Ways To Live In Truly Peaceful Life

Many people lose their peace because of the severity of life’s problems. Tensions hit everyone because of various disasters or calamities, as well as bad news economic conditions. We can escape the tension if we always remember and realize that we are in the watchful eye of God and trust Him who always protects and watches over us.

Even though the world is marked by many shocks, we will still feel calm and abundant in peace if we always abide in God and His word. Satan can take, steal, and rob peace if we live away from God, walk out of His will, and disobey what God wants. Disobedience is a factor that makes a person not feel peace because he will always be haunted by fear and anxiety.

God will guard us with peace if our eyes are always on God, our hearts are always on Him. “… not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching”. If suddenly we are faced with a difficult situation, we will be able to respond with the right attitude of heart: remain calm, not confused, not anxious, and not panic.

Another way to help us to stay feel peace in all situations is to surrender fully to God. “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you.” Trust in everything, God works for our good. If we love God sincerely, there is no need to worry about everything that happens, because behind it God has the best plan for us.

Peace from God is the perfect peace in all circumstances and circumstances.

Hatred Only Hurts Your Own Heart

A boy confides in his father about his hatred for a friend who hurt him.

The father said, “forgive him, get rid of your hatred.”

“I can’t, Dad. I hate him very much.” The boy insisted.

“Well then alright, now go to sleep, tomorrow morning we have something to do,” said the father.

In the morning, the father had prepared a sack of pebbles hung on the back fence door. “Try to imagine this sack as the embodiment of your friend, then focus your hatred on your fist and beat it as hard and as much as you can,” the father told his son.

The son obeyed his father’s orders. But only 3 hard blows he was already in pain in his hands, bruised and bleeding.

“Does the friend you hate feel the pain you are suffering right now?” the father asked.

“Of course not,” said the boy.

The father began to exhort. “That’s how it happened to your heart, my son. Hatred only hurts your own heart, the friend you hate will not suffer more than your heart. Even if you hit him, the pain he feels will not exceed the pain of your heart.

“Maybe he was injured by your punch, but his external wound will heal quickly, while your hatred will not decrease, even greater overwhelming your heart. That’s also what happens when someone hates you, his hatred will not make you suffer more than his.”

There is no point in keeping hatred in the heart, because it will only hurt yourself. Smile when our hearts hurt. Do not let hatred grow in our hearts, because when the seed of evil flourishes it will one day destroy our lives.

Have mercy and pray for those who hate us, for indeed the suffering in their hearts is much deeper.

Hatred stirs up conflict,
but love covers over all wrongs.

Interview With God

I dreamed that I was doing an interview with God.

“So, you want to do an interview with me?” God asked.

“Well, if You have time God,” I replied.

God smiled, “My time is eternal… What questions do you have in mind for Me?”

“What’s Your most surprising thing about humans?”

God answered, “That people get bored easily with childhood, they rush to grow up, and then yearn to go back to being children again.

“That people lose their health just to make money… and then lose money to restore their health again.

“That people like to worry about their future, and forget about the present, so they do not live in the present nor the future.

“That men live as they will never die and die as they never live.”

God holds my hand… and we were both in silence for a while.

Then I asked, “As a Parent, what life lesson do you want for your children to learn?”

God answered, “Learn that they can’t make everyone love them. All they can do is allow themselves to be loved.

“Learn that it’s not good to compare themselves to others.

“Learn to forgive with sincere forgiveness.

“Learn that it only takes a few seconds to hurt their loved ones, but it takes years to heal.

“Learn that rich people are not the ones who have the most, but the ones who need the least.

“Learn that there are actually people who love them, but don’t understand how to express or show their feelings.

“Learn that two people can look at the same thing, but see it differently.

“Learn that it’s not enough just to forgive others, but they also have to forgive themselves.”

“Thank you for Your time God,” I said humbly. “Is there anything else You would like us to know?”

God smiled, and said, “Know that I am always here. Always.”

Helping Others Is Self Help

Yankel, a Jewish man who survived the Holocaust (the Nazi genocide of European Jews during World War II), owned a bakery in New York’s Crown Heights area. He always said, “You know why I’m alive today?” He then told a story.

“When I was a teenager, I was taken by the Nazis on a train. Night came and it was very cold in that carriage.

