Beauty in your life- change your thoughts for a positive outlook
What food would you say is your specialty?
I don’t really have a food specialty. If I eat or see something that looks or tastes amazing I attempt to make it.
My new favorite is pork carnitas rice bowls. I know many people don’t eat pork, with cilantro lime rice but you could also make it with chicken, or beef. My tip is use sour cream or cream Mexicana on top.
Facing hardship and brokenness seems to be a necessary path we must take to get to spiritual maturity, a deeper relationship with God, and a more authentic life.
Challenges can break down a reliance on ourselves as well as earthly desires and make us more receptive to God’s plan and presence. When we can embrace brokenness it can lead to a more genuine and fulfilling existence that replaces a self-centered life with one that is guided by God’s purpose.
There are a few ways that brokenness can lead to true living.
In practice this means we should embrace hardship. Instead of fearing challenges, we should be open to how God can use them to mold and shape us through them.
We should try and let go of the urge to control our hardships. This involves a willingness to let go of control and cry out to God, allowing Him to put the pieces back together in His way, which is often better than we could have imagined for ourselves.
Finding strength in our vulnerabilities. This means acknowledging and embracing brokenness is not a sign of weakness but a path to a greater connection with God.
Acknowledging our earthly brokenness comes from recognizing that we live in a broken world and will face difficulties. But also recognizing that there is good news, that overcoming brokenness is possible with faith.
Jesus is the only one who can break spiritual chains and deliver people from the power of darkness, and that’s exactly what He came to do. He is the chain breaker.
Jesus has the power to liberate people from spiritual, emotional, and physical bondage. This includes breaking the chains of sin, death, fear, and addiction. His blood was the ransom paid to liberate our souls from sin and death.
Jesus put on our chains of sin and broke free. When we become alive in Christ Jesus we are able to see that our past, present and future don’t have to drag us down or hold us back because Jesus is victorious and has overcome the grave.
The way I see it, is every morning we have a choice to make. We decide whether we will put on the heavy coat and put the chains back on. Or will we exchange them for garments of light clothes of freedom that Jesus offers us?
We are loved. We are chosen. We have been forgiven. God has good plans for our future and He is always faithful to keep His promises.
We must fight every day because living in freedom that Jesus bought for us matters. The blood of Jesus washes us clean, so we never have to writhe in darkness again. We shouldn’t sit in darkness when we can be standing in the light of His presence.
We all have seasons of isolation on those days, when you feel the darkness creeping in remember that Jesus’s hand is stretched out towards you.
What major historical events do you remember?
I remember the Vietnamese war mostly because my father used to talk about it a lot – being a war veteran himself. He was against communism. He believed as most people did the socialism and communism is bad for the average citizen. It is big government wanting to control everything. The key strategy was to prevent communism from spreading beyond where it already existed.
I fight it interesting that is what we are fighting against in America -big government wanting to control everything. Most citizens want small government and be allowed to live their own lives.
What’s the biggest risk you’d like to take — but haven’t been able to?
Most people take the biggest risks out of necessity, survival, or hope for a better future.
The biggest risk I am willing to take right now would be to travel alone to see my son. He lives in a large city and with things the way they are in society I know it wouldn’t be very safe to travel alone. But if it became a necessity I would take the risk.
I watched a movie years ago, and the main theme was God is good all the time. If this is true why don’t we feel it more often? Throughout my life I have found it difficult to find God’s goodness.
Then I realized that I didn’t find it. I wasn’t sensing His goodness because I was yearning for His provisions more than His Person. I was latched to the externals for fulfillment, my hobbies, and certainly my physical comforts. Sure he gives these things, but above all He wanted me to develop internal contentment with Him.
Meaning that there was no more bargaining, begging, tantrums, or pity parties, but a motivation to delight in Him. Psalm 37:4 inspires us to this at the highest level, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Perhaps the highest desire of our hearts is Him.
Delighting in Him is easy when we first soak up His delight in us. Zephaniah 3:17 tells us, “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you, in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”
We should be encouraged to stop and feel this truth -all the time. He already greatly delights in us.
God has a master plan for all of His creation. His teachings, commandments, and examples are to show us how to avoid obstacles and pitfalls along our way and how to access His presence and His power to overcome the struggles we endure. So we can successfully arrive at His appointed destination at the appointed time.
God’s plan is seen in a repeating pattern throughout the Bible. God’s people always enter into captivity, and escape the captivity only to wander in the wilderness until God graciously shows a way into a promised land.
