Michael37 Posted August 28, 2020 Group: Servant Followers: 21 Topic Count: 241 Topics Per Day: 0.11 Content Count: 6,953 Content Per Day: 3.27 Reputation: 4,871 Days Won: 2 Joined: 07/05/2018 Status: Offline Birthday: 09/23/1954 Share Posted August 28, 2020 Working in an enjoyable outdoor environment with machines, equipment, tools, accounts, labour, and skills is for me a positive life experience. Sometimes I get a cup of tea with some cakes and biscuits from clients. This too is a PLE if they are pleasant and sociable. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael37 Posted August 29, 2020 Group: Servant Followers: 21 Topic Count: 241 Topics Per Day: 0.11 Content Count: 6,953 Content Per Day: 3.27 Reputation: 4,871 Days Won: 2 Joined: 07/05/2018 Status: Offline Birthday: 09/23/1954 Author Share Posted August 29, 2020 20 hours ago, Michael37 said: Working in an enjoyable outdoor environment with machines, equipment, tools, accounts, labour, and skills is for me a positive life experience. Sometimes I get a cup of tea with some cakes and biscuits from clients. This too is a PLE if they are pleasant and sociable. "What do you mean by a Positive Life Experience exactly", Nobody in Particular asks. "Well", to Nobody in Particular I reply, "a Positive Life Experience is of course the opposite of a Negative one, and I've had a few of those." "Now we are getting somewhere", Nobody in Particular exclaims, "but what is the difference between the two?" I simply answer, "A Positive Life Experience makes me happy, and a Negative Life Experience makes me unhappy." Nobody in Particular sits pensively for some time before venturing, "If something makes us happy does that make it right?" "Of course not", I respond immediately. "I'm not suggesting right and wrong are determined by the emotions of happiness and unhappiness. When I describe a Positive Life Experience it is what I determine it to be for myself. Someone else may loathe and detest all the things that contribute to my happiness, and I may loathe and detest all the things that contribute to theirs". "There is pleasure in sin for a season", Nobody in Particular says knowingly. "Ah, but there we must take care not to confuse pleasure with happiness ", I counter, "at least not with the sort of happiness I enjoy as the result of Positive Life Experiences". Nobody in Particular is silent. I feel a sort of happiness and resume my birdwatching. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 29, 2020 Share Posted August 29, 2020 Only in hindsight do you know if you are having a positive or negative life experience upon reflection. Some negative life experiences turn out to have positive results. Some positive life experiences turn out to have negative results. If you're only looking "in the moment", your viewpoint could be skewed. That's been my experience. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leah777 Posted August 29, 2020 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 0 Topic Count: 19 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 1,393 Content Per Day: 0.72 Reputation: 1,156 Days Won: 1 Joined: 01/09/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted August 29, 2020 On 8/28/2020 at 9:59 AM, Michael37 said: Working in an enjoyable outdoor environment with machines, equipment, tools, accounts, labour, and skills is for me a positive life experience. Sometimes I get a cup of tea with some cakes and biscuits from clients. This too is a PLE if they are pleasant and sociable. Are you talking about enjoyment? or are you talking about things which prove to have ultimately had a positive effect on your life? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henry_iain Posted August 29, 2020 Group: Royal Member Followers: 39 Topic Count: 34 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 24,682 Content Per Day: 5.76 Reputation: 20,411 Days Won: 161 Joined: 08/05/2012 Status: Online Birthday: 01/30/1985 Share Posted August 29, 2020 (edited) I agree with the OP a few thoughts that come to mind The blessing of the Lord makes rich and He adds no sorrow with it. Prov 10:22 (ESV) Misery doe not make a person holier. Again. Emotions are not evil. They have a purpose, but they are not guides for making decisions. And especially, negative emotions are not more trustworthy than positive ones. I am not a negatively minded person. I can find hope in the darkest situations I do not serve God for my own enjoyment but it turns out that when I do, I get enjoyment out of it anyway. Personally, I prefer moment by moment and day by day living, because I can't control the past or future. All ends courses may run ill. So I need to trust God with those. I work on principles, believing that if I make the best decisions now on Godly principles, I will be more likely to be well prepared for whatever that might lead to. And if , while on that path, I can find some happiness/joy, I cannot really see the problem. Edited August 29, 2020 by Henry_iain 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael37 Posted August 29, 2020 Group: Servant Followers: 21 Topic Count: 241 Topics Per Day: 0.11 Content Count: 6,953 Content Per Day: 3.27 Reputation: 4,871 Days Won: 2 Joined: 07/05/2018 Status: Offline Birthday: 09/23/1954 Author Share Posted August 29, 2020 8 minutes ago, leah777 said: Are you talking about enjoyment? or are you talking about things which prove to have ultimately had a positive effect on your life? Good