I'm currently reading Beth Moore's Praying God's Word..Breaking Free from Spiritual Strongholds it's slow reading...taking a while to process..I'll try to paraphrase/condense each chapter as I read it for those of you who wish to read along with me..there are 14 different strongholds discussed I find myself jumping from one chapter to another in order of that particular stronghold in my life at this point in time and going back to it constantly...this is to help me to come to terms with the less than desirable aspects of in my life that I truly want to place in His hands but I find myself taking 3 steps forward and 2 backwards..it is always so much more difficult to do that which I know is right....

WHAT IS A STRONGHOLD?

2 Corninthians 10:2 - apostle Paul explains..a stronghold as..Any argument or pretension that "sets itself up against the knowledge of God." ...Accordig to Moore " A stronghold is anything that exalts itself in our minds, 'pretending' to be bigger or more powerful than our God." We feel overpowered because our focus is on that particular stronghold, we are controlled by it. It consumes so much of our emotional and mental energy that it we are prevented from having fruitful life--"our callings remain largely unfulfilled and our believing lives are virtually ineffective.

WHERE IS THE BATTLEFIELD:

Behavior is influenced by thinking. The enemy's chief target is against the believer's mind warfare against the believer's mind. Remember nothing is bigger or more powerful than God...the enemy knows that...that's why anything that "exalts" itself in our thought life is called a "pretension" ..Nothing is bigger or more powerful than God..not even the strongest addiction or overwhelming feeling of rage. Anything that has a hold on you can be downsized until you have, in effect, commanded it to bend the knee to the authority of Christ.

WHAT ARE OUR WEAPONS?

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 identifies the weapons of warfare...

1. They are not the weapons of the world.
2. They have divine power.
3. They are associated with the "knowledge of God."
4. Their purpose in warfare is to take our thoughts captive.

The two major weapons with divine power in our warfare are:
--The Word of God (Ephesians 6:10-18 - the sword of the Spirit)
--The Spirit-empowered prayer (Ephesians 6:17 - "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions."

OVERCOMING STRONGHOLDS

Strongholds have to be demolished..like a building has to be demolished with dynamite...we can't do it alone by sheer determination, secular psychology, denial...God has given us the two sticks of dynamite..His Word and prayer. Prayer keeps us in constant communication with God, which is the goal of our entire believing lives. It allows us personal intimacy with God..He wants us to be healed but He wants us to know our Healer...He wants to give us resurrection life but He wants us to know the Resurrection and the Life. We will never win any spiritual battle without prayer, but when the heat of battle has momentarily cooled, the plunder from the battle is a far greater intimacy with God.
The Word is powerful in demolishing strongholds
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

We take our thoughts captive, making them obedient to Christ, every time we choose to think Christ's thoughts about any situation or stronghold instead of Satan's or our own. The Word of God reveals Christ's thoughts to us.
By praying Scripture we can overcome strongholds.

To follow:
Overcoming Idolatry
Overcoming Unbelief
Overcoming Pride
Overcoming Deception
Overcoming Insecurity of Feeling Unloved
Overcoming Feelings of Rejection
Overcoming Addiction
Overcoming Food-Related Strongholds
Overcoming Ongoing Feelings of Guilt
Overcoming Despair Resulting from Loss
Overcoming Unforgiveness
Overcoming Depression
Overcoming Sexual Strongholds
Overcoming The Enemy

Amen sista!

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">We take our thoughts captive, making them obedient to Christ,</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">and there is the battlefield!

Great one Haze, thanks for starting this. Looking forward to more

Thanks Haze!

Amen and Amen!!!

Strongholds can bring you down or make you stronger, the choice is up to you.

Overcoming Idoltry

God warned His people over and over that if they did not resist the false gods of the nations surrounding them they would be snared, and He would ultimately allow them to be taken captive. They didn't and He did. One sobering thing about the faithfulness of God is that He keeps His promises, even when they are promises of judgment or discipline. Over and over the Book of Isaiah seems to plead the question, "Why in the world would you worship idols when you have been chosen by the sovereign God of the univers to be His own"" Isaiah 43:10-12 packs a powerful punch:
"You are my witnesses," declares the Lord,
"and my servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
nor will there be one after me.
I, even I, am the LORD,
and apart from me there is no savior.
I have revealed and saved and proclaimed--
I, and not some foreign god among you.
You are my witnesses," declares the LORD,
"that I am God."

