PARENTING FREEDOM

Carol | May 21, 2012

“The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.” Thucydides

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” Epictetus

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Carol | May 16, 2012

It is easy to trust God on a sunny day.  But when the very earth below you is shaking…  When a hurricane is threatening your very existence…  When life becomes too hard…  When the pain hurts so much that you can hardly stay inside yourself…  When your body, mind, and spirit feel completely broken…  When merely surviving is minute by minute…  When life as you knew it gets destroyed beyond all recognition…  When you feel like you are visiting the very pits of hell…  Look up.  God is there.   You are not in control.  You never were.  Let it go.  Let go of the “Why?”  Let go of the control. Let go of the fear.  Let go of your past.  Let go of your old story.  Let God be God.  Stop fighting Him. Trust and believe.  This is the time to start over.  Have faith in your Creator.  Feel gratitude and thankfulness for even the smallest lights in your life.  Focus your mind on the positive.   Create a new dream.  A new future.  Let God be in control.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

“Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long? Turn, O LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love. I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes. Away from me, all you who do evil, for the LORD has heard my weeping. The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer.” Psalm 6:2-4,6-9

“The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. In that day they will say, ‘Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.’” Isaiah 25:8,9

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19

“I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.” Psalm 34:4,5

“As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.” Ecclesiastes 11:5

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. Do not be afraid… for I am with you… declares the Lord.“ Jeremiah 1:5,8

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.“ Proverbs 3:5,6

“The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.“ Isaiah 58:11

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.“ Philippians 4:4-7

“The LORD is my light and my salvation– whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life– of whom shall I be afraid?“ Psalm 27:1

“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.“ Isaiah 12:2

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.“ Isaiah 41:10

“Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.“ Isaiah 43:5

“In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid.” Psalm 56:3,4

“When you lie down, you will not be afraid, you will both lie down and sleep… For the Lord will be your confidence.“ Proverbs 3:24, 26

“You came near when I called you, and you said, ‘Do not fear.’” Lamentations 3:57

“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.” Psalm 55:22

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

“I can do everything through him who gives me strength.“ Philippians 4:13

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” Ephesians 6:10

“Being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father.” Colossians 1:11

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:29-31

“But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.” 2 Thessalonians 3:3-5

“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.“ Psalm 27:14

“You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” Hebrews 10:36

“Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.“ Psalm 4:1

“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”Romans 8:16-18

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” John 10:27-29

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18

“When calamity comes, the wicked are brought down, but even in death the righteous seek refuge in God.” Proverbs 14:32

“Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” 2 Corinthians 1:9

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Hebrews 2:14-15

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

“‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.’” John 14:1-4

“Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’” Revelation 21:1-4

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Carol | May 8, 2012

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32

“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I am free at last!”

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Carol | April 26, 2012

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34

“We crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow.” Fulton Oursler

“With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” Buddha

“One has to live in the present. Whatever is past is gone beyond recall; whatever is future remains beyond one’s reach, until it becomes present. Remembering the past and giving thought to the future are important, but only to the extent that they help one deal with the present.” S.N. Goenka

“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.” Dale Carnegie

“The past is a guidepost, not a hitching post.” L. Thomas Holdcroft

“We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday’s burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.” John Newton

“If you worry about what might be, and wonder what might have been, you will ignore what is.” Author Unknown

“Trust no future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead past bury its dead!
Act, – act in the living Present!
Heart within and God o’erhead.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“We steal if we touch tomorrow. It is God’s.” Henry Ward Beecher

“The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.” Abraham Lincoln

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Carol | April 26, 2012

“What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.” Psalm 56:3,4

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Isaiah 26:3

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5

“Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.” Psalm 9:10

“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.” Psalm 37:5-6

“When I am afraid, I will trust in you.” Psalm 56:3

“In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?” Psalm 56:4

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” John 14:1

“You have trusted Him in a few things, and He has not failed you. Trust Him now for everything, and see if He does not do for you exceeding abundantly above all that you could ever have asked or thought, not according to your power or capacity, but according to His own mighty power, that will work in you all the good pleasure of His most blessed will. You find no difficulty in trusting the Lord with the management of the universe and all the outward creation, and can your case be any more complex or difficult than these, that you need to be anxious or troubled about His management of it?” Hannah Whitall Smith

“He has not made us for nought; He has brought us thus far, in order to bring us further, in order to bring us on to the end. He will never leave us nor forsake us; so that we may boldly say, “The Lord is my Helper; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.” We “may cast all our care upon Him who careth for us.” What is it to us how our future path lies, if it be but His path? What is it to us whither it leads us, so that in the end it leads to Him? What is it to us what He puts upon us, so that He enables us to undergo it with a pure conscience, a true heart, not desiring anything of this world in comparison of Him? What is it to us what terror befalls us, if He be but a hand to protect and strengthen us?” John Henry Newman

