Unconditional Love

In my last post I mentioned dogs how they give unconditional love and how nice it would be nice if we could do so as well.

I am sure we have unconditional love for our family and close friends but for others not so much the case. We may think that we have unconditional love until circumstances happen that doesn’t justify it any longer. I am sure we have had that experience both by us and to us.

Life would be so much easier if unconditional love happened all the time unfortunately that is not the case.

I was reading Friday morning in Hebrews chapter 3 where it mentioned to encourage one another today as it is called today. I believe the more we do encourage one another the closer we get to unconditional love as well.

Make a list of those things that would keep yourself from having conditional love to another and then what you think what you can do to solve the situation as well. 

I believe the trouble is that we will give unconditional love if we get it in return which is truly wrong. We will have true unconditional love if we don’t care how the other person treats us. I am not saying it is easy task but it is something we should do. Again life will be much better have unconditional love for everyone.

Being Available to Others

When it comes to our purposes the number one thing is to be available to others.

I am sure you aware to that just by what I have been saying for a while however I believe that I have to remind us on a regular basis.

A friend of mine reminded me on Facebook that the reason dogs are man’s best friend because people like dogs more than other people and I find that true which I think is a bad thing at the same time. We all should care for our fellow man much as dogs. The reason he mentioned to is that dogs have unconditional love which is also true so we really need to do so as well. It is not an easy task for any of us but we must find a way to do so as well.

One thing I do know is that some people just don’t like other person which is sad in my mind. It depends on the culture you live in as well. I believe some cultures it is important to care for your fellow man while other cultures they do not. It is not a good thing.

So my conclusion is that we should be more like dogs where we have unconditional love for others.

Our Strengths and Weaknesses

One of the lists I mentioned should be our strengths and weaknesses. I am sure we know our weaknesses better than our strengths. We deal with our weaknesses on a daily basis while not so much on our strengths.

Listing our weaknesses first will give us a better understanding of our strengths. So much better can we be when working on our weaknesses however our strengths will balance out things out.

We work on our weaknesses they can become strengths as well. In fact they may come stronger than our strengths that we already have. The importance is not letting our strengths become weaker.

All the time we will have weaknesses that we have to work on. It is like exercising where we work on that part of the body that we have trouble with but we can’t neglect the parts that are good as well. Just like exercising every day we should work on both the weaknesses and the strengths.

It is important to know what path we should be walking on as well. The wrong path will allow us to stumble which is not a good thing either. The right path will keep us going the right direction. The importance is to finish the race the way we should.

The best to us all in getting our lives in better order to do well in our purpose in life; continually improving everything for our benefit and others too.

Our Chore Values

Since I mentioned chore values when starting our mission statement I believe it is a good idea to write them down on a piece of paper.

I believe a good idea is to write down first our top ten chore values if we have that many. At least starting with five would be good. We can work up to ten and beyond if we feel that there are even more chore values.

Doing so will give us even stronger idea what our purpose in life is all about. Besides the chore values we can list where we want to go in our purpose. In fact we can look high and those that we would put on our bucket list. In a same way we would for places we want to see in our life time.

If you have already made your mission statement and listed your chore values and bucket list write down how you think that you will accomplish your mission statement. I believe this really exciting because we can expand our purpose in life. I wonder now why I hadn’t thought of this before but it is in the timing of it all isn’t it.

I know part of my chore values that will be included in my mission statement will be to continue encouraging others to be the best they can be and for God to reveal to each one of us the purpose in life that is exactly unique to us.

I believe to that we can make another list all of our weaknesses along with our strengths. I am so excited for all of us to become this person we have been meant to be all along. Remember this isn’t just for benefit but for those we mentor or minister to in our lives. In fact another good idea would be to share these lists and the mission statement with the person that maybe mentoring or ministering to us. They might be able to help even to narrow down the lists to the most important values and gifts. Amen!

A Mission Statement

I am sure most people are aware that many businesses especially successful ones have a mission statement about their chore values. Many churches have the same thing as well. The last two churches I have attended have had mission statements.

To say all that we should all look and decide what are mission should look like. I haven’t thought much about that until a last couple days but it sounds like a good idea.

I know our mission statements should include our purpose in life and what our mission to be here. If you are someone that is living where you are on a mission trip right now than a statement of what you are doing should be included.

Having a mission statement will allow to have a clear idea what our purpose is and where we would like to go with it as well. Along with a mission statement what our plans and goals are for the next five years. What we would like to do during this period of time.

If you already have a mission statement that you live your life by please share here in the comments so we can all see what you have done and can help all of us out.

Having a mission statement will allow us to look at our progress over time and our progress to be the people we are meant to be. I think it will be exciting to do so.  

