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Most coaches get involved in coaching for one extremely compelling and valuable purpose – because they want to make a positive impact to the lives of others.

As a coach, the extent to which you are able to fulfil that objective is contingent upon two factors. Firstly, your skill and effectiveness as a coach; and secondly, on the number of clients you are able to affect through the application of your services. The purpose of this article is to focus on the second factor.

In the process of assisting people, it’s also possible for coaches to develop a fruitful lifestyle for themselves along the way. In fact, these objectives are entirely complimentary.

Many business people, including coaches, fail to recognise the important ethical role that marketing plays in their business. In doing so they develop a mindset that is self defeating to themselves, their business, and their clients.

As a coach, you are in business. How effectively you operate your business is entirely contingent on you. There are enormously successful coaches (in terms of client numbers, income and coaching outcomes), and coaches that are barely able to etch out a living. The difference between these extremes is not their coaching competency, but rather their mindset. You may be an incredibly skilful coach, but unless you have people willing to use your services, your skills are of little to no value.

So what mindset does it take to be a successful coach?

A successful coaching mindset:

- Puts the needs of prospects and clients first;

- Actively seeks to assist clients attain their objectives;

- Is empathetic to the needs of clients and prospects;

- Doesn’t limit the service offered to clients, and

- Acts as an ethical adviser.

It takes a Marketing Mindset to be a successful coach.

We regularly hear of coaches that feel as though marketing is ‘leading’ and ‘unethical.’ They feel as though it’s too ‘salesy’ and don’t feel comfortable with it. For those coaches, we’re going to explain why marketing is both ethically valid and commercially crucial.

Ethical Validity

There is an enormous (and growing) volume of people in society that would benefit from coaching services. Let’s call these people prospective coaching clients, or prospects. These prospects have specific goals they’d like to achieve, or challenges they’d like to overcome, with a view to leading a better and more fulfilling life.

As a coach you have a certain duty of care to assist these people. You can only begin to assist them once they’re utilising your services. Marketing is the link between the prospects desire and your ability to assist them fulfil their desire.

Marketing only becomes unethical in the circumstance that you are not able to fulfil your marketing promise to your client. In this instance you’ve misled your client, either knowingly or unknowingly, and have acted unethically.

On the premise that prospects will seek a coach to assist them attain their specific goals, it’s the ethical obligation of coaches to help prospects select a coach that will best be able to assist them. To do this coaches should fully, comprehensively and transparently disclose to prospects what services they offer; where their specialties lie; what experience they have; how they’ve assisted people with similar desires in the past; and how using their services will benefit them. Or to state it more simply, to undertake marketing.

Commercially Crucial

Marketing is commercially crucial because it links prospects that desire a certain outcome with skilled professionals trained to assist them achieve that outcome. It identifies you as someone that may be able to assist prospects with their pre-qualified needs. By seeking out information on coaching services, prospects have already identified for themselves:

1. That there are certain things in their life they’d like to attain or challenges they’d like to overcome.

2. That a coach is a person with the requisite skills and experience to assist them.

3. That they are willing to invest financially in the process.

The above is an extremely important point, and one that coaches need to accept.

As we explained earlier, coaches generally come from one of two schools of thought with respect to marketing.

The first school of thought perceives marketing to be ‘leading’ and ‘salesy.’ They come from the paradigm that by marketing you are proactively influencing someone in their decisions. Or specifically that you may make someone do something they would not otherwise do. We call this train of thought the Influencing Paradigm.

The second school of thought accepts that prospects are people that have identified for themselves their need to invoke change. And they’ve identified that a coach will assist them make that change. They recognise that the prospect has made the intellectual link between their needs and how they want those needs to be fulfilled. We call this train of thought the Service Paradigm.

The thought processes of these two perspectives are entirely dipolar. One positions the prospect as someone reluctantly influenced into utilising a service, and the other positions the prospect as a proactive individual capable of determining their needs that has actively sought out coaching services.

As a coach, it’s critical that you put yourself in the second paradigm of thinking. Only then will you be able to ethically fulfil your objective of assisting your clients. And only then will you be able to fulfil your symbiotic goal of building a successful coaching business.

By putting yourself in the Service Paradigm of thought you will recognise that to assist clients meet their objectives, you should:

- Actively promote your services through compelling advertising that clearly describes what you can offer clients.

- Understand that as a coach and a trusted advisor you are often in a better position of knowledge to ascertain your client needs to assist them attain their goals.

- Be empathetic to the needs of your clients and actively offer solutions to them through various products and services.

- Value your client’s intellect and decision making ability.

- Do not pre-empt your client’s wants and hence limit the range and scope of products and services you offer them.

- Always acts as an ethical adviser.

