Helping Happiness Along
April 30, 2007
Happiness is worth helping along.
The benefits of being a happy person are huge. We live longer, live healthier, and live more lively lives.
Unfortunately, all but the most highly-evolved among us have our less-than-happy moments. Fortunately, we can do simple things to recapture a happy mood if we find ourselves lacking one.
I found an article that starts, “Everyone wants to be happy, but happiness is more than pasting a smile on your face.”
True, but that is a great start.
Pasting a smile on your face, even if forced, gets the happiness engine started. If you are from the North, a forced smile is like a jump start on a frigid morning.
Even though you are still freezing, you got started.
Another strategy is to force yourself to take a few deep breaths.
Something about our internal hardwiring will not allow us be negative and well-oxygenated at the same time.
A few deep breaths clears the head, relieves tension, and relaxes the posture. After some deep breathing, we hold our bodies in a way more conducive to a happy state of mind.
Another trick is to laugh.
What Jesus Expects of You and Me
April 30, 2007
Sometimes it is hard to know where to start even if you know what your talents are. Jesus has something to say about what we can do and what he expects us to do. Until you can find the specific purpose God has for you there is still work we can do.
In Matthew 25:31-46 we find Jesus giving His disciples a discourse on what to expect when He comes back. (Also read Matthew 25: 14 ? 30 Parable of the Talents). Jesus will judge us by a criteria that may be a surprise to some of us.
Jesus is giving us a preview of what the test at judgment will look like. When He returns the test will be whether we provided food, water, shelter, clothing, visited the sick and the imprisoned. These acts of ministry can be performed by anyone. Ministry to others in the name of the Lord is what a Christian’s life is all about. As Christians, we were created for goods works. Ephesians 2: 10, reads "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." The purpose for which God created us is "GOOD WORKS".
Top 10 Questions about Body Piercing
April 29, 2007
Body piercing has grown so much in popularity in recent years that it has become almost mainstream, with more and more people sporting navel rings and multiple ear rings. Facial piercings, surface piercings and lots of others to choose from can make things confusing. If you don’t know what to expect when you decide to get a piercing, it can be even more intimidating. Here are some of the top questions people have about body piercing.
1. I want to get a body piercing. How much will it cost?
The cost of a body piercing varies depending on several factors, including where you’re located, how close to a major city you are, and what kind of piercing you’re having done. Generally the more difficult the piercing, the higher the cost. Keep in mind that you get what you pay for as well, so don’t depend entirely upon cost to choose your piercer. If a piercer is charging significantly under the market cost in your area, he may be cutting corners in areas he shouldn’t, such as sterilization and other safety procedures.
On average, the cost of piercings fall somewhere in these ranges:
What about the 4400?
April 28, 2007
Murders are so frequent in our country that a single homicide seldom grabs national attention unless the perpetrator or the victim is already a celebrity. Even a double murder is not national news. It takes multiple murders to make the headlines, CNN, and the network evening news.
The Oklahoma bombing of April 19, 1995, which monopolized the news for days, claimed 167 lives and wounded nearly 500. The TWA flight 800 disaster of July 19, 1996 snuffed out the lives of 212 passengers and 17 crew members. Of course, there’s also the 3000-plus people who died on Sept. 11, 2001.
When a disaster of this magnitude happens, the entire nation focuses attention on the families of the dead and the hurting. Nothing seems more important than to discover why this occurred and what can be done to stop it from happening again.
Disasters elsewhere in the world can also claim our attention for a few days, provided enough people have suffered death or injury. The Bhopal, India, disaster (Dec. 3, 1984) killed over 4000 and injured thousands more. The Pan Am Flight 103 explosion over Lockerbie, Scotland (Dec. 21, 1988), killed over 200, including 35 U.S. college students. And of course, most recently, there are the hundreds of thousands of victims of the tsunami of December 26, 2004. We hear of such disasters in shocked disbelief. We sympathize, we even weep, we pray for the victims’ families.
Divining Your Life Path Number
April 27, 2007
The Life Path is determined by the sum that is arrived at after reducing your birth date by adding digits together. This number represents the traits and talents that you were born with and the probable journey you will take during your lifetime. In a way it represents what path you will take regardless of your essence, which is represented by the calculation of the Soul Number. If you calculate your Soul Number (as taught in another New Age Notebook) you can contrast the two numbers to see what your unique challenges are in life.
First convert the month you were born in to a single number. Let’s use Angelina Jolie who was born in June 4, 1975 as an example.
First convert the month to a single number or master number. Note that when calculating months, double digit months such as September, October November and December do not reduce down to a single digit. For example November, which is the 11th month, equates to the number 2 after you add 1+1 together.
Angelina Jolie’s birthday does not reduce down to a single digit. Her birth month is the sixth month of the year. Her month number is 6.
What If? — Musings on the Tsunami
April 26, 2007
Thumbing through Isaiah recently I was startled to find this: after a passage (in Isaiah 19) in which the prophet describes horrors that caused the hearts of the Egyptians to “melt within them,” he predicts that “the people will turn to the Lord, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.” The next lines describe how three bitter enemies-Egypt, Assyria, and Israel-will “worship together” and how all three will become “a blessing on the earth. The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.’” What a picture!
