From my favorite source for blog post inspirations, Jack’s Winning Words, comes this recent thought for the day – “Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.” (Meister Eckhart)
Jack went on to write about God’s forgiving us our sins and allowing us to go on in life. One of the real points was our ability to admit errors and ask for forgiveness or forgive ourselves and move on with life. Jack had a link to a cute little poem that drives home the point about being able to start over or go on with life after a screw-up – https://www.wattpad.com/290000064-poetry-to-guide-you-the-new-leaf
I’ve posted here before about dealing with life’s setbacks or roadblocks and one key thing that may not have been said as well as Jack’s post puts it is the ability to erase it (put it behind you) and move on – to be given a new leaf or to give yourself a new leaf and not to dwell on your past failures or disappointments. Use your eraser.
Life gives you a big pencil with which to write your future. You can’t erase the things that
have happened in the past. There is no real way to do what they do on the TV program Timeline and go back in time to make things different, so why waste a lot of time beating yourself up for your past mistakes. They happened and you don’t get a do-over. You do still have the opportunity to do-better in the future. Use your eraser.
Many people spend time in denial that the bad things in their lives actually happened. 
Some spend their time looking for scapegoats – someone else to blame those things on. Still others just can’t give themselves a break and make bad decisions worse by beating themselves up over and over again. A few get bogged down in a bad case of the coulda, woudla, shoulda’s and can’t seem to get out. Use your eraser.
In the movie Forest Gump, a man approaches Forest during one of his cross country runs to ask about a saying for a T-shirt. The man steps in some dog doo and Forest comments, “Poop occurs”. The man turns that into “Shit Happens” and makes a fortune on T-shirt sales. Poop will occur in your life. Use your eraser.
Of course the eraser is a metaphor, but for what? For forgiveness of your sins (mistakes)
and the ability to go on, forgiven and renewed. Perhaps the best explanation for that metaphor is that God is the Great Eraser and prayer is the way you use it. If you honestly pray for forgiveness God will grant that to you and grant you the peace to go on with your life. Use your Eraser.
The good thing is that, like the eraser on the end of your pencil, God is always there in your life, waiting for you to call on him. Don’t ask him to change things – even he can’t go back in time and change what has happened. Ask instead for forgiveness and understanding and the strength to go on. Use your eraser!
Posted by Norm Werner 
however, a man or women that others might describe as a beautiful human being will remain a beautiful person in the eyes of the beholder, as long as they never stop being a good person.
coaches or scout leaders or others who had impact in their formative years. For many, their church life – their Sunday School teachers and pastors – help them become good people.
difficult it would be to be a good person, if your life is ruled by prejudices and hate. How easy is it in the rush for material success to just ignore others; rather than being polite and caring and kind? In the back of our minds most of us know what is right, but the demands of our world often overwhelm us and the temptations are often too great for us to take the time to look back there, in the back of our minds, and see what is right.
persistence. They must get into the habit of keeping the house in a condition such that a showing could take place at any time. That means allotting some extra time in the mornings to make sure it is show ready before heading off to work. It helps if you can exercise that patience with a good attitude.
Sometimes we need the extra little boost to our SISU in our daily lives that a little reflection in prayer can add. Perhaps you could find strength and resolve by just repeating that little phrase that Jack mentioned in his post – “I can do all things…through Christ who strengthens me.” For some the opening lines of the 23rd Psalm is a pick-me-up – “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” For others the fear of the unknown or of failure is stripped away be this passage, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
voice that is always trying to get through to us – perhaps the voice of God; trying, as always, to call us back to Him.
saying. Perhaps God uses that technique to get our attention by whispering to us. We really have to lean in in order to hear what He is saying.
happened in my life is not happenstance, but the hand of God at work in my life. Many times it is something that didn’t happen, but could have, with either damaging or embarrassing consequences. I take a moment for a little prayer to thank Him for saving my bacon once again. There’s a common saying that people often use that “my guardian angel was looking out for me”; well that guardian angel was really the hand of God resting on your shoulder. So say a little prayer of thanks the next time you realize that you just dodged one of life’s little bullets because the hand of God nudged you out of harm’s way.
asked him how they should pray. He gave them a pattern that we now call the Lord’s Prayer. In Matthew 6:9–13 (ESV), Jesus said “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'”
help you with. Too often in our modern, “instant gratification” world we have expectations of immediate action from God to grant our prayers. God doesn’t work like that. The pastor didn’t make this point, but I started to think that perhaps it takes longer than we might wish because we have yet to uphold our end of the bargain that is stated in the Lord’s Prayer – we have not forgiven our debtors ( or those who trespass (or sin) against us in different versions of the prayer). Perhaps God is waiting for us to get our act together a bit better before he grants our prayer. Have we forgiven those who trespassed against us in some way? If we do not have forgiveness in our hearts, perhaps we should pray for that first.
