Have you thought about this...

So far the oldest human has been found in Africa.  That means they were there before white folks showed up.

According to the Bible, the garden of Eden was in the middle east (or Africa, remember continental drift and such).

So if the earliest people were brown people, you know, NOT caucasian...

and God made us in the image of Him AND his son has wooly hair and bronze skin...

then could racism be a deep, deep, deep envy? So deep that it has permeated the DNA of some folks?

Isn't envy and jealousy Lucifer's problem?

Why do bad things happen to good people?

This is what I know...

God gave all of us free will.  Sometimes people don't make the best choices and good people get caught in those bad choices.  Eve made a poor choice.  Biting the apple is not the poor choice but, not trusting what God told her is the poor choice.

God doesn't want mindless drones in his kingdom. We are all free to make good choices because of God's love for us and not to get God to love us more i.e., we want to do well because we are loved.  Think about how much harder you work for something when you really want it.

God is not a geni, here to grant your every wish.  Like a good parent, he will see us through the hardships and help us celebrate the good times.  Think about this...as a parent/guardian/supervisor of others, we don't give in to our children's/employees' every wish and whem because we know that's not what best for them.  A good parent is not afraid to say "No."

Let's give the devil his due!  When something bad happens, don't ask, "God, why would you let this happen?!"  You could ask but, you'll not get the answer that will satisfy you in the heat of the moment and only the devil doesn't want you asking questions.  Instead say,  "Devil, I know this your doing and I am not going to let you get to me!  God, I don't know why this happened, God but, I do know you won't give me anything I can't handle and you will see me through this, too!"  Say it out loud as many times as you need. 

God allows bad things to happen because we may need lessons in an area in order to be better people. A lot of the time the lesson won't be so obvious. So you have to analyze the situation.

There was a particularly hard time in my life that made me feel like the I had been blacklisted. It seemed like nothing was going right. I made it a point to find happiness in the littlest things, like the fact that I was finally able to get my long time slow running tub drain to clear without having to spend lots of money I didn't have at the time. I gave thanks to Him every time I took a shower for weeks! 

Despite my feeling of despair, I made myself get up and work because I felt that tugging that I feel when God really wants me to do something. I didn't feel like working because it seem to be for not but, I did any way.  Eventually,  I realized that I wasn't thinking about my feelings of despair, at least not while I was busy.  That made me want to keep working. Then I got it and I said out loud, "Oh! You want me to get used to working during the times I may feel at my lowest and when I just want to curl up under the covers and sleep."

Sometimes I just went to my work space and straighten up but, I didn't wallow in my despair. Once I made the realization of the lesson, things got better immediately. My circumstances changed slowly but, I no longer had the feeling of despair.

So look at it like this...bad experiences fortify our being and character. Sometimes it needs to be proven to us that we are strong enough to make it through what's coming. To think about it in a material way, precious metals and gems have to go through a long specific process to be created and then another to become the beautiful and even stronger. God allows bad things so we learn what God already knows abouts us.

Unwrap People Like Gifts

We should look at people like we look at wrapped gifts...Think about that gift sitting in front of you and you THINK you know what's inside. Then you unwrap it and get a surprise...it's nothing like what you expected. We have to stop making people victims of our own (low or high) expectations based on the outer wrapping!

This video let's us know that NO ONE  can tell by the outer wrapping what is on the inside of a person.

credit: TV2Danmark

Some of the bad comments on Youtube about this video let's us know that there will always be ignorant small minded people who will always blame someone else for personal failures.

The Most Important Statistic

We know that when employment is up, crime rates go down...

So then why would anyone want to keep anyone from working?

What this says to me is:

"When people have better lives, we ALL have a better life!"

You must remember that we don't have to like each other to respect each other as a person and respect a person's space.  You don't have to like your employees if they get the job done well.  You don't have to like your neighbor and still want your neighbor to well.

If we thought of each other in the same way we think of home values then we could all be living in better neighborhoods.  Most of us don't really know all of our neighbors, but we want then to take care of their house because if they don't, it adversely affects all of the houses nearby.  So, we want people to do well, whether we know or not, whether we like them or not, whether we want to live next to them or not, but because we all (most of us, anyway) want the same thing, to be able to have a comfortable life made from our own choices.  

Prayer is for us

I used to think that it was silly to bother God about frivolous little things (in the grand scheme of things).  Like winning a game or a prize.

As I got older and really started to think about and exercise my faith more as a forethought, I realized that because God already loves us and knows what we want and need before we do, payer time is us tuning out the rest of the world and saying to God, "Please, come into this part of life."  Even if it is a little thing in the grand scheme of things.

The more we take that prayer time and allow God's light in, the easier it is to see what's really important and good in our lives.  The more time we take with God the harder it is for things to jump out of the dark corners and surprise us.

Prayer time is a time to put worldly things aside, if only for a few minutes and calm our minds, hearts and souls so we can purposely let more light into those little things that we think don't matter.  It all matters, to God!

If you think you don't know what to pray about, try this:

• God, please help exercise my faith as fervently in good times as I do bad times.
• God, please help me recognise the devil's shenanigans and deceptions sooner rather than later. 
• God, please help me be the person you know I can be.
• God, please help me stay on your intended path.

Those last two can be scarey because what you think you know about you may be very different than what God intends for you. God can make anything happen so you have no idea where He may take you but, I know we'll be better for it, as long as you keep the faith. 

Think about this, we believe that God can do anything so, isn't it silly to think He can't handle frivolous. I think people say that because humans have a habit of projecting our own shortcomings upon others, including God.  

Remember, prayer is for us because God loves us as we are and He knows us from beginning to end.  We don't have to do anything to prove ourselves to Him.  We do it because He loves us unconditionally and we want to better people.  Prayer is our time with God whenever and wherever.  There's no special way or place to do it, just do pray!  Even praying for frivolous things gets us in the habit of praying.  When you're sincere and your heart is open to receive the word then He'll deal with the frivolous and help you mature in your faith.

Know that God answers ALL prayers...it's yes, no, or wait! You may not like the answer but, it's an answer. 

Even if you are unsure about God's existence or you don't believe in God, it's alright because He most certainly believes in YOU!

The idiocy of arrogance

YES!  Arrogance makes you stupid!

Arrogance make you stupid by leading you to believe a false perception of yourself. Blinding you to the reality of the situation or your own abilities.

No one should be arrogant, no matter how good you are at whatever.  There is always someone that does it better, faster cheaper.  More importantly, being arrogant will cause you to stop improving.

You see, when you know that there is room for improvement, you keep trying to improve.  You are aware that there is something more to learn.  When you are arrogant, you think that you know everything you need to know, you are doing everything you can do, or worse, you think that no one can do it better.  When you're arrogant you don't know what you don't know and you stop trying to learn, grow and get better.  You fail to listen to reason and good advice.

Let me give you an example;  I know how to change a tire or change the spark plugs in my car, but I know that I don't know how to fix the other more complicated parts in my car.  Understanding this, I will either take it to someone who does know these things or go learn it myself.  Believe it or not there are some people out there that are arrogant enough to think "I know how to do all those other little things on my car so, I can work on the engine."

See what happens when you're arrogant, you don't think you need to go learn something.

The irony of this post is that the people who really need to read it are too arrogant to think it applies to him/her.