The Mountains Of Life

Sometimes the immensity of what stands before us takes our breath away as we often question our ability.

I’m not doing anything fantastic or extraordinary, I’m simply taking on a different and unknown path. This path can seem foreshadowing when I am unprepared and yet I know it’s part of life. The challenge and the allure keeps me going.

The fascination of the somewhat outlined idea of how life should be and still I know tomorrow I will wake up, put my feet on the ground, and start the day of expectation. Our life has a way of shifting gears so I have to hold that shift and the vigil and say thank you. It keeps me humble, grounded and rooted.

The pull of the other side seems intriguing. It may be dangerous but it is very much alive in me, and all of us I’m sure.

To be honest I let it all pour out of me. I don’t really care what others think and the mountain of massive proportions. It’s all about climbing my mountain. The transforming of my thoughts to purpose and strengthening the raw emotion.

I have climbed so many mountains in my life time. I’m good at just pushing through it and learning as I go.

We have become a society of drama queens and kings all fighting for the spotlight. All the world has become a stage and for what? We need to pay more attention to our core that is bigger that the theatrics we impose in our life.

There is always another mountain when we get to the other side of the one we’re climbing. We will always get better when we acquaint ourselves with it. But, we must be mindful because in acquaintance there is comfort and comfort can be scary.

To chase the highs and the lows is part of the life climb.

Struggling, stretching and reaching for something better is my scourgeand yet when I fall, it’s hard and I always forget that is part of the grand design. And down is just as important as up. The low only has one way to go and every step we take to better ourselves has its own time and place.

I repeat in my head, don’t forget what happened last time. But it’s always in the back of my mind “would if I make it to the top and too the other side. I try not to forget the blessings that stand on the other side. We must conquer the mundane and make it magnificent, purposeful and end up being another goal I wanted to achieve. It is a life of long pursuit gratitude and inner peace if we make it to the other side.

We all have to climb mountains in this life and fall. It’s all about passing the test of life.

Being Offended Is Not A Virtue

It seems like people are more offended in the world today, everything we say or do offends people.

Part of the problem is how good it feels to be the offended party. Expressing your offense let’s you feel heard and powerful. It makes it clear that you and everyone else around that you are righteous and that your opinion is the proper one. When someone tries to counter your offense by explaining the reasonableness of their position, our default mode kicks in to feel all the more validated in our offense. If they need to defend themselves then we must be right.

The problem with being offended

Expressing your offended ness doesn’t change anything. It just sets in stone both parties more firmly in their view points. On top of that being the offended party tends to put you in the position to be a victim, which is overly contrary to how Jesus demonstrated his people to operate.

Let’s not be people who are easily offended. Let’s be “quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.

Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends

Proverbs 17:9

Proverbs 19 goes on to say that it’s a person’s glory to overlook an offense. If you want to be a loving, glorious person, stop being so offended.

We need to be a people who operate with humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.

Hate does not add up to Love. Hate creates hate. I cannot phantom the idea that anyone thinks like this.

It will always be like John Dickerson said “United We Stand, divided we fall.

Good will always Triumph over Evil.

Light overcomes darkness.

It is very disturbing to me that parents don’t teach their children this. And teachers don’t teach this in their class.

Secrets To Getting Along With People You Can’t Stand.

No matter where your at getting along with people you’re surrounded by can be challenging at best. The inability to get along with others we may not like can have a huge impact on our future. It might be a co-worker or it might be the tension with an in-law (or three) that adds undue stress to your important relationships.

In business it may be that you aren’t getting along with your boss. At best, this can make your day-to-day work unpleasant, but this could also have a negative impact on your career as a whole. Learning to communicate and get along with others is vital to our success.

Even though I don’t get along with my mother-in-law. She has completely different views and value system than me. I have to be around her sometime. sometimes.

Getting along with people you don’t like doesn’t imply defeat, giving in or compromise, it’s a ways getting through life without constantly banging your head against the wall and being miserable in situations where you could, at the very least, be at ease.

There are three ways you can along with people you don’t like. Here they are:

Take a look in the mirror

The first step to getting along with others is knowing that you can’t change anyone but yourself. It doesn’t do any good to try and change anyone. The fact is that you will most likely make things worse. And trying to make someone change their behavior is nothing less than manipulation; and who likes being manipulated?

If there is something that someone does on a regular basis that gets on your last nerve, take a look in the mirror and consider that this behavior might be something that you engage I. And aren’t particularly proud of. We’ve all done things or act in ways that we’re not happy with. When we see others act similarly this might cause for us to lash out or contend with this person. It’s been found that one of the main reasons people lash out is to renew a sense of confidence.

Next time that person does something to tick you off, pause and ask yourself if what they did is really that bad or just something that hits close to home regarding your own patterns.

The Truth is everybody is going to hurt you: you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.

