FOR A BETTER SELF

It's a fine sunny morning and I'm getting more of what I love....  blue skies, green trees, warm sun, and a cool refreshing wind. Thank you!

'Thank you' to WHO or WHOM? Whichever rides well for our Grammar Nazis. But do please carry on; we all got our jobs to do, respectively.

Well, apparently you know who I'm thanking for my lovely day. Not only for the lovely day but for waking me up, feeling good, being in my own home and with my precious family, for food on my table, for clothes on my back, shoes for my feet, and a smiling wallet.... not much in there but enough to make me smile.

There's one other thing I'm also grateful for. 'Life isn't a bed of roses' as an old cliche goes but as I look back now I can honestly say that I'm thankful for the thorns too.

Oh I know that isn't easy. Not easy when you one day find yourself in the midst of a failed relationship, a broken bone, losing someone you love, a misfortune, a broken dream, or just very bad bad people who made life even much more miserable for you.

Now don't use science or intellectualize that pain or suffering. It's not all about  'why me?'  or  'why this?'  because nothing of those will explain it as it was not meant for that in the first place. It's for something bigger... much bigger. By some Supreme Design.

To cut a long story short, as gold is refined through great heat or fire.... so are we. And the point of it all? --- To make us become our better selves. In human history, to get to a point of glory one goes through some conflict, struggle, or strife. That is the same in our ordinary small mundane lives here in our respective tiny little corners of the world. 

Who has not become a --- wiser, more mature, broadminded and understanding, better able to be kind and compassionate towards others, better able to comprehend the complexities of life and people --- after going through an experience of suffering, affliction, misery, conflict, or adversity? Admit it, it opens doors to the mind, heart, and soul. Things you haven't fully understood before is now somehow better understood. Suffering helps us build our character. And that, I believe, is the Supreme Design.

And if perchance that some understanding isn't there yet, well... I hate to say this but God isn't finished with you or me or him or her or them or us... yet.

Still, thank God even through your pain. There's a bigger plan to it. Pray for faith, trust, discernment and understanding.

May the blessings of God be upon you and your families in this Lenten observance and season. God bless you!

 

TODAY BECOME A BETTER VERSION OF WHO YOU WERE YESTERDAY

Got this in my inbox this morning, from friend Mr. Quote Man........

“There are three things extremely hard:   

steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.” 

------ Benjamin Franklin

Oh but we know that, don't we? And most of us also know that just because it is extremely hard (and that even is an understatement) ....  we still would keep working at it until we get the steel to build the foundations of our houses, the diamond to enhance our pleasure, and the effort to better our selves.

Nothing is nor comes easy to achieving something that which is good. The law of the universe. To come out better or best, things and mortals are passed through the fire. The fire is rough, inconvenient, intensely challenging. But it is a necessary process to peel off useless unnecessary layers in order to reveal the precious treasure within.

In the task of self-improvement the challenges are greater and huge. Because we would have to deal with our centuries-old habits, beliefs, and attitudes those which apparently no longer serve a good purpose and which instead stand as obstacles to a better self. The challenges nudge us out of our comfort zones which by our human nature is definitely a most unwelcome change or task. I struggle with that, too.

The aim today and each day that comes to us is to become a better version of who we were yesterday. Hard... yes... but not impossible.

May today bring you endless treasures and blessings, in Christ.

BE THE HOPE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD

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"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; 

if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."   

-- Mahatma Gandhi

Unquote.

I keep telling/reminding myself that  'Hope springs eternal'  --- No other way to see all of life.... all of bad that is happening.  And if we think of wanting or having a better neighborhood, community, city, country, people and world.....  well, the buck stops here --- it all begins with self. Somebody once said .... 'Be the change you want to see in the world'. The task therefore is all laid down before us .... change. Transformation. Start with who you are, what you are, where you are, and what you have. In that sense, hope will spring eternal. Because nothing can be better than becoming the best improved version of your self..... and then redirect this precious caring unto the world.

Pay the goodness forward. Blessings from the Heavenly Father, everyone.