“Fear is born of Satan, and if we would only take time to think a moment we would see that everything Satan says is founded upon a falsehood. He is the father of lies. Even his fears are falsehoods and his terrors ought to serve as encouragements. When Satan tells you, therefore, that some ill is going to come, you may quietly look in his face and tell him he is a liar. Instead of ill, goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life. And then turn to your blessed Lord and say, What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee (Psalm 56:3). Every fear is distrust, and trust is the remedy for fear.” A. B. Simpson

“God will never, never, never let us down if we have faith and put our trust in Him. He will always look after us. So we must cleave to Jesus. Our whole life must simply be woven into Jesus.” Mother Teresa

“Most Christians are like a man who was toiling along the road, bending under a heavy burden, when a wagon overtook him, and the driver kindly offered to help him on his journey. He joyfully accepted the offer, but when seated, continued to bend beneath his burden, which he still kept on his shoulders. “Why do you not lay down your burden?” asked the kind-hearted driver. “Oh!” replied the man, “I feel that it is almost too much to ask you to carry me, and I could not think of letting you carry my burden too.” And so Christians, who have given themselves into the care and keeping of the Lord Jesus, still continue to bend beneath the weight of their burden, and often go weary and heavy-laden throughout the whole length of their journey.” Hannah Whitall Smith

“It is a glorious thing to know that your Father God makes no mistakes in directing or permitting that which crosses the path of your life. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter. It is our glory to trust Him, no matter what.” Joni Eareckson Tada

“Yes, we can believe God with all of our heart and yet have our heart broken by the loss of a child or the treachery of a spouse or the menace of a fatal disease. We know this is true — everyone in the church knows it. And yet, generation after generation of bruised saints have known something else and spoken of it. In the mystery of faith, we find a hand on us in the darkness, a voice that calls our name, and the sheer certainty that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God — not for this life and not for the life to come. We may be scarred and shaken, but as Lewis Smedes says in one of his sermons, we come to know that it’s all right, even when everything is all wrong.” Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.

“Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love and the future to God’s providence.” Augustine

Surrender – Letting Go and Letting God – Tapping with Brad Yates

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Carol | April 21, 2012

“Forgiveness doesn’t make the other person right, it makes you free.” Stormie Omartian

“We are to forgive so that we may enjoy God’s goodness without feeling the weight of anger burning deep within our hearts. Forgiveness does not mean we recant the fact that what happened to us was wrong. Instead, we roll our burdens onto the Lord and allow Him to carry them for us.” Charles Stanley

“The Risen Christ proclaimed not that we ‘have to forgive,’ but rather, that at last we CAN forgive–and thereby free ourselves from consuming bitterness and the offender from our binding condemnation. This process requires genuine human anger and grief, plus–and here is the awful cost of such freedom–a humble willingness to see the offender as God sees that person, in all his or her terrible brokenness and need for God’s saving power. I would never tell another, ‘You have to forgive.’ But my uncomfortable duty as a Christian is to confess the truth, so lethal to our self centred human nature: ‘Jesus, who suffered your sin unto his own death, calls you likewise to forgive, so that God’s purposes may be accomplished in both you and your offender.’” Gordon Dalbey

“Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” Mark Twain

“To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life – to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son – how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it means to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.” C. S. Lewis

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”
Alexander Pope

“The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.” William Blake

“Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future.” Louis B. Smedes

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” Mother Teresa

“To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it.” Confucius

(Not sure about this in light of Luke 17:3,4,
but most of the other forgiveness verses don’t seem to be based on repentance.)

“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” Luke 17:3-4

“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Mark 11:25

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Luke 6:37

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32

(God does require us to repent.)

“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:44

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Carol | April 20, 2012

“The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.”
Maya Angelou

“Take the blinders from your vision
take the padding from your ears
and confess you’ve heard me crying
and admit you’ve seen my tears.”
Maya Angelou

“A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her.”
Maya Angelou

“We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives.”
Maya Angelou

“Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead, and those over which we have traveled, and if the future road looms ominous or unpromising, and the roads back uninviting, then we need to gather our resolve and, carrying only the necessary baggage, step off that road into another direction. If the new choice is also unpalatable, without embarrassment, we must be ready to change that as well.”
Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now

“Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.”
Maya Angelou

“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud. Do not complain. Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.”
Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter

“Just like moons and suns,
With certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.”
Maya Angelou

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Carol | April 20, 2012

I don’t know who deserves credit for the above images/quotes (unless a url is on the image). Also, I am not responsible for spelling errors. LOL

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Carol | April 19, 2012

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind
and floats downstream till the current ends
and dips his wing in the orange suns rays and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage
can seldom see through his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

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Carol | April 19, 2012

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” Alexander Pope
“I am open to the guidance of synchronicity, and do not let expectations hinder my path.” Dalai Lama

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