چھوئی موئی، پیرا سائیٹ اور امر بیل

ہائی اسکول کے دنوں کی بات ہے زراعت کو ایک علیحدہ مضمون کے طور پر متعارف کرایا گیا ۔۔ ہمارے لئے اس میں دلچسپی کی ایک وجہ اس کے پریکٹیکل تھے ۔۔ ہمہ رنگ پھول پتے اور کیڑے پریکٹیکل بک کی زینت بنے ۔۔ اسی دوران کسی نے گورنمنٹ کالج جھنگ کے بوٹانیکل گارڈن کی بابت بتایا کہ وہاں کئی قسم کے پھول لگائے گئے ہیں ۔۔ چونکہ گورنمنٹ کالج جھنگ ہمارے گھر کے نزدیک تھا تو صبح سویرے معمول بنا کہ کالج کی سیر کی جائے ۔۔ ابا جی مرحوم ہمیں فجر کے ٹائم اٹھا دیتے اور ہم کالج کے گراونڈ کے چکر لگاتے ہوئے بوٹانیکل گارڈن نکل جاتے ۔۔

ہمیں جو پھول پتے اور جڑی بوٹیاں ان دنوں میں متعارف ہوئیں انہوں نے آنے والی زندگی میں ہمیں بہت سے اصولوں سے روشناس کرایا اور زندگی کے یہ اصول ہماری زندگی میں ہمیشہ قائم رہیں گے - انشااللہ ۔۔

ہم نے ایک بوٹی دیکھی جس کا نام مالی نے چھوئی موئی بتایا ۔۔ ہمیں لگا کہ ہاتھ لگاتے ہی چھوئی موئی ہو جانے والی چیز کو لوگ نہ صرف بار بار ہاتھ لگاتے ہیں بلکہ جب وہ مرجھاتی ہے تو بہت بد ہیئت لگتی ہے ۔۔ اس سے ہمیں "خود پر اعتماد" کا سبق ملا ۔۔

ہم نے دیکھا کہ کچھ کیڑے پتوں کو کھا کر زندہ رہتے ہیں - خود تو نشونما پا کر پلتے ہیں لیکن پتوں کو مار دیتے ہیں ۔۔ ہمارے استاد نے ان کا نام پیرا سائیٹ بتایا ۔۔ بہت غصہ آیا اور تہیہ کیا کہ کبھی ان کیڑوں جیسا نہیں بننا اور نہ ہی ان پتوں جیسا بننا ہے ۔۔ ہمیشہ زندگی میں خود محنت کر کے نام بنایا اور کام کی عظمت کے مزے بھی چکھے ۔۔

ہم نے ایک بیل دیکھی جو دیواروں پر چڑھ کر پھیلتی جاتی ہے اور دیوار کا رنگ بدل دیتی ہے ۔۔ اس کا نام امربیل معلوم پڑا ۔۔ سبق لیا کہ کبھی کسی کو اپنے اوپر سوار مت ہونے دو کہ وہ تمہاری شناخت ہی ختم کر دے ۔۔

پھول کی طرح پر اعتماد رہیے اور خوشبو اور رنگ بکھیرتے رہیئے، تاہم اپنے کانٹے تیار اور تیزدھار  رکھیے ۔۔ لوگوں کے روئیے جائیے اور پیرا سائیٹس سے بچیے، تناور درخت بنیے جو موسموں کی سختیاں سہہ کر بھی سایہ دیتا ہے اور اپنی شناخت بناییے ۔۔  
      
Have A Blessed Sunday ..

The Beauty and Meaning of Life

In speaking about the meaning and purpose of life, one insightful writer said, "It is not about writing great books, amassing great wealth, achieving great power. It is about loving and being loved. It is about savoring the beauty of moments that don't last, the sunsets, the leaves turning color, the rare moments of true human communication."

The essence of life is not in power, performance, or possessions but in loving relationships--both with people around and with God--and in appreciating the beauty of His creation, and fulfilling His purpose for our lives.

Dear God,
give me the wisdom
to understand
that the beauty
and true meaning of life is not found
in power, performance, or possessions
but in loving relationships
the human heart yearns for,
and in loving and serving You.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz.

Don't Waste Your Pain--Invest It

In almost every trial we face, God is seeking to "tell" us something. Sometimes, the only time He can get our attention is when we're hurting sufficiently to slow us down so we will stop and listen.

That has certainly been true in my life.

On one occasion, God used an accident and a time in the hospital to get my attention and to speak to me. The decision I made as a result ended up radically changing the total course of my life.

