Worries for parents in America Today

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid reports of a growing youth mental health crisis, four-in-ten U.S. parents with children younger than 18 say they are extremely or very worried that their children might struggle with anxiety or depression at some point. In fact, mental health concerns top the list of parental worries, followed by 35% who are similarly concerned about their children being bullied, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. These items trump parents’ concerns about certain physical threats to their children, the dangers of drugs and alcohol, teen pregnancy and getting in trouble with the police.

Parenting a child of any age is tough—”the toughest job you’ll ever love,” to quote a line from the Peace Corps — but parenting a teenager can be challenging on a whole other level. It’s as if the day your first child turns 13, you get a force-fed dose of Morpheus’ “red pill,” causing you to fall down the rabbit hole of The Matrix and into a disorienting reality where every aspect of your psychological existence is not as it seems.

When asked about their aspirations for their children when they reach adulthood, parents prioritize financial independence and career satisfaction. Roughly nine-in-ten parents say it’s extremely or very important to them that their children be financially independent when they are adults, and the same share say it’s equally important that their children have jobs or careers they enjoy. About four-in-ten (41%) say it’s extremely or very important to them that their children earn a college degree, while smaller shares place a lot of importance on their children eventually becoming parents (20%) and getting married (21%).

There are sharp differences by race and ethnicity when it comes to the importance parents place on their children graduating from college: 70% of Asian parents say this is extremely or very important to them, compared with 57% of Hispanic parents, 51% of Black parents, and just 29% of White parents.

In a nod to the adage about family life that parenting is the hardest job in the world, most parents (62%) say being a parent has been at least somewhat harder than they expected, with about a quarter (26%) saying it’s been a lot harder. This is especially true of mothers, 30% of whom say being a parent has been a lot harder than they expected (compared with 20% of fathers).

At the same time, most parents give themselves high marks for the job they’re doing, with 64% saying they do an excellent or very good job as a parent; 32% say they do a good job, while just 4% say they do an only fair or poor job as a parent. Mothers and fathers give themselves similarly high ratings, but there are differences by income and by race and ethnicity (upper-income and Black and White parents are the most likely to say they do an excellent or very good job).

 

Come to read more:

Parenting in America Today

What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Teenager

A culture of “democratic cleansing” – Elders and youngsters versus respect

The generation born between 1930 and 1960 had no choice but to listen to father‘s law and do as we were told.

Father’s will is Law!

When we asked

Why?

We got a very short but very well to understand answer.

Therefore!

Now those generations from before the 1960s have become the “oldies”.

We live with the thought that we taught some good and interesting things to our kids, but sometimes seem to wonder what they did with what we taught them and what went wrong with the present generation.

What did we do wrong?

For sure, though we did not always agree with our parents, and dared to go on the streets in 1968 to question our way of living and our society, we always still showed respect for our parents and grandparents. In many cases, there were no great-grandparents. Our grandparents, to us, looked already

so old

at an age that we now already survived a few years.

Unlike our parents, we taught our children to dare to question everything and not just accept or consider everything.

John Humphrys in the Daily Telegraph of 26 December 2022 wonders if he perhaps had a ridiculous dream.

Well yes, and a bit of a nightmare too. I can’t think of anything much worse than my kids sitting in respectful silence while I bang on.

At home and at school we learned courtesy rules. But what is left of it? Some of the things we learned, such as keeping the door open for ladies, are not always anymore appreciated but are viewed as a sexist attitude.

Humphrys writes

If I’ve taught them anything at all – pretty unlikely I know – it’s that healthy scepticism beats the pants off reverence. Always has. Always will.

And yet… maybe just the teeniest smattering of respect might not come amiss? Possibly not boys doffing their caps to ladies in the street as my school ordered us do. After all, who wears caps nowadays? (And is ‘ladies’ sexist? What if they’re trans?)

But perhaps an acknowledgement that we oldies just might have picked up some useful stuff during our decades of experience on this planet that could come in useful? That’s tricky in today’s climate. Just that word “experience” is fraught. It has to be a “lived” experience now and I’m not sure I know what that is.

We have also been brought up to check the past and present and to seek the truth each time.

Our parents taught us that if we did not know something, we should go and look it up in the encyclopaedias provided. Those writers were expected to have undergone sufficient schooling and presented well-founded articles under editorial authority to inform the reader and provide further knowledge. We found it great to find such reference works that contained information on all branches of knowledge or that treated a particular branch of knowledge in a comprehensive manner.

For more than 2,000 years encyclopaedias have existed as summaries of extant scholarship in forms comprehensible to their readers. But in the last two decades, we saw several well-known encyclopaedias disappearing from the market.

At our house, the 1968 Encyclopaedia Britannica, as the oldest English-language general encyclopaedia, was just one of the many other encyclopaedias we could use daily.

The researchers and authors and publishers of encyclopaedias had to face technological changes, beginning in the 1980s with the development and spread of personal computers. It really became a world that opened up, making it possible to look up documents from all over the world. The computer business evolved so fast, quickening in the 1990s and 2000s through the Internet and widespread diffusion of broadband access, it radically altered the publishing world generally and the encyclopaedia business in particular.

The 15th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica (1974), was designed in large part to enhance the role of an encyclopaedia in education and understanding without detracting from its role as a reference book. It represented very much the way we were brought up, finding it necessary to educate and to spread knowledge. Its three parts (Propædia, or Outline of Knowledge; Micropædia, or Ready Reference and Index; and Macropædia, or Knowledge in Depth) represented an effort to design an entire set on the understanding that there is a circle of learning and that an encyclopaedia’s short informational articles on the details of matter within that circle as well as its long articles on general topics must all be planned and prepared in such a way as to reflect their relation to one another and to the whole of knowledge.
For those who wanted to learn more or wished to delve deeper into a particular fact or topic, the Propædia became a great help for self-study. The propaedia was a reader’s version of the circle of learning on which the set had been based and was organised in such a way that a reader might reassemble in meaningful ways material that the accident of alphabetisation had dispersed.

In 1981, under an agreement with Mead Data Central, the first digital version of the Encyclopædia Britannica was created for the LexisNexis service. In the early 1990s Britannica was made available for electronic delivery on a number of CD-ROM-based products, including the Britannica Electronic Index and the Britannica CD (providing text and a dictionary, along with proprietary retrieval software, on a single disc). A two-disc CD was released in 1995, featuring illustrations and photos; multimedia, including videos, animations, and audio, was added in 1997.

John Humphrys seems to find it a waste of money that his parents scrimped to pay a weekly shilling to the Encyclopaedia Britannica door-to-door salesman so that they as kids would always have the world’s knowledge at their fingertips.

He gives the impression that those modern machines and the evolution of artificial intelligence is one of the many reasons why respect between the generations matters.

We do admit that many young people do not understand how the elderly can or cannot handle today’s modern gadgets.

Millennials (born 1981-1996) tend to put the boomers (born post-war) into a category. Specifically, men. Usually “old white men”.

How come that usage is tolerated? Substitute “women” for men and it wouldn’t be. It would be sexist. Substitute “black” for white and it would be racist.

He observes

Those who once wore the badge of old age with a certain pride must now carefully guard their tongues less they cause offence, even when it’s patently obvious that none was intended. Was it necessary to humiliate Lady Susan Hussey when she was seemingly too curious about the origins of a black woman who was wearing a vivid tribal dress? Her offence, it turned out, was being old.

Getting old happens to all of us. How we deal with it is very different. But it is also very different from how outsiders deal with elders.
Especially in recent years, there has been an unpleasant skew there, with many viewing elders as a burden.
Similarly, few can empathise with the world of understanding of those elders who have been brought up with certain ways of thinking, some of which are also sometimes difficult to distance themselves from or continue to think stereotypically.

We all pursue dreams and shall one day be confronted with that older body, becoming aware that there is not only a tendency to forget people’s names, but having more than once looking for the right words, having forgotten (for a moment) certain things. And then in confrontation with the youngsters, they not always understand or want to give some time to get the memory back.

For some elderly it is also not evident to have to rely on others. And the children are not so pleased anymore to be a safety net for their parents, as we looked after our parents when they were already starting to reach a reasonable age. Some may be annoyued that those above 65 do not want to retire. It might be those in their 60s whose mind is fooling them in which case they will rely on others around them to let them know that it is time to retire.

How many times do those who passed the 50s have to hear from the youngsters that their ideas are old fashioned or that they are not anymore from these times? Many younger people find it not appropriate that the elderly are still pursuing ideas and aspirations. Is it a form of respect to accepting that they express their feelings as well as their dreams and aspirations?

Most young people don’t sense time as being a high-speed train, because for them it often looks ages, before there is another hour, another day. That makes them also to express their impatience so often. But then again, the fact that some elders become a bit too slow bothers those younger ones, in that it seems that that time is taken up by that elder, who then keeps them from renewing moments. Some younger ones do not mind letting the older ones know that it is time to retreat, or to get silent.

At a certain age, it can be that we feel that there has come a time we need to withdraw from the hurly-burly of the life we once knew. But it does not always feel so nice, when those younger people say it in our face. (We never would have dared to say such a thing to our elderly.)

In his book, The War On The Old, English literature professor John Sutherland wrote about what he called a culture of “democratic cleansing… a state-condoned campaign against the nation’s old”.

He describes an overwhelming sense of blame that younger generations attribute to “the wrinklies” who voted for Brexit, comfortable in the mansions they bought for a pittance. The once-dignified badge of seniority is becoming synonymous with “narrow-minded”, “outdated” and “incipiently senile”.
The elderly are bed-blockers, job-blockers, pension-drainers. {We used to respect our elders – whatever happened to that? by John Humphrys}

Normally, one went from one generation to the next with improvements, but today that no longer holds true. Today’s 30-year-olds have it much harder than their parents did. The age-old argument over which generation has had more advantages has been settled – at least where finances are concerned.

Adult life is harder to afford now than it was 30 years ago and it has forced today’s young to delay big life events, which tend to happen around this milestone age. Today’s generation are buying their first home two years later, having ­children three years later and getting married six to seven years later than they were in 1992. {Six reasons why boomers have it better than millennials by Jessica Beard}

Due to the pressures of the outside world, those in their twenties and thirties may have become a bit “shorter” in their statements, and it is not always easy for them to be patient with those older people who are, as it were, still watching them or ready with criticism.

Dependence on two earners can make taking time off to care for children ­trickier, and to care for older people, even more, trickier or not so wanted. So it should not always be viewed so negatively by the elderly when those young people now show a little less time than their parents who could make more time for their parents and grandparents.

Many today are so engrossed in their work and the expectations of fellow peers that they have little time left outside their work sphere for their own spiritual formation, religious pursuits and many family activities outside their own families.

It can well be that certain actions and reactions of youngsters are sometimes unjustly interpreted as respectless, or not showing enough respect. It must not be disrespectful, but just because of these other times with much more pressure on the youngsters, that the gap between young and old has widened somewhat today compared to previous decades.