Good Times Continue

I figure once again to remind each other to enjoy having good times. We can be so much into helping others we forget to take time out helping ourselves.

Update here in Western Washington we continue having a hot summer. The smoke in the air went away for a few days instead had cloudy mornings but now the smoke is returning again at bad levels for this week. We could use at least a couple days of good rain but that is not happening this week according to the weather forecast. Every year now it seems that the temperatures are getting hotter and the summer is lasting longer. We certainly have global warming here for sure.

It is so important here to look out for our fellow man to be sure no one gets heat exhaustion. I am one that can have a problem with it so I spend some time indoors or in the shade. I am looking forward to fall for sure.

Right now I am on my low carb diet making sure my sugar level goes down. It is important that I lose weight as well however dieting isn’t easy thing to do. I am sure any of you that have or are dieting know what I mean. I am making breakfast my main meal then lunch followed by a light dinner if having it at all.

Mom is doing well though she does have her days like anyone who is in their nineties. Her birthday will be coming up in about four weeks.

Sunday I went to another church. I have been there before though a few years ago. My purpose going was to meet new people. I love my church however sometimes it is important to see other people at the same time. It is like going on a vacation.

I hope everything is going well with everyone. If you like to have some prayer write in comments; I am sure everyone here on the blog would like to stand in for you on your needs. God bless and have a wonderful day everyone.

Life Can Be Hard To Live

Even when we are living at high level we know to that life can be hard to live.

I have my highs and lows. Going into darkness waiting for light to appear; we each have a unique purpose and it is to help each other to walk across the finish line.

It takes faith, hope and love to know we can do it regardless of the circumstances. It is tough to see when others don’t get a fair shake in life. We just have to be there to comfort them when life isn’t being fair and to hope we will be comforted when life isn’t fair to us either.

There are days when darkness just walks into the front door. Often it happens the same way each time. You think that I would learn. I figure when I get in situations where darkness does come in I will stay away in the future. It doesn’t mean that darkness won’t ever find its way again but why should I welcome it at my door.

We can’t do a lot at times when life isn’t being fair except to hang onto the faith, hope and love. I believe those three work hand in hand. I really like the love part most of all but without the faith and hope love can be hard to come by as well.

I hope that you are having a wonderful weekend. I look forward to next weekend’s because of high school reunion. It will be nice to hook up with classmates that I haven’t seen in a while. I hope that some of them will allow new friendships. None of us are like we were in school. We have grown up and hopefully matured. Every day it is important to learn from our mistakes. Best wishes to you.

Lifting Higher

I have learned from sports is that you can always have a bad day no matter how good you are or your team. The importance is to rise above and compete again the next time.

James 4:10 says that God will lift up the humble so whatever we do doesn’t mean that we have to live a life at a low level. We must live a life where we are humble. God will also bring down the proud so it is important not to be proud. Not an easy task at times however possible.

So being humble doesn’t mean that you live a low life but being proud you could end up there. We must trust God that we will be lifted higher while we thank the one in him that is already lifted up.

We are created in God’s image. So we don’t have to think less of ourselves at the same not to think to highly as well.

Encourage others that they can live at a higher level. What trouble that they go through living in darkness and despair doesn’t have to be our daily walk. We can ask God to lift us up to the same place that he is. We do so with a humble heart knowing that we have made mistakes and we are not perfect people.

The highest level of lifting higher is living the life of purpose that we were intended to live. We are living now for the world needed us now. Take that to the bank. Amen!

Work Hard

In many societies or cultures working hard is at the top or near the top of what is important.

I believe that is true to some extent however often we can have problems letting work being so important and that there are negative things can go with it well as positive.

Growing up having a good work ethic is fine for us all to have however we can feel that we have to earn everything that we have. If we are a Christian this means that grace has to be earned instead of being a free gift which is what grace is all about.

God gave us grace because he knew we would never live up to being perfect human beings. No matter what we do we can’t ever become perfect however much we try. So we can feel that grace will never be attained either. We feel that we must work for everything and that is not possible.

Another area of our lives working hard means we become independent and we don’t rely on others for what makes us happy and satisfying. This is hard because we feel that family is important but working hard keeps us away from what we really desire.

I am not saying we should not work hard but we need to keep it all in the right perspective after all. We must live with grace being what it is meant to be a free gift along with independence not ahead of family. Our goal should be for this to work all together. Still hard to deal with because I just said goal. We can’t have goal in this manner if we want to live with and in grace. What shall we do then? Let grace be above all and to live within the perimeters. Not an easy task for any of us.

Reaching Out

The greatest thing we can do in life is to reach out to others. There are some people feel depressed because they believe that no one cares about them and that really is not the truth at all.

