Thotz

Hey, greetings to you. I got this from a friend and thought I'd share it with you. I said a friend, but this friend is actually a couple. They've had to go thru some grey, maybe dark spots but some how, by God's grace they stand. So here is the excerpt about confrontation: Relationships: REALITY CHECKS FOR CONFRONTATION   "What men fear most is criticism and rejection. That doesn't mean that you    can't tell him anything --you can. But you have to see if how you're    doing it is working or not." (Dr. Phil McGraw)   "Maybe you won't get through to the other person as long as you keep    approaching him the way you always do." (Michael Nichols)   Confronting each other when we have a problem can be most difficult,    because if we don't do it right we can make the situation even worse than    before.   That's why one of our dear friends calls confrontation in a relationship,    such as marriage, "CARE-frontation," ...

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside. 'That laundry is not very clean', she said. 'She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap' Her husband looked on, but remained silent. Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments. About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband: 'Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder whtaught her this?' The husband said, 'I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.' And so it is with life. What we see when watching others sometimes depends on the purity of the window through which we look. Let's be a little bit more patient with those around us; sometimes, even accept them as they are, not from your perception of them.....it...

Hey, let go.... We have heard this a number of times. Some times we heed and other times, we remain adamant; determined to see the end of the road. For the journey is not one that should be abandoned..... So let's stop for a second here, or maybe a minute'll be better..... Why should I let go? Was I holding on to any thing in the first place; faith is waning and is almost a long lost folktale yet I hear the words "let go"..... Where are the promises? Yes.....sirens blaring all around, screams of joy as the words spew out of the mouth of the "worthy" leader: "I will ensure that ......bla bla bla bla...." but it does end there. He walks the pathways of our hunger stricken community identifying with us. Yes indeed, identifying with us. Now if that was just pretence, I cannot tell but what I do know is that he came and identified with us in the midst of the pain and suffering.... He walked where we walk and felt our backs burning with the glare of ...

Hitches....what are they? Some people call them obstacles and yet others say they are just challenges that act as stepping stones to the attainment of the desired goals; that is when we accept them as such. The dictionary defines hitches as unexpected difficulty in the course of achieving a certain goal. Indeed, we encounter this difficulties in different forms - external; human, material, spiritual, and sometimes even financial. Other times, they come in the form of internal issues.

Yes Lord, it's me again And like always, I'm in need Though not for fame and fortune My heart is without greed I'm just weary from the burdens And the strength I seem to lack I'm not asking for a lighter load, Lord I just need a stronger back There are times when the road gets rough And it's hard to carry on When rest always seems out of reach And all but faith is gone Make my mind think clearly And use the wisdom it has acquired Don't let decisions come in haste When my body becomes tired My feet always seem smaller Than the shoes I need to fill And that's when I still need you, Lord And know I always will Alone in weakness I would falter But if you'll walk by my side I can persevere in troubled times And within your strength abide When my knees start to tremble And I fear that I may fall I bow my head and close my eyes And on you Lord I call And I pray that you'll walk with me As I strive along my way To give me ...

Though we have brought forth some fruit in this and have a joyful hope that we are “plants of his own right hand planting,” yet there are times when we feel very barren. Prayer is lifeless, love is cold, faith is weak, each grace in the garden of our heart languishes and droops. We are like flowers in the hot sun, requiring the refreshing shower. In such a condition what are we to do? The text in Isaiah 54:1 is addressed to us in such a state to “Sing, O barren, break forth and cry aloud.” SING? When i am broke, jobless and maybe even sick? Sing? When there are explosions on my every side? Who is to protect me from all of these? How can I even think about a supposed journey? Even when I say okay to singing, what can I sing about? I cannot talk about the present, and even the past looks full of barrenness. Ah! I can sing of the pain..... Yeah....that sounds real cool....the pain....the hunger....the frustrations....the betrayals from "my friends".... My friends.....hahahah...

As we live and journey on this earth, we go through many things and many people. In one way or the other, they all add something to us heading to that final destination called our destiny. Does this mean that these people and things decide our destiny? No!!! We were created with the ability to choose. Choose what? The creator was so gracious to have given us so many options with a little piece of advice to choose life. You see, no one or thing actually decides or determines our destiny. We do. How? The bible has a portion in the book of Joshua(1:8) that makes it expressly clear that we decide our success; be it good success or bad success. Aside from the principle of life that make or mar us, depending on how we use them, there is the other side- the people we let into our lives; RELATIONSHIPS. Let's stop for a moment and look back at our journey so far, is there any thing that we got or achieved without a human being? Even the one we say came from God directly, usually pass ...