

Orituwlbhealth is a dimension of human wellness that integrates all dimensions of health: physical, emotional, mental, and social. Spiritual health creates meaning in life,

I believe that spiritual health is a kind of glue that brings all the other places of health together. I don’t believe anything spiritual comes from religion. It’s not about a bunch of rules on whether you can eat this or that or the way to dress.

I get asked all the time why I am such a firm believer in God. And my answer will always be the same, “I’ve tried everything known to man but I was still missing something.” It’s a hole inside that cannot be filled with anything else, when I found God (or He found me) that hole was filled.

Spiritual Health is often downplayed as less important than physical, emotional, or social health, but it is vital to finding our purpose in life and achieving greater mindfulness of our impact on the rest of the world.

Spiritual health is achieved when we feel at peace with life. It is when we can find hope and peace even in the hardest of times.

Spiritual health leads to improved mental health. Spiritual well-being or lack of it, can have a significant impact on our day-to-day life and our ability to cope with the stressors of life.

There have been studies that show that people who have good spiritual beliefs experience lower levels of depression, and anxiety, and display signs of better health.

Living In Turbulent Times

I believe that if you believe in God it is possible to be optimistic, hopeful, and enthusiastic. After all we have every reason to be optimistic about life on earth and life eternal.

No one who believes should be a pessimist, because believing in God is a system of radical optimism. Although there are times it’s easy to be pulled down by tough times. When experiencing discouragement, exhaustion, or more, then it’s time to ask the question: what’s the matter and why?

In Philippians 4:8 it says,

“Whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is anyviryre, and if there is any praise, think about those thingss.”

That sounds like a good thought process.

Being worried by the inevitable challenges of our everyday living, but knowing that God wants to bring assurance to us is praiseworthy. After all, the ultimate battle had already been won on the cross at Calvery. If our lives have been transformed by Jesus’s sacrifice, then as a recipient of God’s grace, believers have every reason to live courageously.

Whether in good times or turbulent times, be willing to trust God’s plan for your life. Proverbs 3:5-7makes it clear,

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Don’t be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord, and depart from evil.”

A.W Tozer said, “Attitude is all important. Let the soul take a quiet latitude of faith and love toward God, and from there on, the responsibility is God’s. He will make good on His commitments.”

These words serve as a reminder that even when the challenges of the times we live in seem daunting, God remains steadfast.

So vow to be a hope-filled believer. Think optimistically about life, family, career, future, and purpose. Trust and be hopeful, not fearful.

Pray for God’s help to keep focused on the truth – the truth of God. Practice thinking about the possibilities and what is good every day. It might take time, but every new thought will replace the old way of thinking and will provide a better, future mindset.

Was Today A Typical Day

Was today typical?

Today was not a typical day.. I woke up with the starting of a migraine, I thought I could head it off, with some migraine medicine. But my noon all I could do was grab an ice pack and go to bed. By about 4:00 P.M. I had decided on a migraine cocktail, which I don’t do very often because it’s really bad for the liver. But sometimes it’s the only thing that works.

Thank goodness that my husband is good on days I am unable to cook dinner, because today was not a typical day in our household.

The Purpose Of The Wilderness

God gives us four reasons He took the Israelites through the wilderness and He takes us for the same reasons. The wilderness is a place of trials and temptations. The military calls it boot camp and it’s their way of finding the best way for the job to get done.

These reasons are found in Deuteronomy 8:2,

“You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness, the He might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments, or not.”

The word humble means showing a low estimate of one’s own importance, meek, submissive, bring down or debase. There is nothing that can humble you like a tough trial. It humble us to say, “I can’t fix it but I will call the One who can.

The second reason we go through the wilderness is to prove ourselves. Prove means to demonstrate truth, evidence, genuineness, and validity.

God proves us in the wilderness. Every vehicle has to be tested to prove it will do what it is designed to do. We, too must be tested to prove that we will serve the Lord like we were created to do. The wilderness is a proving ground.