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Preceding

A more recent discrimination: Old Age

A Cranky Old Man

Readers, likes and comments

Thought on the birthday of an encyclopaedia

Available information for the youngsters and readers of my websites

Redeeming Our World

The Way You Live Your Life

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan back with a bang

Mishmash of a legal code but importance of mitzvah or commandments

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Additional reading

1. Ageing and Solidarity between generations
2. Who is considered Old
3. Man in picture, seen from the other planets
4. Subcutaneous power for humanity 1 1940-1960 Influenced by horrors of the century
5. Justififiable anger or just anarchism
6. A trillion words
7. Looking at an era of international “youth culture”
8. Did the picture change for Working dads
9. Living in this world and viewing it
10. Hippies, a president, a damaged ozone layer and knights
11. This Week Twenty-Five Years Ago: The Velvet Revolution Succeeds, December 1989
12. Our brothers in Kyiv’s northwest suburb Irpin
13. Russia not wanting it neighbours countries to cooperate with the West
14. Left behind for economical emigration
15. 2014 Social contacts
16. 2014 Human Rights
17. Time to consider how to care for our common home
18. Welfare state and Poverty in Flanders #7 Education
19. Martin Luther King’s Dream Today
20. This fighting world, Zionism and Israel #5
21. Another Jewish Voice on Trump’s plan: No peace without equality and mutual respect
22. The truest greatness lies in being kind
23. Agape, a love to share with others from the Fruit of the Spirit
24. Approachers of ideas around gods, philosophers and theologians
25. Cleanliness and worrying or not about purity
26. Today’s thought “Teachers will be judged with greater strictness than others” (December 09)
27. Perspectives
28. Hungarian undermining of European freedoms

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Related

1. A reflective Morning
2. Time Hobbles On
3. Beautiful, she said
4. I am old.
5. Learning to be Old–5
6. The effects of just being you… Age.
7. When You Grow Old
8. The Age Old Question…
9. Ageism in the workplace
10. Life is Short
11. Pursuing dreams to stay young in mind
12. What We Need, in Order to, Age Gracefully
13. I Can’t Breath Through It All
14. Thirty Five Years and Old.
15. How to be Old
16. 75 And Counting
17. Age 90+
18. Stillness
19. Dealing with Age Discrimination: Workers’ rights and strategies
20. “The best gift you can give your children, is the love and respect you demonstrate for their mother.”
21. Respect for life…
22. … the taste of respect
23. life will teach you to honor and respect balance.
24. I do respect people’s faith
25. High recognitions . . . Honor and respect them, though you no longer worship them
26. Paris attacks darkning the world
27. Holidays break – Day 7

born to succeed — Annette Rochelle Aben

 

davidbruceblog #2

Be that whispering voice Heard only in the heart Of someone as they start The new journey Of being a parent Something they’ve never done Have a daughter or son They may be scared Remind them they have strength To get through every day For love will light the way On this new road ©2021 […]

born to succeed — Annette Rochelle Aben

Be that whispering voice

Heard only in the heart

Of someone as they start

The new journey

Of being a parent

Something they’ve never done

Have a daughter or son

They may be scared

Remind them they have strength

To get through every day

For love will light the way

On this new road

©2021 Annette Rochelle Aben

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Play – a wonderful way for parents and children to get to know each other

“Play is a wonderful way for parents and children to get to know each other
– for children to learn about human relationships and for parents to learn about what is special and unique about each child.”
~

The LEGO Foundation

Parenting, self-interest and some ugly choices!

When choosing to have children this implies taking up certain responsibilities

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To remember

• a lot of us in our generation seems to forego the essence of who we are as humans, as people and not just women => If trend continues => people it would hurt most = women themselves.
• working + multitasking like a machine =  prerogative set by societal norms + the media =  oppressive as those expectations putting women in the kitchen and keeping their thighs tightly shut.
• I mean what is any outcome really worth if it does not involve choice? It might be packaged differently but still remains devoid of any real progression.
• women seem to wait till a cloud floats over their marital bliss, to decide to turn into a feminista.
• all about grace + ladylike behaviour.
• parenting risks something much bigger + continues to impact generations to come. A far more scary prospect, if you ask!
• When deciding to become a parent > elements like ego + self-interest needs to automatically move lower on the priority list.
• child you produce = you + your partner decided to bring them out.
• child =/= your private property to do away with
• child = lifelong commitment.
• Selfish parents often procreate a far worse version of themselves while fighting custody battles over their egos.
• tiny change in an adult’s life can impact a younger person’s impressionable phases in life, in fundamental ways.

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Related

1. those with young
2. 30 Days of Thanksgiving: thankful for moms
3. Stop making it about you and other offensive things people say
4. This is The Difference Between Parenting Preschoolers and Teens
5. How do I know if I’m a great parent?
6. I Don’t Owe You Anything
7. Parenting Rule #1: Always Be Suspicious
8. One of those days ….
9. It’s time we got rid of our mum guilt
10. Twin Parenting: You Can’t Take Pleasure In Every Minute
11. Help the Divas in Your Life Cope with Grief
12. Children Can Be So Rude
13. Feminismo y paranoia
14. Día de las niñas – SuperVioletas
15. Una feminista estadounidense abortó a su bebé sólo por ser varón: “No podría traer otro monstruo a este mundo”
16. Las Mujeres “NO” somos Histericas!

Shoutbox

I know what you’re all thinking about. Whether this is yet another piece about whether women can have it all. But in addressing the contention around that question, a lot of us in our generation seems to forego the essence of who we are as humans, as people and not just women. If that trend continues, I think the people it would hurt the most is, well of course – us. The women themselves.

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Responsibilities of Parenthood for sharing the Word of God

When the people of Israel got liberated from slavery in Egypt the parents took their saved children with them. God had asked them by way of Moses giving to them the Words of God, to lay up these Words of the Most High in their heart and in their soul.

18  “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 And ye shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down and when thou risest up.” (Deuteronomy 11:18-19 KJ21)

 

Sunday school class, Manzanar Relocation Center, California People in church service, standing, holding hymnals. MEDIUM: 1 negative : safety film. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Parents are given the task to have that what they placed in their hearts, to share it with their children. It not only has to sit deep inside them, it also has to come out of them. It should be so strongly connected to their mind that it is as if their brains are tied with that knowledge of the Word of God. They should not only keep it as a reminder but also should teach them to their children. This is something what is often forgotten today.

Ideal moments to start picking up the thread again are such high holidays like the ones we had this weekend. The free days are ideal to take time to speak about what happened in the past to God’s people and how we should also be part of God’s people. All that we ourselves got to hear about the Most High divine Creator we should love to share with others and especially with our own children.

That what we got to hear from God we should share with the loved ones. At home but also outside of the house we should talk about those Words God has given us. Wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night.

Today we may find that not many parents are having time or wanting to spend time to educate their children concerning ethics, morals and faith matters. Today we have much more facilities than in the days of Moses where they could not take a bible or the scrolls at hand. In those times most of the upbringing and/or teaching was a personal responsibility. Centuries later the parents took time each day to read from Scriptures and to talk about the commandments of God. Many generations also got to Sunday School to have a religious formation. Today in not many countries are there still Sunday Schools or bible Schools for the religious people.

Today lots of people are avoiding that responsibility to teach the Word of God. Even speaking about good and bad is put aside in many cases. Today lots of children are also allowed to watch certain pictures on television which are not for their eyes at all. Many cruel or ugly words are allowed to enter the living room, via that screen what has become bigger and bigger.

Moses told the people that in case they diligently would keep all this commandment that Jehovah God commanded them to obey, sticking close to Him God on His part will drive out all these nations that stand in their way. so they should then not be afraid of those nations which are much bigger and stronger than them.

“22 For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you to do them—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to cleave unto Him— 23 then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.” (Deuteronomy 11:22-23 KJ21)

Nothing has changed. Also for us today if we will be careful to do all this commandment that God commands us to do, loving the Most High divine Creator Jehovah as your God, walking in all His ways, and holding fast to him, then He will bless you so you inherit the promised land. We, ourselves must first teach ourselves from God’s words, messages such as this one – for ‘the promised land’ – the kingdom of God – is surely just over the horizon. Having taught ourselves we must teach any children we have – and others we can influence. The saying is that ‘actions speak louder than words’ – but words and actions together speak louder still. “A blessing” or “a curse” lie before us! Which have you chosen – or are on the point of choosing? There is no middle way.

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Preceding: Responsibilities of Parenthood fully discharged

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Related articles

• Always Near
• Forgetting God
• In An Atmosphere Of Rebellion We Are Called To Obey
• April 7, 2016 – Weekly Update
• Sermon of April 3, 2016 – “The Most Unlikely of Heroines”
• The Purpose of God’s Wrath
• Dear Youth Pastor, Guard Your Day Off!
• Relevance of Observing Pesach Today
• April 10, 2016 Sermon – “Overhearing the Name of God”

What is important?

Mary Ann Niemczura, born in Massachusetts, reared in Colorado and now living in Upstate New York, looks at three things which she finds  important to her and were she grow up in Massachusetts and in Colorado: Family, Faith, and Education.

In this world were morals, ethics and values are gone it is not bad to stand still for a moment and to wonder what made us unto what we are today.

Let us never forget those who are behind our making process, our parents, teachers, guides, and all the material which came under our eyes (books, theatre pieces, films, artefacts, …)

Like me she grew up in a time when education was still valued and probably the teachers still respected. At a new years dinner for municipal staff I was questioned about the use of musical education and playing an instrument. In the past that was considered as an asset and helpful to have the brains growing in a good way. The gift of music and diligent practice are very much helping the brain to develop so that there is gain on different fronts for other schoolsubjects as well as analytic and creative thinking.  The author has good reason to

belief that children who play a musical instrument including voice have a better chance of success in school.  They learn to listen and to read as well as to memorize more quickly.

Also the religious upbringing may help to create a decent personality which is respectful to nature and all those living on this globe. Learning from the Holy Scriptures not only gives a good formation for our relationships with others, it also shall make us a better person, not only believing in the Creator but also believing in the self, which shall give more confidence to tackle certain tasks and to withstand certain counteraction or thwart.

To have hope for the future we have to work at it that others also come to understand the reasons why we should have certain values, cherish and nourish certain morals. Like in previous times it is still important to be involved with those around us, to read to the children, to give ethical and/or religious education and to practice faith with those who are near to us. Parents and educators do have to send a very clear message that education should be at the top of the list after family and faith.

Then we might have fewer morally bankrupt persons in society.

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Additional reading

1. Too many pupils for not enough teachers
2. A learning process for each of us
3. Passion and burn out of a teacher

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• Those are some pipes: Immense organ’s restoration underway
• The World’s first complete miniature symphony orchestra printed in 3-D!
• Those are some pipes: Immense organ’s restoration underway
• Missing Out of the Orchestra – De Mello
• North Cyprus – Television News from BRT2 with Miray Çakır – 15th Dec 2015
• The latest social science is wrong. Religion is good for families and kids
• Colorado’s new education commissioner supports school choice
• Nicola Benedetti backs free music lesson plea
• We are all somehow believers
• John ‘Bill’ Hosie dead; retired Northport High physics teacher was 91

Dr. Mary Ann Niemczura

Three things are important to me and were growing up in Massachusetts and in Colorado.

Family-we had the luxury of a stay at home mom which I believe made all the difference in growing up.  We did not have babysitters come in.  My parents were simply always there for all of us children.  These were simpler times in the 40s and 50s when families made do with less.  I remember my parents growing most of the fruits and vegetables we needed.  My mother canned a lot for the winter months.  We kept potatoes in cold storage in the basement in Massachusetts.  We were happy and well fed.  Our mother sewed most of our clothes as well.  We knew we were well loved.

Faith-we attended church regularly which formed a strong foundation for our character and beliefs. We participated in religious education at church as well.  Parents who give…

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29. Laws that Value People

In our series on abortion we have let you hear pro’s and con’s and tried to show how we have to cope with such situations when something terrible happened or when people are confronted with the question of going to a Family Planning Office or counsellor or an abortion clinic.

Lots of people think there are only the 10 commandments, forgetting that those better would be called 10 Words. In the Torah are many many more rules given and to often people overlook the “You may not’s” to see them as commandments as well. Once is said a person may not do something him or her is given a rule or regulation to keep at.

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Those who call themselves Christian should better also look at those “You may not” remarks in the Holy Scriptures.
Most of the instructions given in the Holy Scriptures concern relationships; the relationship to the Divine Creator and His creation, the creatures (man, animal and plant). They concern our attitude to ourself, to others around us, and to our ‘wants‘ and involve the things we should want to share with others around us, guiding us to a good behaviour and to a good way of life.

