I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution. I suggest we all shop at Sears, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement it well deserves.

Pass it on.Decided to check this before I sent it forward. So I sent the following e-mail to the Sears Customer Service Department: 

I received this e-mail and I would like to know if it is true. If it is, the Internet may have just become one very good source of advertisement for your company. I know I would go out of my way to buy products from Sears instead of another store for a like item, even if it’s cheaper at that store. 

This is their answer to my e-mail:

Dear Customer:Thank you for contacting Sears.The information is factual. We appreciate your positive feedback.

Bill Thorn
Sears Customer Care
webcenter@sears.com 
1-800-349-4358 

Sears needs to be recognized for this outstanding contribution and we need to show them as Americans, we do appreciate what they are doing for our military!!! It’s Verified ! By Snopes.com at: 
? ? 
http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/sears.asp ? (shows the entire article)

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Confrontation
 

Here are three principles that outline a way to gently confront. The other person is far more apt to receive your comments when he or she hears them expressed through these three principles.

1. Learn to express your feelings through three loving attitudes: warmth, empathy, and sincerity. These are common words, but what do they mean? Warmth is the friendly acceptance of a person. Empathy is the ability to understand and identify with a person’s feelings. Sincerity is showing a genuine concern for a person without changing your attitude toward him when circumstances change.
2. Learn to share your feelings when angry or irritated without using “you” statements and instead replacing them with “I feel” statements.
3. Learn to wait until your anger or feelings of irritability have subsided before you begin to discuss a sensitive issue.

No one likes to be criticized, regardless of how much truth lies behind the criticism. Whether, we are male or female, six or sixty, when someone corrects us, we automatically become defensive. Yet honest communication is vital to any relationship. These two basic truths appear contradictory. How do you honestly tell the one you love about something you find displeasing or aggravating without prompting, that familiar, defensive glare or indifferent shrug?

Lord, help me express myself in such a way that my loved one knows deeply of my love and admiration.

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Proverbs 15:1

© Copyright 2006 Smalley Relationship Center

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We argue over family rules … help! Every family operates by certain “rules.” These rules make up “the way our family does things,” and cover all kinds of topics—what we eat, what TV programs we watch, how we observe holidays (for example, do we open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?), and how we communicate. Many marital arguments have gone fifteen rounds to see whose family rule will win out in the new marriage. All families need rules or boundaries of some kind. But the challenge is: Who decides the rules? Families can adopt biblical rules, “principles of the Lord,” like not letting the sun go down on anger and being kind to one another. These types of family guidelines can be safely passed through generations. But not all family rules are worth retaining. Some family rules—written or unwritten—can devastate a family. We decided early on to agree on some simple guidelines for our family … and the rules include mom and dad. One of our rules is that we honor God in every way we can. Instead of dictating the rules as our kids got older, we asked them to think of ways we can honor God, and then we wrote them down. We created a family contract so that the kids understood both the blessings and the consequences of our family rules. We involved them in deciding the consequences and adjusted those with their ages. The key was we loved them, blessed them, and guided the development of their hearts. Make a list with your spouse and pray about creating a family contract today!

Blessings,

Gary Smalley
Editor, Smalley Relationship Center

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Has the election created strife?

Are you at odds with family members or friends? Maybe it’s because of the election results or just a decision someone made. Do you often feel as if you win—or lose—in those relationships?

In your relationship with God, it’s important to allow him to be God. He’s the one who chooses kings and rulers in his sovereign plan. He’s the one who guides our lives. We don’t have to live in fear. We can be at perfect peace by trusting in him for our future and happiness in life. That frees us to love others with the love of Christ … and to pray for our leaders.

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Top 10 Predictions No Matter Who Wins the Election

1. The Bible will still have all the answers.
2. Prayer will still work.
3. The Holy Spirit will still move.
4. God will still inhabit the praises of His people.
5. There will still be God-anointed preaching.
6. There will still be singing of praise to God.
7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people.
8. There will still be room at the Cross.
9. Jesus will still love you.
10. Jesus will still save the lost when they come to Him.

