freeinnocentspirit

In a bid to keep my bible study as a constant element in my life a few months ago I downloaded a Bible app on my blackberry which proved to be excellent as when I now have a sleepless night I can plug in my earphones and listen to it prior to going to bed. So what I have been doing is going through the old testament and new and highlighting verses (most of which I ended up adding to my signature area) however last night my mind wondered off on a tangent. I was going through all the areas I highlighted and then my mind just wandered off into thought.. Like totally way off the point... It was really just this one verse and maybe I have just taken this out of the context but its really got me thinking about it! The verse in question: Jeremiah 29:11 - 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' I don't intend to irritate anyone or to quiz anything to seem disrespectful. My trail of thought started as I was thinking 'well I started off Oct 201o as a firm agnostic person and then Oct 2011 as a Christian and here I am 2012 Oct firm Christian' then that verse set the wheels turning in my head (rare event for me!). So I am blessed and this process was all intended for me to go through so I can accept all the bad things that have happened to me as that process lead me here - however how does that justify people going astray? Was that also intended by God?

Hi I would say always pick the lowest possible dose. Even go through all the children s doses then go into the adult doses. I sadly had to pole vault into the strong stuff as it go to the point of my allergies starting to effect a major organ. As I am in the UK i wasted a lot of time going through the NHS system it took a long time to get to see the consultant and it was a severe case when I did. I always look back at the point of sheer suffering and struggling and think I wish I dipped into my own pockets and went to see a specialist. They are the best people to deal with custom made care. There is so much more that they can prescribe you that is specialist medication. To be honest while I spent a lot of time eliminating things I would react to my overall immunity was going down. The way I now understand allergies to be best maintained is by use of reactions at the right time. So my advice to you be this go out an do a little bit of shopping for your eye allergy for me this worked more than eye drops. Buy the following things: 1. Johnsons baby shampoo (smallest bottle avaiable!) 2. baby wipes 3. Contact lense rehydrate drops. 4. superfine salt (smallest pack himlayan salt is the best!) 5. very thin face towels. sadly this is a routine to do, every morning and night take luke warm water and add a pinch of salt to the water and mix lightly soak the thin flannel into the water and clean the eyelids while your eyes closed. Do this twice a day to start. If this does not have much effect then go to the johnson's no tears type baby shampoo get rid of the salt and put a little drop of the shampoo and wash the eye area. Our eyelashes catch the dust and germs and by doing this your cleaning the area away. if you still have the annying itchy eyes or sensitive eyes next stage is this get some baby wipes which are hypoallergenic and for sensitive skin. Keep them with you when its too sore or burning use these to wipe the area clean. About the contact lense eye drops these are usually saline only and when people wear contact lenses saline is used to store the lens to keep the lenses moist so in turn now that I wear contact lenses what I have found is that my eye allergy is near non existent because the saline within the contact lens washes my eye every morning. When my eyes become irritated is use a preservative free contact lens rehydrate eye drop in blister form. Just be weary with the level of how sensitive it is - don't ever neglect any allergy as you could end up in the situation that I did and then sit there thinking ok these are all separate things that I could have controlled easily but chose not to in time! take care. free (Pm me anytime you need any advice!)

I have a lot of serious allergies and its partly due to the fact I have erratic asthma which spiralled out of control a few years ago. The severity of my asthma and allergies resulted in my right lung partially collapsing (basicaly when I would breathe in an out the lower part did not react or move at all - this was only detected at a lung function test stage), I have now thanks to God recovered at a record speed but I take a whole host of tablets for the allergies and inhalers for the asthma. What I would advise you to do is to take what my hospital consultant did in the end (I wasted a lot of time making lists for what it could be and as BFP said mascara was one thing to appear first on my allergy test). Take each allergy and rate it from 1 - 5 so if you have a range of allergies say in my case asthma, hay fever eczema, psoriasis and rhinitis. If one is the highest and 5 is the lowest score. If you see that for each allergy you have its intolerable and you cant do day to day activities then it might be worth looking at taking antihistamines tablets all year round or any jabs that are there. In my case I had the rhinitis kick off the asthma and then the skin issues would start shortly after. It may be worth just having the antihistamine tabs instead of going through test after test. As for the eyes I take the antihistamine and have eye drops!! Even try the contact lense eye drops that are created to rehydrate the contact lenses through out the day if you use them its like a quick eye bath!