This pattern is seen from Genesis through Exodus, repeating itself through the arrival of Jesus and up to this very day. And it’s not over yet.
This has been God’s pattern and His plan since before time began, and it seems like this is appearing again, once again we have wandered into the wilderness on our own. This pattern can even be seen in our individual lives.
Perhaps if we really understood God’s plan, purpose, methods and ways where all this is leading, and why it is this way, we could find the motivation and strength to endure the end and enter the final and permanent promise land.
I began seeing this when I began doing to a Bible study that began three years ago. It began as a 6 week Bible study on the basics for new people in my church. And has been going on because no one wants it to end.
In the story about God, delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, a pattern emerging an exodus pattern that repeats over and over again throughout the Bible. The pattern involves God, providing people with the way out of bondage and oppression, a way through a period of challenge or testing And away into a new life.
The exodus way is a biblical pattern rooted in the story of Israel’s departure from Egypt that expands throughout scripture to describe a way of life out of enslavement through transformation, and into freedom. God works with Moses to liberate Israel, out of oppression, through the wilderness, and into the promised land. Eventually, Jesus arrives as new Moses reading a new exodus. He rescued humanity out of slavery to sin and death, and needs them through transformation, into God‘s better world -This is the Exodus way.
The Exodus story involves epic showdown between pharaoh and Moses that includes 10 intense plagues, a massive group of escaping slaves who safely walk though the Red Sea’s chaotic waters, and freedom for Israel on the other side. But the story continues will be on the showdown and escape to establish a three part pattern in scripture so often that it becomes harmonic.
It’s the way out of slavery, way through a wilderness transformation, and a way into abundant life that God offers in the promised land.
The first people to walk the path of Jesus actually called themselves followers of “The Way.” They entered the water baptism as assigned that they were following Jesus out of slavery to death, through the transforming wilderness experiences of learning to trust God in the middle of fear and uncertainty, and this dark world, and into the restful peace that God has promised. That place of peace involves both a new way of life with Him and an entirely new cosmos, one no longer suffering under any form of oppression
Jesus followers still under corruption and death as they continue on a path through the wilderness. But ultimately God provides everything we need for this difficult journey. And we can walk confidently, knowing that Jesus’s path will one day lead us into the reunion of heaven and earth, where love, joy, and peace saturate everything.
In this patterned theme, the exodus way extend well beyond Moses and Israel, reaching his climax in the story of Jesus and His followers.
Jesus is the way out, the way through, and the way in.
What are you most proud of in your life?
The things I’m most proud of are my personal growth and mindset shifts.
Most of my up until about 10 years ago my life was a disaster. It was because of my bad habits, and emotional trauma. It was definitely hard to give myself a complete overhaul. I had to decide I didn’t want to live that way I was living.
Healing emotionally meant setting some boundaries, and moving from negativity to optimism and fear to courage. I had to process and release all the emotional wounds I had experienced. It was recognizing that my past no longer defined my present.
I had to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life I’m I completely better? No, but my journey isn’t over.
I will carry the scars of my past forever, but they don’t define who I am.
What have you been working on?
Every October I clean out my book shelves, and choose what books I want to part with.
I fill a box with books that I can donate to my church. And the others go to thrift stores around my area.
This keeps space I need for new books free I know I will acquire through the year.
I have the same rights as you do. I have a right to eat a piece of chocolate cake if I want to. I have a right to state my opinion and be heard. I have a right to protect myself against harm. Not to mention we are blessed with the right to practice religion and carry our Bibles around and gather for prayer and uphold the name of Jesus (at least for now).
But what happens when a society turns inward for too long -focusing on their wants, needs and desires more than anyone else? What happens when self-focus becomes the prescribed way of life?
A sense of entitlement begins to fester and brood and bleed into culture and does not fear God. I have my rights and I can do what I want. And I will stand up for those rights, no matter who I may victimize in the process. That is scary. Always thinking about ourselves and no one else leaves deep scars, and it leads to senseless shootings and separated family and snide remarks, along with sin so bold that it’s terrifying even to the point of being ungodly.
These attitudes are not just because we have a different opinion, but because we feel entitled.
It doesn’t stop there though. Entitlement is festering into the family with disrespectful children who think they have a right to act however they want because parents have never reprimanded their children, they we never told no, or had consequences for their bad behaviors. Teachers have no control in the classroom because of entitlement. The marriage bed has lost its sanctity because of entitlement. Babies are being aborted because of entitlement.
