{"id":294,"date":"2019-01-13T22:53:25","date_gmt":"2019-01-13T22:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/?p=294"},"modified":"2019-01-14T00:33:30","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T00:33:30","slug":"thought-review-sermons-from-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/?p=294","title":{"rendered":"Thought Review; Sermons from 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Five Things that Hinder Happiness<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n\n\n<p>The first of 5 things that we allow to hinder our own happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today I will tell you why procrastination blocks my happiness. I think you will easily see the many parallels in what it does to you as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The American version of the King James Bible has an interesting verse. It is in Proverbs. It is in Chapter 20 at verse 13. It says,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Proverbs 20:13<\/strong> Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty ; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;d like to borrow that for my message, with one small change,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Proverbs 20:13 Love not <strong>PROCRASTINATION<\/strong>, lest thou come to poverty; <strong>don&#8217;t continue doing it<\/strong>, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Poverty is obvious something to be avoided. But another thing for everyone to avoid is feeling unhappy about too much work or too much stress. In my work I feel very bad when I fail to complete even the most short termed of projects. I believe and hope that you will come to believe with me, that happiness can be gained by avoiding these situations. Further up river we find that we can&#8217;t make our selves happy by working harder, working faster or working longer hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the source of the river I often find that I have started a busy schedule with the strange human behavior of doing something else first. Usually this has nothing to do with my schedule. It could be calling someone to say, &#8220;Hi&#8221;. Checking a Twitter feed. Planning a meal. These seem like pleasant alternatives to attacking the day. But, they are not. This is simply procrastination and the behavior needed to be defined with a more detrimental word. It sounds like day-dreaming. In reality it is day destroying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, the unhappiness and stress you feel as the work day ends with your lack of completion or your failure to progress all starts with procrastination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stop it and you will have added more happiness to your work day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next week&#8217;s sermon: The Denial of Peace thanks to Multitasking<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now, <strong>The Puzzle of the Sad Tree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Show a young one these two pictures.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><a href=\"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/?attachment_id=288\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" data-attachment-id=\"288\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/?attachment_id=288\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.babylonrivers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/happyTree.jpg?fit=480%2C360\" data-orig-size=\"480,360\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"happyTree\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.babylonrivers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/happyTree.jpg?fit=300%2C225\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.babylonrivers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/happyTree.jpg?fit=480%2C360\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.babylonrivers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/happyTree.jpg?resize=480%2C360\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"288\" data-link=\"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/?attachment_id=288\" class=\"wp-image-288\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.babylonrivers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/happyTree.jpg?w=480 480w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.babylonrivers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/happyTree.jpg?resize=300%2C225 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><a href=\"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/?attachment_id=245\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" data-attachment-id=\"245\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/?attachment_id=245\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.babylonrivers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/sadTree.jpg?fit=480%2C360\" data-orig-size=\"480,360\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"sadTree\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.babylonrivers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/sadTree.jpg?fit=300%2C225\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.babylonrivers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/sadTree.jpg?fit=480%2C360\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.babylonrivers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/sadTree.jpg?resize=480%2C360\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"245\" data-link=\"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/?attachment_id=245\" class=\"wp-image-245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.babylonrivers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/sadTree.jpg?w=480 480w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.babylonrivers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/sadTree.jpg?resize=300%2C225 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>They are of the same tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ask the child to answer this riddle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Which picture shows the tree when it was happy?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Now we as adults know that a tree can&#8217;t be happy. A tree has no emotions like we do. But think of is this way, pretend that the tree does have feelings and they day I saw the tree with all of its flowers blooming\u2014the tree knew how happy it made me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Something made me happy. So in effect the tree on the left really is a happy tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lesson is this; as you wander this world be aware of the expression on your face. If you smile you will make others happy. If you wear a frown or simply don&#8217;t care you can make others sad. Unlike the tree you actually can control the amount of happiness that all around you see.<\/p>\n\n\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five Things that Hinder Happiness The first of 5 things that we allow to hinder our own happiness. Today I will tell you why procrastination blocks my happiness. I think you will easily see the many parallels in what it does to you as well. The American version of the King James Bible has an<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/?p=294\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;Thought Review; Sermons from 2017&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"Thought Review; A Sermon from 2017","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.babylonrivers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/sadTree.jpg?fit=480%2C360","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8DpMA-4K","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299,"href":"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions\/299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.babylonrivers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}