Another time God used a major crisis and loss to expand my work. He used another emotional setback to get me started in writing. That was apprx two decades ago and I'm still writing!

When you are hurting, you can be sure that God has something to say to you too--something for your good. Ask Him to help you hear what it is and to give you the courage to do what He is telling leading you to do. Whatever it is, you can be certain it will enrich your life in one way or another.

Furthermore, whatever you do, don't waste your pain. Invest it in your own growth and then in helping another fellow struggler along the way.

Dear God ..
please help me
to see how you want to use all the trials
that come my way
to help me grow
and change my life for the better.

And please help me
never to waste my pain
but to invest it wisely
in my own growth
and in making me
a more effective helper
to other fellow strugglers.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz.

God

God shows Himself to us through creation.

In My Search for the Ultimate, research scientist Lambert Dolphin Jr. writes, "Confronted every day with the mysteries of space and the atom, I continue to be amazed at the complexity and order of our universe. From the sub-microscopic realm of the atom to the expanding reaches of the galaxies, our universe runs like intricate and well-oiled clockwork according to great physical laws which never change or falter.

"Our sun, which is the nearest star, a hundred earth diameters across, is 93 million miles into space. Each day the sun supplies our solar system with heat, power and light at the rate of a million billion, billion horsepower! Yet it is only an average star.

"Our island universe of stars which we call the Milky Way is 100,000 light years across. If we could travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), it would take us 100,000 years to traverse the Milky Way!

Yet this is only one of a billion or more such island universes stretched out in every direction from our earth to distances measured in billions of light years."

However, one doesn't need to be a scientist to see and feel the greatness of creation all around us.

"Did all this happen by chance?" I ask myself. For me it would take more faith to believe that than to believe that our world and universe were created by a Master Designer whose power and greatness are beyond human understanding.

Anselm, the famous Italian theologian who lived in the eleventh century, stated that the idea of God in the mind is proof that God exists. Pascal, the French physicist and philosopher who lived in the seventeenth century, spoke about the "God-shaped vacuum in every life that only God can fill."

In life we all see and believe basically what we want to see and believe. If we want to see and believe in God, we can. It is our sin that has separated us from God and prevented us from finding him.

Because We Are What We Are

 

Have you ever felt in the pits when a well-meaning friend told you that you shouldn't feel that way? It makes you feel worse. Right? Whether we should or shouldn't feel what we feel is beside the point. We feel what we feel because we are who and what we are.

Feelings are neither right nor wrong. They just are. It's what we do with them that counts. And, contrary to what many of us were taught, feelings are important. They are a God-given vital part of our humanity.

In one sense feelings are an "emotional thermometer." They tell us what's going on inside of us--what our emotional temperature is and, when interpreted correctly, can indicate when we are emotionally well or if there is some issue in our life we need to resolve.

When feelings are repressed, one's "thermometer" is out of order. It's a very unhealthy way to live. You don't even know when you are sick (emotionally and/ or spiritually). Furthermore, people whose feelings are repressed may be clever but can, at the same time, be very cold, calculating, insensitive, callous, and--in the extreme--even murderous.

Feelings can be trusted. What we can't always trust is our interpretation of them. That's the difficult part, but with help it can be learned and learn it we must if we are to be emotionally, spiritually and physically healthy.

Learn to listen to your emotions. Take time to write a daily journal. Record what you are feeling without any kind of self-judgment.

Be aware, too, that the negative emotions we fail to talk out creatively we will inevitably act out in one way or another destructively.

Dear God,
help me to get in touch
with all of my emotions
--both positive and negative
--and learn how to express them
creatively in a healthy manner
so that I will become
an honest and real person.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz.

Well Done

Theodore Roosevelt said, "It's not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of good deeds could have done better.

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena: Whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again ..

"Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause ..

"Who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement ..

"And who, at worst, if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Every one of us has been given at least one talent; many have been given several. Regardless of whether we have one or many talents, what is important is to use well what God has given and entrusted to us and therewith give life our best shot.

Remember, too: "Only one life 'twill soon be past/ Only what's done for God's will last."

Things That Bug Us

As the ditty goes, "It's the little things that bother us and put us on the rack, you can sit upon a mountain but you can't sit on a tack."

And isn't that the truth? It's the little annoyances in life that get us tied in a knot. A slight criticism, a driver who cuts us off on the freeway, a green light that turns red before we get to it, a friend running late, and so on.

Let us realize, however, that somebody's negative reaction may have more to do with them than us. A criticism may be somebody projecting their unresolved issues onto us. Somebody failing to thank us may indicate that they are having a "bad hair" day, and somebody cutting us off on the freeway may be an indication of their impatience--as well as a reflection of ours!

