Understanding The Purpose Of Loss

By Dilshaad Bux.        By Dilshaad Bux

Have you ever thought about the similarities between loss and growth?

It may sound absurd, and impossible to compare, but this life - with all its ups and downs, and ups again - have brought me to observe, and believe, that loss is just as important for our progress as any progress. 

Loss, just like growth, is an inevitable part of life - when we are born, we lose our place of comfort, the first home we've ever known because, after 9 months, we've outgrown it and are ready for our new home. 

Likewise, every breath that we take, from our very first breath, our very first cry, is a process of loss and growth. We inhale oxygen to grow, and then lose carbon dioxide by exhaling. We let go off our first breath for the sake of the next. 

Loss, like growth, is crucial for our renewal. Milk teeth give way to stronger, more permanent teeth. Our skin cells die and fall away to make space for newer, more revitilized skin. Everything about us is about experiencing loss, and growing into a better version of ourselves through these losses. 

So why think of external loss as any different? 

We become so hopeless when we experience a loss in our lives, yet we forget to see that this loss can only be ever be good for us. 

It is only natural for loss to help us grow. A painful break up, the loss of our job, even the loss of a loved one - as difficult and impossible as it may seem to overcome at the time, loss is good for us, because it only means that we are strong enough and ready to grow yet again, and even more. 

Losing a loved one is probably the toughest form of loss that us as complex, compassionate beings can experience. The very fact that we have the power to acnowledge such loss, reflect on it, and eventually return to a normal way of life, is proof in itself of our great nature - a nature that has been granted to us from our very first breath, and that we are responsible of pursuing from every moment there on out. 

Whether loss is great or small, and whether it is inside you or outside in your environment, its purpose will always be for you to grow, yet again. 

When you experience a loss again, great or small, be sure to affirm that this is all part of your inevitable growth. Take from it what you need to learn, grow, and get that much closer to your true, great potential.

Your Diamond Self

By Dilshaad Bux.        By Dilshaad Bux

If life were to be breathed into a diamond, this diamond would open its eyes as a woman. 

Beautiful, unbreakable. 

This is a woman. This is you. 

Women are born with so many gifts - including strength, courage, compassion, humility, and love. These are the facets of every woman's diamond self, with love being the most brilliant and admirable of them all. 

The natural traits of a woman are taken for granted by many women, and are therefore seldom respected by anyone else. Just like a diamond, we too deserve to be respected. To be respected, we must carry ourselves with grace, even on our worst days.  

Do not be deterred by your struggle. The obstacles and difficulties in your life are all part of your polishing process. Through your struggle you will discover your strengths, your gifts, your talents - your diamond self. 

We often make the mistake of believing that our difficulties are greater than us, but the truth is we already have everything we need to overcome even our greatest obstacle. 

All we have to do is keep going, keep perservering, and maintain a positive attitude no matter how difficult it may seem. 

Maintaining positivity is often a challenge, but we can work on this by being aware of the words we use in our daily activities and conversations - with others and, just as importantly, with ourselves. 

By embracing positivity we will ultimately unearth our greatness, and our true beauty will be revealed. By showering ourselves with positive actions, words and even thoughts, we will realize the great worth of our inner and outer beauty, and we will ensure that it is respected by everyone, including ourselves. 

This beauty is the only one of its kind. 

Your diamond self deserves to be protected, respected, and loved by you without limits. Only when you can truly love and respect your one-of-a-kind self, will others love and respect you too. 

As you go through this life you owe it to yourself to use every precious moment you have, and every challenge you face, to pursue your greatness and shine as the true diamond you are.

Tests Of Excellence

By Dilshaad Bux.      By Dilshaad Bux

This life is a series of tests - every bad experience a lesson to gain tools from, every good experience a reward for our perseverance.

When we can think of life this way, we will be less concerned with what we own or how much we earn. Instead, we will focus on being good and happy.

Goodness and happiness may seem like simple concepts, and it is because of this simplicity that it is often shrugged off as unimportant. Many consider the pursuit of goodness and happiness to be a playful past-time, important only to flower-children and fairies. 

But they couldn't be more wrong. There's nothing airy-fairy about striving for goodness and happiness, because to be good and happy you have to be as tough as nails.

