President Obama, say something | Sherri Mandell | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel

President Obama, say something | Sherri Mandell | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel

Happy Birthday My Dear Friend From Baghdad

בן סנוף שיר למעלות Ben Snof

Sometimes ~

“Not everything is supposed to become something beautiful and long-lasting. Sometimes people come into your life to show you what is right and what is wrong, to show you who you can be, to teach you to love yourself, to make you feel better for a little while, or to just be someone to walk with at night and spill your life to. Not everyone is going to stay forever, and we still have to keep on going and thank them for what they’ve given us.” ~Emery Allen

Water at SC beach mysteriously turns beautifully crystal blue - WBTW-TV: News, Weather, and Sports for Florence, SC

Water at SC beach mysteriously turns beautifully crystal blue - WBTW-TV: News, Weather, and Sports for Florence, SC

Wisdon Is ...~

“A heart given freely is the most vulnerable and selfless thing one can offer another human being. It can be as fragile and needy as a newly born infant, or as solid and self-supporting as a granite pillar, yet it is the hands of the recipient that determines its ultimate fate.”
― Mark W Boyer

Heart Given ~

“A heart given freely is the most vulnerable and selfless thing one can offer another human being. It can be as fragile and needy as a newly born infant, or as solid and self-supporting as a granite pillar, yet it is the hands of the recipient that determines its ultimate fate.”
― Mark W Boyer

Forgiveness ~

Fifty Quotes on Forgiveness

Lewis B. Smedes - Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve

"Forgiveness is God's invention for coming to terms with a world in which, despite their best intentions, people are unfair to each other and hurt each other deeply. He began by forgiving us. And he invites us all to forgive each other."

Lewis B. Smedes - Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve

"None of us wants to admit that we hate someone...When we deny our hate we detour around the crisis of forgiveness. We suppress our spite, make adjustments, and make believe we are too good to be hateful. But the truth is that we do not dare to risk admitting the hate we feel because we do not dare to risk forgiving the person we hate."

Lewis B. Smedes - Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve

"We attach our feelings to the moment when we were hurt, endowing it with immortality. And we let it assault us every time it comes to mind. It travels with us, sleeps with us, hovers over us while we make love, and broods over us while we die. Our hate does not even have the decency to die when those we hate die--for it is a parasite sucking OUR blood, not theirs. There is only one remedy for it. [forgiveness]

Lewis B. Smedes - Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve

"You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well."

Lewis B. Smedes - Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve

"Their pain [the injurer's pain at having injured you] and your pain create the point and counterpoint for the rhythm of reconciliation. When the beat of their pain is a response to the beat of yours, they have become truthful in their feelings...they have moved a step closer to a truthful reunion."

Lewis B. Smedes - Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve

"...Forgiving is not having to understand. Understanding may come later, in fragments, an insight here and a glimpse there, after forgiving."

Lewis B. Smedes - Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve

"You can forgive someone almost anything. But you cannot tolerate everything...We don't have to tolerate what people do just because we forgive them for doing it. Forgiving heals us personally. To tolerate everything only hurts us all in the long run."

Lewis B. Smedes - Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve

"The rule is: we cannot really forgive ourselves unless we look at the failure in our past and call it by its right name."

Lewis B. Smedes - Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve

"When we forgive evil we do not excuse it, we do not tolerate it, we do not smother it. We look the evil full in the face, call it what it is, let its horror shock and stun and enrage us, and only then do we forgive it."

Lewis B. Smedes - Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve

"If we say that monsters [people who do terrible evil] are beyond forgiving, we give them a power they should never have...they are given the power to keep their evil alive in the hearts of those who suffered most. We give them power to condemn their victims to live forever with the hurting memory of their painful pasts. We give the monsters the last word."

