Easter is also the season that represents new birth and spring. . . with eggs, chicks, bunnies, and chocolate.

There is another side to healthy giving. There is un-healthy giving. Here are things to consider. What kind of people do we have in our lives are  what relationship do we have with them? Are they a drain to us and deplete our energy?

There are some people who are takers and don’t give much in return and others that give too much. The takers seem to have the mindset of entitlement and the world owes them. There is another part to this too.

There are times when we have to check ourselves to see if what we are doing for them is healthy or not. When giving to others that are needy we have to allow them opportunity to do for themselves. It can certainly be a disservice to them not to experience a little hardship and temperance.It is good character building when we let them work through life issues so they can gain experience and strength by being challenged.

We can give and give and sometimes it is not necessarily a good thing.  It can be part of our own dysfunction. We can get caught up in giving and wonder why people don’t give much back. I believe it is because we are busy making it about us and what makes us feel good, when we do not consider how it affects the other person’s growth.

Little boys grow up to be big boys and they want to be the  “fix it boys”. We as men have to be mindful of this because we want to fix everything and everybody. We want to go into the world and take on the injustices of the world by wanting to fix things.

We need to experience life and make mistakes and endure hardships in order to grow and to satisfy the evolution of growth as humans. To this I will quote what a pastor once said, ” Living things grow, growing things change, and people struggle with change”.

Why would we want to hinder someone’s growth by doing too much for them while they maybe resisting the change necessary for life’s evolution? Oprah says it well too, ” when we know better we do better”. This can only be manifested through growth and the strength to live life with courage and tenacity.

A couple of good questions to ask one’s self is, are we helping or hindering a person’s ability to grow when we help them too much? Do they see us as a helping hand up or a handout for them?

Article written by Terrance W. Norton

I feel this is a good topic to write about because of the benefits of “mindful” thinking and being “mindful”.  This subject is one of wisdom and it under-scores the virtue of mindfulness.

Being mindful opens doors to the conscious and subconscious mind. It brings about intelligence that can be considered as three dimensional. Three dimensional in the respect that the average person thinks two dimensional. Meaning that the mind is limited by how we condition the mind to reason.

The mind reasons by what we pay attention to, whether it be on an emotional plane or a mental plane. It can give us a simplified form of three dimensional  understanding when we pay attention to the emotional resonance within us. When we pay attention to the stimulus and its emotional response, it will lead us into mindfulness.

We are at “ONE” with creation and are not distracted by outside forces through this training of mindfulness. Distractions takes us out of the element of experiencing life with fullness and being mindful. It is important to be aware of what we are feeling and thinking so we can manage our mind.

Some people are aware of what is going on around them, but are not aware of what is going on within them. Perhaps it maybe safe to say that a lot of manic people do not live in a mindfulness sphere. The reason for this is that it requires one to relax their minds by going inward for the mindfulness experience.

The value of mindful thinking is that it is a good way to manage a run away mind-train or  obsessive thinking. It requires one to manage their thoughts and   feelings that are going on within.

We need to be encouraged to be in the present. It can be as simple for us to redirecting our attention to the beauty around so we can glean an emotional response.

Music: feeling the music; Tasting: what ice cream really taste’s like; Touching: touching the soft pedals of a flower and experiencing what it from a different perspective; Smelling: smelling the wonderful sent of spring. The wonderful scent of home-style cooking. All of these things are part of being ” mindful”.

We cannot put any form of judgment of right, wrong, good, or bad when we want to be in the state of mindfulness. “It is what it is”, without our interpretation of what we think it is. When we go deep into the present and the expressions that come from being in the present, we experience a para-norm perspective that is  three dimensional.

There are times that we may not see things as they are because of our inability to slow down long enough to experience the third dimensional para-norm. Or is it the norm? In Tibet and other parts of the world there are gurus that spend much of their time in the third dimension.

Gurus and Mindful practicing people have learned to manage the mind. They have learned the art of staying in the now by being in the moment. They have learned that the mind can be a great tool. A mindful mind can be an oracle into the Divine Universe and all of its intelligence.

Being mindful is being in the present and gleaning the body’s ability to use its senses.To experience it, is to be in the moment with the joy of using our internal senses and being present to mindfulness.This means to shut of the thinking machine and experiencing a deeper level of being clear without judgment.

I believe that whatever we focus our attention on becomes our reality, and to what depth we experience our reality is in essence a direct perspective to how we experience life.

Living a “Mindful” life is considered to be important because it brings peace to one’s soul so we can live life by Divine design.

