September 25, 2012

Much Ado About Nothing

Instead of breaking down ALL the Greek or Hebrew origin of each scripture, I am linking it to a concordance. This will cut down on the length of the post as well as give you an opportunity to dig in deeper with each only where you choose. If anyone desires me to tie them all together for them, simply send me an email or type a comment below the post. They are all anonymous and only loaded on the post if you approve us to do so. However, whether you want it posted for everyone else of not we will be answering your questions privately :)

We last spoke about Helen Keller wanting her rag doll to have eyes. Her sympathy for her doll was so great that she went wild not desiring her doll to suffer the same tragic life she was living. This reminded me of the verse in Hebrews chapter 4:

For we do not have a high priest who cannot * sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.



Helen's mother was attempting to get unify with her daughters mind, feel what she was experiencing in order to "sympathize" with her condition. Why? Well to a mother this is probably a bit more obvious than to anyone else. Mom's have this God woven quirk - we care deeply, without fail ~ unless damaged by miss informed beliefs ~ that we are able to jump out and calm peoples fears. We want those we care about to know they are alright; that everything is going to be A OK.

Some mom's however, get very afraid and their fear, instead of calming, sounds alarms of panic when their loved ones are distraught. How many of you can see that fear + fear = mayhem? God gave us such a precious gift - a saviour who will suffer, or feel our pain, right there with us out of compassion.

In the previous post, The Rag Doll, I battled with whether to use the word sympathize or empathize. Sometimes, we hold ourselves rigidly to words, but we do not usually even fully understand them. So if you are someone who has been baffled by all the empathy / sympathy babbling and red flags start slapping, as if a tornado is blowing through. Let's calm the winds by seeing through the lens of God's word.

Firstly, I do not really like square pegs and square holes which keep things tidy. This means I have to put aside preconceived ideas while I compare everything to God's word for definition. I'm more of a jump in, tear it down and toy with parts, till I figure it out kind of girl :) So without further ado, in true Candy style.....Let's break away from what we know and get involved with the characteristics, personality and motions of these words. Oh, yes and Secondly, empathy isn't even an original word found written in the bible; this always disturbs my peace; just saying.

The word sympathy has been translated from sumpatheo as you saw above, if you clicked the blue word. Meaning to feel sympathy with someone; to commiserate having compassion. It means to be touched with whatever they are experiencing. This is not the root word of origin though, it comes from Sumpathes, meaning to have a fellow feeling or sympathetic; having compassion for one another. However, this isn't the root word either. Sumpathes stems from Sumpascho, which actually means to experience the same kind of pain, jointly. It means to suffer with them.

The funny thing is Sunpascho was not the root word. In fact there is a dual origin of these words: Sun, enunciated soon, which is a preposition meaning with (and so meaning: accompany,along, associates, beside, companions, including,together). Isn't that awesome! But wait, there's more! The joint root word of Sumpascho is pascho. Pascho has two forms pentho and patho: pentho when means to experience a sensation or impression (usually painful) and feel, have passion, be vexed and at times maybe even suffer. But this is what really wowed me: patho is the Greek word which the medical term pathology is derived. Here is the medical definition:

Patho-: A prefix derived from the Greek "pathos" meaning "suffering or disease." Patho- serves as a prefix for many terms including pathogen (disease agent), pathogenesis (development of disease), pathology (study of disease), etc. The corresponding suffix is -pathy which is a system to treat the disease.

It has the flavor of connecting, as if one with the one in pain, to the point that you can isolate the problem and THEN setting a path for it to be healed from the pain! You might find this odd, but all this is incredibly interesting to me; and exciting!

Look at this verse from Hebrews 2, verse 17:


Therefore, He had to R77 be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become R78 a merciful and faithful high R79 priest in things R80 pertaining to God, to make R81 propitiation for the sins of the people.


