Why is it that we can readily trust God for our salvation, but do not trust Him with our daily problems? Trust by definition has no room for fear. To totally, confidently rely on God means that we know that he is the Author and Finisher of our lives.
If we think God is not concerned with our petty, daily problems it is because we have not turned them over to Him. You cannot worry about what you do not have. If God has it, don't try to get it back from Him! Too often, we pray and tell him that we trust his Will to be done and then fret our way through the day.
If God did not give us the spirit of fear...but of love, peace, and of a sound mind...where does that fear come from? It originates from the Enemy. Satan will try to distract you with the problems of this life and present them to you bigger than they really are.
This is not to say that we are to passively wait on God and do nothing. He has equipped us with talents and abilities that are not to be wasted. Faith without works is dead. However, where we go wrong is trying to control other people's opinions of us after we have done everything we can. If we focus on trying to please God rather than every person that comes our way, more than half of our troubles would be erased.
Trust is something that comes easily for a child, but is very foreign to an adult. Since it does not come naturally, we have to learn to trust him every single day. Sometimes I watch children and am amazed how care-free and happy they are. Then I hear God saying, I am your Father and you are my Child. If you want to experience true happiness, learn to trust Me!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
The Chains of Technology
I know technology has made our lives more convenient, but has it made things too convenient? For instance, lets look at the cell phone phenomenon. If you ask people what they cannot leave home without, most would say in unison, "my cell phone!"
When I was in a hurry about a month ago, I was switching purses and accidentally left my cell phone in my other purse at home. Panic flashed through my body. A marbled swirl of thoughts made me dizzy. "What if someone who needs to get a hold of me can't?" Then it occurred to me. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that my cell phone was not attached to me. Maybe everyone is too reachable. Furthermore, what is worse is the universal expectation that everyone should answer calls at any time.
If you don't answer the call, there is a certain path of logical reasoning that the caller will follow. Either (1) You have been in a horrible wreck (2) You are in church, a meeting, or a movie or (3) You are ignoring them.
Once the call has been made, there is an obligation to call back within a certain time frame. Texting, by the way, has an even shorter time frame to respond. Even if you don't have time to talk, you can always text back a quick reply.
Maybe I am a blast from the past, but I feel like now more than ever our lives too cluttered. Yes, I still love my cell phone. However, I would like to feel that I have the control over the phone, rather than the other way around.
I would expound on this, but I have to respond to this text.
When I was in a hurry about a month ago, I was switching purses and accidentally left my cell phone in my other purse at home. Panic flashed through my body. A marbled swirl of thoughts made me dizzy. "What if someone who needs to get a hold of me can't?" Then it occurred to me. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that my cell phone was not attached to me. Maybe everyone is too reachable. Furthermore, what is worse is the universal expectation that everyone should answer calls at any time.
If you don't answer the call, there is a certain path of logical reasoning that the caller will follow. Either (1) You have been in a horrible wreck (2) You are in church, a meeting, or a movie or (3) You are ignoring them.
Once the call has been made, there is an obligation to call back within a certain time frame. Texting, by the way, has an even shorter time frame to respond. Even if you don't have time to talk, you can always text back a quick reply.
Maybe I am a blast from the past, but I feel like now more than ever our lives too cluttered. Yes, I still love my cell phone. However, I would like to feel that I have the control over the phone, rather than the other way around.
I would expound on this, but I have to respond to this text.
What or Who is for Dinner?
When I was engaged, I made it a point to attend every bridal show that was remotely advertised. In the frenzy of the moment, I signed up for every "contest" and "drawing" without question. The possibility of obtaining anything for free seemed extremely desirable when checks were regularly being written in the thousands for different vendors. Maybe my judgment was clouded just a bit. Not to burst any blushing bride-to-be's bubble, but you are not special....everyone is a winner.
You would think that by graduating with a marketing degree that I would have realized the smoke and mirrors tactic. After several glasses of included champagne, samples of buttercream cake, and visions of the perfect wedding dancing in my head, I let the pen take over. Every vendor had managed to obtain my contact information. I had to eventually stop answering any phone numbers that were unrecognizable. My voicemail was peppered with enthused congratulations of being randomly drawn for prizes.