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In case many more people would live according to those Divine instructions there would be less trouble and less pain in this world.

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To remember:

Much of our Western world rejects God and many would say our only meaning is found in evolution, and humanists and atheists (who tend to be one and the same) say that evolution is about survival and we have arrived at a point where we are sophisticated human beings who now act on more than just instinct. We have developed reason and rationality and so we see that it is sensible, if nothing else, to think well of one another if we are to survive and not enter another world war which would undoubtedly be even worse than the previous two. To survive we need to think well of one another. {28. Valuing People}

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Simply writing a list of human rights does not mean everyone will keep them. They will not make a child obey its parent or the parent not abuse the child. They will not stop an employer abusing an employee or vice-versa. They will not stop politicians, or any other national leaders for that matter, acting corruptly. Laws may be good in general but a strong adherence to the values underpinning those laws (remember, we considered this a couple of meditations back) will be the only thing that guarantees we treat one other well across the globe and, as we suggested in a previous meditation, we will only hold those values when we see and accept the primary cause behind those values – God. Any and every other foundation gives way. It will only be those who hold fast to God, the loving God of the Bible who reveals His design for us, who will genuinely hold these values – and live by them! {28. Valuing People}

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Gal 9:5,6“I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God has God made man.”

= You Will be held accountable to God for the wrongful killing of another person.

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God’s values are expressed in the Law He gave to Moses

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at the heart of valuing a human being = honour or respect or value the victim’s life > in the image of God has God made man

• evolution is the method God used in Creation, it was with purpose {28. Valuing People}
• God’s first ‘laying down the law’ in respect of the sanctity of human life
• God warned about being held accountable for taking a human life – + by implication forbade the taking of human life
• God warned of what the repercussions would be for taking a human life
• Ten Commandments = first half = about relationship with God + second half about relationships with other human beings
• instructions go to the heart of community + civilisation, relationships within families
• Parents = building block for next generation + to be honoured
• if parents are dishonoured or disrespected => following generation will be at odds with God’s design for a harmonious world

following commands in the negative form – “you shall not” = so sharp + clear => consequences for ignoring them not spelled out by God

=  in respect  of a) basic human life,  b) marriage relationships, c) personal property, d) human reputation and e) human peace and security.

main covenant laws = guidance laws about dealing with servants (slaves) i.e. respect within employment (Ex 21:2-11), the penalty for murder (v.12,14), manslaughter (v.13), a child attacking or cursing its parents (v.15,17), the death penalty for kidnapping (v16), ….

= steady catalogue of instructions about dealing with people + dealing with circumstances where life is threatened

first 15 verses of chapter 22 about dealing with property problems + protecting people, e.g. virgins 22:16,17,  aliens (22:21), widows and orphans (22:22-24), i.e. protecting the vulnerable.

Into chapter 23 we find laws about justice in general, about not helping the wicked (v.1), not perverting justice (v.2), not showing favouritism (v.3), not denying justice (v.6), not making false charges (v.7), not using bribes (v.8), not oppressing foreigners (v.9) + about their relationship with the Lord when they enter the Promised Land

first nine verses of chapter 23 = about making sure that people are dealt with fairly (justly).

=> underlying value of importance of each individual human being covered by a law to protect them

laws show how to deal with miscreants, how to deal with situations that go wrong

in Leviticus a whole series of lengthy requirements about offering sacrifices and those laws are all about how a guilty sinner can get right again with God.

God does bring destructive judgment on human beings > a remarkably restrained hand > constantly looking for the good for humanity

We are to value human life.

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Additional reading

1. No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation
2. Incomplete without the mind of God
3. Written to whom it is about to be reckoned
4. No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation
5. Bible, best Book of books to get to know the truth 
6. Bible, helmet of health, salvation and sword of the spirit
7. Written down in God’s NameA way to look for Christ, the Bible, Word of God
8. Bric-a-brac of the Bible
9. Feed Your Faith Daily
10. We should use the Bible every day
11. Fools despise wisdom and instruction
12. Genuine Christians content with going through motions of ritualistic religion
13. Every creature is a divine word because it proclaims God.
14. Observing the commandments and becoming doers of the Word

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Further reading

1. God’s Healing Power – Ask and You Shall Receive?
2. Moses, the Exodus and the 10 Commandments
3. The 10 Commandments
4. 10 Commandments- Keeping the Name of God
5. 10 Commandments: the idolatry commandments
6. 10 Commandment Pt. 2
7. God’s Law in the Life of the Baptized: The Fourth Commandment
8. God’s Law in the Life of the Baptized: The Fifth Commandment
9. God’s Law in the Life of the Baptized: The Sixth Commandment
10. God’s Law in the Life of the Baptized: The Seventh Commandment
11. “Are We Really Keeping the 10 Commandments?”
12. Following the Rules
13. What do you mean, the 10 Commandments don’t apply to me???
14. Sermon on 11 October 2015 about a whole lot of Law….and just a little bit of Gospel. (Because you have to put it in there)
15. The Law Fulfilled In You, Making It Obsolete
16. Kosmic Laws Of Nature
17. 20 Extremely Stupid Quotes By Famous People That Is Sure To Steal Your Ribs
18. The Ten Commandments Still Apply
19. Hear the Instruction of Thy Father, and Forsake Not the Law of Your Mother
20. Trick for Memorizng the 10 Commandments
21. These ought ye to have done…
22. Beware Spiritual Lust
23. Ten Words
24. The Ten Commandments Movie trailer
25. For the Narrative Lectionary Preacher: Deuteronomy & Talking about Law
26. Ten Commandments Removal Discussion – Eavesdropping
27. #7: This Rule Is So Underrated
28. Do Romans 14 and Colossians 2 Provide Cover For Modern Sabbath Deniers?
29. The Significance of the Shabbath & The Laws for Keeping the Shabbath
30. Understanding Bible Truth
31. Surpassing Glory.
32. Don’t Just Let the Rocks Cry Out
33. Humanity in the Toddler Stage
34. Is Removing The 10 Commandments A Big Deal?
35. Texas Riders Deliver 10 Commandments To Oklahoma Governor
36. An Overview of the Ten Commandments Enforced by the Civil Magistrate
37. Late Night Removal of 10 Commandments Monument in Oklahoma Reignites Controversy
38. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
39. A Doubter’s Guide to the Bible Review: Is the Old Testament Law really good?
40. The little boy on the beach….
41. Truth 13. God’s laws guide you in the best way to live and lead you to Jesus.
42. Living with the understanding that His commandments are not burdensome.
43. In Need of Perfection – Part 11: You Shall Not Covet
44. The Unity of Body, Soul and the Tablets
45. Justifiable Acts Against Wrong
46. Devarim Five: Shamor v’Zakhor
47. Devarim Ten: Circumcise the Foreskin of Your Heart
48. Deuteronomy Chapters 10, 11, and 12
49. The basis of the 10 commandments

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Related articles

• Vayelech
• Ten Commandments Tablets Craft from Crayola.com
• Does God Make New Year’s Resolutions?
• This Week’s Old Testament: What Are Jews Learning at Temple Today?
• Haazinu
• Christian Salvation, Part Two: Old Testament Mercy
• Brotherly love: Lessons in how to improve our relationships with our fellow Jews before Yom Kippur
• PRIME CREATOR – 10 Commandments For Ascension – Channeler Dr Kathryn E May
• Families visit 10 Commandments monument for last look
• Yom Kippur Guide for the Perplexed, 2015

Bible Meditation Shop

Meditations in Meaning & Values  29. Laws that Value People

Ex 20:12-15   “Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. “You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery.

“You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbour’s house.

We considered in the previous meditation God’s first ‘laying down the law’ in respect of the sanctity of human life. When He said, ““I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God has God made man,” He not only warned about being held accountable for taking a human life – and by implication forbade the taking of human life, but He also warned…

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.under the gazebo.

Family happiness is hidden in small things and in the moments we can share with each other. Laughing and making fun together on sunny but also on rainy days.

thebugsmommy's blog

a little family fun under the gazebo during a beautiful afternoon at the park…

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Inner voice inside the soul of man

What fellowship hath the voice of God inside of the soul of man with unrighteousness

asked Cecil J. duCille (1922-2009) in one of his devotionals. He looked at the human beings who did perhaps good but did not follow that inner voice they had to hear in themselves.

He continues:

No one who continues to move in self-motivation is of God. The average American woman is a woman who loves to rule her husband. It’s unfortunate for me to say this in a world-wide sense and let the people in the world know that is how we Americans are. The average American woman is taught to have her own way, to have her own bank account, to have her own business going. She does not go in accordance with the scriptural description of a “Proverbs 31 woman.” {Come out of Sinning, Come into Righteousness}

A statue of Jesus Christ at a church in India. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This preacher who according some was commissioned by Jesus Christ as an apostle of our time and a minister of the Gospel in 1948 clearly had a certain idea about the role of woman. Throughout the course of his life, both him and his wife, carried the Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ worldwide establishing congregations throughout the globe. They first started in the Island of Jamaica. Then in 1969 they were sent by God to the United States to warn the people of God of the destruction that was coming. They founded Sonlight Ministries International and established works throughout Europe, Africa, India, and many other countries. They travelled tirelessly through the entire world, teaching and preaching wherever the doors would open to receive the revelation that God had given to them. {Sonlight devotional org/about}

He asked woman to turn from the natural trait of their generation to turn to God and do God’s work rather than that of their generation. Today we could still ask man and woman to turn away from that what the majority considers a natural lifestyle of fun. He writes:

Men and women, stop doing your own thing. If you want to do what you want to do, you must realize that you are not doing what God wants you to do. Then, somebody, after he goes and does his own thing, gives a good tithe or a good offering to the church. God doesn’t care for your offering. God wants your soul. When He gets your soul, He gets everything. {Come out of Sinning, Come into Righteousness}

In many churches we do find preachers calling for giving money so that blessing can come over you. We can assure you that are not the right ways. Man can not bribe God. There is nothing you can purchase from God, who you can not buy over either. God is not corrupt and you can not corrupt Him.

In this world we can see lots of people who have lots of questions and are looking for some answers. Some parents can not follow their children or do not understand why they go certain ways. Often they forget how important their example is in the course of their children.

Now, sometimes it is hard for us to believe that our own children are unbelievers, but sometimes our children are unbelievers. Their only deliverance is for us to walk in righteousness. {Come out of Sinning, Come into Righteousness}

Though we should not think too fast they are unbelievers. Perhaps they are in a stadium of questions and will coming in a later stadium of asking questions. They are aware that “our Earth” is not such a stable and unchanging home as we would like nor a “sure stronghold” which could never be substantially disrupted.

As such people shall have to come to ponder. They can not find the real answers in their communication with man and then they may see those people who believe in such an unseen Higher Supreme Being. This can give them a Question to Ponder : Communication with God. In this world of communication we see that lots of communication gets lost in the ‘fog’. Workers and bosses seem drifted away from each others understanding and seem not able to communicate properly any more.

They find it strange that there are such silly people who have an Almighty God as their friend. They wonder how that can be. How can people believe in something they can not see nor hear? There, they forget that the Works of that God can be seen every day around us and when man opens his or her ears to the Voice of that God they will hear that God speaking to them.

When you truly press in to know God and you prayerfully study His Word (meaning you sincerely ask God to reveal Himself and what His Word means,) you will discover that God is Almighty God, He is our Heavenly Father, and He is our friend. There is a balance important to our relationship with God if we hold these three truths in appropriate perspective. {Part Two: The Voice of God Within You}

Pastor Tim knows:

Jesus reveals that God is our Heavenly Father.

Matthew 6:31-33 says, “So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and He will give you all you need from day to day if you live for Him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.” {Part Two: God Speaking To You}

Whilst we have people looking at their phone, constantly following all the sms pop-ups on that little screen, they forget to use their brain message sending to the More Important Message Receiver and Replier.

