What Makes a Healthy Family - July 2020

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY MAKES A HEALTHY CENTERED FAMILY?

What was it like growing up for you?  How would you rate your parenting?

 How was it for you during Covid 19?

Share with us, how you see a healthy family today!

By:  Shirley Faith Souder                        I Peter 3: 8 12                           June 12^th, 2020

            Would you agree that this is a loaded question?  How many books, college courses, workshops, tv series have been exploring this very topic.  Parenting whether singular or co-parenting, it is quite the subject.  There have been debates, domestic police interventions, generational gap arguments, counselors and teachers all wanting to plant their interpretation on this very, everyday controversary.

            Birth parents, grandparents, step parents, and kids themselves all want what they want!  And, there it is folks!  The true complications of parenting a healthy family come flooding to the surface.  Adam and Eve set the entire tone for this scene. FREE WILL.  Add to free will, individual personality development, and DNA disbursement. God designed each one of us to be who we are.  Let’s take the example of a family of five.  Female mother + Male father.  Two different genders that come from their own backgrounds of DNA, life experiences, free will choices, different personalities plus different parenting styles.  Speaking English, that means, you have already started with two people who have different ideas of parenting, have different desires, and education.  Our couple have brought two boys and a girl into their family.  The first born is out going and is a high achiever.  Male.  Second born is a male who instinctually desires to be the opposite of the high achiever.  He wants to play and be mister sociable.  The female is cute. And, she is the attention getter.   Mom and dad are planning a vacation.  Dad is dreaming about fishing and exploring the entire island.  Mom wants to lay on the beach and read a book.  She is smiling at no car pools, and dinner to plan.  The high achiever looks for a library to go look up career paths and talk to peers who want the same.  Mister social personality is running the beach looking for surfer dudes and ones in bikinis.  The cutie pie is looking for bikinis to buy and groups of young people playing volley ball.  Are you getting the possible arguments and free will “my way or the highway” that goes on?  It’s all natural and actually healthy.  This example is really God’s design.  What needs to make the family healthy is HOW WE MANAGE BY CHOICE and LEARN TO WORK THROUGH ALL THE VARIABLES OF PARENTING DIFFERENT PERSONALITIES, CENTURING CHRIST AND HIS PURPOSE FOR PARENTING.

            As I mentioned on Mother’s Day, each child that comes into this world is a product and design of our Universal loving Holy Father.   We are developed to want and need unconditional love, and acceptance of who we are.  We are all different yet looking for connection.  So, let’s join the family for a look at love, acceptance and boundaries.  God’s way.  Scripture.  Dad and mom have already conferred in agreement and understanding about the day’s events and meeting everyone’s needs.  They sit down together for a quiet breakfast, and devotional time.  They then talk over the day’s events and desires.  Everyone is given charge over a four hour “do your thing” time period.  At the given hour of 4PM, we will all return to the hotel for rest and clean up time.  We will then as a family go to dinner and enjoy that time together with a planned event for the evening. I believe with all of my mature mind and professional learnings, that God wants us according to His scriptures, to love one another and accept each other without judgement.  He wants us to bring structure, rules, guidelines from scriptures, and boundaries into our families.  He wants us to teach respect and individual unconditional positive regard into our family.  He knows the end result will be a healthy Christ centered bunch of adults who will pass the baton.  They will listen with God’s ears, they will love with His heart, and instill Christ centered boundaries no matter how much resistance comes from kids trying to find right of passage.  I witnessed that first hand on Mother’s Day.  All the teens and little 3-year-old granddaughter joining hands in a circle so each one could say what they are grateful for.  A prayer spoken and lots of laughter.  I watched respect and boundaries issued when needed. Heated discussions, yes, but in the end, compliance and healthy hugs.  I also had great awe for the grandparents who did not have that upbringing, but CHOSE to center God into their lives to bring a new healthy awareness into their children and grandchildren.   It isn’t easy, no one is saying it is.  It is complicated today.  Our generation gaps also play a part in how we view the world.  We have a skewed idea sometimes that it should be how it was when we were growing up.  Our humanness desires “our way” is the only way.  I had to do it, so therefore, you have to do it this way.  I want to end here with, old dogs can be taught tricks.  Here is the tool:  Once again. . .

