Thoughts, ideas, and quotes on gratitude, including experiments with the principle of gratitude. Author, teacher and WOW creator, Marnie Pehrson, highlights truth & talent & helps talented professionals deliver their message to the online world.
Julie Coulter Bellon Author of romantic suspense fiction, also one of our editors at IdeaMarketers.
Kerry Blair Author of mystery romances with a good dose of humor. Book doctor and editor.
Leslie Householder Leslie teaches people how to think. She's my friend and mentor. Her site has free ebooks to help you achieve your dreams through right thinking.
Marcia Lynn McClure Author of historical fiction romance. Marcia's books have all the sizzle without the sin. :)
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I participated in a discussion on a social media site recently where one of the other people suggested that faith couldn't be trusted and unconditional love could get you in trouble. He reasoned that a lot of people of supposed faith do things incredibly wrong – like murdering in the name of God. He suggested that logic should reign supreme. If people would forget faith in favor of logic then they wouldn't do such stupid things. He also recommended that love should not have free reign because it leads to codependency or narcissistic behavior.
I found his way of thinking more frightening than the possibility that someone's unfounded faith might cause a terrorist attack. Shall we abandon faith, hope and charity for simple logic? Why does it have to be all or nothing? Can't we use all the faculties God gave us? Yes, God gave us our logical minds for a reason, but dare they be completely trusted when they too can be tainted by our life experiences? Our minds can fool us into thinking we're acting completely logically, when in reality we're basing everything on an underlying faulty premise lodged in our subconscious minds. Throughout my life, I continue to discover old "programming" running in my subconscious mind that drives my actions. When I get down to them and examine them, I realize that actions taken because of them were completely logical. The problem was they were NOT true!
All men aren't bad with money.
Debt is NOT an inescapable part of life.
We shouldn't hold back our love and protect our hearts because people might die or leave us.
I don't have to accomplish some lofty set of goals in order to feel my Heavenly Father's love and approval.
I consider myself a very logical person – been a computer programmer for 20 years, but even when founded on "truth" I still don't trust my logic completely. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, and it's simply not logical that Christ would bother dying for me. It's not logical that He would love me just the way I am. None of it is logical to my reasoning. I'm just one person among billions of billions. Why not leave me off the list and save some suffering on His part? I'm so grateful that faith tells me He did indeed die for me. I'm grateful to have felt His unconditional love for me – in spite of all logic that He should feel that way. His grace still amazes me!
I appeared on the Women's Information Network Show (The WIN Show) to talk about the formula for accomplishing the impossible. I call it "HALO over Gratitude" or if you want to see it as a mathematical formula, it's
Many people today are feeling hopeless and helpless. In a society on information overload, we're often so inundated with "information" that we have a hard time discerning what is going to be helpful for us as individuals. I really enjoyed this episode of The WIN (Women's Information Network) Show in which Tiffany Berg addresses these issues and offers solutions:
I believe that God leaves symbols in nature that we can examine and apply to our lives. Whether it's lessons from my garden or from a trip hiking through Zion's National Park, there is always something significant to learn from God's creations.
In my recent trip to St. George, Utah, my friend Judy Hansen, took me hiking in Zion's National Park. This short 2-minute video on achieving your dreams is just one of the "aha moments" I had that week.
This evening I came up with a fun little exercise that was very revealing. I made a list of all the people who have impacted my life. Out to the right of each name, I jotted down the main way(s) each person affected me. As I did so, I saw a definite pattern. I went back to childhood, forward through time, and found the people I love, respect and value have come into my life for one or more of the following reasons:
To encourage me to believe in myself and my gifts (10 people)
To help me develop skills (6 people)
To facilitate spiritual growth or act as spiritual mentors (6 people)
To help me learn to enjoy life and enjoy the journey (5 people)
To help me gain clarity and focus and/or getting things done (5 people)
To teach me universal laws (2 people)
Several people served more than one role, but in all, these 21 people have made me who I am. As I looked at the list and the number of people sent in each area, I thought it very revealing. Look at how many people have been sent to help me believe in myself. Either it's very important that I believe in myself or I'm weak in that area. Most likely it's a combination of both. I think we all need people who see our gifts, believe in us, and encourage us along the way.
I'm so grateful that God has sent me just the right people to help me progress. They have been and will continue to be priceless treasures in my life. So now it's your turn. Try writing down the people who have impacted your life and how they have done so. I'd be curious to hear your results. Let me know!
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I spent some time worshiping in my garden this morning. I call it "worshiping" because when I'm down on my knees and singing as I dig in the dirt, it feels more like worshiping than work. I put some Phillips, Craig and Dean on my ipod and sing to my Heavenly Father. I learn so many life lessons from gardening, and this morning was no exception.
Today I learned what peas have to teach me about parenting. About a month ago my daughter and I planted these peas that are doing very well, climbing up either side of a wire fence we positioned for them. But lots of grass and weeds are growing alongside them now. That's typical in the tropical Southeastern climate we have here in Georgia. We get lots of rain, which the plants love, but so do the weeds. My son ran the tiller between the rows, but he couldn't get close to the plants themselves. That required sitting in the dirt and picking my way along the fence, hand removing the weeds.
Before I draw the analogy to parenting, let me tell you a little about the types of weeds I found growing amidst my peas.
