I’ve always liked late hours of night better than daytime. I found it in interesting study on this years ago. It says that our preference whether a morning owl or an early bird is partly decided by genes.
I’ve always felt more alert at night. Expert that being a night owl can have a negative health effect and conflicts with your responsibilities. I’ve tried for years to have a regular sleep pattern, but it just doesn’t work for me. If I sleep more than four or five hours, I get a severe headache. Finally I thought, what’s the difference? Are you not have a regular job that I have be at a specific time. And I definitely have more energy at the sleep schedule. I’m on now.
Psychological warfare has been used for years. But it is becoming more noticeable today. We need to learn to recognize it and not be deceived.
Psychological warfare today, primarily manifest through online manipulation, using social media platforms to spread misinformation, propaganda, and decisive rhetoric, aim to influence, public opinion, undermine trust in situations and so discord among populations, often employed by governments and political actors to achieve strategic goals, with “bot farms that coordinate disinformation campaigns and targeted harassment.
This not only happened to social media. We can look at any news network and see it clearly.
Deliberately spreading false or misleading information, to manipulate public perception on issues like elections, political events, or social crises.
Usually automated accounts (bots) to amplify certain natives, create fake friends, and harass decent voices.
It uses exaggerating difference’s between groups to create division and prevents constructive dialogue. I believe that it’s why we are so divided today on our beliefs.
Taylor messages to specific demographics based on our interest and all mine behavior maximizes the propaganda they spread.
They use cyber harassment and doxing to harass people and public exposure of personal information to intimidate individuals or groups.
They create realistic, but fabricated videos to spread faults information and damage reputations of people.
This is an old age weapon that began in World War I. Search propaganda is generally intended to demoralize the enemy, to break his wheel to fight or resist, and sometimes to render him favorably disposed to one position.
Although this has been going on since since World War I, psychological warfare goes back to Cyrus the great who employed it against Babylon, Xeroxes against the Greeks and Philip II of Macedonia against Athens. 
Not many people are aware of this tactic, so it makes it easy to implement on people. AI generated images have become a new form of propaganda.
Propaganda or psychological warfare is the dissemination of information it uses facts, arguments, rumors, half-truths, or lies to influence public opinion. And it’s also also used through mass media.
What are my feelings about meat? Humans have been hunting for meat for millions of years. God put meat on the earth for us to eat.
Sadly there are some who try and force their beliefs that meat is bad for you. But the truth of the matter is meat isn’t bad for you, it’s what humans add to the meat that is bad for you. It’s the added to the oil, emulsifiers, carbon monoxide, antibiotics, whey, and cellulose and probably a lot that they don’t tell us that’s in it. The only thing that’s bad for us is the things humans add to it.
There comes a time is everyone’s life when they have to say enough is enough.
A time to take a stand and refuse to let others hurt you. Throughout our lives people will discredit you, disrespect you, and treat you poorly for no apparent reason at all. Don’t consume yourself with trying to change them or win their approval (because you cannot).
Don’t make any space in your heart to hate them. You don’t have any control over how others think or feel about you, but you do have control over how you decide to internalize their opinions of you.
Leave them to their own opinions.
The right people will love you for who you are, and not for who they want you to be.
Let them walk away if they choose to do you. And do be hurt by their actions, It’s their understanding that is at fault -not yours.
Part of being a winner is knowing when enough is enough. Sometimes we have to give up the fight and walk away, not because we don’t care but because they don’t.
The art of knowing when enough is enough is knowing when to move on to something that’s more productive.
A deep-rooted foundation allows followers of Jesus to grow in God’s truth and deeper their faith. Without this foundation, it is impossible to stand strong.
“Let your roits flow down into Him andlet your lives by built up in Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth, you were taught and you will overflow with thankfulness” – Colossians 2:7
It is important as followers of Jesus to plant our roots deep in the truth of who Jesus is. When the storms of the world come blowing in. It can be easy to falter if our roots are shallow. When we are nurtured constantly by God’s truth, we will grow maturely. When we face the storms of life, we may sway in the wine, but we will remain firmly planted. Carefully watering and feeding ourselves in God’s truth is what maintains a good foundation for our souls.
I was never so thankful to be rooted in Christ when the covid pandemic hit. I seen so many people at that time overcome by panic and fear, because they did not have a strong foundation to stand on.
