they can make gambling tougher but it will be here to stay
Minnie and Mickey Mouse is the quintessential marriage that has withstood the test of time. This perfect union has inspired millions of adults with an indescribable magic, and dazzled children of all walks at America's greatest theme parks. But, rumor has it that the magic castle has crumbled! While Minnie was away at Disneyland Resort Paris, apparently Mickey was seen around town fraternizing with a variety of starlets.
Friends of the couple are sad but trying to be upbeat. Mr. Goofy was heard saying, " Garsh, I thought it would last forever, but still they were together for 78 years. Maybe they can work things out."
Now, of course the story above is purely of a satirical and fictitious nature since it is based on to beloved cartoon characters. But, that leads us to a couple of all important questions:
1. Why are people unfaithful in a relationship?
2. What exactly causes them to stray?
Well, five years ago I set out on a quest to teach people the most effective way of saving a relationship, and I have helped hundreds of people do just that! But, I have also spent the past 5 years helping people save their relationship from the pit of infidelity!
First, before we go any further, let me say that only you can decide to save or end your relationship if your partner has been unfaithful. Sometimes relationships can't and shouldn't be saved - especially when abuse and/or addiction is involved. But, it is my experience that many of them can be saved!
So, why do people stray from a relationship? Well, most people believe that the reason for being unfaithful stems from a moment of weakness concerning sexual desire. However, my experience has taught me something entirely different! In most cases, the partner that is unfaithful attempts to continue with the affair yet refuses to end their marriage or relationship. If it were merely a matter of fulfilling sexual desire, as many believe, there would be no reason to hold onto the marriage or relationship. You see, it actually has very little to do with sexual desire with the one exception being a sexual addiction. Most people stray from a relationship because a particular emotional need is not being met. Therefore, if you want to save your relationship the key is to determine what that need is and correct the situation!
The following provides a brief outline for overcoming infidelity. For additional information you may subscribe to my free E-guide below.
To save your relationship the following criteria must first be present;
1. You are willing to understand why he has strayed, and are willing to correct the problem.
2. You are willing to forgive him for his behavior.
The above criteria are based on the fact that you are the offended partner, if in fact you have strayed from the relationship then it would take your partners willingness to understand and forgive. However, it will also require your willingness to end the affair and cease your behavior.
Why did one of you stray?
In a successful relationship, two partners meet each other's emotional needs. But when these needs go unmet in the relationship, partners are tempted to go outside the relationship to satisfy them. A lack of understanding of what these emotional needs are often contributes to a couple's failure to meet them. Men try to meet needs that they value, and women do the same. You see, often in a failing relationship both partners usually act from their male and female elements respectively, and end up trying to meet the wrong needs. A man does not want a partner that acts strictly from the female element, but rather from a balance of both elements. Sure, he wants a partner that is caring, compassionate, understanding, loving, affectionate, and romantic! Sure, he wants a partner that he is physically and sexually attracted to, but more than anything else he wants a partner that makes him feel like a man! He wants a partner that walks through life with feminine grace.
However, quite frequently in a relationship crisis a women attempts to meet the needs of her partner by showering him with the needs that she values most, such as affection, caring, compassion, understanding and love. At this point in the crisis he has already begun to withdrawal, so taking this approach will only demonstrate that you can't meet his needs, and will prove to be disastrous. Furthermore, the more you continue this approach the more you will drive your partner away, hence seeking fulfillment outside the relationship. Now, I know your probably thinking, but he's the one that had the affair! He's wrong, not me! Well, there is no question that what he did was wrong, but if you want to continue to place the blame squarely on his shoulders then you may as well draw up the divorce settlement agreement, or pull the plug on the relationship right now!!!!
You see, until you are willing to look at what you did or didn't do in the relationship to meet his needs, and how to fix it, he's not going to change and neither is your relationship!!!!!!!!!! What have you done in the relationship that caused his needs to go unmet? Sometimes it does involve a lack of sexual fulfillment and intimacy, although that is generally not the main reason!
If Your Partner was Unfaithful!
If your partner has been unfaithful, he has broken the bond of your relationship and has undermined your trust in him. Certainly, this has caused you to be pelted with a torrential barrage of emotions ranging from, feelings of hurt, betrayal, and anger. You may in fact even feel that he owes you some form of compensation for what he has done, and at times feel like you want to punish him for it! These are common reactions to infidelity by the offended partner, but you will need to move beyond these feeling if you wish to save your relationship. Try and understand that the past is the past, and there is not a darn thing you can do to change it, so holding on to it will only hurt you! Think about it, is the anger and resentment you are feeling inside right now hurting him? No, of course not! It's hurting you! Yes, he was the one that had the affair! Is he wrong for doing so? Yes! But you have got to pull yourself up by the boot straps, come to the realization that he strayed from the marriage for a reason, and understand that until you're willing to fix the problem nothing in your life or relationship is going to change!
You must ascertain which emotional needs went unmet and ultimately caused him to stray from the marriage. You can do this by reviewing what patterns of self limiting beliefs have sabotaged your relationship, and which forms of family dysfunctions they have originated from. Once you have definitively uncovered the self limiting beliefs, it is then time to uncover how they have prevented you from fulfilling your partner's needs. Have they prevented you from being fully intimate, or have your fears and insecurities caused you to be jealous, suspicious, or controlling? I am sure you can read between the lines, and if you do a bit of reflection you will see that your partner has complained to you about what has gone unmet.
What if you have allowed the affair to continue?
Have you elected to stay in your relationship and permit an affair to continue for your children's sake, or because your scared and afraid? Well, you are not alone because many people often do, in an act of desperation to save their relationship. However, what you don't realize is that your lack of self esteem and self confidence is part of the underlying reason why your partner strayed from the relationship in the first place! Therefore, in essence, you are only confirming to your partner that they were justified for being unfaithful because you have proven to him that you can't meet his needs. Furthermore, by staying in such a relationship under those circumstances you have given him a license to keep you on an emotional roller coaster for years to come. Why should he choose chocolate or vanilla when he can have them both!!!!!!! You see, some of his needs are being met by his paramour, and some of his other needs are being met by you. Therefore, it's no big surprise that he wants to have both!!!
Now, I am not at all suggesting that you give him an ultimatum at this point since that would be like pouring salt in his open wound! However, what I am saying is that after you present your statement of agreement you will need to begin to send him subtle messages that will state that you don't condone his behavior and that you aren’t going to continue to tolerate it. As you manage the dynamics of the relationship, and time goes on, you will need to make the message progressively stronger. You want to arrive at a particular juncture of the choice between chocolate and vanilla, although the way to get him to choose that is by attraction, rather than force. In addition to sending him subtle messages of intolerance, you must also avoid becoming part of his behavior or enabling his affair.
The following statements provide a few examples of how to deliver the message of intolerance;
1. If your partner makes an attempt to be intimate or affectionate towards you. Simply state that you do not feel comfortable with that, and you are not going to participate while he is involved in a relationship with another partner!
2. If your partner attempts to introduce your children to his paramour. State that doing so is not in the children's best interest, and you are not going to permit them to be subjected to such behavior!
3. If you partner attempts to discuss his paramour with you. Explain that you do not feel comfortable holding a discussion with him about the person that he is continuing to have an affair with, and remove yourself from the room!
Your compensation!
Is not at all uncommon for the offended spouse to want some form of compensation for the infidelity their partner has committed, although to often this leads to a mindset of seeking punishment or revenge! You must be willing to let go of the resentment you are holding onto, and be willing to forgive your partner, or you will destroy any chance you have of saving the relationship. Your prize or compensation will be attracting your partner back on your terms, and having the relationship that you've always dreamed of!!!
If you have Been Unfaithful!
If you have been unfaithful to your partner, and have broken the bond and trust of the relationship, you will need to regain their trust and their forgiveness. Unfortunately, this is not an easy undertaking, but can be achieved when approached in the correct way. Obviously, you strayed from the relationship because some of your needs were unmet, but for the moment I would like you to put that aside! You see, when your partner first learns of your infidelity they will be experiencing a plethora of emotions, which includes the emotions of anger and resentment. They will feel that you've betrayed them, and in many cases will want to punish you, and will even expect to be compensated for your actions. Therefore, now would not be a good time to express your unhappiness in the relationship, and your needs being unmet as the direct cause of your infidelity! To do this would be the equivalent of pouring salt in their open wound. Therefore, you should do exactly the opposite, agree with them! You should draft a statement of agreement, which demonstrates your awareness of the fact that you strayed from the marriage, and it should include anything else that your partner blames you for in the relationship.
For more information on drafting a statement of agreement subscribe to my Free E-Guide "The Secret Principles to Saving a Relationship."
This will defuse much of the anger and hostility they feel towards you, although they will continue to express their desire to punish you, or to be compensated for your actions for some time. The absolute worst thing that you can do is to feed into their power play! Do not attempt to over row the relationship boat by jumping to their beckon call, as this will only prolong their efforts to punish you and will worsen the relationship crisis. After you present your statement of agreement to your partner, you should stick to happy talk, or short, pleasant, conversations that don't involve any serious talk about the relationship or the infidelity. If your partner attempts to punish you in someway, you should avoid commenting about it, and remove yourself from the situation by stepping back.
You must subtly send them a message that you are not going to allow them to punish you, and nor will you let their actions affect you. This should not be accomplished by arguing with them, or by finding fault with their actions. When your partner begins to realize that their attempts at punishing you have proven to be fruitless, in all likelihood they will cease their behavior. Once your partner has put down their guns, and has ceased the incessant behavior then and only then will you be able to move forward with saving the relationship. Continue to be pleasant and seize every opportunity to engage in short, happy conversation. However, do not make any advances at this point toward romantic endeavors. Be content to take it slowly and let your partner come to you! When he does, show some understanding and compassion for what he is feeling.