You and I as believers in Christ have also been chosen to know and believe and understand that He is God. Our lives have been sanctified by the one true God. Heaven is His throne. Earth is His footstool. Awesome creatures never cease day or night singing, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty!" Lightning flashes from His throne. The winds do His bidding. The clouds are His chariot. The earth trembles at the sound of His voice. When He stands to His feet, His enemies are scattered. He is transcendent over all things. Absolute. Uncontested. Omniscient. Omnipresent. The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. He is God and there is no other.
Consider three reasons why praying Scripture regarding the "Godness" of God is so critical in the proces of breaking free from stongholds:

1. Virtually every stronghold involves the worship of some kind of idol. For instance, the stronghold of pride is associated with the worship of self. The stronghold of addiction is often associated with the worship of some kind of substance or habit. In one way or another, something else has become "god" in our lives: the object of our focus. Filling our minds with Scripture acknowledging the "Godship" of God is a crucial part of renewing our minds. Until we turn from our idols to the one true God, we will never find liberty, for "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Cor. 3:17). One missing link in almost every captive life is the spirit of God's lordship.

2. As long as our minds rehearse the strength of our stronghold more than the strength of our God, we will be impotent. As we pray the Word of God acknowledging His limitless strength and transcendent dominion, Truth will begin to eclipse the lies. We will realize that in our weakness He is strong and that as we bend the knee to His lordship God is more than able to deliver us.

3. We may be forced to realize that our perception of God is something that we, ourselves, have conjured up and not the one true God at all. We may see ourselves as conventional Christians, but if we believe our God is small, that's not God at all. Truth sets us free. The truth may be that we've carved a "God" out of our own image, assigned Him the utmost and noblest of human characteristics, unintentionally envisioning Him to be more of a "superhuman" than The Most High God (El Elyon).

The following scriptural verses will aid the developmentof a more accurate perception of God. May God remind us daily--no matter what kind of obstacles we face--that we are loved and empowered by the One who brought the universe into existence with the mere sound of His voice. Nothing is impossible for Him.

-Isa. 44:6,8
-Isa. 43:15-16
-Neh. 9:6
-Job34:12-15, Jer. 29:11
-1 Chron. 29:11
-Ps. 145:1
-Ps. 95:3-5
-Ps. 145:17
-Ps. 145:13
-Acts 17:24-28
-Job 36:26-29
-Ps. 104:1-4
-Ps. 111:7-8
-Ps. 121:2
-Isa. 40:28-31
-1 Cor. 8:6
-Ps. 36:5-9
-Ps. 62:6-7

Good word! I like that part that was saying "hey don't forget I created you in my image, not the other way around, I suggest you read MY BOOK and figure out who I am so you will know who you are"


.... or something like that

Chapter 2 - Overcoming Unbelief

Believing God is never more critical than when we have strongholds that need to be demolished. Believing God is also rarely more challenging. Why?

I think that it has to be harder. If it were easy than faith would not be "blind faith" and if we can't have blind faith in something so "simple" as a character trait then how can we expect to have that same measure of faith in something as infinitly difficult as us being saved by a man dying/resurecting 2000+ years ago?

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Haze:
Chapter 2 - Overcoming Unbelief

Believing God is never more critical than when we have strongholds that need to be demolished. Believing God is also rarely more challenging. Why? </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Because we've battled most of our strongholds for years and perhaps tried countless remedies in an effort to be free with very little success. The enemy taunts us with whispers like, "You'll never be free. You've tried a hundred times. You go back every time. You're hopeless. You're weak. You're a failure. You don't have what it takes." Every one of these statements about you is a lie if you are a believer in Christ. You do have what it takes. You have Jesus--the Way, the Truth, and the Life. But you can't just believe in Him to be free from your stronghold. You must believe Him. Believe He can do what He says He can do. Believe you can do what He says you can do. Believe He is who He says He is. And believe you are who He says you are.
You may be thinking, "I want to believe! I just don't have enough faith!" God's Word records an encounter in Mark 9:14-24 to encourage every person who wants to believe. Christ met a man with a son who had been possessed by the enemy since childhood. Many wise men, physicians, witch doctors sought to find freedom for his son but to no avail. Jesus asked for the boy to be brought to Him. The father's desperate plea "If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." "If you can..?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." The father immediately exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
God would rather hear our honest pleas for more of what we lack than a host of pious platitudes from an unbelieving heart. It is always God's will for us to be free from strongholds. We may not always be sure God wills to heal us physically in this life of every disease or prosper us with tangible blessings, but He always wills to free us from strongholds.
God wields incomparably great power for those who choose to believe. More than enough to break the yoke of any bondage. Our belief unclogs the pipe and invites the power to flow.
God applies the same power to our need that He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead. Does your stronghold require more power than it takes to raise the dead? God can do it..because He says so. Believe Him...and when you don't, cry out earnestly, "Help me overcome my unbelief!"