I have spent a while trying not be all bashful and snobby and the behave like - thank god i never turned out like my sister. Or dare I say it, Im Christian and that automatically makes me different to her I was chatting to a friend about all of what has happened and she said one thing - learn from what you are experiencing you have to take a lesson from it. More than anything i can't actually pin point when and how my family got to this stage, its like Dec 2011 was a blissful Christmas (the first one where my bizarre allergies didnt kick off enough for me to be hospitalized again!! everyone was well and happy and this is a very rare moment in my family in my whole family everyone was well. I lost 2 very close relatives a week to Christmas in 2007 and 2010) nothing bad happened in 2011 and everything was great until Aug 2012 its like my family (including extended and immediate) is like at War with each other for something so stupid. To be completely honest I did something a bit odd like my sister - I just woke up one idle Tuesday and for some unknown reason I just picked up the Bible read it cover to cover and said to myself right I found the truth, this I whole heartily believe in, thats it im Christian no more seeking anything else. However since lets say May its been one bizarre event after another. For example I even had an interview that turned out to be one man in a totally empty office and he was about as creepy as it can get he was hostile and rude. (im a petite 30 year old female here in the middle of a converted empty warehouse and Im feeling mouse like!!) the other incidences get a little more funny. However what Im starting to feel is that I am slightly cursed and at the moment I am starting to think something more evil is going on here - no one aspect of my life is going well. Everything suddenly got so negative.

Sorry I didn't spot this one earlier or I could have just done a multi quote. I agree totally its like a lot of stress is all piled up on me suddenly and its totally knocked me off course.

I agree with you and I am doing the same in terms of digging my heels in. I would hear my Christian friend refer to the devil among us or the enemy too and I would sit there and think well whaaaat or ok let it slide let me not provoke another debate. This time I can't even point out that - this is when this started. Or thats the point I got too stressed out. All was fine and I was doing great taking the whole bible study in my stride, then came August and it suddenly became this bleak dark world of doom. I think that it is totally a case of how complex the structure of my family is and that for the first time I realize that the ones who seem to preach one faith does not have a firm faith. However the constant negativity does'nt help. For me my path to Christianity cant be explained, I know that I am not ever going to be reverting back to the agnostic world again that is for sure. I was listening the Bible app on my phone after I wrote my original thread and thought that its a wonderful miracle that I follow a faith where with each time I read the gospel of Matthew I seem to find the truth. What is challenging me is that the masses of diverse belief systems within my family is now clashing totally on a personal level. As for my sisters disappearing act its made it interesting for me to see how she has totally lost her way and also how I could have very well been on a different path of my life. I think it has made me appreciate how I am truly blessed to have just been taken on this journey. Although I might not be working and feel as though I have been broken down by stress and all these difficult times. I would never change the fact that I have become a Christian - Its deep within my heart and I suppose its a part of me me now. Thank you all for your advice and prayers.