Do you hear me? Anytime you turn to God and begin to walk according to that covenant that God has given you, walking it in righteousness – look at your children and you will see that it has an effect upon them. The devil cannot stand your righteousness and whenever you speak a word, it rebukes Satan from your own children if you are in righteousness. If you are not in righteousness and you speak a word, it does not rebuke Satan from your children. Therefore, your children are dependent upon you for life. If you think that you can save them by giving your time and your attention to them, you are making a very sad, sad mistake. Your time and attention to God will save them more than anything else. {Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, September, 2009}

All those who look for the pagan solutions or think the atheist world can bring the right answers perhaps could also have a look at the other side. In case they would listen to their inner voice they could be surprised to hear other voices, other ideas and can come to discover that there is really something more special, which (true) we can not always or fully understand. But giving time to that inner voice and taking time to come to know what is written in that Book of books we can come to know God as our Heavenly Father – the perfect father that none of us every had. You shall be surprised that you even shall be able to experience greater intimacy with Him than with any other person.

It doesn’t mean we should become less reverent toward Him. It means that we see His awesomeness and reverence it but also realize that the most powerful being in the universe –perfect and Holy in nature is also deeply in love with a fatherly love toward us. How awesome is that and how much more would it elevate our faith and trust in Him to watch over us?  {Part Two: God Speaking To You}

Most everyone would agree that a good and especially and intimate relationship is not going to happen between two people unless there is good two way communication. I think most people get that. We get the fact that it takes good two-way communication to build an intimate relationship yet with God, somehow we think we can build an intimate relationship with Him as a one-way conversation where we talk to Him and He listens but never responds? Honestly, that is lunacy!   {Part Two: God Speaking To You}

In heaven we do have somebody speaking for us. We have a mediator coming up for us. God listens also to this man his intercession. Jesus is that mediator who sits next to God. He defends us and can explain how we really feel and what we really want, though God knows this all, but is willing to listen to that intervention by His only begotten beloved son.

God calls Himself a “Father” to you. You can’t get more intimate than that. 2 Corinthians 6:18 says, “And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
God sweetens this revelation of intimacy saying, “So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God’s very own children, adopted into his family—calling him “Father, dear Father.” Romans 8:15 (NLT) {What Makes Faith Perfect}

When man goes looking for God the Most High Supreme Being is willing to come to man. when we are sincere in our search He will be there to give us answers. We then only have to listen to our inner heart and react accordingly. This means that sometimes, not to say ‘often’, we shall have to make a choice, setting human traditions aside and taking those human teachings as false teachings. We when we hear that Voice of God shall have to make the proper choice to listen to that Higher Voice or to prefer continuing to listen to man’s voices.

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Preceding articles:

Of old and new ideas to sustain power and to feel good by loving to be connected and worship something

Engagement in an actual two-way conversation with your deities

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Additional reading

1. Do you believe in One god
2. God of gods
3. Attributes to God
4. God is one
5. Does there have to be a Holy Trinity Mystery
6. The Trinity – the truth
7. One mediator
8. Who was Jesus
9. Bible Word of God, inspired and infallible
10. Incomplete without the mind of God
11. God is positive
12. Let us not forget it was God who chose us
13. God Helper and Deliverer
14. Jehovah my strenght
15. Life with God (video)
16. Faith because of the questions
17. Doing the works of God

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Related articles

• Poll: America Is Still A Strongly Christian Nation, Two-In-Three Believe Central Tenets Of Christianity…
• From submissive to rebel: The evolution of Jesus in the movies
• Ben Carson Urges Blacks to ‘Reestablish Faith, Values’ and Not Let Hip-Hop Cause Destruction That Eliminates Jesus Christ
• The King Has Come
• The King Has Come
• LISTEN: Israel in the End Times, Part 5 (Second Coming Chapel with Daniel Whyte III)

Less for more

After World War II we did not have so much at school and had to sit with three on one bench having just one book for three pupils. We never felt it as something missing. Though the Germans had first confiscated many assets of my family and the allied forces stolen and destroyed lots of things in the family houses, because the Germans had made their quarters in it, I had not to complain about shortage in my parents house. I had the blessing to be brought up in a wealthy family.

In our house we had no lack of material things, but our parents learned us to share and to respect all the personal in the house who took care of us, the maids, matrons, teachers, cooks, gardener and labourers. Though I do agree we were made clear of the difference of class and if we made friends they had first to be approved of by the pater familias, the father and boss in the house. We were brought up and formed by ideas of class systems, knowing very well the difference between the propertied, the underclasses or lower classes and higher classes.  I, myself left the path of family tradition and went a total different way, with the consequences of seeing black snow at certain moments and having to work hard and long hours to make a decent living. With no regret, because I still would choose for the profession I have enjoyed a lot.

From a lot, I came in a big less … but I did not loose much. In a certain way I think I have gained a lot. The only thing I regret most is that I still can not afford to buy our very good own family wines and I dare not to visit the castles of some cousins. But what I can see, that many families have gone far away from their previous positions of the 19th and 20th century. The 21st century has brought a lot less for most of them.

Noticeable is that we can see a lot of new rich, who have a total different mentality than my grand-grand parents, grand parents and parents. Today we also find a nivelation from the categories who were divided in the golden sixties, noticing the rich from then more ‘poverised’ and not able any more to have so much personal to keep the house(s) and ground(s). But the previous rich and great families had ethics and rules of living which by the present new rich seem to be not known.

By the young we see a lot of youngsters who love to have a lot and best all the newest things, because something having of an older version is not cool and just not done. Many eyes today are on what is presented by the glossy magazines and by the television and computer screens.

Amish couple shopping in Aylmer, Ontario, Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lots of parents feel a pressure by the media giving them a bad feeling if they not provide enough for their kids. Many parents seem to get not only a bad feeling, but a guilty feeling. It is like their kids would be missing something & would look back at it as a sad memory. Many parents have fallen in the trap of commercialism and are going for spending a ton on things they not necessarily need and worse also on ‘things that don’t matter’ like ‘goodie bags’ people always forget to take.

Luckily we may notice some shift in behaviour by some people. It might well be some consumers become more aware of their impact on our environment.

Would it not be better if more people would come back to their senses and consider only buying those things they necessary need and those things that really can improve their quality of life?  It is good to see that there are more people who want to shift their focus and who want a simpler life.

We should be much more aware of our own impact on our environment. We also should take up our own responsibility for the protection of our own environment and for the future of our next generations. When we commit to living a simpler life, we can commit ourselves to get rid of, stop doing, and not including things that don’t bring us happiness, have a meaning in our lives, or does something positive for us. By doing so you will find out that you also shall get rid of the distractions, the noise, & the clutter in your life.

But do know simple living isn’t only about material things. As I started of, remembering the stories which filled our life, traditions which formed us, it was all about a life style of the mind, a feeling which made us to take on the required attitude. We as children had to behave decently and live according to family laws. They ordered life. And this ordering seems to be gone, because there are no laws or rules which are respected and kept by people. Most people have no religion guiding them and the laic or secular conventions have thrown over board the ethics of good and right living. Though the good living and respectful living is a frame of mind, a train of thought that requires us to examine our lives on a daily basis and eliminate things that aren’t working for us physically, mentally, & spiritually.

We should not be afraid to do shortage on our children. It is wrong to think you do short by not giving in on the new trend or new ‘revelation of the season’.  The market wants us to buy everything it can offer. The managers do want our money spend on utilities but also on things we do not really need. Our world has become build on sandcastles. The danger is that the dream and soap-bell are going to burst, not so far in future.

The youngsters today got chained by their i-phones, i-pads, beatiful cars which can ride much faster than is allowed, think they have much choice in the shops and eating places, but have no eye for the real quality of the goods. They became blinded by and for many things.

It is up to their parents, grand parents and their real friends to open their eyes again and to bring them to understand that we are better only to buy those things which were made by people who were fairly paid and were no damage was done to either animal, plant, man or the environment (water and air). We all should come to respect nature much more and should also to come to respect those who make all those things. what I notice today, is that there is no respect at all any more for those who do the dirty work. And that is where our society has gone wrong.

They all were envying the place of some in our society, who had grounds and houses and who gave work at people. They all nurtured people in government to enrich themselves. Now we are facing greedy governments which charge taxes, which make labour to expensive and contribute to less people at work and less people able to make themselves a proper living. The greed of some made the economical world to collapse. And the protective hands of those in parliament, made that it even could happen that those who mocked up the system got bonuses. And nobody seem to have cared, because they were all so busy with themselves only looking at themselves, only concerned about themselves.

The egoism with the want for more has taken mankind and made them to shut their eyes for realism and for the truth of natural laws and ecological matters. As such they all started to poison themselves (literally). The more is giving them less in the end.

Whilst the world should know that there are better options. We do not have to go to find our food miles and miles away from where we live. We do not have to find cheap labour to soothe our mind not having slaves working for us. We do not need slaves and we do not need to be independent on other continents. If we really take care we can provide enough for each of us in our own environment, not damaging our and others their environment.

We can see a lot of literal and figurative bulimia. It is time that we come to consume less and take at heart:

“Less is more”

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Preceding article: Less… is still enough

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Additional reading:

1. Subcutaneous power for humanity 2 1950-2010 Post war generations
2. Gender connections
3. Self inflicted misery #2 Weakness of human race
4. We all have to have dreams
5. Forward ever backwards never!
6. Luxury
7. Scepticals of the Bible
8. Watch out

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Let you not be defined by the effect of your wrong choice

Leah Houseman, writing as Sophia Bar-Lev writes:

as we continue to make our way through the Hebrew month of Elul which is dedicated to repentance in order to prepare our hearts for the approaching Festivals of the Lord (Lev. 23), this is the time to take an honest look at our personal acceptance of responsibility.

A big difficulty for a lot of persons is that they never want to take up the blame for something that went wrong. Most people prefer to give others the fault. When they themselves did something wrong they are fast to find somebody else to blame, even when they can put it on an imaginary figure like a devil.

These days of reconciliation and looking at the transition of the old into the new year it is time to look into our own heart. When we are prone to blaming others for our problems, we should reconsider and wonder if it is not high time to change our attitude.

Our world is still at war. Also in the Torah readings for this week the Jews find wars, at the beginning and the end. In the Weekly Torah Commentary — Ki Tetzei September 5, 2014 the author wants us to look at the cause-and-effect relationship, something which is too often overlooked.

From the writings we can get that the clear absence of unity between parents breeds rebellious children. today we do find lots of families with problems between partners and children. Many adults forget how their actions, their way of treating others, affects their children.

how parents live affects their children far more than what they say.

How many times we do see today that partners are not honest to each other and betray the people around them? In how many cases negativity becomes a bigger facto in the family life than positivity. Parents saying to their children they are not doing well enough. Family-members shouting at each other. Are the parents willing to remember the stupid things they did themselves when they were children? Are they willing to accept that their children learn by their mistakes?

We are not born parents we have to learn how to be parents (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In a household each member should help each other to make it work. Together they should aim to go united on the path to greatness by choosing to learn the lessons of every experience we have in life.

The lesson for all of us is unavoidable: Human beings – children and adults -are too easily tempted to blame others for their own shortcomings. The Torah sets a higher standard, one consistent with how we were created.

Every human being has Free Will; regardless of what has happened to you, what parents you had, what hurts you’ve experienced, what hardships you’ve endured, You – and only You – have the responsibility for your decisions. It is ‘we’ not ‘them’ who have the ability and the power to choose whether we will wallow in negativity and in the past; or will we have the wisdom to learn from every life experience, using each one as a stepping stone to greatness. Cycles of abuse and pain can and must be broken. Amon and Moav, as well as Lot, has so many opportunities to learn from their experiences and become great men. It was for choosing to focus on their own feelings of disenfranchisement, their experiences of cruelty and selfishness, their own anger and sense of fatalistic doom, that they were forever barred from the congregation of Israel.

