Not what happens TO you, but IN you

How can taking care of your body and knowing your strengths & weaknesses help build your confidence? Let's talk about it!

Being friends with the opposite sex when you're in a relationship/ married So this is a question I think you have to answer for yourself and with your partner both before and after you get into a relationship. It spans from basically being a non issue to being the reason people split up. What are your boundaries or lack thereof with the opposite sex currently and how/would they change if you got into a relationship? Once you got into a relationship would you expect your partner to change? For example, if you're a woman and you start dating a guy who has a lot of female friends whom he hangs out with on a regular basis? Would you be comfortable with that? Should you be expected to be comfortable with that? Say, they tell you they're uncomfortable with that, how much should you be expected to pull back? Let's get into this

Want to be more effective? Listen as I put my own spin on Stephan R. Covey's 7 habits of highly effective people.

I know for most of us, at the very least this last year was annoying as heck and completely crippling at worst. I know we all have been affected by the events of this last year and in a lot of ways are going to be dealing with the after math for a long time. What I want to say today has a higher than normal chance to hurt some feelings. I want to preface that this is for a specific audience. I will try to be as compassionate as possible, but I also must speak truth as I see it. And even beyond that, know that not every battle is yours. Not every message is meant for you. You don't have to pick up everything that comes across your path. Sometimes the best weapon is not that of a slashing sword but one of peace and joy. I know it sounds like a hallmark card, but I find this lesson to be true more than not. On that note, I hope that you can hear my heart.

So I grew up in church. I've been a Christian since I was like 7, I went to Bible college for 3 years, so I've heard a lot of teachings about the bible over my short life. I certainly am no where close to knowing everything but I've certainly learned a few things. I'm starting a series where I talk about topics in the bible that I think are widely misunderstood or misinterpreted by either christians or non christians. Let's start with a fun one. So growing up in the church I heard all the time that God hates divorce and that you should never get divorced….. Except if someone has an extra marital affair. Also, by no means at all am I trying to judge or condemn you if you're divorced. I come from a divorced household and I've experienced firsthand how painful it is and I don't wish it on anyone and I would not be so cruel as to throw that in your face. That being said, my heart here is simply to shine some light on how the bible talks about divorce. Seems right. I think anyone who has gone through a divorce would tell you, they don't recommend it. But specifically, most of the church, at least that I've seen, only condones divorce in the case of sexual immorality but they really just mean in the case of an affair. And you know, Having an affair is terrible and painful situation. So when I heard this I just accepted this for a long time.and the message just got driven into my head, don't get divorced, unless there's an affair in which case you should get a divorce. But the older I got, and especially after I got into a serious relationship, the more this didn't make sense to me. So does that mean all other sin in marriage is meant to be tolerated? What if your spouse abuses you? Your children? Is lazy is arrogant, all that flies but sexual immorality doesn't? Since there are so many things that seemed to be equally terrible why was just this one thing listed? That's not something that would be overlooked. So to me, it seemed like you should either, with gods blessing, be able to get divorced under an entire list of things or over not really anything at all. So let's get into the scriptures.

We all have a style and here they are. Pursuers, distances, underfunctioners, overfunctioners, and blamers. Which one are you? https://joemcfadden.blog/2016/08/24/five-anger-management-styles/

What is mental health social media teaching us? Is it creating a more toxic and PC culture?

You can't help what cards the world hands you, but you can control how you respond to it. You can control your own thoughts and behaviors. 

So when you look at your work life, your friendships, your family, are you happy whne they get that propmotion, when they get into a relationship, when they're seeing progress in an area you've been working towards. The thing is they also become an incredible resource to you, for knowledge, for connections, and when you're jealous you cut them up, metaphorically, you are telling your subconscious that you don't want to be like them, you know how hard it is to become like what you don't like? Imagine if you told yourself things like, I knew it was possible. Look, someone I know has done it, I can do it too, I should ask them what their secrets are, I'm going to priase the pants off them for all the work they've done and send a message to myself that I will get there too, it's just a matter of time.

Don't let your worst weeks be the standard for your life. Let it be a moment that passes and start new. Let your best week be the new standard and grow from there.