Peter and Ava . com

I have been talking about blame in my previous two articles, and how it is so destructive.

But what other choice do we have?

Firstly, we are humans, born free. What I mean is that we are free in our own minds. Nobody can take away what we have in our own heads, at least not yet. No matter what our situation, we are the one who is solely in charge of our own mind.

But that does not mean that our mind is perfect.

What we think is influenced in so many different ways by so many diffferent things. Sometimes it is influenced by what happened in our childhood. Maybe it is influenced by some other event, like the death of a family member or something. It could be effected by even small incidents.

So, back on track now.

My point I am trying to get to is how much impact we have over our own thoughts. We are not slave to our thoughts, our thoughts are created by us. It’s your mind, and trying to say something like, “I can’t help it, that’s just the way I am.” implies that you do not have control over it. You do. Also, your thoughts dictate your actions, so it implies the things you do are not of your own making, but yet you are the owner of your own mind and thoughts.

I do not mean to say this is easy to change, it often takes a great effort to do, and might take someone years to figure out.

Take control of your thoughts and start taking action. Once you realise the power you have to change, it will be amazing how you could ever have thought you never had control. By taking action and making a direct difference you will increase the number of ‘positive’ thoughts you have about whatever it is and your thoughts will change. If you mumble and moan, you will increase the bad feeling because that is all that is on your mind. Which would you rather choose?

Freedom is quite apparent in the life of Jesus.

For example, in the time when Jesus was around there was quite a stigma, as there is still today about talking to prostitutes, and in that day even to women in an open way, especially when you don’t know them. When Jesus spoke with the woman by the well, imagine how strange it must have been for the others who saw it. But yet he did it because his focus was God and not the ’status’ of the other person. Jesus also had dinners with other ‘unclean’ people, like tax collectors.

What kept the disiples from speaking to certain people, did not stop Jesus.

So when Jesus says, “You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” I’ve sometimes wondered how much we will know. Those shackles that keep you tied, which might even just be in your own head, are undone through the love of God. The blinkers are removed and you will finally know, the truth.

So the answer: follow Jesus. He will set you free.

God bless, until next time.

PS. Remember, God has given us a manual for life, the Bible. If it does not answer your questions, perhaps you are asking the wrong ones.

Well, it’s been great to have the week off work. Tomorrow I have to go in to work to do a demo class for the new kids who are coming to our school.

In my week off I have been waking up early and spending time with Ava. It’s quite nice to have free time at different times of the day. I have been spending a fair amount of time at the computer, so my breaks are at different times to what I am used to.

The Monday just past (2004/07/26) I went to go check out another school. It’s the one that two of the other teachers who are leaving our school are going to.

It’s not too different from the school I am at now, but it is a different system and looks quite organised.

Things go on as usual. Ava is starting to try and sell some things on eBay here in Taiwan. It’s quite exciting and I hope we can make it go well. I am going to be setting up a webpage for her too.

The overcoming depression website is still getting a little bit of work. Now that this site is done (www.peterandava.com) I can go back to polishing off the depression one and making sure everything is working OK and looks fine, and that the forums are set out in a nice way. The forums are it for the meantime. Maybe some article submission would be cool, but it will wait.

Following Ava’s interest in eBay I have downloaded some ebooks to try and see what there is to see. I might actually try to sell some of the books on eBay too, but I will need them translated first.

That’s all for now.