When you look at a person who always has a frown on its face, the adjectives your mind will create about them are often in a negative tone, examples are hostile, furious, unwelcoming etc. A smiling person we consider to be friendly, happy and often times more trustworthy.
For that reason, if we are “at war” with someone, if we had a big fight or disagreement, the best way to approach a peace offering is with a genuine smile on your face. Such smiles will immediately indicate a good intention and willingness to improve your relationship.
Numerous research(mostly on primates) has found that smiling is a submissive sign and with it primates express themselves as not a threat and from that follows that through smiling primates establish cooperation between each other. Similar effect can be applied to humans. If you’ve ever watched some videos on body language or watched the show “Lie to me” you are familiar with what I’m talking about here.
So by smiling you really will trigger a response in others that will make them more likely to cooperate with you.
One of my favorite books I’ve ever read is about body language called “The definitive book of body language” by Allan and Barbara Pease. If you haven’t read it I highly recommend it, after reading it you really start seeing a world with a whole new set of eyes, you start noticing a wide array of subtle body language cues and it’s a lot of fun(not to mention very useful).
Today’s quote is a in a little different format then usual, I’m just trying out something new.
I am a big sinner! I got a civil marriage instead of a church marriage, had premarital sex, had a premarital child, disregarded God as someone not that important in my life but still believing in his existence, which I am especially ashamed of since it’s not like I didn’t know about Him; I knew, but I did it anyway.
Since then I have repent, so did my wife, we did it together. We then decided to not have sex again until we get married in front of God. It was a big deal and a big change to our lifestyle, but it was our way of proving God that we really want change and to follow Him with all our hearts. Now do I claim to be a saint now? NO! Far from it, I still struggle, I still think about my past sins and feel remorse, even though I know that God has forgiven me, I haven’t fully forgiven myself for betraying him.
Now… you might be thinking “What the hell does this has to do with today’s quote?” Well it was an introduction, a bit of context for what I really want to say.
I know that article published today is very controversial and in it I even stated that I don’t care about it not being politically correct article. That’s true, I don’t, but I do want to clarify that I am not attacking anyone nor am I trying to tell people that there is only one correct way to sort out your life and only one correct timeline. I myself am not perfect nor is anyone else.
Why does it bother me when people put career goals before family goals? Well it doesn’t bother me, what does bother me is that often times (from what I’ve seen around me) people talk about babies not as a blessing but as a terrible financial burden (among other negative adjectives). Why would that bother me? Well it is because this kind of thinking scares women from having children and leads them to decide to do one of the most grievous sins of all, abortion.
For example, I have a very dear friend that is focused on college, studying medicine and I don’t think even the slightest that what she is doing is wrong. That is because I know what is her view about family and abortion, because I know she wasn’t brainwashed into thinking that abortion is healthcare and birth control, so I am not worried about her.
I am worried about many others that are not like my friend, many others that would conduct such a sin. That makes me cry sometimes.
Conclusion
I am not trying to diminish anyone’s career or say that career is not important and only starting a family is. NO! I am just trying to spread a word that having children is a blessing, not a burden(regardless how tough it can be). I talk hoping someone who needs to hear this hears it, that no career is more important than an unborn child that you would kill it so that your career can be prosperous. You can still have a career without killing an innocent child and you definitely can choose not to have sex in the first place if child is not what you want.
So I know my words are highly controversial, as is most of my website, but I just can’t care about that. I must call out a sin, especially when it is as grave as murder. Sorry, but I can’t go around the bush and sugar coat it in some politically correct statement. I am a sinner myself, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t warn about or call out a sin, especially when they are trying to justify it or sugar coat it.
And to my dear friend I mentioned, if you ever read this, I hope you didn’t feel called out by my article. I think nothing but good about you and consider you to be a better role model then I will ever be even though you are pursuing a career right now whereas I am focused in creating my family.
Swami Vivekananda was an Indian Hindu monk who lived at the end of the 19th century and although our religious beliefs differ I must agree (to some extent) with his statement. Now, I don’t think I would call it exactly “the greatest” sin but it certainly is big.
To think yourself as weak is in a way an insult to God, since He created us in his image. Don’t humiliate yourself. We shouldn’t be arrogant and it is good to be humble, but we must acknowledge the great power we possess, especially power we can achieve through prayer.
I always adored this quote. Mary Lou Retton was an American gymnast so I believe she meant it literally, but I always understood it as in terms of big events like concerts. In my analogy the trophy would be pictures1, I was never a fan of taking long videos or a lot of pictures when visiting certain places or events.
I realized that when I am focused on taking pictures I don’t fully enjoy the moment and the show, not to mention that those pictures never truly represent how great something was compared to seeing it live.
My best example
I can’t think of a better example for this than the airshows I attended. On those airshows there are hundreds if not thousands of visitors, most of them taking pictures with their phones, their eyes glued to their screens, but there are also these people called Spotters.
Those are the people that have registered in advance for a spotter slot on the airshow and have a special area from which they can record and take photos. Keep in mind that those are skilled photographers with much better gear, so their work is of much higher quality then pictures taken with a phone(no matter if you have latest iPhone, Samsung or whatever, professional camera in front of a skilled photographer will always be better).
Most of their work, if not all, will be publicly available. So you can see later professional photos and videos of something you saw live, if you take your own photos then later from them all you’ll see are mediocre photos of something you didn’t see live(and live show was 10x better) because your eyes were glued to the screen. I apply the same principle to concerts.
Conclusion
I apply this concepts of enjoying in what’s in front of me rather then taking pictures in almost every situation I encountered. I always prioritize making memories in such cases, then if I also have time for a quick photo or video, sure why not. For example when my daughter does something sweet I’ll first keep enjoying it and then only maybe after a few times she does it, when I’ve seen it plenty of times, I’ll grab a phone and snap a quick photo or two.
I’m curious how do you perceive this quote other then literally? What first pops to your mind when reading it, are you like me or do you have your own interpretation of it?
Have a lovely Saturday, my friend is getting married today so I am sure I’ll have fun tonight 🙂
When I talk about pictures in this post I mean both pictures and videos ↩︎
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