Ah yes, the Holidays... Where to start?

Taken from my earlier blog: For many years, we have all heard that 'this time of the year' is the most depressing time of the year. This article, The Most Depressing Time Of The Year In The Most Depressed Nation On The Planet  had some interesting things to say about 'depression' and 'this time of the year.' To quote part of the article: 

For large numbers of Americans, 

the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas 

is filled with stress, anxiety, loneliness and family squabbles.

Given that this time of the year is the most depressing, a time that probably most people think is supposed to be joyous, why is it so depressing? Is something missing about the Holidays? Why are the periods between Thanksgiving and Christmas filled with stress, anxiety, loneliness and family squabbles? Doesn't sound very happy to me...how about you? Do you celebrate the Holidays? Yes or no. And why that choice? I welcome your comments.

In the mean time, I took the liberty to look up some info on the Holidays. Wikipedia had this, in part, to say, under the subheading: Religious holidays: Many holidays are linked to faiths and religions (see etymology above). Christian holidays are defined as part of the liturgical year, the chief ones being Easter and Christmas. The Orthodox Christian and Western-Roman Catholic patronal feast day or "name day" are celebrated in each place's patron saint's day, according to the Calendar of saints. Jehovah's Witnesses annually commemorate "The Memorial of Jesus Christ's Death", but do not celebrate other holidays with any religious significance such as Easter, Christmas or New Year's. This holds especially true for those holidays that have combined and absorbed rituals, overtones or practices from non-Christian beliefs into the celebration, as well as those holidays that distract from or replace the worship of Jehovah.

Where do these holidays come from, as they are not teachings put forth from the Bible? Glad you asked. If you do a search for: Origin of Holidays, or search a specific holiday, Google search engine has a plethora of information on where they come from. I like this source, jw.org, because it references the Bible, and as you may have figured out by now, I love the Bible.  

What Does the Bible Really Teach? APPENDIX  Should We Celebrate Holidays? Also included in this Bible Based publication, Chapter 16, Take Your Stand for True Worship, starting at paragraph 6, helps us as well: CHRISTMAS-NOT CELEBRATED BY EARLY CHRISTIANS. 

I truly feel this information is benificial to you if you are such that you have a genuine desire to be a follower of Christ, and you truly want to benifit from Bible teaching, and want to bring your life into harmony with what the Bible Teaches, not what man teaches, traditions without Biblical backing. But don't just take my word for it. Search these things out for yourself to see if they are supported by the Bible.

A reader asked me, do Jehovah's Witnesses celebrate the Holidays? Giving that the Holiday's do not have their origins in the Bible, we, Jehovah's Witnesses, I, do not celebrate the holidays. But I ask you, do you celebrate the Holidays? Yes? No? Why? I welcome your comments.

Google Music just lost me as a paying customer (Venting)

I wrote:

"Houston, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!!! Hey Google people, just thought you should know that you are loosing me as a paying customer. Why? Music is my life. I am willing to pay for the songs I love, you however, have put restriction on MY music that I have ALREADY PAID for and I am not able to enjoy my greatest passion anymore. Why? Because the music I PAID FOR is not storing on my electronic devices, and listening to MY music that I PAID FOR is Internet dependant as it Streams. That's just not right. Why? I live in the country, country living has restrictions, both TV and Internet. My Internet has MB restrictions, so I am limited on what I can download and, yes, stream. When I try to listen to my music, I keep getting these errors that say my selection is not available at this time. Very frustrating! Very megabyte costly!

My husband wants me to find a music provider that will allow the music to be downloaded onto my electronic devices, I told him I thought that's what I got when I signed up with Google. Apparently I was wrong. So I will no longer continue to buy music from you. I will keep my account open so that I don't lose the music I have but because it streaming it isn't really going to do me much good to have this music because I'm not going to be able to enjoy it because of the megabyte restrictions. You have ruined my music experience, just thought you should know.

A short while ago my son told me that he found out that he couldn't listen to his Google Music unless he had internet and he swore he would never buy another song from you. I guess the same thing is happening to me as well.

If you ever get this problem fixed, and music is able to be downloaded to electronic devices, that will be a good thing. I just don't know if I'll ever know about it."

So there it is folks.
Was I to harsh?
What do you think?
Do you have the same problem?

Paris portraits: In their own words

From the CNN web page.

I have always felt that a picture says so much. What it the expression? A picture is worth 1000 words? Well, I was finally able to look through the photos. There weren't as many as I previously thought. The photos said volumes to me, and the comments say equally as much.

The photo and comments from Awa Diabate really spoke to me. She says:

 "I am a Muslim and starting to doubt my religion when..."

