DALANEL

Monday Motivation: Forgive

Uh-oh.

Forgiveness.

I want to push you to forgive those that have wronged you. Understand that forgiving is not the same as accepting.

Forgiveness is for the victim more than the offender, especially if the offender doesn’t even realize what he’s done. For instance, you are walking down the street, somebody innocently bumps into you. He says sorry. He didn’t mean it, and he’s sleeping tonight.

You, on the other hand, are pissed off. This bump has now taken over your thoughts for the day and you can somehow connect that bump to all other negative moments of the day.

Inhale. Hold. Exhale.

Let it go. Forgive.

What about the harder things? She stabbed you in the back. You thought you were friends. Yet, she went and did that. She hasn’t apologized, so I guess you don’t have to forgive her, right? Well, this isn’t going to be a sermon, so I’ll leave the Bible out of it…for now.

Don’t be afraid to forgive someone. This doesn’t mean you approve of what the person did. For instance, someone may get shot by some guy who decided to shoot up a school. Now, forgiving him means that you’re no longer holding this against him. It is what it is, and you’re attempting to move on. Give yourself peace. However, you don’t accept or approve of this. Why is that? Well, most likely, you wouldn’t go have a cup of coffee with this person. You’ve moved on, but you’re also done with that person.

So, I encourage you to forgive. It is for you.

-Dante Writes

New Featured Post: Thoughtful Thursday

Hey guys.

So, I had been saying for what has been months that I was thinking about doing a featured post for Thursday. But, what would it be?

After some serious consideration, I came down to two options: Thoughtful Thursday and Thankful Thursday. The biggest issue was that I needed to make sure there was content. I always try to make sure there’s enough content that I can use immediately but also, can this survive months and months and still have original content.

Problem is, I couldn’t figure out what type of content to put in this post.

Thankful Thursday would’ve been something with maybe thankful/gratitude quotes and maybe stories or something. I don’t know. It looked like it was going to be a very specific Monday Motivation because the ultimate idea was to encourage or motivate people to be more thankful and grateful in life. That’s still important, but I felt that and Monday Motivation were calling on the same thing.

Thoughtful Thursday is going to essentially be a continuation of my old featured post “Daily Word”. As you may remember, Daily Word was when I posted a quote and scripture verse. Thoughtful Thursday will include a few quotes aimed to make us think.

Of course, I’m not the first to do this, so in no way am I claiming this is a DALANEL original. Also, I may or may not add my own thoughts to the quotes/posts.

Anyway, Thoughtful Thursday will fill out the week. I have an odd obsession with having the day of the week in the title of the feature. Next up is Saturday. I don’t know if that’ll happen, but if it does, of course it’ll follow in line with the blog’s ultimate goal.

Remember?

Bringing a positive spin to the world.

I think Thoughtful Thursday stays true to that.

This is gonna be so corny: Let me know what you think about Thoughtful Thursday? Should I have gone with Thankful Thursday?

-Dante Writes

Wednesday Word: Through Jesus

Sometimes, when I listen to a short sermon, I feel like there’s not too much of an impact. But, there are some videos that I hear that just blow me away.

This was one of them.

It’s a simple message, yet it’s something we can have trouble with.

The gist of this, in case you didn’t get it, was that through Jesus, we are saved. That’s clear.

But, sometimes we don’t understand why that is, and that’s the point of this video. The biggest part was how he explained that we as Christians tend to think that by what we do or don’t do is what determines how God deals with us. Instead, God deals with Jesus.

And, because we are with Jesus, and in Him are of His likeness, God loves us.

It goes back to a point I made in an earlier post I had about how the Holy Spirit in us is what God looks for. God can only be with Himself. We are made in God’s image, but in a spiritual way. Adam and Eve dropped the ball and we died. Jesus came back and gave us life.

When we accept Him, we accept His spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. So, with God in us, we become like God. We exhibit the fruits and gifts of this spirit.

Like I said, God looks for His own because He is simply too perfect for anything less. Since we have God in us, it’s easy for God to say “come on in”. That’s the whole point of Jesus. Jesus came to fix the wrong of Adam and Eve. They were saved. They lost it. Jesus got it back for us.

So, again, it is through Jesus that we have eternal life. We need to understand this. It’s like the law of association. When we associate ourselves with Jesus, we put our stake on Him. We essentially are saying that “whatever Jesus is doing, we’re doing or endorse this”. Jesus treats us the same way. Consider this hypothetical scenario:

Jesus: I love these people.

God: Well, I trust you, Son. If you love them; I’ll love them just the same.

That’s about it. That’s why there’s grace and mercy. Jesus stood up for us. Don’t get it twisted; it’s not like God needed convincing to save us. It’s just the principle. Besides, Jesus and God are the same so who cares who did what? I’m not gonna dive into the trinity. Chill.

So, let’s not worry about our performance. I mean, yeah we need to follow God’s commandments and stuff. But, ultimately, our destiny lies in Jesus.

Now, in the NOT GOING TO HAPPEN scenario that Jesus and God have a falling out, then we’re screwed. Again, we’re hinging on Jesus. If Jesus is no longer the apple of God’s eye, you know we don’t have a chance.

Get it? Luckily for us, Jesus is God, so we’re fine.

-Dante Writes

Tuesday Testimony: Delivered from smoking

I had been smoking for 13 years. I attempted to quit 2 times. Each time was full of headaches, iraitability moments, and strong temptations. When I quit 2 months ago, it was so easy. I really wanted to quit for him. I prayed for help. I had about 5 cravings. Each one only lasted seconds. Every time I started to have a craving I asked Jesus to take it from me, and it was instantly gone. Glory to God! Thank you Jesus!

Testimony from 2 Praise God.

 

Monday Motivation: Encourage someone

Well I guess I’ve officially run out of things to motivate on for the moment. In an earlier motivation, I called for you to motivate somebody else.

Let’s try this again, but with a little more content. Specifically, encourage someone. Your friend. Lover. Momma. Co-worker. If you see someone is feeling down, send a kind word to them. Chances are, all of us know somebody with cancer, sadly. Give that person an encouraging word.

If they don’t take it; too bad. You did your job. Make a sincere effort and sleep well tonight.

There’s a lot of stuff going on in this world that can make ya feel like crap. Well, this blog’s main goal is to encourage. It’s almost a sin that it took me this many motivations before getting to this one.

If we all keep encouraging each other to keep going through the fire, we’ll get through it, or at least bare it better.

Dante Writes

 

Thoughts on Monday Motivation

Monday Motivation has been pretty good. I enjoy writing out the messages. You notice they are typically short and straight to the point. That’s just how I am.

Recent weeks it’s become a challenge to think of areas of motivation. Sometimes I’ll look at quotes on motivation and use those to inspire a post.

What’s funny is that I don’t look back on my posts (that goes for just about everything I’ve written though) so it would seem that I don’t motivate myself, or at least give it a chance.

Monday Motivation is for me too at the same time. As I’m writing it, that’s when it touches me. I think it fits the DALANEL mold so it’s here to stay. This is one featured post that a member of team DALANEL could add to so my mind can rest.

On a performance scale, Monday Motivation does okay out of the four current featured posts. Is it my favorite? I can’t say. What I love about this post though is that, out of the featured posts here, this is the most original. The other three stuff rely on outside sources. My motivations come from the heart.

Future plans of this post are to keep it going. I don’t think it needs a change. I don’t think it needs a shakeup. Maybe one day I’ll do a video motivation but I don’t plan on using outside sources as the primary motivation (ah-hah!) of my posts.

So, do you enjoy the motivations? Has one really got you moving and grooving? Let me know.

-Dante Writes