I can really relate to this since my 18 year old son moved out & on his own
Even though he moved out in April; It didnt really hit me until school started in Sept. I have to admit that I am really feeling the void of not having him around everyday, even though we have our 7 year old living at home. It really feels like the end of an era! *sniff*
I am ready for new beginnings, new opportunities and experiences ... we have been trying to sell our home (its been on the market since this Summer) & relocate to another state.
I guess the New beginning that I am yearning for will have to wait until Spring '09, as we plan to take a Holiday break and take our home off the market and re-list it in the Spring. Who needs the stress over the Holiday anyway? LOL.
I guess I will just have to keep trusting the Lord until then. Who knows what is just around the corner, but I know the Lord always has our best interests at heart!
Emptiness Becomes Openness
Sometimes a Loss Can Be a Gain
When we lose anything that we cherish, the sense of emptiness we are left behind with can be overwhelming. A space that was filled, whether in our lives or our hearts, is now a void, and the feelings of pain, loss, and separation can sometimes be difficult to bear. While it is always important to honor what we’ve lost, sometimes a loss can also represent a chance for a new beginning.
When we are ready, the void left by a relationship, a job, or a dream can then be viewed as open space that can be filled with something new: new experiences, new knowledge, new job opportunities, new dreams, new people, and new ways to grow. There are many ways to weave the threads of loss into a blessing.
If you’ve lost a job or ended a relationship, your first thoughts may revolve around filling the void with a similar job or the same kind of relationship. Try not to rush into anything just to fill up the emptiness. The loss of a job can free you up to explore new opportunities, especially if you’ve outgrown the old one. Likewise, the loss of a relationship can give you a chance to rediscover your own interests, explore new passions, and meet different people.
If seeking the good in what seems like a bad situation makes you feel uncomfortable, then try to remember that you are not devaluing what you’ve lost or replacing it cold-heartedly. You are surrendering to the fact that, in life, we sometimes have to let go and allow for what is new to enter into the open spaces created by our losses. In doing so, you are honoring what has left you and welcoming the new into your life with open space, an open mind, and an open heart.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Birthday Gathering Videos
One my favorite features on my camera is the ability to finally be able to get audio with video! We had a family gathering last Sunday to celebrate my husband Joel's birthday (9/28) and just 4 days later, Noah and Joels Mom share the same birthday on Oct 2nd.
Here are a couple fun videos... As you can see; Noah really loves to sing the Birthday song!
And another cute one of Noah singing up on the stairs landing at Grandma and grandpas
Here are a couple fun videos... As you can see; Noah really loves to sing the Birthday song!
And another cute one of Noah singing up on the stairs landing at Grandma and grandpas
Monday, September 29, 2008
In God We Trust-- My Pastors Perspective :)
In God We Trust
Pastor Wendell Smith
It is the slogan emblazoned on all our money. In these uncertain times of national financial crisis, it is exactly what we need. Wouldn't it be refreshing to see our political leaders call our nation to prayer and ask for God's help in this predicament? Wouldn't it be revolutionary to see congressmen join hands and pray together? Wouldn't it be great if America humbled herself, as in days of old, and sought divine assistance?
Yes, practical steps must be taken to save the financial system from collapse. Yes, some institutions need to be rescued lest we all go down with their sinking ships. Most definitely, those who have driven us into this mess with their corporate greed should be confronted and forced to pay back all that may be loaned to them.
However, there are some things we can all do to lighten the ship and rescue others from shipwreck in this horrendous storm. While putting our trust in God, we should take these steps of action:
Pray for those in authority that they will understand the times, know what to do, and humble themselves to work together to solve our national dilemma.
Humble ourselves and repent of any pride, greed or self-reliance
Scrutinize our own financial stewardship and make certain we are "diversifying"; we should be tithing to the church, giving to others in need, blessing the poor, laying up money in savings and wise investments for the future. These are God's means of diversifying for believers.