Wow... Terrorism effects so many people on so many levels. To doubt one's religion. That is a sad thing, I think. You know that religion isn't doing something right when people doubt the one they're in. IJS...

I am eager to see what you think of them.

Survivors of the carnage in Paris: What they saw, what they felt, and what they carry (From CNN)

It has been a week, yes? since the Terrorist attacks on Paris. It is still everywhere on the news. Different things handled in different was, from hunting down the responsible to refusing refugees to dealing with the loss to living through it again and again for the survivors.

I was on the CNN website, scrolling through the world report, saw reported news on Paris, and came across this title: Survivors of the carnage in Paris: What they saw, what they felt, and what the carry. I clicked on the link and started reading the stories of the survivors. The top stories are of survivors from the concert. There are so many stories that I have not taken the time to read them all. As I read their stories, I can only imagine how hard it is for them to find words to describe what they went through.

Of course, WHY? is always a question asked. And earlier this week, one of my friends posted a link to a Bible publication that was talking about Why Good Things Happen To Bad People? And really, WHY? is always a question asked. So I found the link for you.

The opening paragraph was so special to me:

God does not cause bad things to happen. Does he, though, incite others to commit vile deeds? Not at all. “When under trial,” state the Scriptures, “let no one say: ‘I am being tried by God.’” Why? Because “with evil things God cannot be tried, nor does he himself try anyone.” James 1:13 God does not try, or test, anyone by inciting him to behave badly. God neither causes bad things to happen nor incites others to do what is bad. Who or what, then, is to blame when bad things happen?

The reason this paragraph is special to me is because of the mentioned scripture in the book of James. When I was growing up, my dad used to talk about a God of Love, yet, my sister and I were threatened with Hell Fire punishment if we continued to do bad things. I started to reason within my self, 'How can God be a god of love yet punish bad people forever in Hell?' So at around the age of 16, I turned my back on God. I didn't want to have any part of a God like that! It wasn't until 2006 that I started to Really Learn about God using the Book, What Does the Bible Really Teach? In Chapter 1 paragraph 7, under the subheading IS GOD UNCARING AND HARDHEARTED? I came across that scripture in the book of James, and I said to myself, 'There's the God that I've been looking for.' And just like that, I knew there was a God of Love. (Only one other time did I say to myself, 'There's the God I've been looking for,' and that was when I read the Book of Jonah, but that subject can be tabled for a later discussion.)

Where was this guidance when I was growing up? (For my parents)

Welcome back, once again, my beautiful readers.
I hope that you plan on having a great day, because I do! :-)

I was not raised as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, although, as a child, I remember the Witnesses calling on my parents when we lived in Wyoming, out on 40 acres, basically squatters, under the guise that my Father was a Missionary trying to religiously reach the population on the Indian Reservations. So I grew up in a religious family, but it wasn't until reaching my late 20's did I realize that it was a religiously divided family. My father was Pentecostal, my mother, well, I am not sure what her religious affiliation is... I just know it differed from dad's. At any rate, many years later, Jehovah's Witnesses helped me learn what the Bible really says about maters, using the study guide, What Does the Bible Really Teach? And yes, I learned many things from the Bible with that book that my religious parents didn't teach, either because they didn't know, or they were just following their religiously taught traditions from man.

On reflection, there was a lot of negativity in our family. Rules, Rules, Rules, degrading talk, threats of going to Hell if we weren't good, talk of worthlessness, (my dad's favorite thing to say to my sis and I was, "you'll never amount to anything,") whippings for every time we did something bad, always a harsh word for wrong doing, (always from dad, mom never seems to say much of anything,) never an explanation of why we should do the right thing.

All of that brings me to the reason for this Blog, and the reason for the Question asked by me in the Title of this Blog, Where was this guidance when I was growing up?

How to Praise Children

After reading this article, I felt I should share it with others, because I truly believe that parental guidance through love accomplishes more that guidance through harshness and negativity. One paragraph in particular touched my heart:

Give constructive criticism. When given in the right manner, negative feedback will help a child, not crush his spirit. Also, if you regularly give appropriate praise, likely your child will welcome feedback on how he can further improve. Then his achievements will become a source of satisfaction both to him and to you.—Bible principle: Proverbs 13:4.

Enjoyed what you read?
Feel free to share this blog.

All of us as parents have been given the responsibility from Jehovah God of raising our children to the best of our ability. It is my hope that after reading the above article, parents will be able to nurture their children to good deeds and fine works.

The following is supplemental information:

The Secret of Family Happiness - Book (Free Download)

The Simplified Edition of The Watchtower—Helping to Teach Children (Video)