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beensetfree

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
Sunday - SO WHAT!

So what!

Those two words can take you a long way by keeping your spirit
at peace.

About 95% of the things of life fit into the "so what" category.

There is nothing that you can do about them anyway. The thing
really doesn't harm you, it is just an irritating inconvenience.

So what!

Learn to recognize "so what" situations.
Stay calm.
Don't get upset.
You won't really suffer major consequences,
you would just rather have it happen another way.

Someone didn't speak to you.
A car cut you off in traffic.
"They" have a "bad attitude."
You struggle with bills but your stomach is full and warm.
...and a thousand other things.

So what!

Learn to realize the power of those two little words to calm
your spirit and put things in perspective.
 

beensetfree

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
The President


Today is President’s Day. To most Americans it’s really no big
deal, their only concern is, "Can I get a day off from work?"

There are no cards in the greeting card section for The President.

Most don’t think about The President unless it’s to complain
about something he’s done. No matter what The President does,
he can’t please everyone and there is always a large bunch of
protesters outside wherever he goes. No matter what.

If you notice on TV, there’s hardly ever a large bunch of
supporters outside waving signs. It’s usually protesters.

I know many say they could do a better job but think about it.
How well do we do running our own lives, family, and budget?
If we have a family with children and a spouse, think of the
issues that we have dealing with them.

Just ask one question; “Suppose my failures, shortcomings, goof
ups and even choking on a peanut were major headlines?”

Suppose your doctor visits and medical reports made headlines?

Our family is usually all one color, one religion, one culture,
bound by immediate blood, and we know the excuses that we have
when we mess up.

Now add different races, cultures, religions, backgrounds,
socio-economic needs, educational levels, nationalities and a
hundred other variables.

Then there’s the secret stuff. We all have secret stuff, so
does the nation and national leadership. You have no idea about
the secret stuff just as most don’t know the secret stuff
outside of your immediate family or bedroom.

Secret stuff is necessary.

Plus, The President has his own personal problems. He has problems
with his children and it’s probable that his wife doesn’t smile
at him ALL of the time either. She no doubt stands in the
protestor camp on occasion. Many, if not most, of The Presidents
have had infidelity issues but so have many preachers.

Read the MountainWings issue, “So What About Jesse?”
I wrote it when both Clinton and Jesse were in the midst of their
infidelity problems. http://www.mountainwings.com/past/1020.htm

The President is human with human problems and he is still
supposed to solve America’s and the world’s problems.

Perfect – NO.
Made mistakes – Absolutely and he will make plenty more.

Could I do a better job? I doubt it.

Sure, we've got ready solutions but it just isn't that simple.
It’s like every football fan has a better plan than the coach
but let them take a team and try to win the Super Bowl.
It’s not as easy as it looks from the armchair.

I think The President is doing a good job but then I think all
of them have done good jobs in spite of the big mistakes.

So Mr. President, whether the rest of the nation agrees with me
and I am sure plenty don’t, I think you are doing a great job
considering the complexity of it all.

You were ordained to be there, for God always sat the King upon
the throne for His purposes.

Timothy said, “I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people.
As you make your requests, plead for God's mercy upon them, and
give thanks. Pray this way for kings and all others who are in
authority, so that we can live in peace and quietness, in
godliness and dignity." (1 Timothy 2:1-2 NLT)

Mr. President, I plead God’s mercy upon you and give thanks
for all that you do.

I understand a little of the pressure, the pitfalls, the problems,
and the everyday peculiarities of life that you deal with.

Thank you for keeping this country as peaceful as possible,
as quiet as possible, and with as much Godliness and dignity as
you can command, for you have taken a stand, whether folks like it
or not.

Happy President’s Day!
 

beensetfree

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
He is God


He is the First and Last, the Beginning and the End!
He is the keeper of Creation and the Creator of all!
He is the Architect of the universe and
The Manager of all times.

He always was, He always is, and He always will be...
Unmoved, Unchanged, Undefeated, and never Undone!
He was bruised and brought healing!
He was pierced and eased pain!
He was persecuted and brought freedom!
He was dead and brought life!
He is risen and brings power!
He reigns and brings Peace!
The world can't understand him,
The armies can't defeat Him,
The schools can't explain Him, and
The leaders can't ignore Him.
Herod couldn't kill Him,
The Pharisees couldn't confuse Him, and
The people couldn't hold Him!
Nero couldn't crush Him,
Hitler couldn't silence Him,

The New Age can't replace Him, and
Donahue can't explain Him away!
He is light, love, longevity, and Lord.
He is goodness, Kindness, Gentleness, and God.
He is Holy, Righteous, mighty, powerful, and pure.
His ways are right,
His word is eternal,
His will is unchanging, and
His mind is on me.
He is my Redeemer,

He is my Savior,
He is my guide, and
He is my peace!
He is my Joy,
He is my comfort,
He is my Lord, and
He rules my life!
I serve Him because His bond is love,
His burden is light, and
His goal for me is abundant life.