Isa. 43:10
Mark 9:24
Heb. 11:6
Matt. 9:28-29
Luke 8:12
John 3:12
John 14:29
1 Pet. 5:8-9

Chapter 3 - Overcoming Pride

Perhaps no other spiritual obstacle is quite like this one. Why? Because the challenge to overcome pride may be the only common denominator on every one of our spiritual "to do" lists. A simple reason exists for it's Goliath proportions: pride is Satan's specialty. It is the characteristic that most aptly describes him. Pride is the issue that had him expelled from heaven. It is still one of Satan's most successful tools in discouraging people from accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let's not fool ourselves into thinking that pride is a problem only for the lost. The most effective means the enemy has to keep believers from being full of the Spirit is to keep us full of ourselves. No wonder the Bible states and restates that God hates pride. It is the enemy of genuine ministry. It is the end of many homes.
Scripture exhorts believers, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand" (1 Pet. 5:6). God's Word also makes that very unsettling statement in Daniel 4:37: "Those who walk in pride he is able to humble." The sum total of those two verses is this: We can humble ourselves, or God can humble us. God won't put up with pride in His own children very long without dealing with it. He's much too faithful. And far too much is at stake.
In some ways, Christians have to be more alert to pride than anyone. If we don't presently have an issue that is actively humbling us, we veer with disturbing velocity toward arrogance and self-righteousness. We are wise to remember that Christ never resisted the repentant sinner. He resisted the religious proud and Pharisaic. Remember, pride wears many masks. Pride is not the opposite of low self-esteem. Pride is the opposite of humility. We can have a serious pride problem that masquerades as low self-esteem. Pride is self-absorption whether we're absorbed with how miserable we are or how wonderful we are. We are wise to be on the constant lookout for pride in our lives. Pride is the welcome mat in every figurative prison cell. All we have to do to remain bound in any area is to refuse to take responsibility for our strongholds and repent of the sin involved. Pride is a monumental boulder in the path toward breaking free.

My name is Pride, I am a cheater.
I cheat you of your God-given destiny...because
you demand your own way.
I cheat you of contentment...because you
"deserve better than this."
I cheat you of knowledge...because you already
know it all.
I cheat you of healing..because you're too full of
me to forgive.
I cheat you of holiness...because you refuse to
admit when you're wrong.
I cheat you of vision...because you'd rather look
in the mirror than out a window.
I cheat you of genuine friendship..because
nobody's going to know the real you.
I cheat you of love...because real romance
demands sacrifice.
I cheat you of greatness in heaven...because you
refuse to wash another's feet on earth.
I cheat you of God's glory...because I convince
you to seek your own.
My name is Pride. I am a cheater.
You like me because you think I'm always looking
out for you. Untrue.
I'm looking ot make a fool of you.
God has so much for you, I admit, but don't worry
If you stick with me
You'll never know.
Beth Moore

2 Kings 19:22
Ps. 10:4
Ps. 73:6
Prov. 11:2
Isa. 2:17
Isa. 13:11
Jer. 13:17
2 Cor. 5:12
Phil. 2:3-5

Awesome!!

My pride held me back for years and I still see lessons God has for me in this area. Just whenI go looking for approval for somthing that I consider an accomplishment it gets so quiet you can hear a pin drop LOLOL I can hear God chuckle in my spirit with a "gotcha!"

He has been very faithful in helping me keep it all in chack and perspective!

