Emotions: Confront the Lies, Conquer with Truth

Emotions By Charles F. Stanley Howard Books A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. ISBN 978-1-4767-5206-8 ISBN 978-1-4767-5208-2 (ebook) Dr. Charles F. Stanley is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church Atlanta, founder of In Touch Ministries, and a New York Times best-selling author who has written more than fifty books, and has sold more than nine million copies. He demonstrates a keen awareness of people's needs and provides Christ-centered, biblically-based principles for everyday life. Emotions, Why do we have or need emotions? They can be such a rollercoaster, Good Bad and Ugly. Dr. Stanley goes deep into why, using explainations so simple we normally miss them in our everyday lives. We are the product of our thought life. Words are so important as a person thinks within himself so he is. Proverbs 23:7 Emotions are gifts, I was of the thought; yes to some of my emotions and no way that other emotions could be from God, it certainly couldn't be a gift. If you think about it, if you were never sad or upset how would you know if you were happy. We were created to be happy. We see emotions in our lives and those around us, in any book we pick up off the shelf for a good read. We find Good versus evil with many emotions mixed in along the way hopeing for a happy ending. We are always trying to manage and control. "Emotions contends that God has gifted us with emotions since the very beginning--and He did so with very concrete purposes in mind: so that we can enjoy life, so we can connect with others, so we can reflect God's image in us. But too often, instead of making the best of this gift, our emotions make the worst of us. Though we cannot see, taste, or touch our emotions, we are constantly affected by their forceful presence and the incredible influence they have over us. They can alter how we view our day, other people, and even the major events in our lives. Through our feelings, we have the capacity to enjoy amazing triumphs and deep fulfillment or experience crushing defeat and ruined relationships." There are healthy ways of handling our emotion and unhealthy ways. But how do we see it coming and how do we handle it when it is here and now? And can we see causes in others to help our emotions as well as theirs? Dr. Stanley goes into detail on the causes and basis for our positive and negative emotions to root out the cause. The root of our emotions is simply put, fear. It is good to fear some things, the bite of a snake, the attack of a bear, a fall from a cliff, good comman sense. But some fears make no sense when they take us into the dark place of negative emotions. "For example: • As we saw, greed is based on the fear of not having or being enough or of missing out on something important. • Rejection and loneliness are both rooted in the concern that we will not be accepted—that we will be abandoned or forsaken. • Guilt is apprehension that our sinful behavior and wrongdoing will be discovered or that we will be punished. • Pride is founded on the trepidation that we will be found unworthy or incapable. • Discouragement is a fear that hope is lost or that failure is the only possible outcome, and it is caused by a lack of confidence or a sense of inadequacy. • Despair is based on worries of what’s occurred in the past or what might happen in the future and how our losses, experiences, feelings of unworthiness, and mistakes impact our future. • Jealousy is the dread that we will lose what we desire or that we will not measure up when compared to others. • Anger is caused by the apprehension that we may not get our way, are being treated disrespectfully, or that someone who has wronged us will not be chastised adequately. • Indecision is the paralysis caused when we worry that we will make the wrong choice." This book has opened the window to understanding emotions in many ways. Not only must we understand our emotions but if we can understand others and the path they have walked on to be who they are, our emotions can be easier to respond to in a healther way. This book has really hit home for me. I have had a rough year emotionally and it has shed a light on me and on the ones I saw to be evil incarnate in my life. But now I see the fears they are dealing with and it makes it easier on my end. I am still praying for them. We all have our own fears to deal with. My biggest fears were highlighted with rejection, pride, and the anger born from disrespect. I am sure I have bounced around to all the others in the past also. It is good to know that I can "Confront the Lies & Conquer with the Truth" As I read this book it was almost like Dr. Stanley had me in mind when he wrote it. But between you and me I believe it was the lesson plan that God was setting up for me to partake in this summer. I was provided with a free copy of this book for an honest review. I would highly recomend this book to everyone as it applies to all that have emotions, and we all do. Even if you consider yourself a full mature Christian this book will Wow you.