I found grass with shallow roots that were fairly easy to pluck. These were the easiest to remove.
There were clinging vines that wound their way around the pea stems and interwove into the fence alongside them. I had to cut these weeds down by the ground, sever them from their source, and leave them to die without risking damage to the pea by extricating them.
There were bunchy weeds with deep roots that required digging to remove. If these were too close to the peas, I couldn't dig, just had to tear off the tops. I'll have to keep a watchful eye on these, because I'm sure they will return and must be dealt with eventually.
Most dangerous were fibrous-rooted weeds that seemed fairly benign at the top, but whose roots intermingled with the peas' roots. Pulling these threatened the life of the pea if I did not remove them skillfully. I had to replant one pea after accidentally uprooting it. Hopefully, it will be all right.
If the weeds were far enough from the plants, I could dig them out with a spade, or run my gloved fingers into the earth and dislodge them. But those that were too close to the peas, I had to be very careful. It was best to remove my gloves and feel the weed to make sure I didn't accidentally get the pea too.Timing is everything when weeding. When the soil is moist from the morning dew, weeding is a lot easier.
You may be wondering what in the world this has to do with parenting. As a mother of six, I liken the pea plants to my children. We planted them in rich soil and placed a stable fence against which they could climb so they could reach their full potential. But the challenges and false ideals of the world are growing right there alongside them, sucking up their nutrients, overpowering them, and threatening to choke them. As much as I want my children not to be "of the world," they are "in it."
When our children were little, I didn't always know the difference between their unique personality and what was a "weed." I had to just nourish my family until there came a time I could distinguish the weed from the plant. When weeds become obvious, a good parent doesn't waste time. She gets in there and starts pulling out the weeds. But it's easy to get distracted by other duties and let time pass until weeds threaten your garden. I've been beating myself up a lot lately for doing just that.
You wake up one morning after a heavy rain and cry, "Oh my, where did all these weeds come from?" As Jesus said in one of his parables, "an enemy hath done this." The world is our enemy, and it's constantly planting weeds in our gardens. Even when we've planted a gospel fence for our children to climb, they need us to help them identify and pull weeds.
When the weeds are small, it's easier to just pluck them out roots and all, but sometimes they grow like a clinging vine, threatening to choke our children. We have to learn to say "No" and cut these activities off at their source. Other times, we may feel our child is doing fine, never knowing that a fibrous weed is choking his root system. We don't always know our child's thoughts; and thoughts are at the core of everything.
In the end, we have to get down in the dirt and hand-pick those weeds. We have to get our hands dirty and remove weeds with the care and feeling of a tender parent. It's a difficult, time-consuming, and tedious process – especially if we've allowed negative patterns to develop.
By the time our children are teens the world is often so interwoven into their root system (so tangled up in their lives) that we must tread carefully. Snipping a vine at its base and not trying to extricate it from the plant may be the safest maneuver. Other times we must gently remove a weed entangled in our child's root system. But there is always this balance between preserving the child and clearing the weeds.
As I was working, I noticed that I couldn't safely remove a weed on the other side of the fence. I had to go to the same side of the fence as the weed and the pea, then dexterously remove the offending vegetation. Coming to our teenager's side of the fence might be:
Learning to text message him so he will communicate with you when he's out with his friends. I've found that teens are more likely to be open in their communication via text when out with friends because no one knows "mom is calling to check on them."
Getting to know your teen's interests – the music he listens to, the movies he watches, and the friends he associates with. You can't always rip these things away without endangering the tender parent-child relationship or pushing him in a rebellious direction. You have to be careful and lovingly steer your child toward appropriate forms of entertainment and talk him through relationships.
Getting your hands dirty by discussing the hard subjects with your children. Neither you nor your child may feel comfortable discussing certain topics, but if you don't open those channels of communication, they will form their perceptions about love, sex and intimacy from the world. Like a noxious weed that weaves itself into the root system of the pea, pornography and violence will attack the core of even the best child's thoughts and self-esteem.
Just as the situation with each of my pea plants and the weeds around them were different, so is each of my children. Each of them has different strengths and weaknesses. Each of them handles correction differently, but all of them need tender loving care.
Like gardening peas, our children need our time and attention. They need us to be loving parents willing to get down in the dirt, get on their side of the fence, take off the gloves and get our hands dirty.
And timing is critical. Listening to the Spirit to know when and how to approach our children can work miracles.
I spent the day recording my own version of "As a Man Thinketh" by James Allen, adding commentary throughout. It'll be part of what Monetize Your Gifts members receive when they join. I read this book as a teenager and then rediscovered it as an adult. It's had a profound impact on my life.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from it:
"As a progressive and evolving being, man is where he is that he may learn that he may grow; and as he learns the spiritual lesson which any circumstance contains for him, it passes away and gives place to other circumstances."
"Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are."
"Man has but to right himself to find that the universe is right. And during the process of putting himself right, he will find that as he alters his thoughts towards things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him."
"Be not impatient in delay, But wait as one who understands; When spirit rises and commands, The gods are ready to obey."
"Not what he wishes and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns."
"You will become as small as your controlling desire, as great as your dominant aspiration."
"Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil."
I spent some time worshiping in my garden this morning. I call it "worshiping" because when I'm down on my knees and singing as I dig in the dirt, it feels more like worshiping than work. I put some 
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