The third reason is to know what’s in our heart. A test or trial will let us know what’s in our heart. The Bible tells us out of the heart the mouth speaks. In other words when we go through a trial or test the words that come out of our mouths will tell us what’s in our heart. It was in Peter’s heart to deny Jesus 3 times. It was what was in his heart that’s why he denied Jesus when He was questioned and put on trial.

The fourth reason is to see if we will keep His commandments or not. It is easy to say that we will keep His commandments when there are no tests or trials, but it’s what we will do during tests and trials that counts.

One of His commandments is to give thanks during tests and trials. Another is to pay tithes, are we cheerful givers or angry about it. Do we pay when we are in tough places or low on funds. It’s so easy to take from our tithing when we are in a tough spot financially.

The Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years for these reasons. I find it interesting that the number 40 speaks of tests and trials. Jesus fasted 40 days and then was tested by Satan (Matthew 4:2).Jesus remained on earth 40 days after His resurrection (Acts 1:3).

Bringing Back Dinosaurs

If you could bring back one dinosaur, which one would it be?

If I could bring back a dinosaur it would be the Velociraptor or commonly called the Raptor.

There were feathered animals that grew up to 100 lbs, about the size of a wolf. They roamed central and eastern Asia between 70 -74 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period.

Give God Your Troubles

“Let Go And Let God“

It sounds like a straightforward phrase: let go and let God. Easy to say, but not so easy to do. People who say it don’t necessarily have your life with its stress, worries, fears, and problems.

Still, that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. It doesn’t even mean that it has to be hard. It’s possible, if, and that’s a fairly big if. Still, there are a few steps to make this happen.

I used to constantly have fears and worry about my son, living so far away. But no amount of fear or worry could change the situation. It was a mother’s love of her youngest child. One who decided to move thousands of miles away. I raised him to be successful and independent and I had to let him live his own life. So, I had to give him to God and let go of my fears and worry or I would drive myself crazy.

The first thing I did was identify what I could control and what I couldn’t. Much of my inability to “let go and let God” stemmed from my failure to recognize that too often the things that caused my fears and worry were things I couldn’t control.

Then I addressed the things I could control. The key to getting rid of or at least reducing it is action. Inactivity breeds worry and depression. Instead of brooding over my situation, I took action on things I could control. We set up a weekly call time, where I could hear his voice and know that things were fine. I sent him packages of things I knew he missed from home. Homemade fudge, cookies.

I learned to “surrender what I couldn’t control,” When I finally was able to surrender the things I feared. Like whether he would make the right choices, or wouldn’t go hungry into God’s hands and asked Him to take care of those things. (which I’m sure He was taking care of all along). My fear was keeping things in my own hands, and faith was turning them over to God’s hands and leaving them there,

When I began to worry or my fears reared their heads, I would read God’s promises and remember the good things He’s done in the past.

I chose a “letting go” motto. A memorable scripture that I could repeat in my head easily. For example, my strength will be in quietness and in confidence (Isaiah 30:15) or God will never leave or forsake me (Deuteronomy 31:6).

I chose to act on faith, not fear. There’s a quote by E Stanley Jones that I like, “Never act on fear, for fears are usually false. Don’t build your life according to any pattern shown to you in the valley of fear.”

I “focused my mind and heart on trusting God,” Matthew 6:34 says,

“Don’t be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day’s own evil is sufficient.”

God didn’t say we wouldn’t have trouble, but we should focus our minds and hearts on this day and its challenges. The same God who is with us and empowers us to live for today will be there tomorrow

“Let go and let God” isn’t expecting too much if we just do it one day at a time.

Emotional Resilience

For most of my life, I struggled with my emotions. I felt things so deeply which left me feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and depressed. I struggled with overthinking all the time.

After years of struggling, I finally learned how to control my thoughts and manage my emotions. I stopped feeling overwhelmed all the time. I got out of the spiral into the pit of despair. I could cope better when life didn’t go how I had planned.

There are those with a higher degree of emotional resilience who can handle the stresses that come with daily life effectively and calmly. That was not me. I had to learn this trait.