The Nazis dropped us off on the side of the tracks overnight, without food. There were no blankets to keep us warm. The cold wind brought snow down our cheeks. There were hundreds of people with us on that very cold night. There is no food. No water. There is no shelter. There are no blankets. The blood in our bodies began to clot.

Next to me, there is a good old man from my hometown. He shivered from head to toe, and it didn’t seem to be doing well. So I hugged him to warm him up. I hugged him tightly to give him heat. I rubbed his arms, his legs, his face, his neck. I begged him to cheer up, to survive to live.

All night, I kept this Old man warm. I’m tired, and cold. My fingers seemed to be numb, but I didn’t stop rubbing heat on the old man’s body.

Hour after hour passed. Finally, morning came and the sun began to shine. I looked around to see other people. It was terrible, all I could see was a frozen body accompanied by deadly silence. No one else is alive. That cold night killed them all.

Only two people survived: the old man and me. The old man survived because I warmed him, and I survived because I warmed him.”

When we warm the hearts of others, we are actually warming our hearts as well. When we support, encourage and inspire others, then we will find support, encouragement and inspiration in our own lives as well.

Canadian poet Henry Drummond said, “There is no happiness in owning or getting, happiness is only in giving.”

True Friends

True friends are excellent “assets,” but do we have them? Let’s dig again into what it means to be a true friend.

A true friend always takes care of us. By having a friend, we can invite them to discuss certain things that require deep thought. Your input and thoughts can broaden your horizons so that they help when decision making can be accurate.

A true friend is one who sincerely rejoices when we are being blessed. They will never manipulate relationships for they are own interests. They tendency is even willing to sacrifice themself for the sake of their best friend. That’s why sincerity, openness, and the ability to empathize must be possessed by everyone who wants to build a lasting friendship.

Don’t just have a best friend, but find a friend who has a tested quality of life.

Some friends may ruin you, but a real friend will be more loyal than a brother.

Hollow And Rough Surface

Have you ever noticed a golf ball? The ball was not round smooth. There are hollows or small holes on the surface like pockmarks from smallpox on the face. It doesn’t look pretty, huh? In fact, the ugly look has a meaning.

Golf balls are made that way because the hollow minimizes the resistance or tensile force on the golf ball. When the golf ball is hit moving through the air, the energy in the golf ball is not drained because the air passing through the golf ball will tend to stick to the ball longer precisely in the existing basins. This allows the golf ball to reach a greater distance when hit than a smooth ball.

A small ball with a smooth surface will only be ejected at most about 119 meters. Similar balls with corresponding holes such as those on golf balls can reach double that distance. It turns out that the holes add to the golf ball’s ability to be able to reach longer distances.

Our lives are also “hollow” and not smooth. We face problems at work, struggle with certain weaknesses, go through painful experiences that leave wounds, or other “holes” of life. God allowed such things to happen, but He did not stand idly by. When we call upon Him, then God, who “works in all things,” is able to restore us. Then He will turn that into strength, enabling us to go further and higher.

Someday in the future, as we look back, we will be grateful to have passed through those “holes” of life, because it has given us the ability and strength to go further.

Lotus Flower Philosophy

Flowers are known as a symbol of the beauty of every plant so that not infrequently philosophers or critical thinkers are able to find various kinds of hidden meanings about plant life that we can study. One of them is the lotus flower. This plant with wide, floating green leaves is often found in ponds, swamps, or lakes. The water used as a lotus flower as a place to live is dirty, but it does not affect it to show its uniqueness and beautiful flowers. Here are 5 unique philosophies of the lotus flower.

1. Believing that being different from others is not a barrier to being the best.

Unlike other plants in general, lotus grows in different environments such as turbid water and smells less pleasant. But the lotus tries to cover it with wide leaves and beautiful flowers so that those who see it can focus more on its beauty, not the surrounding environment. Likewise, we, the family environment and the surrounding community that is different and looked down upon by others because it is considered difficult to achieve success is not a barrier to achieving goals, even we can scent our living environment with the success and goodness that we have strived for.

2. Even in a dirty environment, the lotus remains clean and shows its beauty.

Water and mud are needed by lotus to survive. Although the environment can be said to be dirty and smells bad, but that situation does not prevent it from showing the beauty of it flowers and keeping clean. This illustrates that humans actually still need each other, even in people who are not good. But, that doesn’t mean you have to follow and imitate the ugliness that people around you usually do.