Being rooted in Jesus provides numerous benefits including inner peace and stability in challenging times, guidance for daily life, a sense of purpose, increased wisdom, the strength to resist temptation, the ability to grow spiritually, and a foundation for a strong relationship with God.
Being a member of a church will never provide you with all of these. This comes from having a relationship with God.
The root of being connected to Jesus is important because it’s a source of life.
If a branch is not connected to the vine, the branch is good for nothing. By itself, the branch is simply a dead stick and good for nothing but to be burned. We have to be connected to something to grow.
When the storms of the world come blowing in, it can be easy to falter if your roots are shallow. When we are matured consistently by God’s truth, we will have a strong root system. When the storms of life come, we may swat in the wind, but we will remain firmly planted.
We have to stay invested in our root system, constantly watering ourselves on the “living water,” and feeding ourselves on the “bread of life” to maintain a strong foundation for our souls.
My favorite things to wear depends on the season. In the winter months it’s usually a pair of knee high boots jeans and a fluffy sweater, or a flannel shirt, and even an oversized sweatshirt. Something to keep me warm. I have a Swiss camouflage coat that is super warm for those extra cold days. One thing I am not is a prissy girl. I go for comfort rather than frilly stuff.
During the warmer months, it’s usually a pair of sandals and some capri pants with light t-shirts.
On very rare occasion I will wear a dress to church. But our church is a come as you are church. Thankfully the church I go to doesn’t have a dress policy.. I can wear jeans and a nice t shirt and won’t be judged.
What technology would you be better off without, why?
Technology has done a lot of good, it has given us a wealth of information at our fingertips. But it is what we do with that information that determines the wealth of wealth of it.
Technology can be a powerful tool for positive change, but can also be used to cause harm depending on the intentions and actions of the people that are using it.
The challenges around you never define who you are. Just because you have experienced something negative doesn’t mean you are not enough. Just because you make mistakes doesn’t mean you are a failure.
Don’t ignore your inner peace in pursuit of prosperity and happiness. When we let our circumstances define who we are, we disturb our own peace. Staying calm in life’s storms is key to thriving, not just surviving.
In Luke 8:24-25, Jesus says, when we focus on Him through thick and thin everything will go according to His good and perfect plan for our lives.
Inner peace is a state of mental and emotional calmness, free of turmoil of negative thoughts and feelings.
We often think that our joy is dependent on our circumstances – when things are going well, there’s peace and all is still, we have joy. We feel, like God is giving us favor. But what about when the storms in life are swirling around us? Are we being punished? Do we not have enough faith?
It’s easy to say that we surrender our lives to God, but do we really mean it? If we say we do and then secretly mean, “ok God, I surrender so now you will bless me. But that’s not the case.
We have to recognize that God is in the storms as much as when we are at peace. He wants us to surrender to Him regardless of the outcome.
We have the ability to create our own stories and futures, they are not defined by our current circumstances.
Even good circumstances can defeat us if we stop working hard and let then guide us.
We can use our circumstances as motivation to prove people wrong or to be an example for others.
We have the power to create a new story for ourselves, regardless of what we face in life.
We can let our circumstances shape us rather than define us.
When we focus on God and the things we can control things begin to change. Our circumstances don’t define us, they are a reminder that we all have some control over our lives.
“Our circumstances and struggles refine us, but they don’t define us.”
What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make? Why?
Everyone has to make hard decisions in life. And life is full of them. Facing and making difficult choices throughout life is an essential part of personal growth and Development. It push us out of our comfort zones and forces us to adapt and learn challenges. The tough decisions we make in help us to become more mature and become stronger.
That being said, I think the hardest decision I ever had to make was whether to stay in my marriage or leave. My marriage was in a very bad place for years, and I chose to stay because of my children. I didn’t want them to grow up without their Father. after they were raised and I could think about me, and realizing that my husband and I had done some terrible things to each other over the years. I have a very hard decision to make, after seeking a lawyer for a divorce, I remember that I took a vow to love him forever “til death do you part.”
Marriage is a sacrifice it involves prioritize in the well being and happiness of the other person about our desires and needs. It isn’t and never was about choosing to end a marriage based on our selfishness.
