Choices

When You are in a Dark Place

One evening recently a dear friend and I sat talking about the fact that though she was praying and seeking God for clear direction, she seemed to receive no answer and couldn’t “see” the way she was supposed to go. As I listened to her, it became clear to me (isn’t it always easier to see/hear God’s direction for someone else than for ourselves?) that God had her exactly where she was for a specific purpose. She was unable to see where God wanted her to go next because He had called her to hide (and rejoice!) for a season under the shadow of His wings.

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A Bible Preference for Homeshooling?

History shows that nearly every nation has ultimately caved in to a very counter-intuitive (satanic?) temptation: That the only sensible way for 4 and 5-year-old children to begin their life-education journey is that they be ripped away from the care of Mom and Dad at home and turned over to “professional specialists” in state-controlled classrooms. Over time, a second fallacy took shape: That the teaching of academics is a more important, more difficult undertaking than training youth in God’s spiritual basics. This latter task, apparently, is something “easily done at home on a ‘whenever’ basis.” Regrettably, these two personal and culture-crippling myths now prevail in spite of centuries of evidence to the contrary.

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Managing Your Persistant Fears, Depression and Everyday Anxieties

Everybody deals with anxiety and depression, however some people have a hard time in managing it. As a result, here is a brief list of techniques that a person can use to help manage their most persistent fears and every day anxieties.

When facing a current or upcoming task that overwhelms you with a lot of anxiety, the first thing you can do is to divide the task into a series of smaller steps. Completing these smaller tasks one at a time will make the stress more manageable and increases your chances of success.

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Fear: Flee, Freeze, Float or Flow

“THE CIRCUS WAGON”

One of my first memories was eating from a tin Barnum Animals Crackers box, painted to resemble a cheerfully colored circus wagon. But that wagon was also a cage. The animals pictured on the outside of the box were majestic, wild, and untamed beasts. They were also behind bars. The cookies inside the box were shaped into believable copies of jungle animals. These were not comic Disney animals with smiling faces and human characteristics. These beasts were the real things. I remember a rhino, a lion, an elephant and a hippo, and they all looked the way wild animals should look. They were just like the animals I had seen at the Bronx Zoo.

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Delight Yourself, No Matter What the Circumstances

Delight yourself in the Lord;
and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
and He will do it. Psalm 37:4-5

This verse is embedded in a chapter which differs from the over all scope we find in the Book of Psalms, for it mentions nothing of prayer or praise. But it is all instruction; it’s ” Mesihil – a teaching Psalm.”

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Amazing Thorn: How Sweet the Sound

A number of years ago, I was enlightened to the motivating factor, which transformed a tenant of a run down apartment into a successful businessman, with a vast empire of land holdings. He informed me that his first landlord made his life so miserable, that he vowed to himself to never rent another piece of property. Thus, began his prosperous career in the real estate business.

Where the average person would cower at this overbearing thorn in the flesh, this man possessed the fortitude to use the negative arrogance energy of his first and last landlord to propel him to top of the heap.

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I’m Different: An Abundance of Eyes

eye2-2 God has given you one face, and you make yourself another. Shakespeare

Are you different?

As a wheelchair user, I’m probably hypersensitive to differences. Even after twenty-two years of rolling around, I still feel uncomfortably conspicuous.

My inability to stand up makes me stand out—or at least that’s how it seems to me.

Distinctions are interesting. They spark debate, generate controversy, and attract attention. Life would be bland and boring without the diversity that makes each of us unique and truly one-of-a-kind.

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Are You the One with the Muck Rake?

We must be always making choices in this world. We cannot take up everything that lies in our path–and we ought to choose the best things. Even among ‘right things’ there is room for choice, for some right things are better than others.

Only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better. Luke 10:42

Paul prayed that his friends “may be able to discern what is best.” Philippians 1:10.

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Oncoming Traffic

Oncoming Traffic – is most dangerous when you stare at it.

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. [1 Peter 5:8]

How often to you consciously think about evil?

When I learned to drive I developed the dangerous habit of staring at approaching cars and discovered that you tend to steer toward your focal point. A number of animated reminders from my parents convinced me that it’s good to be aware of traffic but I needed to concentrate primarily on my own path.

By making them my focal point, I multiplied the threat posed by oncoming vehicles.

EVIL AND TRAFFIC

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