Category: Thought of the day

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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Love – So sought out and so easily took for granted.


p10053 Love, Such an illusive emotion and such a powerful force. When you are within its warm embrace life is wonderful but when you wander away from it you feel the cold reality of life. Hard to find but so easily given away, impossible to capture but simply surrendered too. So many levels and so many depths, so fleeting yet so eternal. Not just a biochemical reaction and more than just a word. It is so grand you can not see its boundaries and it has no limits. So sought out and so easily took for granted. One of the greatest treasure one could find and the easiest one to give away.

Love has no prejudice, it comes to the rich, poor, powerful and the weak. Love humbles the strong and then it gives strength to the meek. Love has been blamed for the start of wars as well as bringing peace. Such a wonderful thing love can be and it still remains one of mankind’s biggest mysteries.

 

 

Love is the question and it is the answer as well.
Raymond Barbier

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Focus more on the light within each other instead of the shadows


65242I have noticed that most people tend to find it easy to point out the faults and shortcomings of others. The funny part most of the time the faults they point out in others they usually have themselves. I guess as a humans we tend to hate characteristics in others that we despise or fear of having within ourselves. To be perfectly honest, I believe the only one we have the right to judge or criticize is our own selves. We are far from perfect and fall short of the glory of god as much as the next person and all sin is equal except for blaspheme of the holy spirit. So no sinner is greater or lesser than the next and all can be saved and forgiven. Point is we are all equal in having faults and shortcomings so why bother pointing out the obvious in others when we should tend to our own. If you insist on judging others just remember that the way you judge others is the way you will be judged. So judge with compassion and understanding as well as with a forgiving heart so you too will receive the same mercy. If we would only focus more on the light within each other instead of the shadows and dark spots we would be a far better species and a much happier world. I guess I am nothing but a dreamer with an optimistic view. Just one of my shortcomings I guess, but its one I tend to like within myself.

 

Do not hesitate to express your love to others and fear not rejection for it isn’t as bad as loneliness.

Raymond Barbier

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Those who could really make a difference


023 Is another Renaissance period upon us? Seems we are in need of a great change in our cultures as well as in our method of thinking. I think it would be a great thing to have the resurgence of the interest in the arts and sciences once again. Definitely we need a change in our world, too much imbalance of wealth and power. I am all for people making profits as long as they do it both responsibly and with some morality mixed in. Seems way to much power has been given to the few and not enough to those who could really make a difference. So many voices unheard and ideas left unexplored by those in power. The creative, imaginative and honest common people are usually ignored or looked upon as just as the taxpayers whom they need to pacify. For some reason many governments think the lower middle class and the poor are nothing more than the piggy bank for as taxes go. The rich get all the tax breaks and usually a lower tax rate while those struggling to make ends meet pay the highest tax rate possible. So much inequality in our present era and that is a sign that change is not only needed but is on the horizon.

 

Across the globe we are seeing the oppressed rising up to challenge their oppressive governments and even forcing a regime change in some cases. Unfortunately they become targets for violent crack downs in an attempt to squash the protests and civil unrest. So it seems change is already in motion, peaceful change it the right path but it seems sometimes those in charge force it to become violent. In a democratic republic such as The United States it will be a more peaceful change though there will be a lot of protests and probably confrontations between police and protestors but nothing on a grand scale. We have already experienced some of the confrontations with the Occupy movement across the U.S.

 

The demand for change by the working and lower class is the first sign of cultural change and it also shows that our mindset as people is changing along with the world. It is all going to take time to get the world to change and patience is something we all must have. Change brought about by a peaceful means usually is a long-lasting change unlike that brought by conflict which usually lasts until a new conflict arises. Time for change for the status quo is no longer acceptable to the working class, the backbone of the world’s economy.

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We should embrace them but only for the moment they exist.


