Faith?

[+DieChecker]

On 7/21/2019 at 2:56 PM, Sherapy said:

How did did you get out of debt, it has to be by putting a plan in place and sticking to it. 

I can see the coping aspect for the emotional aspect, it sounds like the prayer addresses the fear, believing in Jesus gives you a support system, the sense that someone is pulling the universal strings giving you the sense things will work out, and the optimism to hope that things will get better, but what exactly is the divine guidance? 

 

Is it not living beyond your means? Perhaps, filing for bankruptcy, and staring over, getting a second job, tightening up and sticking to a budget, only buying if you have the money, not exploiting the credit cards, saying no to the kids, buying a house to invest in the equity, going to school to further yourself?  

These are all practical solutions, applicable to anyone. 

These are rhetorical, I am not asking for personal information, just wondering how divine guidance is working?

I would like to share the Agnostics way too, not that it is better. 

 I am a saver, always have been, starting out in our many mouths to feed days it would take me along time to save up 5 grand, then dammit along would come some major expense and wipe out my stash, first time it happened it was depressing, the thought of how long it took, how long it would be to rebuild the savings.

I am big on allowing myself my emotional state, in doing so It has given me a resiliency which is really just confidence in myself, to pick myself up and push through, the Psychologists call it self efficacy. Basically, I say my life experiences created an opportunity to build confidence in our own competency, not as a way for me to avoid the unpleasant and undesirables but a way to deal with them. Learning from experiences has its own wisdom. 

I am also an optimist (surprising side effect of a horrible childhood and facing my life for what it is)  things do get better, more than they don’t.

My coping strategy is not fancy, no praying, no Jesus bestie, just the dawning realization that, hey wait a minute, Wisdom is a common epiphany born of life experience, not exclusive to me, and is really just a matter of time in the course of living, and some situations offer a fast track to life’s common epiphanies.  

Didnt mean to ignore you... life happens...

I did put into action a plan, but I also did many things on faith. I continued to give money in a tithe, for example.

The plan I was on was aggressive, and we (wife and I) often paid that, and didnt know where the food was coming from. Regardless we always ate, and always had rent money. There were some lucky (miraculous) breaks we had in there too.

Thankfully we got that done before having kids.

True... Anyone can do a plan, and fix their life. But, in a Christian tradition, there are usually dozens of people from church there to help out, and keep you on track. A support system. Many un-churched people have no such support.

Our friend who lived with us for a couple years while her and her three kids got back on their feet, is part of our church... basically part of the family. Her real family are drug abusers, emotional abusers, and overall selfish people, who did her numerous harm in the past. She has no support, other then us, the government, and the church. 

We similarly get wiped out. Helping friends and relatives. When we sold our house in the country for 750k, we made about 300k, and gave almost 100k of it to my wife's sister, so they could buy a house. Not loan.... gave.

I do what I feel God would want me to do, assuming the God of Love and Forgiveness that Jesus spoke of. I'm forever grateful for the personality and emotional changes that have happened in my life since those days when I was 40k in debt and getting calls every day.

Edited August 16, 2019 by DieChecker

[+Sherapy]

4 hours ago, DieChecker said:

Didnt mean to ignore you... life happens...

I did put into action a plan, but I also did many things on faith. I continued to give money in a tithe, for example.

The plan I was on was aggressive, and we (wife and I) often paid that, and didnt know where the food was coming from. Regardless we always ate, and always had rent money. There were some lucky (miraculous) breaks we had in there too.

Thankfully we got that done before having kids.

True... Anyone can do a plan, and fix their life. But, in a Christian tradition, there are usually dozens of people from church there to help out, and keep you on track. A support system. Many un-churched people have no such support.

Our friend who lived with us for a couple years while her and her three kids got back on their feet, is part of our church... basically part of the family. Her real family are drug abusers, emotional abusers, and overall selfish people, who did her numerous harm in the past. She has no support, other then us, the government, and the church. 