Once you embrace the Service Paradigm to marketing, you’ll realise that marketing provides you with a much greater opportunity to fulfil your primary objectives – to assist your clients, and to build a successful coaching business. These objectives become complimentary and you create a truly win-win situation between the desires of your clients and your own desires.

In the second part of this article we’ll provide you with further information on how to develop your Marketing Mindset and a Service Paradigm.

While an individual would like to improve an aspect or certain aspects of their life so they can achieve a specific goal, or set of goals.

Life Coaching Institute is Australia’s leading coach training organisation. Learn more about LCI coach training programs and receive a FREE GIFT at http://www.lcia.com.au/lz

“Know thyself” is a powerful principle that leaders, managers and effective people intuitively know.

When you understand your own strengths and preferences you are in a position to maximise those strengths and compensate for any weaknesses either by working differently or surrounding yourself with people with different strengths.

Most of us have a dominant birth order personality that matches our birth position. But that personality is influenced by variables such as temperament, gender and other family circumstances. So it is not so much where you are born in your family but how you function that counts. How a person functions generally correlates with birth position.

Your birth order personality relates both to your working style (i.e. how you work and what motivates you) and also your relational style (i.e how you relate to people). For many people that means working along different birth order lines. For instance, I am in the youngest in my family by seven years, which means I am like a functional first born. So I work like a first-born (achievement-oriented, ambitious and like to be in control) but I relate like a youngest (very good at outsourcing to others and a poor decision-maker). It sounds complicated but it is not.

Birth order theory outlines four types of personalities- first borns, second borns, only’s and youngests. If you were 3rd of six children then circumstances would have meant that you either functioned predominantly like one of the big four above.

Here are the four birth order types and some of their characteristics:

First borns – the leaders, the drivers and the responsible types. These people like to manage others but first they need to manage themselves. They love to feel in control and can feel uncomfortable with surprises or feeling out of their depth. They are conservative in their outlook, which is both a strength and a weakness. Their ability to focus on a goal and their propensity to organise others means they can achieve whatever they put their minds to.

Their tendency toward perfectionism can mean they can be low risk-takers but they can be the rock around which organisations can be built. Approval of authority is important for this group so don’t expect them to rock the boat too much. First borns, above all else, want to forge ahead.

Second borns – the ‘people’ people, the compromisers, and the flexible operators. They are likely to motivated by a cause and will enjoy working alongside people. They will often choose tasks or even a job that will give them a feeling of belonging. Friendships are important to this group so they will learn to get along and will help keep the peace in a group or organisation. They often need others to drive them but they are the glue that holds groups together. Relationships are important to this group so make sure they included in all activities. Seconds, above all else, put people first.

Only’s – the quiet achievers, the finishers, they expect nothing less than the best. This group will raise the bar for everyone around them as nothing but the best will do. Their great strength is their ability to work for long periods of time on their own so they make great project finishers and strategic thinkers but they can be secretive and don’t deal well with conflict. Recognition is important to this group. Only’s, above all else, aim to please.

Youngests – the initiators, ideas people and the challengers. This group are the creative, live-for-the moment types who can put some fun and verve into activities. While the message for first borns is to lighten up it seems that this group need to take things more seriously sometimes. Great initiators and very impatient doers, they perservere to get something started but often are not the greatest of finishers. This group will often do anything to be noticed so make sure you pay heed to their efforts. Youngests, above all else, will blow your mind.

Which birth order personality do you most closely resemble? Does it match your birth order position? In reality, you probably nodded your head for some characteristics in each position. But which did you nod most vigourously while reading? That will give you an indication of your dominant birth order personality.

So what is the point? Know thyself and know the circumstances you are working in. There are times when your birth order personality should take over but there are times when you may need to operate or work like someone in another position. This may make you feel uncomfortable but you can do it.

I have a set of badges – one for each position – which I wear for different occasions and different jobs. Sometimes I need to be more like a first born particularly when I need to take a lead. But there are also times that I must act like a second born and learn to compromise and be more diplomatic than take a crash and burn approach. When it is time to take action and throw caution to the wind I will wear my youngest born badge.

Birth order knowledge is simple as it is intuitive but it is also powerful because as Kevin Leman author of The New Birth Order Book maintains, the affects …. “can touch you in profound and sometimes disturbing ways years after you think you have grown beyond all that.”

Michael Grose is a leading authority on birth order and its affects on personality. He is the author of the ground-breaking book ‘Why first borns rule the world and last borns want to change it’ published by Random House. You can obtain this book from the shop at http://www.parentingideas.com.au. Find out how you can get Michael to help your people unleash the power of their birth order personalities at http://www.michaelgrose.com

The Nokia firm is an inter-continental tele-communications corporation, based on the important growth fields of wired & wireless telecommunications. Nokia is currently the globe largest manufacturer of mobile telephones, with a total hand-set market share of just about 38%. Nokia builds cellular sets for every sizable market segment & protocol. The corporation furthermore builds telecoms network equipment for applications such as mobile & fixedline voice telephony, ISDN, broadband access, voice over internet protocol & wireless LAN.

