I am reading a book called IT’S NOT MY FAULT by Dr.’s Henry Cloud and John Townsend. These two have also penned the well known book BOUNDARIES. It is not as you may think when you read the title! This book, and I am only on page 56, has dealt with the opposite of allowing me to blame it on someone else or think passively about my own actions. It has not just been an eye opener but more of a revelation and a wakeup call to my well crafted way of thinking that I am so excited to share bits and pieces of it with you!
The first chapter addresses owning my own life. It is not saying that I have the power to control my life but that I must own my actions, decisions, attitude and how I will walk the path God has given me. It opens with two girls suing McDonald’s because they were overweight! I remember this case. As if this company was responsible for shoving hamburgers down these two girls’ mouths and they were all but helpless to escape. Luckily they did not win in court, saving humanity and common sense from a disastrous outcome, at least for a little while.
It then addresses the foundational sin in Genesis 3:12-13. When God confronts Adam in the Garden of Eden and asks him why he ate the fruit God himself told Adam not to eat Adam blames Eve. Adam also has the audacity to even blame God by saying that it was the woman God gave him that led him, Adam, to sin. When God confronts Eve she blames the serpent. Neither one takes responsibility for their own action!
One last glimpse into the first chapter because I don’t want to give it all away. God has given us “creative choice”.
“God has delegated two things to you:
The ability to create and respond to life
The reality consequences of those choices
Often you cannot choose what happens to you. You cannot determine which cards you are dealt. But you can always do something:
You can always create, seek, and find a range of options to determine how you will respond to what happens, and how you will play the cards in your hand.”
Every time I have to put this book down I am charged with wanting to change something about myself, about my way of thinking. Chapter two deals with just that, learning to change your way of thinking!
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
My Short Take on Our Energy 'Crises'
I wrote this selection about a month ago after driving to work contemplating our energy ‘crises’.
Why do we maintain a dependency on foreign oil when we have resources right beneath us? Are we trying to save it for a rainy day? Well I might be inclined to say it’s pouring outside right now! We have oil, coal, and gas in our own country, right beneath our own soil and water. Instead of shipping it overseas why don’t we use it here? Subsidize with foreign oil not with our own. While we are using our own resources we should be devising ways to use renewable energy sources such as the powers of the wind, water and the sun.
Yes, the Gulf of Mexico oil leak was disastrous on its ecosystem and BP should be held accountable for the safety and techniques they use. Don’t prohibit drilling for the sake of the environment, revise, repair and continue. We must take care of our environment but we must also continue living as well.
Why do we maintain a dependency on foreign oil when we have resources right beneath us? Are we trying to save it for a rainy day? Well I might be inclined to say it’s pouring outside right now! We have oil, coal, and gas in our own country, right beneath our own soil and water. Instead of shipping it overseas why don’t we use it here? Subsidize with foreign oil not with our own. While we are using our own resources we should be devising ways to use renewable energy sources such as the powers of the wind, water and the sun.
Yes, the Gulf of Mexico oil leak was disastrous on its ecosystem and BP should be held accountable for the safety and techniques they use. Don’t prohibit drilling for the sake of the environment, revise, repair and continue. We must take care of our environment but we must also continue living as well.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
A Menagerie of Thoughts
It has been awhile since I have 'popped' into my blog account; it takes discipline and intention to keep this thing going.
We have now entered 2012, the last Mayan calendar year which of course means the world is going to end, right? I hardly think the God of the universe is controlled by the Mayan calendar and any link between the Mayans and the rapture would only be coincidental. Many 'predictions' have been announced of Jesus' return only to end up a mockery at the cost of true faith.
This is also a presidential election year which depending on the decision made in November it could feel as if the world is coming to an end for some. Television viewers have been accosted by candidate ads filled with lies, half truths and inflated, egocentric claims all at the expense of our valuable time. I have not set my eye on any one candidate but am left to wonder if this will come down to electing the evil we don't know rather than the evil we do know and have experienced. I often wonder if Americans choose comfort and apathy over freedoms and morality when it comes to choosing a president. I am not only talking of sexual morality, but of financial morality, truthful morality and leadership morality if such things do exist.
On a personal level I have undergone my own transformation and have embarked on the Couch to 5k training program. My doctor said get in shape and so now I am working on chiseling it out and have two goals set for the new year. Goal one is to run 2 miles by the end of spring without killing myself and goal two is to run the Warrior Dash in August with my sister-in-law. I do not plan on running to win but on running to acquire the t-shirts!
We have now entered 2012, the last Mayan calendar year which of course means the world is going to end, right? I hardly think the God of the universe is controlled by the Mayan calendar and any link between the Mayans and the rapture would only be coincidental. Many 'predictions' have been announced of Jesus' return only to end up a mockery at the cost of true faith.
This is also a presidential election year which depending on the decision made in November it could feel as if the world is coming to an end for some. Television viewers have been accosted by candidate ads filled with lies, half truths and inflated, egocentric claims all at the expense of our valuable time. I have not set my eye on any one candidate but am left to wonder if this will come down to electing the evil we don't know rather than the evil we do know and have experienced. I often wonder if Americans choose comfort and apathy over freedoms and morality when it comes to choosing a president. I am not only talking of sexual morality, but of financial morality, truthful morality and leadership morality if such things do exist.
On a personal level I have undergone my own transformation and have embarked on the Couch to 5k training program. My doctor said get in shape and so now I am working on chiseling it out and have two goals set for the new year. Goal one is to run 2 miles by the end of spring without killing myself and goal two is to run the Warrior Dash in August with my sister-in-law. I do not plan on running to win but on running to acquire the t-shirts!
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