Everyday we are bombarded with bad news and bullies - in the workplace, in the media, and often even in our own homes. To maintain our willingness to be good and happy through all of it requires strength. So be proud of yourself for pursuinggoodness even when life feels like it's all bad, and know that you are strong beyond measure when you are able to smile at the end of a rough day.

This life is made up of tests designed especially for you, to push you out of your comfort zone and closer to your great potential. 

As with every lesson worth learning, your tests come only when you have been given all the knowledge you need to pass with excellent results. 

Reflect on the experiences you have. 

Listen to what your daily encounters teach you. 

Gather your tools, and embrace every test with strength - strength that you've been unaware of, strength that you've had all along.

No matter how difficult it may be, or how many questions you feel like you do not have answers to, don't give up. 

Don't allow failure to be an option. You were born to excel. So work hard at your excellence everyday. Practise goodness and happiness even in on your most difficult day, and reap the rewards of a life superbly lived.

The Virtue of Gratitude

By Jadene B.  

Hearing footsteps in the corridor he knew might be those of the guards taking him away to his execution. His only bed was the hard, cold stone floor of the muggy, cramped prison cell. Not an hour passed when he was free from the constant irritation of the chains and the pain of the iron manacles cutting into his wrists and legs.

Separated from friends & fellowship, unjustly accused, brutally treated—if ever a person had a right to complain, it was this man, languishing and almost forgotten in a harsh Roman prison cell. But instead of complaints, his lips rang with words of praise and thanksgiving!
The man was the Apostle Paul—a man who had learned the meaning of true thanksgiving, even in the midst of great adversity. While he had been imprisoned in Rome, Paul wrote, “Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything" (Ephesians 5:19).
Think of it: Always giving thanks for everything—no matter the circumstances! Thanksgiving for the Apostle Paul was not a once-a-year celebration, but a daily reality that changed his life and made him a joyful person in every situation. Gratitude for Apostle Paul was not just a gesture, it was a lifestyle and in turn he went on to write 14 of the 27 books included in the New Testament, all inspired by the Spirit of God. Apostle Paul wrote that we should not let our minds dwell on negative thoughts. Instead, we should dwell on those things that are pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8). 
Nothing turns us into bitter, selfish, dissatisfied people more quickly than an ungrateful heart. And nothing will do more to restore contentment and the joy of our salvation than a true spirit of thankfulness. 
Today, ingratitude and thanklessness are far too common. Children forget to thank their parents for all that they do. Common courtesy is scorned. We take for granted the ways that others help us. Above all, we fail to thank God for His blessings.
One of the Bible’s indictments against rebellious humanity is that “although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him” (Romans 1:21). An ungrateful heart is a heart that is cold toward God and indifferent to His mercy and love. It is a heart that has forgotten how dependent we are on God for everything. 
Why should we be thankful? Because God has blessed us, and we should be thankful for each blessing.
Thanking God glorifies and magnifies Him and also benefits us. The Lord doesn’t need our thanks, but we need to give it so we can become what He wants us to be: unselfish, encouraged, and confident. 
To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives’ events – the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections - that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for.

Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God; for the trials we face regardless of how bad they are prove our undying faith for Him – “In this [we] greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7)

Tested faith brings experience. You could not have believed your own weakness if you had not been compelled to pass through the rivers; and you would never have known God’s strength if you had not been supported in the flood. Faith increases in quality, assurance, and intensity the more it is exercised with tribulation. Faith is precious, and its trial is precious too therefore give thanks.Thank God for grace in all circumstances. We should be thankful everyday, not just when we attend a church service or observe a special day of thanks. This is because there is always something to be grateful forremembering that someone out there is praying for the kind of life you have.

Into The Unknown

By Dilshaad Bux.        By Dilshaad Bux

When last did you try a new hairstyle? Cook with a different herb or spice? Wear a colour that you've never worn before? 

We feel comfortable with the familiar, we feel safe when we follow what others say is good for us. But by sticking with the masses, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to experience so much more. 

We were born for curiosity, to push our boundaries and discover the new. Our limits are dictated by our fears. They hold us back from experiencing a world that was created to be discovered. 