I apologize in advance for jumping the gun here and selfishly skipping to Chapter 5 but at this point in my life...well today...right now...this is such a powerful stronghold in my life that I needed some relief...I felt moved to read and re-read and pray and pray some more about this because of a situation that have had a hold on me for quite sometime now and I felt pushed to pray for release..

Chapter 5 - Overcoming the Insecurity of Feeling Unloved

All of us have insecurities...even the most outwardly confident people we know. Minor insecurities can be little more than occasional challenges, but when life suddenly erupts like a volcano, insecurity turns into panic. Want suddenly feels like need. A hidden pocket of unmet needs suddenly quakes and leaves a cavern. The fear or the feeling of being unloved is probably our greatest source of insecurity, whether or not we can always articulate it.
Proverbs 19:22 identifies man's chief desire.."What a man desires is unfailing love; better to be poor than a liar." What in the world does being better off "poor than a liar" have to do with a man's desiring unfailing love?
The Holy Spirit is pinpointing the deep origin of our constant cravings to have more and more of anything. He is implying that our human tendency is to stockpile belongings or amass wealth in order to satisfy a cavernous need in our souls. He is also suggesting that we are lying if we're saying that our greatest need is anything besides unfailing love. The word desires in Proverbs 19:22 implies a deep craving. Each of us craves utterly unfailing love: a love that is unconditional, unwavering, radical, demonstrative, broader than the horizon, deeper than the sea. And it would be nice if that love were healthy, liberating rather than suffocating, and whole. Inerestingly, the Word of God uses the phrase "unfailing love" thirty-two other times, and not one of them refers to any source other than God, Himself. You see, God had the transcendent advantage. He created us, God got to make us any way He wanted us. It's not His will for anyone to perish, and since the only way to have eternal life is to receive Him, God created us with a cavernous need that we would seek to fill until we found Him.
Searching for perfect, unfailing love in anyone else is not only fruitless, it is miserably disappointing and destructive. Our hearts are not healthy until they have been satisfied by the only completely healthy love that exists: the love of God, Himself. The following words by Oswald Chambers summarizes this "No love of the natural heart is safe unless the human heart has been satisfied by God first." We are not free to love in the true intent of the word until we have found love. All of us have looked, but the important question is where? In the search for unfailing love, if we unknowingly allow Satan to become our tour guide, the quest will undoubtedly lead to captivity.
We are not wrong to think we desperately need to be loved. We do. But we are wrong to think we can make anyone love us the way we need to be loved. Our need does not constitute anyone else's call but God's. Many of us have heard the devastating words, "I just don't love you any more." Others may not have heard the words but they have felt the feeling. The fear. Throughout life we will lose people who really loved us to death or changing circumstances. As dear and as rich as their love was, it was not unfailing. It moved. It died. It changed. It left wonderful memories...but it left a hole. Only God's love never fails.
We each have our unmet needs, and we carry them around all day long like an empty cup. In one way or another, we hold out that empty cup t the people in our lives and say, "Can somebody please fill this? Even a tablespoon would help!"
Whether we seek to have our cup filled through approval, affirmation, control, success, or immediate gratification, we are miserable until somethng is in it. Psalm 143:8 says: "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,/for I have put my trust in you./Show me the way I should go,/for to you I lift up my soul." What a heavy yoke is shattered when we awaken in the morning, bring our hearts, minds, and souls and all their "needs" to the Great Soul-ologist, offer Him our empty cups, and ask Him to fill them with Himself! No one is more pleasurable to be around than a person who has had her cup filled by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only One who is never overwhelmed by the depth and length of our need. Imagine how different our days would be if we had our cups filled by Christ first thing in the morning. During the course of the day, anything else anyone is able to offer could just be the overflow of an already full cup. This person will never lack company or affection because she draws daily from the well of unfailing love. This blessed of all believers will know from experience what the apostle Paul meant in Colossians 2:10: "Ye are complete in Him."

