Tag: Hope

Week #10 – Becoming the Best Possible You

Post author By Mark Joseph
Post date July 8, 2020

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

This is the 10th of our 14-week program, where we provide Lesson #10, Becoming the Best Possible You. Given what we discussed in Lesson #8 (in understanding God’s unconditional love, the unimaginable is achievable), I’m sure it won’t be a surprise that the things I’d suggest in “becoming the best possible you” are rooted in our faith.

In Chapters 9 and 10 in my book, I provide a litany of things that not only help us grow in faith, but will lead to a life of peace, joy, and fulfillment. Today I’d like to talk about two. Although they may not appear overly “sexy”, they’ve changed my life. They include:

Prayer
Spiritual Reading

Give me a chance here. Let’s review each individually.

Prayer

First, if you struggle with prayer, know that you’re not alone. Almost everyone struggles with prayer. Second, you may struggle with prayer because you think you don’t get anything out of it. I was there at one time too. Here’s how I solved for it.

Rote Prayer – for a long time, I’ve said rote prayers, specifically the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be. Since my conversion, I’ve added to that the long form of the Serenity Prayer and a prayer that I wrote in 2009. The difference as opposed to before, is that I now hang on every word of each of those prayers, praying through them very, very slowly. You’d be amazed what it does for your prayer life, your connectedness to God, when you do this.

Quiet Time – 7-10 (even 15) minutes in the morning, a great way to start your day. Eyes closed, in solitude, describe an issue to God. It could be a challenge or an opportunity. It could be something you want to examine about yourself or find insight in others. It can be anything. Describe it to our Lord, providing your thoughts and ideas, your fears and ambitions. Then sit in silence. Wait to hear what Jesus has to share with you. Although I’ve never heard the audible voice of God, He speaks to my heart….I’ve never left this prayer time disappointed. It’s also a great opportunity to journal.

Spiritual Reading

Scripture – the first that I’d point to is reading Scripture. I love the saying, “it’s one thing to know the Bible, it’s another to know its Author”. The only way to get to know its Author, God, is to read Scripture. In reading short passages, I’d suggest two things:

Imagine yourself at the time of Christ; how do you see yourself handling the situation, reacting to what occurred?
Pray through what the relevance is in your life today

Faith Based Books – ten minutes a day will change your life. As an author, it amazes how many people don’t read. It’s true, many don’t. Struggling with reading as a youth, for years now I read 30-60 minutes before going to sleep every night. It doesn’t have to be that for you. Just 10 minutes a day (night) will have a tremendous impact. There are so many great books out there, those which speak to the heart and the head. I know you can find some that speak to you. I list some of my favorites is in the back of my book.

Suggested Actions

This week’s suggestions are pretty simple (not always easy) and obvious, given the above:

Pray
- Very slowly, say your rote prayers, hanging on and praying through every word
- Quiet time – share with our God what’s most on your heart
Spiritual Reading
- Read and pray through some Scripture every morning (I’d suggest starting with the New Testament)
- Read faith-based books that speak to you
Watch this Friday’s video on this same subject….it will be emailed to you.

Please join us next Wednesday for Week #11 when we talk about the Path to Peace. As always, please feel free to get to me with questions, comments, or concerns at Mark@MarkJosephMinistries.com.

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Mark Joseph

Week #1 – Being Overwhelmed
Week #2 – Earning the love of others
Week #3 – Lack of self-love
Week #4 – Fear
Week #5 – False gods, False happiness
Week #6 – Life’s Tragedies
Week #7 – Wounds, Resentments

Week #8 – Discovering God’s Love
Week #9 – Forgiveness and healing
Week #10 – Becoming the best Possible You
Week #11 – Path to Peace
Week #12 – Finding your Purpose
Week #13 – You were made for Greatness
Week #14 – True Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment

Tags best, bible, Greatness, Hope, Jesus, Joy, Love, scripture, you

Weekly Blog

Week #6 – Life’s Tragedies

Post author By Mark Joseph
Post date June 10, 2020

Hey *|FNAME|*,

This is the 6^th of our 14-week free program, where we provide Lesson #6, on Life’s Tragedies. One of the most commonly asked questions related to faith is, “how can an all-loving God allow so much tragedy to take place?”

Not being a theologian or Scripture scholar, I’m not going to give you the theological answer, but one that is based on my experiences. Here it is….God allows tragedy to take place in our lives to bring us closer to Himself (God). Tragedy is what got me to intensely engage in my faith. It’s the thing that got most of my friends to engage as well.

Think about it…when things are going swimmingly well, when you’re “fat, dumb, and happy”, as they say, you think you’re doing just fine on your own. You don’t need anyone, much less God, with what most perceive as all His rules and restrictions.