Now to put our pieces back together with perfunctory understanding: We must look from where the person is standing, finding something within our understanding to "join with or come alongside their emotions" not for the purpose of becoming a burden to their mayhem. But to speak peace to the very real fears they are seeing. If we are not there, and they are not clinging to Christ already, all they will be left with is the fears tearing at them. Most of the time, their fears not actually happening in these moments, it is in their mind. This is why being able to healthily join with them on their journey is so stabilizing to them.

Think about the storm, the boat and the disciples. The storm was real, the shaking and tossing was real, but their state of mind could have been resting; just as Jesus was. Jesus connected with their feeling, but it did not shake his ability to help them. He did not wake up, shouting "OH, my God, how could you forsake me; you knew I needed sleep!" which would have equaled mayhem. He knew that faith through speaking truth would disperse mayhem.

Helen's family did not see Helen they saw their own fears. Helen needed someone to be peace, an anchor, to speak to the chaos and settle it down. She might not have had eyes to see, but neither did those around her have healthy vision. Let's strive to not be the alarmist in the group. Let's be the problem solvers =D

So, no matter your stance on empathy or sympathy keep your eye's peeled for someone making a big fuss and tell gently tell them "what you're seeing isn't really as big as you think it is; step over here with me and I will walk you where you can see!"

I pray that each of us remember, God's divinity cocoons us all in His mercy and grace. And as Paul spoke to Timothy making a request, I make the same one to each of us: "Guard that which is committed unto thee , turning away from the profane babblings and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called; which some professing have erred concerning the faith.

Grace be with you, each and every one.
Kisses,
Candace
Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc®
©Candace Huffmaster 2012, All Copy Rights Reserved

September 19, 2012

For the Cause of Love, Saturday's Gals

Our apologies for the technical difficulties you are experiencing.  Let's give this a try:

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We have tested the link once again, and AGAIN it appears to be high functioning.  If all else fails, please send me an email to kaleidoscopebutterfly@hotmail.com and with your e-mail and phone number.  We will contact you as soon as we receive it.

Thank you for your patience and perseverance - You truly will deserve an extra special treat Saturday!

Kisses,
Candace

September 18, 2012

Little Rag Doll

In my flight time while away I have been reading.  I am sure that surprises no one!  One of the books I started on my last flight had a very thought provoking opening, which I would like to share with you all.  It is from "The Good Listener"  by James E. Sullivan.  The excerpt is from page 10 and 11:

Some years ago there was a splendid motion picture called The Miracle Worker.  It was the story of Helen Keller, that unfortunate woman who had lost both her sight and her hearing when she was still a young child.  That was a heartbreaking affliction for her, especially as she grew into adolescence and young womanhood.  She had a brilliant mind, but she had no way to get others to understand what she was thinking or feeling.  And others, also, were powerless to communicate with her.  It was as though she were locked alone, in a cold, dark dungeon.

As a result, she grew up like a wild animal.  She'd stuff food into her mouth and, when she disliked it, she'd spit it out.  If anyone tried to stop her, she'd flail her arms and legs in a wild tantrum and bite their hands. 

In one scene, her grandmother was feeding Helen's baby sister when Helen entered the room, holding her little rag doll.  Wildly, she started to pull the buttons from her grandmother's dress.  Her grandmother screamed for help, fearful that the baby would be hurt.  Helen's parents and older brother came running. 

Her father was overcome with grief.  "Oh Lord, " he cried out, "How long can we put with this!"  Her brother was cruel.  "She's an animal!" he shouted.  "She should be put away with the rest of the animals." 

It was Helen's mother who understood.  She kept saying, "No! Wait! Wait!" Helen is trying to tell us something.  "That's it!" That's it!" "She wants her doll to have eyes." So she took two buttons and sewed them onto the face of Helen's rag doll.  Helen reached out and felt them and the change in her was remarkable.  She held her doll close and rocked it in her arms.  And she sat down calm and peaceful as could be.