Bob Marley

Avoid trigger topics

There’s a good reason that you don’t discuss politics or religion at a dinner party. These are sensitive topics and people tend to have very strong opinions about them. I’ve seen people get into bitter arguments because they sit on opposite sides of the fence politically speaking. (Actually I’ve been in some bitter arguments about this.) suddenly one’s accusing the other of lacking sensitivity because they voted for someone because they voted for someone they didn’t like.

Five minutes earlier they were laughing and joking together and now they’re making comments they can never can take back.

But it’s not just politics or religion that might set someone off. Anything from how to raise kids to what you should be eating and anything in between that can start an argument. Especially when tension already exists in a relationship.

We’ve all been guilty of intentionally pushing someone’s buttons and we know what it’s like for someone to push ours. You know exactly what to say to get someone’s goat. It might even be amusing but, it’s only creating more and more tension in the relationship.

If you want to start getting along with someone you usually can’t stand being around, consider the topics you argue over and avoid them if possible. Start taking note of some common ground you have and focus there instead.

Never above you. Never below you. Always beside you.

Walter Winchell

Stay clear of social media

There are certainly benefits to social media, but social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter can be breeding grounds for intense debates. I’ve seen people display their worst side on social media. Maybe it’s because they feel isolated since they aren’t engaging in face to face conversations. It’s easy to share your political views or lash out at someone because of theirs when you’re sitting behind a computer or mobile device. And it just breeds anger in to your life. And Lord knows we don’t need anymore of that.

If you have someone in your life you’re rather not be around, then why are you following them on social media? It’s simple to block content and unfollow someone on any social media platform. Continuing to tweet and comment with or about people you don’t like only adds to stress.

So, if you’re ready to get along better with people you don’t like then follow these three steps. Not on,y will you have a better time being around them, you might even find enough common ground to enjoy their company. You can at least start by tolerating them, but it will never happen without effort on your part.

Four Emotional Types

Your emotional types is the filter through which you both see the world-the default setting of your personality to which you revert to especially when your under stress.

Emotional Type #1:

The Intellectual. You are bright, articulate, analytic, intellectually oriented, and often take refuge in your mind as the first line of coping.

Upside:Extremely logical, comfortable with fixing problems logically and intellectually, great debater, able to stay calm in emotionally heated situations.

Downside: Difficulty connecting with feeling-other’s and your own; you give the impression of being snobby, withholding, or cold; obsess about problems and sometimes you are too serious.

Finding the Balance: Spend more time in your physical/sensual self. Try breathing techniques, vigorous exercise, and practicing feeling other people’s emotion, empathize.

Emotional Type #2

The Empath. You are highly sensitive, naturally giving, spiritually attuned, and a good listener.

Upside: Gifted healer, helper, and friend; passionate and sensual; intuitive about other’s thoughts and feelings; emotionally responsive; in touch with your body and emotions.

Downside: Easily absorb other’s negativity; prone to anxiety, depression, and fatigue; easily feel confined when living with other’s; difficulty setting boundaries with draining people.

Finding the Balance: Use positive self-talk and logic to get grounded. Allow frequent quiet and meditation time. Learn to set clear limits and boundaries-say no, take space, walk away, and always protect yourself.

Emotional Type #3

The Rock: You are emotionally strong for yourself and other’s, practical, able to stay cool in crisis, your nonjudgmental.

Upside: Pillar of strength, consist and loyal, giving, respectful, and get along with nearly everyone.

Downside: Can be detached from feelings; harbor anger and frustration; relationships may lack depth; you don’t make waves or invite challenges and rather avoid conflict than confront it.

Finding the Balance: Practice activities that are spontaneous. Express a feeling a day. Initiate conversations that are emotional.

Emotional Type #4

The Gusher. You know your emotions and share them often, and are spontaneous, direct, and authentic.

Upside: Emotionally articulate, easily forgiving, make and keep supportive networks of friends, value intimate relationships, process hard issues easily.

Downside: You tend to eat drama king or queen, may turn friends into therapists, seek external feedback rather than relying on you own intuition, excessive need to share,

Finding the Balance: Practice activities the support and strengthen your self-sufficiency. Give yourself credit, learn to forgive yourself, and practice positive self-talk.

The Gift Of Thoughts

While thoughts can be a gift, some thoughts are intrusive. And cause you to live in agony. I know first hand how miserable it is to suffer from anxiety. But I also know that when you turn toward anxiety and see it as a messenger delivering vital information from your inner world. It can help you heal and transform your life. You shift from hating anxiety and trying to make it go away to being able to turn toward it and learn from it. Then your healing on you.

If your struggle with intrusive thoughts you’re in a hell-realm of mental agony. A thought arrives, you hook it to that thought immediately and you’re in for the nightmare ride of your life time descending into the underworld of a type of panic that only a intrusive thought can inspire.

All of us get intrusive thoughts for You might have asked yourself: What if I’m gay? or would if I have a terminal illness? What if I don’t love my partner? The thoughts that come after that are the cycle.

When you understand this cycle, you can snap yourself out of it and easily start to put the fire out.

