Focusing on the positive

Events occurring and how they relate/affect Anabaptist faith and culture.
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Robert
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Focusing on the positive

Post by Robert »

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/07/ ... world.html
Latin America and South America have many of the world's happiest countries, partly because "the cultural tendency in the region to focus on life’s positives," according to the Gallup report. Here are the world's happiest nations, with their positive experience index scores:

Paraguay, 84
Costa Rica, 83
Panama, 82
Philippines, 82
Uzbekistan, 82
Ecuador, 81
Guatemala, 81
Mexico, 81
Norway, 81
Chile, 80
Colombia, 80
MennoNet is not listed. Could be we focus on the wrong thing? Just a thought.
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Re: Focusing on the positive

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Robert wrote:http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/07/ ... world.html
Latin America and South America have many of the world's happiest countries, partly because "the cultural tendency in the region to focus on life’s positives," according to the Gallup report. Here are the world's happiest nations, with their positive experience index scores:

Paraguay, 84
Costa Rica, 83
Panama, 82
Philippines, 82
Uzbekistan, 82
Ecuador, 81
Guatemala, 81
Mexico, 81
Norway, 81
Chile, 80
Colombia, 80
MennoNet is not listed. Could be we focus on the wrong thing? Just a thought.
My guess is that the less access many countries have to the media which, imo, majors on the negative, the happier people will be. Having all the woes of this world in my face, certainly doesn't do anything positive for my happiness.
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Joy
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Re: Focusing on the positive

Post by Joy »

Not surprised to see the Philippines listed here. The people there struck me as happy and friendly. You'd see and hear groups of adults laughing for so long you'd keep looking over to see if it was kids playing. And they are poor by our standards.
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temporal1
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Re: Focusing on the positive

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one difference i notice in my life is how folks used to rely far more on approaching life with an attitude of gratitude for life, for the new day, for each meal, for health to work and endure, for strength to cope with pain, illness, burdens of all description. formerly, it seemed more common for people to remember perspective of their daily problems .. esp how others were more tested or burdened ..

when our days are aporoached with a core attitude of gratefulness, the positive floats to the top.
Joy wrote:Not surprised to see the Philippines listed here. The people there struck me as happy and friendly. You'd see and hear groups of adults laughing for so long you'd keep looking over to see if it was kids playing. And they are poor by our standards.
great example, and, one that resonates, even in developed countries. many folks who achieve material wealth look back on humble beginnings as their happiest years .. it's not at all uncommon.

i look back on my life in astonishment at the many things i've experienced.

i would guess, "statistics" would not have projected a very nice future for me .. i find it hard to believe all the experiences, places, people i've been privileged to know and interact with .. including on this forum! it's astonishing.

but, really, i do admire the faith and dignity of former generations. under so much more difficult circumstances, they - managed. i believe much of their incentive was to create a better life for those following. faith and gratitude were important incentives to carry on.

strange how so many today who so freely inherited so much have such disregard for it.
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Josh
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Re: Focusing on the positive

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A good start is to find things to be grateful about with the present generation, instead of "People used to so much better / hard working / grateful than people are now".

I am really seeing the fruit of this negative, nasty attitude with my own generation and the upcoming one. They are a beaten down generation that just hears over and over that they are no good, lazy, overweight bunch of young people, and they also constantly hear bad news about the economy - everything will be more expensive for them, no jobs will be there for them.

No wonder so many of them don't even try. Let's find positive things to see about the present and the future, instead of romanticising the past.

160 years ago, some of my friends' ancestors were slaves. The past wasn't very good for them - at all.
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Re: Focusing on the positive

Post by Joy »

temporal1 wrote:
but, really, i do admire the faith and dignity of former generations. under so much more difficult circumstances, they - managed. i believe much of their incentive was to create a better life for those following. faith and gratitude were important incentives to carry on.

strange how so many today who so freely inherited so much have such disregard for it.
Right. Older generations have much for us to learn from. Prov. 16:31 The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.

Josh, I suspect that many slaves who were children of the King were happier than their rich owners. Certainly happier than their descendants that don't know the Lord, nor have learned contentment.
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Re: Focusing on the positive

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I often remember the times everyone else was negative, but seem to forget the times I am. Yes, I rationalize often.
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temporal1
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Re: Focusing on the positive

Post by temporal1 »

Joy wrote:
temporal1 wrote: but, really, i do admire the faith and dignity of former generations. under so much more difficult circumstances, they - managed. i believe much of their incentive was to create a better life for those following. faith and gratitude were important incentives to carry on.

strange how so many today who so freely inherited so much have such disregard for it.
Right. Older generations have much for us to learn from.
Prov. 16:31 The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.

