Christian Encouragers ~ JULY ...
 

:angel: Welcome Friends :angel:
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You've found a great place to come
and vent, share or ask for prayer support.
This is a great group who will be very
encouraging, caring and loving....
....anyone is welcome to join!

A Servant's Prayer --

Jesus, My Jesus....How marvelous are your ways....
Far more splendid than my mind can envision.
What an honor to be chosen by you.
A lowly child I am, but empowered by the Holy Spirit
to fulfill the great hope to which you have called me.
I give myself totally to you, Lord.
Take my imperfect heart and make it perfect.
Peel away the hardness.
Close the doors I have opened to the temptations of this world.
Gently remove the roots of painful memories, sins, doubts and fears.
Discard anything that separates me from you.
Lord, fill the emptiness with the light of your love
that I might be a beacon calling the lost back to you.

To love as you love.....
To serve as you serve.....
To forgive as you forgive.....
Always mindful of my nothingness while doing great
and marvelous things in your name and for your glory.
This I pray, Jesus, in YOUR name ...
Amen.


:angel:

Thanks ladies, for your well wishes on our country's celebration for July 1st -- CANADA DAY ... We should be able to see and hear the fireworks from here as we now live about 4-5 blocks closer to them.

GARY ~ that's so cute: I am positive she knew exactly what she was singing, and :yes: so does JESUS ... :D Isn't there a verse about praise is perfected out of the mouths of babes? Matthew 21:16 :yes: JESUS said it too!

We had nicer temps for the last few days with lots of :rain: on and off today, with a lovely breeze too. It was nice to sit out on our new back deck. We really love it; and there haven't been very many buggies this year. The black flies are gone and the skitters that come out later in the day, have been few -- PRAIZE GOD! I think we will be putting that A/C in tomorrow AM as July does getter hotter and that is expected this week.

ROSE ~ glad your pastor is well again; praize GOD and I hope your new deck table lasts longer than the last one. WE have one made of pine that DH made a long time ago; it matches our chairs and looks great.

We had deli bbq chicken, tators, corn (for me), and salad this weekend, so we didn't have to heat the house up cooking ... yum!

Tomorrow is a holiday for many people here -- hope you have a good one everyone ... :flow2:

:hot: What a holiday week! The US weather map has record highs all over the country, and western US has over 50 wildfires raging! :flame: Our prayers are for the folks in the midst of this trauma.

:?: What is it about the evening? I can do so well during the day, but supper and afterwards, all bets are off. :ink: A little more self-discipline--and prayer!

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ROSE ~ I am going to send up some ^prayers^ for you -- that our precious LORD will fill your heart with more love for yourself. I find it much more disturbing that you repeatedly refer to yourself as a "cochon" than the fact that you may eat a little more than you would like, on occasion. JESUS wouldn't call you a name like that. JESUS would call you his beloved child.

Please try to be more kind to yourself -- for what you do and say here reflects upon us all. When you judge yourself so harshly, you judge us all. Personally, I take offense to it whether it is intentional or not; and I have heard others here say that they do too. I forgive you sister, but I had to say something becuz it makes me not want to come in here.

It actually bothers me that there is even an emoticon for that; and when I saw it, I was surprised at the obvious slur. We don't have one for a horse or a dog or even a cat, why only one for a pig and cow? I love this site, but that has always bothered me ... :shrug:

Rosebud ~ I am so sorry to have offended you and anyone else. I used the icon lightly, as it is used so lightly in conversation. Thinking about it, however, I see where it is a symptom of how society (including myself :() can be so judgemental.

Your prayers are appreciated ~ and felt! My morning has gone well exercise-wise (I feel the endorphins), breakfast-wise (healthy, and w/i an hour after rising) and spiritual-wise, w/ reading my daily devotions/prayer.

You brought me up short: my perception of myself is indeed "off" (using 'centered' in my name is a misnomer) and I pray that true friends will always "tell it to me like it is."

Thank you!

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ROSE ~ Thank you for your understanding -- I was hesitant to say anything becuz I didn't want to offend YOU. Isn't that always the way? Often, I have just thought that I am too sensitive; and maybe I am -- probably from being called names like that one specifically on more than one occasion. Then a lady started a whole thread about this topic; and received so many replies from members here that felt the same way.

Yes, I realized that you were adding it in jest; and it probably didn't occur to you that it would be a very unpleasant reminder to so many of us. So after praying about it several times, I felt the LORD wanted me to put a "bug in your ear" about this, so2speak. :lol:

Many years ago, my mother (who was a Christian) said something like this -- that when we judge ourselves so harshly, we are saying that GOD is wrong to love us; that GOD is wrong to forgive us; and we are throwing Jesus' grace back in his face. Moreover, we are saying that our judgement is greater than His ... that one hit me the most, and I never forgot it!

This is just another reason why I believe that this WL battle is a "spiritual lesson" -- more than we sometimes realize. It shows how we see ourselves, how we see others, and how we see GOD. It shows how we need to heal the hurts; and how we need to learn to love & accept ourselves & others, as GOD does.

Maybe you can pray for me that somehow all the hurts of past name-calling will heal. I appreciate that you are here in our group; and your very mature, Christian response. Remember this, "I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers." Ephesians 1:16 :hug:

Thanks so much for your reply, Rosebud. I'm glad 'we're good.' :hug:
And I know that after praying about it, God told you the right thing to do.

I do appreciate it when friends let me know when I've strayed from being the kind, loving Christian (to myself and others!) I want to be.


