Month: June 2025

One of the main causes of depression is focusing on what you don’t have. You wish you had more money. You wish you were in better health. You wish you had more rewarding relationships. The social media platforms don’t help. Reading everybody else’s posts can make you feel as though you are the only person in the world who doesn’t have a perfect family, doesn’t go on lavish vacations, doesn’t have close friends.

Try shifting your focus to what you do have. And be thankful for some of the tragic things you don’t have. As the old song goes, “Count your blessings one-by-one.” Being grateful takes effort, especially if life isn’t going smoothly. But you’ll find that thinking optimistically gets easier with practice. You can make your own joy.

One of the reasons our lives go into decline is because we stop setting goals. What is your goal for this day? What do you want to get done today? What would you like to have achieved one year from now? Ten years from now?

Don’t just be satisfied to be alive. Accomplish something. Even just a little something. Tell yourself, I’m going to walk for 30 minutes today. I’m going to send a card/email to that person I love and am thinking about. I’m going to eat only healthy food today. By this time next year I’m going to have painted all the rooms in my house. I’m going to have lost thirty pounds and kept it off. I’m going to have written a book. I’m going to have read the bible cover to cover. I will have run a 5K race. I will have gotten involved in volunteer work. Set goals and then pursue them relentlessly.

It’s called having a purpose in life. It will keep your mind fit, and your body will follow suit.

You have probably noticed that not all injuries take the same time to heal. Injuries to your face, fingers, mouth, tongue and upper torso will usually heal faster. That’s because they have more blood flow. Injuries to your knees, feet, wrist and elbows will take more time. That’s because you tend to flex them so much the stress slows down recovery. It’s the reason arms are put in a sling, and legs in a cast. Muscles and tendons will heal faster than bones.

Emotional wounds may never heal. Especially if you let them linger. Has somebody hurt you? Let it go. Forgive them. Resentment is like an infection in your brain.

Fortunately, you don’t have to get a prescription from your doctor to make it better.

People of a certain age love to reminisce about the good ole days. Times when life seemed much simpler and safer. A time before the internet, before smart phones, before streaming TV, before radical politics, and before all of the unsettling influences all of those things bring to our current lives.

But were the good ole days really that good? The 1960s brought us race riots, the Vietnam War controversy, the Cuban missile crisis, and the assassination of an American president, his brother, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King. The 1970s suffered through Watergate, a stock market collapse, gas rationing, and the Iranian hostage crisis.

The reality is, the good ole days come when you make them so. Live right, treat people with love, do your best to make the world a better place. If you do such things, your best good ole days are yet to come.

My wife and I play this little game we call “Alive or Dead”. Every time we see or hear an old actor or singer or sports celebrity we immediately call out “alive or dead?” We then try to guess which is true, and look it up on the internet. We’re always a bit saddened if we find out the famous person is deceased, and always lifted up a bit if the star is still alive. We are frequently surprised to learn that the person is still with us, often in their late 80’s or 90’s.

On the other hand, some died young, right in the prime of their careers. It’s kind of funny how we pull for them to still be alive, even though we have no direct connection to them whatsoever. We feel a sense of loss even though we don’t know them. I guess it’s because their stardom left us some sort of legacy, something that made us smile and feel good and care about them.

I hope we all leave that sort of legacy to those who knew us.

During my lifetime I have had the opportunity to observe at close range many people who were successful in their careers at the highest level. Many achieved power, celebrity and wealth. Whether they were business executives, show business personalities or sports heroes, they all had one thing in common. Passion. They were unrelentingly driven to succeed.

They were all totally focused on their mission. Maybe to the point of obsession. Often to the detriment of any other aspect of life, including family. It was clear to me there is a price to be paid for fame and riches. They require complete control of your life. It takes all you have to achieve power, and then all you have left to maintain it.

I concluded that it doesn’t seem worth the effort. You miss too many blessings when you try to create them, instead of letting them come naturally from a higher power.

Have you noticed that lawyer commercials have pretty much taken over local TV? It seems every commercial break there are attorneys cajoling you to call them first if you’ve had an accident or an injury. But all lawyer commercials usually require that familiar disclaimer that runs in tiny letters across the bottom of the screen. You know the one. It says something like “no representation is made that the quality of legal service is better than that of any other lawyer.”

And yet, that is exactly what the attorney on the commercial claims, isn’t it? Call me and I’ll get you the most money. I’m the best lawyer.

So what do you believe, the lawyer’s promises or the disclaimer? Which one can you trust?

Aren’t you glad you don’t have to worry about such decisions when it comes to spiritual matters?

I have a weakness for all-you-can-eat buffets. They are my favorite type of restaurant because of the variety and the unlimited portions. Plus your food is ready as soon as you arrive. My problem is, I eat way too much there, and I especially eat way too many carbs and sweets. It’s hard to resist all those desserts, just sitting there calling to you.

So I had to develop a new strategy. Now I build myself a huge salad first, just healthy stuff, take it to my table and consume it immediately. That fills me up and leaves little room for the fattening, sugary options.

Or I suppose I could just stop going to such places…………..

Nah.

Your spiritual walk could work the same way. Fill yourself up with godly activities and relationships, and you won’t have time to submit to evil influences. Now there’s a buffet that will never leave you hungry.

When you are driving your car, do you sometimes find your patience tested by bicycle riders on the road? Do they annoy you by slowing you down and by not getting over far enough to allow you to safely pass? It’s understandable.

But I assure you the bike rider is not intentionally trying to get in your way. He (she) wants you to go past even more than you do. Cars and trucks are terrifying to bikers because they know if there is any type of contact, they lose. Possibly even their life. But chances are there is little if any smooth paved shoulder to ride on. And the busy street is the only way they can get to the less travelled backroads. They just want a safe, enjoyable ride and workout, and they completely acknowledge that the roads were built for cars, not bicycles. Their desire is to get out of your way as quickly as possible. They don’t need to hear the sound of your horn blaring behind them.

I know this to be true because road biking was my choice for exercise for many years. I gave it up because too many drivers didn’t understand the preceding paragraph.

Your dog can never lie to you. It is physically impossible. Think about that for a moment. If you treat it properly, your dog will spend its entire life loving you unconditionally. And never tell you a lie.

It will let you know if it’s sad, or if it’s sick, or if it wants to play, or if it just wants to curl up in your lap. Complete honesty. No deception. Do you have any human relationships like that? Doubtful. Even your spouse may keep a few things from you, or tell you a little white lie on occasion. As you likely do to him/her.

Dogs can be completely honest because they are just happy and grateful to have the simplest things in life: shelter, food, and someone to love. We could learn a lot from our dogs.