Lewis B. Smedes - Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve

Too Much Time ~

TOO MUCH TIME
At the root of insanity
Is having too much time on your hands--
Too much time to think--
Too much time to remember past hurts
And to wish things could be different. Too much time spent alone,
Staring at these four walls
With too much time to think,
To remember past hurts
And to wish things were different. Got to rid myself of this insanity.
I'll busy myself with a flurry of activities
And seek the companionship of others.
They´ll tell me time heals all wounds, But for now I'll still cry--
When I have too much time to think
And remember past hurts,
Wishing things are different.
--Jo A. Witt
Copyright 1994

I'm Here ~

“I’m here. I love you. I don’t care if you need to stay up crying all night long, I will stay with you. There’s nothing you can ever do to lose my love. I will protect you until you die, and after your death I will still protect you. I am stronger than Depression and I am braver than Loneliness and nothing will ever exhaust me.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love    

Am I Ready ?

Art by Jeremy Mann ( It is never late to ask yourself “Am I ready to change my life, am I ready to change myself ?”. However old we are, whatever we went through, it is always possible to reborn. If each day is a copy of the last one, what a pity! Every breath is a chance to reborn. But to reborn into a new life, you have to die before dying. Shams Tabrizi. )

Last Generation before Moshiach

Your Social Network: Stronger and More Satisfying

Your Social Network: Stronger and More Satisfying

Fibromyalgia Mystery Finally Solved!

Fibromyalgia Mystery Finally Solved!

My Beloved - Kari Jobe

Food N Such!!: Moscato D’Asti : Beviamo

Food N Such!!: Moscato D’Asti : Beviamo: Moscato D’Asti : Beviamo    “This tongue-tingling Italian treat is sensually sweet, a perfect match to start or end any meal or simply enjo...

Casey's Wine Blog: Tasting - Beviamo Moscato D'Asti (2011)

Casey's Wine Blog: Tasting - Beviamo Moscato D'Asti (2011): This weekend, a few friends and I decided to get together and indulge in a number of wines. Partly to help me with my postings, and part...

Blanched Almond flour/Meal | Gluten Free | honeyville.com

Blanched Almond flour/Meal | Gluten Free | honeyville.com

Casting Crowns- Mercy

Living in the Presence of Christ: An Angry Brother – The Advice of Elder Porphyrios

Living in the Presence of Christ: An Angry Brother – The Advice of Elder Porphyrios: Another time,  while I was speaking about another issue, he told me,  “I see a brother who is very angry with you.  He is like a beas...

" Mercy ~

Here I am a sinner
Broken and in need of You
Take my life and wash my fears away
For You are the Great I AM
Rest assured, I feel Your hand
Holding me until the darkness clears
A Father to the fatherless
Redeemer of my soul
My Life is Yours forever
I want the world to know

Your mercy saved me
Mercy made me whole
Your mercy found me
Called me as Your own

Here I stand a child of Yours
Broken and in need of You
Break these chains and wash my guilt away
Healer of my brokenness
My weary soul will find its rest
You are my strength, the lifter of my head
You're greater than my yesterdays
You hold me close today
You're the Lord of my tomorrows
My heart will always say
You're greater than my yesterdays
You hold me close today
You're the Lord of my tomorrows
My heart will always say

You called me as Your own
You called me as Your own
Thank You for Your mercy
Thank You for Your mercy

You called me as Your own
Your own ~

What does the Bible say about applied kinesiology?

What does the Bible say about applied kinesiology?

God is the “only truly existing God.”

God is the “only truly existing God.” All existence is a gift from God who is our Creator. None of us has “self-existing” life. We exist because God sustains us in existence (“in Him we live and move and have our being”).
Sin is the rejection of this gift of God – a movement away from true existence.

 

Much of our lives in the modern world engage primarily with things that have no “true existence.” We engage with illusions, or social constructs. By the same token, these imaginary things draw us into a life in which we become strangers to true existence.

Despite the current popularity of “3-D” films – they are no more real than any other film. Much of our economic system is built on the “market,” that is, what people are willing to pay. The value of most items, and of much work, is not intrinsic, but imputed. Thus the mood of a people (“are they optimistic about the future”) can have a direct effect on the “value” of a stock-market.

I am not an economist so I will say no more about something that seems to be largely make-believe.

