THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE ARE........

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I was on the phone with a friend who suddenly appears out of the blue after several years of absence in my friendship world. Been missing this girl for a long time.
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''Been busy with life", she says with a chuckle.
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"Well, I'm pretty sure life has been pretty busy with you, too. You sound happy", I kidded back at her.
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"Well, not a bed or roses I'll tell yah.... but they can throw at me all the bumps, bleeps, and bang but not enough to mess up my world", she replied back with a merry lilt in her voice.
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I believed her.
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You see, my friend (let's call her Jane) is quite unique. She's not like many of us puny little human beings who easily buckle down with every test, challenge, trial, or difficulty. But oh sure problems do assail her...... makes her rage, worry, stress out, and cry. So much the human reaction, right? All of that in the moment it hits her... then... wait a minute... she becomes still. And then the transformation takes place.... followed by...
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"C'mon, let's get ourselves a burger! I'll race you to the car.." And off we fly!
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Yeah I did once thought if she was an alien or something. But I must admit that she's one happy human being.. regardless.
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I only really understood when one sweet day I stumbled on this quote....
. "The happiest people I know are the ones who have learned how to hold everything loosely and have given the worrisome, stress-filled, fearful detail of their lives into God's keeping." --- Charles R. Swindoll
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That's Jane's secret. She connected with her God. But it's not a secret. We all know that, don't we?
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(Once more, thanks to the internet for these wonderful images)

WHY SUFFERING?

 

 

 

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In last Sunday's mass (Easter Sunday), the monsignor posed the question.... 'Why me?' ... He was referring to man's reaction to suffering. I waited for the answers to that much overused line with bated breath. But the homily went on for extra more lengths yet... it looked like no answers were forthrightly coming. Instead he went on to extoll the significance of the Risen Lord. He pointed to the cross but didn't make the proper effort to jell the whole story (suffering and salvation) into one neat package the parishioners would likely understand. To make a long story short, I came out of it with the same fuzzy brain on the subject as when I entered the church earlier.
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Anyway........
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Why do we suffer?
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Allow me to venture my own thoughts on it...
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We all go through the sieve of suffering. I had and have my share. Through it all I have learned a few things which I would like to share with anyone who would care to stop awhile and listen.
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Suffering has its own significance as joy has when it comes to us. It's significance rolls out greatly to our favor if you pay it close attention.
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THROUGH THE FIRE WE ARE TESTED. ---- Like gold is tested through fire, we are made to go through trials with the sole purpose to bring out the best in us.... new and better strengths, courage, hope, faith, resilience, focus, determination, enlightened spirit. Struggles bring out innate talents and abilities, brilliance and resourcefulness which we thought weren't there at all. We then begin to see ourselves as who we really are.... worthy children of God.
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NO GUTS - NO GLORY ---- We get or receive from life what we put into it. If you are content just watching the world revolve by your lonesome self, nothing great will come to your table. On the other hand, if you believe in big dreams -- in the universe's promise of fulfillment to those who bravely reach out for the stars -- to pushing your gifts and talents towards the goal -- and emblazon the skies with confident prayers of trust and faith, things will begin to shape up and honor your belief.
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DIVINE BLUEPRINT OF OUR LIVES ---- No matter how you see it, no matter through whose eyes you see.... you cannot escape what is very clear -- that life and its struggles are just the blueprint of our lives BY DIVINE DESIGN. Struggles though may come in a diversity of rhyme or reason, size or shape, intensity or importance.. but all of that still are called struggles. Others may call it difficulties, trials, tests, hurdles, hardships, affliction, persecution, discipline, challenges..... different words, same meaning and intent. And it's there because Somebody of great wisdom included it in His divine plan.
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MADE TO GROW ---- Simply said... we are made to grow. It's not a request. Rather it's an expectation coming from the Big Guy upstairs. He expects us to grow. Every time He sees us ---- lazy .. nonchalant .. irresponsible .. content in mediocrity .. foolishly proud and conceited .. rejecting change ----- He pushes the button 'Grow'......... and immediately the trials come pouring down on our stupid and stubborn heads all meant to force us to grow up and grow.
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It might hurt, sure it does. I gnash my teeth, clench my fist, curse the high heavens, blame everybody but myself, cry floods of tears, and ache deeply in my heart....... and yet nothing is changed -- it is still part of life and living.
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BUT for a wonderful reason! By God's design. We have a wise and magnificent GOD! His thoughts, not our thoughts; His ways, not our ways. Thank God it is the way it is.
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I wish wonderful blessings for everyone. God bless you!