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Rosebud and Rose May I jump in here.

I also think the WL could be a "spiritual battle" for most of us because I think that many of us as Christians take our Christian walk so seriously that we want to be perfect in every area of our lives and with the way the world looks at Christians and overweight people, it causes us to have the tendency to look down on ourselves because we even feel we should be able to conquer this weight problem. Then we feel like we are failures because we aren't able to overcome it the way we think we should.

Rose Your name does not offend me. Actually it made me think of Jesus as the Rose of Sharon. Also, my Mother loved roses and always called us girls her rose#1, rose#2, and rose#3. However, I have seen some names for people in their Avatars that really makes me wonder if they realize how they are re-enforcing so much negative that they are setting themselves up for failure. Even groups, for example... I love the Overeater's Annymous meetings and even started a meeting in the Houston/Galveston area some 40 years ago. But I quit when I heard a preacher speak of how we say things so negative about ourselves. I would love to go to their meetings as I love their support system (nothing like it), but I refuse to introduce myself to anyone by confessing and re-enforcing the statement "My name is Trish and I'm a compulsive overeater". Why would I confess to be what I don't want to be. I promise you that if I didn't have to make that confession, I would most definitely be a member of their group again because I loved the meetings, support and fellowship. member As I write this I remember one time after I started the group, my then SIL heard me say something about being a compulsive overeater and she said "Why would you say that about yourself? You are not a compulsive overeater". At that time, we were so close that she was with me almost every waking hour so she new me very well. You know the sad thing is that I didn't get it. I heard her, but I didn't believe her. That is what all that negative things the world says about us works against us if we fall for it and say it to. At least it was for me.

Rosebud I loved what your very WISE mother said and I think it bears repeating... IT SURE SPOKE TO ME. You know another sad thing about all the way the negative causes us to judge ourselves is that we start acting that way and believing it about ourselves and we can begin to let others mistreat us and run over us because we don't think we deserve to be treated any better. I've noticed that if you feel good about yourself and respect yourself then others will either respect you or leave you alone. But they won't treat you like crap any more. Just my humble opinion.

I pray we all have a Terrific Tuesday.

Trish ~ thanks for your comments and insight! It is great to be amongst affirming Christians. :hug:
A lot of my self-image stems from junior high--and at 62 it's time to let it go!
So this is me, moving forward:
http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/7/7_2_118.gif
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Me too Rose and I'll be 69 in August.:hug:

THANKS, TRISH ~ I also appreciate your input; I think that word above bears repeating too, becuz my mother and I were talking about "perfectionism" that day also. That's what started the conversation. She said that I was too hard on myself, then made the statements I shared. (ouchy-ouch-ouch). That was a spiritual lesson for me for sure.

And yes, I agree that the negativity can become a "self-fulfilling prophecy" -- keeping you from succeeding, which is the opposite of what you want. To overcome this WL battle, you need "positive" armor just like the verse in Rose's signature (Phil 4:8/9). Think on the positive and that's what you will get/become ... :D


ROSE ~ I noticed the negative avatars, monikers & threads too; and that's what got me thinking about all of this again as well. So suddenly, I started noticing the negativity everywhere. I too used to berate myself (and I still slip up now & again; it's an ongoing process for me yet). That is why my mother & I got into that discussion in the first place. We are ALL learning and moving on together ... :hug:


I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday as well. This was my devotional message this AM -- how fitting ...

"LORD, HELP US BE ENCOURAGERS
BY PRAYING FOR OUR FRIENDS IN NEED
AND GIVE US OPPORTUNITIES
TO SHOW THEM LOVE
IN WORD & DEED!"
(Sper, of course)

I never noticed until lately that when I do something wrong or that I really hate that I catch myself saying "Stupid" or "Dummy" or something like that. Knowing how negative things can affect us, I reverse it and I say something like "Oh no I am not stupid" or "I am not a dummy in the name of Jesus".

I think we have to counteract the negative. I also noticed Roses signature too. We need to remember who we are in Christ. We are children of God and He loves and accepts us the way we are and we need to learn to love and accept ourselves as well. I always wondered "How can I love my neighbor as myself if I don't even like me?" I think we have a tendency to love others and treat them much better than we treat ourselves. I've been thinking of that a lot lately.

Rosebud ~ {going back to your 8:48 am post today} yes, I will pray for you (and myself, and others who still hurt from horribly negative things said to us) for healing. God can use pain and change it into something good.

...I'm thinking of the butterfly, who has to go through a chrysalis stage before being able to fly... http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_3_136.gif




http://www.smileycentral.com/sig.jsp...p=ZNxdm824CLUS

Rose I think that is why I love butterflies. Please add me to that prayer too.

I have some news I would like to share with you. Some sad, some happy.

I am on a FB site on growing up in our city. The other day I ran across a name that was familiar. I asked her if she had a sister named Linda and she did. Long story short, we were good friends all through jr high and high school. She always had a crush on me, but me not on her, so I was always careful. She was such a cool person I didn't want to hurt her feelings. Anyway I have not seen her since our 20 year reunion almost exactly 20 years ago and she lived across the states. The sad part is she passed away with brain cancer 2 years ago. The happy part is she was a born again christian, as is her sister and brother. We all shall meet again :carrot:

And on the same site a lady asked me if I was so & so and I said yes. She was so excited, we know each other although she is 6 years older and was good friends with my parents and cousins. I have put her in touch with my cousins and they are having a blast catching up.

So excited my friend will be in heaven. She was such a sweet-heart of a girl so many years ago.