Marriage is a life long bond between a man and a woman. So, I chose to stay and work on my marriage. First of all we had to forgive each other for every wrong we had done to each other. Put the past behind us and move on.
Funny thing is, once I allowed God to become a part of my marriage things began to get better. Marriage doesn’t take two it takes three -the woman, theman, and God in the middle.
Have you ever felt powerless to control the spiral of thoughts, worries, or fears that consume your mind on a regular basis? I went through this for years, feeling hopeless that I couldn’t do anything about them. It felt like I had no control over my actions. It’s so frustrating wanting to make positive changes, but feeling powerless to do so.
It wasn’t until I learned that I wasn’t so powerless as I felt. In Christ, we have both the ability and the authority to resist the spiral that we find ourselves in. And finally walk in courageous victory.
We have the authority to change our thoughts from the negative to the positive. We have access to a very powerful weapon called the Sword of the Spirit.
Hebrews 4:12 tells us,
“For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
And 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 tells us,
“For we walk in the flesh, we don’t wage war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds, throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is a alter againest the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Messiah.”
These 2 passages tell us the Bible was never meant to be a passive outdated book sitting on a dusty shelf. But our Bible are active weapons of warfare that we can use powerfully and courageously in the fight against Satan and his schemes against us. Both as defensive and offensive weapons.
We can use this Sword of the Spirit to guard our hearts and any attack Satan throws at us. And that includes attacks of our minds. The fact is that we are in a war whether we like it or not.
This is how I changed my life time of negativity to positivity. I learned how to use the Sword of the Spirit to fight back against the negativity that had taken over my life since I was a small girl.
Just like owning a physical sword won’t protect your home against intruders on its own, simply owning a Bible won’t protect your soul against satan’s attacks if you don’t use it. They are tools that need to be put to good use.
We can learn a great deal by listening to sermons, reading books or reading this article, nothing compares to getting into God’s Word yourself.
You need to get in the habit of reading the Bible regularly. And studying the scriptures by moving beyond a simple level reading is necessary to learn on a deeper level. The Word of God is full of great wisdom, knowledge, and insight. The more you learn, the more effectively you can wield the Sword of the Spirit in your life.
The one area that most people fall into trouble is the knowledge of who the Bible says we are, and then not believing that it is true.
For example the Bible says:
You are loved – Colossians 3:12-25
You are forgiven – Ephesians 1:7
You are a new creation – 2 corinthians 5:17
You are more than a conqueror – Romans 8:36
You are victorious – 1 Corinthians 15:57
You are fearfully and wonderfully made – Psalm 139:14
Whether or not you feel like these statements are true, they are true because God says they are. The same God who created the heavens, and the earth, and everything else with nothing more than the power of His spoken Word can also create miracles in you through that same spoken Word.
We can trust that God’s Word about us is true, and we can walk courageously in that truth, even when doing so feels difficult or uncertain.
When have you apply the Word of God to your life if you want to see meaningful change.
We have to ask ourselves on regular basis these questions and answer them honestly:
Am I united with Jesus or at least working toward that direction?
Do I receive comfort from Jesus’s love, or am I seeking love elsewhere?
Am I tender and compassionate?
Do I seek to be like minded with others with the same beliefs or do I cause drama and disagreement?
As I self centered or conceited
Do I consider myself better than others?
Do I always insist on what I want, rather than taking other’s needs and preferences into account?
God doesn’t like haughty people. Don’t feel bad if you have some room for improvement. We all do! But this is the power of the sword. We always need to work towards being more like Christ.
When we read the Bible the Holy Spirit speaks to us directly, letting us know where we are and where we are going astray.
Once we know what the Word of God says, it’s up to us to put it into practice in our lives.
When we learn the promises God gives we can begin to stand on them.
When we start having negative thoughts we can say these promises to ourselves to replace the negative thoughts with positive ones.
I am a child of the Most High King – Psalm 82-6
God strengthens me when I am weary – Isaiah 40:31
God has redeemed me – Colossians – 1:13-14
God gives wisdom to those who ask – James 1:5
God will fight for me – Psalm 35:1
My old self is dead – Romans 6:6
God will set me free – John 8:36
God doesn’t promise us that life will be easy, comfortable, or convenient. But He has given us a powerful weapon to guard our hearts and minds no matter what trials or troubles we face. The Sword of the Spirit.
