Good morning and happy Thursday, I pray that this day is filled with joy and that each of you is becoming more and more excited for the new year. As I sit and reflect on 2011, I find myself filled with (ear to ear) grins, and at times with great tears. I pray that you take some time to reflect on the good and bad in 2011 and make some goals for your personal life for 2012.
In prayer this morning as I sat in silence, I asked Father God to bless each of you with what is needed in your life today, not wanted but needed. I thanked him for the many things he has given me this year with your friendship and encouragement being at the top. I thanked him for the honor of allowing me to pray with and for each of you in your times of struggle and for allowing me to have a voice and a heart that is not every weary to pray. I asked him to bless my daughter, her fiance and our unborn baby with all of his light and all of his love. I prayed for peace to be in each of our hearts, for calm to be in each of our minds and comfort to be in each of our bodies. I prayed for those who have suffered loss of loved ones both human and pet, and for those who are battling the effects of disease and illness. I asked God to reveal to each of us his unconditional love, to continue to shine his beautiful guiding light and for him to never take turn from us even in our darkest hour. I prayed that each of you would continue to reach out to him, to trust and have faith in him and to realize that when times are the hardest he is the closest. I continue to pray for a very special man, one that I have admired since the first time I ever met him some 25 years ago, comfort him Father and let him know that you are holding him. Father, comfort each of his loved ones. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen
Let Go Of Your GRUDGES
Michael Josephson
As we approach the New Year, it's a good time to clean out the clutter in our lives. That means disposing of useless papers and unused stuff but also throwing away old grudges.
The prevalence and durability of grudges proves Maya Angelou's observation that people don't always remember what you said or did, but they do remember how you made them feel.
Grudges are nothing more than toxic memories of how someone made us feel.
But Confucius taught that "To be wronged is nothing unless we continue to remember it." So why do so many of us choose to consciously preserve and revisit toxic feelings that detract from our happiness?
Perhaps we fool ourselves into thinking we can inflict some sort of pain on the person who wronged us. In fact, holding on to a grudge is like holding on to a hot stone. It doesn't hurt the stone or the person who gave it to us; it only hurts the one holding it. Carrying a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee.
It doesn't matter how justified the bitter feelings are or how right we are. Holding on to a grievance turns pain into suffering. In a peculiar way it empowers the wrongdoer to hurt us again and again.
So start out this New Year by giving yourself a great gift. Muster the good sense and strength to root out and release deep-seated and long-held resentments.
If you can, forgive and forget. But all that's really necessary is a firm decision to let go of your grudges so you can move forward and free yourself of the chains of resentment.
No comments:
Post a Comment