I Believe......................

I believe in peace. I believe in kindness. I believe in beauty inside and out. I believe that every living being has a right to exist on this earth. I believe that God made us all, I believe He made this world and everything in it and that we have no right to destroy that. I believe that to turn the other cheek is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength of character. I believe in love, in loving other people of loving our family and friends more than ourselves....but I believe we must also love and forgive ourselves as we forgive others. I believe in God's love, in His word and in His ability to change our lives. I believe His strength can sustain us when we have no strength left. I believe He will give us our basic needs and often gives us much more than we deserve. I believe His angels watch over us and aid us in times of trouble. I believe material things are fun but not necessary to make us happy. I believe our joy comes from within, from a clear conscience and a loving heart. I believe that often its the little things that give us joy and often little things that hurt us more than the big things, so I believe we should be careful of our words. Words have power to hurt more and do more harm than the physical. It often takes us a long time to realize that, and it takes us a long time to recover from verbal abuse. Be kind in your criticism and do not use words to hurt another. I believe that if a person is cruel to animals they are not good people inside where it counts. If they can look into an animals eyes and not have compassion then they are not worthy of my respect. When I look into the eyes of my own animal friends I see nothing but trust and love and some wise person once said "I wish I could be the person that my dog thinks I am" Life is not a do over, at least not on this earth and so we need to teach our children well and teach them that their name and characters count. I believe in caring for the elderly, the sick and the poor. I believe in respecting the belief and faith of others even if I think they are wrong. God gave us free will, freedom to choose and I can do no less even as I wish to save their soul. I believe that is done by showing that I have something worthy, that they might want in their own lives. I believe that is not achieved by a Holier than Thou attitude or threats of hellfire. I believe the Holy Spirit is here to do that. I believe that by trying to live a good life, by hopefully showing by example, by giving what I can and doing what I can to help other people they may see a shadow of Gods love in my life. My entire existence is dependent upon Him, He helps me through the hard times. He uplifts me in times of trouble. He gives me all I need even while I know I do not deserve it. I am unworthy of His love but I feel His love all around me every day. I see His love in the beauty of this world as well as the horror of what life is like without Him in it. I believe that even in those places it seems God has abandoned one can find a glimmer of hope and find Him if people care to look. His Spirit is everywhere around us until that day that we are all called back to Him..... but no man knows that day and time and so I believe that we must do the best we can while we are here. In small ways and big, in opportunities that are presented to us we can change the world. Sometimes it just takes one person to make a difference. If each one who believes in Gods grace would stand up and just do what is right when the opportunity presents itself, then we leave a better place behind us. The bad things in this life are not here so much because of bad people, but because good people stand by and do nothing..........Take a deep breath and just do it.