How we feel about many things has this same make-believe quality. We find certain styles of clothing and certain products (cars, houses, etc.) attractive and desirable, but often with little more than subjective reasons for our desires. The power of this make-believe is so great that it is well-known that many people “go shopping” to battle depression. It is a strange therapy.

The story is told of a an old woman who came to the Elder Thaddeus (Serbian), and complained about a neighbor whom she did not like. He told her, “You are arguing with her all day. You should stop.” She replied, “Argue with her? I make it a point never to see her and never to speak to her.”

“Nevertheless, the elder said, “You argue with her in your mind all day long.” Pray for her and this will disappear.”

It is strange that in our modern world, afflicted by the make-believe of our culture, we are very likely to look for yet more make-believe to assuage our discomfort – and thus move deeper into the disappear existence that is the source of all our problems.

God calls us away from make-believe and towards true reality. That which is truly existent has become like God, at least in that aspect. For this reason, many Orthodox monastics adopted an extremely simplified life. The less life is bound up with make-believe and grounded in the hard reality of what is, the great the chance that we will find salvation and sanity.

 A large majority of what I see as a parish priest is not a struggle with reality, but a ceaseless struggle with things that have no true existence. Our battles against, anger, lust, greed, envy, etc. are all struggles with things that are not. They have no more existence than we ourselves lend to them. And since we ourselves are not the Lord and Giver of Life, their existence is as nothing.

And yet we find ourselves attracted to nothing – our minds constantly employed in dialog with nothing.

The sweet work of repentance that is set before us as followers of Christ, is nothing other than the return to reality. God does not call us to spend our time thinking about what we imagine Paradise will be like. He invites us into the reality of Paradise now, which we can know through forgiving everyone for everything; by being generous in our almsgiving; by praying honest, simple prayers.

It is quite possible for our lives to be dominated by things which have no existence. Our dreams and fantasies, our fears and anxieties, take on an existence that overwhelms everything else. Not only can such concerns not be defeated on their own ground (they are the masters of the unreal world) they must be slowly dragged onto the very ground of reality, Christ Himself, so that they can be revealed in their powerlessness and swept away with the dust of non-being.

 My children are extremely dear to me and I pray for their health and salvation. But their well-being does not consist in their health or other material measures. Their existence is founded in the life of prayer and their relationship with the good God and source of all life. God forbid, but if I should lose them unexpectedly, I expect to find them where they have always been – in praise and worship before the throne of God. My only concern is that I find myself with them at the end of all things.

I have no “career goals” for my children other than the goal of their salvation before the true and living God. There is and can be no shame in such a good confession.

By the same token, I have no greater desire for those who are my parishioners – that they be found “in Christ Jesus.” The myriad of devices and intrigues that make us want to think imaginary things to be of importance – I pray for the brilliant light of God’s true existence to sweep away as He defeats all darkness. No enmity has true existence. No anger, no bitterness has true existence. No long cherished grudge has any true existence. When Christ comes and the Truth of His existence begins to sweep away all false things – we will see all these things dissipate. Our salvation is that we will great such a dissipation with joy and not with sadness.

Christ Jesus has set us free.

Living in the Presence of Christ: Elder Thaddeus - How to Have Inner Peace

Living in the Presence of Christ: Elder Thaddeus - How to Have Inner Peace: Instructions for inner peace by Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica 1. We must give ourselves over to the Lord. We must commit ourselves and al...

Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica.

1. Spiritual life is noetic life, which is higher than all the desires and feelings of this world.
2. The main thing in spiritual life is to keep your heart at peace.
3. The Lord looks into the depth of the heart, its desires and aspirations.
4. We must remove earthly plans and desires from the heart, only then together with the Lord can we sincerely love our neighbour.
5. Communion with God is the normal spiritual state.

6. The first step to communion with God is to give ourselves up to God completely.
7. With God’s help we can do everything, everything, when we turn to the Lord with our hearts.
8. A soul which has given itself up to God’s will does not fear anything and is not troubled by anything. About everything that happens, it says: it is God’s will.
9. Peace and joy are the greatest riches in this world and in the world to come.
10. Love is the strongest weapon that exists; there is no power or weapon which can fight love: it overcomes them all.