In the mean time, as we prayerfully wait out this storm, let's get back to simply trusting God and encouraging others to do the same.
God bless America (so we can continue blessing others)!
For the City,
Pastor Wendell
Thursday, September 25, 2008
What is Unseen
"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, For what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal".
II Cor. 4:18
I ran across this scripture today and it really spoke to my heart. Now that the Fall season is here, the holidays will be following just right around the corner. During the Holidays, we gather with family and friends, but we also begin to prepare our Christmas wish lists before hand.
I was just thinking about this the other day as I was browsing the Sunday sale ads for the stores. My husband casually showed me the stainless steel appliances that were advertised in a sales ad and my flesh literally was going through the "gotta have that" attitude.
Then my spirit overrided my flesh (or soul) and spoke to me saying "Does it really matter if your kitchen has stainless steel appliances or not ? What matters the most is to be content with what you have, Paula. What is seen is only temporary" Now, That really brought me back to reality and changed my perspective!
Sooo--- I am working on being more content in my environment and circumstances. Back in 2004, the Lord blessed us with a beautiful townhouse. Its a matter of working on getting my soul and spirit to work in unison is the key!
We put our townhouse on the market over the Summer, in hopes to relocate to Texas when it is sold. Originally, I am a Southern California native-- but I have lived here in Washington State for over 30 years (gasp!) LOL. My spirit (and body too) just yearns to return in a warmer climate, where there is a low cost of living, and our family can get spiritually fed in a new home church.
My husband and I also have the goal of becoming totally debt free and eventually owning a house with no mortgage. (Even though I won 250K towards our home, we had to take out a mortgage in 2004 just to pay the taxes.)
At this point there have been about a dozen showings, a couple Open Houses and we even an offer back in August that was shortlived, due the buyers had to retract due unforeseen financial issues.
Even though we still have faith that our house will sell eventually (even with a slow real estate market!!!! Cause I know that the Lord has the ability to override anything that is seen with our eyes & can do "exceeding and abundantly anything above than we can even ask or think"-Ephesians 3:20)
But for now....I have decided to be content with the Lord's plans for our lives. If we are meant to stay here in Washington for a little while longer, then I gladly give God that control-- cause what is unseen is eternal and I refuse to fight against the Lords will for my life. :)
II Cor. 4:18
I ran across this scripture today and it really spoke to my heart. Now that the Fall season is here, the holidays will be following just right around the corner. During the Holidays, we gather with family and friends, but we also begin to prepare our Christmas wish lists before hand.
I was just thinking about this the other day as I was browsing the Sunday sale ads for the stores. My husband casually showed me the stainless steel appliances that were advertised in a sales ad and my flesh literally was going through the "gotta have that" attitude.
Then my spirit overrided my flesh (or soul) and spoke to me saying "Does it really matter if your kitchen has stainless steel appliances or not ? What matters the most is to be content with what you have, Paula. What is seen is only temporary" Now, That really brought me back to reality and changed my perspective!
Sooo--- I am working on being more content in my environment and circumstances. Back in 2004, the Lord blessed us with a beautiful townhouse. Its a matter of working on getting my soul and spirit to work in unison is the key!
We put our townhouse on the market over the Summer, in hopes to relocate to Texas when it is sold. Originally, I am a Southern California native-- but I have lived here in Washington State for over 30 years (gasp!) LOL. My spirit (and body too) just yearns to return in a warmer climate, where there is a low cost of living, and our family can get spiritually fed in a new home church.
My husband and I also have the goal of becoming totally debt free and eventually owning a house with no mortgage. (Even though I won 250K towards our home, we had to take out a mortgage in 2004 just to pay the taxes.)
At this point there have been about a dozen showings, a couple Open Houses and we even an offer back in August that was shortlived, due the buyers had to retract due unforeseen financial issues.