Do not defend yourself, or attempt to justify what you have done! Tell him that you agree and understand how he feels, and that you are sorry for the pain you have caused him. However, you must remain confident. Do not plead or beg for forgiveness! Remember, desperation is not attractive to anyone.
Ok, you've got him gravitating back to you, so now what? Well, if you're looking for you partner to come to you and ask how he could fulfill your needs, it is unlikely that will happen! Let me say that this is going to take some patience on your part, and for now you should be content with allowing your partner to dictate the speed at which the relationship progresses. Be patient, and just be your happy, confident self!
In the mean time, let's get started on the real work that is going to transform the relationship! The end goal is to get your partner to change so that he can meet your needs, right! But that it's probably not going to happen by you telling him to! Yes, he has contributed to your failing relationship and your infidelity, but the bigger question is how have you contributed to it? What have you done that caused him to withdrawal and not meet your emotional needs? You see, the way to get him to change is by changing your side of the equation. As a matter of fact it's the only way!
For more details on drafting a statement of agreement or how to save a relationship subscribe to my Free E-Guide and weekly E-Zine.
Best wishes,
David Roppo
Most professing Christians believe the rapture will save them. They believe they will be lifted off the earth before the time of tribulation spoken of by Jesus. They believe what they've been taught by their Pastor, Minister, or Priest without really looking at what the Bible teaches on the subject.
There are three basic beliefs about when the rapture will happen. They all relate to the tribulation of these end times, which most Christians agree will last for seven years. During the tribulation time, the Antichrist will be revealed and the Mark of the Beast will be set up. Also, during that time - or at least during part of that time - God will pour out his wrath on the earth. The question is: Where will the Church be? Will the rapture take us out of it; or will we be here on earth through it? The Pre-tribulation belief hold that the rapture will take place before the tribulation; that the church will be with the Lord for those seven years, and will return with him when it's over. The Mid-tribulation belief is that the rapture will take place in the middle of the seven years of tribulation; that the church will be with the Lord for the last 3 1/2 years, and will then return with him. The Post-tribulation belief is that the rapture will take place at the end of the tribulation when the church will be lifted to the Lord, and will then return with him. They believe the rapture and the return of the Lord are one event; not two separate events. A close reading of the Bible, and a look at the history of church teaching, will show that the rapture will take place at the end of the tribulation; and that the church will be on earth through those last seven years.
Most professing Christians today hold to a Pre-tribulation belief. However, the early church believed in a Post-tribulation rapture; and held that belief for some 1800 years! For example, Ireneaus and Hippolytus, 2nd and 3rd generation disciples of John the Revelator wrote of the rise of the Antichrist and the coming of the Lord from a Post-tribulation point-of-view. They both taught that the Antichrist will reign on earth and persecure the church right up to the return of the Lord at the end. Ireneaus (130-202 AD) was a disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of John the Revelator. In those days, disciples were taught personally, primarily by word of mouth. Polycarp sat at the feet of John; and Ireneaus sat at the feet of Polycarp. Certainly, they would have gotten their facts straight!
Anyone really interested in the truth will find out that there is no mention whatsoever of a Pre-tribulation rapture in any church teaching, writing, or commentary until the early 1800s. Before that time, Christians had always believed in a single coming of the Lord. They believed the rapture will take place "immediately after the tribulation" spoken of by Jesus in Matthew 24: at the glorious return of the Lord when he will send his angels to gather his elect (Matt. 24:29-31).
The Pre-tribulation theory began in 1812 when a Jesuit priest from Chile, South America, writing under the pen-name of Rabbi J.J. Ben-Ezra wrote a book called "The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty." In the book, Ben-Ezra claimed that all of the church leaders and teachers for over 1800 years were wrong; and that his new ideas were right. He claimed that the entire church, up to that time, had been "convicted of error."
The book was translated from Spanish into English by a Scottish preacher named Edward Irving; and was published in London in 1827. After the book was published, Irving began to teach that Christ would first come for his church in a secret rapture; then, after seven years of tribulation, he would return with them to destroy the Antichrist and reign on earth.
At about the same time, John N. Darby and a Christian religious movement called "The Plymouth Brethren" that began in Ireland and England started to toy with the idea of a Pre-tribulation rapture. The subject was discussed by the movement at great length at annual prophecy conferences that began in about 1831.
In April of 1830, a 15 year-old Scottish girl named Margaret MacDonald claimed to have received a "new revelation" from several hours of prophecy and visions. Some say she is really the first person to teach a Pre-tribulation rapture. However, if you read her "new-revelation" just as she wrote it, there is no mention whatsoever of anything like a Pre-tribulation rapture. Edward Irving and John Darby visited Margaret MacDonald in the early 1800s; and although it's impossible to know what influence they may have had on each other, it is incredulous to think they were not mutually influenced in some way.
Now, to the Bible itself. There are a number of examples of the truth of the Post-tribulation rapture in the Bible; but for the sake of space, we will only consider three of them here.
First, Paul speaks of what we call the rapture in two places: I Thessalonians 4 and I Corinthians 15. In I Thessalonians 4:16-17, he says we will be lifted to the Lord; and in I Corinthians 15:52, he says it will take place at the sound of "the last trump." Think about it! The last trump can't sound at the beginning of something, or in the middle. It is not a Pre or a Mid-tribulation sound. It happens LAST: at the end. It is a Post-tribulation trumpet sound. In the Book of Revelation, there are seven trumpets that sound. The 7th is the last trumpet; and according to Revelation 11:15, that's when "the kingdoms of this world ARE BECOME the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever."
Second, even a brief reading of Matthew 24 and Luke 13, where Jesus tells about the end times, will show that there is no mention of anything like a rapture until "immediately after the tribulation" (Matt. 24:29-31 & Mark 13:24-27). Surely, if Jesus knew of a Pre-tribulation or a Mid-tribulation rapture, he would have included it in his teaching. But, it's just not there!
Third, let's look at what the Bible says about where the church will be during the tribulation. The Bible teaches that the Antichrist will come to power somewhere during the time of tribulation. And, as we will see, it also teaches that the church will be persecuted by the Antichrist after he comes to power. That can only happen if the church is on earth at the same time as he is.
In the New Testament, the "saints" are mentioned over 50 times; and in every instance, the word is used to refer to the church: the followers of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, the prophet Daniel makes it clear that the Antichrist will persecute those same people: the "saints," the church on earth. Symbolically speaking of the Antichrist as a "horn," a person of power, Daniel says, "the same horn made war with the saints" (Dan. 7:21). In the same chapter, he also says that the Antichrist "shall wear out the saints of the most High" (Dan. 7:25). And, the New Testament confirms the words of Daniel. In the Book of Revelation, John says that "power was given to him (the Antichrist) to make war with the saints" (Rev. 13:5 & 7). Daniel and John lived many years apart, yet they agree in their prophecies that the "saints," the followers of Jesus Christ, will be on earth when the Antichrist is here.
We are headed for some very difficult times in this country and around the world. It will not do for Christians to put their heads in the sand and believe that a secret rapture will save them! It is important that we "watch" just as Jesus said we must (Matt. 24:42); and it is important that we, as the Army of God, "occupy till he comes" (Luke 19:13). Let's put our faith in Jesus to save us! Let's not believe in a rapture that won't come until it's over.
"Will the Rapture Save Us?" (An article by James C. Taylor) Copyright (c)2009 by End Time Overcomers. All Rights Reserved.
For more information; and for more literature on this subject and others, please visit http://www.endtimeovercomers.com.
Most bibles have a concordance at the very back of the book. Look up the word antichrist and see how many scriptures you find. If you haven’t looked yet would you be surprised to know there are only four verses in the whole entire Bible that mention the antichrist? Well my friends there will be not be one man singled out as the Antichrist, nor one woman. Sorry to burst your bubble but it’s not one man like Ronald Reagan, or President Bush or even the Catholic Pope like some speculate however there are several antichrists. They were around in the first century and they are still here today and will continue to be here until Christ comes back for the second time.
Without even consulting the Bible we can break down word meanings to know what and who the antichrist is. This is the simple I was talking about in the opening paragraph. We all know who Christ is but the two words together “anti” and then “Christ” has thrown people off. What does the word actually mean? According to Webster’s this word anti means opposite in kind, position or action. Opposing or hostile toward. Defending against. This word “anti” has no different meaning then if you were using it with “anti-war” or “anti-abortion. So to be anti-abortion means to be against abortion. I think you understand now where I am going with this. This being so simple I am sure you are wondering why this hasn’t been explained this way before. It actually has been explained this way before but it is not the popular viewpoint. Usually it’s the things or concepts right in front of the face that we have the hardest time with. To find out what the Bible says about the antichrist please see, I John 1:7; I John 2:18; 22; I John 4:1-6.
Are you starting to get the picture here? The antichrist is just someone who opposed Christ. He or she did not acknowledge that Christ came in the flesh. There is not one antichrist there are many. These antichrists deny the father and the son. So plain and so simple. The antichrist is just someone who is “against” or “anti” Christ.
The books of I and II John is the apostle John were written sometime before his exile to the Isle of Patmos where he wrote the book of Revelation. John is known as and called the apostle of love because his writings always stress the importance of loving one another. John was an elder (i.e. bishop, pastor, shepherd) of the church in Ephesus. He was writing to second and third generation Christians who began to have doubts about Jesus. They wondered whether Jesus was really divine and the son of God. The new Christians did not have the chance to meet Jesus, to spend time with him, to know him, and also to see that he was real, in the flesh. John was an eyewitness of Christ and was able to help them because of this.