question, leah777. Right now I am preparing material on this topic, so thanks for your input. I am talking about things that bring us enjoyment in life and exploring aspects of these things in terms of positive and negative experiences. As you will know from Scripture we are supposed to count it all joy when we face frequent tribulations, and Paul says he takes pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, persecutions, and distresses, so this we should do also. Furthermore we know from Heb 12:11 that while chastening is not enjoyable at first but is grievous and vexatious to us initially, when we see it as necessary to our discipline and training it produces peace and righteousness in us so we should not despise it but rather regard it as an expression of God's love for us. My observation is that not everyone shares the same enthusiasm for things so difficulties can arise when one subjects the other to their passion without getting positive feedback. I have an older friend who is heavily invested in talkback radio and podcasts that deal with controversial issues. I personally do not thrive on a diet of this but for the sake of our friendship I give him a listening ear when he gets fired up and rides his hobby horse about something he's been listening to. Initially I don't consider my exposure to this situation a Positive Life Experience, but since it trains me to consider other's interests and not just my own I see it as a ministry of endurance that will pay dividends later. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael37 Posted August 29, 2020 Group: Servant Followers: 21 Topic Count: 241 Topics Per Day: 0.11 Content Count: 6,953 Content Per Day: 3.27 Reputation: 4,871 Days Won: 2 Joined: 07/05/2018 Status: Offline Birthday: 09/23/1954 Author Share Posted August 29, 2020 26 minutes ago, Henry_iain said: I agree with the OP a few thoughts that come to mind The blessing of the Lord makes rich and He adds no sorrow with it. Prov 10:22 (ESV) Misery doe not make a person holier. Again. Emotions are not evil. They have a purpose, but they are not guides for making decisions. And especially, negative emotions are not more trustworthy than positive ones. I am not a negatively minded person. I can find hope in the darkest situations I do not serve God for my own enjoyment but it turns out that when I do, I get enjoyment out of it anyway. Personally, I prefer moment by moment and day by day living, because I can't control the past or future. All ends courses may run ill. So I need to trust God with those. I work on principles, believing that if I make the best decisions now on Godly principles, I will be more likely to be well prepared for whatever that might lead to. And if , while on that path, I can find some happiness/joy, I cannot really see the problem. Thanks for your comments, Henry. Yes serving God is not always enjoyable, nor is life but we take the rough with the smooth. I like what you say about working on Godly Principles in the understanding that emotions also have a purpose and a role to play. Rather than ride a rollercoaster of emotions that may be up one day and down the next I believe it is better for me to keep my eyes on Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith, and to be guided by the Holy Spirit as to how much emotion to cultivate or quell. Php 4:5-9 Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. (6) Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; (7) and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (8) Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. (9) The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael37 Posted August 29, 2020 Group: Servant Followers: 21 Topic Count: 241 Topics Per Day: 0.11 Content Count: 6,953 Content Per Day: 3.27 Reputation: 4,871 Days Won: 2 Joined: 07/05/2018 Status: Offline Birthday: 09/23/1954 Author Share Posted August 29, 2020 1 hour ago, Saved.One.by.Grace said: Only in hindsight do you know if you are having a positive or negative life experience upon reflection. Some negative life experiences turn out to have positive results. Some positive life experiences turn out to have negative results. If you're only looking "in the moment", your viewpoint could be skewed. That's been my experience. Yes, there is truth in what you say, S.O.byG. It is indeed upon reflection that we evaluate the positivity or negativity of our situation. Also circumstances change so that things we once enjoyed and sought to continue doing no longer hold an appeal for us. I recently turned down a job a long standing client insistently asked me to do because it involved dismantling and old wall and constructing a new one using blocks and mortar. As much as I would have enjoyed doing that a few years ago I know it would be too demanding on me these days. I did however find a younger contractor to help this dear old disabled lady so she was happy about that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacquelineDeane55 Posted August 30, 2020 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 3 Topic Count: 39 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 204 Content Per Day: 0.08 Reputation: 107 Days Won: 0 Joined: 06/05/2017 Status: Offline Share Posted August 30, 2020 I have some good memories that I would say are positive experiences, but everyone has had some good happen in their life. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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