Perhaps you are praying for God to somehow help you get something in particular because you think that will make you happy – maybe it’s a job, money, or a new possession of some sort or perhaps a date with a specific person. Maybe instead God is answering your prayer to be more happy by showing you ways to be happy with what you have and who you are. Is God answering your prayers? In His own way; yes, He is. You just don’t yet understand. If we believe that God acts in our best interests, then we must also accept his answer to our prayers, even if we don’t understand the answers.
them.” (John Green) That’s certainly true in today’s air conditioned houses where people come and go through their garage and are never seen on the front porch or out in the yard. I’ve even had clients who had to get new front door locks because they never use that door and had no idea where the keys were any more.
mat that he saw somewhere that reads: “As far as anyone knows, we’re a nice happy family.”
that the deception was “for the kids.” Most of the time, the kids (especially the older children) can sense that something wasn’t right between mommy and daddy.
they hold it in; however that eventually leads them to becoming moody or angry or fearful and feeling lonely. They don’t seek outside help and they turn away from the very support structure that is right there under roof with them. As they withdraw the relationship often turns sour due to confusion or a sense of loss of interest on the part of their significant other and eventually that isolation leads to a breakup of the marriage. Sadly I saw that a lot in the recent Great Recession as men reacted badly to job losses or even to the loss of their spouse’s job.
The other thing that I have seen more of than I can understand are couples who have finally called an abusive or manipulative relationship quits. While that is normally an action taken by the women involved, I have seen the opposite when a weak man finally has had enough from an overly strong and domineering wife. I have also seen it in the GLBT community. I’ve never really understood why someone would commit to be in an abusive relationship to begin with; however, people that I’ve talked to about that said that it didn’t start that way or that the abusive partner changed after they entered the relationship.
families often go to great lengths to keep the deception of a normal home alive for the external world. In some cases the family may seek help for the substance abuser, but in other cases the old saw “We don’t talk about that” seems to hold sway. All too often the substance abuser eventually turns into just an abuser, due to the huge mood swings and stresses that accompany the habit. Eventually these unions also break up and I’m called in to sell the family home.
minimum you need to be able to have open and honest discussions about the things that aren’t going as you would like and how you both are reacting to those things. I really don’t want to meet you and be asked to sell your house because of your divorce. I much rather that you call me because your moving to accommodate a new beginning in a new job or getting ready to expand your family. Maybe you can get back to being that happy family that was mentioned on the welcome mat that everyone thought you were all along.
that, whether it be clean water or electricity for their home or the many other things that people believe are somehow “owed” to them. Somehow the things that we should be thankful for have become expected, even proclaimed as rights. Even the rights that we have that were enshrined in our Constitution were extended to us by the consensus of the people at the time they were written and were not somehow innate.
whether to be happy with what we have now, even while perhaps striving for more or newer or bigger or better somehow. I have learned from experience that the attainment of most of those strivings brought much less satisfaction or joy than I initially imagined it would. It’s just another thing or a bigger thing; but still just a thing.
The other big choice in my life that really worked out was choosing to allow Jesus into my life. Sure, I went through the period of doubt or disbelief that most people do in their youth. I went through the “Going through the motions” period, too; where going to church was more of a social event or just another task to get through at the end of the week.
moment I reached out in desperation and Jesus was there to reach back to me, take my hand and lead me out of that pit. I have found comfort ever since in the little prayer that I said that night – “Not my will, but thy will be done.”
The key to understanding those pieces of advice is our ability to distinguish between those things that we can change from those over which we have no control. Frustration, anger or maybe even despair come from railing against those things that we cannot control, rather than just accepting them and getting on with life.
have to passively accept that. Sometimes, “what it is” might involve a slight or a snub or some other hateful or hurtful behavior towards you and what you still control in those situations is how you react to them. Fortunately, we have some help with that which is captured nicely in this little quote that is also from the Jack’s Winning Words blob –
distinguish in your life those things that you just need to accept from those that you have the power to change and then pray for the courage to change them. Remember that “it isn’t what it is until you decide that it is.”
So, to be complete, today’s post headline should say, “Don’t sleep on the problem, sleep on the solution.”
pray about it. When you pray about a problem you aren’t really asking God to make the problem go away, but rather to give you the strength, courage and wisdom to deal with the issues that constitute the problem. You are also asking God to be with you through the problem resolution. Sleep will come easier when you drift off knowing that you can now say “We’ve got this” instead of feeling alone in the thought that “I’ve got this.” After all, what problem stands a chance when you have God in your corner?
on your side. Maybe that will make jotting down three things that you are going to do tomorrow a lot easier.
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