On Independence
Officially this day’s for celebration
Not complaints or tearful lamentation.
It’s tempting to succumb to fretfulness.
Negators can’t enjoy forgetfulness ––
Deny their overeager plaintiveness
Erupting fulsomely with put on saintliness ––
Pouting as though martyred for a Cause, when
Everyone knows they only crave applause. When
Needing to be Noticed takes the Stage,
Disingenuousness will soon take over.
Ego run amok expresses rage ––
Needling challengers’ interest and inventions,
Creating tensions, refusing to engage,
Endowing Honesty with bad intentions.
Doubts about oneself makes fields of clover
A potent allergen of which mere mention
Yields fits of pique that might define an Age!
~ FreeThinke
One of God’s Great “Don’ts”
My Utmost for His Highest - July 4, 2015
Do not fret— it only causes harm. —Psalm 37:8
Fretting means getting ourselves “out of joint” mentally or spiritually. It is one thing to say, “Do not fret,” but something very different to have such a nature that you find yourself unable to fret. It’s easy to say, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him” (Psalm 37:7) until our own little world is turned upside down and we are forced to live in confusion and agony like so many other people. Is it possible to “rest in the Lord” then? If this “Do not” doesn’t work there, then it will not work anywhere. This “Do not” must work during our days of difficulty and uncertainty, as well as our peaceful days, or it will never work. And if it will not work in your particular case, it will not work for anyone else. Resting in the Lord is not dependent on your external circumstances at all, but on your relationship with God, Himself.
Worrying always results in sin. We tend to think that a little anxiety and worry are simply an indication of how wise we really are, yet it is actually a much better indication of just how wicked we are. Fretting rises from our determination to have our own way. Our Lord never worried and was never anxious, because His purpose was never to accomplish His own plans but to fulfill God’s plans. Fretting is wickedness for a child of God.
Have you been propping up that foolish soul of yours with the idea that your circumstances are too much for God to handle? Set all your opinions and speculations aside and “abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1). Deliberately tell God that you will not fret about whatever concerns you. All our fretting and worrying is caused by planning without God.
~ Oswald Chambers
This is good advice. Replace God with "inner peace" and it works the same. Worrying, fretting, fussing are really never good things. It's okay to let yourself get upset once in a while, like when a loved one is in bad trouble, as a sort of sympathetic self-flagellation it can be cathartic, even necessary. Sometimes, we feel guilty if we do not fret. But usually we fret over nonsense, things we are told to fret about by fretcateers on the TV and internet, among our peers, and unfortunately in many churches - fretting is fear, after all, and religion instills all sorts of unnecessary fears.
ReplyDeleteJMJ
Because people devoid of religion can imagine only necessary fears....
Deletee-r-r-r-r....
...because when you subtract 1, Satan, from Infinity, you're left with...
e-r-r-r-r....
Never mind.
HAPPY FOURTH of JULY,Jersey. I'm glad you see something positive in today's "message."
DeleteGeorge Bernard-Shaw said much along these lines in a very few words:
"All this struggling and striving to make the world better is a great mistake; not because it isn't a good thing to improve the world, if you know how to do it, but because striving and struggling is the worst way you could set about doing anything."
"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you're thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."
~ G. B. Shaw (1856-1950)
I've always loved him for that. Great wisdom and virtue may appear almost anywhere. Neither is the exclusive property of any particular ideological or religious camp.
Many a militant atheist might be shocked to learn that in fact he lives in near perfect harmony with the essence of the Christian Ethic (Christ Ideal).
It works the other way too, of course. Many a pious, purse-lipped, overly zealous Christian who never allows him or herself to think, but goes strictly "by the book" at all times is in truth apt to be one of Satan's most effective tools for the destruction of Decency, Goodness, and true Righteousness. That at worst, an "Old Whited Sepulcher" at best.
Happy INDEPENDENCE Day!
LOL! If I ever meet a militant atheist, I'll be sure to pass that on! Happy Independence Day, FreeThinke!
DeleteJMJ
...because when you subtract 1, Satan, from Infinity, you're left with...