Before I launch into my strange snowball effect dilemma I just want to add a bit of background information. I am tempted to go to church and possibly off load to a pastor but won't know where to start! (And maybe posting here would help me get a more broader range of advice). Well my brief family snapshot is this. My grandma was a broad minded person who never as such instilled one religion on her kids and this lead the family having one or more belief system. Now the next generation has ended up with a set divide of either an agnostic/buddhist/hindu group or a Jewish/catholic group...and now there is me non-denominational Christian. For each time there is a family crisis of some sort all I get is six or seven themes of religious guidance/philosophy. The family crisis this time is that my sister has decided to run off (she has done a dissappearing act) and to marry some guy she has known for only a short while (as you do!!) Now the reaction I have is this - So its the basically God is testing us or we are being punished for sins on earth. At the moment yes there is the fact I'm not working so people find me very accessible and I guess I never took the time out to notice all the little clashes my family has but its now got to the point where I think its all spiralled out of control. We seem to all be very negative and its almost effecting me on an epic scale where I am getting back to that stages of questioning my own faith, and I dont want to feel this way. I'm almost in reverse fast track. I'm stressed out with job hunting as it is (yet another negative aspect) and now I'm surrounded by scorned family members who are constantly clashing about everything as this new family crisis has bought it all up to the surface. Surely I'm not the only want to ever be caught up in a dilemma like this. This has all just snowballed into a huge bundle of stress for me! How would you deal with such a huge range of conflicting philosophies? I just feel like my faith is forever being tested.

Not trying to pry or anything, JTC, but do you not have a job? I am single as well and I work a lot of hours; I actually like coming home to my quiet space that is just for me after dealing with the chaotic world of the oil business all day. I agree that it's not good to be alone ALL of the time though. Please don't be offended by my words, it's just that you appear to be a fairly young man in your profile pic. See I agree with both comments but I don't think it can simply be answered by just a get a job answer or do more. At the moment Im not working and its been really tough to miss out on that regularity I went from a workaholic to now no routine and that drives me mad. However during my process of looking for work I am also studying the bible and adding a lot of things into it. I am also looking to start volunteering for a disability charity. How about even finding a Church to volunteer at - this is just a matter to dealing with a large amount to vacant time. A systematic life can be as boring as one without any order.

Hi Jake, I think I am saved. In my case it wasnt just the one religion with the one rule book it is 3 or 4 and as a family my one just drifted about picking and choosing to follow what part suites them so we have just become a mish mash of a number of elements. I do use the phrase all or nothing because I think the lack of commitment to one sole belief is what lead me to just drift through life on the fence as an agnostic until I wound up really sick and then evaluating my life. So I think I am. thanks for all the advice. take care free

Thanks for all the advice. Baptism is scheduled in for December I have wanted to be a few weeks ago but thought I kind of want it to be symbolic. Therefore December it is. Jake your absolutely right - I just feel a little too title free and maybe thats what works for me. In my childhood upbringing my identification to religion was through parental and family influence and as much as they wanted to stuff Judaism or Islam down my throat (figuratively speaking!!) I just drifted off into the world of agnosticism. Now that I sort of hit by reality I am just a little surprised that - there is not real rule book so to speak. And that there is there no pressure to conform to anything. So Jake I'm with you on the 'God leads me where I go!' motto. Maybe I do need to just get Baptized instead of putting myself into a category first.

This is sort of something that wasnt an issue for a while but for some reason its been really troubling me lately. I started this lets say journey to re-discovering my faith and myself after I got sick and hit rock bottom. I do keep returning here an want to ask the question and then back out for some reason. Well long story short, Im from a multi faith family and there are a good few characters in my family who have a lot of strong views and keep wanting to reinforce their religious opinions on to others. So I havent at all made my grand announcement that I am not a muslim/jewish or as the main group agnostic but in fact that I am Christian. I havent felt the need to start letting my family know as my faith is in my heart. Fundamentally the reason behind this because I dont want anything to sway my natural progress (my interest lead me here naturally - I did wake up one idle day with a deseperate urge to read the bible and that was due to having no outside influence at all) I sort of feel like there was this natural urge and now that I am in a good place and it feels right that I truely naturally believe in Christian Values. However I am not yet baptised and I want to stay non denominational. Is there an pitfall into remaining this way? I want to be Baptised near Christmas as it was Christmas 2010 that I was at my lowest point (and started this process!) and it will be symbolic to be baptised then for me. However I suppose I am just after experiences that others had when they were at my stage of evolving into Christianity. I am sort of looking at my lifestyle up and until that point of getting sick and thinking of why and how I ended up that way.