All we have to do is say hello or give them a nice smile. I know a few people that feel uncomfortable in doing so because they don’t want to be involved in small talk however that is all some people have to offer. This is especially true if you don’t know the other person. On the other hand you can just ask if there is something that you can do for them or how their day is going.

I find the most important thing is to be sure you are interested in them. We all have heard the words often enough “how is your day going”.  I find in many cases people do want to know how your day is going but there are those who say it to get by in conversation. I hope that most do want to know the day you are having and not just to say it. Of course the problem with the question though is most will say I am OK.  This is even true when they are not. Sometimes you just don’t want to share how you are feeling or doing. Also I have experienced it where I had a response back “that’s nice” even when I said I wasn’t good.

The important thing though we become honest with one another. We can have a better life this way. We can find out who really cares about us and those who don’t. Although it would be nice if everyone did care but that is not really going to happen. We are not in a perfect world and some people only are looking out for themselves and maybe a few other people. It is amazing that we want to have approval from everyone. We get down on ourselves when someone doesn’t care.

So let us reach out showing that we do care. A great way to spend our time and our life; I do know that many already care but we should do more than we have up to this time. I am not here to put anyone down but to encourage us all to do even a better job than we are doing now.

Hazy Days

                                                             Seattle Washington

Here in Washington State we are having a lot of smoke in the air. It is bothering my eyes a little but not as much as some other people. I have heard a lot of complaints on social media.

It is so bad that meteorologist’s on television and social media that the smoke is so bad that it is dangerous for a lot of people. For those who feeling really bad should go to their doctor or emergency to see how dangerous it is for them.

The smoke is coming from British Columbia where   forest fires are happening once again this year. It is the second year in a row where the fires have been really bad. Last year the fires happened near Williams Lake where my cousins live and they had to evacuate for a couple weeks. This time more west and east of Williams Lake well as north. Though we are being affected in the Seattle, Tacoma, Bremerton and Gig Harbor by the smoke it is more so further north like near Bellingham and Lynden that are near the Canadian border. Showing a few pictures to so how bad it is below.

We should be all thankful for those who are first responders and medical professionals who can for our lives. They have chosen to use their life purpose to help others in such an extraordinary way.  Any time you meet one of the people please thank them for the jobs they are doing. This is the same way we hope others thank us for what we are doing as well. The more thankful for us all a better world we can live in.

                                                    Bellingham Washington Area

A Good Listener

I admit at times I am not a very good listener. While the other person is talking I am thinking what I am going to say next instead of paying attention to them.

It is important that we do listen to others. This is especially true if we want to help them. Actually listening to them helps them more than anything else.  People want others to hear what they have to say and that is enough sometimes. We can respond if necessary as well.

People will reach out to you because they know that you care and that you will listen to them. Listening makes the job very easy and we can learn a lot about the person that way.

Our response can be in a few words or even a hug or handshake depending on how comfortable they feel around us.

Every day I am getting better in listening to the other person. It does take time to become a good listener and even better if we have a good heart.

Often people look how we interact with others before approaching us. So not only the person you are listening to finds it important those around them as well.

When you respond back to what they have said give them your experience or it could be a nice smile. Often they have been waiting a long time for someone to talk to them and listen.

My dad was a very good listener. Unlike me he didn’t do a lot of talking however he gave words of wisdom and insight when he did. I believe there is not anything better than that.

It can take time to get good at being a listener however take baby steps at first and I am sure all things will turn out right. If you are a good listener right now then others are benefiting from your experience and we can all learn from you.

What Means To Us

Another thing is what means to us that are important. Usually that turns out to be our purpose in life.

Our hearts will stir us in the right direction for our purpose and destiny. It may take some time or the direction may change as well.

What are purposes today could be different tomorrow as well. Circumstances can dictate the purposes. It doesn’t mean that we will totally turn away from our overall purpose but for a period of time.

For example I am taking care of my mother. This purpose of course will last as long as she is alive or her health gets worse that I can’t help her any longer. She will be ninety-eight in five weeks and she is doing well for her age up to this point. Her memory isn’t always good but for her age it is pretty sharp. Often she doesn’t know the day of the week or time of day but she is able to do crossword puzzle and she plays bridge twice a week. She does sleep longer than she used to but that is probably expected as well. I now have to give her pills other words she wouldn’t know which ones to take or when.

I do have to do some planning since I don’t know how much longer she has to live. I am sure we all do when it comes to our purposes as well.

I believe to that our purposes will grow over time as well. This is especially true when we get toward retirement age. We have to figure what we will do with our time and who to spend it with. Often grandchildren play a part in our purposes as well. We may be asked to do things we never were ever asked to do before as well.

These purposes will make us become better people too. We will have the time to explore our purposes. In the meantime do what you feel means the most to you.