Isn’t it great to know who is really in control?
– Sent in my Myna (thank you!)

from RestMinistries newsletter… sign-up today

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 by Don Uslan, MA, MBA, LMHC

Seattle WA

…People with fibromyalgia (FM)and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)often face special predicaments thatkeep them from fully enjoying this timeof year. Turn a new leaf, and do whatyou can to prevent your less-thanperfecthealth from putting a damperon the season’s festivities. Gear up tohave a ball this year by reading thefollowing common scenarios andadvice on how to handle them.Scenario: Company is coming, thehouse is a mess, and you don’t havethe energy to pick up. How are yougoing to get your house cleaned?You can suggest that the familygatherings take place at someoneelse’s home, but you believe thatyear after year of not hosting buildsresentment toward you. You feelawful when you have to say NObecause you want to see your familytoo. As a result, the holidays are atime of feeling badly about yourself,

and how can you look forward to that?

read more…

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Dogs Know Things
by Suzette Brawner
02/26/07

I have always had a dog. I really don’t remember life without a dog, until now. Our 15-year-old Labrador retriever died last fall and we haven’t tried to replace her. I heard once that you aren’t a real empty nester until all the kids are gone and the dog dies. I guess I now officially fit into the empty nester category.

read more…

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“Life has been so hard, I don’t even want to get out of bed in the morning.”

Pain and suffering are not meant to kill or destroy you, they are meant to strengthen your faith.

When I was thirty-five years old, there was a time I was so depressed from what I thought life had “dealt” me, that all I wanted was to crawl under the covers and never show my face again.

I blamed all my miseries on this job, and that person, and those circumstances. I can remember being so discouraged over a heart-breaking ministry situation that I lay upstairs in my daughter Kari’s room, not eating for almost four days. Each of my children would come up and try to encourage me, but I’d just tell them to go away—I didn’t want to face anyone or anything. Norma did her best to break me out of the doldrums as well, but for days I stayed in a darkened room, alone with my misery.

Finally, I remember telling my wife that I had made an important decision. I was getting out of the ministry. I didn’t want any part of all the stress and broken promises I’d faced, and I was going to leave and get into some other kind of work.

read more…

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Unshakable

by Dianne Bundt

Editor

DJ Online News

“Another Massive Drop for Markets,” screams one headline on my internet news page as I write this article. “Time for Some Fear,” announces another. That suggestion comes a little late. Watching the markets tumble and the financial crisis deepen over the past few weeks have made it hard not to fear. It seems the sky, at least the economic sky, is falling in around us and nobody really knows how to stop it.

And yet, despite moments of very real worry, I have been drawing strange comfort from what’s happening. A passage I came upon recently in Hebrews captures the reason:

“He has promised, ‘Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ The words ‘once more’ indicate the removing of what can be shaken–that is, created things–so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful” (12:26-28). 

These verses describe a universal shaking–one unimaginably greater than the current economic turmoil. If I were writing about such an event, you can be sure there would be a healthy dose of panic in my words. Yet the writer of Hebrews doesn’t see a reason for terror. Rather, he implies that the massive upheaval is deeply good: God is removing all the worthless stuff that’s cluttering up the world so that only the things of lasting valuable will remain. He’s shaking the dirt out of an expensive oriental rug, so to speak. 

As I consider the losses and difficulties that may result from the financial crisis, these verses remind me that there are two categories of things: the temporary and the eternal. They show me again the folly of resting the weight of my hope and security on shaky constructions of this world. And they invite me to lean harder into the things I’ve received that cannot be shaken: my relationship with God and the promises He has given me. Grabbing on to those isn’t easy. But they’re the best refuge I’ve found in the midst of these uncertain times. 

I pray that you, too, would experience the strange comfort of allowing temporal losses to strengthen your grip on that which will remain. For as the writer of Hebrews reminds us, ”God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid’” (13:5-6).

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Pain Relief Dog Available
Friday, September 19, 2008

FMOnline vol. 8, no. 9

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