I would say that the advice given by Love Songs is absolutly spot on correct. You need to surround yourself with people seek advice from all sources. Above all the only thing that I would add is to follow your instincts and think about how you have to do what is right. Right by your grandmother and what feels right for you. Im in a similar situation in which my Dad requires a lot of care and the option of care home has come up and been dismissed quickly as we have a network of people of offer care. If you are alone however you need to think how much of your life (as you have already mentioned work and social life) you want to sacrifice in order to provide care for your grandma. Getting in touch with the right organisatons can provide a day care during the day and maybe more options that no one has considered at all.

I think we pieced it all together and its all around how my mum is totally passive and not assertive enough. We recently gathered the reason why so many people needed/ wanted that shuttle service. The dinner event was supposed to be held at the house that I drove to having picked up two passengers. When I got there there was a sudden change and we where given the postcode for a new venue to drive to so I took the two original people I drove there to this new venue a 15 to 20 minute drive away. Once we left I had that extra person - however a number of people had hopped into others cars and ended up stranded up there. There was an element of chaos to the whole event and we should have done a u-turn and come home instead of being put in a situation where we dont know where we are going and are being a postcode for our sat navs! My mum called me in a state of fury as she had discovered all this information. I then just said that 'we' (I didnt want her to feel as though I am blaming her in anyway) should have come home from there and had our own dinner at home with my brother and dad. We have a different sort of lifestyle where we are caring for someone and that she needed to be assertive and say no we cant just go along with whatever time plan as we need to be home to take care of dad. Also with that ladypeartree you are so so right about having an activity where she can stop being a full time carer and I am now taking her with me to a yoga class so that she can do something different for a couple of hours. Im still very concerned and I am looking to keep an eye on what sets her off then maybe it will be easy to fix.

to be honest it seems to be a case of pure attention seeking. Like the scenario where a few people needed a lift home she suddenly felt very important and special that she was getting carried away, once I reminded her that its a small family car she sort of awoke to reality. Im actually thinking this could be a part of a menopause element too - she is 59 and I think a few of the issues are very similar to an almost PMT sufferer.

This thought had crossed my mind first thing this morning. Its like a her personality has changed so so much - ok the forgetful thing I understand. I can be forgetful too at 30! But this is like total childish behaviour, its like the moment I dropped everyone home and I dropped her off. She called me (at what was then 1am) and needed to discuss it. What is there to discuss I did a road traffic error a camera will pick it up I will get a fine in the post. She sat in the car with no reaction even when I got stopped. In the car nothing was said then 45 minutes later the whole incident sort of set in. Your so right about the need to instill a fear - I may need to be tactical!