Emotions by Dr. Charles Stanley

I had a plesant suprise when I was checking my email the other day. I was choosen from a group of Bloggers (not sure of their process) to Blogg my thoughts of +Dr Charles Stanley's new book "Emotions". I have seen some of his work in radio and in print. He is a man to be respected in his knowledge of The Truth. I have read the first chapter. It is very intriguing. I can hardly wait to get to the next chapter. We all think we have control of our emotions. If this is our train of thought, we need to take stock of our thoughts and see where they take us. This is the web site where you can get a sample of the first chapter. I am sure you will want to join me in my exploration of Dr Charles Stanley's Book "Emotions" http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17801425-emotions In setting the pace for the first chapter we are urged to choose triump/victory. We are all on a Emotional Rollercoaster. We can harness our emotions-taking control of this powerful force within us. We have had the power of choice since the begining of time. We are the ones to choose how to respond in our daily lives. Yes, it as simple as good over evil. I know thats simple but basic is where we need to be. As humans we like to complicate things. So to understand we must pic apart and expand our thoughts. First Steps: 1. Trusting... We must admit we can't help ourself, (do it on our own with our actions). 2. Modeling our Trust... We can't save ourself by being good. Saving Faith Models Trust in God. 3. You have an example of Triump... As it has been said on bumper a sticker: "Nobody gets out alive" You could add to that as said in the book. Nobody gets through life without some scars. we will all face death, and painful circumstances that wound us deeply. We must trust because God sees our scars and knows why we react as we do to each and every situation. 4. The path to victory... Knowing that you are not alone. This Rollacoster is a crowded ride. Components to Victory: In my words simply we need a new way of being. What are your thoughts? Do they calm you or inflame you. Change your thoughts if they don't calm you, or if they cause strife or worry. Simply said by Dr. Charles Stanley, "Exersize the powerful Privlege of Prayer" Words are so powerful. Expect Gods Healing to Begin Immediately: Don't make it complicated. If we can't get past ourself and our hurts (hurts we may not know, may be in our way) it will be complcated, no doubt. In trusting God we will be sucessful in triump and victory achieved. I have been known to be a calm person in my lifetime. But emotions have been hard to hold in check this year from a much stressfull situation. I believe this book has arrived just in time. I hope you will get the book and read it with me. Download the first chapter, see if you get as much out of it as I have. I hope to learn from your comments as well. Join with me in a good read.

Summer Peach Pudding

A favorite recipe of mine is Summer Peach Pudding. I decided to play with this recipe today to see if I could use my sourdough. The original Recipe. Summer Peach Pudding 4 cups sliced peaches or a quart of canned peaches. 1 cup sugar (or less if syrup is used) Combine peaches and sugar if used, in a 9x13 greased pan. Mix the following together. 3/4 cup sugar 3/4 cup flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup milk 1/2 cup butter (melted) Pour over peaches. Bake in greased pan at 350º for 1 hour. New smaller less sugar version. Summer Peach Pudding 2 cups frozen peaches, mine were frozen in a light honey syrup. If not sweet enough for your taste sprinkle with some Truvia (Stevia) or your choice choice.Put in sprayed 9x9 or even an 8x8 pan would work. Mix together the following. 1/2 cup active sourdough 1/2 cup sugar (I used 1/4 cup sugar plus 1/4 cup Stevia for baking) 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/8 salt 2 Tablespoons of dry milk 1/4 cup (4T) melted butter Stir, pour over peaches and bake for 1 hour at 350º. I am diabetic so like to revamp recipes. I find if I do make these adjustments and count my carbs and eat responsibly I can keep on track. I believe you can eat what you want if you are smart about it. If what you want is almost straight sugar that's not being smart. Eat with a smart balance and enjoy more. Blessings to you.

Next remodeling project

While waiting for the contractor to show up to install a new tub upstairs we got into mischief downstairs.  We have a whole week to wait so we might as well. We decided to start slowly on the the downstairs bathroom. We started to take the wallpaper off the wall. The wallpaper is coming off easy, but we soon discover that the wall looks like tile but is not tile at all. It looks like the plaster was scored to look like tile. This sends me to the internet and I find several posts of people finding the same oddity when they were remodeling their home. It would seem that this practice was commonplace in the late 1800's and early 1900's. It was cheaper than real tile. Subway tile seems most common,  ours is square. We are accepting this challenge.  I will let you know if we are successful.

