"His thoughts"

Often when I am compelled to write I assume God is leading me to a greater life understanding that it is not my thoughts but his that follow here.

One of the major dysfunctions in life that I grew up with, my mom grew up with and her mom too is “lack of love”. When children grow up in situations where love is not demonstrated those children unless they are very fortunate to marry or hang around with extremely loving giving people they end up “Adults” on the outside looking in, wondering what in the world he or she did to not be able to love or deserve love, The truth is love is attainable we have just to teach ourselves how to love. I have learned is that as adults we very much need to learn to “re-parent” ourselves to be able to have someone safe that can give us the love we need to survive in this world. And by someone safe I mean ourselves, I believe God has given us the tools we need to survive; we just have not clearly understood or discovered them.

Some effective ways I have learned to re-parent is to realize that I am in control of my life not my husband or children or friends or mother or father. And in that control I alone am responsible to God for my choices. I control what I look at, what comes out of my mouth, how I feel about all the little things that bug me, how much love I give and most important how much love I accept. To honor God is to honor, love and respect myself and the more I “choose” to honor myself the better my life is, the more meaningful it becomes. I choose simple effective behavior without assuming the other party dislikes me or thinks I am stupid. I do not hold onto assumptions that if I put down what I’m doing to help someone achieve some peace that someway I’m losing precious time. I can’t tell you how many women I know that fight for some freedom in their lives and only end up in further bondage hiding in their minds. Trapped like rats in a maze. How do we get here, I believe “bad parenting” is one key, selfish behaviours another, the devil finding open wounds to live in another. I don’t believe the majority of parents want to hurt their children and if they knew they would hurt them they probably would not have children. Parents struggles today are not all that different from yesterday and thorough out time.

Man has struggled with “who am I, why am I here, what have I accomplished. Honestly I have met more stubborn stuck people in my life who have a need to hold onto stuff, people, or ideas. I have a very wonderful friend who would give you the shirt off her back but won’t get rid of the 197o's Cougar that does not run that’s been sitting in her garage for 25 years, I have joked with her that we are just going to bury her in it!. I regularly clean out my possessions and my old thoughts and beliefs to let in new ideas and when I find myself struggling with an issue I always ask God to show me what I need to see and then I make sure I am open to receive what he tells me. I believe we have to always negotiate with ourselves and others in as positive way as possible. We need to be as kind as possible and that does not mean driving oneself nuts in service, there are so many ways to serve God. Some positive ways I have found to re-parent myself, love myself and serve God at the same time I will list here.

Walk the dog, stop and talk to a neighbor, say something nice.

If someone you meet along the way has something not so nice to say, ignore it, don’t own it, change the subject find something positive to focus on, let the negativity blow through you like a breeze in the wind, continue on your journey to love.

Pray non-stop for your neighbors, your children, spouse, and anyone you come in contact with in distress.

Be kind, be helpful, be careful to listen to what God wants for you. If you choose to take on your neighbors burden spend some time praying first so the devil does not end up controlling your life running you in circles and then running the show.

Pray for yourself non-stop

Pray for wisdom non-stop

Learn about forgiveness, forgive 1,000 different ways, forgive everyone always, and that means you too.

Never assume you are not worthy, if you did not have some purpose on this earth you would not be here.

Kiss a lot of babies.

Hug a lot of children.

Play with children as often as possible, big kids and little.

Laugh at bugs, talk to barking dogs like a baby, wonder at the sunshine on the petals of life.

Work with children and adults as often as possible, there is nothing like a community service project and some pizza after to make one feel absolutely outstanding about their life.

Love yourself non-stop.

Love your best friend non-stop.

Tell your friends you love them non-stop.

Tell your family you love them non-stop.

Support your church and support your local neighborhood church's.

Get rid of the myth that you can over love and smother everyone you meet with love, start that love with a smile and a kind word or gesture.

Let Jesus shine in you non-stop, smile at everyone, have a kind word for everyone; acknowledge your love for life.

Don’t worry, be happy, pay your bills always early, never late and you will add to that happiness (best advice I ever received). Be fiscally responsible.

Do not take on more than God has planned for you, if he wants you home praying, stay home and pray, if he wants you out shining a light in the world go shine it as bright as you possibly can. If he wants you planting a garden, share some flowers or food from your garden with some one.

Pay attention to details, get as clear as you can, when you look at someone look at them directly, love them just the way they are.

Always remember this Old Proverb ”One cannot stop the birds of sorrow from flying overhead, one can however; keep them from building nests in their hair.”

Martin Luther said “Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.” More great advice.

Remember, Jesus gave the woman at the well “living water” he did not take her home with him to change her, she accepted the living water and she took control of her life and went out to share the good news.

Well enough said, I hope someone in need will read this and understand my intent is to be open to accept that I am lovable, and capable because I am of God molded from his clay.

Potter (not Harry)