“THINK on THESE THINGS” for September 24th

“THINK on THESE THINGS”
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

So often it is difficult to know where the line lies between kindness and domineering. It doesn’t sound as if the two could possibly ever mix, but sometimes in our watchfulness over those we care about we’re inclined to thin it is a kind of goodness when it actually becomes domineering.

It is often the best and kindest thing to let others think for themselves. Even though the helpfulness is a love, it can be smothering to the ones who want to breathe freely, even of their own problems.

Concern can turn to possessiveness in the space of a moment and do it do subtly it is almost impossible to comprehend. All individuals have the right to make their own mistakes and also the undeniable right to correct those mistakes. It makes help appreciated when it comes and then help is recognized as help and not as ownership.

If we were all told what to do, it would relieve us of the burden of the responsibility of thinking, planning, or making decisions. Out lives would be literally free of care. And there are those among us who love to direct the traffic of other people’s lives. But have you noticed how detestable it is to them to have the smallest suggestion made concerning their own? What a display of vanity!

There are always sycophants, or “apple polishers,” if you will, who fawn and flatter the vanity. But to have one’s vanity built to great heights is not always an act of love, but more often subtle scorn.

Love is the only force against vanity. Love does not wish to command, but only to serve. If love cannot tell the truth it does not speak. Vanity separates, love joins. Love does not ask that another take the responsibility, but it asks only the strength to bear it.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Visit her web site to purchase the wonderful books by Joyce as gifts for yourself or for loved ones……and also for those who don’t have access to the Internet: http://www.hifler.com
Click Here to Buy her books at Amazon.com

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

“THINK on THESE THINGS” for September 13th

“THINK on THESE THINGS”
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

There is much to be said of small things. Even in this age of emphasis on bigness we must realize that bigness is only a mass of small things. An idea is a small thing. With it we can change our world. We can take a tiny seed and give it careful attention and reap a hundred fold. We can take a little idea and give it our attention and build it into a fortune.

A smile is a small thing. Smile once at someone in passing and three will return the smile. Smiling is so contagious that it moves from person to person until a hundred smiling faces are the result of one.

A thought is a small thing. One thought inspires another and another until a mental image is formed. From that mental image blueprints are drawn. And from those blueprints worlds are built.

Hope is a small thing. One tiny glimmer of hope can lift us out of the deepest pit of darkness. One whisper of encouragement will help us to know that as long as there’s hope there is an excellent chance.

A wish is a small thing. Like a little prayer, it climbs the steps to an idea that makes a smile and gives us hope to make our wishes come true. For in small things are all great things formed, in little beginnings the possibilities of great events.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

“THINK on THESE THINGS” for August 24

“THINK on THESE THINGS”
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

It takes such a little whiff of memory to carry us all the way back. Small things tucked here and there remind us of some place, some thing, some person who has played a special part in our lives.

We want to go forward, try new things, know new people, visit new places, yet how nice to slip on those comfortable old slippers of the familiar bygones and remember loving faces and happy times.

It is said that we should never return to places that have a sacred spot in our memories. Everything changes with time, so little remains recognizable to us. We begin to think that perhaps those hallowed places were not so wonderful as we remember.

But they were, for in their time and that place it was as it should have been, happy and meaningful. They may have changed, but so have we.

A little of every place and every person goes with us in the building of even happier times. We have not lost anyone or anything but it is the combination of all that we have lived and learned that builds our character and teaches us the way of life.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

“THINK on THESE THINGS” for June 17th

“THINK on THESE THINGS”
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Leave yourself a choice. It is a sorry state of affairs when a person’s life becomes so regimented that it is impossible to make even one change in plans. There is a story about a gentleman who kept a record in minute detail of his living and every cent he earned so that he could make a trip abroad. The record keeping became such an obsession that when he could make the trip he took along crackers to keep from eating in the dining room aboard ship. The journey was nearly over before he discovered the price of his meals was included in the fare.

How much do we miss by refusing to accept the bounty of choices? “If only” and “I wish” are so over used. We bind ourselves daily by refusing to recognize the volume of opportunities open to each of us. All of life is not free, but there is much available for our personal selection.

Dr. William S. Sadler wrote of a woman who was so orderly and systematic in her living that she inquired of her minister how to go about dying since she had never done it before. Living in a systematic world is possible, but there are limits to what we can prepare for and about which to be orderly. Daily we meet and settle many small emergencies, and some not so small. And it is our developed ability to meet these things successfully and on the spur of the moment that makes a well-rounded individual.

But the steady, uniform methods of doing things do not necessarily mean a person is ready to meet every situation in life. In fact, such living often makes change practically impossible when change is sorely needed.

Order is heaven’s first law. But order means first things first. A place for everything and everything in its place. Then, if we’ve learned how to live, we never have to worry about the art of dying gracefully.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

“THINK on THESE THINGS” for June 15th

“THINK on THESE THINGS”
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Good ideas are the flower of the mind, waiting to bloom for the benefit of the thinker.