We Want God in Tough Times

Instead, it’s times of tragedy when we determine that we can’t do it on our own. We know we need help. We often ache for someone to come along side us. That someone is the person of Jesus Christ.

I just heard the other day that prayer is up over 30%, with the COVID 19 pandemic. An article on Crux quotes Jeanet Sinding Bentzen, an associate professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, who said, “the rising interest in seeking information about “prayer” on Google skyrocketed during the month of March 2020 when COVID-19 went global”.

I remember when 9/11 took place. Churches were packed and confession lines long, with people at abortion clinics and adult bookstores declining in number for a long period of time. When tragedy occurs, people seek God.

Tragedy Helps Us

I know these all sound like clichés…

God doesn’t give us anything that we can’t handle
What doesn’t break us makes us stronger
God gives us the opportunity to make a ministry out of our messes

My wife and I sometimes kid around, saying it would be nice if we could eliminate a tragedy here or crisis there, from our lives. The fact is that it takes every experience we have to make us who we are. And I thank God for all of it, including the significant tragedies in my life, because I know I wouldn’t be who I am today, doing what I do, without having experienced them. Praise God!!!

Suggested Actions

So, what do we do about it? How do we handle the inevitable tragedy in our lives? Given my experience, I would suggest:

Think about the following questions, taking them to prayer:
- How have the tragedies in your life shaped you?
- Look for the lessons in what you’ve gone through…they are there; you just need to be open to them.
During your morning prayer routine this week:
- Try to be in a place of gratitude, thanking God for everything that’s taken place in your life.
- Concentrate on the positive. What positive thing from that tragedy would not be present in your life today?
Watch this Friday’s video on this same subject….it will be emailed to you.

Note: This isn’t easy stuff. I’ve been there. I promise you…as we work through these lessons and as you embrace the additional material, this “tragedy” piece is going to make more sense.

Please join us next Wednesday for Week #7 when we talk about our wounds and resentments. As always, please feel free to get to me with questions, comments, or concerns at Mark@MarkJosephMinistries.com.

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Mark Joseph

P.S. Living in a place of gratitude means understanding that nothing happens by accident. The day I wrote this blog, my wife and I watched “I Still Believe” (Movie Trailer), a movie about singer-songwriter Jeremy Camp and his first wife. If you want to see a story about “why” tragedy and great hope, watch “I Still Believe”.

Tags catholic, Challenges, Conflict, coronavirus, Crucifix, Family, Friends, God, Hope, Jesus, Joy, life, Mark Joseph, tragedy

Weekly Blog

Week 4# – Fear

Post author By Mark Joseph
Post date May 27, 2020

This is the 4^th of our 14-week program, where we provide Lesson #4, on Fear. So, here are some questions to consider:

Separate from your phobias, i.e. snakes, spiders, heights, what are your fears? Examples are right below.
What has the impact been on your life? What have these fears prevented you from doing?

Depending on the resources you look to, the list of most common fears can vary. When writing my book, Overwhelming Pursuit: Stop Chasing Your Life and Live, the list that rang most true to me included:

Ridicule
Rejection
Conflict or Confrontation
Unknown (Uncertainty)
Loneliness

Having recited the above when giving talks, I always ask the audience which of the most prevalent fears is not among the list. Someone invariably answers….FAILURE.
Why are we so fearful of failure?

Being rejected
Not being liked, being loved
Not being good enough
Failure itself – what it says about us

Fear impedes progress in our lives. Think about it. Because of fear, you don’t do things or do them differently than you otherwise would. Therefore, the results you achieve, both good and bad, are different than if you didn’t have the fear. Without the fear, your lessons learned, your progress would be different, arguably better.

I have a plaque on my desk that reads, “What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?” Think about that for a minute. How would your life be different? I know mine would. How about yours’?

The irony here is that our true friends and those in our family who truly love us will support us no matter what. So will God the Father, who loves us unconditionally, and His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, dare I say our faults and our failings.

It says 365 times in Scripture some derivative of “be not afraid”. God clearly doesn’t want us to live in fear. Yet most of us live with fears, including the list above, and especially (in most cases) the fear of failure. It used to be true in my life. I thank God for the journey He took me on, which will be shared as we move through these lessons.

Suggested Actions

Acknowledging that there are no “quick” fixes to anything in life, I’m going to give you a couple things that helped me with this idea of fear:

I would suggest

Think about the following questions. Take them to prayer. We can only understand an issue if we identify it. Ponder (think/pray) the following:
- Make a list of the top three factors in your life that cause you the most fear.
- Looking at your list, where do these fears come from? Are they rooted in reality?
- If not (which is most often the case), what’s the truth in each of these situations?
- Start to speak that truth in your life, whether that’s through writing something down and sticking it on your bathroom mirror or developing a mantra you can repeat to yourself throughout the day.