CONVICTION (This isn’t working “Help me Jesus!) + COMMITMENT to make the CHOICE to learn and show love by CHANGING.  Only Jesus Christ can make that change.  I Peter 5: 6/11 

 

I Peter 3: 8/9. Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and Humble.  Do not repay evil for evil or insult for insult.  On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. . . .   Let’s be a blessing to God, in our relationships.

I Peter 5: 6. Humble yourselves, therefor, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.  Cast all your anxiety on Him, for He cares for you.  Be alert and sober of mind.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. . . .  Keep these truths buried inside of you to recall and come against any toxic, or distracting measures that the enemy would use.  He will use people, family, TV, even music at times.  BE ALERT.  Center yourself, and your family in the truths and promises of our great God who is the God of miracles, and impossibilities.  He DOES bring all things together for good out of anything Satan or any one Satan uses.

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS, QUESTIONS, AND TESTIMONIES NEXT WEEK!

HOW DID GOING THROUGH COVID-19 CHANGE YOU - 6-5-20

HOW DID COVID-19 CHANGE YOU?

What new RESOLUTIONS have you made?

BY:  Shirley Faith Souder                        II Cor 5: 17                                May 29^th 2020

            Another question comes to mind here as well.  “What did you learn from going through this very. NEW and scary time?”

            Every New Years Eve week, I get my journal out and look back at the prior year.  It is my true intention to evaluate how did that year go, what did I learn, and what resolutions have I made to change something that didn’t go so well.

            Next week, I would ask you to please send those thoughts and ideas to let all of us know what you learned, good or bad.  My bottom line for this entire two months is the major surprise “That I did Survive after all.”  One of my greatest back ground noises in that head of mine has always been, please don’t do anything that would put me in jail.  I would never survive.  You have no control, you can’t go anywhere, you have to do whatever you are allowed to do.  I would have to wear the same outfit, what would happen to me in there by other inmates?  I am such an outdoor woods-woman.  When I heard those words ventilator and people were dying and they were stacking them up in cold semi’s in New York; I couldn’t breathe.   I can’t just get in my car and go somewhere, get my hair done, meet with people, go on vacation.  Choose transportation, go shopping, see friends, and most of all go to Church.

            Living these many decades, I have seen all kinds of threats, I mentioned once before.  But, this one was taking all my freedoms away and would there be enough to eat?  You all have had your own pandemic with these past two months.  The mind is quite something that God invented.  I have heard from and observed people improvising and recreating things almost immediately.  Making due, finding new ways to communicate.  Learning that sitting down at a meal with your family has been brand new.  Church on Facebook, virtual dance lessons in the home, small group on skype or zoom.  It’s been quite amazing.

            My friend came and cut my hair, I cooked better and got to read books I haven’t had time to read.  I sorted closets and paperwork to find a better way to organize something.  I finally got a new things to do page printed out.  Wrote cards and emailed people.   I got closer to the Lord.  It drove me to find ways to worship and spend more time in prayer for people. And, I sorted out a couple situations that I needed to resolve.  It also prompted me to thank the Lord for this craziness.  Did I have a meltdown or two?  Oh sure!  Now, I thank Him for my new outlook. There is the scripture that came to mind.  II Cor. 5: 17. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new is here!

            Jeremiah 17: 7. And 8 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose Confidence is in him.  They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.  It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.  It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

            I did fear when the heat came, and I thought there would be a drought.  I am alone, what will happen to me?   For me it does take having a deep-rooted relationship with Jesus Christ. And, even then I got side tracked.  If you need that kind of relationship where the King of Kings walks with you through these valleys then ask Him to come and show up.  He will.  I did that one Sunday.  Only I was a bit verbal about it.  He did.

I sought learning about this.  I pledged resolve for those things.  And, I accepted change.   What did you learn?  Share with us?

           

MOTHER'S DAY POST - May 10, 2020 by Shirley Souder

There “MOTHER’S DAY” – 2020

What is your definition of a Mom and how will you celebrate this year?

By:    Shirley Faith Souder                      Proverbs 31                              May 10, 2020

            When Tracy asked me to write about Mother’s Day, I initially felt like I didn’t know what to say.  And, we all know that, that would be quite a show stopper if I had nothing to say.