What somebody else does to me may or may not be a problem. How I react, though, is always my issue, and when I overreact, that is always my problem. What the other person does is their issue. How I act, react, or overreact is always my issue and my responsibility.

If we'd remember that "whatever others think of me is none of my business," I would at least learn to cope much better with many of life's little annoyances. I know it's easier said than done, but it is a goal to work towards. Furthermore, the more mature and whole I become, the less life's little annoyances will bother me.

I'm still working on this issue.

The Right Word

 

Mark Twain said, "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug."

When English poet Keats was writing a poem he asked his friend Leigh Hunt what he thought of the line, "A beautiful thing is an unending joy."

"Good, but not quite perfect," said Hunt.

"How about this?" said Keats, "A thing of beauty is an unending joy."

Finally Keats put it this way, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."

"That," said his friend, "will live as long as the English language is spoken.'

May God help us to always speak the right word. It doesn't have to be eloquent but it needs to be straightforward, genuine, and spoken in truth from the heart!

Dear God,
please help me
to say the right thing
at the right time
and always speak the truth in love
--and keep my mouth shut when I need to.

Always. Even when I'm ticked off.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz.

Enrich Your Personal Life

Loneliness, emptiness, boredom, and lack of purpose are all a very real part of modern man's dilemma. They are indicative of our failure to find meaning for living and they show up in the alarming abuse of alcohol and other drugs, and in the high depression and suicide rate.

In America, for example, the most affluent country on earth, thousands of people take their own lives each year. And there are countless others who, while living in the midst of abundance, to quote Henry D. Thoreau, live lives of "quiet desperation."

The tragedy in life, however, is not death, but rather, as Albert Schweitzer once said, "what dies inside a man [or woman] while he/she lives." A person dies inside when he has no meaningful purpose outside of himself for which to live.

It is purpose--not wealth or success--that makes life worthwhile. Purpose makes even drudgery acceptable and is an immunization against many sicknesses.

How then can we find more meaning and purpose to life?

The following tips can help:

Getting out of yourself. No matter how busy we are or how many problems we have, we can all find little ways to bring cheer to those around us--like bringing home a rose for your wife, a special treat for the children, a favor for a neighbor. Visit someone who is shut-in. Write a note, use your telephone, or send an email to tell a friend you appreciate him or her. Words of encouragement and acts of kindness do wonders for both the giver and the receiver.

A vital part of finding happiness and contentment is found in discovering something more important than yourself to believe in, by helping others, and by directing your thoughts and actions towards them. Egotists are seldom happy.

Love and friendship are also essential for giving life meaning and purpose. Without wholesome relationships, which give us a sense of belonging, we live as islands alone in a very large universe.

So take time for friends. They are a priceless asset in life. "Do you want to make friends?" asks Dale Carnegie, who gives the following advice. "Be friendly. Forget yourself. You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."

And remember, as another has said, "The person all wrapped up in himself makes a very small package."

Another way for enriching your personal life is by investing your life in a worthwhile cause. Everybody needs something to live for that is bigger than him or herself--a noble or worthwhile cause into which he/she can put his/her best efforts.

A creative use of one's talents is also essential for giving meaning to life. God gave us all talents to use. When we aren't using them, we feel unfulfilled.

This is why I believe it is important to discover what your best talent is (or talents are), get the training you need to sharpen that talent, and find a place where you can use it--either in your job, in a hobby, or with a volunteer organization. God's purpose for your life will definitely involve the use of your gifts and talents in ways to help others.

Faith, hope, and charity. The poet Goethe lists nine requisites for meaningful living. They are as follows:

"Health enough to make work a pleasure. Wealth enough to support your needs. Strength enough to battle with difficulties and overcome them. Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them. Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished. Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor. Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others. Faith enough to make real the things of God. Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future."

Love Opens Doors

According to an article in Today in the Word, soon after Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert, the couple had a quarrel, whereupon Prince Albert locked himself in his private apartment. Queen Victoria knocked furiously on his door.

"Who's there?" asked Albert.

"The Queen of England, and she demands to be admitted."

There was no response and the door remained locked. The queen knocked furiously again.

"Who's there?" asked Albert again. The queen's response was the same … as was Albert's.

After more furious knocking and no response came a quiet pause--and then a gentle tap.

"Who's there?" asked Albert once more.

"Your wife, Albert," the queen replied. Immediately the door was opened.

As the writer of this article pointed out, "Love opens doors."

Need I say more?

Dear God
help me always
to be a door opener
and not a door closer.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz.