Reflection

On spiritual toxicity.

I was struck on Sunday by how similar our inward state can reflect outward.

Let me explain.  When we take things in to our body that aren't good for us they do a few things. They either damage and leave, damage and stay, or accumulate and damage later.  A few things we can see right away, like poison.  We feel ill when we drink it or eat it in larger quantities.  Other things take a longer time to make us feel bad. We could gain weight or get cancer or other things like that.  Make sense?

Okay, now, the thought that hit me was how our spiritual lives reflect our outward bodies. Though, perhaps, it is the other way around. Our bodies reflect how our spirit lives. Anyway, I digress.

What I mean is this: when we do something against God's law, like lie or steal it does damage. The bad things or sin, damage and leave, damage and stay, or accumulate and damage later.  Like for instance a white lie. It is still a lie and therefor bad. If we don't stop our lying, no matter how 'white' it is, it will get worse (accumulate) and then we will have a bigger problem down the line. 

(okay, so I'm going to digress for a second and give you my thoughts on lying in general) 

Okay...so white lying. Some call it harmless, but I'm under the school of thought that no lie is harmless.  When someone asks you a pointed question and the answer will most likely offend them we want to lie to placate the other person, don't we?  I sure am tempted to do that.  Let me suggest a different course of action: tell them you either do not want to answer the question, or answer honestly. If they get offended at the answer there might be one of a few things wrong. Either a) they are in the wrong or insecure, or b) you are in the wrong and insecure or c) both. (or they should not have asked in the first place...)

What I mean by the asker being in the wrong is they could be asking just as way to pick a fight or something of that nature.  By you being in the wrong, I mean that you could be judging them wrongly or want to make them feel bad...etc. 

In the long run, it is much better to tell the truth and take the flack and deal with it than to tell even a white lie.  Otherwise you might have to deal with trust issues and unravel all the different things you have said that you don't actually believe to be true.  What a mess.



Anyway, back to the main point: When we do "small" sins they may not seem to effect us at all.  When we take a step back, though, we can see the damage that's being done. Stealing - we just took that one thing....that one thing was some one else's - that person either worked to buy it, was given as a gift, or they own the shop it was in....so you are taking money out of their pocket. Would you actually take money out of some one's pocket?

Once we "get away" with something smaller, we tend to let the next thing go as well. It's like the old illustration of the frog in a pot of water. If you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, he'll jump out immediately. If you put him in cold water and gradually turn up the heat, he won't know any different and die.

Don't let the heat get you. Stop even the small things in their tracks. They are not harmless, no matter how infinitesimal it seems.


Trying to sweat and stop the small stuff,

XO,
Bliss

Finding Replacements

As I get rid of so many of the different products that I have come to depend on, I have found a gaping hole. In some instances, I just let that hole be and it tends to feel less gaping - as I said in the last post.

The other holes, though, continue to feel gaping until I refill them.  And I am.  ...slowly.

The first one that I filled was mascara. I don't generally wear much make-up because I stay at home with my kiddos most of the time. When I do get out of the house, I will put on some form of make-up.  My go-to, besides chapstick (which some might argue is not actually make-up...), is mascara.  I had been using Covergirl for the longest time, but it actually made my eyes itchy and water. No good. I switched it out for Physicians Formula organic wear black mascara.  I can't even tell the difference between the conventional and the organic one. ...excepting that I don't feel the need to rip out my eyes.

Also in the make-up department, I have gone to a mineral foundation. I was finding that anything conventional would make my rosacea flare up like crazy.  I would wear some on Sunday for church and then I couldn't touch my face for weeks for fear of pain.  I thought I had been using a good mineral foundation from a company that sells things through home parties...but I looked it up on EWG's website, after a huge flare up, and what do I find, but that it is an EIGHT...out of ten!  I stopped using it almost immediately, and started asking other people what they used. Once I got a few different answers, I did my research on them and made a decision.  I now have a foundation from Pure Anada. I love it. They are also a Canadian company...so I'm biased.  : )  But! Seriously, it covers blemishes with very little product.  My only complaint is that if you are not one of their stock colors (which I am borderline not) you have to buy two or three to mix together to get your shade.  That being said, if you do that, you will not have to buy more for almost an eternity!

Just yesterday, I got some mineral eye shadow and blush. I haven't used them yet, but they are pretty and I'm excited to. I'll let you know how it goes.

My favourite replacement to date has been nail polish.  Now, nail polish doesn't exactly become perfect when it goes more natural. It can only go MORE natural instead of natural.  I have always been a polish lover. I even had the water-based peel off kind that came with Barbies back in the day. I really got in to it when I turned 12. I got polish as gifts, I bought it with allowance...I had all the colors I could use.  This love affair briefly stopped when I had my son. I didn't want him sucking on my neatly painted nails for fear he would gnaw off the enamel and ingest it. I had almost stopped altogether until I heard about more natural polish!  I will tell you more in a separate post coming soon, so I won't spoil it here.  But, let me just say, I am full force back on the nail polish bandwagon!

I have replaced a bunch of other personal products, but this post is getting too long, so I will finish my list another day.

Have you replaced anything lately?
XO,
Bliss


ps. none of the companies mentioned have asked me to write this.