            As an only child with my mother being gone since 2007, and technically I have no birth children, who will listen to me about Mother’s Day.  So, I began really praying, and thinking.

I asked several friends who call me mom and who have said,” I wish you had been my mom!”   . . .Why?    It is quite daunting, always has been.  I have been a step-mother and step-grandmother that is true.  Yet, there is still that birth-mother thing that makes all the difference in the world.  Casey Treat says in his book “Healing the Orphaned Heart”, that professionals are still trying to find out what makes the family tick, or not.  We can have wonderful parenting experiences and close relationships to celebrate at this time of year; however, we can also have miscommunication and broken ties with moms as well as dads.  All we can ever understand is that due to life’s issues, broken promises, and choices that Proverbs 23 says”, guard your heart, for out of it springs the issues of life.

            Personally, I did not have a bonded and close relationship with my mother.  After a lot of counseling, reading and education, I realized that so many of us just didn’t have a frame of reference to know how to mother.  Some mothers are just too broken to know how to mother.

            That is where my friends came in by responding about their feelings coming from that same experience. They saw in me “an unconditional love and acceptance for them”.  They needed that in their lives and got that from me.  That was very hard to embrace.  I feel like I have really struggled in my life without that clear frame of reference. More than once I feel I have missed the mark.   Counseling helped, education helped, pouring over scriptures, praying and then finding some books I highly recommend.

            Living From the Heart Jesus Gave You by James Wilder Etc.

            Reframing Your Hurts – by his protégé Barbara Moon

            Healing the Orphaned Heart – by Casey Treat.

            As little girls and boys we all need acceptance and unconditional positive regard.  Love, forgiveness.  We needed to play, to cry, to have fun, to have attention.  And, here is the bottom line.  No matter what has happened in your life, it still is a choice to guard your heart, and change.  To want that heart, to want love and be loved. To learn how to do that no matter what it takes.   It takes making a choice for Conviction, Commitment and Change.  So, some of us will have to celebrate alone on Mother’s Day, or we have chosen families who warmly embrace

and take us in.  That has been my choice and I thank my wonderful friends who make that happen for me. There are also those of you have recently lost a mother, or still grieve for that woman who loved and honored you as a person.  Write her a letter on Sunday.  Thank you her, treasure that memory. Enjoy your day with wonderful experiences of birth mothers and relationships you have celebrated and will continue to celebrate.  I believe God pointed me to them, and them to me.  Sunday, I will get to sit around a table with people I love and they love me.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY. MAY 10, 2020

There “MOTHER’S DAY” – 2020

What is your definition of a Mom and how will you celebrate this year?

By:    Shirley Faith Souder                  Proverbs 31                            May 10, 2020

            When Tracy asked me to write about Mother’s Day, I initially felt like I didn’t know what to say.  And, we all know that, that would be quite a show stopper if I had nothing to say.

            As an only child with my mother being gone since 2007, and technically I have no birth children, who will listen to me about Mother’s Day.  So, I began really praying, and thinking.

I asked several friends who call me mom and who have said,” I wish you had been my mom!”   . . .Why?    It is quite daunting, always has been.  I have been a step-mother and step-grandmother that is true.  Yet, there is still that birth-mother thing that makes all the difference in the world.  Casey Treat says in his book “Healing the Orphaned Heart”, that professionals are still trying to find out what makes the family tick, or not.  We can have wonderful parenting experiences and close relationships to celebrate at this time of year; however, we can also have miscommunication and broken ties with moms as well as dads.  All we can ever understand is that due to life’s issues, broken promises, and choices that Proverbs 23 says”, guard your heart, for out of it springs the issues of life.

            Personally, I did not have a bonded and close relationship with my mother.  After a lot of counseling, reading and education, I realized that so many of us just didn’t have a frame of reference to know how to mother.  Some mothers are just too broken to know how to mother.

            That is where my friends came in by responding about their feelings coming from that same experience. They saw in me “an unconditional love and acceptance for them”.  They needed that in their lives and got that from me.  That was very hard to embrace.  I feel like I have really struggled in my life without that clear frame of reference. More than once I feel I have missed the mark.   Counseling helped, education helped, pouring over scriptures, praying and then finding some books I highly recommend.