Lord God, help me to trust in Your unfailing love; cause my heart to rejoice in Your salvation. Help me to sing to You, Lord, for You have been good to me! (Ps. 13:5-6)

I call on You, O God, for You will answer me; give ear to me and hear my prayer. Show the wonder of Your great love, You who save by Your right hand those who take refuge in You from their foes. Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings. (Ps. 17:6-8)

Ps. 25:4-7
Ps. 136:1-8, 23-26
Isa. 54:10
Lam. 3:22-24
1 John 3:19-20
John 3:16-17
John 15:9-11
John 14:21
Isa. 43:1-4
Titus 3:4-7

My whole heart has not one single grain, this
moment, of thirst after approbation. I feel
alone with God; He fills the void; I have not
wish, one will, one desire, but in Him; He
hath set my feet in a large room. I have
wondered and stood amazed that God should
make a conquest of all within me by love.

Lady Huntington, Streams in the Desert

Got nuthin I can add....

Chapter 4 - Overcoming Deception

Deception is the glue that holds every stronghold together. Nothing is bigger or more powerful than God; therefore, anything other than Jesus Christ mastering the Christian's life can keep it's grip only through pretension and deception. Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). No truth is in him. His specialty is twisting a lie until it seems true. The list of lies we often believe when we are held in a stronghold can be unlimited. A few examples:
* I can never be victorious over this compulsion. I've had it too long.
* I can't help the mess I'm in. I'm caught, and there's nothing I can do about
it.
* It may be a stronghold, but I really need it to get by.
* I am absolutely worthless--nothing but a failure.
* I'm in control here. This is not controlling me.
* This isn't doing me any harm. I can handle it.
* I'll know just when to stop.
* After all I've been through, I deserve this.
* There's nothing wrong with this relationship. People just don't
understand us.
* Everyone thinks these kinds of thoughts most of the time. I'm
only human.
* God may work for other people, but He doesn't work for me.
* I'll just have to wait until heaven to get over this. Real victory is
impossible on earth.
* God can't possibly fill the void in my life. I need something more.
* I am too emotionally handicapped to ever be OK.
* It's hopeless. I'm hopeless.
Sometimes we are very aware of tolerating or even fueling a lie. Other times,
we are caught in such a web that we can no longer see ourselves or our situations accurately. It's not always clear when we're being deceived, but one sure sign is when we begin to deceive. All you have to do to locate Satan in any situation is look for the lie. How do we recognize a lie? Anything we are believing or acting on that is contrary to what the truth of God's Word says about us is a lie. Second Corinthians 4:2 tells us how to respond to such things: "Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor ddowe distort the Word of God." This passage helps us identify four of Satan's specialties that must be renounced and rejected by the believer in order for him/her to walk in victory:
1. Secrecy
2. Shame
3. Deception
4. Distortion of Scripture
Satan's plans toward the believer are always the antithesis of God's. Our Redeemer wants to loose us from the closets of secrecy and bring us to a spacious place of joy, freedom, authenticity, and transparency. Satan wants to keep us bound in secrecy where he can weigh us down in guilt, misery, and shame. The enemy knows that once we expose the ssecretplaces of our lives to the light of God's Word, we're on our way to freedom.
James 5:16 states: "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." This passage refers to the confessions we make to others. In contrast 1 John 1:9 states: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." This refers to the confessions we make to God. A big difference exists between God and believers. He can always take it. He can always forgive it. And He can always forget it. Some believers can too. However, sometimes others can't take the gory details without stumbling over them. At times our own Christian brothers and sisters can unfortunately be some of our biggest obstacles in letting go of the devastating particulars of our past. Some believers have the maturity to help free us from our grave clothes, and others just keep picking up anything we dare to shed and handing it back to us.
If we're going to live in freedom, we have to renounce every single secret place of sin in our lives to God, exposing even the smallest detail to the light of God's Word. This is the means by which God injects truth in the inner parts (Ps. 51:6). Living a consistently victorious life takes courage! But this courage leads to glorious, indescribable liberty! Be willing to ask God on a regular basis if you are overlooking or denying a stronghold in your life. To reiterate..the most effective way to veer from deception oisto walk in truth. Third John 4 says, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." The wonderful news is: the joy that results from your walk in truth won't just be God's. It will be yours too. As Christ said, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."

Ps. 119:30
2 Cor. 11:3
Ps. 25:4-5
Ps. 40:11
Ps. 86:11
Isa. 45:19
John 3:20-21
John 14:6
2 Tim 2:25

True freedom will only bloom in your life when you put on the truth of who God says you are. Knowing who God wants you to be is not the same as practicing who He wants you to be. When life gets complicated and failures abound, turn your heart and mind back to the basics. Remember who you aarein Christ, practice being who God says you are, and in time, you'l be walking in the....hall of freedom.
Dennis Jungian This Is My Destiny

Drag one up from the past!