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Please read the exhortation by Sophia Bar-Lev: Weekly Torah Commentary — Ki Tetzei September 5, 2014

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Find also to read:

1. Running away from the past
2. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #15 Exposition before the Creator
3. Being Religious and Spiritual 7 Transcendence to become one
4. The Existence of Evil
5. Satan the evil within
6. What is life?
7. Elul Observances
8. Never making mistakes because never doing anything
9. We all have to have dreams
10. Youngster all over the world with the same dream
11. 30 things to start doing for yourself – #6 is vital.
12. Not holding back and getting out of darkness
13. It is a free will choice

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Related articles

• Judaism Does Not Allow Us to Hate (algemeiner.com)
  Ki Tetzei contains more laws than any other parsha in the Torah, and it is possible to be overwhelmed by this embarrass de richesse of detail. One verse, however, stands out by its sheer counter-intuitiveness:

  Do not despise an Edomite, because he is your brother.

  Do not despise the Egyptian, because you were a stranger in his land. (Deut. 23: 8 )

  These are very unexpected commands. Understanding them will teach us an important lesson about leadership.
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  If we think less of a person because of the colour of his or her skin, we are repeating the sin of Aaron and Miriam – “Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman” (Num. 12: 1).
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  Generous Tit-for-Tat says, don’t always do to him what he does to you or you may find yourself locked into a mutually destructive cycle of retaliation. Every so often ignore (i.e. forgive) your opponent’s last harmful move. That, roughly speaking, is what the sages meant when they said that God originally created the world under the attribute of strict justice but saw that it could not survive. Therefore He built into it the principle of compassion.
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  Do not forget the past but do not be held captive by it. Be willing to fight your enemies but never allow yourself to be defined by them or become like them. Learn to love and forgive. Acknowledge the evil men do, but stay focused on the good that is in our power to do. Only thus do we raise the moral sights of humankind and help redeem the world we share.

• Ki Tetzei (thejc.com)
  The term mamzer has no precise English equivalent. Hertz in his translation of the Chumash renders it “bastard”, but clarifies in his commentary that this “does not mean a child born out of wedlock, but the child of an adulterous or an incestuous marriage”.The moral difficulty raised by this law is obvious. Why is the child punished with severely restricted marriage opportunities because of the sins of the parents? Doesn’t this sidrah itself say further on that “Parents shall not be put to death for children, neither shall children be put to death for parents; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin”(24:16)?
• Ki Tetzei (anitasilvert.wordpress.com)
  I guess before we can fully forgive or be forgiven, we need to engage with the memory of what’s happened, and sometimes it takes time for that to dissipate.  Maybe that’s also why we start thinking about forgiveness a full month before Rosh Hashanah; to give ourselves and even God time to work on the process, and it’s not clear if the process begins with Forgiveness, Remembering or Forgetting.   This year, I’m still in the remembering stage.
• Ki Tetzei (thejc.com)
  One example of how the laws of war differ from peace time concerns the protection of enemy civilians. Are they protected by the familiar category of pikuach nefesh — the injunction to save life at nearly all costs. Following the approach of the verse above that at wartime many rules are suspended, Rav Yosef Babad of Tarnopol (1800-74) argues in his iconic work, Minchat Chinuch, that there can be no sense in applying pikuach nefesh during a war. On the contrary wars are won by minimising the value of life.
• Ki-Seitzei: DIY Judaism (5tjt.com)
  We must take precautions. Although we believe in miracles, we are not permitted to rely upon them. There is a Yiddish proverb that “the man destined to drown will drown even in a glass of water.” But that doesn’t mean that you have to be the one to put his head under the hose. In short, we believe in the concept of bashert but we mustn’t live by it. Otherwise, why go to work? We say in the bentching (Grace after Meals) that G‑d is the feeder and provider for all. So if G‑d will support us, why must I schlep off to work?
  Clearly, this is not the Jewish attitude. That’s why it is a commandment of the Torah to safeguard our health. Likewise, we are not to live dangerously by leaving roofs unenclosed or swimming pools unfenced or our doors unlocked. As they say, “Trust in G‑d, but lock your car.”
• Ki Tetzei: Doing Jewish (anitasilvert.wordpress.com)
  We’re heading into a New Year.  How will you connect your inside spirituality to your outside…connect your Jewish feelings to your Jewish actions?  It isn’t necessarily about praying or changing your kitchen (although…maybe that’s what your spirituality learning leads you).  But maybe you eat a little differently, and know why.  Maybe you take moments to see the good things in your life, and acknowledge them);  maybe you find out about a Jewish way of acknowledging those good things (that’s called blessings).  Jewish life is a verb.  How will you Jew?

 

Study says highlighting gender leads to stereotypes

When parents are trying to let their kids figure out who they are they have to be careful not to let them hear their biased ideas. Some parents may have such ‘blocked ideas about gender roles‘ that they may impose their ideas of boys and girls roles, way of behaviour, clothing onto their kids.

It becomes more difficult when a person lets his or her parents know they are not feeling right in their skin and do want to have a different body. In case parents see their kids playing other roles than they themselves would be appropriate for the kid they have, they themselves may also become someone who can push the child into an other role. In such instance they have to be careful not to push them falsely or prematurely into decisions about being transgender.

” It’s precisely their presence in a liminal space between clearly defined end points that creates discomfort.”

When parents want to try to help keep their kids from being “different” and “standing out”, they themselves do have to accept the choices the kid itself makes and should give it full support, helping it to find its way in this difficult matter of “Who am I” “What do I want to be” “How may I feel”.

No matter which sex our kids have or want to be, they should feel they have equal rights and are equally accepted as fulfilling youngsters, receiving the time to develop and grow to worthy equal adults.
When “our boys and girls would like to stand out because of their excellent dance, drawing, or sports skills rather than because they look different” we are on the right way of showing society that everybody is created in the image of their Creator and equal in the eyes of God.

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Find also:  When Teachers Highlight Gender, Kids Pick Up Stereotypes where the study found that in classrooms where boys and girls line up separately — and even in settings where teachers say things like, “Good morning boys and girls” — children express more stereotypes about gender and even discriminate when deciding who to play with.

“The children in these classrooms expressed less interest in playing with children of the other sex,”

said developmental psychologist Lynn Liben of Pennsylvania State University, who conducted the study with graduate student Lacey Hilliard.

“Not only in surveys, but we also observed kids playing in free playtime, and there was a significant drop in the amount of time children in those classrooms were seen playing with children of the other sex.”

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Related articles

• Louisville, KY school votes to protect transgender rights (mydoorsign.com)
  “We have a responsibility to provide appropriate accommodations for transgender students,” said Thomas Aberli, principal of J.M Atherton High School. He added “this policy is something that really demonstrates our ability to respond to the needs of diverse students. Atherton was the best place for something like this to happen.”
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  The Department of Education’s recent guidance issued in April has accelerated the transgender rights cause in schools under Title IX. A proud Atherton alumni and director of policy at the National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington D.C., Harper Jean Tobin sees students and administrators standing up for transgender protections as an increasing trend, for better or for worse.

  This year, 13 other states joined California in issuing a non-discrimination policy for the transgender students in school including the ability to use restrooms and  play on sports teams that match their expressed genders.  Numerous districts, from Salt Lake City and Kansas City to Knoxville, Tennessee, and Decatur, Georgia, have adopted similar protections.

• Pastors rise up to challenge same-sex bathrooms (mobile.wnd.com)
  Rev. Dave Welch, founder of the U.S. Pastor Council, is leading a petition drive for a citywide referendum on the ordinance, charging the will of citizens is being ignored.The City Council’s approval prompted a mass exodus from the session of local black pastors who had come to speak against the ordinance.

  “It was clear that enough council members had decided to vote with Annise Parker’s personal agenda over the clear will of the people and basic decency in this act of thumbing their nose at respected black clergy who represented all of us,” he said.

  “Our only way of showing that we understood what had happened and to respond effectively was to vote with our legs,” he said.

• Transgender Activist Wants All Children Born Genderless (personalliberty.com)
  The left-leaning publication Slate published an article Thursday that offers unsettling insight to the primary goal of some militant LGBT activists: Defining every child as genderless from birth.

  In “Don’t Let The Doctor Do This to Your Newborn”, Canadian transgender activist Christin Milloy describes “infant gender assignment”— which means defining a baby as a boy or a girl based on basic biology— as some insidious practice that “might just be Russian roulette with your baby’s life.”

• Activists call for gender equality revolution (dailystar.com.lb)
  “It is perfectly natural for the future woman to feel indignant at the limitations posed upon her by her sex. The real question is not why she should reject them: The problem is rather to understand why she accepts them,” wrote French writer and feminist Simone de Beauvoir in her book The Second Sex in 1949. For Lebanese feminists Hayat Mirshad and Alia Awada – wearing white T-shirts with the logo of Fe-Male, the non-profit organization they co-founded – this could not ring more true. The dynamic duo have been indefatigably championing women’s causes over the last few years, and explained to The Daily Star that the way to impose change was to revolt against injustice.“If you call yourself a feminist, and you do not believe that there needs to be a revolution, you need to change,” said Mirshad, 25. “The patriarchal society did not ask for permission when it controlled us and oppressed us, so we should not ask for permission to revolt against it.”
• Slate: Don’t Let the Doctor Assign a Gender to Your Newborn (str.typepad.com)
  Remember when I said that we should expect more attempts to erase the differences between men and women, and that the conflict in our culture over sexuality is, at root, a disagreement over “whether human nature is something in particular or a sea of possibilities bound only by what we can imagine for ourselves”?

  Well, Slate has kindly illustrated that for me in its article “Don’t Let the Doctor Do This to Your Newborn”:

• Gender Progress Ends Where Pinkification Starts (dissidentvoice.org)
  Boys and girls inhabit two separate worlds whose boundaries are created by the relentless onslaught of commercialism. The toy industry didn’t create gender segregation, but it certainly perpetuates and reinforces it by planting a link between gender and career choice in the minds of young children. The messages sent to toddlers through colours, wording and images remain the same across the board: while girls are encouraged to focus on their appearance and partake in nurturing activities, boys are veered towards more active pursuits. Let Toys Be Toys, a UK-based lobbying group, is advocating label-free marketing and sorting according to themes and interests rather than gender. Created in 2012 by a group of parents galled by the stereotyping of children’s toys, the grassroots movement has already persuaded numerous retailers to make the change, including Boots and Tesco. Let Toys Be Toys campaigner Joanne Watts sheds some light on the group, its goals and the challenges that remain.
• The Quiet Clash Between Transgender Women And Drag Queens (thinkprogress.org)
  Hillz’s point is at the center of the conflict, because Drag Race is a show that is not about being transgender but that clearly has implications for transgender people — a particularly vulnerable population. People who identify as transgender report incredibly high rates of discrimination across their lives, including in employment, housing, health care, education, and police interactions. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Program’s recent study found that 72 percent of all violent crimes against LGBTQ people in 2013 targeted transgender women, who also made up 67 percent of LGBTQ homicide victims. One of the most alarming statistics, that 41 percent of transgender people have attempted suicide — compared to just 1.6 percent of the general population — reflects the mental health consequences that result from this discrimination, harassment, and violence.
• What’s stopping the spread of gender-neutral restrooms? (mydoorsign.com)
  A report by Media Matters collates opinions from 15 experts who unanimously quash the popular theory that trans people are a threat in public, gender-neutral restrooms as baseless and “beyond specious.” The expert group from 12 states includes law enforcement officials, government employees, and advocates for victims of sexual assault.

  In reality, trans people run a higher risk of being attacked in a restroom. Those in the middle of a transition, those who do not transition by choice, those who cannot afford transition, genderqueer, and those who do not live as either male or female are at the highest risk for attack. These people don’t identify with the socially-accepted societal genders and may fear using either single-gender restroom.

