Be A Trusted Friend

There are times in everyone’s life when something hurts deep inside. It may be a lost love, something stolen, a house fire, or the loss of a job. When that happens what you need most is “A Trusted Friend” who will listen to your tale of woe when you need to vent. Sometimes you need to be that trusted loving friend who listens and doesn't say much. You are just a friend and not a trained counselor so how do you best be that listening ear to your traumatized friend?

A trusted friend keeps personal information confidential and honors what ever lines are drawn between you.

The trusted friend listens with undivided attention and helps to clarify statements but does not react in a negative way no matter how illogical the distressed friend might be.

A trusted friend knows that this is not a time for advice or trite clichés like, “I know how you feel.” Nor do you say, “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.” God may not but once in a while the world does and when it does we can be there for each other to listen and love as a trusted friend.

Being that trusted friend may be the most important thing you do that day. It will be at least for your friend who trusts you enough to share everything. What a blessing it is to be and to have Trusted Friends.

Self Thoughts

A young friend of mine from a past life in a different state allows her self worth to be determined by other people. I have found that to be the case among many young women I have known as a pastor. There are some women who get to the point of loathing themselves sometimes to the point of taking their own life. How do we condition our girls to defer to others and depreciate their self value? Is this being passed down from mother to daughter?

Over coming this kind of conditioning is most difficult. It can be done but it takes a lot of self re-programming the brain. This all starts with the recognition that the self deprecation is taking place. Reality is the beginning of renewal.

The second step is telling your self many times every day, “I am a child of God, loved by God and I am somebody.”

The third step is to locate people who love and value you for who you are and hang out with them all you can.

The fourth step is to put the people who put you down out of you life. Granted that is sometimes not an easy thing to do.

Life is too short to let other people bring you down so don’t let them. You are in control of that. Think positive things about yourself and say them out loud to yourself.

Exercising our Rights

To exercise our right to agree or disagree with our political leadership is part of what makes America great. Yet to treat leaders with outright hatred and disrespect dishonors our nation and undermines the values that has made our nation great. If people choose to treat our leaders with hatred and disrespect it will do more damage than any individual President will ever do.

President Obama and his distinguished predecessors are true Americans regardless of their political affiliations and deserve the respect of having been elected to office. We may or may not agree with the decisions of an elected official and express our disapproval of the actions taken. We can be the loyal opposition and work toward the next election to elect leaders who express our point of view. 

Keep your politics positive and express your political thoughts and vote toward the way you desire our country to become. Building up your political party may be more difficult than vilifying an opponent but it is the better and more productive way.

Children and Guns

I was saddened when I read of a five year old boy who shot his two year old sister. He will carry that pain with him for the rest of his life. The real shock came when I read that he shot her with his own gun, a 22 made for a five year old and painted blue. They make a pink one for girls. What is wrong here?

Right away the pro gun people were posting that it was just a tragic accident that could happen to anyone. In a sense it was a tragic accident from the point of view of the five year old who did not mean to kill his little sister. Many times my brother and I played cowboys with our cap pistols aiming and shooting at each other. They were toys and did not damage. A five year old has no comprehension of lethal weapons; he was playing with a new toy.

The anti gun group began a rant about firearms companies that produce lethal weapons made for such young children. There is also some truth to their concerns but that is not the real problem. Children shoot other children with guns left available by parents. In this case a gun made available as a gift by a parent.

My problem is with the parents who are guilty of negligent homicide by providing a loaded weapon to a child with out supervision. If you have guns in the house with children the said children need to be trained to know that guns can kill and assume that a gun is always loaded. It is OK to train a child to shoot on a target range and respect a gun but not to be left alone with the gun. In a home with a child all weapons need to be unloaded, the trigger locked and the gun locked up.

Where was the adult supervision in that home?