Author: Ray Barbier

I am just an average man who loves writing, thinking and trying to inspire kindness, love, understanding and Compassion in others and try to find them within myself.
Posted on

Just some random thoughts to ponder on.


003Sometimes we go through our day without telling those who we care about how important they are to us or how much they impact our lives. We throw the word love around so much we tend to forget how to show love to others, both those we like and those who are strangers. Taking anyone or anything in life for granted tends to lead to the loss of those people and things. We get so hung up on our daily routine and sometimes even our own problems we forget those people and things that are important to us. We need to slow down and smell the roses as well as share a positive thought or a caring action with others as we go through our daily lives.  Compassion does not mean to have pity, it means to have concern and love towards all living things. Charity does not mean throwing money at a problem, it means helping those in need with not only physical needs but to educate them in ways to help themselves as well. It may be natural to focus upon yourself and those close to you, but it is supernatural to care about everyone and everything in this big world. We tend to get hung up on one thing or another to the point we can not see the whole picture. We either become self-centered or apathetic to the problems in our world around us. We need to wake up from our foggy self-centered apathetic dream state and see that as a world community we can overcome and achieve almost anything. Only if we can set our differences aside along with finding tolerance for each others cultural differences. In the end we all want the eradication of starvation, the end of all homelessness and a brighter future for our children.

This world needs a change of direction as well as a change in heart, we can not take anyone or thing for granted nor can we go on being in a foggy state of denial. We must find compassion, tolerance and love for one another as well as a less self-centered view of the world around us. We need to see that every living creäture big or small is an important part of our world and its ecosystem. No one person is greater or lesser than the other, they are equal though different. The differences between each and every one of us is what makes humanity a wondrous species and an unstoppable force when we work together. We should strive towards a world of love, equality and peace as we rid ourselves of the greed and hatred that plagues us as a species.

Just some random thoughts to ponder on. Right or wrong they are here for all to see.

Raymond Barbier

Related articles
Posted on

It all could be gone within a tick of the clock.


65242 How easily we take those we love for granted, so quickly they can be taken away from us. We should cherish all our family and friends for no one knows when their last day may come. Leave no wrong undone, apologize and repent for the wrong you’ve done others and leave no love forgotten. Live each day as it may be your last and be sure to keep it where you will have no regretful things left behind when its time to go.Forgive those who have done you wrong so you do not carry any anger or hatred with you beyond the grave. Judge no one, but if you must judge them with great mercy for you will be judge in the same way in the end.

Life is way too short to carry grudges or hold on to the emotional scars of the past. Forgive and you shall be forgiven, love and you shall be loved and be compassionate and you will receive compassion. You get what you give in the end, it may not always seem so but it is true. I have found compassion from those I believed to be enemies and help from those who I thought didn’t care. Between all the negativity of this world you will receive that which you have given to others. Teach your children well, show them that mercy, kindness and compassion are greater than being popular or the biggest bully. Teach them to appreciate what they have both in possessions and in friendships. Too many times we run off the friends who would do anything for us because of something petty or a mistake made by one side or the other. Too many times families fall apart over differences of opinions and different view points. I find it quite sad when family members despise one another, families are supposed to love one another unconditionally.

Don’t take your family, friends or the day you are in for granted, it all could be gone within a tick of the clock.

Related articles
Posted on

Have faith, Trust in god and live life Christ like as possible.


Being positive is not an easy task, but it is the most rewarding path to follow. Negativity is a path that usually leads to self-destruction and the harming of all those around you. Your attitude towards life effects everyone around you in one way or another. It may not be intentional but when your negative you bring others around you down and even cause them harm sometimes. Though there is a time for negativity but it is not something that is meant to occupy your life for any great amount of time. Positivity on the other hand rarely ever causes harm, it usually lifts up the spirits of those around you, heals the emotional scars within your self and it tends to attract positive people into your life. The hard part is realizing that happiness and/or positivity is generated within yourself and is not supplied from an outside source. God gave you the spirit of compassion, love, positivity, creativity, healing and much more. He did not give you the spirit of fear, anger, envy, lust, greed or any other negative emotion or action. The negative is something you created or accepted from the world around you. The lack of faith, low self-esteem and a poor self-image are spawned from the acceptance and embracing of the negativity in your life. If you face negativity with faith in god and with love within your heart then you can not fail.

God wants all his children to be happy, healthy and live a good life, he does not want us to suffer nor to be lost in the darkness of sin. He gives us all we need to face off any enemy and to stand in the face of any storm, he planted a seed within each of us that we must cultivate. We must plant it in good soil and feed it with that which is good or positive. The only external force that can bring you happiness and positivity is God. He can work from within you and through those around you as well. Even an enemy can be a messenger or a finger-pointing the way, God will approach you in every he can to get you to see truth and to feel his love. Jesus taught us to be non violent, to love one another, to forgive and to be compassionate. All positive emotions and actions, all part of the path of righteousness. To judge is not our part to play, and to turn any sinner away from god is a sin in its self. Be positive, Have faith, Trust in god and live life Christ like as possible.

