Worries

Good morning, God, and thank you for the opportunities that this new day has brought to us. We have an entire day stretching out before us, full of many chances to be nice to people, to give to people, to compliment and encourage, to share and to love. I hope that I'm able to take advantage of as many of those opportunities as I can.

It's kind of amazing that there are so many different things coming up in my life right now, so many different new things to do and new possibilities, yet behind it all are the worries that a summer without full-time work can bring. We're still paying off someone else's loan--money that we don't really have--so we're stuck in an extremely difficult financial situation that isn't getting any better. We have to pay out $1000 a month that we don't owe--and you know the reasons why--so that someone else doesn't lose her home. It's extremely difficult, and though the fall looks to be more positive, I won't see a paycheck from the fall until September. Until then, we have to struggle by.

The plans that I had for bringing in money this summer aren't working out, unfortunately. I've definitely tried, but so far, no go. So we're watching what we owe start to increase again, and neither of us want to be stuck in that type of situation again. We've worked too hard to get out of it, and now we see ourselves being dragged under again. It's only for a short time, it seems, but a lot of damage can be done in a short time.  We both know that making the payments is the right thing to do, but why does doing the right thing cause so much damage to us and cause so much worry? It's extremely difficult to deal with, and we're not getting any help from anyone to alleviate the situation.

A reply:

You're very welcome for the day. I hope that you make it a marvelous one.

We've talked about the money issues before. This is the first time you've been so specific about the causes, though. Your financial problems are being caused by your willingness to help out other people and to make sure that someone else doesn't go under because of a commitment that you made over a decade ago. Your worries are caused by a combination of your need to be in control of situations and a lack of faith that things will be okay--even better than okay. You will not go under. There will be resolutions to problems that you cannot see or even imagine right now.

It's okay to have a lack of faith. There are many so-called religious people who try to make a lack of faith seem to be a personal fault, something that only less-devout people suffer from. The truth is, though, that anyone who tells another person that a lack of faith is a personal shortcoming, really doesn't know what faith is. Faith is something that you strive for, not something that just magically appears because you "believe in" me. Your personal faith doesn't give you any sort of personal in with me--I love all of you equally--though it can improve your life simply by the nature of what it is.

You see, having faith helps you to think with confidence, and when you think and act with confidence, doors open up to you simply because you approach things differently. You don't go to a job interview thinking negative thoughts and hoping against hope that you may get hired; rather, you go to that interview knowing that you have a lot to offer and that you could be a tremendous asset to the organization. With confidence, you don't talk to other people in a hesitating fashion, hoping that they'll like you; instead, you talk to them knowing that you have a lot to offer them, and that if they reject you for whatever reason, the problem is theirs, not yours.

And many people mistake this type of approach as arrogance--but there's a huge difference between arrogance and confidence. A confident person will recognize another confident person, yet a person who has little confidence will often mistake confidence for arrogance. Unfortunately, they'll also often mistake arrogance for simple confidence, and they don't notice the warning signs of the problems that an arrogant person can cause.

Your faith can give you confidence. It can't cause money to appear out of nowhere, and it can't change situations immediately. But the confidence that comes from a clear and simple faith can help to change situations, and it can also help you to feel at peace and to get more from each day that you live because you're coming from a place of peace. And when you feel at peace, you're able to treat others much better. Have faith. That's not a mandate, but a suggestion.

Priorities

Good morning, God, and thanks for this new day in our world. It promises to be a beautiful, mild summer day, and I hope to make the very most of this gift in my life.

As the summer goes on, I find myself once again trying to deal with setting and keeping priorities--I find that it's far too easy to waste a lot of time on things that don't really matter to me, and to neglect doing many of the things that are very important. I am working on a book, and that's going fairly well, though it could be going better. I have a lot of website work to do, and I'm doing much of it, but not all that I could be doing. Part of my problem is that even though I promise myself to sit down and write out all that I need to do, I avoid doing that as I do other things.

I don't think life is all about doing and achieving--you know that. But I do know that there are many things that really need to be done, and putting them off isn't at all a good idea. I do know also that I get things done much more effectively when I have some sort of plan to do so--yet sitting down and making the plan is one of my weaknesses, and when I don't do so, hours can go by with nothing getting done. That makes me feel that I'm squandering time, because those hours also aren't a restful, peaceful time for me, as rest should be.

A reply:

Yes, it is a beautiful day, and yes, it holds many great opportunities for you to make the most of it. Please do so--that's why you have it!