11. Love, joy and peace are Divine gifts, Divine characteristics. In themselves love, peace and joy work miracles, but joined together they can fulfil all the commandments.
12. The mind, the will and the heart are at one among the enlightened, but among the unenlightened they are most often divided and many human misfortunes result from this.
13. The pure heart will see God but the impure will feel shame to eternity.
14. The Lord looks into our hearts and when we turn to Him from the heart, He immediately consoles us.
15. As well as keeping peace in your heart, practise standing before the Lord. This means constantly keeping in mind the fact that the Lord is looking at us.

16. There is no such thing as an unforgivable sin except for an unrepented for sin.
17. The sign that a sin has been forgiven is if the sin is repeated and there is still peace in the soul.
18. The thoughts that we give ourselves up to define our life.
19. We must learn to control our thoughts so that we can order them.
20. We must give ourselves up to good thoughts and desires for our benefit and then we, our families and others will experience harmony, for, wherever we may be, we will give out quiet and peaceful thoughts, which are full of good.

21. Even the slightest thought that is not founded on love destroys peace.
22. He who accepts an evil suggestion accepts the enemy into his body. The spirits are invisible, we give them bodies so they become visible.
23. Our thoughts not only cause wars and eathquakes, but also the pollution of the environment. This is surpassed by spiritual pollution, which is much more dangerous.
24. Work hard to have good thoughts and goodwill towards friends and enemies and you will see what good fruit you and everyone around you will receive.
25. Cease to think evil of your superiors or colleagues at work, change your evil thoughts to good ones and you will see how the behaviour of your one time ‘enemies’ will change.

26. When you get up in the morning, do not leave the house without praying and in the evening thank God for the wonderful day.
27. Just as even a tiny speck of dust which has got into your eye can stop you seeing, so also a small care about some irrelevant matter can stop you praying.
28. If we pray inattentively, then we are not praying in spirit and in truth.
29. Everyone must use the Jesus Prayer. ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner’.
30. To pray is to draw energy from the Source of life.

31. Attention is required for prayer. It must precede prayer so that we know what we are seeking, what we are praying for.
32. Humility is the perfection of Christian life.
33. Humility is a Divine characteristic. Where there is humility, whether in the family or in society, it always spreads Divine peace and joy.
34. He who sets an example to others through his way of life is humble. Example is the best proof of the truth.
35. He who is humble is utterly content with what God has given him and he is happy at heart. Such people feel sorry for those who do not want or do not know how to amend their lives.

36. The humble do not get angry, they do not wish others ill and do not do evil, even to those who cause them evil.
37. The humble look on everyone as higher than themselves.
38. Chastity is attained through fasting, prayer and especially obedience.
39. Fasting is required to humble the body, for when the body is humble, the soul is humble.
40. Those who are humble and meek in soul are pleasing to God. They do not get angry when they are insulted, they are full of goodness and peace.

41. Here on earth we frequently experience many misfortunes and hardships, but all of these are because we have not humbled ourselves.
42. If someone is very demanding, then he is tormented by this.
43. He who thinks that he knows everything is disobedient and no-one can guide the disobedient.
44. The disobedient do not rejoice in the Kingdom of God, because they always want to do their own will, not God’s will.
45. When we are completely humble, then everything around us is humble.

46. Only the meek and humble enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
47. We cannot be saved without struggling against the devil. We must endure many sorrows in our heart before the soul can free itself.
48. Anger is vanquished by renouncing our desires and our own will.
49. If we can stop making ourselves into judges over others and thinking that we are worthy, then there will be no anger.
50.If someone says or does something that is not to our liking and, failing to examine whether he is right or not, we feel offended, then we are in the grip of pride.

