ClydeStyle

Is it possible that our country has been lied to for so long that it is now expected?

One study suggests that we are lied to between 10 and 200 times every day and one and five interactions will be a lie.

Selfishness helps magnify the effects of lying. You see, no one really cares about a lie until it goes against or harms them. Lies have been accepted in our society so much that we no longer covet truth. A version of the truth is no more truth than a hot dog manufacturer claiming to produce 100 percent beef hotdogs because the nostrils, genitals and other gross parts are from a cow.

Sadly, deception is a learned behavior. We lie to spare feelings, we lie to make ourselves look better, we lie to avoid more conflict, we lie for self preservation and we even lie without cause. Relationships are based on lies. Resumes are full of lies. Our government and politics are full of lies. Every single person lies.

So if everyone lies, what’s the big deal? Great question! The issues is not a lie or two. The issue really is how much lying is actually going on, because a single lie can be told multiple times within an organization, until it (the lie) becomes the new truth. Marketing and advertising have preyed on our emotions and made claims of what products can do just to make a buck. Every war or world conflict we have been a part of has a lie or lies at its roots. American history, as told by us, is a big lie. Insurance companies constantly lie (like other agencies) by not telling the whole truth. Religion is full of lies from the first lie told in the garden of Eden to the prosperity preaching pulpit that claims you will be prosperous by departing with your funds.

We can not stop lies, but we can control the amount of carriers in our lives. If most of your friends regularly lie to you, are they still your friends? Only you can answer that question.

How often do you lie? And is there any correlation to how much you lie and the amount of lies that come back to you?

Lies have stolen our integrity, corroded our character and destroyed our loyalties. It is the second most destructive behavior behind our greatest level of vanity. But the greatest thing a lie is — is that it’s a choice.

There are certain things in life that require a commitment and there are others that can be done by habit and you never want to confuse the two.

Could you imagine your marriage being a habit — as in she has a habit of acting like a wife or he has a habit of acting like he loves her?

Habit does not belong in certain places and marriage is one of those. It also doesn’t belong in parenting or church.

God doesn’t want you to have a habit of going to church although many are going because of habit. This means that their regular routine has developed without passion, understanding and truth.

It just means that it became a consistency of behavior that resulted in one going to a particular place and taking up a particular space for a particular time and you just got used to that.

Webster defines habit as a settled tendency or usual manner of behavior. It’s associated with addiction and is a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance.

Simply put, you keep doing the same thing over again until it flies under your cognitive radar. You don’t think about doing it, you just do it.

Now this is great news if we are talking about going to the gym, drinking enough water, calling ahead when you are going to be late and walking your dog. It is horrible for the more meaningful things of life.

Commitment, on the other hand, is much more meaningful, calculated and cognitively processed. You are fully aware of a commitment and you are fully engaged in the process.

Webster says of commitment: an agreement or pledge to do something in the future or an engagement to assume a financial obligation in the future.

Commitment is the state or an instance of being obligated or emotionally impelled.

This is a far cry from an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary.

So imagine building a relationship with God out of habit. Often times a habit doesn’t require much thought so you can see how that becomes counterproductive in prayer, trusting God or getting help from him. You cannot have a productive relationship with God by habit. Habit will only get you to a church building but it won’t change your life.

As you look over your life, have you put commitment and habit in the right places? You commit to relationships and you develop healthy habits that benefit your mind, body and soul. Anything that is a matter of life or death, whether that is spiritual life or physical life has to be a commitment.

Correct application of these two principles is the difference between a healthy productive life and just existing.

https://www.xojane.com/issues/weight-discrimination-at-work

This story fascinates me because being a 433lbs obese man in the past (and by the Western culture chart today at 6’3 265lbs I still am), I often suspected that I was not offered positions because of my size.

I have been in situations where I was more than qualified for the job and was told they were going with “other candidates that better match their qualifications”. I was betwixt because I didn’t know if it was because of my size or color.

This article rightly points out that the ones with this bias are not conscious of it. It is like a gut feeling inside of them that they trust. The feeling comes from how they were taught as children and the culture in which they grew up.

So in their minds they think that they have escaped a bad situation by following this gut feeling and if you confronted them about it, they would be highly offended by the accusation.

Michigan is the only state that currently prohibits this kind of discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) gets flooded with complaints of this nature mostly by women.

I posted this article more for awareness and to give some solutions of how to handle it. It also makes for good discussion so comment away. I would love to hear your experiences in this area.

Makkah

When God created man in his image it was not that we would physically look like God but that you could see God’s ways in us.

Ideally, someone who doesn’t really know God could have a relationship with a child of God and just based on behavior they could learn about our father in Heaven.

