try turning your paper sideways!!!!

Good morning and happy Friday, it is a dreary, rainy morning here in Utah, not dreary in a bad way, just no sunrise to speak of due to cloud coverage, we are needing some rain so it is a blessing and much welcome. I pray your day is off to a great start and that above all else you are feeling the blessings of being alive and living for God today!

In prayer this morning I prayed for each of you asking God to provide for you your needs and to allow you to feel only positive. I lifted in prayer each request that came in this morning and am standing on my faith that these prayers will be answered. I also as always said my favorite prayer as I feel it covers all that I want to say to Him, it touches on so many needs and so many lives. If you would join me in this prayer I am sure you will feel the same....

Dear Lord, I thank You for this day.  

I thank You for my being able to see and to hear this morning.  

I'm blessed because You are a forgiving and understanding God.  

You have done so much for me and You keep on blessing me.  

Forgive me this day for I have sinned. 

I ask now for Your forgiveness.  

Keep me safe from all danger and harm.

Let me start this day with a new attitude and plenty of gratitude. 

Let me make the best of each and every day 

and give my best in all that is put before me.  

Clear my mind that I can hear from You.  

Broaden my mind that I can accept all things.  

Let me not whine and whimper over things I have no control over.  

Let me continue to see sin through God's eyes

and acknowledge it as evil.  

And when I sin, let me repent, and confess my wrong doing,

and receive the forgiveness of God.  

And when this world closes in on me, 

let me remember Jesus' example --- 

to slip away and find a quiet place to pray.  

It's the best response when I'm pushed beyond my limits.  

I know that when I can't pray, You listen to my heart.

Continue to use me to do your Will. 

Continue to bless me that I may be a blessing to others.

Keep me strong that I may help the weak.

Keep me uplifted that I may have words of encouragement for others.

I pray for those that are lost and can't find their way.

I pray for those that are misjudged and misunderstood.

I pray for those who refuse to share a word from You.

I pray for those that will read this and not use this in their lives.

I pray for those that will delete this without sharing it with others.

I pray for those that don't believe.  But I believe.

I believe that God changes people and God changes things.

I pray for all my sisters and brothers.

This is my prayer; I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

God is amazing my friends, he loves us when we do not even love ourselves!!!

You know I love stories that help solve problems, that shine new light on darkness..this is a great messages...try turning your paper sideways and see if it helps!!!

Have you tried turning your paper sideways???

Sometimes I need to approach a persistent problem with a new way of thinking. The Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez said, "If they give you ruled paper, write the other way." His image reminds me to always be my own person, but it also challenges me to think creatively. Turning the paper sideways is like looking at situations from different angles. 

Henry L. Mencken said it first: "For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong." And how often I am determined to keep pounding on that simple and neat solution until I make it work, or else I finally give up altogether. But success will surprisingly come when I decide to look at the thing from a wholly different perspective. 

Several all night convenience stores in New York City learned something about viewing problems another way. Evidently, some of the stores had a problem with teenagers hanging out in their parking lots late into the night. Not that they didn't like kids; they liked them very much. But customers complained that they were afraid to approach them in the dark and push through them to enter the store. Neighbors complained that couldn't sleep with the noise. And store personnel were worried about the well-being of the young people themselves. Late at night, these neighborhoods were unsafe. 

Managers tried various methods to solve the problem. They asked the kids to find a safer place to congregate. They asked them to move away from the doors so customers didn't have to push through them. They asked them to discard their cigarette butts and trash in outdoor receptacles and not litter the parking lot. Each solution was simple, neat and completely ineffective. It seems that any of them should have worked. But none of them did and many of the store managers eventually gave up in frustration on solving the problem. 

Finally, one man came up with an unusual idea. He decided he had been approaching the situation all wrong. Asking the teens to change their behavior didn't work, so he tried something different. He just piped easy-listening music into the parking lot -- slow, soothing instrumentals especially suited for mature listeners. 

No more loitering. 

Sometimes we just need to look at things differently. Again and again we butt up against the same old problem. It may involve a child or parent, a friend or lover. It might be a problem with a co-worker. Maybe it's just a complex situation we're working through, or a personal problem with which we can't seem to make any headway. And so far, everything we've tried has failed. Perhaps it's time to turn the paper around and write the other way; to look at the problem a whole new way. 

Here's a good question to ask: "How can I come at this thing from a different angle?" Because there is likely something you're not seeing. 

A father and his daughter were stopped by a flight attendant before boarding their plane. The problem? The little girl was clutching a large bouquet of balloons. In sympathetic tones, the attendant told the child that she would not be permitted to travel with all of the balloons. "Only one is allowed per passenger," she said in a voice that concluded there's nothing to be done. After all, rules are rules. 

Father and daughter decided they could each carry one. So with tears in her eyes, the little child selected her two favorite balloons for the flight. But before she could discard the rest, another passenger intervened. "Here, I'll take one," he said. He quickly saw a solution to the problem and proceeded to give one balloon to anybody in line who would take one. As she disembarked, every balloon was returned to the happy child. 

Here was a man who just looked at the problem a different way. Instead of saying, "There's nothing be done," he turned the paper sideways and the answer was clear. 

When you turn your paper sideways, what do you see?