Josh, I suspect that many slaves who were children of the King were happier than their rich owners. Certainly happier than their descendants that don't know the Lord, nor have learned contentment.
yes, Joy, this is just what i was thinking of, and you touched on it in your post above.
(in my observation) the big difference is that former generations, with faith+hope, often because of Jesus, had palpable hope in all situations, some extremely dire. examples are of former actual slavery; the examples that first+most frequently pops into my head are accounts from Holocaust survivors. those folks, as we see on films from concentration camps, show people that by any human thinking "should have been dead," but they held onto life! .. we witness others dying (or, like today, commiting suicide) - who have ever-so-much-more! the one difference (i see) is lack of deep gratitude, and faith.

we are expecting young people, and all people, to survive without faith and hope.
this is emptiness for the human soul. spiritual starvation.

today's young people get messages they are to be victims, and, they never have "enough."
additionally, they receive messages that those who prosper are evil, and that they should take from those people .. in the least, that those who prosper should be obligated by human law to (not prosper.)

human law does not feed the spirit.
but, today, young people receive messages that all their needs should be met - by force of human law.
the spirit is ignored.

but, what did Jesus offer? .. hope, faith; He fed the spirit! spirit first, all else follows.

i have read for years that the suicide rate is high in (socialist) countries like France and Denmark, where they have so many fabulous life benefits guaranteed by government! how can this be? ..
i don't have answers about why? .. but, i see that it is, and, notice the gaping hole of spiritual starvation .. which formerly carried people through literal hell on earth.

i may not have found good words to describe what's on my mind.
i hope, good enough. :-|

in the past, these accounts were shared in homes, supported, repeated, taught in more detail in schools and churches. they were important life lessons.

i have the impression this no longer exists, that all of it has been exchanged for .. victim lessons.

victims are rewarded with gov incentives. as long as there are rewards for victims, people vie to prove they are "the biggest victims." folk tales are of victims rewarded with millions, not earned, but awarded, because they proved they were victims of injustice.

formerly, the reward was basic physical survival, the chance to live freely, the opp to work.
the opp to worship as one would choose. these were the great rewards.

many loudly claiming to be poor victims today, are fat (i.e., well fed and strong) healthy, well dressed, they own vehicles, have shelter, all sorts of techy devices, games, entertainment, they read and have been educated - they lack for no material thing! - yet they clamor in streets demanding "more!"

their spirits are starving.
they do not know the happiness that comes with gratitude for "enough," they have no peace or faith in something more than the moment's pleasure.

secular government attempts to provide "all things" for life, squeezing out the most important aspect: nourishing the spirit. results are not good. not in the U.S., or elsewhere. humans need substance.

Jesus emphasized this for us. He offered Life in all circumstances, even in the most dire.
secularists ignore this. it doesn't hold up. human reasoning does not hold up.

yesterday, i listened to a sermon on Matthew 6:6. it was very good.
Matthew 6:6
But you, when you pray, enter into your closet and lock your door, and pray to your father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you in public.
the emphasis was on the importance of intimate intentional worship. that this is where we find direction, peace, fulfillment. (not clamoring to government for "more.")

but, anyone reading this would already know. :oops:
Robert wrote:I often remember the times everyone else was negative, but seem to forget the times I am. Yes, I rationalize often.
i was a middle child. :)
as a child, i noticed, it could feel really good to bop my younger brother now+then. :D
so freeing+refreshing!
it did NOT feel good when, as he got older, he bopped back! :shock:

it is strange how that works.
why would God allow us to have pleasure in something that - is not going to work out?!
bopping others doesn't work out. a lot of things we can do - do not work out.

i am writing too much this morning. :-| :blah:
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Re: Focusing on the positive

Post by Bootstrap »

temporal1 wrote:today's young people get messages they are to be victims, and, they never have "enough."
...
i have the impression this no longer exists, that all of it has been exchanged for .. victim lessons.
I don't think that's only the young, and I don't think it's at all rare in Christian circles. Can we find ways to gently call this out in each other when one of us falls into that trap?

What's the opposite of victimhood? What kinds of behaviors should we be encouraging in each other?
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Re: Focusing on the positive

Post by Josh »

Let's find something positive to say about young people today and the future generation.
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