Ask And It Shall Be Given

Ask, and it shall be given to you;

seek and ye shall find;

knock and it shall be opened unto you.

For every one that asketh, receiveth;

and he that seeketh, findeth;

and to him that knocketh

it shall be opened.

~Matthew 7:7-8

Most of us have heard or read these words before, but how many of us have really taken them to heart? Studies have shown that marriages suffer from lack of communication. Many of us feel that if our spouse really loved us, then we would not have to ask them to do "this or "that" for us because they would automatically know what we want and need. Often times relationships with friends and family can be strained for the very same reasons. We expect the people in our lives to just know what we want without being told.

The Bible says; "Ask and it shall be given to you". Well, what if it is true? What if all we have to do is ask? We are all born with the ability to ask for what we want, if you don't believe me spend some time with my 2 year old son. My neighbors will tell you that mimics that of a broken record at times. That persistence and the ability to ask no matter how ridiculous the request is given to all of us as a birthright and somewhere along the way many of us lost the ability to ask. We get conditioned throughout life to stop being a pest, don't question authority, just shut up and listen, and to do what the doctor says, etc... But what if we just took the time to ask for what we want, ask for that helping hand, and ask for some advice.

I used to be one of those people who almost never asked for what I wanted. I would give hints, but I would almost never come right out and ask. It took me forever to ask for a day off at work. The anxiety of thinking about asking would almost make me sick. Whenever a friend would ask me what I wanted to do, I would always respond with "I don't care, whatever you want to do is fine."

I remember one night, about 4 or 5 yrs ago, going to bed sad because my husband had said earlier in the day that he would rub my feet before we went to bed. When night time came and did not grab my feet and start rubbing, I foolishly thought he did not care. The following morning I was still a little bummed out about it. Rod could sense something was wrong. When he asked I of course was reluctant to tell him, but with some prodding I finally told him. His response was simple. He apologised for forgetting and very plainly said "Why didn't you just ask me? I would have done it for you, I just forgot."

Why didn't I just ask? Hmmm, I am not sure why I didn't, but that is when I started to realise that asking for something is not bad. People are not mind readers and no matter how well your husband (or wife) and friends know you, they can not read your mind. It never hurts to ask whether it is help or advice that you need, the worst that can happen is someone will tell you "no" and it has been my personal experience that most people will do whatever they can to help you. Life is too short to go around scared to ask for what we want. Make a point to have an opinion when asked, ask for help when you need it, and live a happy life.

I will leave you with with the quote from W. Clement Stone;

"If there is something to gain and nothing to lose by asking, by all means ask!"

Free E-zine

Well I am off to NY to visit my family for a week. My grandmother's birthday is tomorrow and I am going up there to celebrate with her. The internet connection in upstate NY is transient at best, so I will not be posting to the blog while I'm up there. I do want to take a quick moment to encourage everybody to sign up for Jim Rohn's free e-zine. It is a email publication fill with valuable information (and it's FREE).

The link is http://jimrohn.com/?kbid=9487 .

See you when I get back!

Coincidentally, I came across this little saying today. Thought it was appropriate considering today's post.

Sticks & Stones

I am almost 100% positive that anybody who has lived through elementary school has heard the words "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." on more than one occasion. There is a good chance that all of us have actually used the phrase a few times ourselves. What do you think about this school yard phrase? Do you think it rings true, or are you like myself and feel that words are one of the most damaging weapons the human race has at their disposal when used ruthlessly.

Think about it for a moment, a broken leg will heal in 6 weeks. How many people are spending hours of their adulthood in the shrinks office due to the residual effects of damaging words. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but bones will heal easily. Hurtful words will linger in our minds and consume our thoughts. The ironic thing is that words can have a negative effect on both the person saying them and the person receiving them. Negativity is like an infectious disease and it spreads quite rapidly.

It is our responsibility, as positive people living in society, to keep a leash on our tongue. We must think about the words we use and choose them carefully. People are very impressionable no matter what their age. It does none of us any good to live in a society full of damaged souls, yet we have everything to gain from living in a society filled with happiness, health, and confidence. Sometimes hurtful words role off our tongues so easy that we are unconsciously using them. Now is the time to get conscious and make an effort to say positive. This is even more important if there are children in the picture. Lets set a good example and stay positive.

