Life is not at all a game of accumulating everything you need and maintaining a certain level of happiness, for happiness after all cannot be maintained. Life is a constant flow, of touching and growing and moving on. Life is either experienced or not, in joy and in sadness, in anger and in despair. Those who choose not its sorrows choose not its happiness as well; and those who choose not to live fully choose only to crumble and to die. – www.itakeoffthemask.com
When I was younger, I never thought there would come a time when this bible verse would come true – that there would come a time when no one would be waiting for God anymore. Yet as I observe our times, I realized that the time may soon come to pass when God would be seeking out his people and no one would be looking back. Why so?
1. THE RICH
Because the rich will have bought the idea of positivism to the extreme to the extent that they have learned to focus only on themselves and their needs, excluding everyone else that may get in the way of their perfectly established lives. The rich would have become indifferent, already possessing everything they thought they needed to live their lives to the full.
2. THE POOR
Because the poor would have thought of himself as being unloved, comparing himself to the rich one whom heaven has blessed far beyond the necessities he prayed for. He would have lost his hope or grudgingly accepted his lot. The poor would have grown a rage that consumes all of his soul.
3. THE RELIGIOUS
The remaining people who claim to be religious would have become the self righteous judgmental people who neither understands the poor nor prays for the awakening of the rich. The religious would judge the poor and the rich for their sins, but see not the dust in their own eyes.
There may soon come a time when all these would come to be, when the hearts of people have grown so cold as to forget the most important thing of all… authentic love.
What keeps a person from
receiving a gift,
a very precious
and significant gift?
Given the chance to accept such a gift,
a brand new car perhaps
a beautiful house and lot
a precious jewel,
how many among us would refuse
something totally for free?
Following are some of the things I thought would prevent us from receiving the blessings/ gifts the good Lord has meant us all to receive:
1. Hostility/ doubt towards the giver
It doesn’t matter sometimes how beautiful or precious a gift is as long as we do not approve of the giver. Who would ever receiver a gift from someone she doesn’t trust? From someone with a vested interest perhaps? From someone scary? From a monster?
We are unable to receive many gifts because we do not approve of the giver.
2. Feeling of unworthiness
Even if we believe in the giver, we oftentimes refuse our gifts because we do not believer ourselves worthy of them. We think we do not deserve a new car because we have not studied well, we do not deserve to be forgiven because we have been so bad in the past.
But have you ever considered what the giver is giving the gift for? Maybe it has nothing to do after all with what we did or not. Maybe it is being given just because the giver would be happy to see us receive the blessing. Maybe it is because of his generosity. Maybe it is because of his unconditional love.
3. So much focus on other things
as not to see what is being given
How do you receive a gift you do not even notice? If we are so busy doing something else, talking to this and that, taking care of this and that, worrying, fretting, anxiously thinking of our fears, would we ever have the time to even think someone’s waiting for us, intending to give us something beautiful?
4. lack of confidence
to be able to use the gift
If we do not know how to operate a personal computer, having not even a slight interest in learning to do so, would it matte at all that someone’s giving us a top of the line PC, complete with accessories, software and technical assistance?
If we think we’d have no use nor skill for something, we may refuse something being given us.
5. ignorance on the nature and worth
of what is being given
Our ignorance on the nature of the gift being given us hinders us from receiving it open arms. Instead of gratitude, we have doubt. Instead of excitement, we have apathy and we care not whether we receive the blessing or not at all.
6. ignorance of one’s needs
that can be fully satisfied
by the gift
If we do not know our selves and our needs, we may not be aware of what good the blessing before us is going to give us. An abundant feast may have been set before our eyes, yet if we do not even know we’re hungry, it wouldn’t satisfy us a bit. We may even look for other things we think we need.
7. comparing one’s gift to the
gift given to others
How many times have we refused our blessings because we deem it lesser than the gifts we saw given to other people? Our blessings may be the best for us, yet oftentimes, we look at bigger packages given to another. We know not that inside the small package is a precious jewel waiting to be revealed if only we’d have opened our hands to receive it rather than whine about how small it is compared to what our neighbors have received.
