Pray For Spiritual Growth

Jude wrote this letter to warn others about the godless men among them.  These abusers lied, deceived, complained, boasted about themselves, flattered others for their own advantage and denied Jesus Christ.  

Jude told the believers to keep themselves in God's love with faith and prayer in the Holy Spirit.

Like most of the letters in the New Testament, Jude addresses problems in the church that are just as timely today.  Why has nothing changed in almost 2,000 years?

Believing the truth is only the first step.  For spiritual growth to occur, the truth of Jesus Christ must be applied daily, which takes awareness and work.  To begin, help is just a prayer away.

Really Follow Christ

The third letter Apostle John wrote was to a dear friend, Gaius.  John praised his friend for walking in the truth and love of Jesus Christ with hospitality for other church members.

If Christians really knew the truth and love of Jesus Christ, they would act nice.  All Christians are called to stand apart from the world with their patience, joy, peace, love, self-control and kindness.

Unfortunately, most of us do not.  But help for spiritual growth is only a prayer away!

Mature Spiritually

When Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he told them how pleased he was with their love and wanted them to be filled with the full measure of God.  

He urged them to reach spiritual maturity, so every wind of teaching and cunning by deceitful men would not corrupt them.  To do this, they must be truthful, faithful, humble, gentle, patient, loving, thankful, complimentary, peaceful, respectful, righteous, good and holy.

After people believe and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, then they must begin the work of spiritual growth.  Any Christian that follows the world with its violence, anger, greed, bitterness, slander, fear, etc. are immature.  

These immature Christians have caused horror and tragedy in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said to love our enemies and turn the other cheek.

Stop Addictions

Songs of Songs in the Bible poetically describes a beautiful love story.  King Solomon wrote this when he had 60 wives and 80 concubines, so he was not lacking in experience. 

This romance sounds so exciting that one would think Solomon never married again, but he collected another 640 wives and 220 concubines.  What could one man do with 1,000 women?

Addictions can come in many forms, but they are all destructive.  Obsessive behavior clouds our thinking and becomes an obstacle in the relationship with God.  

We have to recognize the problem, understand the cause, exert our will power, pray for help and never give up until the harmful desire is eliminated.

Stop Repeating Mistakes

With both 1 and 2 Chronicles of the Bible, more information about the Israelites was provided.  This covered God's relationship with the nations of Israel and Judah as they swayed back and forth between righteous and wicked kings.  No matter how great a king ruled, his accomplishments for the nation eventually fell to ruin with the next generation of so.

Whether reading Biblical or secular history, the same repeating stories occur.  Humans repeat their mistakes and limit their potential.  While this can be observed at a national level, it begins with the individuals.

People can stop repeating their mistakes when they become aware of what they are doing. 

God wants people to think, so they evolve into better human beings.  While change can be difficult, God is always ready to assist for spiritual growth.

Choose Beneficial Thinking

People fill their minds with needless worry, pointless busy work, futile judging, useless efforts rescuing or controlling others, harmful self-criticism and ineffectual future planning.

To change this internal chatter, people can become objective referees to consider both sides of every life experience by contemplating its value and understanding the purposes.

Since obtaining this loving insight is a process, people need to invest in themselves and take the time to choose beneficial thinking.

~ For more information read my ebook, Tranquil Hearts Program For Achieving Peace, that is available at www.tranquilhearts.com

Successful Listening

All successful people use internal self-talk and self-listening in a supportive and beneficial way.

Since people have both helpful and critical voices in their heads, they should only listen to the beneficial ones that are:

A - accurate
S - supportive
K- kind

Any internal negative critics should be ignored or, better yet, fired and replaced with a loving judge.


~For more information read my ebook, Tranquil Hearts Program For Achieving Peace, that is available at www.tranquilhearts.com

Learn From Dreams

Almost all dreams directly concern the dreamers about the dynamic conditions in their lives, like hopes, fears, questions, conflicts, etc.

Dreams offer people new insights from themselves or God, so they should search for both a literal and figurative interpretation.

When people understand their dreams, they know themselves, the world and God better.

~ For more information, read my ebook, Tranquil Hearts Program For Achieving Peace, that is available at www.tranquilhearts.com

Visualize Success!

Visualizing is like daydreaming, only instead of thinking about whatever comes to mind, it is carefully thought out and planned for a purpose.

This can be very powerful if a person can focus and be of one mind about the goal, because the human mind cannot tell the difference between actually doing the tangible activity and just thinking about it.

When a person places success in the unconscious programing, he or she makes better decisions and creates more opportunities.