The antichrist’s had already been in the church and were former Christians. Rather they claimed to be Christians to their face but when they weren’t around their true colors revealed who they really were. On the outside they looked and talked the part. It could be easy to deceive some of the new converts. False prophets are popular with the world because they tell people what they want to hear, it was no different in the first century. He is warning them of the last hour. Please note that this in no way infers to the second coming, instead up until the second coming. Christians today are in the last hour along with them. However their problems were their own, even though they still exist today. John’s letters was to assure them that their faith in God is real and that it was real. He was giving them a warning of what to watch for and be careful of the teachings. He told them if they didn’t bring the teachings of God, they were not to receive them into their homes. According to the verses that mention the antichrist heres a recap of what they mean.
-John reminds them the antichrist is coming and many were already there among them.
-They were a part of the group, Christians who left the faith.
-Anyone who denied the Father and the Son were considered the antichrist.
-There just wasn’t one antichrist there were many.
-The world listened to the false prophets and antichrist because they told people what they wanted to hear.
-They do not speak the truth; they are liars, deceived and led many astray.
-Antichrists are false prophets coming in the name of the Lord, but actually never confessing Christ.
-Antichrists will not confess that Jesus is from God.
-The antichrists do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.
-The Christians knew who to believe because the real disciples or Christians would listen to John.
So who is the antichrist? When you sum up all of this you can come to the conclusion that the antichrist is simply anyone who opposes Christ. He who is not with me is against me. Matthew 12:30. Do you know anyone who opposes Christ? Anyone who goes too far in the teaching of God's word does not have God. II John 1:9. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. It may be your neighbor, friends, family or maybe even within your own household. It definitely will be not one man that will be singled out and defeated in the battle of Armageddon. It is plain and simple; he who is not with him is against him.
Fantasy and speculation will surely go away when the truth is revealed. If you want to get the word out about the truth I encourage you to do so. I hope that you are beginning to see the picture and the new light has been shed. Would you like to buy some tickets for the battle and see him get his butt kicked? This title fight would bring in a mint however there will be no antichrst defeated in an end time battle of armageddon.
Falsehood is so easy; truth so difficult… George Eliot
Joseph Ho, 15th March, 2009
When people became truly baptized in the Holy Spirit, they will experience a strange feeling, something has entered them spiritually. This is not an occult possession of our soul. It is a real tangible sensation; something different has happened to the person who gets baptized in the Spirit. Some will feel an overcoming, or encompassing warm within their bodies, some will feel a rush of peace throughout their soul, and others yet will feel a lifting or release of pressure on their heads and chests, whatever that is, it’s real.
The bible says whoever wants to have the baptism of the Holy Spirit should ask from God boldly and not be fearful that he will receive a bogus spirit since a good father will give the son or daughter whatever they asked, and the gift of the Holy Comforter is what Jesus himself promised all believers in God. The prayer when addressed to Jesus will never be intercepted by the Devil or any other entity since they can not answer your spirit-mail when they are not the recipient of the message because they are not called by the name Jesus. This is the assurance that when we call upon the name of Jesus, He will hear us. Without this assurance, no one can be certain he will get any salvation at all, and God is not a God of confusion. So God has to make a sure way to reach him without undue uncertainty. When God said something, you can believe it, He is the end of all uncertainty on earth as it is in heaven. His word is Supreme and powerful.
Luke 11:9-11,
“9"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 11"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[a] a fish, will give him a snake instead?”
The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our salvation in Christ, since father God is seeking those who walk in Spirit and in Truth. Remember, we are never to bow down to any entity except the Lord our God, for whoever we worship or bow our knees that we will become subject to.
Ephesians 1:13-14,
“13And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.”
John 4:23-24,
“23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."”
But, whatever it is in life that we do, it is wise to seek authentication and confirmation. Since we are receiving something which we have never seen or experience before, we should watch the fruit of the indwelling. Then again, we can never be possessed by the devil if we have never invited him to be in us; that simply can not happen.
1 John 2:26-27,
“26I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.”
Once you received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the eyes of your understanding will be opened and you will start to see contradiction in human programs and institutions. Your inner man will begin to see the errors of human ways and you will begin to understand that these people are really teaching you the wrong things. One of the things which kept sincere Christians from growing rapidly in Christ is a rule that has been put in place to keep you in bondage and in servitude to their human need of control and manipulation. This Control statement is called “Church Hopping”.
Is Church Hopping an evil thing?
Church hopping is a terminology frequently used to prevent sheep from seeking better living water. The term Church hopping defines an irate sheep moving from one church to another in search of greener pastures. Now, am I deliberately introducing heresy into the church settings or am I enlightening you all to the problem which causes stagnation of Christians growth who are not led by the Spirit of God but being led by men. Jesus said, in my father’s house there are many mansions. What he meant was that in the Kingdom of God there are many parts of his empire or dominion, each place has its own special gifting and anointing. Just like in any country, there are many offices and departments which specialize and do different things in different ways. As an example, in any country or kingdom of the earth, there will be different ministries in charge of different tasks, like Ministry of defense, Ministry of foreign affairs, Ministry of Law, Ministry of Home Affairs, etc, each fulfilling their special task but all serving one nation.
Similarly, the Kingdom of God consists of different churches which specializes in different spiritual tasks and were all established by God for a purpose. Most pastors who preached that Christians should not Church Hop are committing a serious sin by not allowing the sheep to seek what they need from God. Can one church provide all the essential spiritual food that God has to give to all of us? The answer is No. Since, we all are looking at God through a tinted glass; we do not perceive God in all his holiness. That is the reason why we have so many denominations each moving in a partial knowledge of God. Some don’t believe in prophecy because the Pastors do not know how to control prophetic ministers, they fear loosing their sheep to irate preachers. Some don’t preach healing since they can not move in the healing anointing, so they don’t want to be responsible for heresy. Some churches don’t believe in moving in the Spirit because the Pastors can not speak in tongues, so they choose not to move in the charismata gifts of the Spirit. Therefore, they have deliberately supported their theology by reading only certain verses that contradict the gift of the Holy Spirit. In so doing, they have made God to be lifeless and a routine rut of praying and reading dead scriptures. The bible says that these churches have a form of godliness but denying the power of God.
But can you blame them, when Pastors can not move in the supernatural and under peer pressure they have to go with the natural, so they have to tell people why they don’t move in the Spirit. Therefore, they limited God’s power by their own abilities and knowledge; this is the main reason why churches only do what their Pastors can do. This is the yeast of the moving in head knowledge and human flesh. Such people will pile themselves with more degrees and doctorates as the authority for which they will make many doctrines, they did not learn from God but from man made theology. If Jesus chose 12 disciples with no formal education or training, how is it that we need such things to be confident about the Gospel? Because Jesus is able to train his chosen ones the truth about the kingdom of God and He is alive and still training Apostle, Prophets, Evangelist and Shepherds (Pastors and Teachers).
When human refuse to undergo the revelation of the knowledge of Christ through God ordained training in Life’s School of the Pits, they will conform to this kind of structured training by human ways. It is this kind of knowledge that puffs up and thereby birthing 33,820 denominations, each with its own partial truths, set in concrete unable to receive the New Wine of the Holy Spirit.
I tell you the truth, when I was baptized in the Spirit, I was lead to visit many different churches and yes, I Church Hopped from one Methodist, to the Anglican, to the Presbyterian, to the Charismatic, to the Prophetic, then the Apostolic, to the Catholic church and finally to a united New Wine Skin which God himself has shown me. Because I Church Hopped, I began to receive the anointing from various churches and I grew at a much faster rate than a normal sheep. Then, the Lord opened my eyes and I began to see how God moved in all these churches.
But there can not be a church with all these functions under one roof, because the overseeing Pastors have strong vested interests in keeping the church under his personal directives. Most men have an innate ego to build their own personal empire and they don’t like to share this with anyone; including God. All they want is for God to bless them in whatever they do and not do what God wants them to do. They want the Shepherd to be their servant, to serve their every wish and to bless their every works but they want to place the responsibility in Jesus’ name not their own name. This is why the church can not move in a higher realm of power, since they don’t have the complete fourfold ministry in one place (read my prior articles about this four fold ministry).
Each time I would spend about 6-12 months in a certain church until I received the anointing which God wants to give to me. The Charismata gifts were received from various churches which I attended, as each was given certain gifts from the Holy Spirit. The bible is the absolute truth provider of this various administration in His Kingdom and God wants you to know this, so that you can grow in the knowledge of who he is. So you are to move and travel along the path which the Israelites have done before they can enter the Promised Land. They need to move from one place to another to learn a different truth from God. The Christian faith is a journey from one spiritual state to another and the Holy Spirit is the guide sent by Jesus to help us in our journey to the Promised Land.
If your Pastor keeps feeding you only hamburger, sooner or later you will not like that food since they will only nourish you in a certain way, but you are to eat all kinds of food like lobster and French cuisine, in order to enjoy eating and be fully nourished. Staying in one church for too long will produce a one-sided fruit in our Spirit. We are to mature in Christ, and we are to seek God and not some Social Club in any Church setting, enslaving all Christians to a limited view of God by making sure they will not move to another church to learn a new truth. Pastors put bondages on their sheep by creating a heresy and preventing them from moving to another place through lies and guilt.
They painted a picture of guilt to all Church Hoppers to keep them loyal to their tithes and offerings, fearing that they will be influenced and will not support the church in their needs, the fear of loosing sheep. In any case, these sheep belongs to God not men, not any church. This is a wicked bondage again, where the Holy Spirit is present, there is liberty. Why fear? These people are in the house of the Lord, they are only in a different room, so why would Pastors need to fear when sheep visit different parts of the Kingdom of God? It makes no sense. The Holy Spirit can not contradict himself. In any case, the Holy Spirit is the true teacher, since no man must think that they are the ones who produce the spiritual food which are inspired by God anyways. God did not put all the spiritual gifts in one church; he spreads them all over his Kingdom. That is why we have to go and visit his Kingdom of Churches and to do that we need to Church Hop.