Priorities. . . there's a word that humans have a very hard time with. Life is full of choices, isn't it? And each time you face a choice--of what to do, what to buy, what to throw away--your choice can be a reflection of your priorities, or not. Most people set priorities about things that they feel they should, such as work or accomplishments, but relatively few people make priorities of things like encouraging and helping others, resting and relaxing, spending time with the family. Priorities are something that can be used to help one to organize their thoughts and make decisions, yet most people react to the present moment's realities and spend time on Facebook even though their priorities don't include that at all.

The hard part is sticking to your priorities, it seems. Because one of your priorities is to have priorities, but you don't really. Believe it or not, I've given you enough time to do whatever you may want to do in life; most people, though, spend that time doing anything but the things that will help them to make their dreams come true.

Life isn't about achieving, but achievement definitely makes people feel good, especially about themselves. And if you want to achieve, remember that doing so isn't necessarily a question of prioritizing or using time well--it's about making the decisions that will allow you to do so, such as deciding not to visit Facebook at all today, or sitting down with that piece of paper to write that letter, or not turning on the television to watch a show that you've already seen (and trust me, even though you might not have seen a particular episode of a particular show, you've already seen the story in some other series).

Perhaps next time we can talk about decisions.

All This Killing

Good morning, God, and thank you for this new day in my life. I hope that I'm able to make something special of it--you've given me the day and the tools, and I sincerely hope that I'm able to use them and make this an extraordinary day in some way.

I have to say that I'm getting very frustrated and even somewhat disheartened by all the killing that's going on in the world. Whether it's killing by individuals with assault weapons here in our country or terrorist attacks in other places, it hurts to see so many people willing and able to kill other people for reasons that are simply incomprehensible. If you disagree with someone, then talk to them. If you believe something different, then acknowledge the differences and move on with your life. These are the strategies that human beings have been given; these are the ways that we can use our minds and hearts to deal with our fears and prejudices rather than using violent means to make a point that virtually never is taken in the way it is intended.

The violent people are not having their claims examined in objective ways. They lose that chance when they choose to harm and kill other human beings. They are not eliciting sympathy for any cause, nor are they helping people to understand problems. And because of their misguided attempts to deal with their fears and challenges, other people must live in fear of physical violence, which makes their lives very difficult, indeed. So many people are dying needless and tragic deaths because a relatively few people feel that they have some sort of right to kill others, and there really are no words that can express how awful it is that they do this, and how awful it is for the rest of the world to see the constant killing of innocent people on a regular basis.

A response:

This has been going on forever, as long as human beings have been around. It's extremely sad and completely unfair to virtually everyone, yet no matter how much human beings progress in their knowledge and scientific endeavors, you still do a relatively poor job at teaching young people how to live together in peace, how to deal with fears and insecurities, and especially how to employ effective problem-solving skills in order to accomplish your desired goals without resorting to the lowest form of persuasion: violence and intimidation. The people who are doing the killing are afraid and they're angry, and they are willing to listen to others who are afraid and angry more than they're willing to listen to people who are not.

Even with good upbringings, such people can be "caught" by others at times when they're most vulnerable--when they feel alone, and are afraid that they always will feel that way; when they feel no hope for their future, and they're afraid that lack of hope will last forever; when they see what they perceive as injustice and feel angry about it, and they don't think that other people will do anything at all about that injustice. When you're feeling these things, it's very easy for someone else to convince you that other people are to blame for your problems and the problems of your country, and it's very easy for those people to convince you that a completely appropriate way of responding to these issues is indeed a way that is actually completely inappropriate.

Humans like to go after symptoms rather than diseases, so they declare war on terrorist groups rather than examining the situations that give rise to such groups and then doing something to deal with the problems that people are having. There are too many arguments about how much money to spend on creating more jobs, for example, an act that would bring hope to many more people, and not enough recognition of how that expenditure would actually save time, money, and much heartbreak down the road. You need to create situations that help people to have hope, you need to create inclusive social structures to help young people to have a sense of belonging, and you need to teach people not just about how to deal with their problems in life, but also a deep respect for their fellow human beings and their own fears and hopes and dreams. The violence is real and it will not go away until more people feel connected and hopeful, rather than disenfranchised and hopeless.

And what can you do as an individual who doesn't have any influence at all over the decision-making processes that could help to solve some of these problems? Not much, of course. But your prayers and your positive thoughts will help not just to keep you aware of the problems, but to think about how to avoid such straightforward problems in your own sphere of influence--to see how your own contribution to your own world can keep people there from feeling the things that the violent people feel.