 

Pink Is for Boys

Parents with gender-fluid kids often work with schools, churches, and other institutions to use alternatives to gender for organizing kids in the classroom. Rather than dividing kids by boys and girls, use birth months or sneakers vs. sandals, or some other arbitrary distinction or characteristic. Sometimes schools are willing (and even grateful for the tip, which had often never occurred to well-meaning teachers to be problematic). Other times, schools are really uncomfortable with any implied ambiguity of gender. The same feelings are expressed that commenters here often report feeling:

*Why do you have to make such a big deal about it – are you just trying to attract attention, or letting your kid attract attention to him/herself? *Is this spoiling – no one student should get to throw a wrench in the cogs of the school day for everyone else. *Aren’t kids this age too young to even be thinking…

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God, my father, my closest friend

We may have earthly parents, but we can not do with the heavenly Father. We can not see Him (or we would die) and nobody has seen Him. Only His only begotten son Jesus can now sit next to Him. It is in that name of the son (Jeshua from Nazareth) that we can pray and ask things for ourselves and for others.

In the heavenly Father we can trust. He shall always be able to do much more than any earthly father. The Creator God His son Jesus has opened the doors and restored the relationship with the Divine Creator. We may be happy to have that Jewish man Jesus to be mediator now for us. Now we can face again, day after day, the Most High Creator and speak directly to Him as “Our Father“.

That we may use it regularly and take that galactic leap forward in our faith as well.

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Please do find also:

1. Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God
2. People Seeking for God 7 The Lord and lords
3. Our relationship with God, Jesus and eachother
4. One mediator
5. A Living Faith #7 Prayer
6. Atonement And Fellowship 2/8
7. Listening and Praying to the Father
8. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #10 Prayer #8 Condition
9. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #11 Prayer #9 Making the Name Holy
10. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #12 Prayer #10 Talk to A Friend
11. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #13 Prayer #11 Name to be set apart
12. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #14 Prayer #12 The other name
13. If your difficulties are longstanding, try kneeling
14. Prayer has comforted us in sorrow
15. Shelter in the morning
16. If you think you’re too small to be effective
17. Prayer, important aspect in our life
18. Does God hear prayer?
19. Does God answer prayer?
20. Genuine prayer
21. People who know how to pray to move God to take hold of our affairs in a mighty way

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Related articles

• Jesus Prays for Unity – John 17 (disciplesforlife.wordpress.com)
  Jesus has mediated the glory of God, personally to his first followers and through them to those who believe on account of their message.
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  we ought to understand the call for holiness the same way we see Jesus petitioning the Father for perfect unity – eschatologically.  We need to see these things as a comfort that since Jesus has prayed for it, therefore it will happen. So there is still an element of “not yet” here.
• In Jesus’ Name, Amen (isaiah532.wordpress.com)
  If you are like me, you make sure you add the words, “in Jesus’ name, amen” at the end of every prayer.  We know we are supposed to pray that way.  That is how we have been taught.  But I think somehow we have held some secret, perhaps not even fully thought out, idea that as long as we say our prayer is in Jesus’ name, then God will hear us and answer.  Like just saying the name of Jesus is a magic key to opening the doors of Heaven.
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  if we keep praying in Jesus’ name, amen, and Jesus said that whatever we pray in His name He will do, why are so many of our prayers not answered the way we want them to be?  Is Jesus’ name not the magic word after all?  Or is there something more to it?
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  Just as Jesus, as the Son of God, was the ambassador, so to speak, of God the Father, here on earth, we are ambassadors for Jesus (2 Cor. 5:20).  Jesus came in the name of the Father (John 5:43; 10:25).  What Jesus spoke to us, we know to be the words, and will of the Father.  John 5:19 – Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.”
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  So why is it that so often we find ourselves unsure of what Jesus’ will is?  The very simple answer is that we have not taken the time to build our relationship with Him.  How can we know what Jesus’ will is, if we don’t know who He is or anything about Him?  How can our prayers be in sync with what He desires, if we don’t know what He likes and dislikes?  There is more to knowing Jesus than believing that He is the Son of God and good.
• Broken and Beautiful (jamespaulgaard.wordpress.com)
  I am inviting you to think with me about how we hide our brokenness, how our brokenness can be a good thing and how the beautiful Jesus became broken to make our brokenness beautiful.
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  We hide our brokenness because we do not want to get hurt. We also hide our brokenness because we think that our brokenness is ugly. If we could wave a magic wand and change one thing about ourselves, our chief area of brokenness is likely the thing that we would most want to change. And we hide our brokenness because we think that our brokenness is like a ball and chain that holds us back from living a beautiful life.
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  Because you are His bride, Jesus gives you wonderful gifts that make your beauty so radiant that it becomes apparent for others to see.  Jesus heals your wounds with the healing salve of His unconditional love for you. Jesus crowns your head with the renewal of your mind. Jesus adorns your face with the joy of your salvation. Jesus dresses you in radiant garments of forgiveness, purity and righteousness. Your scars remain, but they make you even more attractive than you would otherwise be. With Jesus, you are both broken and beautiful. Amen.
• Meandering Intensely Through Grace (brokenbelievers.com)
  The heavenly Father’s exclusive purpose is to “bring many sons to glory.” We do not have to wait until heaven to become like Jesus. We can accelerate the joy by starting today. As soon as we work out the details, He will commence with His work within. And when He comes, He will ‘clean house,’ (so to speak). But that can’t be all bad.
• I Shall Not Be Greatly Shaken (fallanddie.com)
  He’s telling us that a true disciple of Jesus pours out his life into that which is most dear to him. That in importance, nothing  competes with God; nothing rises to the level of importance in our heart and mind near that of God. As compared to one’s relationship with Jesus, our earthly relationships are to be so far removed in importance from the Divine relationship that difficulties shall not greatly shake us in our devotion and obedience to the Lord.
• Morning Prayer 6.1.14, Seventh Sunday of Easter (dailyoffice.org)
  O God, you make us glad with the weekly remembrance of the glorious resurrection of your Son our Lord: Give us this day such blessing through our worship of you, that the week to come may be spent in your favor; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
• Morning Prayer 5.31.14, The Visitation of Mary (dailyoffice.org)
  Christ was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.
• Morning Prayer 6.2.14, Blandina & Her Companions, the Martyrs of Lyons, 177 (dailyoffice.org)
  Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us; *
  therefore let us keep the feast,
  Not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, *
  but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Alleluia.

sheetal sharma

There are so many things I don’t know
There are so many faults I have…
There are times I loose my calm.
Yet you always caress me as a child.

I make mistakes but you always take care.
You are my armor and my light.
Arms that hold me at my weakest are yours.
when everyone else annoys me ,I annoy you,
Often questioning and demanding proof.

Dear God, my father, my closest friend
always be with me.For it is only you I seek
You are my journey and destination
So often I whisper Help me !
Rarely I say Thank you….
But I know you are aware-
your voice in my heart is
the secret assurance that….
You listen to my thoughts
In quietness you are my confidence
In the commotion you are my confidant

A galactic leap forward away from desires
to embrace you and unlock the doors…

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A bird’s eye and reflecting from within

Can you imagine flying birds travelling for miles and miles, crossing habitat regions and places where nearly no human being tramples on the ground.

metropolis (Photo credit: jonfeinstein)

From high above those birds can see how those earthlings destroy their own habitat. They see them wanting to live in their own dirt.

Those birds look down at those creatures who so often dream about what they can do and worry so much about the day of tomorrow. They do not imagine the life those people want, though many of them might imagine wonderful things.
Those beings down there spent lots of their time focusing on gathering all sorts of material gadgets. Their world seems to turn more around money than on getting food. Though we must be honest lots of them also focus their intention toward realizing their deepest desires and dreams.

How many of those people dare to go up in the sky and go forward to that one goal, thousands of miles away?

How many would begin to believe those dreams, aims and goals were possible?

A Soul Talk questions:

If you gave your attention to those things in your mind that spoke of your great beauty and talent, would you start to believe and have confidence in yourself again?  If life all around you is simply a reflection of those thoughts you most focus on, wouldn’t you be more careful of what you repeated over and over again to yourself?

When we look in nature we do see that the seasons decide what shall going to happen. The animals do not doubt. They are not going to wait and see if it will be worthwhile to take off or to settle down.

The birds can often see man as a fish which fails to see the water it swims in. They have a brain but use it strangely and are so often more concerned about figuring things out. they all think they are able to make and control their own world. Most of them want to play for God. Everything they do becomes calculated. Modern mind has become more and more calculating.

The calculative exactness of practical life which the money economy has brought about corresponds to the ideal of natural science: to transform the world into an arithmetic problem, to fix every part of the world by mathematical formulas. Only money economy has filled the days of so many people with weighing, calculating, with numerical determinations, with a reduction of qualitative values to quantitative ones. (“The Metropolis and Mental Life” p.412)

They all look for consistent and reliable formulas to how life works. For them formulas are re-assuring, such as

“be a banker/lawyer/accountant/doctor, because these jobs translate into big numbers, and these big numbers mean success”.

Success is something which they can count and measure. They have their eyes focused on those pieces of papers with heads and figures on it, but do not see where they are flying at.

Eddie Tay on Hong Kong lucida writes:

Of course, there are many successful bankers/lawyers/accountants/doctors who lead meaningful lives and who enjoy their jobs. I’m only arguing against the confusion between quality and quantity. Quality cannot be easily quantified. Sometimes we play this soundtrack too readily. {The Metropolis and Mental Life}

Hong Kong Kowloon Panorama Victoria Peak 2011 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For the birds it may look like life for man is oh so infinitely easy, and everything seems to lie at their fingertips. They have their big nests,  buildings which want to compete with the trees and air around, hoping to be the tallest one. They have their educational institutions, in the wonders and comforts of space-conquering technology, in the formations of community life, and in the visible institutions of the state. They offer themselves fantasies and create fro themselves an overwhelming fullness of crystallized and impersonalized spirit that the personality, so to speak, cannot maintain itself under its impact. From all sides they allow ideas coming up to them, in the hope they can become a personality like by the others. From the others they want to receive stimulations and interests. They all are consumed by time.

They carry the person as if in a stream, and one needs hardly to swim for oneself. On the other hand, however, life is composed more and more of these impersonal contents and offerings which tend to displace the genuine personal colorations and incomparabilities. This results in the individual’s summoning the utmost in uniqueness and particularization, in order to preserve his most personal core. He has to exaggerate this personal element in order to remain audible even to himself.  (“The Metropolis and Mental Life” p. 422)

Eddie Tay finds this to be rather depressing.

The modern concern with the uniqueness of our personality emerges out of an anxiety. Now that everything is for sale, we’re compelled to be “unique”, “autonomous” and “individual” so as to differentiate ourselves from other cogs in the giant capitalist machine. “Look at me I’m so unique and interesting,” I tell myself and others, knowing that there are tens of thousands of people around me (and many with blogs like this) saying precisely the same thing. {The Metropolis and Mental Life}

Many more people should be aware that

We are surrounded by things we buy with numbers. And these things, whether tangible or intangible, which we buy and sell, turn us into who we are. {The Metropolis and Mental Life}

Photo from Eddie Tay, Honk Kong lucida

We make ourselves, by what we consume for our mind and for our mind. Stomach and brain take up the food what we present it, we can either make it healthy or poison it. When you look at certain markets, it seems that people can not get enough of material, but also are drowning themselves by it. Too many people forget what impact all those things around them can have on their life.

We all should better take a moment to transfer ourselves in a bird and look at ourselves from way up there in the sky. We should take some distance, now and then, from what we do and want to do, and reflect on what we did, want to do and on what we would like to succeed and which goal we would like to make.

