So, it is getting to be that time of the year when hurricane's frequent here is in the sunshine state. There are a few "tropical storm" impressions that have developed, but nothing has hit here as of yet. But...the Florida showers come and go as a daily occurrence. Earlier this year, I made another post about the rain. In fact, I think we can look to the rain for many examples in our lives.

In fact, our lives can be like a hurricane. With that being said, we can be having a wonderful week then all of a sudden, a little bit of a mishap can happen which can bring us down and teach us some mighty fine lessons. After a time of storms, the "rain" clears and we continue on as we did before.

he best thing to do in this time is not get frustrated, but learn as much as you can. Life throws many storms our way, take the higher road and never take for granted the sunny days. What are your thoughts? What are you going through that might be encouraging to others?

Ken

Labels: 2009, actions, Bible, Change in my Life, christ, consequences, effects, experiences, future, history, maturity, observations, over reacting, stubborn, tomorrow, yesterday

"Gosh, it is so hot!"
"Ugh, this internet is SOO slow!"
"Man, these people can't drive!"

I will spare you from any more. But seriously, do people that complain irritate you? Why do people have to constantly state their discontentment with a specific situation?

I tend to think people that complain either are not aware that they are doing it or they are just miserable (or close too it) and would like to let everyone else know how miserable they are. Whichever the answer to the question may be, I believe complaints are very unnecessary. I welcome criticism any day (as long as it is in good taste); but there is a line between the two.

I will break it down into two "levels." A complaint is something a person states...that is not significant to any other human being, but it is a declaration of one's discontentment with a specific happening within their life. To be honest, complaints most of the time do nothing to help solve a problem.

Criticism is when a person makes an observation and offers helpful suggestions in order that one person become better at a specific task or situation. I am a big problem solver. I love brainstorming to find resolutions for a given scenario, but when someone comes over and is upset and starts rambling on about how discontent they are, that is unnecessary.

Come to me with a legitimate problem and your best solution for it, I will be more than happy to help you in solving that, come to me with an annoying complaint...I am sorry but that does not do anything for me.

You know yourself best. If you are forgetful, make reminders. If you are naturally cold, bring more clothes. For every problem there is a solution. People will respect you more if you are mature enough to learn from your own mistakes.

Complaints do not get you very far in this world. I am sure that what you find worthy of a complaint, does not compare to anything that someone within ten feet of you are going through. Thank you for reading. I tried to not "complain" too much. This is just an observation that I have made the last couple of weeks...and thought that someone could benefit from it.

Thanks for reading. I would like to hear your feedback on what you think!

-Ken

Labels: annoying, beliefs, Change in my Life, common sense, complaints, growth, immaturity, Jesus, maturity, observations, others, over reacting, politics, relationships, trends, tweet, twitter, YOU

Everywhere you go, you can see and here in one form or another people getting all hyped up or joking about the "Swine Flu" or as I refer to it as the "Pork Scare."

This weekend was an interesting one. It seems as though a Catholic church in the Orlando area encouraged the attenders that they had in their mass to not shake hands with other people attending. My church, First Baptist Orlando did not go to that extreme, but were planning on practicing the regular safe guards, which is nothing out of the ordinary. If I was making an executive decision on the matter, I would have gone with the option that my church took. I believe that people are extremely over reacting to this swine flu scare. People do not get this hyped up over the regular flu each year.

The Media and Communications Pastor of First Baptist Orlando, Scott Link was interviewed by two news networks here in Orlando on Sunday morning. Scott answered their questions honestly of what our church in regards to the Swine Flu. The interview aired during the Sunday evening news. One network quoted him correctly the other network misquoted him completely. If you listened to the interview, you would blatently see that was not the point Scott was making. This is a prime example of how the networks misquote and mislead their audiences. Is that what you want from your news networks?

I remember a couple of years preceding the turn of the century when the media was sending everyone into a panic about every computer system, government and banking computers systems were going to crash at the turn of the century. This caused many people to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars in preparation for it...in buying food for week/months and taking precautions to prepare for a long outage of food and supplies. Corporations spend thousands if not more dollars to become Y2K compliant...reconfigured databases and software systems all for something the media was getting the audience all hyped up for. What happened when the clock turned from December 31st, 1999 at 23:59 to January 1st, 2000 at 00:00, absolutely nothing. Power was still on, money was in everyone's bank account and computer systems still functioned. So what was the scare for? Did we over react?

I think we did. The media continued to push a non-threat so much that the American people started being concerned. They recommended many things to do and in reality we did not have to do anything. It could have been another nice new year.

I think this swine flu is the same thing. The liberal end of the media is totally over reacting. Since they choose to not give a balanced report on what is really happening is Washington, they have to dig and dig for some sort of story to blow out of proportion. It was Bush, picking him apart piece by piece. They arrogantly selectively report specific things about Obama. Do not give the truth about what he is doing, destroying, or other leaders he is bowing to, this leads the media to dig into something that is not really a threat to get a reaction out of the people. So explain to me how this is supposed to be the most transparents administration ever if the American people are being lied to?

-Ken

Labels: church, First Baptist Church Orlando, Media, over reacting, scare, Scott Link, swine flu, virus, Y2K