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Looking for Happiness today?
Just yesterday I learned that science now affirms two key ingredients that lead to greater happiness: gratitude and kindness. My granddaughter shared these insights with me from her current college studies in psychology. Interestingly the class reviewed scientific experiments that demonstrate the accuracy of those contentions. Additionally, it has been demonstrated as well that verbal expressions of gratitude, actually saying the words aloud, multiply the impact of thankfulness. Our conversation leads me to reflect as we celebrate today, Memorial Day. Established following the brutal Civil War, Memorial Day honors the lives sacrificed for our freedom. Since the Civil War, Americans have given their lives serving in the Spanish-American War, World…
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“The Confessions of St. Augustine” (A Conservative Christian Goes to College, part 18)
“Whom could I find to reconcile me to you? Was I to seek the help of angels? By what prayer, what sacraments? Many people in their attempts to return to you and not being able to do so by their own strength have, so I hear, tried this way and have fallen into a desire for strange visions and have become, rightly, the victim of delusions…. They were seeking a mediator through whom to become clean, but this was not he. It was the devil” – “The Confessions of St. Augustine”, Book X, Chapter 42.[1] World Religions Class. It was time for our book reviews to be presented in front…
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The Marriage-Go-Round
It’s no secret that marriages are in trouble, no less in Christian homes than in any others. I regularly hear of marriages ending because one or both of the partners just isn’t happy or decides they want someone else. Hearts are scarred, children are torn between parents, and happiness doesn’t always ensue with someone new. In fact, the same struggles often follow in the new relationship. I have found that marriage moves in cycles, much like a merry-go-round. So often today, however, the partners choose to cut the trip short before they make it back around to the other side. Instead of expecting the best of one another and marriage,…