Obviously, I had stepped right back into my fairytale land as I found myself excited to claim my prize at a hotel after a long day at work. My wonderful fiance, the realistic one, knew that I would have to learn for myself. He attended with me, bless his heart. I walked into the conference room, eager to claim my free honeymoon and enjoy my "complimentary dinner for two."
Since it took a while to find the place, we had walked in late....on a cooking demo. I was furious and wanted to walk out except that there was only about two rows of couples and the room was so small that I would have been egregiously rude. I really knew that I had been duped when I discovered our free meal was just tiny spoonfuls of food cooked from the demo. The pots and pans did look beautiful.....however I cannot and do not cook! They also happened to cost about the same as a gently used Honda Civic. We did get free vouchers for a vacation, which I believe were accidentally tossed out with the mound of brochures and catalogues that I so dutifully collected.
I started to see the parallel that I was the dinner that had been eaten by the sales deparment. First, they gathered all the necessary ingredients (brides) to the main event. Next, they tenderized us with champagne and seasoned us with the hope of prizes. After we were all gathered into the pan to claim our prize, they turned up the fire and grilled us until we bought something.
What is for dessert? A customized wedding cake for just under a grand.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The Shopping Cycle
This is a hard topic for me to write about. As we all know, the first step to recovery is breaking through denial. So here it goes. Let me open by apologizing to all females who have so religiously followed the Secret Shoppers Code of Conduct. However, I am also a blabber mouth and the truth must come out sometime, so I will do the honors.
As with all addictions, it is the feeling....a sense of euphoria....that is achieved that keeps you coming back for more. Many addicitions correlate to a certain personality type, an unhealthy environment, or a genetic tendency. The shopping addiction, however, is a pandemic. It has struck the entire female population without discrimination. Please correct me if I am wrong. The reason why it has been a taboo topic is because there is currently no remedy, no 12-step-to-recovery or vaccine. It is most certainly an addiction, but it has kept the retail sector alive during this sluggish economy. Sorry, but I am betraying even myself by cracking this code once in for all.
1) When a woman tells her husband that she has absolutely nothing to wear, this does not mean that she will walk out the door naked due to a shortage in clothes. It means that she is having a very strong craving for a shopping fix. Suddenly, all clothes in the closet fall miserably inadequate. The fixation of finding something new renders all clothing in the closet as "out-dated." Her solution is to tell her husband that she needs to buy a new dress.
2) Because the husband took #1 at face value, he helps her to accomplish this goal by finding the first dress on the rack. Little does he know, finding a dress would be a nice outcome, but the goal is to feed the addiction. Confusion settles in even more once his beloved is sifting through jewelry, purses, shoes, and make-up. After 2 hours and 20 minutes, the ornery husband notes that he has not eaten a morsel of food and lunch was somehow skipped in all this madness. To the woman, food is secondary because the feeling of shopping euphoria is being fed and this takes precedence in the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Reluctantly returning to reality (after all her husband is about to faint) she purchases the last trend in handbags and two pair of earrings. Although the husband feels that absolutely nothing was accomplished, the wife feels much better because she has received her temporary fix.
3) The woman comes home and experiences buyer's remorse. The purse's shade of green looked much different under the flourescent lights. Once she gets home, she realizes it matches nothing in her closet. Logically, she thinks there are two options. (a) return the purse (b) find a dress to match the purse. As her subconscious addiction is taking over, either option will lead her right back to the mall where her shopping cycle can repeat.
Please forgive me ladies...but the truth had to come out sometime. Maybe we can talk it over shopping.
As with all addictions, it is the feeling....a sense of euphoria....that is achieved that keeps you coming back for more. Many addicitions correlate to a certain personality type, an unhealthy environment, or a genetic tendency. The shopping addiction, however, is a pandemic. It has struck the entire female population without discrimination. Please correct me if I am wrong. The reason why it has been a taboo topic is because there is currently no remedy, no 12-step-to-recovery or vaccine. It is most certainly an addiction, but it has kept the retail sector alive during this sluggish economy. Sorry, but I am betraying even myself by cracking this code once in for all.
1) When a woman tells her husband that she has absolutely nothing to wear, this does not mean that she will walk out the door naked due to a shortage in clothes. It means that she is having a very strong craving for a shopping fix. Suddenly, all clothes in the closet fall miserably inadequate. The fixation of finding something new renders all clothing in the closet as "out-dated." Her solution is to tell her husband that she needs to buy a new dress.