When we make an effort to take little steps out of our comfort zone everyday, we are stepping out of our self-limiting state of mind and taking leaps and bounds towards the greatest version of ourselves. 

Nothing great ever comes from living a life of sheer comfort. When we become too familiar with a life of safety and luxury, our fear of the unknown becomes stronger than our admiration of it, and we start to believe that it is somehow stronger and more powerful than us. 

This is not so. We are beings of rationality, intellect, and instinct - the best of creation. We have been given everything we need to survive. 

We are born to thrive. 

Use all your blessings and all your material luxuries to step out of your comfort zone and into a space that pushes you to conquer your fears and discover your true self. Only then will you unlock the door within yourself to all the greater immaterial treasures you have been blessed with. 

These treasures cannot be bought. They are already yours, and only yours. They are unlike any other, and to be worthy of them you have to prove that you are unlike any other. 

There is something greater in you that has always been protecting you and guiding you to this point of reflection and self-discovery. You owe it to yourself to pursue this feeling. 

Start today - try something new, no matter how small and insignificant it may seem. Try it in goodness and with sincerity. Try it with the intention of discovering something new and greater within yourself.

A Body Of Love

By Dilshaad Bux.       By Dilshaad Bux

Your body is a temple, a sacred monument that houses your soul. 

Your body is your knight in shining armor, protecting its queen from all harm. 

Your body is a vehicle, carrying your spiritual self through a material world. 

How does a priest treat his temple? 

A queen, her knight? 

Or a car collector, his beauty on four wheels? 

How do you treat your body? 

Do you fill it with junk, attack it with criticism, pinch it and pull at it? 

Or do you fill it with love, treat it with kindness, honour it for its strength and nourish it with goodness?

What we put into our body is not what we get out, because even when we neglect our body, criticize it, and deprive it of all things good, it still does not let us down.

Our body is built for survival. 

We have been blessed with reflexes and protective instincts that we aren't even aware of. Every second of every day our body is fighting off germs and toxins that we can't avoid, and poison and junk that we can avoid, but don't. 

Do we vandalise our places of worship, or do we keep them pure and clean, and filled with love and light? 

Do we hurt those who protect us, or do we praise them and honour them?

Could we live without our daily modes of transport that take us to work, carry our grocery bags, and bring us home safely?

Our body will keep working hard for us, but we shouldn't wait for it to fall before we realise its value. We need to love our body, nourish it, and do our best to stay away from everything unhealthy. We have to make a conscious effort to take care of the body we have been given.

Your body is strong, it is beautiful, and it is yours.

Honour it, respect it, and love it the way you love the One who has blessed you with it.

Trial by Fire

By Jadene B.          By Getty Images

Most of us have been through the trials of life. From heartbreaks to disappointments, neglect, financial hardships, worry, fear, abuse and even death. Sometimes the age old question is asked... “God, why me?”.

Why would a loving God allow us to go through these things? After all, doesn’t loving us mean he wants our lives to be easyand comfortable? 

The answer to that is simply no. Easy and comfortable does not enable growth in your life. God allows trials to befall us because quite honestly, we need them and most often than not, they hurt, but the tribulations He allows in our lives eventually find their purpose and may work in your favour. For a believer, all trials and tribulations have a divine purpose. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope (Romans 5:3-4).

With that said,  I think the more fitting question is “Why not you?”

Would you be who you are today if you had not endured the trials? Would you be as wise, as strong, as driven?

Trials and tribulations also come with a reward. They strengthen and refine us, develop godly character and, as in all things, God’s ultimate purpose for us is for us to grow more and more into the image of His Son. Trials are designed for us to reach that goal. At some point in our lives we reach the point where we realize wholeheartedly that we are unable to fully heal from our painful past experiences unless we place the pieces of our broken hearts into the hands of the One who created It. 

For some of us that may be the place where we’ve stopped trying to control the reigns of our lives ourselves and hand them over to Him.

This will never be in vain. In Malachi 3:3, Scripture tells us that “He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver”.

The process of purifying silver involves the silversmith sitting in front of the furnace with his eyes steadily fixed on the fire, because if the time necessary for refining is exceeded in the slightest degree, the silver will be ruined. A refiner’s fire refines. It purifies. It melts the bar of silver, separates out the impurities that ruin its value and leaves the silver intact. God’s fire is a refiner’s fire.