Free Video

Follow this link to see a short interview clip with James A Ray
http://video.gaiam.com/services/link/bcpid3138404001/bctid8327130001

Perception = Reality

It has been proven that how we perceive ourselves and the world around us has a direction influence on how our life plays out. Have you ever met somebody who was always "on top of the world"? Things are always "great" and they never have any major complaints or ailments? How do you think they perceive themselves? Do you think they view themselves as happy, healthy, and abundant? Or do you think they feel like they are sad, sickly, and broke all the time? Chances are if somebody is walking tall and feeling good about life, then they perceive themselves as being happy, healthy, and abundant.



Have you ever heard the phrase "self fulfilling prophecy"? What we think about, comes about. This is just the way the universe works. If we picture ourselves living a well rounded 3 dimensional life (mind, body, and spirit) that is exactly what we will manifest. If we sit around complaining about how terrible the economy is and how bad our life is, guess what.....we get more things to complain about. We always attract and manifest exactly what we give our attention to, there is no way around it.



If we want to improve our lives we must first improve our thoughts and the images that go with our thoughts. The next time you start to get down on yourself or start to complain, make yourself STOP and then force yourself to find something good to focus your attention on.

If you have been reading for a while, you may remember a post lat year where I mentioned a trip I took to the Spiritualist Camp (Cassadaga, FL) for a tarot card reading. At the time I was having major problems with my ex husband and I was fearful that he was going to burn my house down. Anyways, what Rosalia (I think that was her name) told me was that every time I had this thought I had to say "cancel, cancel, cancel" and then go on and replace the thought with a positive thought. She told me way back then, that my thoughts and fears would manifest themselves as reality if I let them consume my mind. It took me years of studying and reading to understand what she meant.

Our thoughts are "things" and they do create. Our perception is our reality. When we upgrade our thoughts and perceptions we upgrade our life.

Now test yourself, how do you perceive the image I added to this post? Is a terrible destructive ice storm or ice a beautiful happening of nature? hmmm....

Skills VS Characteristics

Lets take a few moments and make a list of the 5 people we look up to the most. It can be friends, family members, or even people we don't know on a personal level like a celebrity, a public speaker, a pastor or minister, etc. We want to pick people who possess the qualities that we hold in the highest regard.

Now that we have the list, take a moment and list the 10 qualities that each of these people possess that makes them respectable. What qualities do these people have that made us pick them as our top 5. Things like; honesty, loyalty, ambitious, friendly, enthusiastic, caring, passionate, good listener, positive attitude, fair, encouraging, challenging, motivated, wealthy, humanitarian, etc...

Now take a look at the list of qualities and decide if they are characteristics or skills. A characteristic is something that a person is born with, like a natural ability. And a skill is a learned ability. After reviewing the list, put a "C" by the characteristics and an "S" by the skills. You will probably come up with about 70%-80% skills and 20%-30% characteristics.

Finally, take a look at the characteristics and decide if those characteristics could be learned or if only the lucky few born with them are the ones who can possess them. Chances are that most characteristics can be learned if someone is willing to but forth a little effort.

The moral of this exercise is this; anybody can learn to be highly effective. Anybody can learn to be the the person that people look up to. All we have to do is study ourselves to figure out where we are lacking and then get to work on acquiring and mastering those skills.

With the exception of a select few, we are all born with the same ability to learn to be "great". The difference is where our motivation lies. Are we motivated to learn, grow, and become better. Or are we motivated to remain unmotivated. Remember what Jim Rohn says; "If we're not growing, we're dying." Lets make a conscious decision to grow.

Resistance

How much of our daily "suffering" is unnecessary? What actually causes our suffering? And how much free time and energy would we have left at the end of our day if we just learned to stop resisting and learned to live to be happy?

In "Thresholds of the Mind", by Bill Harris, he makes it very clear that any and all suffering experienced is caused by our own decision to resist what is happening. The decision may be conscious or unconscious, either way, the resistance is what causes the discomfort.

Have you ever been around a person who was complaining about how terrible a situation in their life was? You try to sympathize with their troubles, but no matter how hard you try it just doesn't seem that bad. You may have even told them to "just forget about it" or "just let it be" assuring them that things will be okay. You know in you heart that most of their problem is the way they were looking at their particular situation. James A Ray tells us over and over again to find the good in every situation and that every failure is accompanied by the seeds of success.

Back in November I published a post titled "Just Let Go and Float". I think this is what Bill Harris is trying to tell us to do. We need to stop trying to micro-manage every detail of our life and start living it. Life is going to happen no matter what, so we might as well stop resisting and enjoy it. When we can live our life like a movie being played out in front of us we will be able to enjoy every minute of it.

As a man thinketh....

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."
~Book of Proverbs (23:7)