Jesus, I am Your Child, Too

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Jesus...

Thank You for investing Yourself
in someone like me...
Help me step back and be mindful of my own needs,
because I am Your child, too.
Help me become aware
it was not okay to grow up
in a verbally and physically abusive home,
and not accept that in my life from others.
Help me treat others with excellence, Lord.
Help me add to their lives, not take away.
Help me be mindful,
I do not have to be willing, acceptant
nor an active participant of other's negativity;
I can walk away.
Help me to see-through their suffering, Lord.
Help me to become aware
of when I am being undermined
by someone trying to run me with their energy.
There are so many people out there
struggling with jealousy, stinginess and greed, God!
Please keep me mindful,
they will not be good friends.
If they think I am rude, then I know
they are not doing their homework.
If I can inspire, encourage and help them,
I will.
If they don't want my help,
show me how to move on.
Time is becoming too precious, Jesus!
I don't have time to assume or presume
I know what's going on with others God.
I can't read anyone's mind.
All I can do is ask You help me
stay in my own meditative mind.
I am claiming the peace I need in my life
through You, Jesus.
Because I am Your child, too.
Amen.

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I want people to know there is a difference between humility and humiliation.
Some people think these two words are the same thing.
Some people are unwilling to be humble
because somewhere in the back of their minds
they must feel they are taking a risk in being "humiliated".

Isn't it a shame to consider how all human beings have experienced some sort of humiliation in their childhoods? Some situations may have been fun, or funny, or accidental; others may have run into something that was painful and purposeful. Some people never grow out of this! It's strange to look back on these times in our lives.

When I was about 5, I used to feel very embarrassed by my mother's red lipstick. There was something about that red lipstick? When it came on it changed my mother's face. I found her to be cruel and embarrassing to be near. But it was funny when my brother took that red lipstick and smeared it all over his face! We got the biggest kick out of that! (Mom didn't think it was so funny.)

When I was 7, I was in Catholic school when Sister Theresia called me up in front of the class. She turned me towards the blackboard and hit me around the shoulders with her yardstick. I had the worst trouble getting math! I remember doing everything to fight back my tears. It was even more difficult to turn around and face the smug expressions on the faces of my classmates. I ended up in the hospital with an ulcer that year.

Certain levels of humiliation have a sobering effect on one's life. This is why so many people can be a drag to be around.

We get all-up in ourselves about it. We think we have to go through all kinds of posturing in order to be accepted by others. Whether that happens through socialization, or religion or traditions, it can be hard to break free from. Is it any wonder human beings come to see themselves as entitled?

No one wants to be made fun of. No one wants to take a lesser place, or be a have-not... In our own ways, we overcompensate for this pain by working very hard to be "special". Oddly, over time we might outgrow those efforts. I think this is the real challenge of mid-life, when people hit their 40's, for example. What happens to our passion for life?

Humility, learning when to be humble, quiet and graceful, is a way of helping ourselves find more grace in our world. We have to be able to forgive ourselves before we can forgive others.

Instead of adding to another person's suffering, instead of chastising and pigeonholing people, instead of needing to be right, we can simply be quiet and decisive. It is possible then, to recognize who and what we want to include in our true passions about things. Living our lives would not feel like a waste of time...

For me, humility is like a tai chi movement... A simple one, of getting out of my own way, and allowing God to work with me a little more. So, when I feel good? I can be more decisive about what really matters!

The goal in life should be to feel good about life.

Everyone should feel entitled to make decisions about their lives, then stand on those decisions. That's where the real power rests.

Instead of dodging the balls people throw your way, you can let them fall to the ground if you're being hurt or humiliated. Maybe those games aren't for you. With some practice and awareness, you can just move on.

Instead of going through the motions of dodging the balls of the competition around you - once in awhile you could decide to pick up your own game. Get your own ball; play! Play something new.

And when you do? Let it be something you feel passionate about.

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Man's Heart

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"Admit what you feel, feel it, and then give it up. You must surrender before you engage the influence of the negative. The issue is not that you experience the emotions. The issue is what you DO in response to the emotions." - Iyanla Vanzant

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Ever notice how some men are feeling less and less, and and doing less these days? It is as if they are becoming more miserly with their energy. It's because men have been acculturated to live more in their minds than in their hearts.

Thus we have this thing we live with called "dominator culture", or patriarchy (which goes way back to the beginning of time).

But for some men, it is so built-in that they never grow beyond it. In this heart image, you can see it's yearning to grow. If you look closely, you will also see a spiritual eye, deep down in there.

In the '60's, when young men were fed up, and more willing to be experimental, and were doing things in America, like refusing to participate in the draft, and dropping LSD, that eye was starting to get opened a little.

We have always had young men like that in our histories, you know, who took chances and lost their minds doing it, literally. Drugs, you see, dissolve boundaries. (But that's another post.)

It is NOT just about being being male, but also how all of us are using our masculine or yang energy out there in the world... American women have become harder, more self-serving as we also experiment with our male energy.

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There is a great spiritual shift happening on the earth right now.
Some people are not going to make it, are they, Lord?

"Surrender allows us to face the things we fear and places us in the offensive position. When we surrender we mentally go through to the end, through the thing that we fear, which in effect releases us fear-thoughts from the mind. It also makes room in your mind and in your heart, for the Divine to give you a new idea." - Iyanla Vanzant

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Dear Jesus,
help us not to be just flailing around
on the planet in self-interest.
Help us all to balance our masculine, male energy,
so we can continue to be
the great creators and lovers,
the avatars you would want us to be.
Guide us into directions where we can dis-cover
the passion and enthusiasm
which makes us Divine.

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Lady's Heart

The Lady's Heart loves to get all-up in your business. (That's what the birds are for.) That's why she's a little hardened, and maybe, if she's learned some lessons she will also know when to knock-it off, back-off and relax.

We ladies love to embellish ourselves with all sorts of decorations to make ourselves look softer, more approachable and touchable... But deep inside, there's a lot of pain there! Many of us take it right to our graves.

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Dear Lord, help the women of the world to let go
of the things that steal our energy,
are a waste of time, and feel like dead-ends.
Help us women in the world feel more confident
about stepping out of traditional roles
like being mothers, grandmothers...
Nurses, secretaries and baby-sitters.
Sure, these roles are important,
but so are we, individually.


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We have a lot more to give,
starting with giving to ourselves.
Help us to drop our expectations of others
so we can see them for who they truly are.
Help us to follow our true interests,
educations and passions,
so we can be more effective on the planet,
and in the lives of other beings.

Help us to clearly know we have choices, God.


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Help us to understand
we don't have to be reacting,
help us to find our timing
so we are better
at responding.
Help us to keep our egos
from getting all-up-into-it, God!
Help us to keep ourselves
from jerking people around.
Our hearts need more resilience, Jesus,
by being good stewards of our energy,
our value-judgments
and attitudes towards others.
We like to say we are patient, even good to others,
but our egos and our money
are all-up-into-it, God.

Help this heart, our real hearts;
it's about what's going on
inside,
not outside, of who
we are that matters.


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Dear Jesus, protect us from those who would blame
and accuse us, undermine and not communicate with us or defend us.
Help us to forgive Those
Who Screw Us Over,
that we don't end up walking around poisoned.
Teach us, Jesus,
Show them to us, let us know who they are so
we can turn the other way.
Help us to stop enabling, and excusing the ignorance in this home,
on this planet;
keep us from feeling personally responsible, God,
for those who misuse and abuse;
they have choices, too.
Let me simply be a light in their lives.
Lord God,
that's all I ask.



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