Emotional resilience can be developed with some effort and practice. If you know what to do, you can become more resilient, even if you are naturally more sensitive to lives difficulties.

Emotional resilience is not a quality that you either do or do not possess, there are varying degrees of how well a person can handle stress. However, there are specific characteristics that resilient people tend to share. Some main characteristics are,

Emotional Awareness

People with emotional awareness understand what they’re feeling and why. They understand the feelings of others better because they are more in touch with their own inner life. This understanding allows people to respond to others and to better regulate and cope with difficult emotions like anger or fear.

Perseverance

Whether they are working on goals or inner coping skills they are action-oriented. They don’t give up. Resilient people don’t feel helpless or hopeless when a challenge comes along. They are more likely to keep working toward a goal when they are faced with an obstacle.

Internal Focus

They believe that they are in control of their own lives, rather than outside forces. This trait is associated with less stress because they have a realistic view of the world and are proactive in dealing with stressors in their lives. They are more solution-oriented, which gives them a greater sense of control and in turn, brings less stress.

Optimism

Resilient people see the positive in most situations and believe in their strengths. This shifts how they handle problems from a victim mentality to an empowered one.

Support

The support of others plays a critical role in fostering resilience and improving mental well-being. They know the value of social support and surround themselves with supportive friends and family.

Sense of humor

People strong in emotional resilience can laugh at life’s difficulties. Which is a tremendous asset to shift one’s perspective from seeing things as a threat to seeing them as a challenge. This alters how the body reacts to stress.

Perspective

Resilient people learn from their mistakes, rather than deny them. They see obstacles as challenges and allow adversity to make them stronger. They can find meaning in life’s challenges rather than seeing themselves as victims. It doesn’t hurt to learn from other people’s mistakes as well.

Spirituality

Having something to believe in and having hope in something is linked with stronger emotional resilience. Especially if you’re connected internally and not just going through the motions.

Here are some ways I learned to control my thoughts and manage my emotions,

I managed my thoughts by maintaining a hopeful outlook and accepted that change and setbacks were a part of life. And that the important thing was to keep working toward my goals.

I began taking care better care of my mind and my body. I began eating better and staying physically active and I avoided unhealthy coping strategies.

Traveling

If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?

If I were to win free plane tickets I would definitely plan to take my sister to Hungary. I would love to see where my ancestors were from.

I would preferably want to go during Christmas time to enjoy their festivities and markets. And enjoy their wonderful foods. My nagymoma would talk about her family’s traditions all the time, and I am thankful I was able to learn things from what she shared. I know a few recipes from there, from her teaching me when I was young.

The Weight Of Disrespect

I’ve heard a lot about these people who openly mocked God in France at the ceremony before the Olympics this week. I imagine it’s like standing on this ice in the dead of winter -one wrong step, and you’re plunging into icy water. Concerning God it is a big deal.

When we talk about mocking, blasphemy, or ridiculing God, it’s treading on holy ground. It’s not just a slap on the wrist, it’s a major red flag in the eyes of God.

Remember when they mocked Jesus on the cross? That scene should shake us to our core. As the people at the France Olympics. God will call for reverence and accountability. You can’t just mock Him and expect no consequences.

Basically, they were saying they think they can live apart from God’s laws. They mock God because they can fool others. They mock God because they think they are more illtelegent, more forward thinking or more advanced than His Word.

Matthew 13-1-23 talks about the parable of the shower -you reap what you sow. Every farmer understands the laws of nature and works accordingly. God can forgive sun, and remove the punishment, but the consequences of their choices remain.

When France chose to disrespect God, His laws were broken, and the consequences will endure. Satan wants us to hate and be angry by what has happened – he wants us to sin in the eyes of God. But Psalms 37 tells us,

“Don’t fret because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good. Dwell in the land, and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

When we fret it only causes harm. Right now we need to cease from anger and forsake our wrath. Everything God’s Word says will come to pasd the evil in the world as well as His promise of God.

Sin is the root of all of the problems in our lives as well as the world.

“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life” –Romand 6:23

Remember “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” -Ephesians 6:12.