incongruent

Welp, yet again The Daily Love is exactly what I need to hear.

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"What angers us in another person is more often than not an unhealed aspect of ourselves. If we had already resolved that particular issue,we would not be irritated by its reflection back to us."

- Simon Peter Fuller

The more time I spend on The Path, the more I realize how important it is to tell your truth. Now, the previous sentence, in the hands of a crazy person, is just a prescription for more craziness.

 

There is a difference between telling your truth and saying anything that comes to your mind. Just because you have a thought, doesn't make it your truth. When I say how important it is to tell your truth, I'm not giving you permission to emotionally vomit on everyone you know. No.

 

What I'm talking about is the sacred duty you have to yourself, to The Uni-verse and to those that you Love, to be as honest, truthful and authentic about how you are feeling and what your heart TRULY believes about whatever you are going through.

 

Many of my clients and a lot of the emails that I get share the same theme: people make themselves up to be something they are not to please other people and then wonder where the real Love, passion and magic IS!

 

You can only have the passion, the Love and the magic by being and sharing from your authentic self. When we settle or when we change ourselves to please other people, deep down we no longer cherish, honor and respect ourselves. And then WE TEACH other people how to treat us - by the way that we treat ourselves.

 

It's magic.

 

And here's the thing - if you have people in your life who are not okay with you being your authentic self and living truly from your heart and honoring and cherishing your empowerment, it's best to Love those folks from a far. Don't hold on to people because there is a small pay off of affection and attention because you are afraid nothing better is going to come along! NO!

 

Let them go. If you've never actually BEEN yourself, if you've never actually stepped into your authentic shoes, if you've never actually acted on the true Love that you have for yourself, then of course you won't think the world will bring you anything better - because you never allowed it to in the first place.

 

The Uni-verse can only give us that which we are able to receive, and if you've been settling for crumbs your whole life, then it makes sense to believe there is no feast coming. But that's total BULL. There IS a feast of Love and passion and magic available to you. But you first have to BE YOURSELF FULLY before that kind of rawness can find you.

 

And by the way, if someone doesn't accept you for who you are, WHY OH WHY are you holding on to him or her? You deserve Love. You deserve joy. You deserve the BEST that The Uni-verse and Life has to offer - so start treating yourself as if you do!

 

Who can you let go of today? How can you express your authentic self today? Who in your life can you accept more of today?

ambiguous

So I'm sitting here in a coffee shop, reading an article called: Ambiguous Loss After Lesbian Couples With Children Break Up: A Case for Same-Gender Divorce

And some random, older man says something about looking stuck or something and comes over and asks what I'm reading and I show him.

He says "What's ambiguous' mean?" and I said "Not having a clear meaning."

He said, "You have to write a paper on this?" I said, "I'm going to school to be a therapist, so I'm reading it as part of my multicultural therapy class."

He motions to the article and says, "What do you think about all of that? You know, will all the politics and stuff now, you know.. like.." .. insinuating something about wondering how I feel about people who are gay/lesbian/queer.. and I said "I have no problem with it." He said, "So you're accepting of them" and I said "Yeah, I think it's just fine. I think people should be happy." He said, "So you think people should just be happy, and whatever makes them happy." and I said, "Yeah, more or less."

Then he said, "How do you feel about spiritual issues.. I mean, are you spiritual? Do you practice a religion?" and I said "Yes." He said, "Which?" and I said, "I'm Christian."

He said, "What do you think the Bible says about it?" I said, "I don't think the Bible specifically mentions homosexuality, I think it's something people have read into it."

He said, "Do you know what the term 'reprobate mind' means?" (which, I did not) so I said. "Will you tell me?" and he said, "It's in the Bible that God allowed men to be with men, and women to be with women, but then they were of 'reprobate mind' meaning they knew nothing and were just kind of.. dull." I said, "Okay." and he just kind of nodded, as if he had made his point.

I'm not in an arguing mood.. but I did a little research.. and here's what I found. And now I'm in an arguing mood.

REPROBATE MIND
Part 1.

Reprobate means one who fails the test and is rejected, one whom God has rejected.
He rejects for being impure, not meeting his standards. ( Jerm.6:30) "Rejected Silver"

I. MAIN CAUSE OF REPROBATE MINDS

1. NOT HAVING CHRIST (Read 2 Cor 13:3-5)
a. Not believing the existing proof, such as the bible
b. Not listening to those whom evangelize to you
c. Not being strong in your weakness
d. Not examining yourselves "spiritual check ups"
e. There should be a awareness of Christ's presence and power in our lives
f. If were not actively seeking to get closer to God then were actively getting further

2. REJECTING THE FAITH ( Read 2 Tim 3:8)
a. Counterfeit religion* similar but not biblical
b. "Depraved" minds* to be corrupt, immoral , non religious intentionally
c. Distinct difference* Good vs. Evil

3. SPIRITUAL AWARENESS ( Read Heb. 6:7-8)
a. Paul used a parable to express spirituality
b. Unproductive Christian lives-spiritual bareness
c. Life that bears no fruit
d. Make sure your life is fruitful

4. LACK OF DISCIPLINE ( Read 1 Cor 9:24-27)
a. No spiritual training-exercising faith
b. No discipline
c. Paul stayed free of philosophies or materialism so he could stay focused on his
Christian service and spirituality
d. Freedom and discipline work together
e. Prayer, bible study, worship strengthen us
f. Must have spiritual progress

5. REJECTION BY GOD (Read Jer. 6:30)
a. God can reject whom he chooses whenever and however he deems, hes God!
b. Grace can run out
c. When tested are you found to be pure?
d. Reprobates aren't willing to rid impurities from their lives, and are not willing
to do whatever it takes to please God

II. EVIL LEADS TO

A. Sinful Desires and Actions- Read Romans 1:21-32
a. They knew God but they rejected him
b. God abandoned them to their desires
c. As a result of their sins they suffered
d. Sinful desires and actions can lead to a reprobate mind

B. Delusions- Read 2 Thess. 2:11-12
a. When you choose to believe lies God will allow you to be deceived
b. When you refuse to accept the truth and refuse to love, God has no choice but to
allow what you deserve
c. God allows you to sin even more to hasten your judgment
( Ex.11:10) GOD IS IN CONTROL!