DeleteWait! I know this one... infinity!
Zzzzz....
If you want to meet a militant atheist, you don't have to look far, my friend. Just look in the mirror. ;-)
DeleteYes, Infinity! ...and so, I fail to see how the religious are somehow at a "disadvantage" when it comes to misplaced fears. In fact, replacing a myriad of additional possibilities, with a singular one, would seem a tremendous advantage in reducing "fret".
DeleteSame facts, different conclusion.
Happy Fourth of July America
ReplyDeleteI’m sorry to have to say it, but we must say it like it is...this is a nation in who is in deep trouble my friends, we have these progressives who are American haters, we have a Supreme Court who are lefties appointed by lefties and doing the dirty work of lefties.
We have enemies all over the world, many of them are former allies yet our President hasn’t got the guts or the balls to do anything other than go golfing with his Celebrity friends and take vacations with his Mooching First Lady while we continue to see the destruction, and the bankruptcy of this once great nation.
We see Illegal aliens coming to America in droves every day using the system, to obtain Food Stamps, Jobs, and other things and sending the money they make back to Mexico.
And yet we laugh when Donald Trump tells it like it is.
Our nation is still being invaded on a daily basis not only by enemies, but by illegal immigrants who are dead-set on bringing about our demise and the death of American dream. The Second Amendment is under constant attack, the First Amendment is threatened regularly by a despicable regime and by an leftist led Supreme Court.
Yes, I know, I hear it every day, “Trump is a Clown,” “He is a buffoon.” “He was divorced twice.” “He has been bankrupt.” Yes, I know it, and yes it’s all true. And it’s also true that Ronald Reagan was a B-movie Actor and he played second fiddle to a chimp.
But damn it hey both were as successful as hell and they both always told it like it was
Today on the Birthday of our nation we have been warned and told by our Police Forces all over this land to be extra cautious and prepare for terrorist attacks on this 4th of July, possibly even an attack to mirror the horror of September the 11th. .
But however we must stand tall and continue to say Happy Birthday and may God Bless America!
Happy Birthday America, better days are coming, Do you remember back when America, was the land of the free, home of the brave?
ReplyDeleteThings a different now, we have become slaves to a corrupt and threatening government, and a people who don’t love this county as we do
Happy Birthday America, to all us Legal Americans! better days are coming
Keep America American Vote for DONALD TRUMP...2016 Anybody but the lying Hillary Clinton.
Anyone that voted for Obama the second time needs a lobotomy.
Others may see me as a fretter.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm not, really. No fretter sleeps well at night, but I certainly do.
I am, instead, a person who plans ahead ("Provide! Provide!").
I am also a pamphleteer and a Paul Revere.
No ostrich am I!
"Be about the Father's business." So that's what I do -- as best as I can discern His business.
Amen, sister!
DeleteFreeThink (God bless him) will often pause his own gloomy grousing to scold me for being a nattering nailboob of negativity or whatever it is he says, but I don't say what I say to bring people down or to get everyone handwringing.
I am a firm believer in "Facing it, always Facing it!" as Christopher Hitchens quotes a ship's captain from a literary novel when he writes about George Orwell and his ability to "Face unpleasant facts."
We have a set of very unpleasant facts before them, and we need to face them squarely. That is not pessimism. That is step one in assessing the situation and then attacking it.
This is America. I am optimistic.
I hope everyone has a great Independence Day!
Beware the Self-Fulfilling prophecy!
DeleteDespite the power of his argument, Orwell makes a miserable role model. By all accounts he lived an unhappy life, and died young, doubtless a victim of his own Gloom-Ridden mentality.
Hitchens, though I admired his powers of expression enormously, was a poor role model too for many of the same reasons.
We ARE what we THINK even more than we are what we EAT.
There you go again... *sigh*
DeleteI said absolutely nothing about making Orwell or Hitchens my role model.
Have a happy Independence Day
You and everyone else say much more than you may think.
DeleteObvious Implications often say a good deal more than the words, themselves.
Forgot to say...
