Heavenlynotice.com

 Today I am writing about toxic relationships that people have and how they destroy families, friendships, marriages and cause chaos.  I have been fortunate in my life to find a loving and wonderful wife that seeks a great relationship with me.  We get along mostly, disagree at times, but in the end we are together and strong.  I see this in many of my friends and family as well.  Positive, supporting and loving relationships that are far from perfect, but in the scheme of things are solid.  Then comes the reason I am writing this today as I see so many toxic relationships, people unhappy, angry, upset and constantly fighting. These are very unhealthy and will eventually destroy the relationship, create hostility and resentment which leads to divorce, breaking up or worse (possible abuse).  I put together a quick list of five warning signs you should avoid once you see them come to light.  As soon as one of these pops up, you best get out now or eventually face chaos, fighting, anger a

  Recently I had a friend ask me if I thought that dogs and cats went to heaven.  Before I could answer the question another man sitting near told her that the bible makes no mention of animals going to heaven. My personal opinion is that dogs and cats have souls and they are special in Gods eyes as animals are mentioned all throughout the bible.  If you do some research you will find a very long list of animals if listed A-Z are too numerous for me to put on this posting.  I will highlight several of them and where they are located in the bible if you would like to reference and read about it. We love our critters, dogs, cats, hamsters, cows, pigs, and all those other things people call pets.  I have never had anything other than dogs, a few cats, some fish and a hamster or two.   My favorite are dogs, yes I am a dog lover and we currently have three grand dogs that we enjoy greatly.  We all come to love them and enjoy spending time watching them gallop, play, fight, roll around with

Today I was thinking about some recent changes in my life that are spiritual, mental and emotional.  These changes are all positive and something that cannot be seen by the eye.  Sure, people may be able to sense or see a difference in a persons attitude or behavior.  However, changes like these are internal and occur within ourselves in the heart, mind and soul.  These are not tangible things one can touch and therefore hard to describe to people at times.   I have had a spiritual awakening of sorts is the best way to describe what is occurring within me and to me.  As a good friend described her similar changes to me as "Shedding my old skin".  That made perfect sense to me and got me to thinking about belief and how it guides our lives, actions, behaviors and reactions to events. I started thinking about Christmas and the gifts we all receive during the Holidays and celebrations.   I am not talking about the gifts under the tree as those are tangible things we can see, fee

This weekend my wife and I went to Myrtle Beach to buy an ornament at our favorite Christmas store.  The store is at Barefoot Landing as is called the Christmas Mouse.  It has every kind of decoration and ornament a person would want.  About every kind of interest from traditional, country, city, sports, hobbies and about anything one would want.  We have been going to this store for twenty years or more to get ornaments for our family tree.  Ornaments are a tradition in our family and we have filled the family tree up with them at this point. The store brings back memories of traveling to the beach with my family, mom and dad and friends.  We always find time to go by the Christmas Mouse and grab some ornaments.  The store smells so good with all the wonderful greenery, candles, and traditional Christmas smells that reminds us that the Holiday is upon us.  Even if you go in the summer time when most people head to the beach, it makes you feel Christmas in July and those special memori

I was coaching at my old high school in 2009 and in the middle of the season I suddenly lost my dad. My dad was a 30 year retired police officer who also served over 30 years volunteering at the local high school as president, vice president and secretary of the boosters club.  My mom and dad along with several great parents had helped raise millions of dollars and build most of the very nice athletic facilities the school has today.  They loved to go to football games home or away.  For over thirty years on Friday night if they were not rotating in the concession stand they sat in the same seats at home games every Friday night.  My dad sat on the top row, on the brick at the corner.  I can see him now sitting there watching me, my brothers, cousins, and nephews playing football on Fridays.   Dad and mom were road warriors and followed the football team wherever they played.  They went to every game home or away for a minimum of 30 seasons. Even when their health started to fail them,

  Coaching, Mentoring and Guiding  Think about the people that have taught, coached, guided, mentored and helped shape who you are through their leadership in your life.  I have been fortunate to have some of the best mentors, coaches and peers anyone could ask for throughout my career in the business world, teaching and coaching.  I learned so much from these special people that helped shape who I am as a coach, mentor and guide for others.  As I have gotten older and closer to retirement age my priorities have changed quite a bit and my goals are a bit different. I can also say on the reverse side that I have learned how not to coach, mentor and guide people from some peers, coaches, friends, relatives and others along the way.  I am not saying they were particularly bad overall at what they did, in fact, most of them were solid people with good intentions.  They just had some weaknesses in their planning, implementation or process of leading people.  I have strived to be the best I