2) Because the husband took #1 at face value, he helps her to accomplish this goal by finding the first dress on the rack. Little does he know, finding a dress would be a nice outcome, but the goal is to feed the addiction. Confusion settles in even more once his beloved is sifting through jewelry, purses, shoes, and make-up. After 2 hours and 20 minutes, the ornery husband notes that he has not eaten a morsel of food and lunch was somehow skipped in all this madness. To the woman, food is secondary because the feeling of shopping euphoria is being fed and this takes precedence in the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Reluctantly returning to reality (after all her husband is about to faint) she purchases the last trend in handbags and two pair of earrings. Although the husband feels that absolutely nothing was accomplished, the wife feels much better because she has received her temporary fix.
3) The woman comes home and experiences buyer's remorse. The purse's shade of green looked much different under the flourescent lights. Once she gets home, she realizes it matches nothing in her closet. Logically, she thinks there are two options. (a) return the purse (b) find a dress to match the purse. As her subconscious addiction is taking over, either option will lead her right back to the mall where her shopping cycle can repeat.
Please forgive me ladies...but the truth had to come out sometime. Maybe we can talk it over shopping.
Dieting is Futile after you say "I do"
I just got married this past January. I remember up until the wedding day how I religiously slashed my carbs to have a sleek sillouette for the pictures. Such willpower...such self-control. Little did I know that the moment my friends and family showered me with birdseed that it was laced with an insatiable appetite.
We went to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for our honeymoon...the most wonderful excursion of my life...everything was all-inclusive. I will never forget that first day we arrived. I was greeted with a "welcome drink," a sugary fruit concoction fortelling many more carbs to come. That first night we ate at a lovely restaurant where you picked several options off a menu. The meat sampler caught my eye. I ordered with the satisfaction that I was some how able to sneak Mr. Atkins into the restaurant. Meat and wine...what could be better? My eyes gazed around this starry Paradise and landed on the dessert buffet table. Talk about a fixation...chocolate cheesecake, plantain pudding, and plenty of other unrecognizable delicious sweet souffles that were calling my name. It was clearly time to break it off with Mr. Atkins. I was married now.
I decided then, I would completely enjoy myself and eat whatever my heart desired...just for the honeymoon. Well, who says the honeymoon has to end? When we got back, my meals of choice looked strangely similar to my husband's. Instead of scrambled eggs for breakfast...bagel and cream cheese! Who needs a protein bar for lunch when you can enjoy a few slices of supreme pizza? Dinner gets even better...pasta and chips!!
Surprisingly, I became a much more pleasant person to be around after the pre-carb era. My husband at least seemed to notice. No more blood sugar drops, migraines, or seeing spots. I now realize that neither approach to food was healthy. I didn't have to completely snub the whole food group, but I didn't have to gorge on carbs either. Compromise! This could be the key to not only a happy marriage, but also a happy nutritional life.
We went to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for our honeymoon...the most wonderful excursion of my life...everything was all-inclusive. I will never forget that first day we arrived. I was greeted with a "welcome drink," a sugary fruit concoction fortelling many more carbs to come. That first night we ate at a lovely restaurant where you picked several options off a menu. The meat sampler caught my eye. I ordered with the satisfaction that I was some how able to sneak Mr. Atkins into the restaurant. Meat and wine...what could be better? My eyes gazed around this starry Paradise and landed on the dessert buffet table. Talk about a fixation...chocolate cheesecake, plantain pudding, and plenty of other unrecognizable delicious sweet souffles that were calling my name. It was clearly time to break it off with Mr. Atkins. I was married now.
I decided then, I would completely enjoy myself and eat whatever my heart desired...just for the honeymoon. Well, who says the honeymoon has to end? When we got back, my meals of choice looked strangely similar to my husband's. Instead of scrambled eggs for breakfast...bagel and cream cheese! Who needs a protein bar for lunch when you can enjoy a few slices of supreme pizza? Dinner gets even better...pasta and chips!!
Surprisingly, I became a much more pleasant person to be around after the pre-carb era. My husband at least seemed to notice. No more blood sugar drops, migraines, or seeing spots. I now realize that neither approach to food was healthy. I didn't have to completely snub the whole food group, but I didn't have to gorge on carbs either. Compromise! This could be the key to not only a happy marriage, but also a happy nutritional life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