No one wants to suffer. While small trials are sometimes welcomed, because of what they will do for us, we can count them as joy, no one invites life-altering pain. No one wants to lie awake with a pit in their stomach, agonizing over where a disastrous situation is headed. No one wants to experience a loss so deep that we wonder how to even go on.
We all understand that rain falls into everyone’s life, no one wants an upheaval. We don’t pray for it, we don’t seek it, or welcome it. We want relief, which is why we cry out to God for reprieve, rescue, and deliverance from it.
We can look at the Book of Job and discover sometimes deliverance comes by affliction.
“He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity” -Job 36:15
This statement seems to make no sense at first. How can affliction deliver the afflicted? We want to be delivered from affliction, to have whatever is troubling removed, and we pray and work to get the end. If we want to be rescued and relieved from our affiliation, how can we possibly find it during an affliction?
To be delivered from affliction, what we are being delivered from must be worse than the affliction itself. Since affliction is unpleasant at best and crushing at worst, what we are being delivered from must be evil. The affliction must be producing something that is far more precious the immediate relief.
What is more precious than relief from our deep pain.
What indifference do we need to be delivered from? Whatever it is, God needs to open our ears through adversity. Our struggles make us listen more clearly to God. What does God want us to learn through any afflictions?
Like Samuel, we need to learn to recognize God’s voice. (1 Samuel 3:4-14). We can learn to find God’s comfort is His presence, and His direction in our afflictions (trials) because we are actively looking for it, with our eyes and ears open.
I like how the prophet Isaiah puts it,
Though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide Himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left” -Isaiah 30:20-21
Listening to God, recognizing His voice and heeding it above the competing voices around us will radically transform us. It will give us supernatural wisdom and clear direction, it will ultimately reshape who we are.
Our afflictions draw us to the things of God because we realize the things of this world are broken.
Psalm 119 shows us that affiliation can make the Word of God more effective in our lives. David wrote, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I know Your Word” (Psalm 119:67), and “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I light learn Your Statutes”(Psalm 119:71).
Because we can draw close to God during our trials or afflictions, we can realize that nothing is as it should be, sin has marred everything and all creation is grounding because of it.
Pain spurs us to search for meaning and hope beyond our present circumstances, which can open our eyes to the power and beauty of God’s Word. His Word can reframe our world, bringing light to our eyes, opening our ears, and feeding our souls. God’s Word and His presence become sweeter in our suffering as we taste and see for ourselves His goodness and grace.
At first, in my struggles, I didn’t love God’s Word or listen to Him until it became too unbearable for me to go any further. I had to hit rock bottom until God’s Word became My hope, and it was only then that God opened my ears to hear Him speaking through my despair. I had to become attuned to His voice and strained to hear it above the sin I put myself in. When I decided to pour myself into the Bible in my pain, that God opened my ears. It was there I found an unexpected delight in fellowship with God and His Word.
Afflictions make us aware of our sins by bringing our buried struggles to the surface. When we are satisfied with life we are not able to see our sins closely. But, when our lives fall apart and we can’t depend on ourselves anymore, we learn to cling to God,
When despair sets in and we are burdened beyond its reliance on God when things take on a new meaning. When He rescues us from bad situations we learn to trust Him more in our next affliction or trial.
God is able to deliver us from every situation when we rely on Him, and not our own abilities.
Humans think they can take care of themselves, needing help from no one. But God has a way of refining us and softening the rough edges that we would have never discovered without or afflictions or trials.
Suffering, just like discipline is never pleasant at the time, but later it yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness. Our suffering will never be wasted. It produces a lasting endurance, character and hope.
But we must remember that in any affliction not everyone turns to God. Both God and Satan have purposes in our affliction.
Satan likes to use our suffering to try and turn us away from God. It’s important to recognize God always has a plan and a purpose.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future” –Jeremiah 29:11
God had life giving purposes in affliction when to turn to Him. In the hands of our loving God, affliction rescues us from evil. God uses affliction to deepen our faith and drive us towards Him, and directs our path.
Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?
I usually make Hungarian Hamburger Stuffing to put in my turkey, along with the turkey neck and giblets. And southern candied yams that I learned to make from my father.
From Pity to Praise 