Post by The Great Aztec Joe on Nov 24, 2011 9:58:07 GMT -8
This thanksgiving, pray for people with anger problems. The angry guys are always looking for a reason to hurt people, or at least insult them. I see them on the freeway with their one finger salutes either for my benefit or the benefit of others. It never bothers me as I figure most often they must be angry with somebody else, but if they are angry with me, I know I have done no wrong, so it is they who have the problem.
It is angry and mean spirited people like that who make you realize how wonderful the "really good people" are. Thank God for them this Thanksgiving.
I always do. My childhood was unsettled (to say the least). Like so many boys who come from dysfunctional homes with drunken parents (Both of my birth parents were alcoholics.) I enlisted in the Navy to get away from my father and my mother, even though I loved them both. They divorced when I was five, and I spent the first five years with Mom and her problems and then the next nine years with my Father and his problems. I loved my parents, but boy, were they messed up! I spent six years in the Navy trying to figure out the meaning of life (What causes sadness and happiness, anger and calm......)
I realized that people who were kind and loving lived kind and loving lives. My father's sister and her husband became my role models as they had that kind and loving nature built into their lives. I visited with them frequently observing how they interacted, what motivated them (My father was motivated by money and alcohol), and how they dealt with difficult situations in life. I did not initially see it as faith, but a calm, patience and kindness that seemed to govern their daily lives. I soon realized that part of that conduct had to come from their faith. Faith was still alien to me at that time, having been raised an agnostic/atheist during my most impressionable teenage years.
Their lives were built on faith and obedience to God. I made that choice about a year after my six years Navy enlistment was up. I guess I was a slow learner as I found it hard to overcome the indoctrination my father had given me about the absurdity of most religious teachings.
I was in college when I decided to make a daily conversation with God part of my life. A lot of people tell me there is no God, including one of my daughters who is most like my father. She and so many others have found it difficult to believe in God.
To that I say, "If there is no God, then we need to make one up, because God helps guide happy lives." So many people without a faith in God seem to live miserable lives, full of anger and distrust of others. They need our prayers this special day.
It is angry and mean spirited people like that who make you realize how wonderful the "really good people" are. Thank God for them this Thanksgiving.
I always do. My childhood was unsettled (to say the least). Like so many boys who come from dysfunctional homes with drunken parents (Both of my birth parents were alcoholics.) I enlisted in the Navy to get away from my father and my mother, even though I loved them both. They divorced when I was five, and I spent the first five years with Mom and her problems and then the next nine years with my Father and his problems. I loved my parents, but boy, were they messed up! I spent six years in the Navy trying to figure out the meaning of life (What causes sadness and happiness, anger and calm......)
I realized that people who were kind and loving lived kind and loving lives. My father's sister and her husband became my role models as they had that kind and loving nature built into their lives. I visited with them frequently observing how they interacted, what motivated them (My father was motivated by money and alcohol), and how they dealt with difficult situations in life. I did not initially see it as faith, but a calm, patience and kindness that seemed to govern their daily lives. I soon realized that part of that conduct had to come from their faith. Faith was still alien to me at that time, having been raised an agnostic/atheist during my most impressionable teenage years.
Their lives were built on faith and obedience to God. I made that choice about a year after my six years Navy enlistment was up. I guess I was a slow learner as I found it hard to overcome the indoctrination my father had given me about the absurdity of most religious teachings.
I was in college when I decided to make a daily conversation with God part of my life. A lot of people tell me there is no God, including one of my daughters who is most like my father. She and so many others have found it difficult to believe in God.
To that I say, "If there is no God, then we need to make one up, because God helps guide happy lives." So many people without a faith in God seem to live miserable lives, full of anger and distrust of others. They need our prayers this special day.