51. Jealousy destroys our inner peace and quiet of soul.
52. Sometimes the Lord reveals to us in our thoughts the answers to various questions and mysteries, but sometimes He is silent, so that we might turn to others for advice and so become humble.
53. We can find something edifying in everybody’s life. Even the worst thief has something good in him.
54. Life here on earth is unceasing physical and spiritual warfare.
55. Man is only a tool in the hands of the Lord.

56. It is better to sing than to read. Sing. People say that he who sings does not think ill.
57. Divine life cannot bear selfishness.
58. As long as we pay attention to the negative sides of various people we meet, we will not find peace and repentance. As long as we keep in ourselves the thought of offence, caused to us by enemies, friends, family and neighbours, we will not find peace and quiet and we will live in a hellish state.
59. When you find a soul akin to your own, stay with it, for it is a great joy to make friends with those who think alike.
60. Today all civilisation is directed towards distracting the attention of people, especially of the young, from themselves, from the self, from looking inside, into the heart.

61. Unbelievers are busied with philosophy, reflection and achievements, but all of this is short term consolation and melancholy and solitude soon attack once more.
62. Evil is the abuse of good on the part of rational beings who have fallen into base philosophising and create chaos in themselves and around them with their thoughts and desires.
63. The world is ever more sunk into sin and evil and confuses love and passion, yet love and passion have nothing in common. Love is God and passion is what comes from evil spirits.
64. We scorn our politicians who are in power, yet they are our children. We were the ones who were wrong before them, for we set them living examples which they could only equal.
65. There are no atheists! They do not exist. Even the enemy believes and trembles, only he does not do good.

66. 50 years of Communism have caused us far more evil than 500 years of the Turkish yoke. Communism removed people from God.
67. We suffer because our thoughts and desires are evil. We are ourselves the cause of our sufferings, for there is no repentance among our people. There is repentance neither among believers, nor among unbelievers.
68. Magic is performed where there is no prayer or strong hope in God.
69. Only love and goodness save both people and the whole world. Nothing is ever obtained through violence. Force merely provokes rejection and hatred.
70. All the knowledge which has been revealed to men through science is a gift of God to people and proclaims the presence of God in this world.

71. There is no knowledge revealed by human science which has been given by God to our detriment, everything has been given exclusively for our benefit.
72. Grace is Divine strength which is active everywhere, but especially in the souls of those who seek the source of life, who seek God.
73. We cannot keep inner peace if our conscience reproaches us for something. First of all we must make peace with our conscience.
74. It is better if we condemn ourselves than if the Lord condemns us. If we condemn ourselves, then He knows that we have repented and no longer wish to sin.
75. Repentance means changing our lives, abandoning the old man with all his evil habits and turning to God and the truth, so that we can be peaceful, still, good and meek.

76. If your parents are atheists and you are a believer, do not reproach or taunt them with your faith but pray for them and be good to them.
77. We must learn to divest ourselves of our burdens so that we can turn to God immediately and confide our cares and our neighbours’ cares in Him.
78. We must help people to know their faith.
79. We must not preach from our heads but from our hearts. Only what is said from the heart can reach another heart.
80. It is much better to learn from life than from words.

81. It is dangerous to be strict with others.
82. Those who are strict with others can only reach a certain level in spiritual life. They remain at the stage of physical asceticism.
83. As is our relationship to our neighbour, so is our relationship to God.
84. Our neighbour is he who seeks our help.
85. We must have the same relationship with everyone. We must not separate people into those we like and those we dislike.

86. As long as we pay attention to the negative sides of those we meet, we will not find peace or quiet.
87. Everything done for the sake of God and not for the sake of glory is good.
88. He who works badly cannot expect good pay.
89. Only he who is with God and is informed about his salvation is rich.
90. The fear of God is not the instinctive animal fear of this world. That is a hellish quality. We live in a constant state of fear: what will happen tomorrow, in the future? The fear of God is similar to that when you love someone from your heart and you are careful not to offend him or annoy him with your whole being, not only through your thoughts and actions, but through your thoughts too.