We are constantly in the process of manufacturing ideas. Every waking moment we are thinking continually, making mental images of that which we desire or need. Everything we see was first an idea in someone’s mind.

Ideas are fleeting messages that pass rapidly through the mind. Some of the are strong enough to impress the thinker. Many are not worth saving, but a few are very precious. They have to be sifted, sorted and analyzed for value. Then they must be acted on immediately, for they are very perishable. Once we lose an idea, it is seldom if ever recaptured.

Everyone has access to a better and happier life through ideas, if we can trust the Lord to give us the will and courage to follow through on them.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for May 15th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

So much has been written about happiness – the way to it, the reasons for it, the symbols of it – and still people search for that very special something that will assure happiness forever after. Of all the recipes for lasting happiness, we finally have to mix our own. But the one thing everyone has in common is the need for a little bit more. We have this and this, for which we are very thankful, but always the need is extended to that little bit more.

Happiness is like any other part of our lives, we must use wisdom in seeking it. We too often rush headlong into something that seems to be instant happiness, all the time telling ourselves we can right the wrong at a later time. But happiness doesn’t remain happiness for very long when it has such strings attached.

In order to be rightly happy we concentrate on getting, but it is giving that we find most necessary to mix into every recipe. To some, happiness will always be elusive, never quite settling anywhere, never quite revealing itself, for they have yet to learn that happiness has the wings of angels, the breath of God, and the love of man, all hidden within Him.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for Monday, May 12th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Think on pleasant things. Deliberately turn your thoughts to something pleasant when the pressures are too intense. And be careful as undisciplined thought quickly sifts back to the unhappy, unsettled mind.

The greater part of the time we are victims of our emotions. They play havoc with our peace of mind and are great friends of pessimism. They tell us things are true with such sincerity that we believe them into fact. They convince us things are a certain way and that we cannot remedy them with any amount of effort.

But stop where you are and consider what it is you are listening to and how it affects your feelings. Do a turnabout and take the positive route of deliberately replacing thoughts of unhappiness, injustices, and misunderstandings with the thought that these are merely chariots to carry us past all that has withheld freedom.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for May 11

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Most successful ventures have behind them some hardships. We as human beings, demand such experiences before we can truly appreciate the meaning of victory. No one promised that life would be son long gala event, but if we’re made of durable stuff, we neither let it hinder us nor make us run roughshod to get ahead.

We must always recognize past hardships for what they are. We cannot ignore them, for they are a part of our makeup. But neither can we let them become crutches to lean upon when there’s a need for an excuse.

Bitterness over past experiences wastes valuable time. Perhaps it was those hardships that gave us the strength to rise above the mediocre things. However crude, ugly or unhappy, even when combined with all our other knowledge they form the perfect circle and play no more important part than all the rest.

In the words of American poet John Neal, “No man ever worked his passage anywhere in a dead calm.”

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘Think On These Things’ for May 10th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

There are so many things we must come to know. If there are obstacles we have made them. And if there is unrest it is because of a lack of holiness, of recognizing the truly important. If our appetites are too great, it is not that we crave food or drink, but something higher than that which we are experiencing.

Sometimes we fail to know the needs of others, but more often we can see their needs more clearly than we can our own. And we can help ourselves quickly by recognizing the truth of our own being.

We are spiritual beings and to operate in the strict physical and mental sense is likened to running a car with only gasoline. It cannot be done efficiently. It takes water, gasoline, and oil.

When we learn that it takes our physical, mental, and spiritual beings to make one person, then we are whole and have eliminated the inability to help ourselves. The outcome depends on you and me. And it is our duty to disqualify the thousand and one excuses that keep us from that duty.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for May 9th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Have you even known someone whose very presence comforted you? They seem to have no need of words but their quiet companionship soothes like balm to the soul: these are your kindred souls who have already been the route you’re traveling, or are just ahead and leaning back to take your hand.

Wherever you are on the path of life, there have been many there before you. It may seem the loneliness of the road has many empty echoes. But there have been many good people concerned enough to make an effort to mark the rougher places to allow your journey easier traveling.

And like all travelers we must look for those signs and make them more plain to the ones who will follow.

And then, in quiet communication, we can each take our turn by understanding.

How often we see people who desperately need our help. We would like to help them, but we put it out of our minds because it seems beyond our means and beyond our strength. We use the excuse that we have enough problems of our own without going out on a limb for someone else. Charity begins at home and at home and at home.

If we have the true desire, and the welfare of someone else in our sights, we can ask divine guidance, and we will receive help. If help does not come, it is because we were not truly serious. Or perhaps whatever we wanted to do was not in the best interests of all concerned. Our help may only have slowed their progress or weakened their efforts. If our desires are worthy we need to have no fear that a way will come to help.