Like the ancient Egyptians, those who died in Southeast Asia on December 26 (and since then) are in God’s hands. But among the living amazing things have happened. Will they last? In Sri Lanka, where a decades-old conflict has killed twice as many people as died in the tsunamis, Tamil Tigers and Sinhalese have joined forces in common relief efforts. So have Hindus and Muslims in India.
The History of Body Piercings - Ancient and Fascinating Around the World
April 25, 2007
Body piercings have seen a resurgence of interest in the last ten to twenty years and are becoming more and more a part of the mainstream Western culture. Take a look at any fashion or entertainment magazine and you’ll see plenty of well-known celebrities with body piercings like navel rings or a labret. You might be surprised to find out that piercing is actually an ancient form of expression that most cultures have practiced at some time or other for thousands of years.
Egyptian body piercings reflected status and love of beauty
The earliest known mummified remains of a human that was pierced is over 5,000 years old. This worthy gentleman had his ears pierced with larger-gauge plugs in his ears, so plugs may be one of the oldest forms of body modification there is! We also know that the Egyptians loved to adorn themselves elaborately, and even restricted certain types of body piercings to the royal family. In fact, only pharaoh himself could have his navel pierced. Any one else who tried to get a belly button ring could be executed. (Tell that to Britney Spears!) Almost every well-to-do Egyptian wore earrings, though, to display their wealth and accent their beauty. Elaborate enameled and gold earrings frequently portrayed items in nature such as lotus blossoms.
The Greatest Love and Self-image
April 25, 2007
The Greek language had three words for "Love" First there was "eros," from which we get "erotic.. This was, of course a purely selfish love. Then there was "Phileo" (Philadelphia), or "brotherly love" This is the love of one family member for another. But the Bible added a new one–"agape" "Agape is a giving love, entirely unselfish. By way of both illustration and practical application, let me quote the following note from Mary Ellen Grisham, publisher of “Eternal Link:”After counseling young couples for years, a minister I know suggested that “love is what you do.” Young couples frequently have adjustments to make to the differences in romantic courtship and the realities of day-to-day living with the rigorous requirements of work, children, house and yard keeping, and all the many tasks required to maintain a good home and marriage.
Young wives in particular, experiencing the stress of many new responsibilities, worried that their feelings for their husbands were not always so tender and romantic as they had been during dating. Even with a basis of sincere love, rushed schedules and economic necessities dimmed the glamour of marriage.
Dont Let Life Happen to You
April 24, 2007
Don’t Let Life Happen To You
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. - Marcus Aurelius (121-80 AD, Roman Emperor, Philosopher)
It’s hard to believe that we are nearing the end of another year. As I write this, snow is falling in Colorado, the makings of a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner are in the kitchen, and our newspapers are filled with holiday ads. The end of the year always tends to be a time of reflection as we look back on the accomplishments of the past year and look forward to a new year. It’s also a time to reflect on our lives and ensure that we are living the life we want.
It’s easy to look at ones life and be content with where you are. You have a good job, a spouse or significant other, children, a nice car, and all of the trappings of success. Clearly you are well on your way to success. But the real question is, are you happy with what you are doing?
No Ishmaels Please
April 23, 2007
I want to say a word about faith. Recent events in my own life have driven home just how easy it is to loose sight of what we say we believe. Just like Abraham of old, we often try to bring about results through our own efforts. For those of you not familiar with narrative found in the book of Genesis, let me summarize. Abraham had been given the promise by God of having a son in his old age. God, in fact made a covenant with Abraham, sealing the promise in the blood of sacrificial animals. Typically this looks forward, for those of us who are New Testament believers, to the blood of Christ through which we are made partakers of God’s eternal covenant. But, back to Abraham. Certainly after such a dynamic demonstration (Genesis 15) of God’s covenant promise, we would think that Abraham would have not doubt that God would fulfill his part of the agreement. But, instead of waiting patiently on God as he should have done, he listened to his wife, Sarah, and tried to help God out, by having a son with his handmaiden (as was the custom of the day), since his Sarah was barren. He did have a son with his handmaiden, but that was a cause of much sorrow to him, and is the cause of much conflict even today. For, you see, this son, Ishmael, is the father of Arab nations. Oh, God was still with Ishmael and provided water to keep him alive after Sarah had thown out the handmaden and her son. But Ishmael was not God’s first choice for Abraham. Thus, later, God did fulfill his promise and give Abraham a son through his wife, Sarah. That son, Isaac, is the father of the Jewish people. We are all aware of the Arab-Israeli conflict which continues till today. Yet, God was gracious, and Abraham is remembered today as the Father of the faithful, and in the hall of faith, Hebrews 11, his faith is mentioned but not his lack of it in that one moment of weakness. (Thus, I don’t feel that I should share the particulars of my recent Ishmael experience with you, as I know God has put it in the sea of forgetfulness.) Often we may be tempted to do what Abraham did and take matters into our own hands, instead of trusting God explicitly. But, this can only result in the production of an Ishmael, which, although God may still bless, will mean trouble for us and cause us to deviate for a time from our primary God-given goals and purpose. However, when that happens, we may be assured of God’s grace in getting us back on track. May God ever keep us from producing Ishmaels. But if we do, may we run to Him for His mercy and grace and know that He is still in controll and we will not be remembered by him for our Ishmaels, but for our Isaacs–the fruit of our faith. If you feel you have no faith, perhaps you this will be a first step for you. If you feel you need more faith or need to use your faith more, perhaps this can also be a starting point for you in that direction.