With Spring time we should not only do our Spring cleaning but we could take a new start. You too, can start today to believe that you can impact your external world by placing your focus on images of love, kindness, and joy and you will truly be surprised by what you attract to yourself.

Start today to live in consciousness as to what is happening within you, you will then have the grand opportunity to create what is happening around you in a more remarkable and enjoyable way. {Simply a reflection from within!}

The mother of Soul talk has learned her lesson from the wise song of her toddler which continues to ring true- in the face of adversity “Never give up never never give up!”.

Keep the faith and you shall persevere- I have learned this very difficult lesson recently and can tell you your only choice is to keep the faith and move forward-the alternative is not so appealing- I can promise you that-your biggest break can be just around the corner and if you did not move towards it you would never know. {Never give up!}

Every year again the birds make their nest. They never seem to be tired to do it over and over again. We should also continue trying to do the things we really want to do.

There are millions of people who do not know they have a security key in their own hands. They themselves have been given, by birth, the key to knowledge and inner peace. All being created in the image of the Divine Creator we do have elements from this Eternal Spirit. He acknowledges our being, but we ourselves are not willing to see our own being in relationship with Him. There lies the biggest problem of humankind.

In case we would accept the Creator of our being, and accept that He has to be the Most High Master, than we could find fulfilment and guidance by following His instructions which He has given to the whole world.

In the Garden of Eden He has given man the right to take care of the world himself. But He always was prepared to help those who wanted Him next to them. Those who want His Guidance He is willing to give.

As adults, we build upon the hopes of our parents and the fertile imaginations of our youth. We continue to foster the dreams that were born in our hearts on our first day of life, yet now have the tools to bring those dreams forth into our realities. {With courage, our dreams become reality!}

That is not bad. We all should have dreams and continue to make dreams. We should try to build up our life by dreams coming through. We have to foster our dreams and have to build up courage to see them through.

The courage to step beyond our fears of failure. The courage to meet doubt head on.  The courage to pursue the ideas that were born in us, given to us, to be discovered by us to enjoy the fantastic world that begs for us to explore. The courage to make all our dreams come true. {With courage, our dreams become reality!}

In case we would accept the Guiding Hand of the Creator and dare to ask Him to help us, He will be there for us.

If we ask, believe, and have the courage to act, and begin to receive, the life we have imagined can be the life we are living.  When we start to believe and have faith in all that is possible for us, then we align with the hopes of our parents, the child within who dared to be whomever she wanted to be, and the adult whose courageous acts of faith allow those dreams to become a reality. {With courage, our dreams become reality!}

We often forget just to take some time to be with that Mightier Being. We mostly trust to much those who are of this earth, instead of counting on the one in heaven.

Why not trying to take a turning point? Why not simply taking the time each day to focus on those positive attributes and intentions that give you great happiness? Putting on the right mind shall help us but also those around us, on the right track and bring them in the right mood. When we do take a positive attitude we may rest assured that people and things will start to show up in your life that will greatly add to your happiness.

Let it be said that a person who feels good on the inside will experience that good on the outside.  A person who looks at life with a glass half full mentality, will eventually have their cup runneth over.  Your world is but a mirror of what is happening inside of you. So before you start your day, promise yourself that you will take a moment or two to reflect on what you are grateful for to charge those positive emotions, then set out to experience your own something wonderful  when you start from that joyous place within. If your world is simply a reflection from within, wouldn’t it be in you best interest to make it the best reflection of a well lived life that you could ever imagine!   {Simply a reflection from within!}

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Preceding articles:

Birds, Birds Everywhere

Birds’ Eye

Food for Thought-Birds of Caution

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Additional reading:

1. Searching for fulfilment and meaning through own efforts, facing unsatisfaction and depression
2. The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places
3. Some one or something to fear #2 Attitude and Reactions
4. God Feeds The Birds
5. Food as a Therapeutic Aid
6. Men as God
7. People Seeking for God 5 Bread of life
8. People Seeking for God 6 Strategy
9. Religions and Mainliners
10. The truth is very plain to see and God can be clearly seen
11. A Living Faith #2 State of your faith
12. A Living Faith #3 Faith put into action
13. A Living Faith #10: Our manner of Life #2
14. A Living Faith #12 The Love for Jesus
15. Some one or something to fear #7 Not afraid for Gods Name
16. Texts, writers, accessibility and willingness
17. Rest thy delight on Jehovah
18. Without God no purpose, no goal, no hope
19. A goal is a dream with a plan
20. A treasure which can give me everything I need
21. Opportunity!
22. Count your blessings
23. By counting our blessings we not only feel good, but we multiply our good
24. Set free from any form of mental torment or self-condemnation
25. A good idea to halt all activity for one hour some day
26. We should use the Bible every day
27. Come ye yourselves apart … and rest awhile (Mark 6:31)
28. God does not change
29. See the conquest and believe that we can gain the victory
30. Not holding back and getting out of darkness
31. A New Perspective
32. The Paradigm of Instinct, Intuition and Intention
33. Being Religious and Spiritual 7 Transcendence to become one
34. Looking for True Spirituality 2 Not restricted to an elite
35. Looking for True Spirituality 8 Measuring Up
36. How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
37. Points to remember of philosophy versus spirituality and religion
38. Our relationship with God, Jesus and eachother
39. Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal
40. Try driving forward instead of backwards
41. Life is like a ten-speed bike.
42. Suffering produces perseverance

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Related articles

• Chris Packham: Malta is a bird hell (theguardian.com)
  When Chris Packham announced he was heading to Malta to report on the island’s annual spring bird shoot as if he was a war correspondent covering a conflict, even his admirers probably thought he was guilty of hyperbole.But after a week in which the naturalist has detained by police for five hours, shoved to the ground by gunmen and witnessed the illegal killing of dozens of endangered birds, his mission to raise awareness of the annual slaughter of migratory birds has been more like a battle than he imagined.
• Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge (gardenwalkgardentalk.com)
  Since Earth Day just passed, I was thinking why can’t everyday be Earth Day? You visit places like this and wonder why can’t there be more wild spaces to enjoy. After all, without these wild and natural spaces, we would not have much of a world.
• Birds Slam Into Windows, Leave Long Island Couple Lying Awake (newyork.cbslocal.com)
  It has been a full week of rude awakenings for a Long Island couple, who said their home has been under siege by a group of birds slamming into their windows over and over again.As CBS 2’s Elise Finch reported Monday, the problem that Peter and Lisa Kersich of Holbrook have been experiencing is common at this time of year.The loud thumps have been waking them up morning after morning.
• Fly like a bird (lovingmefirstblog.wordpress.com)
  1) how do we know the bird hasn’t flown (are we worried about other’s achievements more than our own and we view this bird as a solitary soul who hasn’t taken the leap of faith?)
  2) what if the bird has flown but it feels most comfortable where it sits now? (maybe the world isn’t as amazing as we think it is)
  3) what if the bird is hurt, alone, lost or perhaps needs a push?
• Dream-Like Song Created From Birds Perched On Electric Wires Proves Nature Is Perfect (fromthetrenchesworldreport.com)
  “Reading the newspaper one morning, I saw this picture of birds on the electric wires,” says video creator Jarbas Agnelli.”I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.”
• Garden Birds – Indigo Bunting (roadsendnaturalist.wordpress.com)
  If, as Thoreau says, the bluebird carries the sky on its back, the Indigo Bunting may sometimes be carrying storm clouds. These common open space birds are now arriving back in NC from their tropical winter homes and the males have dressed for the occasion.
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  I see them every year along the power line corridor, but I hope to spend a little more time this summer listening for their distinctive calls (the male sings all day, even in the heat of summer) and enjoying their brilliant blue attire.
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  Garden Birds – Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
  I often describe these active birds as looking and behaving like a tiny mockingbird. They are always fun to watch as they hop through the branches, or hover beneath one, snatching an insect meal. And their small size, white eye ring, blue-gray coloration, and exaggerated tail, make them easy to identify.
• Not Just Sparrows and Pigeons: Cities Harbor 20 Percent of World’s Bird Species (allaboutbirds.org)
  Rock Pigeons, House Sparrows, and European Starlings are widely known as “city birds,” and with good reason. These three species (plus Barn Swallow) occur in more than 80 percent of cities according to the first-ever global study of biodiversity in urban areas, published earlier this year in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. But there’s more to cities than this narrow cast of avian urbanites: cities also retain more of their region’s native diversity than previously thought, according to the study’s analyses of bird and plant census data. So take heart, your next city stroll has much more to offer than just a few ubiquitous species.In fact, at least 2,041 species—20 percent of all known bird species—live in the world’s cities, according to the research. Unlike previous studies, which have focused on single cities or regions, this study spanned six continents, compiling data on birds from 54 cities and plants from 110 cities. The researchers themselves hailed from North America, Europe, Australia, and South Africa.
• Look to the skies to spot the bounty of birds returning to Saskatchewan (metronews.ca)
  This is likely the most exciting time to cast our eyes upward and behold some of the beauty we take for granted in the skies.The birds that soar above are not here by chance. Indeed, it is of their own will that they come back to Saskatchewan.
• Two Birds 114/365 Side A (theyearofdreamingdangerouslymardilinane2014.wordpress.com)
  two birds / floated over / the canyon / floated in circles
• 10 Incredible Bird Photography Tips for Beginners (digital-photography-school.com)
  What is the most important factor in getting your bird photographs noticed by a large audience? Is it the camera or the lens or the bird?

Wisdom not hard to find nor hiding in remote places

In the world constantly we are bombarded by many words and ideas. We would love to be able to put them all in good order and to let them give us more wisdom. We also would love to believe that we have wisdom, but we do know it will never be enough wisdom.

A graphic personification of Wisdom QR-Code content : http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Wisdom isn’t hard to find nor is it hiding in remote places.

As chaptersone sbierwagen1 writes:

Proverbs 1:20-21 describes wisdom as “calling aloud in the street” and “raising it’s voice in public”. Proverbs 8:1-4 says it again. So why do we have such a hard time hearing wisdom? We’ve filled our ears with the noise of this foolish world. Books, movies, television programs, and friends who loudly entice us away from good advice and wisdom. Those who have wise, God-fearing parents must remember what their mothers and fathers taught and lived. (Proverbs 1:8-9) We must spend more and more time in God’s Word, hearing God’s Word in church, and spending time with friends who love and obey God. Then wisdom will be louder  in our ears and the world will fade away. {Proverbs 1}

Many hope to find wisdom here on earth and getting it from human beings. They forget that the most superior wisdom does not come from the world. The best way to attain wisdom, discipline, insight, prudence, rightness, justice, fairness, discretion, guidance, learning, and understanding is by listening to the Words of the Most High.

The UST Fountain of Wisdom (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the Bible we are told  that “knowledge” can come to us by having the right attitude. when we do have a healthy fear of the Divine Creator we can come to the beginning of knowledge or getting more wisdom. When we do have that right fear and are prepared or willing to listen to the Words given from high, the Words of God we can find in the Holy Scriptures or the Bible, we will be able to taste that wisdom and will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.

By listening to the Words given by God and by listening to human people who seem to have wisdom, and comparing how they speak and how they live or act we shall be able to store up knowledge. We also shall come to see that the mouth of a fool invites ruin.

We should work on our weaknesses by not just blindly following our own selfish desires nor just taking all words from others granted.

In Wisdom Unmeritted is mentioned that Adam; the first man, was not educated in man’s educational system.

His complete knowledge of God and all the creation, surpasses the intelligence of our modern sciences and that of the wisdom of the ages. He had a conscience that was so sharp and accurate. Guessed work was not a part of his DNA. Adam knew the very mind of God, effortlessly; naming of all the animals in the garden of Eden was executed with precision and with such grace, just as God would have named each one of them.

Adam being moulded by the Divine Creator was without fault or had no deficiencies. No defect could be found in him and as such he could only have a good application of knowledge or have full wisdom.