Have you found your blessings yet? Have you prayed and received not the answer? Reflect for a moment and consider, you may have refused the very blessings God has placed before you all the while.
This article was written by Jocelyn Soriano at ITAKEOFFTHEMASK.COM
You are free to redistribute this article as long as proper attribution is given to the author and a link back to this site is provided. For more free stuff and blog ideas, visit ITAKEOFFTHEMASK.COM
Moving On Quotes
“I am tired of all the regrets, the shame and the self-pity. I will begin a new phase of forgiveness, of change and of moving on.”
“Moving on now, I see how much life has changed, how much I have changed. I am no longer the silly girl I used to be. I am much wiser now, much stronger, and much capable of loving again.”
“We can never move on for as long as we keep looking back at the past. Let the past take care of itself. Today is a new beginning for all of those who want to find their joy!”
“Dare to live, dare to move on, dare to start again!”
“It breaks my heart to move on without you, but I must pick myself up again and start over alone with the dreams we used to believe we could reach.”
“Our heavy burdens of guilt and anger keep us from moving on and finding our peace. Let go, let God and let true love and courage show you the way.”
It is only by being confident enough to face the present that you can move on and look forward to whatever it is that lies ahead.
Moving on doesn’t only mean letting go, it also means holding on to all the beautiful things that are worth keeping to guide you in the life you desire to pursue.
Let these Moving On Quotes help in your healing and give you inspiration in starting over and in moving on towards your greatest dreams!
I would like to share a beautiful story I read this morning from the works of T.S. Arthur about some of the small things we neglect without full awareness of its effect upon our neighbors:
MY WASHERWOMAN.
SOME people have a singular reluctance to part with money. If waited
on for a bill, they say, almost involuntarily, “Call to-morrow,”
even though their pockets are far from being empty.
I once fell into this bad habit myself; but a little incident, which
I will relate, cured me. Not many years after I had attained my
majority, a poor widow, named Blake, did my washing and ironing. She
was the mother of two or three little children, whose sole
dependence for food and raiment was on the labour of her hands.
Punctually, every Thursday morning, Mrs. Blake appeared with my
clothes, “white as the driven snow;” but not always, as punctually,
did I pay the pittance she had earned by hard labour.
“Mrs. Blake is down stairs,” said a servant, tapping at my room-door
one morning, while I was in the act of dressing myself.
“Oh, very well,” I replied. “Tell her to leave my clothes. I will
get them when I come down.”
The thought of paying the seventy-five cents, her due, crossed my
mind. But I said to myself,–“It’s but a small matter, and will do
as well when she comes again.”
There was in this a certain reluctance to part with money. My funds
were low, and I might need what change I had during the day. And so
it proved. As I went to the office in which I was engaged, some
small article of ornament caught my eye in a shop window.
“Beautiful!” said I, as I stood looking at it. Admiration quickly
changed into the desire for possession; and so I stepped in to ask
the price. It was just two dollars.
“Cheap enough,” thought I. And this very cheapness was a further
temptation.
So I turned out the contents of my pockets, counted them over, and
found the amount to be two dollars and a quarter.
“I guess I’ll take it,” said I, laying the money on the shopkeeper’s
counter.
“I’d better have paid Mrs. Blake.” This thought crossed my mind, an
hour afterwards, by which time the little ornament had lost its
power of pleasing. “So much would at least have been saved.”
I was leaving the table, after tea, on the evening that followed,
when the waiter said to me,
“Mrs. Blake is at the door, and wishes to see you.”
I felt a little worried at hearing this; for I had no change in my
pockets, and the poor washerwoman had, of course, come for her
money.
“She’s in a great hurry,” I muttered to myself, as I descended to
the door.
“You’ll have to wait until you bring home my clothes next week, Mrs.
