Living Proof

There's a saying and I think it goes, "No one can offend you without your permission." I easily give away my "offended card" and chuck it up to just one of those silly events. More and more, I have been developing strength -- developing my spiritual muscle, so to speak. I have been trying so hard to maintain calmness even when those around me are explosive. But, I'm human and I can only take so much. That's not an excuse though. I can do better. Every single day, I pray and meditate on God giving me the strength to 'keep it together' when someone attacks me -- to remain quiet -- at peace. When someone pushes you to your limits, sometimes it's all you can do to just remain in your 'zen moment'. Perhaps a different approach needs to be taken, like what Joel Osteen said during his sermon this past Sunday. He was stating that you should put your walls up. He said, "Let them talk about you -- you must be someone of worth to have t...

About once a week, I put on my Joel Osteen app and listen to his message while cleaning up or when I'm doing laundry. He's great. He always starts with a silly joke and has a bunch of crazy stories that he pulls right out of his hat in every sermon. He's very entertaining - almost like a motivational speaker. He'll entitle one of his sermons and just run with it. Like for instance, the other day he had one that was called, "You're Coming Out". And no - no reference to dem' closet gays. He focuses on positive affirmations and defying any bad news or money problems. "You're coming out of that debt!"  "You're coming out of that addiction!" "You're coming out of that sickness!"  "You're coming out of that depression!"  Then I noticed a theme with every single sermon: repetitive false hope. I don't want to be a "Debbie Downer", but I will say that some things have to happen...

( EDIT : This post was written early this morning. I was going to delete this, but instead I had placed it into a draft folder. I know it would have stayed in that draft folder forever.  Coincidentally, as I was working on something else, I was also listening to Joel Osteen's sermon to get my morning started. It was called, "The Seventh Year". It was like a confirmation to post this article. I was hesitant to publish this only due to the sensitive content in it - perhaps more of the raw honesty that I had poured into it. I let too many things hold me back. So here is part of Joel Osteen's sermon right after I had written this post. I'm just amazed. According to Deuteronomy 15 and the law of God given to Moses, Hebrew slaves were released on the seventh year. Your Seventh Year  When we’ve struggled in an area for a long time, it’s easy to think, “This is the way it’s always going to be.” The “seventh year” is when you break free from limitations that have hel...

Yesterday morning while cleaning up and getting ready to head out, I was listening to Joel Osteen as I usually do.  I flip back to Joyce Meyer when he has nothing updated on his app - but he is my absolute favorite. Anyway, he was talking about waste in our lives and how all the crap we go through is basically "fertilizer", which will eventually bloom new flowers so to speak. The "stinky stuff" in our lives will manifest beautiful outcomes in due time. And without the fertilizer, nothing positive will grow. Makes sense. Great analogy, I thought. Every aspect of our lives has these growth periods, whether it's work related, relationship issues or family struggles - we all have these ruts we fall into that we think won't ever change. I used to throw in the towel way too soon with every single thing in my life that gave me a challenge. I didn't want to deal with it, plain and simple. But, when I stuck it out and learned that my faith alone will push me fo...