hi Nchrist, I actually stayed close by my older brother and sister live further away so as I like the area I live nearby and it was due to the fact that on the occassion my mum or dad need help asap I would at least be the close by to run over and help. As for the ownership of the car there has never been an issue like this ever before (I always get ready do the 20 minute drive to my parents and pick them up so its never been an issue) and this needy and attention seeking issue is a very new issue I can probably say it started early this year even. I have been putting a lot of things down to stress or old age but however this car- minicab service was just a case of common sense how and why should I drop that many people off home and have to go back and forth collecting them from the venue over again. Ladyhrtlovesu, Thank you so much for your advice. My dad does and has always needed support and the level of the care that he needs isnt more than it used to be. Long before me actually posting on here I have been trying to think of a way to address this issue. So jokingly I would say 'oh I dont know mum, since when was I your pa!' or to clearly just say I dont know, how did you manage that before? I know I needed to set a boundary there. I have been trying to work out what the issue actually is because even though I am out living separate its like constant text messages for something or a call. Which is completly basic (the funniest one has to be when electricity cut out and instead of calling an electician she called me in the middle of the day asking me what to do! so its a case of state the obvious!) I actually think it might be that fact that she knows im not working at the moment that has made her think I have a lot of spare time - to assist her in every aspect of life. The incident last night (the stupid driving error) was so unthinkable that I just said look its a fiesta how will more than four people fit? Im still a bit annoyed at the whole scenario but its like basic fact had never entered her mind. Once I said its a fiesta there was this look of sudden realisation of great truth and she said oh yeah yeah - I forgot that . So I said just the extra person no one else. It just seems to be that she has decided that as I have stayed close by and always provided an emotional support that now she wants to off load everything to me. To be completely honest its like a cross between lazyiness and attention seeking and I dont really know what started it.I think I know where the idea came from though. Both my parents went away on holiday (dec 2011) and my dad came back sick. I live 20 mins drive away and I have the car. When they had been away I offered to keep an eye on the house and swing by pick up any bills and pay them and just make the house dust free/clean the fridge out. As they returned I did actually go in do a good house clean and even cook a ton of food and leave it in the fridge to eat (my dad had a chest infection on his return which I heard about before their return) its like all the little things I did back then must have sparked this idea off. Even my brother had said back then to me now you've done this your in it now. We dont mind helping out the extra bit - I would do that for anyone not just my parents. However I think I need to set a clear boundary now before it all gets too much.

Need some advice Im sure that most of you here would be able to help me as handle this issue - as im sure I wont be able to without thinking it through before I take action. My situation is this, my parents have a 15 year age gap and my dad is now well into his 70's (he has a few health problems and doesnt participate in family life as much as he could) and my mum is approaching her 60's. While my mum was young it was a different situation she could handle a lot of the family activities and a lot of the stresses of family life alone. However I have to say since the past 2 or 3 years there is this greater need for me as the youngest to be alomost a partner in taking a part of the stress and the strains too. Its so many little things that are starting to winde me up to the point where I at times want to run for the hills! Without me boring you all with a list of all the incidents, I'll just you give the most recent one. I am the designated driver of the family and the deal was when we go to attend a local community event I would pick up a two people from a house which was around the corner from my house. So I said yes no problem. Then as we were returning from the event I agreed to again drop off the people I picked up - it made sense to me. However, my mother took it upon herself to invite everyone to get a lift home from me (so this entails me driving back and forth over and over and over again to that venue and to the persons home like a minicab driver!) however I said no but still my mum insisted another person who lives a good distance away from us is dropped off (I only drive a fiesta its not a bus thankfully) on the way home this extra person got so loud and became a distacting that I stupidly got distracted and drove through a no exit sign (in the UK this is a fine on the spot) trusting my bad luck a police car was on patrol and I got stopped. Luckily the police did not add any points to my license and they kindly warned me. In general its all this constant assisting that I have had to do which is taking up all of time. Its so many little things that I seem to be assisting with that I shouldnt have to do - I just cant think of a way to get out of this position without severely hurting her feelings. I understand that as parents age the children should try and accodate the parents needs its like now im in a position where she seems to be creating stress for me. Its like the basic tasks that she would do on a daily basis that now she seems suddenly completly unable to do so suddenly every little action needs assisting! Have any of you had to deal with an over dependant family member before? How did you overcome or manage this. I love my parents and will forever be there for them but I need to get a message through to my mum that she is causing a lot of stress my way but now over depending on me. Please help!!

There is really only one thing you can possibly do . . . pray for early menopause. Are you nuts!! Think PMS is bad now wait till menopause! But then after that its pretty good sailing brother, so ya I guess you could hope for an early one but then again you might want to build the garage now..... I thought that too - but didnt want to say anything. lol...seeing my mum and aunts is enough to make me be scared now at 30!!

Im 30 now and its not so bad as I have found a way to manage all the chemicals so to speak. I think it depends more about how much stress you have on at exactly the same time. Find a source of unwinding, for me it a trip to the gym to chill out! (If I am stressed out and with a pms round then a good round of running on a treadmill works wonders!)