Blake. I haven’t any change, this evening.”
The expression of the poor woman’s face, as she turned slowly away,
without speaking, rather softened my feelings.
“I’m sorry,” said I, “but it can’t be helped now. I wish you had
said, this morning, that you wanted money. I could have paid you
then.”
She paused, and turned partly towards me, as I said this. Then she
moved off, with something so sad in her manner, that I was touched
sensibly.
“I ought to have paid her this morning, when I had the change about
me. And I wish I had done so. Why didn’t she ask for her money, if
she wanted it so badly?”
I felt, of course, rather ill at ease. A little while afterwards I
met the lady with whom I was boarding.
“Do you know anything about this Mrs. Blake, who washes for me?” I
inquired.
“Not much; except that she is very poor, and has three children to
feed and clothe. And what is worst of all, she is in bad health. I
think she told me, this morning, that one of her little ones was
very sick.”
I was smitten with a feeling of self-condemnation, and soon after
left the room. It was too late to remedy the evil, for I had only a
sixpence in my pocket; and, moreover, did not know where to find
Mrs. Blake.
Having purposed to make a call upon some young ladies that evening,
I now went up into my room to dress. Upon my bed lay the spotless
linen brought home by Mrs. Blake in the morning. The sight of it
rebuked me; and I had to conquer, with some force, an instinctive
reluctance, before I could compel myself to put on a clean shirt,
and snow-white vest, too recently from the hand of my unpaid
washerwoman.
One of the young ladies upon whom I called was more to me than a
mere pleasant acquaintance. My heart had, in fact, been warming
towards her for some time; and I was particularly anxious to find
favour in her eyes. On this evening she was lovelier and more
attractive than ever, and new bonds of affection entwined themselves
around my heart.
Judge, then, of the effect produced upon me by the entrance of her
mother–at the very moment when my heart was all a-glow with love,
who said, as she came in–
“Oh, dear! This is a strange world!”
“What new feature have you discovered now, mother?” asked one of her
daughters, smiling.
“No new one, child; but an old one that looks more repulsive than
ever,” was replied. “Poor Mrs. Blake came to see me just now, in
great trouble.”
“What about, mother?” All the young ladies at once manifested
unusual interest.
Tell-tale blushes came instantly to my countenance, upon which the
eyes of the mother turned themselves, as I felt, with a severe
scrutiny.
“The old story, in cases like hers,” was answered. “Can’t get her
money when earned, although for daily bread she is dependent on her
daily labour. With no food in the house, or money to buy medicine
for her sick child, she was compelled to seek me to-night, and to
humble her spirit, which is an independent one, so low as to ask
bread for her little ones, and the loan of a pittance with which to
get what the doctor has ordered her feeble sufferer at home.”
“Oh, what a shame!” fell from the lips of Ellen, the one in whom my
heart felt more than a passing interest; and she looked at me
earnestly as she spoke.
“She fully expected,” said the mother, “to get a trifle that was due
her from a young man who boards with Mrs. Corwin; and she went to
see him this evening. But he put her off with some excuse. How
strange that any one should be so thoughtless as to withhold from
the poor their hard-earned pittance! It is but a small sum at best,
that the toiling seamstress or washerwoman can gain by her wearying
labour. That, at least, should be promptly paid. To withhold it an
hour is to do, in many cases, a great wrong.”
For some minutes after this was said, there ensued a dead silence. I
felt that the thoughts of all were turned upon me as the one who had
withheld from poor Mrs. Blake the trifling sum due her for washing.
What my feelings were, it is impossible for me to describe; and
difficult for any one, never himself placed in so unpleasant a
position, to imagine.
My relief was great when the conversation flowed on again, and in
another channel; for I then perceived that suspicion did not rest
upon me. You may be sure that Mrs. Blake had her money before ten
o’clock on the next day, and that I never again fell into the error
of neglecting, for a single week, my poor washerwoman.