Lessons for Living

When You’re Depressed

How do you handle discouragement?

Better yet — how do you beat it?

(I fear too many of us — well, I, anyway — enjoy too much wallowing in it.)

Andrée Seu wrote in WorldMagBlog:

For what ails you

The best thing to do when you’re depressed is to live as though you’re not depressed. (That advice applies to fear and other suffering as well.)

[…]

And then I pray God’s promises over it—“I will never leave you or forsake you”; “My power is made perfect in weakness”; that sort of thing. It helps, also, to make a list of what you need to do that day, and just start doing it. Press into life and live it.

I simply have to remember that.

And this:

Psalm 139:10

“Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”

Where Does the Time Go?

Where does the time go, Jesus?

We can’t seem to get everything done in one day.

Maybe we are trying to do too many things.

No matter how busy it gets, Jesus, help us to spend time with You every single day.

If we don’t, slow us down so we can.

Thank You, Jesus.

Amen.

I don’t know who said that. I think it may have been Marilyn Jansen.

Punished or Blessed?

I know, this is old news, though very pertinent. And thought provoking.

From LifeNews on April 22, 2008:

As many as 80 percent of unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome become victims of abortion, but Alaska Gov, Sarah Palin didn’t let her child become a statistic. Palin, who has deeply-felt pro-life views, gave birth to her fifth child this week and the baby was diagnosed with the condition.

On Tuesday, Palin confirmed her baby, named Trig Paxson, has Down syndrome.

“Trig is beautiful and already adored by us,” Palin said in a statement LifeNews.com obtained.

“We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives,” she said.

‘We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed,” the 44 year-old governor added.

Trig was born on Friday, one month before his due date, and he weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces.

Then there’s this from CBN on March 31, 2008:

“I’ve got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at the age of 16. You know, so it doesn’t make sense to not give them information.”

And this from Psalm 139:14:

“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”

Disclaimer: Though it quotes two prominent political figures, this isn’t a post to make a political point.

(By the way, try searching for news reports of Mr. Obama’s remarks.) 😯

Keep It on the Road!

[Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way (Proverbs 13:6)]

To live right…live right.

To do right…choose right.

To stay on the road…make that determination.

In other words, deciding to make right choices sure makes it more likely that I will make right choices.

It amazes me to see people (including me) trying to follow Jesus…but making choices (even “little” ones) that don’t contribute to staying in The Way.

Oh, and if you want to see what else I wrote this morning related to Proverbs 13, click the image above. In fact, I wish you would.

(By the way, I took the picture last winter while driving on Oregon’s Highway 26 in the Mt. Hood area. We were on our way to Madras.)

West Coast Sunset

No, I’m not posting any of my spectacular sunset pictures. Not in this post, anyway.

License to Kill:

Most inhumanities start small, like the beginning of a tsunami, but then build, as they head toward inevitable and unstoppable destruction.

It is difficult to pinpoint the precise beginning of the cultural tsunami that has devalued human life. Did it begin with the subjugation of women? Did it begin with slavery? The Nazis made their contribution with the Holocaust and Josef Mengele’s hideous human experiments. Surely unrestricted abortion added to the growing list of inhumanities.

Now we have the next wave. Randy Stroup is a 53-year-old Oregon man who has prostrate cancer, but no insurance to cover his medical treatment. The state pays for treatment in some cases, but it has denied help to Stroup. State officials have determined that chemotherapy would be too expensive and so they have offered him an alternative: death.

Adds new meaning to what Governor Tom McCall famously said on national TV way back in the 70s:

“Come visit us again and again. But for heaven’s sake, don’t come here to live.”

Yup, we’re the Pacific Wonderland, alright.

The “Losers” Out There

You really ought to read the whole thing. Here are the concluding paragraphs.

My African Violet

My mind made the leap from herbs to men. One encounters people throughout one’s life who look like damaged goods. And no doubt they are. Droopy and lifeless, or curled in on themselves, they look gruesome and make the onlooker recoil and turn away.

The plant withered because it was trying to save itself. The unappealing person caved in with depression or addiction or surliness is trying to save himself too. The lesson from the African Violet — and a cardinal rule for understanding human behavior — is that no one does anything for no reason. You need to find the reason. And just knowing that there is one stirs my compassion.

Thank you, Andrée Seu!

Above all, love God!