ReplyDeleteHappy Independence Day 2015!
I was raised to be totally Patriotic and Americans I could without a doubt if given the
ReplyDeletechance and okay by Congress pack the bags or oversee it all being done in the White House and force them out the back door as not to draw any attention to it all...Our Freedoms and Rights are still at stake with Obama and his croanies....before this is out and gone we may have to fight the battle to put this bunch down and out of D.C.!
I can't even stand looking at his face on television or watching his gait as he bounces up to the podium. When he holds his head up so high that only his nostrils are showing, it's another indication of how he looks down his nose at everyone. He has equipped himself with a bevy of liberal lawyers who make it possible for him to thumb his nose at congress and the American people. His disastrous policies with Iran are putting this country in further jeopardy as he keeps refusing to do what's necessary to protect this nation and its people. Iran is continuing to build their nukes which they WILL use on Israel and the U.S., as prophesied, and yet he keeps allowing them to do whatever they want instead of threatening them with more sanctions. He lives in a fantasy world where he thinks he can make "nice" with our enemies and they will humbly reciprocate. His adolescent thinking constitutes his strategies and are making us more vulnerable to attack. I think Boehner's move about bringing Netanyahu to America to discuss the danger of Iran's intention wad a very good move. Hopefully, some Democrats will listen, but I doubt it. Thay are too deaf, dumb and stupid!.
What's the al the Hubbub about?
ReplyDeleteWhat's the al the Hubbub about?
DeleteDarn it; guess I needed more coffee.
Happy Independence Day! May it last another 239 years.
"I was raised to be totally Patriotic and Americans I could without a doubt if given the chance and okay by Congress pack the bags or oversee it all being done in the White House and force them out the back door as not to draw any attention to it all...Our Freedoms and Rights are still at stake with Obama and his croanies....before this is out and gone we may have to fight the battle to put this bunch down and out of D.C.!"
ReplyDeleteIs there someone out there who can translate this gobbledegook into English?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteFT,
ReplyDeletePlease watch this video; enlarge it to full screen for the full effect.
Thank you so much, AOW. I was so moved by this beautiful music video, I can't say enough for it. I've posted it to appear this very morning –– Sunday, July 5, 2015. It provides a most wonderful antidote to all the toxins choking and blinding us in the blogosphere and beyond.
DeleteCondi Rice on the piano?
ReplyDeleteWhat is troubling, at least for me, is our failure to heed the words of many of our founders to avoid foreign entanglements.
Nonetheless, we honor all our brave men and women who answered the call and served.
The innocence –– and malleability –– of little children is always charming to behold. If only they understood the words they were singing!
ReplyDeleteThree cheers for the Red, White and Blue.
Thy banner makes Tyranny tremble.
Three cheers for the Red, White and Blue.
Thank you for the link.
TO BOTH SILVER and AOW from ABOVE
ReplyDeleteDEMONS of the sort that so concern you both might easily be compared to TROLLS in the blogosphere.
I think most of us veteran internet warriors realized long ago that STARVING the TROLLS by NOT giving them the ATTENTION they so obviously CRAVE, deprives them of whatever power they might exert.
The all-too-frequent failure to achieve clear, intelligent, potentially productive or genuinely instructive communication stems not from the trolls demons), but from the widespread inability or unwillingness to the RESIST the TEMPTATION to TAKE the BAIT they continually dangle in our faces.
The result is what we see most of the time –– a witless, worthless exchange of insults and moronic accusations. Endless circular dialogue.
Somewhere in The Bible it says, "RESIST the DEVIL, and HE WILL FLEE from YOU."
Damned good advice, if you ask me. Our problems are not PHYSICAL. They are MENTAL, MORAL and SPIRITUAL. Negative thinking welcomes all manner of undesirable things into our lives –– even DISEASE to a large extent.
Jesus said it best, of course. "Be not overcome by Evil, but overcome Evil with Good."
"Lead us not into Temptation, but deliver us from Evil for THINE is the Kingdom, and the Power and the Glory forever and ever." AMEN.