Opportunities fly by while we sit regretting the chances we have lost, and the happiness that comes to us we heed not, because of the happiness that is gone. Jerome K. Jerome
The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do. B.F. Skinner
Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is. William James
This is a shared testimony:
Hi all! Ive been eager to share my testimony with the world so here it goes. Growing up i was raised to worship God due to my parents. I remember as a very young child my siblings and I were forced to go to church until i was saved and accepted Jesus Chris into my life. Although after being saved I went back to the world and found myself being in two waters. Long story short I found myself in a relationship with this guy for a long time until things broke off. He was the only guy I’ve been with n lost my virginity to.
Until one day after graduating high school one of my friends and i went to a party, which of course God was not there only the devil. I ended up getting drunk and having lust for one particular guy at the party. I’ve only been with one guy and was curious to know what was like to have sex with another person. This only came to thought after we bonded in the party. One thing lead to another and the devil ended up getting the best of me that night. After we had sex one of his friends told me he put a pill in my drink which helped me reason why I got so drunk. I remember seeing myself in a corner of the party feeling so alone and scared. Two weeks later I ended up feeling a really uncomfortable pain down my privacy as if I had a yeast infection. I completely ignored it but something inside me told me something was wrong. So all I did was pray.
Matthew 5:16 essentially tells us to let our light shine. This is a Bible Verse I constantly share with my lighting crew. In fact, I end emails with this phrase: Keep Shining. It’s a reminder if that verse.
So, as I once challenged you to follow our pledge, I now encourage you to follow Matthew 5:16.
Keep shining.
The world is dark. It’s filled with evil things. Obviously, my blog aims to fight such things. But, as a lighting designer, I have an appreciation of light on many scales. Not only do we light, but, as Christians, we are a light.
Instead of letting the wind of the world kill your fire, you must do whatever it takes to keep it alive. You must keep shining because the world needs light. Are you going to be that light? Are you going to lead people from the pits of despair with your optimism?
Keep shining.
Let me announce that, just as I end my emails to my crew, I shall end my posts with the “catchphrase”. A reminder to us all to keep shining.
With that said,
Keep shining,
Dante Writes
Stop me if you heard this before: Treat others the way you want to be treated. Blah, blah, blah.
You heard it before, most likely.
It’s really simple.
Treat people the way you want to be treated. Look at people as if you’re constantly looking into a mirror. Do you love the person you see? Would you say hurtful things to that person or give encouragement?
Yes, I know you’re the sexiest beast out there, but consider that all the people you run into are reflections of you. I mean, if you treat yourself like crap, that’s a shame, but I guess nobody can get mad if you follow the golden rule. But, I think most of us treat ourselves in a very positive, dignified way.
-Dante Writes
When I made the announcement, I said it would be “Thoughtful Thursday” I changed it to “Thursday Thoughts” Same type of post; be cool.
Thursday Thoughts is where I take a few simple quotes that, hopefully, lead you to sit down and think for a minute. Sometimes, I may add my own thoughts to a quote.
Here are the quotes:
The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be. Socrates
We have, I fear, confused power with greatness. Stewart Udall
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde
Yeah, interesting start. As always, I’ll be looking to see what kind of tweaks and adjustments can be made to make it better. Anything you want to suggest will be looked into.
Dante Writes
My life was radically transformed when God encountered me while I was in college. Growing up, I never really believed in God although I was raised in a Christian home. Being preoccupied with life and not being able to ‘see’ our God during church service made me doubt his existence. I continued to live life and as I got older, I felt the need to prove my worth to others by falling into so many temptations around me. When I went to college I started drinking and hooking up with guys, although it truly wasn’t things I enjoyed doing.
I fell into many sexual addictions while having plenty of boy drama to deal with. At that particular time, I was already overwhelmed with all of the stress that I had from the problems I created and out of nowhere, my health started to deteriorate with another illness that came upon me around the time of my finals. I quickly went to my mom to ask for help and because she was a believer, she said that we’ll see the doctors but also have people pray for you.
As the week went on, I woke up one morning not feeling any of the symptoms of this illness and began to wonder what just happened? I’ve been sick and even my friends knew about it and all of a sudden, everything was gone and I felt normal. After getting checked out by the doctors, they said nothing was wrong with me. I began to wonder if this was a work of God or if science just proved to be the answer. Still carrying the weight of my problems and thinking that I have nothing to lose, I thought about praying to Him myself to see if he really did exist and if he could lift all of the burdens I was carrying. I cried out to Him and after I was done praying and pouring my heart out, I felt the weight being lifted off. I felt so light and experienced a burst of joy coming from the inside, and not knowing what to make of it, I simply embraced it.
So right after I was done praying, I decided to listen to this song that I really liked. It was a secular song that had hip-hop artists on there. I have been listening to this track for about 3 years but I lost the song on my computer so I asked the DJ if he could send it to me. When I got the track and began listening to it, I heard a man interrupt the rapper in this hip-hop song and begin to sing about Jesus. I immediately freaked out, not understanding what was going on! I never listened to christian music because I never enjoyed it so I didn’t understand how it showed up on my phone! I also realized that the DJ who made the hip-hop track was Hindu so it didn’t come from him either.
And I was listening to the same song for 3 years before that I never heard this man who sang about Jesus. The only connection I could make was to the prayer I prayed to some ‘God’. I kept hearing this man sing about Jesus and when I looked at my phone it said that I was listening to ‘DJ Kash: Money to blow overnight’ and I knew that wasn’t right. After staying in the middle of the song for about 3 weeks, the christian man just completely disappeared one day and I heard the original hip-hop track with all of the rappers. Everything that happened went beyond my mind’s comprehension and deep-down inside, I knew God just showed up. I still listen to the hip-hop track to see if the man who sang about Jesus would come back but it’s been a year and a half since that incident and there has been no sign of him! Right after that incident, I gave my life to Jesus and have been on a journey knowing more about Him and who I am in Him!
I encourage all of you guys to talk God, no matter where you are in life or how deep you are in sin. His love is more powerful than anything on this earth and He can show up if we ask Him to! I hope this testimony provides hope to all of you and stay blessed peeps!:)
Testimony from Testimony Share.
Also, that song thing pretty much blew my mind.
-Dante Writes