3. The more insults and babbles others have to us, the more chances we have for success.

Lotus also has a characteristic that distinguishes it from other flowers, namely the dirtier the environment where the lotus flower lives, the higher the quality of the flower that grows. Indirectly, lotus teaches us to make insults and negative responses of others about us as motivation and reason to never give up achieving dreams, not just make it a burden to make us inferior and desperate.

4. Doing good without expecting something in return will get a more beautiful reward.

Lotus provides many benefits to other creatures, such as protecting fish from the hot sun, making its leaves for perching insects and frogs to jump, and so on. Even though all it could see all day was a dirty place to live. Because of it actions that always give help, having a beautiful flower and being used as a very precious flower by a group of humans is a form of reward for an amazing lotus.

5. It very short life reminds us that our life on earth is only momentary.

The flowers are indeed beautiful, unfortunately the lotus blooms in a very short time. Some have withered in the morning blooming night, but there are also those who can survive for days before the petals begin to come off one by one. In essence, man also lives in the world for a short time. The more we make the most of our life time, the faster and shorter our time to live in the world will be.

Those are some of the philosophical meanings of the lotus flower that we can ponder together. Although it lives short and lives in a dirty environment, it does not discourage the lotus flower from radiating a ray of beauty. Can we do it too?

Ego Is The Enemy

If it’s an argument with customers, even if we win, customers will still run.

If you have a fuss with colleagues, even if we win, there is no more enthusiasm for working in the team.

If we arguing with the boss, even if we win, there’s no future in that place.

If we have arguments with our family, even if we win, the family relationship will be tenuous.

If you have a fuss with friends, even if we win, we’ll definitely be short of friends.

If you have a fight with your partner, even if you win, your affection will definitely decrease.

If we have arguments with anyone, even if we win, we still lose. The only thing that wins is one’s own ego, it’s just a pseudo victory. What’s hard is beating your own ego. However, if we are able to conquer ourselves, it is a true winner.

It is better to be patient than to fight. It is better to control your temper than to take a city.– Proverbs

Time Bank

Imagine a bank that gives you $86,400 every morning. All that money you have to use. At night, the bank will wipe out the remaining money you haven’t used for a day. Guess what, what are you going to do? Of course, spent all that borrowed money.

Each of us has such a bank; named time. Every morning, it will give you 86,400 seconds. At night he will delete the remaining time that you don’t use, because he didn’t give you the rest of the time. He also did not give extra time. Every day he will open a new account for you. Every night he would scorch what was left. If you don’t use it, then the loss will fall on you.

You can’t take it back. Also, you can’t ask for a “down payment” for the next day. You have to live in a stash today. The clock is ticking. Therefore, invest your time well.

To know the importance of a year, ask students who fail classes.

To know the importance of a month, ask mothers who give birth prematurely.

To know the importance of a week, ask the editor of a weekly magazine.

To know the importance of an hour, ask a lover waiting to meet.

To know the importance of a minute, ask people who missed the train.

To know the importance of a second, ask the person who has just avoided an accident.

To know the importance of milliseconds, ask an Olympic silver medalist.

Always cherish your time and make the best use of it. Never waste it.

“Be very careful, then, how you live not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.“

Judge Not, That Ye Be Not Judged

There is a husband and wife who have just moved house. When they ate breakfast the next day, the wife saw her neighbor drying clothes outside the house.

“The laundry is not very clean,” the wife said to her husband. “She doesn’t know how to wash clean, maybe she needs better laundry soap.”

Her husband took a look but did not comment. Every time the neighbor dried her clothes, the wife always said the same thing.

A month later, the wife was surprised when she saw clean laundry on her neighbor’s clothesline. She said to her husband, “Look! She has learned how to wash properly. Who taught her, huh?”

The husband said, “I woke up early this morning and cleaned our windows.”

The wife just fell silent and looked at her husband.

Isn’t it a good idea to check in advance that our “windows” are clean? What we see when we see someone depends on the cleanliness of the “window” we look at.

Before we criticize something, it’s a good idea to check our thoughts first and ask ourselves if we can see something wrong from others. What we see depends on the glasses we use, if we wear sunglasses everything will be very dark, but if we use clear glasses we will see everything is very bright, depending on which side we look at.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?