1 Corinthians 12
Different Administrations and Spiritual Gifts
“1Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. 2You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.
4There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. 7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues[d]? Do all interpret? 31But eagerly desire[e] the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.”
I conclude that in order for us to truly experience the complete kingdom of God, we have to accept that all churches have only a small part to play; they don’t have the full truth. When you need a word of wisdom to overcome your crisis, please go to a prophetic church and you shall have your answer, and if you need to learn the solid word of God go to the Presbyterian church and if you want to be sent by God, go to an Apostolic Church and when you need healing go to a Charismatic church that exercises praying for healing. But in the course of your Christian walk it will be a mistake if you stay in one place too long, you will miss out on the entire spectrum of experiences which God wants you to know unless you Church Hop. So please hop around as much as you want, and go to see the various administration and various gifts of the Kingdom of God and let no Pastors teach you that by doing so it’s disobedience to God. They preach heresy and prevent the sheep from getting the true wisdom led by the Holy Spirit of God. And to think that they are the only right church shows how arrogant these people are. And please also read other books of testimony by other Christians as this is also the work of the Holy Spirit, I encourage you all to try different anointed spiritual food as our God is a God of variety.
I on the other hand chose to walk by the Holy Spirit and be led by Him to go wherever I was being led and in so doing, I gained wisdom at a much faster rate than an ordinary man who only worship, married and died in one church. That’s not loyalty, that’s a frog in a well analogy of your knowledge of the Kingdom of God. Should you all want to find out more of the deeper truth, you can visit me at my website or email me with your inquiries. God bless those who can receive the New Wine, the truth that sets us free in Christ Jesus.
In this day and time when someone asks me What do you do for a living? or asks you Where do you work? My answer was always I stay at home with my kids. I would always think badly of myself just by the responses that I would get. Or the dreaded oh. I always felt ashamed of being a stay at home mom. I felt that others thought of me as a lazy person and lazy I was not.
That feeling stayed with me for a long time. Then I started thinking about if I was working outside of the home look at all the things in my childrens lives that I would have missed. Someone else would have got to share these things with my children. I thought there is no way that I would want some else to share anything special such as their first words, steps, or to see their first tooth coming through.
I wanted to be the one to see all these special things in my childrens lives. I decided that staying at home with my children was the right step for me and my children. If someone didnt like it well that was not their chose for me to stay at home or to go to work. I can never replace my childs first words, first crawl across the floor, or their first steps. Once they do that milestone its gone forever.
It becomes just a memory, and it can only be a memory if you get to see that first. There are so many more things that moms would miss out on with their children if they chose to work outside their home. Its all these things that inspire me to stay at home with my children. No job could pay me any amount of money to equal how it makes me feel inside seeing each one of my children reaching each and every milestone as they are growing up.
A job can be replaced but being a mother can not once you choose to work outside the home and you do miss out on something special it can never be replaced with that child. Most moms that work outside the home are not promised that their job will be there waiting on them from day to day. Being a childs mother is a job that will never be taken away. It will always be there no matter what.
I never want to feel regret for staying home with my children and I will never let any one else make me feel bad for staying home with my kids. Its your life and weather you decide to stay home or work outside the home it is your decision and no one else can make it for you but you. . No one should make a stay at home parent feel bad for choosing to stay at home and be with their kids, nor should anyone make a parent working outside the home feel bad either. I feel that each parents has the right to do as they choose with their own life. When someone asks me now What do you do for a living? I proudly hold my head up high and say I am a Work at Home mom and I love it. I still get the occasional oh, but its okay, I am happy with what I am doing and that is all that matters.
All weddings are handles with a personal touch by the couples as they plan it. There are many ideas that have been exploited to come up with the most unique and tailored fitting wedding. Themed weddings are more than just a craze, nowadays, it have leveled up to become a norm. Guests are actually on the hunt for something different in each wedding they go to. It is quite hard to scrounge up originality unless it came from the couple themselves. Now there's an idea, being original can take form in one segment of the rites. Though, everything remains to be traditional it will standout as the most original things in the whole celebration, not to mention it will be unforgettable.
The saying of vows should be the highlight of the whole wedding ceremony. This is when two hearts profess their adoration for one another. Usually, this seems to be the least paid attention on by the celebrators. They often let the usual rites of saying I do's take over. But, not to fret because with the right preparation personal vows can be arranged.
The easiest way to bend the rules is to consult the proper authorities how to work around them. Pastors, priests or any officiating authority that will hold the ceremony are the best consult for this. They will probably give you some reminders on the dos and don'ts of making a proper wedding vows. Asking to help set up limitations for the vows will give a more structured guidelines for the couples. It will make it easier to compose.
Picking the right words are not as easy as it may seem. They can be excruciating to the brain. Having to actually say out loud what can only be felt is tremendous work. But, it will be painless if they come straight for the heart. People who are in love don't think, they just feel. This will give a venue for a more reflective appreciation of how each of the lovebirds, so to speak, really feel for each other.
Vows are not meant to impress the guest. This line of thinking will only create a writer's block problem in writing wedding vows. Keeping it real and close to the heart is the key. Short, simple and sincere, those three S's will come in handy. Affirmations like I do, I swear, I promise are essential to oath taking. Vows are chiefly like that in principle. A sort of contract signing between hearts, that's why saying those words are imperative.
After composing the vow it will be well advised to solicit the presiding minister or priest about those vows. They can shed a lot of insights to it. Plus, this will be the best time to consult them it you have gone over the boundaries of what a proper wedding vow should be. Then, if everything is favorable it is time to make the vow final.
Practicing is the best way to get rid of the butterflies in the stomach. That feeling of nervousness might make you vomit or faint during the actual ceremony. Not everyone has the ability to speak publicly, which it why practicing the vows can make it less unfamiliar. It will be the best time to adjust the tone of the voice and manner of speaking are good points to rehearse. Use a full view mirror, it will help for the awkwardness to go away. It will be very good to memorize the vows. This way it will not look like it's scripted. This can make it more touching and romantic for the audience, your guests. Keeping the vow in secret is a good idea. It will be the first time everyone has heard it, that means there is a big chance of a more dramatic effect.
On the day of the "performance" it will be good to shake off all negative thoughts before marching down the isle. If the need to vomit arises better do it before the wedding takes place than during. It won't be good for the wedding picture.
Let's look at one of the instances in the Gospel where Jesus says this. This misinterpretation gets on my nerves when I hear people teach and believe this passage to mean they don't have to do anything, and "faith the size of a mustard seed" is used to justify doing little or nothing, rather than provoking tenacity of faith to see the things of God.
Here we go:
And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, said, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him." And Jesus answered, "O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me." And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:14-20 ESV
I'm not going to teach it here, but this passage even shows it was Jesus will to heal when his followers were unable to produce the healing, even though seven chapters earlier he granted them authority to do it themselves, and they did.
Notice how in this passage, Jesus tells them it's BECAUSE of their little faith that they were unable to heal the boy. This translation accurately avoids translating it "faith as small" as a mustard seed. You may be saying, "Steve, isn't that just your preference of translation? You can't say yours is the right one just because it translates something to prove your point."
You would be right if you said that. However, the context shows it can't be talking about the 'size' of your faith, since he just rebuked his disciples for not having big enough faith. Jesus was not schizophrenic.
So where do we come up with this misinterpretation, and how did it become such a cliche we use often in Christian circles? I really don't know. But now let me ask you something, if all it took was a tiny mustard sized seed to move mountains, then how come there is still lots the Church is unable to see take place in the way of miracles and logic-defying deeds? If all it took was a mustard seed, then I'd hate to be the devil when a Christian has more than a mustard seed of faith!
Ah, now that is a good segue into what I would like to submit to you for your consideration as to what Jesus means when he teaches this.
Right now as I type this, My E-Sword program has open five times in the NT where the mustard seed is listed, each instance is in the Gospels. Luke 17:6 is almost identical to the passage we just used, but is in a different context. The other three instances it comes up in a different parable--the parable about the kingdom of heaven. Matt 13:31 is almost identical to its counterparts in the other gospels:
"It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade." Mark 4:31-32
He said therefore, "What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches." Luke 13:18-19 (Emphasis mine both citations)
This passage gets confused in peoples' minds with the teaching of Jesus concerning speaking to the mountain, and therefore the teachings get mixed together and you come up with this idea it's ok to have little faith, but in context that's clearly NOT what Jesus taught his disciples. Could it be, based on this explanation as to what a mustard seed is and what it does, that we can glean from this parable, which uses the same illustration, and learn something that can change our understanding of the other passage?
Sure, why not? Our faith is to be like a mustard seed. What is a mustard seed like? Though it starts off like a seed, it grows and our faith is to be like that seed that has grown and becomes larger than all the other plants in our garden. Larger than our 'TV watching plant', larger than our 'worldly mindset plant', larger than our other 'plants'. In fact, it is to become so big, that everything else in our lives is dependent on it, like birds in the air able to make nests in its shade. If anything, our faith is to be like a solid tall tree, not a tiny seed. Seed is a good way to start off, but you don't leave a seed like that, you sow it. Ask any farmer if he wants just seed, or if he wants to sow that seed and reap more of the same and grow some other things.
Like any seed, it needs watering and feeding, as well as the right conditions for growth. It's all up to each of us how fast, and how much that seed grows into that large plant. Some, would you not say, clearly walk in more faith than others? They didn't get that way overnight, trust me. But if you and I would do the things it takes to water our faith seed, with the Word, with prayer, with meditating on the things above and not on hours and hours of TV or internet surfing.
Well that's the end of my thoughts. I better stop here now that you're upset I'm meddling with you.
Blessings and fire on your head.