 

Though no man or woman can be without sin, all sin can be washed by his blood except blasphemy of the spirit.

Raymond Barbier

Related articles
Posted on

Micheal4Peace's avatarOne Life, One Goal, One God, Infinite Possibilities

When I’m down, When I am lost, When I’ve got nothing else I look for the hand reaching out to me

Some were born without love, without anyone taking notice, without giving a moment of care. Some doesn’t know what it’s like to be loved, to be thought of even though they may think of themselves as nobody’s. Many are born feeling this way, God gives everyone a second chance, God gives us love everytime we fail, God gives us more love than ever asked for from us. God loves all, given as we all sin He still has love for us in the good and also in the bad times we go through. Well God wouldn’t have sent His only Son down unto earth to give His life for us if He didn’t have love for us would He?…No God forgives us but we must show Him that we…

View original post 357 more words

Posted on

Nothing is for free, the programs are paid by working citizens


65242  Food stamps, public housing, welfare and other benefits provided by states and federal government are a necessity in times of high unemployment. The problem is the cost of these programs are bankrupting states and adding to the national debt. I don’t see why the states and the federal government couldn’t just require any able-bodied person who is receiving on or more of these benefits who are unemployed to work for the state or federal government in exchange for the benefits. At least it may offset the cost if not balance it out with the labor received. Nothing is for free, the programs are paid by working citizens and I see no reason a healthy person couldn’t work in exchange for the benefits. If it be just cleaning up trash off the side of the road, landscaping, mowing grass, custodial work in schools or any other job that could benefit the citizens and/or governments. Of course I support the idea of drug testing to receive benefits, If a person who is working a job has to take one to get and keep his job then why shouldn’t it be the same for a benefit recipient.

Plus if you require the healthy recipients to work then they can feel useful and it will keep them inspired to find employment. Also there should be more investigations and inspections on recipients to help prevent fraudulent benefit claims and beneficiaries. I do not wish to see the shutdown of the programs that are put in place to help those in need, but if we don’t find some way to alleviate both the cost and the waste created by fraudulent claims they will eventually either be stripped down to nothing or canceled. I am no expert and I don’t have all the answers, but I am intelligent enough to know the way things are going that all our benefits and entitlements will be gone in a generation or two if we don’t figure out how to keep them.

 

Just a few thoughts

Raymond Barbier

Related articles
Posted on

Work together to better our communities and our world


062 Every one of us has a story, each one of us influences the world around us. How we influence and how much we contribute is up to us. But there is no such thing as an unimportant person, we all are important, special and unique to God. We all are a part of the great machine called life. We as individuals can change our little worlds and as a group can influence change on a global scale. This is one of the unique qualities of human beings, we can change our environments to suit our needs as well as change the course of our worlds destiny / fate.  Protests, revolutions, grass root projects and just plain speaking up can cause political, social and even cultural changes. I prefer the non violent methods of enacting change, usually the violent path only brings suffering and brings either temporary or negative results.  There are of course some circumstances that violent action is the only path but it should be the last resort.

I blog quite often about how governments tend to be out of touch with the needs of the citizens and are more focused on the rich or the powerful. How the governments fail at actually coming up with solutions to problems due to party politics and the interest groups lobbying them. We can not rely on our governments to carry the weight and should as a nation and or global community start dealing with some of the problems ourselves. Poverty, hunger, homelessness and the environment are things we as citizens can make a difference in. If we organize and work together to better our communities and our world we can achieve almost anything. Some can give money, some can just volunteer time or their expertise as well as doing grass-roots education. So much we can do on our own and probably do a far better job of it than the government could do. It is the right way to do it and almost every religion supports the idea of taking care of our fellow human beings. We can put aside our religious and cultural differences to make this world a better place if we chose to do so.

 

Just some thoughts, Right or Wrong there here for all to see.

 

 

“Love, Compassion and peace are the keys to a better world.”

Raymond Barbier

Related articles
Posted on

They choose to keep the status quo over trying to improve our country.


65242 Ah Politics, the entertainment of an election year and all the bent truths along with the words taken out of context. Such a media circus and misdirection of information. I just don’t see what all this conservative and liberal arguments are really about other than a way to polarize the voters to one way or another. It would seem if a politician really loved his country and wanted to really help the citizens of our great nation he would seek out the best possible solution to a problem be it right,left winged, conservative, moderate or liberal in nature. But then if a politician really cared for his county and its citizens he would also put aside all his personal ambitions and avoid being influenced by any lobbyist in his decisions. I also think there should be a term limit on congress, a congress person who stays in office too long become entrenched in one way of thinking and will have a hard time being innovative and or creative in coming up with new solutions / ideas. They become too comfortable and they choose to keep the status quo over trying to improve our country.