FAITH IS TO SEE WHAT YOU BELIEVE

 

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A good friend of many years sent this to my email......
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"Faith is: .. dead to doubts, dumb to discouragements, blind to impossibilities." - Unknown
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He wanted to know my thoughts on it.
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Beautiful, isn't it? And so encouraged and inspired I replied............
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Faith is magnificent. But like anything of immense beauty, value, and significance is quite difficult (to say the least) to pursue. Faith is itself the prize to anyone's struggles aimed to hold it in the heart. And yet fragile too as one can lose it anytime. --- To achieve it is a task which a full-grown man or woman can fail at quite easily despite his/her intelligence, righteousness, bravado, or wit.
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It is easy to make claim to what it does to peoples' lives but living it is a different thing. I struggle with it in every challenge life sends me. Every faith-challenging-moment different from the next....with faith staggering under its weight. In some, faith could soar high like riding on wings of a mighty eagle...... and then again in some, nothing happens to the dozen or so prayers of pleading. Faith bashed to the ground by the silence of the heavens.
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So it's true what's been said about it....you pray for faith; it's not one you're born with. You take it one day at a time..one day to the next. One faith experience after another. That I think explains what the bible is telling us....you live by the grace of God, for God, and with God.
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Our life therefore is truly a journey of faith...from learning it, praying for it, living it. All by God's design.
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Blessings to you, my friends. Keep up the faith.

ALWAYS A SURE FIT

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Went through my old files with the sole intent of ridding it of accumulated 'junk'. What are these, you might ask. It's stuff that when you first saw it consider it essential and then as time goes by you finally realize that it is not. So off it goes to the trash bin.

But I found this gold nugget of wisdom......

"If your parents ever measured you as a child, they had you stand against a wall, and made a little pencil mark on the wall to show your growth. They did not measure you against your brother, or the neighbor's kids, or kids on TV.

When you measure your growth, make sure to only measure your today self by your past self. If you compare your relationships, your success, or your anything against anyone else, you are not being fair to you. Everyone has a different path, a different pace, and different challenges to face along the way."   --- Doe Zantamata, author-artist-photographer

Oftentimes I hear of people saying they wished they were somebody else..... that they had somebody else's beauty, money, title, position, or fame. That they feel themselves and their lives so unworthy and miserable as compared to those they admired. At a certain point of my struggling youth and years I thought so, too. Everybody else were simply fantastic in their own respective lives except poor ole' me with the challenges life seemed keen on hurling in my direction. Dodging it was out of the question because it had such perfect aim no matter how I tried to duck it. Darn!

Until I found my own groove.... When I began to use my mind more and understood with my heart better. I finally learned.

I was traveling my own road, just as everybody else was traveling his or hers. Each of the roads a sure-fit to the persons traveling it respectively. Each living his own story. There will be good times and bad times in proportion each would require for his joy and too necessary learning. There will be different talents finding expression in many diverse ways.....  fast or slow....  weak or strong.....  big or small....  humble or grand. There will be different challenges as well as different blessings. All these and more will be on everybody's table in the portion or measure each would require --- always a sure fit. Somebody up there is running the whole show.

I learned with appreciation and gratitude for everything that was...  is... and will be.  Recognized and fully understood that both the good and the bad are there to serve a purpose. Separately or together will continually serve to shape me into the person I was meant to be, by God's design. 

"Everyone has a different path, a different pace, and different challenges to face along the way."

So don't ever wish you were somebody else. Because you are just where you are meant to be.....  to learn and learn some more.... and become better, in God's perfect time. While you are at it, enjoy the journey and remember to count your blessings.

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.

QUALITY IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT

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This came to me in email shared by my good friend, Mr. Quote Man. To quote.....

 "When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers,  you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back,  even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it.  You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back.  For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through."  (Steve Jobs)

Unquote.

I think that does not speak alone about a job. That also works with the rest of life and living. We are not good just for show. We are good because we are good. It's not that we simply show our good side as in our photogenic side for the camera, but our good has to be rooted down in our core. That's true quality.

Be true to your self. That's all that's being asked of us. Whatever standard or measure or conditions are used on us, let's remember that those things don't matter. You can't let their standards define you. It's their standard or measure, not ours. Because the real challenge is this....  how do you measure up to your own standard of self.

My mom used to say this.... 'Know yourself. And if you see some rough spots, try to smooth them out with learning and more learning. There is always room to grow. But don't let people use their standards on you. It doesn't work that way. Challenge yourself, compete with yourself, benchmark yourself. Always be true to yourself and what you stand for.'

Steve Jobs was right.....  "For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through."

Enjoy your day, with wonderful blessings awaiting you.