Friendly thoughts

What are you thinking about during many of your waking hours? I've noticed that many of my friends dwell on worrisome thoughts of one type or another. Many people spend a great deal of time reacting to shocking stories they hear on the media, for one example. There are also many people who allow themselves to be manipulated by envious friends, who in subtle ways take away their confidence. Remember, people who know us well also know where our soft spots are, and though it hurts to think they would ever want to hurt us, we have to look at their background; have they perhaps not had any of the lucky breaks that we had? And therefore, can we overlook their envious feelings? Family members can also get us feeling inadequate. Parents saying "you're not a good son or daughter", children saying, "you're not a good mother or father". These kinds of statements, from those who mean the world to us, can leave us distraught and confused.

So what should we do to clear our minds of all kinds of intense worries? I will simply offer you some advice I read many many years ago in a tract that was handed to me in the street. Basically. the tract said to be alert to when these worrisome thoughts enter your mind. It then said, if we want to push a negative thought out of our mind, we need to be prepared with a healthy, positive thought we can put in to take its place. So the idea is to come up with a list of positive thoughts that we can push into our minds when we want to push a negative thought  out. We also would, as much as we can, prepare ourselves with a list the negative, bothersome thoughts that we want to eliminate.

I had to persevere at it a little, but believe it or not this simple technique worked for me. It helped me get control of my thinking.

  ♬     Pam Mark Hall: Dwell On These Things

Get what you want, even if it's not exactly what you want

Friends, I hope you can digest this, because this is huge. Why are you asking God for more wisdom, when you're not even using the understanding He has already given you?

A photo posted by A Friendly Human Being (@afriendlyhumanbeing) on May 15, 2016 at 7:47p

This is a subject I have been looking at a lot lately. Wisdom. The Bible tells us that wisdom can potentially get us everything we want, if we use it properly. Now this verse about wisdom from Proverbs chapter 17, asks us, why are we saying how very much we want wisdom, when we are not even showing that we are prepared to use it?

Just last night I once again caught myself displaying an attitude that made it clear that I wanted to wander away from wisdom. My respiratory therapist was working with me, and I asked her to jack up my oxygen supply, and she did not want to do it. I told her I was short of breath, but she said the vent reflected I was receiving enough oxygen at the time. Another case of not being able to have my way. And so I began to scoff (in my mind). I decided that she was just a mean respiratory therapist who enjoyed depriving patients of their oxygen. I decided she was being unkind.

I never took a moment to think maybe I needed to respect her decision as a professional. I reacted just as Psalm 1 says a blessed person does not do. "Walk in the counsel of the ungodly, sit in the seat of sinners, and stand in the way of scorners". Fortunately I did go ahead and make the best of it. But situations like this are perfect opportunities to show the life of Christ in me by being submissive. And this, I believe is a good and worthy goal.

m PDT

Doctor Doctor: Might I show you the power beyond you and I?

Hi. Notice I don't say good morning. It's been an awful morning. Had an argument with some Dr. I bruised his totally inflated ego. Some of these Dr. really and truly think they're God. It's so ugly. So anyways, now I'm sitting here and I can barely breathe. And he told me I just need to relax so I said well let me get an ativan (which helps me relax) but he said if I take an ativan it will make my numbers drop even lower. Anyone see the contradictory thinking there? Idol gods. That's what these Drs are. And a lot of people in medicine. I'm thinking of reporting him.

A photo posted by A Friendly Human Being (@afriendlyhumanbeing) on May 11, 2016 at 4:53a

 OK. Once again I am presenting you with a post from my Instagram. I want to continue on the topic of conflict, and how rather run from it, or place blame on others who are involved, I want to raise the question: what can I learn from what happened here?

We see once again the subject of idolatry. People who we see as responsible for helping us stay alive, wouldn't it seem natural to put them on a level with God? And as with God, so it is with people; we get indignant when we can't run the show. Having to trust someone else is not easy.

But bringing people to Christ is not easy, and to make Christ visible to skeptics and doubters, it requires doing things differently than the way we would naturally tend to do them.

So are doctors conceited? Yes. Do they make decisions that we don't agree with? Yes. Do we want them to see Christ in us? If the answer is yes, than we need to show them,  not so much that we trust them, but that we trust the power beyond them: the power of Jesus Christ, who let go, for our sake, of getting His own way. 

So are doctors conceited? Yes. Do they make decisions that we don't agree with? Yes. Do we want them to see Christ in us? If the answer is yes, than we need to show them,  not so much that we trust them, but that we trust the power beyond them: the power of Jesus Christ, who let go, for our sake, of getting His own way. m PDT

Accepting the situations we find ourselves in, and learning to appreciate them

OK. You know why I think we should practice accepting and appreciating what we have? We might not get anything better. A new house might not turn out to be a better house. A new boyfriend/husband might not turn out to be a better boyfriend/husband a new gender might not be a better gender. Changing our surroundings when life doesn't make us happy can be a terrible mistake. Usually, if we feel unhappy, the one we need to change is ourselves.

Got a real wakeup call about this point recently. I don't how much I have written about it on this blog, but some of you may have figured out that I have almost ongoing friction with the respiratory department where I reside. Now I could carry on and say, "Oh that wicked respiratory department!" And I could think of a few choice criticisms to make. Lazy, nasty attitude, spiteful, etc. But wait a minute. Is it possible that I have something to do with the friction experienced between me and the respiratory department?

Here's a big one folks. I can't believe I'm actually about to confess this: IDOLATRY. Yep. Making the respiratory department more important than the Lord. Rather than having faith that it is the Lord who is providing me with oxygen and breath, I'm seeing it as - my breathing treatments, my suctions, the procedures carried out by the respiratory personnel, as the power behind my breathing.

I imagine this puts the people who work in respiratory under a great deal of pressure, which probably  is the reason why we seldom get along. I am making them responsible for way too much.

But do you see how changing nursing homes, or constantly switching therapists (which I do) would in nowise solve the problem? It would only make matters worse! Friends, if you are unhappy, chances are you are actually unhappy with yourself, and not any external factor.

♬  Rebecca St. James: Breathe