91. There is not a single being who is perfect. We can only be perfect with God; without Him it is impossible.
92. Care for the soul is more precious than the gifts of this world.
93. A family which is pleasing to God must be filled with love, nobility, meekness, humility, piety and prayerfulness.
94. If a parent hits a child in anger, nothing will be achieved by it.
95. If there is a family where nearly everyone is content but one is not and begins to think that he has been treated unjustly and the others have behaved badly towards him, then everyone will start to be discontent, but they will not know why.

96. No-one who enters into a marriage without a blessing or who has been forced into marriage will find peace and their love will be useless to them.
97. When a child is born he cries because he does not know what sins await him. But when someone dies, he is happy because he enters into eternal life. Then everyone around him cries because they have to stay here.
98. There is no need to be sad for the dead, it is better to pray to the Lord, asking Him to grant them the dwelling places promised by the Gospel. Sadness destroys everything. It destroys the peace which they have received from the Lord.
99. To be sad for your departed relatives is not Christian. This is the lot of those who do not know God. We should rather pray to the Lord to forgive them their sins and do good deeds in their memory.
100. Here on earth there is nothing that can give us inner peace. For neither riches, nor glory, nor honour, nor position, nor family, nor neighbours can give us unshakeable inner peace. There is only one giver of life, peace and joy – God.

JOY ~

“Joy is thankfulness, and when we are joyful, that is the best expression of thanks we can offer the Lord, Who delivers us from sorrow and sin.”  

Just Listen ~

“Music is a total constant. That's why we have such a strong visceral connection to it, you know? Because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in your or the world, that one song says the same, just like that moment.”
― Sarah Dessen, Just Listen

Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby

“No relationship is perfect, ever. There are always some ways you have to bend, to compromise, to give something up in order to gain something greater...The love we have for each other is bigger than these small differences. And that's the key. It's like a big pie chart, and the love in a relationship has to be the biggest piece. Love can make up for a lot.”
― Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby    

Amy Tam

“...I owed her a debt of gratitude. More than gratitude, much more.
I could finally see what had always been there. She had been more than an attendant, more than a friend, more than a sister. She had been a mother to me. She had worried, sought to protect me from danger, guided me toward the best. She had looked out for my future, assessed the worthiness of everyone to be in my life. And in that way, she had taken me as her purpose in life, the one who gave her meaning. I had a constant love all along. And in recognizing that, I felt moved to tears.
"How could you step out of my life?" I told her. "if you do don't join me, I will be lost. No one would worry about me as much as you. No one knows me better, knows my past and what this new life means. I should have told you a long time ago." I became teary-eyed. She kept her lips sealed, but her jaw was trembling. "You are the only loyal person in my life, the only one I can trust."
Tears fell from her eyes. "Now you know. I was always the only one."
"We love each other," I said with a light laugh. "In spite of all the trouble I've given you, you stayed with me. So it must be that you loved me like a mother.”

Waiting With Truth ~

“ I learned that if I let other people tell me how God was supposed to work in my life I would be dead. If I would have given into someone else’s version of God. He is relentless , He will put in your heart a need for answers. The intensity of what bothers your soul is his voice trying to take you from the limited vision of mankind to the full view of the best life he would like to offer you. He is author of your forever.The light of peace stands at the end of a journey ,waiting with truth.”

The Alphabet Grace ~

Life is grace. Sleep is forgiveness. The night absolves. Darkness wipes the slate clean, not spotless to be sure, but clean enough for another day's chalking.” ― Frederick Buechner, The Alphabet of Grace

How To Fly ~

“We're always taught that God wants us to always only say "I can't do this without You God" , "Whatever your will is God, that's my will too" but God says He is a father, and there is no good father who wants his children to have no will and to think that they can't stand on their own two feet. So maybe what you should be saying is "I can do it" and "I have a strong will, I know what I want." When you think God's left you and maybe He's actually believing in you, teaching you how to fly.” Hopefully my best friend Tonya and I will go on a roadtrip together enjoying life ~

This Isn't My First Rodeo , It's My SECOND ~

Aliyah & I Go To The Pool ~6-1-2014

Aliyah & William Turn TWO ~