Sometimes the only way to overcome a fear is by performing the opposite action. Is there a fear you can face down by doing (even if in a very small way) the very thing you’re afraid of? See how you perform…you’ll probably be surprised.
During your morning prayer routine this week, offer your fears up to the Lord (discard them, give them to Him), basking in His love and internalizing your true worth. Replace those fears with phrases like “be not afraid” and “I can do all things through Christ”, both from Scripture.
Watch this Friday’s video on this same subject….it will be emailed to you.

Please join us next Wednesday for Week #5 when we talk about false gods and false happiness. As always, please feel free to get to me with questions, comments, or concerns at Mark@MarkJosephMinistries.com.

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Mark Joseph

Tags catholic, Challenges, fear, Hope, Jesus, Love, Mark Joseph, prayer, purpose, Relationships

Weekly Blog

Week #3 – Lack of Self-Love

Post author By Mark Joseph
Post date May 20, 2020

This is the 3^rd of our 14-week program, where we provide Lesson #3, Lack of Self-Love. This is a tough issue, which requires honest (and vulnerable) self-assessment. So, here are some questions to consider:

After you’ve done something, i.e. an interaction, project, performance (sports, speech, etc.) of some kind, do you find yourself second-guessing yourself?
Given the above, do you beat yourself up, which turns into not liking yourself…not loving yourself?
What is the impact on your life? During your day? Over the course of your week?

When writing my book, I wanted to vet the concepts with my therapist. I said to her something like, “70-75% of people suffer from lack of self-love”. She scoffed at me, laughing. I’ll never forget it. I said, “what do you mean?” She then said that based on her experience and research, that “lack of self-love afflicts more than 95% of us”.

Think about it in your life…

You do something where you believe you’ve not performed well or not met the expectations of others.
You believe that they didn’t like what/how you did it (true or not), then inferring that they don’t like you. You become hyper-critical of your actions.
It being a constant source of concentration, you beat yourself up, not like yourself, not believing you deserve to be loved, then not loving yourself.

Photo by Tim Mossholder from Pexels

If we’re honest, the above resonates.

Same Was True for Me
That was certainly the case for me. Born mostly out of the conditional love (needing to earn the love of others) we talked about last week (Lesson #2), I was beating myself up on a regular basis. According to that same therapist, it was stealing the energy from me to live a happy and fulfilled life.

From the outside, I was this confident guy, who had it all together…nice family, good business, nice things, and I was crumbling inside. It wasn’t just her theory. It was real….I had no peace or joy in my life. I was on that hamster wheel (Lesson #1) and I was exhausted, deflated, frustrated….overwhelmed.

Here’s the Truth About the Situation
Those closest to you, who truly love you, family and friends, could care less how you perform. They’re going to love you anyhow.

No one judges you as harshly as you judge yourself. You, like so many others, hold yourself to unrealistic standards. Yet your worth, your value as a person, has nothing to do with how you perform.

God loves you more than you’ll ever know, no matter what you’ve ever done.

Suggested Actions
So what do we do about it? As indicated, there are no “quick” fixes to anything in life, including LACK OF SELF-LOVE. In future lessons, I’m going to provide guidance on a more comprehensive fix that we can’t get to until covering more material. In the interim, I would suggest:

Think about the following questions. Take them to prayer. We can only understand an issue if we identify it. Ponder (think/pray) the following:
- When was the last time you beat yourself up?
- Think through what actually occurred in the situation. Looking at it as objectively as you can, how did you perform? Did the job get done? Were the goals primarily met?
- Understanding that the answers to the above are typically “yes”, how did you allow the circumstance impact you…your day, that evening, even the balance of the week?
- Imagine what things would have felt like that day or week if you didn’t have this self-doubt.
During your morning prayer routine this week:
- Offer your negative thoughts up to the Lord (discard them, give them to Him), basking in His love and internalizing your true worth. Replace those thoughts with words like “I am loved” and “my value doesn’t lie in what I do”.
- Try to concentrate on the positive. What are the good things in your life? The occurrences? Relationships? Job? Health? It would help to jot them down.
Watch this Friday’s video on this same subject….it will be emailed to you.

Please join us next Wednesday for Week #4 when we talk about FEAR. As always, please feel free to get to me with questions, comments, or concerns at Mark@MarkJosephMinistries.com.

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Mark Joseph

Tags Challenges, Hope, Jesus, Joy, Love, Mark Joseph, prayer, purpose, Relationships, self-love