C. Spiritual Blindness- Read Matt 13:13-15
a, When people rejected Christ their hearts where hardened so any understanding they
did have is now useless
b. Hardness of the heart was prophesied in the beginning
c. Rejection of Jesus leads to a reprobate mind

D. Our Actions- Read 2 Peter 2:9-22
a. vs. 9 KEEPING WICKED UNDER PUNISHMENT, until final judgment ( reprobates)
b. Especially hard on those whom:
1. Sexually immoral
2. Despise authority without fear
c. Pride and arrogance, no respect for angels
d. False teachings, unthinking animals
e. Scoffers of things not understood
f. Love to indulge in evil in the daylight
g. Delight in deception, even as they fellowship
h. Commit adultery with their eyes, desire for sin- never satisfied
I. Lure unstable people to sin, well trained in greed
J. Love to earn money in doing wrong
k. Braggers and Boasters
l. Use sex to lure to sin
m. Slave to whatever controls them

NOTE: These actions lead to destruction, and are all characteristics of a reprobate mind.
( Or a false christian)

YOU CAN ONLY BE A REPROBATE IF YOU WERE 1st a CHRISTIAN, OR EXPOSED TO THE TRUTH....

COPYRIGHT 2010 TBM NATIONAL
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


Dude, you aren't being Jesus. You're wrong. And you're missing out on a whole lot of people to love like Jesus loved.

End Rant.

transitions

I'm feeling a major time of transition at this point in my life.

Here I am, looking up how to become a family mediator. Changes are happening at work (facilitated by me) to change what I do and pass on the administrative program duties to a good friend of mine within the agency. I will have the opportunity to start up my own children's support group (exciting! and terrifying!) and take on other projects for the organization.

While I'm very excited to be moving forward to new challenges, I'm also very sad. It's an interesting feeling because all of this change is being brought into my life because I chose it. No one told me I had to change what I do. I just had this feeling about a month ago that I wanted to start a children's group and I wanted to no longer being doing the day-to-day duties that I've been doing for 5 years. And I'm quite excited to not be paying attention to all those details anymore, but sad because I don't like change and I've got such a good system worked out for the program. My sanity is saved because I'll be training my successor who I know very well and she is as detail-oriented as I am so she will be just fine. It's more the unknown that I feel uneasy about.

But if I can find the excitement in it.. Because it's there.

The desire being planted in my heart to start a kid's support group...
The desire being planted in my heart to become a family mediator (possibly even during grad school, through a separate program)

Just all of this desire to move on, move forward..

It's being facilitated in part because at the end of April I'm hitting my 5 year anniversary at work. It feels like a good time, a good substantial amount of time invested in it and just a good turning point for the next step.

It's one of those things where you know it's totally right, and yet it feels.. unsettled.

I have no doubt it's the right thing, but I have moments where I want to hold on to what I have right now with such white knuckles because it's what I know and it's what's safe.

But sometimes you have to let go to really move forward into new, good possibilities.

potential

"You have all you need within you to become the best version of yourself. Anything that inspires you is an outward reflection of the potential within you. Cultivate in your own life, in your own way, the qualities and greatness you see in others and pretty soon you will be living a life that is your personal version of greatness. Your work is to apply yourself everyday and don't look back."

- Jackson Kiddard

forgetting

Sometimes I forget this.

Okay, I forget this a lot. Especially lately.

Not that I forget that I have it, I love that I have it.

I forget the meaning. The truth.

Sometimes I feel terribly unlovable. But more importantly, terribly unloved. 

And in a way that people in my life can't fill. And I think that's the point.

It's a God-shaped emptiness. 

But it's a not seeing it, on my part. A mild turning-away. A forgetting. A not-acknowledging. Not living in it. Not accepting it. 

A going through the motions. A to do list life. 

I've found myself at this place many times before. Days become cumbersome to themselves. Everything is a task and I'm not getting enough checked off. Every conversation is a chore. Making plans? Forget it. 

I'm not sure exactly what I need to break this, but it's been taken care of in the past, so I know it will again. 

But I need to remember. Unending love, amazing grace. I never earned it. It's not about my worth then, now, or ever. In every situation, it's there. And I get to choose to live in it. Breathe it in.

subtle uneasiness

"What does patience feel like? It's a subtle unfolding with time as your ally. You feel relaxed and trust that it will all work out, even if in this very moment, there's no clear path to the end. It feels like the subtle uneasiness of allowing all you're uncomfortable with to be exactly as it is."
- Jackson Kiddard

change

I love this.

"One of the most loving things you can do for another person is let them make their own mistakes, learn their own lessons and endure in the contrast of a life they don't really want. People only really change when they've hit rock bottom - sometimes the most loving thing you can do for a person is to let them and be there to help pick up the pieces. Permanent change comes from within, no one can give it to you."

- Jackson Kiddard, author & polymath.