Steve has been a missionary to Europe for over 2 years, and currently lives in Canada while preparing to move to Peru in early 2009. He is a contributing author on the Fire On Your Head Blog, which can be viewed at www.fireonyourhead.org and also co-hosts a bi-weekly podcast with another missionary, Fire On Your Head- The Podcast, at www.fireonyourhead.com Both sites dwell richly in Pentecostal/Charismatic themes within Christianity.
Have you ever asked yourself question like; why was I not audacious like my friend, why do I almost lose my breath at a sight that seems uncomfortable, why do I find it very difficult to talk to the opposite sex confidently? These and many other questions are still hanging in the hearts of many youths and singles today, and were yet to be answered. We live in a world full of people living with timidity and introversion without any sign of concern or probably the solutions to this tends not to surface through an attempt made to get rid of it. This aspect of life has no respect for age, race, profession or achievement; it plagues almost anybody that gives it the opportunity to do so. This is the phenomenon called Shyness.
I believe that there is hope for the youth and singles, reason being that there is still time to deal with the issue of shyness now before they get old of which at that stage in life, it would be extremely difficult to change or adapt to any habit or norms. I am not saying that there is no hope for the oldies, all I am saying in a nutshell is that it easier to correct an habit when an individual is still young than when he is old.
Okay, what is shyness anyway?
It is act of being uncomfortable, reserved, and diffident, in the company of others. I remembered during my secondary school days, I use to be a victim of a very high level of shyness. I do not speak with the girls in my class. Therefore, I do everything possible to avoid them, because confronting them meant trouble for me, so I decided to stay off them, but this is just for a short while. After some time I began commanding attraction from them (unwillingly and unknown to me) and finally, what I have been trying to avoid came up to me face to face! It was hell for me when a girl in my class walked up to me and started discussing some stuff. I felt very scratchy, my BP (blood pressure) rises very fast, my heartbeats increased rapidly. I was controlling my hands and legs because they were shaking and finally, my body was covered with sweat, all these happened in few seconds.
Thereafter, I began to wonder why I was not myself at that point, I began to speculate why I could not put my body tension under control, I later realize that it is the sentiment that we all refer to as “shyness”. Shyness is not necessarily bad, because it is a normal feeling, but there are actually negative things that could be caused by shyness. If a person is shy then he or she can miss many opportunities that may have contributed to that person’s success.
So, what are the causes of shyness and how can we deal with them, is there any way out or do
we have to accept it as our fate and live with it forever until we enter six feet below; is there no hope for those us that wish to break off?. Well, I am happy to say that there is good news, because I am a product of this transformation, so I know what it takes to be in the confine of shyness and finally be set free.
We shall be looking at some of the causes of shyness and the way out.
CAUSES OF SHYNESS
1.Sometime Hereditary: Some research has shown that shyness runs in families. That explains the reason why some youth and singles find themselves in the claws of shyness for an inexplicable reason(s). Before you start looking outside, take a close look at your mum and dad and see if there are any traces of shyness. Despite the fact that it is sometimes hereditary does not indicate that it could not be handle, it depends on the individual’s willingness to let go.
2. Exposure to new situations: Now, this is very practical. So many youth and singles had not been exposed to some certain atmosphere or situation and they tend to express shyness when confronted with such. I remembered the first time I told a female friend of mine that she looks beautiful, see looks surprised, dazed and uncomfortable, for whatever reasons that may have seems, to me all those gestures were shyness in expression. Do you still remember the experience I cited earlier with the girl in my class? These entire events are quite new to some of us and may take some time to acclimatize into our system.
One situation that usually brings out the shyness among youths and singles is during dates (going out wit h a friend) with the opposite sex. Dates are usually spontaneous and vague; you may never know what will happen next so you tend to be shy. You try to impress your date but at the same time, you feel shy and nervous. The feeling of shyness is most common during first dates. Additionally, being introduced to a person for the first time can also bring out the shyness in you. Because individuals do not know anything about the person, they are being introduced to or because they are unfamiliar with them, they tend to be shy.
Moreover, being complimented with the way you look, speaks, act, or for your work can also bring about shyness. Some youths become self-conscious and shy when they are given compliments. I personally notice this in females; oh, females could be so consternated after an unexpected compliment. Recently I was walking within our compound and saw a lady from another domicile; I noticed her beauty and so decided to give her a compliment with the word
“you look beautiful”. She exclaimed “Ah” (because she was not expecting it and therefore could not imagine herself being appreciated that much) eventually, she manage to say, “thank you” after a while. That was a good example of shyness borne out of an unexpected remark or compliment.
3. Low self-esteem: This is one of the severe causes of shyness; this particular factor is so rampant that it has almost plagued everyone at a point in time. A person with a low self-esteem mindset will not regard himself relevant to the society, he feels he is a minus instead of being a plus to the social order, and therefore fail to see his relevance and usefulness to his community. I remember in my secondary school days, we used to have some students in the class, all they do is to agree to whatever have been discussed without contributing to any of the exercise, they always believe that their opinion is useless and invalid, probably they were intimidate by the presence of those they consider to the “lucky students”.
Moreover, an individual who think they have nothing to say or who does not believe they are worth interacting with will not likely be bold enough to come forth, on the contrary, they will draw back from such instances, anticipating rejection. Individual with this state of mind are not far from the care of shyness, because they always look at others being better off than they are, so they decided to continue in this state and often expresses shyness to the highness level.
4. Broken Families: This is also another major cause of shyness. A youth or an individual with a parental predicament can sometimes be a victim of shyness. Broken relationship often affects them in the sense that they live their lives with the guilt of the incident and tends to maintain it in their mental faculty, and this memory, which seems latent, emerges when they see individuals with a blissful family life.
EFFECT OF SHYNESS
Definitely, nothing comes without its effect(s). Therefore, the same goes with shyness, here are some of the effects of shyness.
1. Difficulties making friends: Individual that exhibit shyness often finds it extremely difficult to makes friends, because the act of making friends is about coming out of one’s comfort zone to meet with people of different background, mentality, culture and values, it therefore requires self-expression, which is very difficult for a shy person to display.
2. Lack of Expression: You hardly can communicate with a shy person; neither will you understand them, because they barely express their emotions. Humans are emotional being and this aspect of our lives is what makes our values, principles, ideology, mentality and personality known to others, in others words, if your values are not known they stand the chances of being abused.
3. Low self-esteem: We mentioned earlier that low self-esteem is one of the causes of shyness, but that is just a part of it, it also manifest as an effect of shyness. You will notice that when an individual possesses the act of shyness they always exhibit low esteem alongside with it. The reason being that they felt so discouraged, unworthy of their presence, values and contribution, therefore creating a boundary of low self-esteem around themselves. This also makes accessing them a very difficult task.
OVERCOMING SHYNESS
After we had discovered the causes of shyness and its effects, we can go to explore the ways by which this can be handled and managed, here is a few guiding principle that will do.
1. Building self-confidence: This is the first step to take when attempting to overcome shyness. This step is very helpful, reason being that the act of shyness is a mental exercise; this indicates that it evolves from the mind, therefore, to have an effective triumph over shyness; you have to start developing a positive view of yourself. One of the ways to do this is to value and appreciate yourself and do not view yourself as irrelevant, but as important as others. One of the things I do personally to boost my self confidence is to take pictures with my phone, additionally, I use words of motivation for myself, such as “I am looking terrific (exceptionally good)” this is one of the effective and simple ways to boosting your self confidence.
2. Create an impression: Act the way you want to be and feel. Try this exercise in your privacy and most importantly in of your mental visualization. I remembered during my secondary school days, I used to be very shy because I do not have a self worth. Therefore, whenever I decided to answer a question in class I have to start with the clause “just want to try”, this I say because of my low self esteem and it serve as a hiding place for me in case I botched the question, but you know what, it almost turn that I am right all the time. This also explains the reason why I use the clause when I am answering a question even though I know it, because it’s almost becoming part of me. Create a great impression for yourself and you will discover that you are changing in no time.
3. Realize that you are unique: One of easiest way of overcoming shyness is to realize that you are unique. You have to know that you have something to offer the other person either to improve their lives or create a solution in a situation. You also need to realize that you are one of a kind, nobody is like you and no one else can do what only you can do. There is a unique potential inside of you, which is exclusively for you and can only be utilize by you and no one else. In addition, when you have a thought or idea that deserves to be heard, you are not only hurting yourself by keeping quiet, you are hurting the people around you.
Think about this; think of a football player that has an open shot that he can make, and he decides to pass instead, that player is being selfish and hurting the team. When you pass up the chance to excel because of shyness or the fear of failure, you are hurting the group to shelter yourself and this is very unhelpful. You have to understand that other people need you. They need your intelligence and insight. They need your help to work through problems. By hiding behind shyness, you limit the help you can give to your friends, family members, and colleagues.
4. Be involved in social works: Here is another way that can help overcoming shyness. Be engaged in a socials gathering, this gives you the opportunity to meet with various categories of people and serves as a vital tool to dispel the spirit of shyness. Meeting different individuals in a gathering boost your self worth and make you feel the same level of importance with others. If you do not have the confidence to approach someone new then, smile and try to be approachable. Most people are receptive to a smile and a friendly face. Overcoming shyness can start with something as simple as a smile! Give this a trial and see its great effect and impacts on you life. You will greatly be surprised at the rate you will conquer your shyness.
5. Examine why you are shy: Another effective way to overcoming shyness is to examine the reason(s) for the shyness itself. There is a saying that goes like this “knowing who the enemy is in a battle makes the battle an easy warfare”. This indicates that for you to conquer your enemy in the battlefield, you need to have an appropriate understanding of his nature and characteristics. Knowing the reason(s) why you are shy can also be an effective way of overcoming shyness. Look into some of the causes discussed and see the one that applies to you, then take these practical steps, when you do, you are sure on your way to overcoming it. I believe, with these simple steps considered and practiced carefully, you will extremely overcome the general phenomenon called shyness. Until we meet again, stay bold, valiant and strong.