*For more information on the Mindfulness you may refer to writings of Dr. Marsha Linehan, Ph.D or visit www.shambhala.com.

Article written by Terrance W. Norton

Sometimes we sail through life with ease when we take in account of biorhythm patterns. Biorhythm patterns are waves that goes up and down as it is with a life pattern. Biorhythm fits into a life pattern. It is life itself. It goes day to day,  week to week, and month to month depending on what biological plane we are looking at to measure the pattern. It comprises of the mental, physical, emotional, and the intuitive planes. Each plane has a cycle of its own.

When biorhythms go downward and crosses over the medium it is likened to a retrograde. A life storm will commonly arise in this period. We need to have the downward motion to get the momentum for the up swing to push us up and into a new scope of our maturity. It is part of the Divine Plan for the onset of maturity and growth in our progression.

We first need to know that it is a life storm. Like any storm, we need to get out of the weather. We can either wait the storm and allow it to pass, or we can stand helplessly in the storm. Some storms are bigger than others, and so we have to learn to endure different life storms.

The purpose in getting out of the storm is to have a better frame of mind to seek the Lord’s counsel. We can seek His guidance for whethering the storm.

We can liken life’s challenges to thunder and lightning storms, with heavy down-pouring of rain. We would not stand in a thunder and lightening storm without seeking shelter.  We have to have the sense to get out of the life storm and seek the Lord’s counsel on how we are to deal with the life storm.

What does that have to do with the “sting of adversity?” Well even though  we seek shelter, we still have the life storm. We can either resist the lessons of life, or we can have an understanding that these storms has a purpose. We can seek wisdom and understanding to know that these life storms are  opportunities for us to purify our character.

Life storms are not a bad thing, because through life storms we can mature and gain the experiences of life that brings us strength . It is unfortunate that it has to be so gruesome, but it is what it is and we cannot go against the progression of life.

Life progressions are much bigger than us. We are puny when it comes to comparing the life force and the universe in reference to oursleves. We can seek wisdom to know the power of the universe  and how we fit into the scheme of life. Afterall, who do we think is serving these lessons of life to us, and yet satisfying the Divine Order of the Universe? Of course, it is “The King of the Universe” of whom it is God.

Is it possible for us to fulfill our calling without going through the purification process, which at times can be as extreme  as the “sting of adversity? The sting of adversity is an actual physical feeling. It is like panic attacks mixed with extreme amount of stress and resistance from opposing forces called adversity. Anyone that has had this experience knows what this means. Shortly after the sting of adversity experience  comes a break through. It is God’s way of granting us passage to the next level, and through this paradigm shift comes the sweet blessings of heaven. It is a way for the Father to show His love for us for enduring the life storm.

It has to be the influence from the Creator of Life that we go through some kind of purification of our character? Remember we are imperfect and we have many character flaws.

It is like we are diamonds in the rough and need to be polished in order for us to have the Glory that God meant for us, which is His  Glory in us. For as tough as the purification process is, we still have to go through them in order for us to grow.

Just as gold has to be refined, we have to be refined by the purification process that the sting of adversity offers us. Just as gold it has to be cooled, heated, beaten, and tempered it has to go through its purification process, in order for it to be considered pure gold. Gold has to go through this process just as we have to, in order for us to be worth something to God and to humanity.

We achieve wisdom through  our life storms that we do not normal have with a natural life progression. Through this wisdom we can know the why’s and the how’s of what we go through in life.

We have to seek the wisdom and understanding of life issues in order for us to gain spiritual, mental, and emotional maturity about life. We have to submit to life lessons and the meaning of them in order us to learn, if we do not we will have a life of stress because of our resistance to grow. Our inability to conform to life’s natural progression would keep us in diapers. We will still be sucking our thumbs therefore, we would not progress naturally.

There are times when we do not get answers immediately but they do arrive through hind sight. When the answers do not come to us we should wait out the storm anyway. It could be that there could be deeper understanding to the meaning of the lesson when we wait out the storm.

We can seek the wisdom of gurus of  ancient philosophy for answers. Here is a good passage that fits this occassion, Zen says it so eloquently. He states, ” The problem is not the problem that makes it a problem, it is how we act to it or react to it that makes it a problem”.

Getting out of the storm help us assess the problem so we do not make things worse. It is taking the time to act and not react foolishly to the problem.

Many of us have dreams and want to make a difference in the lives of others and so we have to know something about life and humanity.  Wisdom through life’s challenges is our avenue to achieve strength and attain true happiness. It is through the quest of knowing the purpose of life  that we can greet these life storms with hope.