Which is harder? To forgive someone else or to forgive yourself?

I ask because I did a study on spiritual warfare in August of 2002 and it really impressed me. But I struggled internally with many issues.

Yes! That little voice that told me I was no good. That I was a failure or had failed. It took a good while for me to start listening to the right voice to understnad that God had given me the power to overcome any stronghold tht was in my life.

But.....I had to take the first step and forgive myself.

I guess I ask because of a recent divorce and sitting back and watching the effect that it has on our children. It hurts.

You bet it is hardest ot forgive ourselves. I drug around a decent pile of shame for the things I had done before I started letting it go.

Odd thing was that after I had forgiven myselfI was still burdened by my past. I took that to God and said "why am I still burdened" (NOT shamed or guilt ridden) God let me know that sometimes repentance is a process that takes time. It is more than an "I'm sorry" I was always concious of my past (at the Lords urging) I since feel that it was one of those "those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it" kind of things.


Let me tell you. You will KNOW IN YOUR HEART that you are forgiven long before you FEEL it! You just keep reassuring yourself through scripture that you are forgiven and justified by faith, and one day you will realize that you haven't felt "that way" (unforgiven, unworthy) in a long time.. and smile

Oh...there is no doubt in my mind that I am forgivven and I even feel it most of the time.

I guess I was asking for more of an insight on my former wife.

Between her and her counselor they almost had me convinced that I was bi-polor, manic-depressive (yes, one and the same, apparently her counselor did not know that)Compulsive, controlling, chemical imbalance, physical problems, mental problems and a financial failure of a man who had failed at being a husband and a father.

The only problem with that was the the counselor I was seeing said nope. How can her counselor even say that when she has only met you one time.

You may have some complusive tendicies but they are situational, only because of you current stitch in life. My personal doctor had already given me a clean bill of health and to satisfy my mother in law I subjected myself to a battery of mental tests. All came back that I was pretty normal man.

I had been in counseling with this guy since July of last year and still go. I remember somewhere around the 2nd or 3rd month that he told me that it was a pleasure working with someone like me who was using every aspect of their capabilities to overcome this. Physical, mental, that psyco word and even spiritual. But he reminded me that the spiritual HAD to come from, and then he would point to his heart. Never let it come from your head, otherwise you will always fail.

So in the process of sorting all that out and determining what was true and what was fiction I only ended up with the understanding that the lady who divorced me is not the lady I married. Her parents still stand beside her and her father was/is a Baptist minsiter. Ouch! And then He bought her a new car. That hurt.

So I find myself forgiving myself, my former wife, my inlaws (as sweet as they are) and sometimes feel like I must have a disease as many people I know now trun when they see me in public. I guess much like the leapers in the times of Christ, they do not know what to say so they just turn the other way.


But enough complaining. The one thing I do remember is that I ran into one of my former wife's friends the other day. We made samll talk about us and where we were and then parted. But....several minutes later she found me on the other side of the mall and gave me her card. Telling me that we needed to get the children together when I had themas she was sure that they had not had tme to make friends here yet.

To me that was a REAL person who stepped over that line to be friendly. Who went out of her way, even though it may have been hard for her step out in faith and be nice and communicate. A lot more than what most members of our church have done.

Shut up trusting...........

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">But he reminded me that the spiritual HAD to come from, and then he would point to his heart. Never let it come from your head, otherwise you will always fail.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah wise man that doc. It's called missing heaven by 18 inches....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have found many couselors get in to the field to feed cravings for gossip. I have NO idea if the one you mentioned that your wife fed all the info to is that or not. But making medical diagnisis with only one visit and a heap of one sided info from a disatisfied spouse is sketchy on a good day!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

only one consistent thing about people, we're gonna fail you. Not just your relatives. I promise, given half a chance I will fall short too! One reason I like your nom de plume. It is 1/2 of the equation to making it in this world!

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

Matthew 22:39
And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It goes like this: Trust in God he will never fail you. Love your neighbor, for your love will forgive him when he does fail you!