It is just about every mother's dream to be able to stay home and care for their children. Unfortunately, this dream is becoming harder and harder to obtain. Within every minute of every day the price of our necessities is rising. It's not just the fuel that we use in our cars and to heat our homes, but every other utility, household product, and now more than ever, the food that we eat.
Because of this, many stay-at-home-mom's are now scrambling and searching for a "perfect" home-based business. They don't want to lose their dream. They finally managed to cut-back to the bare-minimum, they have learned how to frugally cook and thrift shop like the pros, there is no way they can trim the budget any further; and yet, after all their hard work they are finding themselves in a panic over their finances once again.
The variety of home-based businesses is much larger than it used to be, and according to my research a new online business is created every 10 seconds. You can imagine how confusing this can be for someone with very little business experience. Because so many mothers are now looking for online businesses I have pin-pointed some questions you may want to ask yourself before deciding on a particular business.
1. How much do I have to invest?
2. On top of the initial investment, do I have to purchase a certain amount of product each month?
3. Do I have to sell anything? If so, how do I go about selling my products? Will anyone be available to help me when I have questions?
4. How will I be paid? How often will I be paid? Who will pay me?
5. Am I paid on commission? Is the company considered to be an MLM? What is an MLM? If it is an MLM, how many levels will I be paid for?
6. How do I advertise? Do I have to pay for advertising? How much will I be able to budget for advertising? Is it possible to "successfully" use free advertising?
7. Do I have to have long-distance available on my phone? Can I afford to pay for extra fees on my bill? Do I need call-waiting, DSL or three-way calling? Will I be able to keep my children quiet while I'm on the phone?
8. How long will it take before I start to see a profit?
9. Do I need a website? Does the company supply a website? If not, who will help me create a website?
It's important to understand that ANY business online can be successful as long as you learn it, practice it, and master it. Whether it's a business that requires 12 hours of your time a day or just 2-3 hours, you will have to commit to learning it inside and out. An online business is still a business and it should be taken seriously.
If you're thinking about starting your own online business I suggest you do your homework. Explore as many areas as you can and most importantly ask questions. Decide what's most important to you, is it the amount of hours you'll need to work each day or how much you will have to invest just to get started? It may be confusing, but it's actually a good thing there are so many business opportunities available to us, it means there really is a "perfect" business out there for each of us!
None of us likes to think about making a will, it reminds us that one day the inevitable will happen and we will no longer be here. How ever, consider for a moment all the time and effort you put into providing financial security for yourself and your family, working hard, putting money into pensions and saving to buy that dream home abroad. Then when we have achieved our ambitions, we fail to take the next step in protecting our assets after we pass on.
It is imperative that we decide what should happen to our money and possessions after our death and ensuring that those people and causes that matter most to us are provided for. Making a valid will is the only way of guaranteeing that you take control now of what happens to your assets when you die.
There are thousands of British citizens who own properties in Spain. Many of them are elderly and yet they have made no provision as to what should happen to those assets on their death. Who will take over their assets in Spain, and how much inheritance tax will have to be paid. For these reasons, it is important that you arrange your affairs to make life easier for your heirs and the change of ownership of your assets.
You should be aware that this is only a general guide and cannot replace professional advice
What will happen if there is no will?
If a foreigner dies in Spain without a will, his estate may be automatically disposed of under Spanish law.
If you are British and own a property in Spain the laws of England and Wales state that, your property should be subject to the inheritance laws of Spain.
However, in Spain the law states that property owned by a foreigner should be subject to the inheritance laws of their original country. Confusing!
For a normal British family with property in Spain, where the asset will pass to the spouse and children, the situation is not complicated, but it does require answers to some questions
a. Do I have to make a will?
The answer is no, it is not obligatory to make a will. However, if a foreigner dies in Spain without a will, his assets will be distributed in accordance with Spanish law.
b. Will a will made abroad be accepted in Spain
Generally, a will, which is valid under the law of your home country, will be taken to be valid in Spain
Currently lawyers are advising British domiciled individuals with property in Spain to write a will under Spanish law stating that they wish to have their Spanish assets disposed of in accordance with their national law, i.e., in accordance with the inheritance rules of England and Wales. They also advise such individuals to update their British will to take into account their Spanish property.
If you have lived in Spain for a long time and you want to dispose of your assets according to the law of your home country, then it may be necessary for you to create a legal domicile in your home country for the purpose of making a will
c. Is it better to make a will in Spain?
If you own a property in Spain and you want to save your heirs a lot of time and expense then the answer has to be YES. A Spanish will for the distribution of your assets as per the inheritance laws of your home country will be accepted by a Spanish notary.
The time limit for making an inheritance tax declaration in Spain is six months from the death. If you are waiting for the probate from the home country to be issued, and then have to make the translation and get the "apostille" (can be used whenever a copy of an official document from another country is needed) before taking it to Spain, you may miss this time limit and be liable for fines.
With a will in Spain, you can to an extent regulate the distribution of the assets. For example, you can make sure that your spouse will have the undivided user's right for life, or that only one of the children takes over the property in Spain, the others having been compensated by assets in the home country.
You can also make an inheritance tax saving by making the right kind of will.
Different Types of Will
There are a number of different ways to make a will in Spain, here are the main ones:
Open Will ("Testamento abierto")
This is the most common form of will. Here you tell your lawyer or the notary the contents of your will. The notary then signs the official form together with the issuer. The notary will give you a copy of the will and send a copy to the Registrar in Madrid. The original remains at the notary's office. If you do not understand Spanish, you will need a translation into a language that you understand fluently. It is only mandatory to have two witnesses to the signing of a will if the notary or the issuer requests it
When the issuer dies and before adjudication can be made, a search must be made in the registry in Madrid to find if a will has been deposited there. Even if no will has been registered, written confirmation from the registry in Madrid is obligatory.
Closed Will ("Testamento cerrado")
The contents remain secret; however, it must be drawn up by a Spanish lawyer to ensure that it complies with the Spanish law. The issuer then places it in a closed envelope. He may then seal the envelope in front of the notary and at least two witnesses. The notary records it as for an open will. The issuer may keep the envelope himself, give it to a person in confidence for safekeeping or deposit it with the notary.
Hand-written will ("Testamento olografo")
Written and signed by the testator in such a way that there can be no doubting its authenticity, must also be dated. It must be drafted to ensure that your wishes are clear
The will is a private document, which becomes a public document after the death of the issuer. It can be kept safe or given in a sealed envelope to a person in confidence. It needs no witnesses, nor a confirmation from the notary. It can be voluntarily registered with registry of wills. On the death of the testator, it must be authenticated before a judge, which will delay its execution.
Whilst this form ensures complete confidentiality, it may easily be forgotten or lost. It should only be used in exceptional circumstances.
It is advisable to have your will drawn up by a Spanish lawyer in Spain. Keep a copy of your will in a safe place and another copy with your lawyer. The inheritance tax declaration and the payment of inheritance tax duties must be made within six months of your death if you die in Spain and sixteen months if you die elsewhere. Inheritance tax must be paid in advance of the release of the Spanish assets.
We are not qualified to give legal or financial advice we would say that if you think you might be affected then you should seek qualified professional legal advice.
What are the easy ways to a flourishing relationship that can make up for the couples?
As what I have seen the couples who are presently having their relationship, they simply like to share each other, but they do not know what are the factors that they have to look out for from each other. Perhaps, they are pretty new in having their relationship, and they do not know what can be done in order to have a flourishing and sustainable relationship that they wish they can have.
In this piece of article, I will explain to you what the easy ways to a flourishing relationship are. I understand that perhaps you can be very desperate in making the relationship happen to you, but nevertheless you will never know what can happen if you have not tried out for yourself. As such, you do have to make a first move if you dare to try and if you are eager to make a success. Well, here are some easy ways to have a flourishing relationship under all circumstances. These have to depend on how good you are to manage your relationship.
Firstly, Expectations- Expectations play a big role in a relationship. We expect and when we do not get, we are disappointed. We may get angry and if the anger persists, separation results. The best way is to spell out all the expectations. Point out whenever you feel they are not being met and try to ignore as many situations as you can when your expectations are not being met. The second point that I want to address here is simply this word, Gratitude- Express gratitude whenever your partner does something for you. Husband takes wife for granted and vice versa. People are forgetting the art of saying thank you. Why not make other person feel good? By receiving thanks, the recipient feels worthy. I am a good person. I did something good, so I am getting these Thanks. Why should we miss even the smallest opportunity to express thanks? It costs us nothing. But it is invaluable for one who gets it.
The third point that I want to share with you is the Happiness- If both partners decide, they can be happy under all the circumstances. Happiness is a boon. Things will always be going wrong. Memories will always come. But if we decide to keep ourselves happy, we can surely progress slowly to a state where unhappiness cannot touch us easily. Happiness is only one emotion. We are affected by different emotions - Anger, Love, Hatred, compassion and so on. What applies to happiness also applies to all other emotions. Emotions batter us at all the times. We are like a ship freely getting beaten by the roaring ocean of emotions at all the times. Once we decide, we can be happy.
Further up next, you have to test your relationship- There are few websites that offer tests and quizzes. Attempt all the quizzes on relationships and find out your answers. Ask your mate to do the same and find the answers. Compare your answers and try to find questions that were answered differently by both of you. That will tell you something about the areas your relationship may encounter friction. If you have done that, you will realize that there are so much things that you can do to make your relationship even better. Do not ever feel very stumbled and frightened off, the relationship quizzes are there for you to give your gauges and set the new targets for yourself so that you can better assess your new relationship level to a greater height. If you feel that you agree to what I have said earlier, do feel free to forward to your friends, relatives and peers around, or you can let them to visit this piece of article at my site. Your help and support is greatly appreciated.