We are living in turbulent times and need to understand life in all of its perplexities. We are needed in these trialsome times to be examples to others, because we have gone through many difficult life storms. We are  to be the people that has love, peace, and composure over life, when life seems to be coming out at the seams.

What good is life if we  miss the driving force by what can be measured in our quest to live with purpose? Many leaders have made the most impact on humanity because they have gone through this process of purification.

Whatever life gives us we will endure with the heart of wisdom, tenacity, and fortitude and we will accomplish our purpose in life.

Article written by Terrance W. Norton

For instance, in Biblical days the scriptures tells us that the people of Israel were put into bondage because of their disobedience to God’s laws. The abhorrent sins of the people because they were selling their children to pay off debts to the king. They were also practicing sexual rituals and human sacrifices.

We are more wretched today and we also have common traits as  the days of Biblical times. We have reconciliation matters to take up with God if we do not want to go into bondage through socialism.  We have to make things right with God in order to receive blessings and protection from tyranny and terrorism to our nation.

In my opinion I feel that these are the matters that breaks the Father’s heart.

• Human Trafficking
• Pridefulness
• Seeking riches from the world and not caring for the fatherless, the weak, and the poor
• Sex before marriage and infidelity
• Selfishness and narcicism
• Power seeking
• Abortion

These are just a few things that would be breaking the Father’s heart and I am sure there is more.

One of the biggest things that will put America into bondage is sexual immorality and gay activism.  Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of the immorality and perversions of the people. Perhaps the reasons why Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed is because the sins of their parents and their ancestry trickled down through their kin one generation after another. Throughout the later generations the youth did not have much of a chance to become righteous.

The people were very prideful and worshiped idols. The debasing sexual acts became abhorrent to God. He could not stand to see the sins of His people any longer. He had to destroy them so He would not be pained anymore with His people’s actions. Our pride today is that we worship money, toys, and big houses of which we cannot afford, while we pawn off our children so we can have all of our toys and big houses.

Many women are giving birth to children outside of wedlock, which breeds generational dysfunction. This is the down-side of pre-marital sex. It is not that God does not wants us to be happy or have fulfillment in life, it is just that we just have to learn the lesson of delayed gratification.

The lack of understanding the significance of delayed gratification is what has got us into debt and which has brought us down to a point of stress and misery. It will also be instrumental in leading us into bondage.

Debt is what made the people of Israel sell their children. Could it be that they needed to learn the lesson of delayed gratification so they could live within their means and also keep their children?

Today’s society is plummeting with morality and it can be likened to the days of Noah. We are headed for destruction or bondage because we are living  like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

We have become a nation that has deluded the importance of life because we have the abortion activists or the pro-choice movement without acknowledging the consequences of a pro-choice “choice”. It is a choice, an unwise choice!

For instance, one of the consequences of the choice to abort a baby is; who is going to pay taxes to give a good life to the new upcoming generation of kids? Who is going to pay for the taxes while the social security account is built up when they get old enough to retire? Who is going to carry the burden of taking care of our country’s infa- structure and programs like Medicare, Education, etc,.  In my opinion abortion has become an acceptable practice for terminating a baby for the sake of conveince and self endulgence.

Pridefulness is another thing that breaks the Father’s heart. This means being concerned about gaining the riches of the world and not caring for the homeless, fatherless (which are many), and the elderly. Yes, we are a nation of people that gives a lot to charities, but it is not a cure all for the deterioration of the moral fiber of our country.

I believe that God is listening to the prayers of the righteous, or He would have brought us down to our knees many years ago. History tells a compelling story about how civilizations and societies struggle because of the sins of the people.

We can look at the Roaring 20′s what was going on before  the stock market crash of 1929, which lead to the great depression.  There was an outbreak of violence with mobs and gangster(Bonnie and Clyde) activities, murders, plundering,prohibition, and rebellion.

It maybe safe to say that the roaring 20′s was part of the contribution to the depression and the stock market crash. The rebellion of God’s people was not becoming to the Lord, nor is it ok for the way that we are living in America today. If we do not change our ways we will get ours too, it is coming.

There is an evil force that wants to take down America (socialists and secular progressives) because they want to have Americans submit to a a socialistic government. That my friends will leads us into bondage. Our sins have blinded us to truth and when we do not stand for something that is honest, right, and moral we will fall for anything that will have satan’s cunning plan to pass.

Are we willing to clean up our act or or we ready to face the consequences of a society that is out of control?

Article written by Terrance W. Norton