I follow Him because He is the wisdom of the wise,
The power of the powerful,
The ancient of days, the ruler of rulers,
The leader of leaders, the overseer of the overcomers, and
The sovereign Lord of all that was and is and is to come.
And if that seems impressive to you, try this for size.

His goal is a relationship with ME!
He will never leave me,
Never forsake me,
Never mislead me,
Never forget me,
Never overlook me, and
Ever cancel my appointment in His appointment book!

When I fall, He lifts me up!
When I fail, He forgives!
When I am weak, He is strong!
When I am lost, He is the way!
When I am afraid, He is my courage!

When I stumble, He steadies me!
When I am hurt, He heals me!
When I am broken, He mends me!
When I am blind, He leads me!
When I am hungry, He feeds me!
When I face trials, He is with me!

When I face persecution, He shields me!
When I face problems, He comforts me!
When I face loss, He provides for me!
When I face Death, He carries me Home!
He is everything for everybody, everywhere,
Every time, and every way.

He is God, He is faithful.
I am His, and He is mine!
My Father in heaven can whip the father of this world.
So, if you're wondering why I feel so secure, understand this...
He said it and that settles it.
God is in control, I am on His side, and
That means all is well with my soul.
 

beensetfree

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
Frozen
======

Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart.

~from the movie, Frozen~


Frozen is a kiddie movie that every adult should see.
 

beensetfree

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
You Are Not Alone
===============

You are not alone.

You are not alone in suffering.
Most of us suffer in one form or another.

So says scripture:
Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
(Job 14:1 KJV)

"Seventy years are given to us! Some may even reach eighty.
But even the best of these years are filled with pain and trouble;
soon they disappear, and we are gone." (Psalms 90:10 NLT)

You are not alone.

"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask
the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you
forever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him,
because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for
he lives with you and will be in you." (John 14:15-17 NIV)

You are not alone.

God sees, hears, and forgives you.

Often our problem is not with God forgiving us,
but in us forgiving ourselves.
God has forgiven us long ago, but we still carry the guilt.

Life is not futile, it is full.
It's just that everything in life is not pleasant.

You have considered ending it all.
What you have not considered is that ending it may put you in a
far worse place.

Believe it, there are much worse places and conditions.

You are ready to give up because you think no one cares.
You honestly feel that you are alone.
If only you could see the angels that surround you.
If only you knew the things that you have been kept from.
If only you knew the disasters you have been protected against.

Soldiers in the natural and the spiritual realms are on duty
right now to protect YOU.

When my 13-month-old son is sick, he feels terrible.
He wonders why he is sick.

He is unaware of all of the love that surrounds him because he
can only feel the pain of his sickness. When he is congested
and has trouble breathing; all he knows is that he feels like
he is suffocating.

Each breath that you take is a gift.

Even when it is hard to breathe,
you are still surrounded by love.

You are not alone. Know this.
 

beensetfree

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
Heaven scent

A TRUE STORY - Author Unknown

A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery, her husband David held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news.

That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency cesarean section to deliver the couple's new daughter, Danae Lu Blessing. At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs. "I don't think she's going to make it" he said, as kindly as he could. "There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one."

Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Danae would likely face if she survived. She would never walk; she would never talk; she would probably be blind; she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation; and on and on.

"No! No!" was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.

Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread, Diana slipped in and out of drugged sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter would live - and live to be a healthy, happy young girl. But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire details of their daughter's chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable.

David walked in and said that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements, Diana remembers "I felt so bad for him because he was doing everything, trying to include me in what was going on, but I just wouldn't listen, I couldn't listen. I said, 'No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don't care what the doctors say. Danae is not going to die! One day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!'"

As if willed to live by Diana's determination, Danae clung to life hour after hour, with the help of every medical machine and marvel her miniature body could endure But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana.

Because Danae's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially 'raw,' the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort - so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Danae struggled alone beneath the ultra-violet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.

There was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there.

At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later - though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero.

Danae went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted. Today, five years later, Danae is a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life. She shows no signs, whatsoever, of any mental or physical impairments. Simply, she is everything a little girl can be and more - but that happy ending is far from the end of her story.

One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Danae was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing. As always, Danae was chattering non-stop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, "Do you smell that?"

Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain." Danae closed her eyes and again asked, 'Do you smell that?' Once again, her mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to get wet, it smells like rain." Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."

Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Danae then happily hopped down to play with the other children. Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along. During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest - and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.

-------------
 

beensetfree

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
No Difficulty Big Enough


"There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer,
no disease that enough love will not heal, no door that enough
love will not bridge, no wall that enough love will not throw
down, no sin that enough love will not redeem...

It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble,
how hopeless the outlook, how muddled the tangle, how great the
mistake. A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all.

If only you could love enough, you could be the happiest and
most powerful being in the world..."

