04 August 2024

Learning from a Bad Experience, Part 3 (TMF:2415)

Friday, August 09, 2024

Peace to Live By: Learning from a Bad Experience, Part 3 (TMF:2415) - Daniel Litton
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What I mean is that usually wrong can be done on both sides of a bad experience. It is true that someone else may have done wrong to us. They may have over-reacted, acting too strongly against us, or have added a few colorful things to what we did wrong. But the point here is that usually we did wrong too. It’s not totally them where the weight of the wrong should lay, but it’s also not totally us either. We can go the opposite direction in a bad experience and believe we are totally at fault, and all the weight is on us. But, usually, that is not that case. Typically it is somewhere in between the two. Anyhow, when we move past our self-righteousness and our self-pity about the situation, we can then look at it from the point of ‘What can I learn here?’ ‘How can I do better the next time?’ We can’t control other’s behaviors; we are not responsible for them. But, we can decide how we will act differently the next time. By taking the emotion out of it, we can then see room for growth.

Learning from a Bad Experience, Part 2 (TMF:2414)

Thursday, August 08, 2024

Peace to Live By: Learning from a Bad Experience, Part 2 (TMF:2414) - Daniel Litton
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In the first approach, where we become all-upset and stay upset, really the problem is that we are self-righteous (that we are prideful) and that we perhaps love self-pity. Self-righteousness comes into the picture when we refuse to admit that we did anything wrong, or is our view that ‘how dare others do wrong to me!’ Either way, we are holding ourselves up on a pedestal. We are saying one of the following: “I am awesome and could not have done anything wrong,” or we are saying, “How dare someone go against my awesome personhood.” Yeah, we are prideful for sure. This also probably means that we love self-pity, because now we are focusing on the wrong done and how it affects us. We are looking at the bad experience and only focusing on how are have been negatively affected, and we have no view for what this bad experience can beget for us in the future. The reality is, is that most situations in life are not all-or-nothing. Or, we could say it is not a zero-sum game.

Learning from a Bad Experience, Part 1 (TMF:2413)

Wednesday, August 07, 2024

Peace to Live By: Learning from a Bad Experience, Part 1 (TMF:2413) - Daniel Litton
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I wish there was a happiness point that I could present on how to never have a bad experience again, but we all know that’s just not possible, not as long as we are in our current world. So, we do have to deal with bad experiences. Nonetheless, it is true that we can learn from those experiences. Really, there are two different ways people can respond to them. One, people can become all upset and filled with self-pity, and then blame themselves or others, or even God, for the bad that has happened. Two, people can recognize that bad has happened, and after getting past the initial uncomfortable experience, decide they are going to form an investigation. They are going to try to understand the bad experience, and see if there is anything that can be done differently the next time, or if there is anything at all that can be learned. In the first approach, where we become all-upset and stay upset, really the problem is that we are self-righteous (that we are prideful) and that we perhaps love self-pity.

Affirmations Bringing Encouragement, Part 3 (TMF:2412)

Tuesday, August 06, 2024

Peace to Live By: Affirmations Bringing Encouragement, Part 3 (TMF:2412) - Daniel Litton
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This will be different for everyone. And I personally like to speak them out loud, as they seem to sink in more when I do it this way. This puts both my mind and my mouth to work. But they can also be gone over quietly, say, if you're sitting in the waiting room for some kind of appointment. That’s another thing. It’s good to have them stored on our smartphones. But this list can also contain truths that are perhaps not directly found in our Bibles. Like, for instance, the famous quote of someone who says something particularly profound that is true. Or, like from an author that really speaks to us. I don’t limit my list strictly to the Bible, though doing that would be fine. This way, I can implement those good things I come across in all areas. The point is that we are encouraged, so that when times to get tuff, or we wake up not feeling the best, we can quickly have a method we can utilize to try to pull us out of that. I really believe this practice has produced good results in my life since I started doing it years ago. It’s amazing how our minds can get jumbled up, and sometimes just need straightened out with some truth.

Affirmations Bringing Encouragement, Part 2 (TMF:2411)

Monday, August 05, 2024

Peace to Live By: Affirmations Bringing Encouragement, Part 2 (TMF:2411) - Daniel Litton
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We don’t always need others to encourage us. As a matter of fact, we can let God encourage us through the Scriptures. One good way I have found to accomplish this task is not be simply reading the Scriptures, but rather by have a list of positive affirmations from the Scriptures on hand. What are positive affirmations? Well, for me, they are Bible verses that I have taken and usually put into the first-person so that I can gain more out of them, make them for personal. They help me gain that encouragement that I need. Some verses from our Bible are already in the first person, and with those no modification is needed. Though, many are not, and we can simply put them in the first person on our list. We should pick verses that are custom-tailored to us, ones that speak to us, so that they will have greater impact when we go over them. This will be different for everyone. And I personally like to speak them out loud, as they seem to sink in more when I do it this way. This puts both my mind and my mouth to work.