Helen had warm, motherly feelings for her "child", her little rag doll.  She wanted her doll to have the eyes that she herself could not have.  And it was so frustrating for her when she couldn't get anyone to understand that.  It's no wonder she went wild.  Her mother's sensitivity was absolutely beautiful.  In contrast to her husband and her son, she put aside her own natural assumption - that Helen was simply having a tantrum- and took on Helen's point of view instead.  She entered Helen's world, and so was able to understand what Helen was feeling.
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This was such a beautiful imagery of God's love for us and how He entered our world through Christ.  We are the little blind rag doll and Christ is our high priest who can empathise with our state.  Satan is the accuser before God and Christ is there saying, "No! Wait! Wait!" God reaches out, embraces us and the change in us is remarkable. Just as Helen loves that doll and held her close, He holds us close and lovingly rocks us in his arms.  Christ finished all things and has sat down in his proper place so that we all may have the peace he left for us; the peace which is from our Father.

Have sweet dream my lovely friends!
Kisses,
Candace
Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc®
©Candace Huffmaster 2010, All Copy Rights Reserved

September 1, 2012

Aren't Two Heads Better?


In group this week, we backed up to review some of our common denominator topics.  We discussed times when people are looking at us as if we have 3 heads as we attempt to explain our point of view.  This brought up our "Examining Table Theory".  Question, isn't the saying "You're looking at me as if I have two (or three) heads.  Yet we have another saying, which is "Two heads are better than one."  Anyway, just another thought about aliens and all......

Many of you have joined us after this topic.  Below is an excerpt from our information:

As always we base our conversations on biblical principles and use real life situations to glean some experiential knowledge.

This was from a time when I was personally trying to resolve conflicts and live in harmony with those in my immediate surroundings. The conversation went like this:

“I am trying to understand some things”. “I have been thinking (no big surprise) about words we use with each other”. “Maybe by expressing what I am thinking, it will bring forth some understanding for us - if we can be honest with each other”.

“We both are intelligent enough to know, that in order to bring resolve, things have to be talked about.” “In my opinion, it is only fair for all individuals to have a chance to put their hurt, understanding etc. on the examining table for looking at and through.” “All individuals should try to search deeply from all aspects as if trying to figure out what the object is. Nothing should be judged at this point only expressed for the most clarity, like a brainstorming session.”

“ Think about it; a relationship is the best abilities of each individual bringing what they have to that table to name that object, find out what it is, what it does, if it is dangerous or safe to keep in their midst.” “Sometimes one person might have more or a different experience with the type of object. But even if they have less experience it does not mean that the each person shouldn’t extend their best understanding or knowledge forward. In fact when we are challenged and open to the questioning of others we must grow beyond our own limits. And in my opinion we should not simply accept what another states if we have no knowledge we should use all our discernment and knowledge to challenge the accuracy of what is being stated as a fact. This challenges the other individuals to think deeper, pull from more sources themselves in order to prove their case. “

“When all this is done in the spirit of helping the environment as a whole survive AND thrive then there should be harmony even if there are differences of opinions”. “ Think about it like this”:

“What if we were aliens and something foreign slipped into our space ship”. “ We would need the best of the best minds available to gear up and enter into the quarantined area as we investigated, probed, charted, challenged the safety of whatever it was”. “Would be open the hatch and throw it out? “Would we poke it and see if it spewed out acid that would destroy our ship – and us? “ “Would we simply keep it quarantined and watch it over time as we search for others to bring forth their expertise because we really had no earthly idea?”

There is a nugget of our last discussion – Journal about some things you have examined and I pray that each of you try to bring your A game to the next project. Please believe in the process of relationships and the value of growth.

For more information on conflict with relationships click on For Goodness Sake!

I pray that each of you enjoy your life remembering that we are aliens, exiles, foreigners in this world.  And I give thanks that we are no longer exiles, foreigners and aliens to the Kingdom of God - through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Kisses,
Candace

Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc®
©Candace Huffmaster 2010, All Copy Rights Reserved


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