Remodeling

It took a little over a week but it is done. The back door entrance is complete. Now we are wondering why we didn't do this years ago. It's a great feeling of accomplishment when you complete a task. There is more coming so we better rest up. After we can up the 2 bushel of apples we picked off our trees it will be time to start on the remodel of the 2 bathrooms. We canned 26 quarts of apple pie filling and filled a crock pot full of apples and spices to soon be apple butter. We set a few apples aside for mom. The rest will end up as applesauce.  Love applesauce with pork, but a real treat is putting some maple syrup in your applesauce and serve over pancakes. My favorite pancakes are sourdough pancakes.  If you don't have sourdough the Klondike pancake brand is similar.  Great, now I'm thinking of breakfast for dinner. I'll just have to get over it because I will be fixing Apple Chicken Maple sausage and sweet sauted cabbage with boiled red potatoes and fresh baked Apple Pie. It smells so good in here. Until then it will be hubby and I relaxing and watching collage football. Michigan vs. Minasota. Go Michigan!

One Thing Leads to Another.

Saturday, it started out to be simple day. Our foggy day started with the needed coffee to start the day. Next we were off to the grocery store.  All is still pretty simple to this point a nice weekend. Once home I start to put away the food. Hubby starts working on the back door entrance steps. We have our house up for sale, so we thought we would redo the steps.  Paint them.. ?  tile them...? we bought the tile, no that was not to be. We took the tile back and bought oak stair covers (Treads).  We kept one box of tile because if the stairs looked that good now we should re-tile the floor landing by the back door. So as I finished up with the groceries I proceeded on to my next project.  Clean the downstairs bathroom linen closet and pack another box. Just before I'm done hubby says this is going to look really good but now the walls look bad. Next thing we know we are striping wall paper getting ready to paint. One more step to the beautification of our entrance way. The steps are stained and almost ready. But they must now wait until we sand the walls and paint. So as today ends I have tomorrow's painting to look forward to. 

Sunday

Today is painting day. After I finish baking the bread I had rising last night. Hubby started to cut in around the corners with the paint we had but it started to bubble.  Evidently the wallpaper did not all come off. I grabbed a water spray bottle and started spraying.  It took hardly no time at all and the walls are clean and ready.  Time to get to the store and get some paint.  We did have one stop on the way, dropping off some fresh baked bread at my mom's house. 

Good thing there is only two of us otherwise we might have been accused of being the three stooges. painting the ceilings from the steps quite the trick. We did manage to get the first coat done and it turned out great hubby was right. But the day is also done. Second coat if needed will have to wait untill tomorrow. Maybe our bright, weekend idea, will take a few more days. I will have to add the finished picture later. Cuz one thing does leads to another.

A Busy Fun Day :)

We had peaches to can today but also wanted to go to the gym. We got an early start. We picked another half bushel besides what we already had. They will set for a day or two. Getting started we canned 7 quarts of peaches,  baked a peach cake,  and a buttermilk peach pie. We finished in record time. We still have plenty of time for a walk. The gym is probably crowded by now. The Rail Trail will be a perfect place to go. We walked not quite 4 miles. So nice and cool outside perfect walking weather.  The trail is 9.55 miles long. So we deside to drive to the other end to see where it begins. We did find it but then is where we get side tracked.  We ended up where hubby used to deer hunt 40 years ago. Shiawassee Flats, we walked some more since no vehicles are allowed back in there. So peaceful even saw a couple of trees trying to change their colors.  We hope to get back there before October first when you can then only enter with a hunting permit. Exercise was mandatory if I want dessert tonight!  Yummy

Peach Cake

5-6 peaches peeled and sliced

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup plus 2 teaspoons of sugar, divided

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoons salt

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat oven 350* 

Prepare your peaches.  Cream together butter and 1 cup sugar. Add eggs and vanilla mix well. combine flour, baking powder and salt combine with sugar mixture.  Pour into prepared pan. Top with sliced peaches,(wondering maybe canned peaches would work)  arrange in spiral. Lightly sprinkle with lemon juice.  Sprinkle with remaining sugar 2-3 teaspoons. Bake for 50-60 minutes. Until top begins to have that yummy golden look.