~ For more information, read my ebook, Tranquil Hearts Program For Achieving Peace, that is available at www.tranquilhearts.com

Make Great Decisions!

Since beliefs are mostly "opinions masquerading as facts," people must decide what they want to think for a successful life. To make a decision on what to think and do, people need to consider:

1) What experience they want and is it realistic.

2) Do they have enough information on all the possibilities and have they considered the consequences.

3) When people are unemotional and objective, they think much better, so always take a relaxation break to calm down if needed.

~ For more information read my ebook, Tranquil Hearts Program For Achieving Peace, that is available at www.tranquilhearts.com

Create Positive Energy With Calmness and Patience

Suppose you are in the desert, and you only have one glass of muddy water. You have to transform the muddy water into clear water to drink, you cannot just throw it away. So you let it settle for a while, and clear water will appear. In the same way, we have to convert anger into some kind of energy that is more constructive, because anger is you. Without anger you have nothing left. That is the work of meditation.

~ From the book, Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh

Use Free Will

Without using a conscious free will, every person is his or her own prisoner and jailer.

Free the mind by questioning and knowing the source of negative emotions and behaviors to create miraculous change.

Wisdom

Do not just learn, one must integrate and apply knowledge to gain wisdom.

Illusive Truth

Ever creating theories and opinions but no closer to the truth became my understanding of human reality.

Know Reality

Go with the flow of life by accepting and understanding reality so beneficial decisions will be made to move a person forward.

Think!

Learn to think.

If you do not know how to think, someone else will do your thinking for you, and they usually will not have your best interests at heart.

What is Mindful Eating?

To understand mindful eating, first you need to understand mindless eating.

The definition of mindless is to act without concern for consequences.  Mindless eating is a term Brian Wansink of Cornell University and author of Mindless Eating defined for reference of eating triggered by cues other than hunger.  Mindless eating could be therefore defined as eating without concern for consequences related to cues other than hunger.

A study published in 2009 estimated an average of 66 days to form a new habit but it could take anywhere from 18 to 254 days.  Drinking a daily glass of water became a habit very quickly but doing 50 sit-ups before breakfast required more perseverance.  Some may be more resistant to changing habits than others. It may take a person who wants to develop a relatively simple habit over two months of daily repetitions before the behavior becomes a habit. 

The first step to changing habits is to identify the behaviors that lead to mindless eating. 

They are many reasons for mindless eating, from internal to external cues.  Some examples of internal cues are

• stress


• anxious


• lonely


• bored


• depressed


• tired

Some examples of external cues are:

• watching TV


• social situations such as




• parties or holidays


• don’t stop eating until your plate is cleared


• or someone else is encouraging you to eat.

The next step is to recognize the cues causing you to eat mindlessly.
They may be ones mentioned above or for other reasons.  

1. Pick one or two habits that trigger mindless eating.


2.  Write down the behavior you want to change and the more desirable replacement behavior.


3. Post it in a highly visible location. 

After you have accomplished new habits to healthier behavior, you will be ready to make new goals until your eating habits are mostly mindful eating.   

Remember to be patient with yourself because new habits take time to form.

Guest post written by Andrea Wilhoit R.D., L.D.

What is Enlightenment?

As the darkness leaves our minds, the light will enter.
Enlightenment comes through a continuous building of awareness.

The Tranquil Hearts Program provides the skills to reduce the night and gain more day.

Making Time To Live

Many years ago, my life used to be so busy that I didn't have time to eat three meals, get enough sleep or even bath regularly. I was pulled in so many directions that it seemed I just moved in a daze from one task to another with no time to think.

Then I discovered a wonderful time management exercise. Make a list over the course of a week on what you do every hour of every day. Now take these items and prioritize them with the important stuff at the top and the least important at the bottom.

What I learned about my life was that I spent about 30 hours every week doing things I did not need to do (like responding to other people's demands), so I cut this off the bottom of my list. Then I had time to relax, take care of myself and work on my personal growth.

Who Runs the Show?

Many people, myself included, have found themselves in undesirable situations and wondered how they got there.  Our minds are like computers, when they work the way we want, it is wonderful, but when they do not; it can be a mess!

Everyone receives programing from the surroundings as soon as the senses start working and the brain can process the information, which then begins our unconscious.   This automatic integration of data into the mind is the most prevalent during childhood because of the brain waves children use the most.

Once we become adults, our unconscious part of our mind is about 95% with conscious at only 5%.  This "unconscious partner" is usually the one making the decisions; but when a problem occurs, it is our conscious part that wonders what happened!