Even though we still have faith that our house will sell eventually (even with a slow real estate market!!!! Cause I know that the Lord has the ability to override anything that is seen with our eyes & can do "exceeding and abundantly anything above than we can even ask or think"-Ephesians 3:20)
But for now....I have decided to be content with the Lord's plans for our lives. If we are meant to stay here in Washington for a little while longer, then I gladly give God that control-- cause what is unseen is eternal and I refuse to fight against the Lords will for my life. :)
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
What Your Brain Looks like on Faith
I found this rather interesting.... :)
By David Van Biema
Sam Harris is best known for his barn-burning 2004 attack on religion, The End of Faith, which spent 33 weeks on the New York Times best-seller List. The book's sequel, Letter to a Christian Nation also came out in editions totalling hundreds of thousands. Last Monday, however, the combative Californian produced a shorter (seven pages) and seemingly calmer publication that will be a hit if it reaches 10,000 readers: "Functional Neuroimaging of Belief, Disbelief and Uncertainty." It appears in the respected journal Annals of Neurology. And Harris, 40, claims it has little if any connection to his two popular books. Believers, however, may draw their own conclusions — and may want to read his subsequent neurological studies even more carefully.
The current paper recovers Harris's identity as a doctoral candidate in neuroscience at UCLA, his occupation before he commenced what he calls his "extramural affair jumping into trenches in the culture wars." It is an addition to the growing field of brain scan trials, and Harris thinks it may be the first to detail how the brain processes belief. At first read, it seems less dangerous to Christianity than to another cherished pillar of Western thought — that "objective" beliefs like "2 + 2 = 4" and "subjective" beliefs like "torture is bad" belong to entirely separate categories of thought.
Harris and two co-authors ran 360 statements by 14 adult subjects whose brain activities were then scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) devices. It suggests that within the brain pan, at least, the distinction between objective and subjective is not so clear-cut. Although more complex assertions may get analyzed in so-called "higher" areas of the brain, all seem to get their final stamp of "belief" or disbelief in "primitive" locales traditionally associated with emotions or taste and odor. Even "2 + 2 = 4," on some level, is a question of taste. Thus, the statement "that just doesn't smell right to me" may be more literal than we thought.
Harris tested how the brain responded to assertions in seven categories: mathematical, geographic, semantic, factual, autobiographical, ethical and religious. All seven provided some useful data, but only the ones relating to math and ethics produced results clear enough to give a vivid picture of the way the simple and the complex, the subjective and the objective intertwine. Regardless of their content, statements that the subjects believed lit up the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (VMPC), a location in the brain best known for processing reward, emotion and taste. Equally "primitive" areas associated with taste, pain perception and disgust determined disbelief. "False propositions may actually disgust us," Harris writes.
Is there a practical application here? He speculates that if belief brain scanning were sufficiently refined it could act as an accurate lie detector and help control for the placebo effect in drug design.
Harris says there is no critique of faith hidden somewhere in his brief paper. But his next neurological enterprise may be another matter. He is planning an fMRI run that will concentrate specifically on religious faith, which Harris thinks he now knows how to plumb more deeply. He also plans to set up two different subject groups — the faithful and non-believers. "That way," among other things, he says, "you can ask, 'Do believers believe that Jesus was born of a virgin the same way that nonbelievers believe that Chevrolet makes cars and trucks?'" It may turn out that the brain treats religious faith as its own special category of belief unlike ethics and math.
But that is not what Harris expects to find. He suspects the machines will show that "belief is belief is belief." And that conclusion, he admits, may put him at loggerheads with familiar foes. No one, he says, could accuse him or anyone else of trying to disprove God's existence on the basis of an fMRI. But faith is more vulnerable. "People who feel that religious faith is a singular operation of the brain — if they admit that it's an operation of the brain at all — would object to what I'm doing, since it may show that faith is essentially the same as other kinds of knowing or thinking. The whole thing will seem fishy to anyone who thinks we have immaterial souls running around in our bodies."