We similarly get wiped out. Helping friends and relatives. When we sold our house in the country for 750k, we made about 300k, and gave almost 100k of it to my wife's sister, so they could buy a house. Not loan.... gave.

I do what I feel God would want me to do, assuming the God of Love and Forgiveness that Jesus spoke of. I'm forever grateful for the personality and emotional changes that have happened in my life since those days when I was 40k in debt and getting calls every day.

Many un-churched people have no such support” (Die Checker). 

This is not true, many of the un-churched have families who help each other, in these families it wouldn’t matter if they were religious or not, good fortune and lucky breaks do shine on the religious and unreligious alike. 

Being a giving person isn’t exclusive to the religious, it is a common tenet across many paths or belief systems. 

 

 

 

 

[+DieChecker]

On 8/16/2019 at 10:55 AM, Sherapy said:

Many un-churched people have no such support” (Die Checker). 

This is not true, many of the un-churched have families who help each other, in these families it wouldn’t matter if they were religious or not, good fortune and lucky breaks do shine on the religious and unreligious alike. 

Being a giving person isn’t exclusive to the religious, it is a common tenet across many paths or belief systems. 

I think it is more common then you wish to admit. Studies show half of Americans (in US) feel lonely. Not exactly the same but close.

If people had non-church social constructs they were active in, we'd not see such statistics.

Are you close with your family? Many, if not most, people I know are not.

Edited August 18, 2019 by DieChecker

[XenoFish]

52 minutes ago, DieChecker said:

I think it is more common then you wish to admit. Studies show half of Americans (in US) feel lonely. Not exactly the same but close.

If people had non-church social constructs they were active in, we'd not see such statistics.

Are you close with your family? Many, if not most, people I know are not.

People can be lonely even when surrounded by others.

[Scholar4Truth]

I use the classic definition of faith. mid-13c., faith, feith, fei, fai "faithfulness to a trust or promise; loyalty to a person; honesty, truthfulness," from Anglo-French and Old French feid, foi "faith, belief, trust, confidence; pledge.

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=faith

[Jodie.Lynne]

1 hour ago, DieChecker said:

If people had non-church social constructs they were active in, we'd not see such statistics.

You are aware, I hope, that one can feel lonely, even surrounded by friends and family, right?

The sense of loneliness can be exacerbated by being surrounded by people who seem to be enjoying something that one is not getting. Example: being at a festive gathering, and not only not 'feeling happy', but feeling isolated, because everyone else appears to be having a great time.

[XenoFish]

How do you exercise faith? Push-ups for Jesus

[jmccr8]

8 hours ago, Jodie.Lynne said:

You are aware, I hope, that one can feel lonely, even surrounded by friends and family, right?

The sense of loneliness can be exacerbated by being surrounded by people who seem to be enjoying something that one is not getting. Example: being at a festive gathering, and not only not 'feeling happy', but feeling isolated, because everyone else appears to be having a great time.

Gee Jodie

Now you are calling out all those lonely beliefs expressed here in the forum,...is there a rule about that or can we have some fun? Petty, Habitat what are your thoughts

jmccr8

[+Sherapy]

18 hours ago, DieChecker said:

I think it is more common then you wish to admit. Studies show half of Americans (in US) feel lonely. Not exactly the same but close.

If people had non-church social constructs they were active in, we'd not see such statistics.

Are you close with your family? Many, if not most, people I know are not.

The article is about sleep deprivation as a factor of loneliness. 

Yes, I am very close to my family and kids. 

Not all of us are religious either.

I have  friend who recently divorced, he had no family, no friends,  so he hit the local bar and made friends, created a support system out of them and met a wonderful lady whom he is now in a serious relationships with, and he is very happy, he isn’t religious, just practical and industrious. 

 

 

[Habitat]

8 hours ago, jmccr8 said:

Habitat what are your thoughts

My thoughts are that you are a bit of a stalker.

[+joc]

hmmm   why does every post have to result in personal insults?  

Edited August 19, 2019 by joc

[XenoFish]

24 minutes ago, joc said:

hmmm   why does every post have to result in personal insults?  