097 Truth can be com from the mouths of babes, fools, your allies as well as the mouths of your enemies. Wisdom can be found in observation of all things around you and within you.  Emotions such as anger, fear, self-pity and arrogance seem to cloud ones mind from truth and wisdom as well as shut down the logical part of the mind. Rarely does one find truth or wisdom while experiencing the negative emotions. Too much of a positive emotion also can distract one from the truth around them. We should avoid negative emotions and thoughts as much as we can but we also should keep all emotions tempered for too much of a good thing can be bad. I am not saying don’t be happy, I am just saying don’t allow your happiness to distract you from your life path. Strange thing about emotions both the negative and positive is they can be like drugs, they can become addictive. This would cause our focus to be on the emotion we seek and not on the path we walk. Emotions are good and have many purposes that they fulfill in our lives, we should embrace them but only for the moment they exist. We should never allow ourselves to become obsessed with or addicted to them.

 
“If the grass seems greener on the other side of the fence, Then you must have not cared for your own lawn.”

Raymond Barbier
A fool seeking to be a sage

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The Blogosphere is the gathering of sages, artisans, elders and intellects.


IMG_0054   One of this worlds greatest assets is the blogosphere, which is composed of people who are everything from artists,poets,philosophers,economists and pretty much any other profession and/or art form you can think of. Some of the most creative and innovative minds exist in the blogosphere, bloggers are not scared to think inside or outside the box which gives them the ability to reach levels of creativity needed to solve the problems of our modern world. There is such diversity in the blogosphere that it gives us a plethora of viewpoints to consider when looking for answers. If the governments of the world were smart they would look to the blogosphere for ideas as well as for answers to the problems the world is facing. For the blogosphere is but the gathering of sages, artisans, elders and intellects from across this great planet. To overlook such creativity, wisdom and intelligence would be a grand oversight by the leaders of the world governments.

 

Just an observation and an opinion that I wanted to share.
Right or wrong it is here for all to see.

Raymond Barbier

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If big business would listen to economists and try to work out a way


$620 in 31 twenty-dollar bills.
Image via Wikipedia

It seems if a big business or a congressman / congresswoman commit crimes they get a slap on the wrist or a fine when if either you or I were to commit the same crimes we would wind up in jail or at least on probation. So many businesses are using unethical and underhanded ways to cause price hikes so they can get record high profits. Believe me they will go as far as breaking the law if not bending it to make their all mighty dollar. Especially the oil companies, they buy oil when its cheap and hold it till prices soar to sell it to make profit instead of using it to keep cost low. Its bad enough OPEC plays tricks to keep oil prices high and add the Oil companies both American and internationally owned joining in on the game. Seems there is little to no accountability in big business now days and that is one reason our economy is in such bad shape. We need big business for our economy to throve but if they keep raising prices then the major contributor to the American economy is going to dry up. That contributor is you and me A.K.A.  the consumer. If we can’t afford to buy luxury items or gas for travel we will just save our money and shop less. This will set off a domino effect of more rising prices and that will bring less consumer spending. The thing is the big businesses can afford to have fewer profits easier than the average person can afford the skyrocketing costs.

We need more regulation to make sure that big businesses can make profits at a reasonable rate and so they will do so ethically. Some argue regulation hurts the economy, well sure it hurts the CEO’s economy and the board members along with the share holders but they will pass that buck down to their hourly employees and some of it to the consumer. The problem is I am for less government control but I am also for the ethical practice of business. So which is the lesser evil government regulation or allowing big business to continue making soaring profits while causing skyrocketing prices.  If big business would listen to economists and try to work out a way to lower prices and still make a profit then there is no need for any type of government regulations. So the ball is in their court for now, but if they don’t get their act together soon consumers (the Voters) of America will get tired of it and demand the government to do something. Which has already started with such moments as occupy wall street.  I am no Economist nor do I claim to know the solution, but I do see the problem and feel it is something that must be dealt with soon or the economy will just get worse and might even go into another great depression. I am not anti big business but i am definitely anti bad business.

Well right or wrong that is my opinion

Raymond Barbier

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