            Living From the Heart Jesus Gave You by James Wilder Etc.

            Reframing Your Hurts – by his protégé Barbara Moon

            Healing the Orphaned Heart – by Casey Treat.

            As little girls and boys we all need acceptance and unconditional positive regard.  Love, forgiveness.  We needed to play, to cry, to have fun, to have attention.  And, here is the bottom line.  No matter what has happened in your life, it still is a choice to guard your heart, and change.  To want that heart, to want love and be loved. To learn how to do that no matter what it takes.   It takes making a choice for Conviction, Commitment and Change.  So, some of us will have to celebrate alone on Mother’s Day, or we have chosen families who warmly embrace

and take us in.  That has been my choice and I thank my wonderful friends who make that happen for me. There are also those of you have recently lost a mother, or still grieve for that woman who loved and honored you as a person.  Write her a letter on Sunday.  Thank you her, treasure that memory. Enjoy your day with wonderful experiences of birth mothers and relationships you have celebrated and will continue to celebrate.  I believe God pointed me to them, and them to me.  Sunday, I will get to sit around a table with people I love and they love me.

           

May 1, 2020. "Are you ready. . .?

“ARE YOU READY TO CLIMB OUT OF THAT PIT?”

“Together, let’s tear up that card we carry to the S.P.P.P.!”

(“Self-Pity-Pit Party”)

By:  Shirley Faith Souder.     May 1^st. 2020                            James 4: 7 and 8. / Zeph 3: 14/17

            This topic is not a new topic by any means.  You have heard this term many times.  When I was in college back in the day I would hear this term used constantly.  “Why does the human form love to dwell in that very deep pit of “poor me?”  Back then, I was an idealist and always perky.  Everything would always be okay, just wait a few minutes, like Indiana weather, it will change and be okay!  Well, everyone; time, experience of time, or as they say age, changes those events.  I began to see that fallacy just this year.  Covid -19 has driven me into a wall and I got pretty banged up.  All those wonderful counseling tools, and Biblical specific passages, devotional encouragements got a little lost. 

            Seriously, I have asked myself, do you need counseling?  Do you need anti-depressants?  Have you gone to the dark side?  Are you reaching towards Bi-Polar Personality Disorder?  One day, doing very well, and the next throwing a Pity Party to beat all parties. 

            I was feeling particularly disappointed in myself when I read something from Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling on April 26^th.  From what Jesus indicated to her, we are to climb up out of that pit we fell in and go to the ladder that climbs upward.  There we need to see Jesus and look at our life from His perspective.  Wow!  I love that.  I never thought about it that way.  There we can see how He loves us, has all our details in His hands, and give us options.  A whole new look from a higher place.  Another favorite author of mine, Beth Moore wrote a book on Falling in the Pits.  That there are four types of pits the enemy throws our way for us to trip over.  1). We know we are a little down about something and so we consider walking by the party room downstairs.  2).  We get too close and are looking in at the fun of a good self-pity party when all of a sudden, we fall into it.  3).  We don’t walk to the pit, we run and jump in.  4).  We’re tempted to look down, go to turn away and are pushed in.

            Please remember that the natural, human side of us will always entertain an issue presented to us.  “What should I do with this?”  We were given free-will, remember? We do have a choice, unfortunately.  I remember counseling people about the tools necessary to make those choices NOT to even go close to those pits.  Life throws us curves.  Our personalities determine a lot of how we respond or react.  So, what am I saying here?  Don’t go beating up on yourself for entertaining, and having a small gathering at your party.  No guilt trips, okay.

            Just . . .1) Be aware that something just came into your mind that you don’t like and has taken you inside.  You aren’t smiling.  You feel tired, depressed, discouraged, outraged, shameful, now what?  2)  It is Choice time.  What are YOU going to choose to do?

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            Here are some ideas:

            I wrote out a 5 X 7 Card and stuck it to my bulletin board. 

            NO DOUBLE MINDEDNESS IS ALLOWED HERE.   JAMES 4: 7 AND 8.

                        . . . . .Come near to God and he will come near to you.  Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts (minds) you double minded.

            Do I do that every time, no, but I am doing it more often.  That is what He loves.  When we work at it and are committed to change. 