When you have no argument all you're left with are insults.

[Habitat]

9 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

When you have no argument all you're left with are insults.

Don't talk about P101 like that, goodness me.

[XenoFish]

3 minutes ago, Habitat said:

Don't talk about P101 like that, goodness me.

I'm talking about you. 

"Team, team, team, blah, blah, blah" at the drop of a hat. 

[Habitat]

5 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

I'm talking about you. 

"Team, team, team, blah, blah, blah" at the drop of a hat. 

Moi ! 

[+joc]

I'm talking about...if you don't have anything nice to say or productive...then don't say anything.

[lightly]

On July 22, 2019 at 2:44 AM, danydandan said:

Most Irish folk have wit, 

     That's so true...I'm only half Irish, and I'm full of  wit .  . .

[XenoFish]

12 minutes ago, lightly said:

I'm only half Irish, and I'm full of  wit .  . .

I'm not going to say what I'm full of....

[jmccr8]

8 hours ago, Habitat said:

My thoughts are that you are a bit of a stalker.

Hi Habitat

You may want to consider buying a horse so that the wee folk will braid it's mane and tail rather than your ass hairs. You spend plenty of your time griping about everyone else and seldom offer constructive dialogue which is why you get dogged and I haven't given you grief about your claims so you may wish to reconsider who and how many people you want to have at you.

jmccr8

Edited August 19, 2019 by jmccr8

[rashore]

On 7/6/2019 at 10:25 AM, danydandan said:

I usually write faith or Faith. The latter to indicate the religious definitions and the aforementioned to indicate the trust definition.

I chose the last option. Faith, or faith, all four applications can be different things depending on the context.

Complete trust or confidence in someone or something. Like I have faith in my husbands faithfulness, or I have faith in the science that the elevator will get to it's stop and I safely get off on my floor. I have faith that my grandmas recipe for poppyseed cake will turn out right so long as I follow her directions to the T. Got faith that now matter how crappy forever winter can seem, yes, it will be warm and even hot soon enough. And that the cooling will happen again too.

Strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof. This seems to happen a lot during discussions. People have faith in their deity, in the religious practices they do, and so on. A lot of folks have faith in their Faith.

A particular religion. Yep, what Faith are you? In some areas that translates into What church do you attend? Often asked if one does not know what particular Faith someone is, or when a person puts a title to their Faith. The capitol F usually means something more of an organized religion, or more acknowledged or defined practices withing a particular religious construct.

A strongly held belief. That gets all sorts of umbrella. It can be the faith that X does not exist/work, all the way to faith that it does. And a whole ton in-between.

[Habitat]

3 hours ago, jmccr8 said:

Hi Habitat

You may want to consider buying a horse so that the wee folk will braid it's mane and tail rather than your ass hairs. You spend plenty of your time griping about everyone else and seldom offer constructive dialogue which is why you get dogged and I haven't given you grief about your claims so you may wish to reconsider who and how many people you want to have at you.

jmccr8

I was being polite, you are quite a stalker, and let's not mention your endless requests for sources to back up opinions and anecdotes, when you well know that we are not talking about universally accepted and established fact in many discussions. hardly surprising given the name of the website ! But of course, the main object of your stalking behaviour is Walker, with whom you appear, like at least one other here, to have a rather unhealthy obsession, the main object of which appears to be you pumping your own tyres up, by comparing yourself favourably to him. Which is, to use 8 bits terminology, pathetic !

[Piney]

1 hour ago, Habitat said:

 you are quite a stalker

Every team has to have a Forward or Point Man. 

[onlookerofmayhem]

[XenoFish]

24 minutes ago, Piney said:

Every team has to have a Forward or Point Man. 

I'm so tired of hearing about this imaginary team.

[+DieChecker]

On 8/18/2019 at 11:05 AM, XenoFish said:

People can be lonely even when surrounded by others.

True, and I did say it was similar, not the same. 

Are you suggesting lots of people have lots of friends and close family and are still lonely? Lots of them? HALF?