God sees it needful to put His children into a furnace and His eyes are steadily fixed on the work of purifying, His wisdom and love both present.

The only way the Silversmith will know when process of purifying and refining is complete is when He sees His own image reflected in the silver.

The Proverbs 31 Woman

By Jadene B.             By Getty Images

And God said: It was not good for man to be alone so He created YOU!

Women today no longer walk in the confidence of Ultimate Artistic Design but search for confidence in the clothes she wears, the job she has or in the guy she’s dating. Standards formed by society compelling her to use media and magazines as her bible. 

But you are not her. And she is not you.

We know our differences are not a reason to be jealous, but we’re all God’s fingerprint. We are content with not looking like anybody else.

We are women of a difference status, Proverbs 31 to be exact.

Being a Proverbs 31 woman is not about being perfect, it’s about living with purpose, diligence, integrity and forgiveness. Proverbs 31 gives hope and a challenge to any modern daywoman. 

Whether it’s shoes, home décor or men, the Proverbs 31 woman chooses to surround herself with quality. She chooses a man respected and favored in his community. He is the type of man that will cherish her, value her and love her the way Godintended for her to be loved. The proverb begins by stating that an excellent wife is hard to find, but when she is found she is far more precious than jewels – all the money in the world can’t buy loyalty. She spends her days doing good unto others, starting with her husband. She is a woman of character who can be trusted (unrelated to the imagery that exists in society today characterizing females as dishonest and disloyal).

Far from the modern day caricature that modern feminism paints, she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty, she’s a friend of the economy & keeps a tight schedule. She invests wisely and is far from spend-thrift. She’s a strong woman who “opens her mouth with wisdom (v26)” and kindness; everything she does is governed by kindness, constantly putting others first. Her husband and children praise her.

Many women spend their days trying to preserve their beauty which only fades, however, Proverbs 31 concludes by pointing to this woman’s source of beauty – she feared God. She honoured Him and rejoiced in Him – He is her source of strength.

The Proverbs 31 woman strives for excellence in her Creator and does not accept mediocrity in her relationship with God.

Women, it’s time we set a new standard of beauty. GODfidence.

How Do You Prepare For Stepping Out Your Comfort Zone and Succeeding?

Peace be unto you all,
Do you prepare for success? I know it sounds crazy, because we can plan, but who knows when it will it happen. If success lies outside our comfort zones, and we cannot plan when success will occur, is there anything we can do to be prepared before stepping out? I was wondering about that this morning, so I decided to research some ways to prepare for success.

Do you prepare for success? I know it sounds crazy, because we can plan, but no one knows when it will happen. If success lies outside our comfort zones and we cannot plan when it  will occur, have you ever wondered if there anything we can do to prepare before stepping outside of our comfort zone? Like if you know you are going camping in the mountains and you have never been to neither the mountains nor camping, and someone says, "Oh, well we already have you a tent set up and supplies," wouldn't you still try to take some precautions? You would still pack toiletries just in case your friend did not think to pack any or does not use the same products as you. Experts actually suggest one prepares for success with two methods, reading and prioritizing. 

Try awaking two hours early each morning. Use this time to calm your thoughts and visualize how you will conquer your day. Spend  at least thirty minutes reading something uplifting, educational, or informative. You can mix up your reading material, but make a habit of doing this. Remember knowledge is power, and it takes mental strength to succeed in life. 
Secondly, successful people prioritize. They know their more important and least important tasks. Then they tackle the hard stuff first, in spite of the  any difficulties. They stick it out because they can see the big picture. They don't know when their hard work will pay off. They just believe it will, so they plan to be ready. It is easier to control the situation when you have considered both the best and the worst that can happen. 

Implementing these small but significant habits into your lifestyle will attract the life you want. Everyone wants success, but most will not take the steps to prepare for it. When we prepare for success, we practice positive behavior. It has nothing to do with material things; it is both mental and spiritual. My definitiion of success is to be mentally and emotionally at peace while also being financially stable. Though we each have our own definitions, I don't doubt these habits will help us all to get there. What do you think? I would love to know your thoughts. Until next time..  Check out SWAG HER.NET