Truth, the Ideal Persuader

As we look at many of our friends, family members, and the world around us we cannot deny that genuine happiness has evaded the great masses of the world. In it’s place has come many temporary satisfaction through many false influences.

Author, Catherine Marshall said it well.

“I have observed that when any of us embarks on the pursuit of happiness for ourselves, it eludes us. Often I’ve asked myself why. It must be because happiness comes to us only as a dividend.”

True happiness, in my opinion and my experience as a Christian, comes from God as a result of a right standing with Him through His Son, Jesus.

I hope you have that happiness.

Someone told me years ago that dogs do not reason (think). I always believed it and when I considered anyone’s dog I didn’t think much about the tricks they learned. Any dog can learn tricks. Not until Butch and Buffy came into my life did my opinion change. These two Jack Russell territories were amazing. Sweet brother and sister, and both fighting for dominance. (Photo: My niece Laura with Butch and Buffy)

I began watching how they seemed to know the things I was saying and doing. Like when I would ask my husband, “Do you want some popcorn,” they would get all excited and start happily scurrying to follow me into the kitchen. Ordinarily I could go and come from a room without them doing anything, but not when the word popcorn was said. I didn’t think much of it, but I did tease and say the word popcorn occasionally just to watch them get excited. If I spelled the word to my husband, they stayed quiet, but when the wonderful smell of popcorn hit their nose, up and away!

 

One evening Buffy showed just how smart she is. We amazingly saw that she does think and can reason. Here’s the story:

Butch was sitting with my husband on a recliner in our den. Buffy would not dare to intrude, she knew better. But she desperately wanted to get up in that chair and sit with her Papa. We noticed her standing in the middle of the room, looking at Butch as though she needed to do something to get him off her Papa’s lap. Truly, I had no idea she was thinking and reasoning what to do. She turned and left the room and went to the front door and started barking, as though someone was there. No one was there, but immediately Butch jumped out of the recliner and raced to the door to see who it was. While he charged to the door, Buffy ran into the den and jumped up on the recliner and into my husband’s lap. My husband and I looked at each other in amazement and said, Wow.

Poor duped Butch walked back into the den and stood there looking up at Buffy sitting there like queen of the recliner. If dogs could talk I’m sure Butch wanted to say, “Don’t try that again”

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It was a rainy day and I was trying to ward off a slight blue feeling. It seemed that the world and me were not laughing as much as we used to.

In the book: Seeds of Greatness by Dennis Waitley, he claimed that laughing increases endorphins and other good hormones that make a person feel good. I think he’s right. That rain day I was thinking about some amusing things that have happened down through the years, things that remain as funny memories and I got good feelings as I chuckled.

I thought about a time long ago when my husband and I decided that a little dog would be good for our six year old son, Maxie. The three of us went down to the dog pound and searched out the cutest dog there.

He was fluffy and just the right size. We brought the dog home and named it Boots. Sadly, Boots wasn’t working out. He was extremely hyper and untrainable. Maybe Caesar Millan could have trained him, but this pooch was too much for us. We couldn’t get him to do anything but eat and snap at us. Before taking the dog back, we had a serious talk with Maxie, to make sure he understood the reason the animal had to be returned.

About 3 weeks later I was doing some gardening near the front of our house, while Maxie was playing on the sidewalk with a friend. I heard a slow-moving truck coming down the street. Lo and behold it was the dog catcher traveling slow and looking for abandoned dogs. As the truck passed our house, Maxie took off running after it. I called to him but he kept running, so I dropped my garden hoe and ran to stop him. A neighbor joined me.

“Why are you running after the dog catcher?” I asked Maxie, grabbing his arm to stop him. He put the most serious pout on his face, and said, “I wanted to ask him if he could bring back my Boots.” I didn’t dare laugh because this was a serious thing to my young six-year-old. But later telling my husband about this, we both had a good laugh, although realizing that Maxie needed another dog. The scene was never forgotten, and several years later our entire family – including grown-up Maxie – had lots of laughs recalling this scene, and embellishing it every time it was remembered.

I felt better that rainy day as I laughed and thought of this. My spirit lifted and I began to feel the blues fade away. Truly, life is just plain better when you can laugh.

I hope you find many things in your life to laugh about. Share on one in the “Comment” box.

Laughter is good medicine.

Is it possible to morph – to change your personality? I’m not talking about transgender. I’m talking about changing your behavior and personality to please yourself and make you feel good about yourself. Can a person try on different characters and gain who they want to be? Believe me, I’ve tried it many times. Did it work? Maybe for a moment or two.

To be honest, sometimes in social events, I end up feeling like I am in a toxic workplace rather than enjoying conversation and fun. I’m sure you have been there too. Most likely we’re all playing a role depending on the situation. So when forced to be something I’m not I hide my discontent and remain on stage and play a role. The big smile comes out, I give the bear hug and plant the kiss on the cheek. The real “me” is not always in operation.

You and I can only guarantee that the real “us” will be in operation when we are with people we feel safe to be ourselves. But even alone, sometimes the real person is not there.

The sad thing is that some of the people who are in our lives tend to make us fall into the traits about ourselves we want to change. Over and over again we try to accommodate our best wishes, but can’t change. It’s the same principle why diets don’t work and the fat comes back. We can’t change our traits and urges, or stop them from creeping up on us.

For me, simply surviving is not enough. I want peace and joy. The answer to this dilemma is in the Bible. The Apostle Paul said: “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. It is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Oh wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me? CHRIST JESUS! (Romans 7: 24 & 25 paraphrased)

We will never be perfect no matter how hard we try. We will never be satisfied with ourselves. If we could, Jesus would never have gone to the cross. For sure, we need to strive to be like Christ, but depend on His saving grace when we fail.  

Established Social norms are probably the most effective way to manipulate human behavior. They govern general customs, laws, and fads – even beliefs and attitudes. Their best intent is to bring functioning order to society, however, the negative effects are that they cause conformity. But something bigger than established social norms is well on its way.

Move over and make way for Artificial Intelligence (AI) which promises to not only influence social norms, but will influence your business and your life, maybe even the way you vote.

AI seems like the greatest invention of science, but the downfall is that depending on which type of intelligence the individual desires…..digital or palliative…..a person’s beliefs and convictions can be highly influenced to be what the machine articulates. In other words, what it has been programed to tell you.

My intent in this short article is to caution people to beware of satanic manipulation. By that I mean, things that are not of truth, and are not of God and the laws He has set down. Beware of habitual/persistent guff and terminology that pretends to cast logic, but in true reality is false. The human mind is a powerful thing, and constant progressive influences in business, government, social norms – and yes, even a personal character – can be manipulated. Without realizing, the person will wake up to find that they’re obeying a machine — running their business by someone else’s influence and dancing to a completely different orchestra than what they desired.

Artificial Intelligence will eventually become the giant that takes over the human mind and sets itself up as the world’s only god. It could become your god. Search it out. Be careful. Know who you are and what you believe.