The desire to help is a divine gift, and we accept it most beautifully by using it.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Henry David Thoreau, whose cry was “Simplify! Simplify!” went to great measures to prove to himself, and perhaps to society, that life could be lived in the most simple manner and at the least expense. With only a few dollars he managed to provide for himself the things of absolute necessity for quite a long period of time.

Not many of us would care to exist on the absolute necessities. We have become too much accustomed to easier living. Things that were once thought of as luxuries are now considered necessities. And yet, with all of this, life is anything but simple. We seem to have the ability to complicate the best laid plans and find ourselves shadow boxing.

Like many of the trite old adages, “Life is what we make it,” is so true. By our own minds we accept of reject, by ignoring or by searching out the causes of shadows and removing the cause. It is whatever we elect to do about our individual lives that makes the difference. But we shall make great strides when we recognize the supreme excellence in all things of simplicity.

We don’t need to worry about doing without the necessary things in life – if we have a grateful heart. A grateful heart is not just remembering to write a few words to someone who has done a kindness, or saying thank you graciously and at the right moment. A grateful heart is the feeling of great blessing which precedes that thank you note and that verbal expression.

A grateful heart is one that always known the fullness of that rich feeling of first being grateful without cause. And then, all other gratitude and its expression comes naturally.

Perhaps true gratitude is a grateful thoughts toward heaven that I should be chosen to fill this spot, do this work, and have been given the strength to do it.

It was Romaine, the English theologian, who said, “Gratitude to God makes even a tempered blessing a taste of heaven.” We can have so much more heaven with a grateful heart.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for May 5th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Realizing that there is a multitude of wonderful things to appreciate, we must shake them all together in our minds and wait for the chosen ones to rise up the top like bubbles. Life is such a challenge, such a joy to live when it is appreciated. If we could only realize who gave is life, we would understand even more why the Creator intended us to appreciate and love all that is about us.

The things we can appreciate are never in any particular order, but mingled together as they are in our lives. We can so beautifully and joyfully appreciate the sound of our children’s laughter when sudden happiness overtakes them; the tremendous and moving power of silent prayer; a strong voice singing a song of inspiration, or of sentiment; early morning sunrises, misty pink and fresh; a mockingbird singing out its heart in the depth of night; the touch of souls in understanding; violin music; and our children in prayer, in spells of delight, or in any other movement.

To name them all would be an impossibility, to live them all is a blessing. We must not pass these things by without appreciating them. We must not lose them by failing to give thanks. These are the things we always have near us, and we can appreciate them merely by attuning our senses to them.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for April 30th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Did you know that when we poke fun at someone else we’re covering up our own embarrassment?

We all have shortcomings, peculiarities about ourselves that we take no pride in nor want others to know about. So, frequently we call attention to the “different” traits of others. Sometimes we believe they are not aware of their own problems, but they are. They are superconscious of them, and because of it they must escape through finding something about someone else they believe is worse than their own.

Truly wise persons are those who take their own unique qualities and build around them. Some of the most fascinating people are those who surround their unusual features with such exquisite mannerisms and beautifully developed personalities so handsomely as to make others ordinary.

It has been written by Augustine, “This is the very perfection of man, to find out his own imperfection.”

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

If we could be read it, all human beings carry the marks of their character in the lines of their faces. The very expressions are etched there by habitual thought. The most beautiful features may be blank of expression, lacking depth of thought or understanding, while the plainest face may be lighted with a radiance only sincerity and inner beauty can produce.

Alexander Smith was a Scottish poet who wrote, “On your features the fine chisels of thought and emotion are eternally at work.”

No pretense can hide the thoughts and feelings. The narrowed eyes of suspicion and discontent tattle, while serenity and devotion to others can reveal such beauty of spirit that the shape of the face is forgotten.

“In thy face I see the map of honor, truth, and loyalty,” wrote Shakespeare, and it is safe to say that being able to see those things in another’s face is an assurance that he also had such a face. To see only avarice and selfishness in every expression turned to us is to know that our own expressions lack something to be desired.

Life does not have to be full of ease to reflect beauty. Some of the most beautiful faces in history have not had eyes to see nor voices to move their lips, but have possessed peace and serenity that only faith could render.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for April 22nd

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

To be in harmony with others, we must be in tune with ourselves. This is not always a state of mind easily come by, but necessary and possible to those who truly want to put their best foot forward.

They must cultivate and recultivate the things that make peace within themselves. They must not only have faith, but they must depend upon it, drawing from it energizing joy, love, and lightness of heart. They must know and understand the moods and manners of their coworkers and express to their colleagues their happiness and enthusiasm for the good things of life.

At times everyone has fits of uncertainty concerning their way of life. And it is gratifying to have someone capable of lifting us out of the blues and scattering the doldrums. But the job is mainly ours. We have to cross examine ourselves again and again to be sure there’s nothing that will not contribute to our best self, or draw less than the best from others.

To be cooperative is not only beneficial to associations with others, but to our own health, peace, and happiness. Let there be peace and harmony and let it begin with me.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

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