~Emmet Fox~
 

beensetfree

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
The Worst Tempered
=================
The worst-tempered people I've ever met
were people who knew they were wrong.

~Wilson Mizner~
 

beensetfree

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
Help somebody


It was a cold winter's day that Sunday. The parking lot to the church was filling up quickly. I noticed as I got out of my car that fellow church members were whispering among themselves as they walked to the church.

As I got closer I saw a man leaned up against the wall outside the church. He was almost laying down as if he was asleep. He had on a long trench coat that was almost in shreds and a hat topped his head, pulled down so you couldn't see his face.

He wore shoes that looked 30 years old, too small for his feet, with holes all over them, his toes stuck out. I assumed this man was homeless, and asleep, so I walked on by through the doors of the Church.

We all enjoy fellowship for a few minutes, and then someone brought up the man who was laying outside. People snickered and gossiped, but no one bothered to ask him to come in, including me. A few moments later church began. We all waited for the Preacher to take his place, and to give us The Word, when the doors to the church opened. In came the homeless man, walking down the aisle with his head down.

People gasped and whispered and made faces. He made his way down the aisle and up onto thepulpit. When he took off his hat and coat my heart sank. There stood our preacher... he was the "homeless man."

No one said a word... the room was silent and still.

Then the preacher took his Bible and laid it on the stand.

"Folks, I don't think I have to tell you what I'm preaching about today." Then he started singing the words to this song...

"If I can help somebody as I pass along,
If I can cheer somebody with a word or song,
If I can show somebody that he's traveling wrong,
Then my living shall not be in vain."
 

beensetfree

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
The Race
========
We were leaving the exercise class taught by RinGO.
www.RinGOMaxx.com

I had my 12-year-old son Christian with me.

In the car driving home Christian talked of his daily exercise
routine. He was now doing 120 push-ups per day. He was trying to
get to the point where he could beat his daddy doing pull-ups.

I can do nine pull-ups at the moment. One of my goals is to pass
the Navy Seals fitness test at a competitive level. Competitive
requires that you do 11 military style pull-ups. I'm almost
there but there are a few other things I've got to work on.

"I'm ready to race you again Daddy," Christian said.

About two years ago Christian challenged me to a foot race.
We sprinted full speed down the street. I beat Christian.

That was two years ago. Christian was 11. I was 56.
He is now 13. I'm 58. Things are not exactly moving in my favor
in the high speed foot race business.

Christian is in the 7th grade and he said he beat every boy in
both the 6th and 7th grades. He's the fastest boy in both grades.
Now he wants to see if he can beat his daddy.

I thought about that.
"All You've Got" when I was 47. I'm 58 now.


I believe I can still outrun him in a long distance race but
outrunning the fastest boy in the whole elementary school simply
wasn't that high on my list of priorities.

Keeping from snapping, popping, straining, spraining or
otherwise not doing any damage that a sudden full speed sprint
could cause to a body that hasn't been training for high speed
sprints WAS high on my list of priorities.

"Daddy will have to see about that race," I told him.

"Now, about those pull-ups."

Funny how a few years changes priorities.
 

beensetfree

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
How much does a prayer weigh?


Louise Redden, a poorly dressed lady with a look of defeat on her face, walked into a grocery store. She approached the owner of the store in a most humble manner and asked if he would let her charge a few groceries. She softly explained that her husband was very ill and unable to work, they had seven children and they needed food.

John Longhouse, the grocer, scoffed at her and requested that she leave his store.

Visualizing the family needs, she said: "Please, sir! I will bring you the money just as soon as I can."

John told her he could not give her credit, as she did not have a charge account at his store.

Standing beside the counter was a customer who overheard the conversation between the two. The customer walked forward and told the grocer that he would stand good for whatever she needed for her family.

The grocer said in a very reluctant voice, "Do you have a grocery list?"

Louise replied, "Yes sir"

"O.K." he said, "put your grocery list on the scales and whatever your grocery list weighs, I will give you that amount in groceries."

Louise, hesitated a moment with a bowed head, then she reached into her purse and took out a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. She then laid the piece of paper on the scale carefully with her head still bowed.

The eyes of the grocer and the customer showed amazement when the scales went down and stayed down.

The grocer, staring at the scales, turned slowly to the customer and said begrudgingly, "I can't believe it."

The customer smiled and the grocer started putting the groceries on the other side of the scales. The scale did not balance so he continued to put more and more groceries on them until the scales would hold no more. The grocer stood there in utter disgust.

Finally, he grabbed the piece of paper from the scales and looked at it with greater amazement. It was not a grocery list, it was a prayer which said:

"Dear Lord, you know my needs and I am leaving this in your hands."

The grocer gave her the groceries that he had gathered and stood in stunned silence. Louise thanked him and left the store. The customer handed a fifty-dollar bill to the grocer and said, "It was worth every penny of it."

It was some time later that the grocer discovered the scales were broken; therefore, only God knows how much a prayer weighs.

Have a blessed day!
 
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