I would like to suggest this point to all the couples, never ever stop communicating one another; always keep on talking to your love one, as they are considered the important ones who you would like to treasure upon. Also, the relationship would of course be made up extremely awesome as stay made up is meant for helping you to eliminate the break up in future. I wish all of the couples to have making up process a successful one and the future endeavors ahead.
Indeed, life is short. Don't let another day go by without taking a chance on happiness. You will never know until you try, so remember to make a move today. It can change or affect the rest of your life, therefore, at the very least, you can try to come out something for your ex love partner during your weekend plans. With a little practice, perseverance and patience, I believe that your relationship could be enhanced with the tips that I have shared earlier. If you have faced any problems with your loved ones, do not hesitate to visit this piece of article again.
I really have a strong belief that if you can understand what I have explained and applied what you have learnt from this piece of article, your problems can be eventually solved and your making up relationship can become more stable and stronger. I wish all the best for your making up relationship with your partner. Do always remember to spread word of mouth to your fellow friends for supporting the decision of having making up than breaking up.
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A simple case study of how a counselling communication can help to make up a wonderful relationship for the couples
Have you ever wanted to make up your relationship better? An extremely useful tool is communication. This is a case Example about Couples counselling - Communication. Communication problems are by far the most common reason that couples come in for counselling. However, learning new communication skills does not always address the true cause of their problem. For example, many people who have difficulty communicating with their partners have a much easier time communicating with other people. In cases such as these, a lack of skill is not the real problem. It is the person's inability to use the skill with his or her partner. The following example shows a couple whose main issue was resolved in just one session by discovering its hidden emotional truth.
Let me share with you a considered essay story. Sandy and Bernard lived in Sacramento. He worked as a computer programmer and she was in graduate school to become a teacher. Sandy's mother had died three months earlier and she was struggling to do well at school, hold her job and deal with some pretty complicated feelings. After being together for a year and a half, she told Bernard that she wanted to take a break from the relationship while she was under so much stress. When I asked Bernard how he felt about this, he answered that he was scared and did not want to break up. I wondered what they hoped to get from therapy, and wondered if they might have two very different goals in coming to see me. It is important for me to understand this first and get a lot of clarity about what each of them is hoping for. After asking each of them, it became clear that Bernard wanted the relationship to stay together. Sandy said that her first priority was taking care of herself, but that if she could find a way to do that in the relationship, she would want to stay. However, she said she could not really imagine that happening and Bernard looked pretty sad.
It was very certain that every one of us had understood what had been happening between them. We all agreed that if there was a way for Sandy to feel that the relationship helped her with her stress rather than adding more, that would be ideal situation that would create happiness for both of them. However, if this was not able to happen, Sandy will leave for as long as it takes for her life to feel more stable. At this point, my job had been defined. I was to understand if there was a way for Sandy to feel supported enough by Bernard that she would want to stay. Sandy was quick to tell me that she could not imagine Bernard becoming any more supportive. She said that he had listened to her feelings for countless hours and always been there to help her. Bernard was in agreement with this, but said that he would be happy to try anything new that might keep them together.
Then, I began wondering about why some people want to be with their partner when they are under a lot of stress while others want to be alone. It seemed to me that Sandy felt under tremendous stress and sought to feel better by taking a break from the pressures of a relationship. However, I know that it is possible for someone to find comfort in a relationship in her situation. I began my inquiry by asking Sandy allow herself to feel all of the pressures and stresses and grief in her life. Then while she was feeling them, I asked her to imagine just for a minute knowing that she will never leave her relationship. She quickly began to feel her anxiety increase and was very uncomfortable. I asked her to stay with that feeling and to say to Bernard, "I just can't stay with you..." and let the sentence finish itself without pre-thinking an ending.
Furthermore, she said, "I just can't stay with you because there is too much pressure." I asked to continue with the sentence and she said, "I just can't stay with you because there is too much pressure and I'll pop." I then asked her to stay in that feeling and finish the sentence, "There is too much pressure because..." She immediate exclaimed "Because I can't be myself." I now had the beginning of the story. If Sandy feels that she can't be herself around Bernard, it makes sense why that would add pressure and stress to her life to be with him. What I still did not understand was why she felt this way, and luckily there was still about 20 minutes to go in the session.
Well, in couples counselling, it is usually the case that both partners have a hand in creating their dynamics. I decided at this point to focus on Bernard in order to learn why Sandy might not feel comfortable being herself. I asked Bernard to imagine a recent time when Sandy felt particularly distressed. Once he had this in mind, I asked him just to keep visualizing this image of her feeling distressed and not to do anything to change it. He told me that this was hard for him and it gave him a sinking feeling in his chest. I asked him to stay with that feeling and try saying to Sandy, "If I don't try to change you." and let the sentence finish itself. He said that he did not feel like he was trying to change her, so we changed his sentence to say, "If I just allow you to feel this way and do nothing, then..." He took a few deep breaths and said, "If I just let you feel this way, you will never get better and you will be depressed forever."
I now felt like I might have a pretty good sense of what was going on, so I asked him to make that a little more explicit. I asked him to try out saying to Sandy, "I just can't let you be sad or fried all the time or you will never get better." He said that it felt true to say it. I then asked him to go even further and try saying, "Even if it makes you feel pressured to change, I just can't let you be sad or fried all the time or you will never get better." Neither of them had had any idea that this was true prior to our session. Bernard quickly recognized how significant this was. He said, "Wow. If I can't stand to just let you feel sad and stressed out, then it makes sense why you don't feel like you can be yourself around me." Sandy started to tear up, and nodded her head. They were both pretty shocked and disoriented as we unpacked what we had discovered and I summarized it on a note card for them to read each day. I asked them to correct me and make sure that the words we chose were complete true. We ended up settling on: "Bernard is afraid that if he lets Sandy be sad and fried all the time, she will never get better. But this makes Sandy feel like she can't be herself around Bernard, which makes her feel even worse." I asked them just to recognize that this was true and not to try to change it immediately.
In a follow up call, around five months later, Bernard told me that he had realized how much pressure he had been putting on Sandy to get better and that he had been able to start feeling more comfortable when she felt distressed. He said that they were still together, and that while Sandy would still get overwhelmed by work and school and grief over her mother every so often, she no longer would push him away at those times. Also, he said the relationship was more secure than it ever had been and felt that our session had been largely responsible for the change.
Therefore, a counselling communication is indeed a useful tool for all the couples who are desperate in making up any relationship. How can you do that, just simply apply all the tips that have been provided in this article, utilise them and ensure that all are simply fine in your relationship. I wish you all the best and good luck in making up your relationship.
Indeed, life is short. Don't let another day go by without taking a chance on happiness. You will never know until you try, so remember to make a move today. It can change or affect the rest of your life, therefore, at the very least, you can try to come out something for your ex love partner during your weekend plans. With a little practice, perseverance and patience, I believe that your relationship could be enhanced with the tips that I have shared earlier. If you have faced any problems with your loved ones, do not hesitate to visit this piece of article again.
I really have a strong belief that if you can understand what I have explained and applied what you have learnt from this piece of article, your problems can be eventually solved and your making up relationship can become more stable and stronger. I wish all the best for your making up relationship with your partner. Do always remember to spread word of mouth to your fellow friends for supporting the decision of having making up than breaking up.
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Do you worry about whether your aging parents have their "affairs in order?" You should. After all, you’re the one who will have to pay unnecessary taxes and endure time-consuming court procedures if your parents don’t have an effective estate plan. Without some forethought on their part and your part, you could be facing a lot of wasted time and money in addition to a lot of frustration. All of the waste and frustration can easily be avoided.
Experts predict $10 trillion will be transferred in the next two decades from parents to baby boomers. The average inheritance will be $200,000. The parents have spent all of their lives saving to leave something to their family. For most boomers, their inheritance will be the largest single financial transaction most they will ever handle. Depending upon the planning done today, the amount actually transferred could be doubled.
During the final years of a parent’s life, the family can lose a lot of the estate in rest home expenses or legal fees. Too often the family has to get a court order to have a parent declared incompetent and get permission to manage their affairs. After both parents die, probate will eat 2-5% of the estate, and estate taxes can take another 37-50%. Additionally, the estate mess can take many days of time out of the boomer’s busy life. Not only money is lost, but life styles often have to be altered just to work through the mess.
Good planning is worth every effort made and every dime spent, not just
in the money and timesavings, but also in the peace of mind it will give to both the parents and the kids. Boomers need to help get the planning done. However, discussing money, especially in this context, is very unpleasant for most families. The kids don’t want to appear grabby or look like they are just waiting for their parents to die so they can get their inheritance. The parents don’t want to face their own mortality, and they don’t want the kids nosing in their financial affairs. The bottom line is nothing gets done.
The sooner this discussion takes place the better. Everybody has to recognize that planning is good business and financial management. The parents have an obligation to take care of it for the children’s sake, and the children have an obligation to help their aging parents. The discussion will take place at some point. The worst time to have the discussion is when a parent is in intensive care.
The following six tips will help protect a parent’s hard-earned money, transfer the maximum amount of inheritance to the family, and ease the family’s legal and emotional burden.
1. Review current wills and/or living trusts. Do the documents reflect the parent’s current wishes? Have there been changes in family relationships, such as divorces, marriages, or new grandchildren?
2. Look into living trusts. All wills that transfer property must go through a court process called probate. Probate eats time and money – lots of both. Today, many families use living trusts to avoid probate, reduce legal fees, and pay the least possible taxes. Living trusts work well, provided they are handled properly during the parent’s life. Is the living trust being used properly?