            Then I wrote out Zephaniah 3: 14 through 17.  I wrote this out for my personal good. (God understands we need to do that sometimes). “Sing Shirley, Shout out aloud.  Be glad and rejoice with all your heart Shirley.  The Lord has taken away my anguish and punishment and HE HAS TURNED BACK YOUR ENEMY!  (I sing that song Raise A Hallelujah – in the presence of my enemies).  The Lord my King is with me I do not have to fear harm, or go limp over depression.  He is with me and He saves me.  Here comes the best part.

            “He will take great delight in you (me, Shirley) in His love he will no longer rebuke me (you),  but . . .will REJOICE over me (you) with singing.”

            See, that’s those options we can see from atop the ladder with Him, that I mentioned before.   That is the picture I want to stick in my mind through this whole Covid 19 thing and any other thing that comes my way.  I also call my prayer partners to pray with me and that pulls me out even faster.  It is easy to get thrown under the bus, you know, you have had it happen to you.  It is your choice to climb out, get on the ladder and go up to see Jesus.

            Tear up your card to the S.P.P.P. and spend more time listening to Him sing over you!

APRIL 25TH, 2020 "WHAT'S IN YOUR GARDEN?"

“WHAT’S IN YOUR GARDEN?”

“Are you planting and developing flowered thoughts, as well as, flowers?”

Or

“Do you need to weed things out that are causing distractions and choking out God’s plan for your life?”

by:  Shirley Faith Souder                                                                    Date: April 24, 2020

            Most likely you got as excited as I did a few days back, when we had those 70-degree days with sun.  It was amazing to see people out walking, and getting things at Home Depot, as well as, Walmart to start on garden and other work projects.  Sunday morning, I went very early to the grocery and it felt like the good old days. I saw plants boxes and flowers pots, hanging fern pots were swaying in the breeze.   The shelves were stocked, and just a hand full of people were there.  I did see one person with a mask, which brought me back to reality and that we are still in this very serious new normal.  After I watched the sermon on Sunday, it got me to thinking about how we long to get into spring and start planting everything new.  To watch it come up in its colorful array is something I can’t wait to see.  It got me to thinking about the Garden of my heart.  What is planted there that is about to spring out?  What weed will come along and distort that or crowd it out?

            Instantly, I thought of the parable of sower.  Matthew 13: 3 through 9.  Seeds are important for growth.  We put the seed in the ground.  We want good ground with fertilizer, and watering is key.  Paying attention to and guarding whether the soil is moist and receiving the nutrients.  We do NOT want that seed to fall on hard, parched by the sun ground.  We do not want to forget about the silent weeds that will also choke our new plant.  When you apply that to what’s going on in the Garden of my heart, I could see a real parallel.  The ground is my personal relationship with Jesus.  The seed is the inerrant Word of God, and then we fertilize that relationship by pure thoughts and actions.  The final act is of watering that with prayer, and worship for our Holy Father God.  Sounds really easy doesn’t it? Simple, Flawless! 

            So, I am making this simple this week.  1). Read Matthew 13: 3/9.   2).  Ask yourself these questions:

What seeds good or bad am I planting that require me paying attention to and guarding?  What outside things or people could be distracting, hindering or choking out my ministry, God’s purpose for my life?  Am I harvesting good, colorful, healthy, thoughts and actions wherever I am?  Am I making good choices about what I think, do and pray about?

And finally, 3). Remember Phil 4: 8.  Whatsoever is true, pure, right, noble, lovely, admirable, praiseworthy and excellent, think only on these things.

APRIL 17, 2020. CAN YOU SAY YES TO THE WAYS JESUS IS WORKING I N YOUR LIFE TODAY?

WHAT KEEPS YOU FROM SAYING YES TO JESUS!

“CAN YOU SAY YES TO THE WAYS JESUS IS WORKING IN YOUR LIFE  T O D A Y?”

By:  Shirley Faith Souder

            Faith 2 Voice               Psalm 61: 1/4                                     April 17^th, 2020

           

And, my answer this morning during devotions, was; a resounding “NO!”