Which, of course, a lot of people do. And despite the fact that, as Harris puts it, his current literary mode "is not beach reading," they may find that they are keeping up with his academic writings more avidly — and nervously — than they do his bestsellers.
Scan of a brain
What Your Brain looks like on Faith
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1694723,00.html?xid=feed-yahoo-full-nation-relatedBy David Van Biema
Sam Harris is best known for his barn-burning 2004 attack on religion, The End of Faith, which spent 33 weeks on the New York Times best-seller List. The book's sequel, Letter to a Christian Nation also came out in editions totalling hundreds of thousands. Last Monday, however, the combative Californian produced a shorter (seven pages) and seemingly calmer publication that will be a hit if it reaches 10,000 readers: "Functional Neuroimaging of Belief, Disbelief and Uncertainty." It appears in the respected journal Annals of Neurology. And Harris, 40, claims it has little if any connection to his two popular books. Believers, however, may draw their own conclusions — and may want to read his subsequent neurological studies even more carefully.
The current paper recovers Harris's identity as a doctoral candidate in neuroscience at UCLA, his occupation before he commenced what he calls his "extramural affair jumping into trenches in the culture wars." It is an addition to the growing field of brain scan trials, and Harris thinks it may be the first to detail how the brain processes belief. At first read, it seems less dangerous to Christianity than to another cherished pillar of Western thought — that "objective" beliefs like "2 + 2 = 4" and "subjective" beliefs like "torture is bad" belong to entirely separate categories of thought.
Harris and two co-authors ran 360 statements by 14 adult subjects whose brain activities were then scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) devices. It suggests that within the brain pan, at least, the distinction between objective and subjective is not so clear-cut. Although more complex assertions may get analyzed in so-called "higher" areas of the brain, all seem to get their final stamp of "belief" or disbelief in "primitive" locales traditionally associated with emotions or taste and odor. Even "2 + 2 = 4," on some level, is a question of taste. Thus, the statement "that just doesn't smell right to me" may be more literal than we thought.
Harris tested how the brain responded to assertions in seven categories: mathematical, geographic, semantic, factual, autobiographical, ethical and religious. All seven provided some useful data, but only the ones relating to math and ethics produced results clear enough to give a vivid picture of the way the simple and the complex, the subjective and the objective intertwine. Regardless of their content, statements that the subjects believed lit up the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (VMPC), a location in the brain best known for processing reward, emotion and taste. Equally "primitive" areas associated with taste, pain perception and disgust determined disbelief. "False propositions may actually disgust us," Harris writes.
Is there a practical application here? He speculates that if belief brain scanning were sufficiently refined it could act as an accurate lie detector and help control for the placebo effect in drug design.
Harris says there is no critique of faith hidden somewhere in his brief paper. But his next neurological enterprise may be another matter. He is planning an fMRI run that will concentrate specifically on religious faith, which Harris thinks he now knows how to plumb more deeply. He also plans to set up two different subject groups — the faithful and non-believers. "That way," among other things, he says, "you can ask, 'Do believers believe that Jesus was born of a virgin the same way that nonbelievers believe that Chevrolet makes cars and trucks?'" It may turn out that the brain treats religious faith as its own special category of belief unlike ethics and math.
But that is not what Harris expects to find. He suspects the machines will show that "belief is belief is belief." And that conclusion, he admits, may put him at loggerheads with familiar foes. No one, he says, could accuse him or anyone else of trying to disprove God's existence on the basis of an fMRI. But faith is more vulnerable. "People who feel that religious faith is a singular operation of the brain — if they admit that it's an operation of the brain at all — would object to what I'm doing, since it may show that faith is essentially the same as other kinds of knowing or thinking. The whole thing will seem fishy to anyone who thinks we have immaterial souls running around in our bodies."
Which, of course, a lot of people do. And despite the fact that, as Harris puts it, his current literary mode "is not beach reading," they may find that they are keeping up with his academic writings more avidly — and nervously — than they do his bestsellers.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
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