3. Dodge family disputes. Make sure either the will or trust distribute personal items with a list describing the item and the intended recipient. Most states allows distribution of personal items through a “personal letter,” which is just a list of items and their intended recipient. The letter is not part of the will until death, and then it essentially becomes part of the will. Thus, the letter can be rewritten
or updated as often as desired without a trip back to the attorney. The letter must be “authorized” by the individual’s will in order for it to be effective. If specific distribution of personal items like the shot gun, wedding ring, and the family stamp collection is made in the letter, family fights will be avoided.
4. Split trusts to save taxes. If mom and dad have over $1.5 million in their estate, including the life insurance, retirement money, and business, they should either have an individual trust for each or have a trust that “splits” into two trusts when the first one of them dies. This shields up to $3 million from estate taxes that eat away at a family’s wealth.
5. Protect life insurance. Life insurance is taxed. The family doesn’t have to pay income tax on the money they get, but the money is taxed in the departed loved one’s estate and the IRS will routinely take up to 50% of it. A living trust can help in smaller estates, and an irrevocable insurance trust can totally eliminate the tax in bigger estates.
6. Solve the incompetence problem. Use a durable power of attorney to transfer power to someone when the parent can no longer take care of their own business affairs. The power of attorney has to have language in it that states it will endure the incompetence of the individual making the power of attorney.
W ith the power of attorney, there isn’t any need to have the parent declared incompetent and have a court appoint a guardian. It removes a lot of rustration.
The parents need to soften up and realize that estate planning and asset protection is something they need to talk about and be taking care of. If they cannot do it for themselves, they need to realize that their children are the ones that they have to turn to. The boomers need to take their parents’ estate planning very seriously. The boomers have a lot at stake – a lot of money, a lot of time, and a lot of frustration.
Attorney Lee R. Phillips is a nationally recognized expert in the field of finance, estate planning, and asset protection. Lee is licensed to practice law before the United States Supreme Court & also holds licenses in insurance and securities. Lee is a dynamic speaker & has spoken to over a half million people throughout United States, Canada & the Pacific Rim helping them understand the law.
1. Do the Numbers: Believing you can do it is the first part of the equation. Once you break down the numbers, I’ll bet you’ll say, “That’s it? I can make that!”
So, $50,000/year divided by 52 weeks equals roughly $962/week. Easily achievable once you establish your going rate, which we’ll discuss a little later.
$962/week divided by 5 days (building in weekends off) equals roughly $192/day. Any determined person can make this. And, if you pile on education, experience and the Internet, you should be saying to yourself, “This will be a breeze.”
It won’t, but you should at least be giddy at the realization that this is a more than achievable goal.
2. Charge Enough: Don’t go into freelancing with the attitude of I HAVE to take low-paying jobs. You don’t! My mother used to say, “How you begin is how you will end.” She wasn’t talking about jobs, but I take this advice to heart in almost everything I start.
A personal story: When I realized that I was going to run this year’s marathon (Thanksgiving Day, Atlanta, GA), one of the first things I did was print out a training schedule.
My point: I took my goal seriously enough from the beginning and figured out what I needed to do to be ready. In the case of figuring out what to charge, this means figuring out how much you have to make each day, week, month to achieve your goal. With your goal clearly mapped out, you will be much less likely to stray.
So, let’s do some hard numbers. Figure a 9-hour work day – in the beginning, you will much likely put in more than this (I never said it was going to be easy). That’s $21.33/hour you need to make.
When you consider that, on the low-end, professional copywriters make $50/hour, you can see how feasible it is to make $50,000 year. FYI, you may only spend 4 hours on a project, but 5 hours doing marketing work to bring in that project – but, it all evens out.
3. Target a Niche: The reason I believe in targeting a niche is that it is so much easier to promote your services – especially if you have some type of experience within that niche.
For example, I target realtors, mortgage brokers and insurance agents. In my professional career, I’ve been a real estate agent and a mortgage broker. These two industries get you highly familiar with the insurance industry.
No experience in your targeted niche? With the advent of the Internet, it is fairly easy to become knowledgeable enough about a sector to market to it.
How to Choose a Profitable Niche
a) Pay: Not only do you want to target a niche, you want to target one that pays well. This usually means turning to the business community. Again, the Internet makes it easy to service clients worldwide – not just those in your community. So, don't let living in a small town scare you.
b) Plentiful: Eg, there may not be enough organic gardeners to target, but real estate agents are vast and plentiful. Don’t have any ideas? Look through the Yellow Pages. Why? These are all the types of businesses you would find in any community. And, there may be businesses that you may never even have thought of in there who could use your services.
c) Evergreen: Try to choose niches that are evergreen – eg, those that will be around forever. Lawyers, accountants, insurance agents, auto dealers – these types of businesses aren’t going anywhere. Once you establish yourself as an expert, getting business will be easier and easier. Notice, I didn’t say easy, I said “easier.”
4. Prepare a Marketing Plan: It doesn’t have to be 30 pages. A basic one will do, eg:
Who: is your target market?
What: do they need? How will you reach them? This will also tell you where you will be spending the bulk of your ad dollars (online or off).
Where: as, in, what geographic area will you service (eg, will I target only a local market, or go national/international (eg, solicit business via the Internet?) )
When: is their season (eg, is it slow during the summer, busy during the fall, etc.)
Why: should they choose me (figure out your USP (Unique Selling Proposition))?
Put this where you can see it every day. I break my marketing plan into quarters. At the beginning of each quarter, I map out what I should be doing on a weekly basis. Sometimes projects interfere and I may not complete everything on my list daily, but I try to get all scheduled tasks done within that week.
Don’t forget to figure in startup costs – eg, primarily getting a website. A basic one will do. Just make sure that it is professional looking, grammatically correct and doesn’t have bells and whistles (eg, no flashing graphics). Most visitors will be looking for information – make it easy for them to get it.
A marketing schedule keeps you on point. Robert Collier, one of America’s original "success authors" said, “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out. . .” A marketing schedule does just this.
5. Prepare Your Marketing Material: Get a website, get a website, get a website – this should be one of the first things you do! I think websites have progressed to the point where telephones used to be.
Ie, would you do business with someone who doesn’t have a phone? Probably not. Now, I think a lot of people feel that way about the internet. Further, how can you talk to someone about web copy if you don’t even have a website yourself? Ostensibly, this could be the only “promotional item” you need.
But, I would also do a basic introductory letter, a brochure, business cards (of course), a professional bio and a few samples. Don’t have samples? Do freebies until you get 5 or 6. All of this can be on your website.
Why different kinds of marketing material? Different situations call for different types of handouts. Eg, you may be at a Chamber of Commerce meeting one week (give out that brochure) and at the dry cleaners the next week (hand out business cards).
6. Implement & Follow Through -- Consistently: Many freelancers give up before they even begin. I look at freelancing as pushing a boulder up a hill – it’s hard going up (think of this as the ramp up of your business), but, once you get to the top, the ball rolls downhill by itself.
Freelancing won’t be that easy – and don’t believe anyone who tells you that it will. BUT, with sustainable effort, you will begin to get assignments, and then referrals will seem to come in effortlessly.
If you follow this plan, you should start to get assignments within 30-60 days. Good luck!
May be reprinted with the following, in full: Yuwanda Black is the publisher of http://www.InkwellEditorial.com: THE business portal for and about the editorial and creative industries. First-hand freelance success stories, e-courses, job postings, resume tips, advice on the business of freelancing, and more! Launch a Profitable Freelance Writing Career in 30 Days or Less -- Guaranteed! Log on to InkwellEditorial.com to learn how.
How To Get Your Ex To Return Your Calls Without Fail
After the big ordeal that is your breakup, it is only natural that your ex will be somewhat evasive and hard to get on the phone. If you ever want to get him back, you will have to find a way around that. Leaving just the right message on his voicemail or answering machine can really make him want to call you back...and it is pretty easy to do if you have the right plan!
Before we get too into it, here is a short list of some of the things you really do NOT want to let yourself fall into the trap of doing. It is not the end of the world if you already have done one or more of these things, but since it can make things a fair bit harder you should try to avoid finding yourself in a situation where you are:
--Begging him to come back, because without him your life is empty and useless. Even if this is how you feel the Plea as it is called does NOT help your case any. Pleading for him to come back into your life just makes you look weak and like someone he is glad to be out from under.
--Claiming that it is an absolute Emergency and implying that calling you back is a life and death matter. Being so dramatic is not going to make things go any better for you. He knows it is not an emergency, and so do you. It can be hard to deal with this time, but making it out to be an emergency just hurts your chances of getting him back.
--Making some big, long, heartfelt speech on his voicemail about everything you feel and have to get across to him, in the hopes that it will trigger something in his heart and make him come back to you. This only works in the movies...and pretty much never does in real life. Most of the time he will not even hear the whole thing, so save your breath and avoid a lot of humiliation by avoiding doing this.
So now that you know how to NOT make him call you back, here is the secret to getting his attention and all but forcing him to...self-interest and curiosity. These two powerful motivational tools have been used to get people to do unbelievable things that they never would have if they were asked any other way.
Try saying something like this:
"I just wanted to thank you, you really helped me out. I would really love it if you would call me back, because I would like to give you my thanks in person."
This sort of phrasing makes your ex curious just what it was he helped you with, and makes the call seem less threatening or stressful. It doesn't feel like an attempt to convince him to come back, and it also has some intrigue ...he would have a hard time coming up with a reason NOT to call.
But STOP...right HERE! When he calls, it is incredibly important that you have a good idea of exactly what plan to say...if you go into this without an underlying strategy, you could ruin your chances entirely. Do not risk it!
Can I get my ex back and wonderhow to get my girlfriend back?
Watch a video that shows you exactly what you must NEVER do, what you should do to get your ex back and why at http://hubpages.com/hub/howshouldiwoomyexback
You will also learn how to reverse the situation if you have already done those things that should NEVER be done.