Hey, Lord, I’m tired of trying to pretend things are normal in an abnormal situation.  I’m exhausted trying to be grown up. I don’t even want to be a role model of spiritual maturity TODAY!   What are you trying to teach me (us) in this Covid -19 nightmare?  I just figured out that this isn’t normal and I don’t know where to find normal.  There is no way to know what each day holds.  One of the analogy’s I coined this morning was I felt like I was up on this diving board at the top of the coliseum and I was trying to see the pool or where to jump in.  No matter what pair of glasses I tried on, even the rose-colored ones, I couldn’t see it.   And, yet I was told to jump!  Where is all that Faith and Trust I keep reading and writing about?  I hear myself getting irritable and my perspective is way off.  My imagination is running rampart!!!  I don’t see any good coming out of this, yet your Word says in Romans 8: 28, how you work all things together for good.  So, NO!  I don’t like any of this.  All I am getting out of that whole chocolate comfort food thing is growing numbers on the scale.  People are different, I am getting different.  My sleep cycle is so out of whack I can’t even remember what was normal.   Of course, I love the sermons and the challenges lately.   Of course, I am reading the Word, and of course I am praying.  But, guess what?  In less than 24 hours, I ‘ve grown another thorn of wrong-heart attitude.  CAN YOU RELATE?  If not stop reading.

            Last week before Easter weekend I wrote about rolling the stone of your heart away.  I got such a dose of that myself, it is humorous now.  But not then.  They say don’t pray for patience, because you are going to get to practice that one in spades. That very week before Easter, the week I wrote that article about rolling the stone away from your heart, I found myself thrown under the bus.  In conflict with myself as well some input from others.  What did I do?   I opened up the door to the enemy big time, by just lying there and letting the bus run over me.  After the sermon on Sunday, I took all my “well-meaning” issues on a prayer walk and laid them at the cross.  Are you impressed?  Don’t be.  Yep, 24-hours later, it took just one little tiny thought to creep in.  “How long can this go on, I can’t stand this one more minute?”  “Enough is enough!”  From there it just grew into a real full-blown attitude.  The committee in my head all agreed with the CEO analogy you know!  And, away we went. After all,  God needs a junior Holy Spirit and I am applying for the job.  “Dear God, you have 24- hours to get this mess cleaned up and I have the five-point plan that will clean this all up!”

           

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            How is that working for you Shirley?  Ah!  It is not.  The bottom line is, and I believe this with all my heart, friends:

            He reminded me that I can always come to Him with my rants and raves.  I have a bestie who says, how she even has gone around stomping her foot and yet knows God still loves her and It’s okay.  I love that!  Barbara Moon in her book Reframing the Hurts in Your Life,  confirms that analogy to be true.

Psalm 61: 1 – Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. (2) From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 

            There is that whole Rock thing again.  No matter how we act out, we need to go to Him with a CONVICTED heart.   And, that we repent of our temper tantrum. . . Psalm 61: 3 For you have been my refuge a strong tower against the foe.  You bet He is. I am convicted I opened the door to the enemy by not putting on my armor (Gal 6: 26 etc.) and recognizing that the enemy was beckoning me to the pit.  My COMMITMENT Lord, is this, I will hang on and trust you, even though this crazy abnormal stuff is going on.  Even though it sucks and I am beside myself with fretting, fussing, stewing and steering I will . . .vs 4 long to dwell in your tent forever, and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.  Thank you, Jesus that I can trust that CHANGE will come.  Holy Spirit show me what I need to know and help me manage what I don’t know.  Shed light on this situation so I can see which way to go.   I promise to keep being aware that the minute that one word, or sentence pops up in my head I will come to you and say “Jesus help the girl!”

            Your TOOLS are the three C’s.    Convicted – Committed – Changed

            1.         Remember it is okay to freak out when you don’t know what is happening.

            2.         Cry out to the Lord -  Psalm 61: 1

            3.         Repent – Lay it down – in your heart you know He has this!

            4.         Be convicted by recognizing when you are getting sucked into abnormal

                        thinking.

            5.         Be committed to want His help and grace and mercy.

            6.         Accept the change he has for you and will show you how to manage this.

            Your final knowledge here is, that this is not a one-time STEP.  Oh, I am better now.

You get to practice this until it’s a piece of cake, and it makes the enemy run for cover.

            Disciplines take six weeks to take hold.  Practice, Practice, Practice.  Say Yes!