  Today I am writing about having a winning mindset in life.  The definition of winning is to gain victory, overcome an opponent, gain status or conquer something or someone.  As a career football, wrestling and softball coach I have spent the better part of my adult life trying to win sporting events.  I have had my fair share of victories along the way and accomplished some pretty amazing goals.   However, I have had tough losses along the way and learned as much, maybe more from those defeats about dealing with life and its shortcomings.  As a player I had the opportunity to be on some really good teams one in particular in college that was undefeated and a championship program.  As a high school coach I have been part of state caliber programs, coached on conference and regional title teams.   On goal I have as a head coach is to win the ultimate prize, and that is a team state title in football or wrestling.  I have won conference titles and had numerous conference, regional and a

Do Not Hide Your Light Today we are talking about standing for right and not hiding your light.  What light am I talking about, you may ask?  I am referring to the light of Jesus Christ which is in all of us and only shows if we have chosen him over darkness.  I remember growing up and singing the song "This Little Light of Mine, I'm Going to Let it Shine" in Sunday school and during youth concerts.  Last night I was listening to the bible on audio and it was talking about being a light for good and fighting darkness in our lives.  The challenge in today's world is to try and hide your light for fear that you may be tagged as a Christian or a believer.  America has become so comfortable with sin that millions are refusing to do the right thing and show their light. Matthew 5:16, states that " In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven". We are called to be warriors

Today I am writing about character and the positive and negative traits that can emerge in people over the period of years of training and practice.  You may ask, how does training and practice evolve into positive character traits or create negative character flaws?  Well, just like preparing for a sports event, a singing competition, a career in medicine and all the other things we want to master and win at.   We must also prepare for being a person of great character so we carry ourselves in a positive manner when dealing with family, business and personal relationships.  We train ourselves through habits and those habits will eventually bring forth a positive or negative character in us.  Today in class I gave a presentation to my high school students about character and how it can play a major role in the development of their family, work and personal lives. I went to my main source of knowledge to see what the bible said about character and its role in our lives.  In Proverbs 6:

  Finding Your Heart Losing heart is defined as feeling overcome by doubt and other feelings that you cannot accomplish something you set out to do.  I often write about sports and use them as an analogy because I have spent three fourths of my adult life as a football and wrestling coach.  I have seen so many young people lose heart as they prepared, practiced and competed.  Most of the time people lose heart because it gets hard, things are not going the way they were envisioned and that will  make someone quit. Adults often lose heart in relationships, jobs, family obligations and other activities.  A job gets tough so they quit because the boss is a jerk.  A marriage gets rocky so they quit and walk away.  Life gets tough and deals hard blows such as cancer, sickness, health issues and personal problems.  Have you ever quit on something or watched a person quit.  Did you give a true effort or did you just walk away because it felt like too much was at risk to overcome it.   I had a

Dealing With Anxiety and Depression Let us begin this topic by stating how real and aggressive anxiety and depression are in the lives of millions of people of all ages.  Anxiety and depression often go unnoticed by people close to those that are suffering until it is too late.  These are two leading causes of death and health risk in the world.  Being anxious and depressed can go hand in hand and are a double whammy that is hard to overcome in life.  Let's look at a few of the many symptoms of anxiety and depression before talking about dealing with it. 1- Feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness and pessimism 2- Mood swings, not sleeping, shutting down mentally 3- Difficulty with decisions, lack of confidence, and irritability 4- Mental, physical and spiritual health issues These are just some of the major symptoms and signs that I could find as I made my list. At some point, I think we all have faced depression and anxiety in life. Major causes of anxiety and depression are life

  The Lighthouse A lighthouse is a refuge for weary travelers.  It is a light that shows the way to ships and boats on the ocean.  My wife loves a lighthouse and one of her favorite activities when we travel is to go and look at lighthouses.  For many years we would travel to the coast and go seek out a lighthouse.  The bible talks about a lighthouse also and the light is always Jesus.  I love the old gospel song that talks about the lighthouse and my mom loved it also.  It told us that Jesus is the lighthouse and just has a way to lift the spirit. Without a lighthouse ships would wreck, sailors would perish and the precious cargo would sink to the bottom of the ocean.  A lighthouse is significant to ships just as Jesus is significant to mankind.  He lights the way for us to keep from getting lost.  He shows us through his grace and mercy that salvation for our souls can be attained by seeking his light.  Just as a lighthouse is built strong on a firm foundation to withstand storms, t