I guess the majority of those in congress have never been poor or had to live on minimum wage or been on a low fixed income. This makes it hard for any of them to truly relate to the common citizen they represent. Maybe they should be paid minimum wage and try to pay rent and afford food. Then they could truly understand how it is for most of their voters. I guess I cant blame some of them for supporting the rich since they themselves are rich and you always take care of your own. They complain about Obama wanting to take from the rich and give to the poor but its ok for them to take away from the poor’s benefits to give tax breaks to the rich. They are ok with redistribution of wealth as long as its going to the rich and coming from the poor. I don’t want the rich mans money, I just want him to stop stealing mine. So many times they raise prices and make record profits as they cut workers benefits if not lay them off. I just think there should be some accountability for the unfair practices that the big businesses use.

 

Just my 2 cents worth, Right or wrong it is what it is.

Raymond Barbier

Related articles
Posted on

Our children and grandchildren will inherit a toxic planet if we don’t stop


IMG_1077 While Scientists argue over what is causing the climate change we pump toxic gases into our air. As they debate how little man influences our environment more and more toxic waste is buried in the ground and illegally dumped into our water sources.  Regardless what they say we affect our environment negatively with our chemicals, gasses and poisonous by-products. So what if the sun is part of the reason to the temperature increase it is not the only thing effecting our environment. Birth defects, mysterious diseases and health problems increasing in our world. Too much evidence to our negative influence on our environment to ignore. Our children and grandchildren will inherit a toxic planet if we don’t stop mistreating our home. All of this is put aside in the name of profit, the mighty dollar seems more important than the health of future generations, the water and food we consume and the human race’s survival. Seems silly to put greed before survival as well as the wellbeing of your future generations but that is the message the big companies are sending along with our government. When they do attempt to do something to help the environment they do it in a way that it causes job loss and an economic decline in the towns that rely on the industry. Coal is one example, they limit the amount of new coal permits which causes coal companies to lay off workers. They need to first offer job re-education programs and help get new industries in the areas that will be effected by the closing or slowing of the coal industry. So that the coal miners and related workers can find new employment locally to support their families. Once there is new jobs and the coal workers are trained and placed in the new jobs the coal industry can be shut down. Though I don’t see how we can actually discontinue coal use for energy at this point in time, but in the decades ahead we may find a safer alternative to coal besides nuclear. Natural gas, wind and solar are viable replacements but solar and wind are still not as efficient or economical as of yet.  It would definitely would be a phase out in a decade or two kind of plan so to give time to get new industry in the areas and retrain the workers.

 

In the end we need a clean and renewable energy source. We need to find less toxic ways to manufacture our goods and make more recyclable products. We can not continue on this disposable product path, we need to make everything as recyclable and reusable as possible. The public and commercial sectors need to become even more green minded than they already are. Maybe give tax breaks to families and business that go green and recycle. Just a thought anyway…

 

Lets all go Green, Renewable, Recyclable and reusable .

Raymond Barbier

Related articles
Posted on

Matthew 7:7


Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you ~ Matthew 7:7 (AKJV)

Posted on

And we should know that fear is not what God wants for his children


cross Fear, one of the greatest enemies to civilization and to our happiness is way too commonplace in the modern world. You would think with all the technology and advances in the sciences we would be a more secure and less fearful world. Fear is one of the devils favorite weapons because it creates doubt in god and his word. Though fear itself can not destroy the word of god it can make some to doubt it as well as create a lifetime of worry. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” ~ 2 Timothy 1:7 That verse sums it up, we should not give into fear for it is not the spirit that god gave us. We should surrender the fear to god and keep faith. For fear keeps one from having a sound mind and it saps their power by keeping doubt in the front of their mind. It can be a great obstacle to moving forward or doing the works god desires for you. Through fear you can become deceived, you can be led to believe you can not accomplish what either you or God has planned for you to do.

Remember the story of David and Goliath, All the grown soldiers were shaking in their boots and were surrendering to their fear and any of them would have failed to defeat Goliath. But David with his faith in god and with courage (not fear) was able to take on the giant Goliath and slay him. This proves fear in the end is both a weakening force and an obstruction to ones true potential. Face your fear with faith and give it to God, keep faith and go out and do gods will. And we should know that fear is not what God wants for his children…

God Bless
Raymond Barbier

Related articles
Website Built with WordPress.com.