See this is where I start to go off on a tangent. Years ago I did have someone preech to me and it did nothing I actually totally switched off. I was very very sick when I found faith and I got what I wanted then my first miracle total rapid recovery (i was discharged in 3 months when I was admitted in hospital for a year!) So for me my trust and faith in God is stronger with every breath I take because I was unable to breath unassisted and thats how I ended up in hospital. However when things dont work out now I look at it differently now, God is trying to teach me something. When things dont work out anymore for me I sit back and look for the lesson I am supposed to learn. I do think that it makes it easy to sway into agnostic-ville again when you look at it from your experience.

can you give an example of what they do in your bible study? Quick example is one lady was explaining an experience (as she put it) that once she was shopping and that she had been told to tell the clerk that jesus loves him. She thought the clerk was gay and that she had been told to tell the clerk that. I asked her (i wasnt intending to poke fun) that was it an instinct like a gut feeling (instinct) or a voice! she said it was a voice in her 'minds eye' (!!) . But I actually became really curious because I have a highend sense of instinct since my whole faith development process. Im really trying to get a sense of understanding of what the general concept of being guided is? There is a huge difference between the New Age teaching of the Mind's Eye (Third Eye) and being led by the Spirit with His gift of knowledge. If you go again, ask them to explain where they find that in scripture. I dont know if the word mind's eye was used trivially or within the context of yoga/meditation. I just visited because I needed to de-junk from job hunting it did make me think about how people who are passionate christians (arent we all I know!) interact with those who arent. I mean if she had said that to me what 2 years ago ('jesus loves you') I would maybe have been flippant and ignored her.

Pray SINCERELY and keep praying every day that God leads and guides you in your job hunting efforts. I would personally add something like "according to your perfect Will" in your prayers. God does answer prayer, but it's important that you know: that it might not be the job you want, God will answer in His time and His Way. Keep doing your part in looking for a job. If you're not already in the habit, give thanks for all good things that God gives you. You can't expect Him to give you more when you're not thankful for what He's already giving you. Hi, This I know and do, to be honest I do feel the same way about being guided like Mizzy explains which is why I never instantly denied or closed my mind off to the lady at the group. I just never heard of that sort of an experience. You know ncn your right about that fact that God will answer in his time, its like I now sit back and feel so blessed to have found truth in faith (I spent so long on the fence as an agnostic!) and how I could have gone a long way lost...like a good few of my family members. Thanks for the guidance too!

can you give an example of what they do in your bible study? Quick example is one lady was explaining an experience (as she put it) that once she was shopping and that she had been told to tell the clerk that jesus loves him. She thought the clerk was gay and that she had been told to tell the clerk that. I asked her (i wasnt intending to poke fun) that was it an instinct like a gut feeling (instinct) or a voice! she said it was a voice in her 'minds eye' (!!) . But I actually became really curious because I have a highend sense of instinct since my whole faith development process. Im really trying to get a sense of understanding of what the general concept of being guided is?

In short I have had a hectic few weeks and stressful ones at that. However I got to the point where I just needed a time out of my hectic job hunting mode as my stress levels were going that high so I joined my friend on one of the bible study classes (I did promise myself I would stop attending random ones, but this just appealed to me for some reason!) now within this group some people were reffering to being guided using terminology like Jesus told me... So what really is the concept of being guided for you?

I really just wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this as an issue. I have for a while avoided a lot of Christian groups not for any sinister reason but just for the plain and simple reason that I wanted to solidify my knowledge base first. I joined a friend recently on a bible study talk. Well it was wonderful it made me test my knowledge. I have a few questions now though and need an opinion, what the best method to quote bible verses without creating misunderstandings. During the talk the pastor kept cutting the verses short where almost the meaning of the verse was being distorted. So for example let say the topic came up (purely as an example) does God punish? mid way through the a long chat the pastor said Jeremiah 29:11 but only the first part 'for I know that plans I have for you....' and not the rest of it. So what is the best method to quote the bible.