A cycle runs like this: An intrusive thought enters your mind. Would if I don’t love my husband anymore? You’ll feel a sense of panic and your upper stomach begins to roll, the tightness in your thought then a cold chill. You hook in immediately an try to find some answers. You obsess would if my husband is cheating on me I have to have proof. What if he doesn’t love ME anymore. You check his belongs so through all his stuff seeking reassurance. Talk with your spouse about it. Tell him how to feel and work on it.

When we indulge in the addiction to our intrusive thoughts. Trying to find reassurance for every thought that goes through you mind you are sunk. You dive deep into anxiety. It can take hours, days or even weeks to snap out of the cycle.

The essential piece of work to heal from your intrusive thought patterns is to learn to establish a new habit. When an intrusive thought enters your mind learn to disengage from it. You feed the when you urge yourself to find answers and reassurance,. You’ve give your ego-driven mind exactly what it wants, the belief that you can find the answer. You Usually find yourself in misery and pain because there is no answer.

Intrusive thoughts only point to unanswerable questions. We don’t have crystal balls to tell us the future. The loving parent, the part of you that can offer reassurance and comfort, needs to take over and step in at the point and and say something like it doesn’t matter. There are no definite answers. And move on with you life.

Your ego will be agitated like crazy, but you don’t have to sit in a pool of discomfort. You’re ego will always demand an answer and try and use every reason possible to convince you that to need to find certainty, when what you really need to focus on love a and attention. Give yourself the attention you need say s like “I’ll deal with later or that’s a ridiculous thought that doesn’t make sense at all.” Give your inner self some comfort that you will listen to.

Intrusive thoughts are thoughts with a symptom. Ask yourself what am I needing. Instead of thinking thought than run you into the ground. As for my husband I needed some love and some time with him.

Intrusive thoughts are the self’s attempt to get your attention. And with there focus on alarming topics, like health, love, they certainly get your attention. Once the thought had your attention you need to unhook from the thought and focus your mind on what you really need. Focus your attention of getting to know yourself and the way you need to go.

Are You Double Minded?

Have you ever thought about being double mindedness looks like.

In James 1 says, But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed here and there. For let not the man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.

A Double-Minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Jesus

I often think we overlook the weight of this. I was shocked the first time I heard someone speaks of it. Even though I had read the Bible I missed that part.

Many of us have been or still are double-minded but fail to recognize it in ourselves.

Double-minded means one is wavering, uncertain, doubting. It is to have divided interest.

If you are double- minded you are unsteady, faithless and changeable in everything they say or do. You can get nothing from the Lord if you are.

If you are double-minded you can talk faith today and lack faith tomorrow. You can encourage others that God will help them but, regarding yourself, God never honors your requests. Such individuals often have a “but” ready when confronted with the truth of Scripture. Why is this?

The Double-minded are:

  • Led by there emotions/feelings
  • Led by their own understanding
  • Led by what they see
  • Led by the dictates of man/society

There can be a number of reasons causing one to be double-minded. Neglecting to assemble together with true believers. I believe another cause is lack of understanding. Being separated from the body is dangerous for a believer.

Most the time when someone mentions double- mindedness they just call it doubt: “if you doubt you are double- minded,” it is seldom explained just how subtle double-mindedness can be. It is something we all have to guard against no matter how long your a believer.

For example: Your mother-in-law is coming to town and emotions want your, weary in a perfect position for double-mindedness to creep in. Emotions are high, perhaps a little anxiety starts to set in and before we know it we’ve become soft in the head and loose at the lips and we say stupid things we will regret later. God is not to blame ever. I’ve heard people say that faith inGod doesn’t work. Letting emotions run away with your mouth cause us to be reckless with our words.

Is it not unreasonable speech for a man at midnight to say, it will never be day? It is unreasonable for a man in trouble to say, O Lord, I shall never get free; it will always be

Thus.

Richard Sibbles

If we think of double-mindedness as a lack of real trust in God. Have you ever thought about the ways we cultivate double-mindedness?

Think about it you pray for a job you really wanted, you get the job and your happy and thankful for the job, but then you grow accustomed to it’s d suddenly the job isn’t so great anymore, there’s co-workers that don’t do their jobs, there’s frustration with the conditions. You can’t seethe blessing of having the job in the first place.

Think about those times we become impatient or worried things won’t ever work out. Do you just have faith and trust God, or do you just struggle with unbelief.

Think about how you deal with what God blessed you with. Do you give credit to God in your church circles just to treat your blessings like the are worthless when you think no one’s looking? Your being double-minded.

Even with God do you trust only with strings attached? I used to do this so much. “If you bless me playing bingo so I can win I’ll give you 20% of what I win.” Bad move, not only did I not win, but the conviction that comes after it was horrible.

I know people who have come close to losing their child from a incurable deceases. The Doctors said their child only has 3 weeks to live, they prayed and prayed to God, to save their child, the child made a turn for the better their child showing no signs of the decease. And two months later their partying it up with no mind of anything that happened. If that happened to me and my child I would be fully in debt to God.

God is trustworthy, wonderful and worthy to be praised.

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