Adam did have a perfect knowledge and unusual ability to execute so well than any other creature, because he was created in the very image of God.{Wisdom Unmeritted}

Today we, after the sin of the “first Adam” we are full of minor and perhaps also big faults and do not have such knowledge any-more to get full insight. But we can find enough examples in the past to come to see that it is important who we have around us, to whom we listen and which words we want to follow up.  We should know that if we constantly walk with a wise man, we will literally be changed by his wisdom to act in his principles and values. When we know that the divine Creator is the Most High and Most Wise of all, we better make the right choice and choose to listen to His wise Words,which we can find in the Bible.

Words of Wisdom in the Torah inside of the former Glockengasse Synagogue in Cologne (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When we read in the book of books we can see many examples where people could manage extraordinary things because an excellent Spirit was in them. We should allow such a Spirit to enter in ourselves as well.

Some may think “Wisdom” is “hidden from the eyes of all living, and knowledge of it is withheld from the birds of the heavens” like Desire by Design Ministries writes in Where does wisdom come from? she forgets that being created in the image of God we all do have in us implanted elements of God and the ability to think, build up knowledge and to get more wisdom.

It was Jehovah, the God Almighty, Who has all wisdom and understanding. He is the One Who also is for us the way to Wisdom and He knows the place of this Wisdom because full Wisdom is only by God alone. Unlike the writer of Where does wisdom come from? implies God did not have to look to the ends of the earth to search Wisdom out

[for His own use, and He alone possesses it]

because as she says it wisdom belongs already to God. Like the Rugby Christadelphians say:

Our minds should be filled with awe as to all that God must be!! It  is the beginning or foundation of wise thinking. The plea of Solomon is, “”Hear my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching.” [Proverbs of Solomon 1:8]  The acceptance and absorption into our minds of such teaching and instruction is like wearing “a graceful garland” – yet today how many parents are able and willing to teach true wisdom to their children?  If they are able and willing – their children are surrounded by counter influences – but the need for “wisdom and instruction” has never been greater. {“Fools Despise Wisdom And Instruction” Bible Reading Thoughts for March 23rd}

God does not need the Wisdom, He has it already all, but man has a great need, because he lost it nearly all. Lots of people have lost wisdom or did not get it because they or their parents did loose track of God. Those not with God did not receive further wisdom than the wisdom God considered it necessary for the task they had to fulfil in this world. Every person is here on this earth for some reason or with some purpose. We notice that a lack of wise counsel and accountability for actions has been the downfall of many world leaders, kings, and rulers.The Bible is full of stories by which we should come to learn how to live, behave, act and react.

The story of Solomon is in the Bible for a reason. We must learn from the mistakes of others and King Solomon made some real whoppers. The great can fall. The righteous can become unrighteous.  Sin has no prejudice and will latch on to anyone in sight. {A Fool}

Many Christians are mistaken and think once baptised they are saved for ever and have full knowledge of everything. “Oh such fools”. It is very good when people came to the decision to follow Jesus and to go for God, but they may not forget they have to continue to grow and work hard to keep their faith pure. They may consider themselves highly favoured in the sight of God, just as King Solomon once was, but this will not excuse them from judgement and discipline if they do ignore the commandments and instructions found in the Word of God. When they, after they were baptised, walk astray, they shall loose insight again.

Fools may read scripture but this doesn’t mean they apply the instruction to their lives or memorize and keep the words hidden in their heart. King Solomon stopped relying on God and trusted more and more in himself. He forgot the source of his wisdom, wealth, and power. {A Fool}

We always should remember that we do have to keep our faith going and feed ourselves with wisdom every day. The Bible advices us to continuously learn. When we are willing to have our eyes open and see what the world has to offer and what God has to offer, with the fear for the Right Person (the Elohim hashem Jehovah God) the Most High will inspire people to be faithful stewards of the time and talents that God has given.

All people who are on this world are there because God allows them to be there. All people can learn from those who walk around on this world. Each person is there to be used to  get ideas from and to learn from. Each their knowledge can be used to feed or nourish knowledge by others. As such each person in the world can make it that wisdom can be made productive and beneficial for others. Wisdom starts by birth and at home.

Wisdom is best taught and lived in the home—indeed, the success of the home demands wisdom—and that wisdom is balanced living (Allen Ross, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, p. 1130).

Therefore parents do have a big responsibility for the wisdom their child shall retrieve. They also can look for the best educators and schools, choose the right books to read, take care of the children seeing the right images and meeting the right persons.

The Gutenberg Bible displayed by the United States Library of Congress, demonstrating printed pages as a storage medium. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

They should know that the world is given a Book of books full of Wisdom.

The Bible is the greatest Wisdom Book ever written, and five specific books within the Bible are recognized as the Wisdom Books:Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. These books are special because they offer in-depth truths regarding the topic of wisdom. The poetic and lyrical styles make these books a delight to read. Whether it’s Job’s realization that suffering cannot be comprehended through human reasoning, or David’s dealings with personal sin, justice and judgment, or Solomon’s revelations about the lofty matters of life, these books are a must read for every believer who desires to grow in wisdom from above. {Wisdom From Above}

We can see that in this world many people are looking for spiritual guidance and wisdom. They count on other men and women and often turn to ancient or new age gurus for words of wisdom. We should know that wisdom of man and the wisdom of God are two very different things. One is incomplete and does not give fulfilment, whilst the other constructs a person to some one who shall be able to continue to live after all others will be gone.

There is a plethora of so-called wisdom literature out there that is seemingly helpful, however, may only offer half-truths. Many of the sources are based on a humanly perspective. Only a message that is rooted and grounded in the Word of God can possibly come from a godly perspective. Hebrews 4:12 says the Word of God is living, sharper than any two-edged sword, and it divides the soul and spirit. With all due respect to the big thinkers with big thoughts, if they have not been transformed by the renewing power of God’s Spirit and His quickening word, they are lacking true wisdom. {Wisdom From Above}

Though that does not mean we should not listen or not take into account what others say or write. No, we should be aware of what is said or written. We always should be prepared to listen to others and to think about what they have to say. From them we also can learn and should learn.

Like Calvin said we should be learners to the end.

All writings that can come in front of our eyes can be worthwhile to learn from. those which are interesting or have something to offer, we could share with others, and that is what this and a site, like Stepping Toes, tries to do. As such, hopefully many writers their quotes or ideas can be presented here and shall get our readers to inspire to look further and continue reading and comparing what they have to say with what others and the Bible have to say.

In the Bible or the Book of books we can find many inspiring words.

God inspired Solomon to write many proverbs, by which he taught the people knowledge and set out acceptable words, even the words of truth (Eccl 12:9-11). Of a total of three thousand proverbs (I Kings 4:32), the best five hundred or so are here. What a collection! You will learn wisdom to cover most every area of your life. Success is right before you! {Secrets of Wisdom}

With the writer of Secrets of Wisdom I would also say:

Tremble before the Word of God and rejoice at the opportunity of finding great spoil from the mind of God and the observations of Solomon. Let your intent be learning and obedience only, without even a trace of mere academic interest or knowledge for the sake of pride. Let your ambition be to grow in wisdom to please God and men. {Secrets of Wisdom}

The ones that God “draws to Him” shall ‘all be taught by God’. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father shall be able to come to His son who liberated the world of its chains and brought salvation to humankind.  (John 6:44,45).

The only thing we do have to be willing to see and hear and to listen to the Right Words. Let us be taught – from God’s word.

As we read God’s word we must have a child-like attitude to “hear” and then “accept” (the) words” we read and then “we will have treasure in heaven” Jesus told a ruler, adding, “and come,follow me.” [v.18,22] The very last chapter in the Bible, the final message of Jesus, tells us that, when Jesus returns, this treasure will be revealed, for I will be “bringing my reward (or recompense)with me to repay everyone for what he has done” [Rev.22 v.12]So we start by hearing (through reading), then we “accept”  and then we “do” what God desires in the way we live using our individual abilities and opportunities to serve God and his Son, our Saviour every day – and then the wonder of the time to come – which is getting ever closer – the time of divine repayment with life in his kingdom on earth , for “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” [Matt. 5 v.5]  Will you be there?  You make the answer now! {“Hear … Accept My Words”}

You can’t make anyone wise, but you can provide the scaffolding and tools to give them the best chance of getting wisdom that is for everyone. {Wisdom for Everyone}

 

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Please find also to read:

1. Wisdom lies deep
2. Did the Inspirator exist
3. Only One God
4. God of gods
5. God is One
6. Give thanks to the One Who gave much
7. Who Wrote the Bible?
8. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #4 Words in Scripture
9. Why can’t Bible scholars agree on how to interpret the Bible?
10. Out of Context: How to Avoid Misinterpreting the Bible
11. American atheists most religiously literate Americans

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Additional reading:

1. Thursday Thoughts: Pattern of a Wise Woman
2. All ProWisdom Texts from Proverbs 8 (January 2012 – November 2013) by Aaron and Michael Diedrich
   Do you ever find yourself thinking if I only could do this or that, and it seems like a wise thing to do even though you know God’s Word says don’t do it? Listen to the wisdom of God’s Word and do not listen to the deceitfulness of your own understanding and own wisdom. Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, will never tell you to do wrong.
3. Wisdom for Everyone
   I like to think of wisdom as the ability to navigate life with discretion and sound judgment that shows an understanding of the workings of nature and people. Wisdom is responsive and considerate of the ripple effects of one’s actions, attitudes and words on the cosmic order. Moreover, wisdom is founded in an understanding of and reverence for God, the Creator.
4. The Wise Ask
   My children often fail to ask for wisdom, believing that it is just given, liberally. But My Word says to ask. I implore you to seek wisdom from above, for it is only through wisdom that the work should be done.
5. Lady Wisdom’s Unheeded Call
   I’ve been reading a bit lately about a subject I don’t hear much about these days–wisdom. My hunch is that we don’t like this idea of wisdom because it seems to suggest that there are ideas of how to live well that are already “out there”–that might have a certain “fixed” quality about them that aren’t subject to our own “make it up as we go” kind of life. It seems to me these days that our preferred method of gaining wisdom, if we care about this at all, is learning from our mistakes. And I have a hunch that many of us do learn this way (I have) and yet it seems that this way is fraught with lots of pain for not only ourselves, but that it leads to inflicting pain on those around us. And sometimes, we don’t live to profit from the lessons–we are merely an object lesson for others. Is there a better way?
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   Some fears are healthy. Proverbs says that the recognition that my life is lived for God is actually a healthy fear. I think how that works for me is that it leads me to cry for God’s help to live wisely before him in all the nooks, crannies, and crevices of my life. Everything matters, and God would spare us unneeded pain–there is plenty of pain without that which we bring on ourselves. If there is a choice between living well and making life hard–do I really want the latter? Better to listen for the voice of Lady Wisdom…
6. Decision, decisions
   You don’t have access to God’s sovereign knowledge (Will I lose my job?  Will interest rates go up or down?  Etc.).  You do have unrestricted access to his moral will via the Bible. Example: Is it immoral to pay off your mortgage early?  No, unless that means you won’t have enough money to feed your kids.  After moral considerations, look to the wisdom angle.  Ask God for wisdom, as He promises to deliver.  But as with Solomon, He doesn’t promise to decide everything for you.  Read the Proverbs (and more).  Seek the counsel of others.  Consider the pros and cons.  That’s how to make wise decisions.  Finally, provided the options are moral and wise, consider your personal preferences.  We have tremendous freedom in Christ to do many things with our time and money.  Will paying off your mortgage make you happy?  If so, then do it.
7. Secular wisdom and spiritual wisdom
   What exactly is wisdom? And why do we have to separate between secular and spiritual wisdom?
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   The requirement for being secularly wise is to make odd bets that will somehow, someday proven to be right.
8. Wisdom Anyone?
9. Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.

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