So I want to remind us of something that we may not often consider, and that is our ability to create.

God can speak things into existence and so can we. He can change the course of someone’s life, and so can we. God can teardown or build up people, places and things, and so can we.

As a creator, have you considered the things you have created lately? Have you used this ability for good or evil? When you take inventory of the relationships you have and looking in the past, would the outcomes say you are a builder or a destroyer?

Let’s start with the children, what are our kids learning from us? They should be learning how to create from us. Are they learning to use love, compassion, humility and grace to build? Or are they using hatred, arrogance and revenge to wreak havoc on the world?

The relationships built in the workplace, do they honor God and have you proven to be a master builder or have you not been consistent in careers because of — stuff?

And what of your personal life? Has the measure of love you have sent into the universe been returned to you? Has your compassion changed anyone’s life? All of these questions are to get you to think about your actions as a creator and tweak some things before the day of reckoning.

There will be a day of reckoning and I’m not talking about Judgement Day.

This will be a day disassociated from anything going on in your life currently. You ever wondered why some things happen? I mean everything can be wonderful in your current space and then like a thief in the night, calamity happens. You think it’s coincidental?

Be the creator you are called to be. Walk in your truth and empower others. This is your true purpose.

Four names have dominated the media over the last couple of weeks and these stories have been nothing short of scandalous.

These stories show the most horrible parts of who we really are as a nation, as a country and as a world.

We can assume that those in the world who live in the “sticks” and I am speaking of Third World countries and far less developed places than the US. I’m speaking of places who have no idea about social media and are not paying taxes and are probably working off the barter system. Although they have their daily issues, no one is getting screwed over for a percentage or taken advantage of for political gain.

Unless you have been under a rock for the last month, you should be well familiar with these four names: Brett Kavanaugh, Christine Blasey Ford, Amy Guyger, and Botham Jean.

One of these four are physically dead (may God rest his soul) and the other three have various interest groups attempting to destroy them financially, mentally and emotionally.

Forgiveness, honesty, compassion, love, respect, equality and justice are all words that have been eliminated from these scenarios. The world will not even look for these words. There is always a “bigger picture” that serves someone else’s agenda while the lives of these people serve as pawns in this game.

We are not only looking bad here in the present, we have ignored all the lessons of the past when it comes to such matters (which is why we repeat our problems) and we are setting a new precedence for the future. How can we hold anyone accountable in the future if we allow corruption now? Someone needs to be watching the ones who are supposed to watching the ones being watched.

No one will walk away from these outrageous schemes — not even the watchers. We are all guilty and that’s the way of the world.

This blog is written to bring you hope!

We live in a world that makes it difficult to thrive because there are some who want to see you fail; there are others who are plotting against you to make sure you fail; and there is still others who are threatened by your very presence and they are against you too.

Not all of us have a support network that stands on the side cheering us on and ready to help when trouble comes.

In Earth, Wind and Fire’s song “Shining Star” the group delivers this fast moving piece that resonates the anticipation of what will happen when we try. When we make an attempt to see where our very best can take us. “Shining star for you to see what your life can truly be” is the phrase that pays here. It expresses the possibilities that come when we dare to dream. No settling here. We should surround ourselves with others who are trying to shine. Don’t lose your dreams because you listen to other losers who have given up.

Try, try, try and try again. Never stop trying. The only great things that happen without trying are make believe. Don’t run from the work, embrace it as just another brick in the yellow brick road that leads to the  Emerald City — and once you get there, you can be the voice behind the great and powerful wizard of Oz.

Go for it!

An older business owner was taking a months vacation and entrusted his establishment to a recent college grad who would run things while he was away.

The older gentlemen specifically said to the college grad not to change a thing. “Just let it be,” he said.

Not one week later the college grad realizes that everything in the store was freely given — meaning there were no financial benefits to this business that had really great products that were in demand. He though it was set up wrong and he was glad to be able to help out this old timer.

He also wondered why the everything was in a sealed brown bag. “No one sees the product until they take it … this is crazy!”

So he calls the old man back to the establishment and they had it out! You young man said, “How in the world are you still in business? This is all wrong and people can’t even see their product!”

The old man explained that he only has three products and he opened the bags so the college guy could see. The products were faith, hope and love and his greatest product was love. He said it is freely given based on need. No charge!

The college grad did not understand and he said how do you profit from that? The old man smiled and said, the more you give away, the more you get back and his store is fully stocked. The old man showed him a hidden room in the back full of bags.

This simple lesson: God fully supplies us with the things that we need but set in place the law of the harvest that we might reap what we sow. The moral is you can’t hide love. Now how are you reaping?