You are either growing or dying.

From the first day of life, everything is either growing or dying. The tree, insect, animal, or bird could be in the process of developing, living, spreading, stretching, flourishing, burgeoning, maturing, increasing, enlarging, or sprouting. Or it is in the process of decaying, fading, declining, disintegrating, passing, vanishing, withering, or perishing.

You are either growing or dying. If you are not continuing to learn and develop your self, you are becoming less of the person you really want to be. And the day you stop, give up, or quit trying to be the best you that you can possibly be, you begin the march toward the end.

Status Quo Doesn’t Work

Everyone experiences shame. Few have the courage to become aware of the shame they carry and how it is consciously and unconsciously impacting their lives. Fewer still have the courage to talk openly about shame and help others discover and heal from shame in their lives.

Brene Brown, acclaimed researcher and author of I Thought It Was Just Me defines shame as “the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing we are flawed and therefore unworthy of acceptance and belonging.”

Shame experiences include:

• Rejection.
• Failure.
• When people see you fail.
• Being wrong.
• When people see your mask pulled off and you are exposed.
• Being defective.
• Feeling like an outsider.
• When people think you are soft, weak, or not enough.
• Your flaws are revealed.
• Showing fear.
• Being criticized or ridiculed.

The Power of Shame

In 2006, Vladimir Villosov designed his own coffin with enough room to fit his huge collection of pornography. At 65 years old, he was quoted as saying, “The girls in those magazines have been my companions for years and I want them to accompany me to the next life.”

Long before the internet, pornography was a problem. And with the internet, a person today can see more pornographic images in a few minutes than their grandfather could see in a lifetime.

Are You Addicted to Porn?

According to Dr. Leslie Parrott in “Crazy Good Sex: Putting To Bed The Myths Men Have About Sex”, if you have at least five of the following issues, you are clinically addicted to pornography.

We are frequently asked by media, pastors, counselors and other professionals what leads to couples considering divorce. We have met, one couple at a time, with over 240 couples whose marriage is on the brink of divorce (many separated, some who have already filed, and one that had divorced two years prior), in a day long Marriage Intensive.

What Causes Infidelity and Mistrust

Our experience tells us that the ground-breaking research that Dr. John Gottman performed over four decades with over 3,000 couples holds true. Before there is infidelity or major financial mistrusts in the marriage, there are four Marriage Killers that show up in the marriage.

The four Marriage Killers create a negative pattern of interacting in the marriage that causes spouses to stop talking to each other. Hurt feelings, hardened hearts, disappointment, and bitterness leads to spouses being unable to resolve relationship issues. Each spouse attempts to protect themselves from the other. Connection and intimacy is broken and loneliness sets in.

There is quite a but of chatter in the political world about the phrase, “make America great again.” No matter what your political perspective or the proposed policies, you have to admit the phrase is intriguing.

We were speaking at St. Timothy’s Anglican Church Retreat recently on The Christian Family and decided that, although we are not running for office, we have a plan to make America great again!

The Formula for Making America Great Again