Bottom mention road rage violence, senseless lawsuits, senseless arguments, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, division, and envy. James (or Jacob 3:16 says, “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”
The truth is we need a reality check. We are not entitled to anything. There is only One who is entitled and He is the Lord God. He created the world and holds it together. He formed us, breathing life where there was none. Therefore, God alone is entitled to all glory and honor from all of creation and from all people, with every breath we take.
“There is none like You among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like Yours. All the nations You gave made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name. For You are great and do wondrous things, You alone are God” -Psalm 89:8-10
He alone is God, yet when we walk around with a sense of entitlement blanketing our thoughts, emotions, and reactions, we put ourselves in the place of God. We buy into the same lie that the serpent spoke to Eve. We’re entitled to break the rules when we want to decide for ourselves what’s best for us.
Chaos is the result of believing this lie, just as it was on the day of Adam and Eve’s initial sin. When we demand that God do this or that for us and He doesn’t, it becomes chaos for us. When we walk into a family gathering and push our rights over this ot that, it’s not only chaos for our relationships but chaos in our hearts.
I believe the only way to find peace in the chaos is humility. When there is humility, there is peace. If the world feels out of control, it’s because the world is busy demanding its own way. And if our world feels out of control, perhaps it’s because we have been busy demanding our own way.
James (Jacob) 3:17 tells us, “For the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.”
At the core of it all God wants us to release everything and submit to Him. Having a relationship with Him involved surrendering our will and desires to Him. To trust in His plan, which leads to peace and a greater sense of purpose. His plan is better than our own and is a pathway to finding peace, and wisdom.
Giving up our so-called rights is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of godliness. It’s the way of Jesus, who endured the cross for us. Getting what we want when we want doesn’t give us joy. Lying down our rights for the sake of God’s will and God’s way is what produces joy in our hearts.
We don’t need to demand that it’s our way or the highway, because we have a God who is just and faithful and sovereign and sees which works are done for His glory and which are not.
James 4:6, 10 tells us that, “God oppresses the proud, but gives grace to the humble… Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.”
Living with an attitude of entitlement will get us nowhere. It is not God’s way. It squelches the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and sends us down all kinds of prideful paths. But laying down our rights as Jesus did, the glory of God, and the name of God will give us hope, and fill us to overflowing.
Fighting this epidemic of entitlement begins with us. Whether that means not being mad when someone takes the parking spot you wanted or lying down our precious alone time or asking God to help us forgive that one family member who hurt us, and realizing we can because we have a sovereign God who went first.
Yes, we have our rights, but so did Jesus, who chose to give up everything for us. We can choose to walk humbly with God in every decision we make.
“Never underestimate the valuable and important difference you can make in every life you touch for the impact you make today has a powerful rippling effect on every tomorrow.”
I truly believe the thoughts we carried on our mind have a huge impact on the lives we lead. If our thoughts were focused on the negative, we shouldn’t truly be surprised our lives turn out poorly. That is not to say that optimists lead only to happy and fulfilled lives. But, optimists might take the negative that happens and spin it to be positive.
What are your first thoughts when you wake up each morning? Are you grateful and thank God for your many blessings? Or do you immediately focus on bills, responsibilities, marriage troubles or things that stretch for patience. Our waking thoughts seem to set the tone for our upcoming day. What we focus on when we open our eyes. Such as gratefulness will put our brain in gear to remain grateful for the rest of the day.
Years ago I heard someone say we either wake up as a Eeyore or a Tigger every morning what one we choose determines our day. We cannot change the world in one day, but making small differences can’t have a positive impact everyday.
I have found it doing something unnoticed, not only impact others but us as well. We all like to be acknowledged for the good with you in the world, but I think it’s more important to do acts of kindness that perhaps no one notices.
I was once involved in a fund raiser making snow cones and a gentleman paid for the order behind him, it started a ripple effect that lasted for about an hour. Paying it forward in a small way makes a difference each day.
Every major holiday, I buy my mailman a candy bar and leave a note on it, how I appreciate him. It’s a simple act that brightens his day. This world can be such a dark place, and sometimes we forget that we can be a light in that darkness.
Simple acts of kindness benefit both us, and others by improving our mood, social connections, and boosting over all well-being through the release of good brain chemicals, like serotonin, dopamine, and natural oxytocin. These things can lower stress, and improve, physical health like blood pressure. It boost, happiness, optimism, and confidence, and can help us feel less lonely.
From Pity to Praise