Nokia plays a strikingly big part in the economy of Finland. Nokia is undoubtedly the largest Finnish company, accounting for nearly one third of the market capitalization of the Helsinki Stock; an exclusive position in a first world country. It’s an important Finnish employer and assorted small outfits have developed into big companies as Nokia’s subcontractors.

Nokia increased the GDP of Finland by more than one and a half per cent in nineteen ninety nine alone. In 04 Nokia’s cut of the the GDP of Finland came in out 3 ½ per cent and accounted for nearly 0.25 of Finnish exports in 2003. In 2007, Nokia generated income that for the first time outstripped the state budget of Finland. This has led some to refer to Finland as “Nokialand.”

Finnish people have ranked Nokia many times as the pre-eminent Finnish brand and employer. Nokia is the 5th most valuable brand on earth in BusinessWeek’s Best Global Brands list of the 20 favorite companies worldwide in Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies.

Nokia’s Mobile division furnishes the general public with mobile voice and data products across a massive selection of mobile devices. The division strives to focus on mostly large-volume sales of mobile phones and devices, with the general public being the most important customer segment.

Nokia takes it that ease of use, design, brand, and price are mainstream mobile telephone’s most essential considerations for customers. Nokia’s product back catalogue includes digital camera mobiles with special features like megapixel cameras and MP3 players that engage the mass market.

In the first quarter of 2007 it moved over 15000000 MP3 capable mobile phones, which means that it is not only the planets foremost supplier of cellular sets and digi cameras (as the lion’s share of Nokia’s cellular sets feature digital cameras, it is also thought that it has lately improved on Kodak in camera assemblage, making it the biggest in the world), it is now also the foremost supplier of digital audio. It wants to sell 80 million music phones by the end of 2007, overtaking sales of devices such as the iPod from Apple.

Anxiety attack symptoms often leave a person believing that the worst is going to happen to them. If you are reading this, looking for answers about your specific condition, you need to take note that the way that you feel is not necessarily reality. This can be very hard to understand and it can be quite impossible to wrap your mind around. Yet, anxiety attack symptoms can be very real and very scary in themselves. Understanding what these symptoms are, and working to correct them, will allow you to excel in treatments for yourself.

What Symptoms Are Evident?

The first thing to understand about your anxiety panic disorder, social anxiety disorder or any other form of anxiety disorder is that the symptoms you face are symptoms and not reality. It is important to spot these anxiety attack symptoms so that you can ultimately see it coming on and treat it.

Here are some of the feelings and symptoms that you may experience during an anxiety attack:

· Irrational heightened fear. Although those that face anxiety disorder often have an overall fear and endless amount of worries, during an attack this is heightened and elevated to something much more serious in their minds.

· Pounding heart, racing heart and chest pain.

· Problems breathing, often, you may feel like you have just run a marathon although you have not done much physical activity.

· Feelings like you are losing it, you may feel that your mind is just being overtaken; you can not concentrate or focus.

· You feel physically shaken; your legs are jelly, your stomach hurts, your muscles do not move as you are telling them to. You may even feel numbness, tingling and chills.

· You feel as if you are dying.

Anxiety attack symptoms can be just one or two of these or they can be many more. You should realize or try to realize, when these symptoms are occurring as this can be a helpful signal to you to realize that this is not rational thought.

In anxiety attack symptoms, your body is reacting to the way in which you are thinking. While you should not try to treat your condition alone, you can work with behavioral specialists that will help you to work through the problems effectively. In most cases, people that have anxiety disorders of any type feel as if they just can not seek out the help that they need. While this may be the case, getting through this one event can help you to ease out of the terrible conditions you are facing right now.

Knowing what anxiety attack symptoms are can help you to notice when you need help. Realizing when a loved one is in this situation can be helpful to them as well. Often, the irrational feelings that they are having are very real and very terrifying to them. Getting them the help they need is essential to their own well being.

Sandy Sizemore writes on many consumer related topics including mental health. You can find info on anxiety attack symptoms and tips for panic attacks and more by visiting our mental health website.

When women started to wear men’s clothes to prove that they are equal with men, that they are not inferior and can do the same job men do. It is a part of emancipation – women started to vote, earn money, and occupy important positions. Clothing was only a part of such process. Very painful process for women pioneers who were first to put on pants and jackets. Most of us probably do not realize what price did those women pay to change opinion of society and be able to wear men’s clothes. They paid a high price so that women of twenty first century can wear pants, drive cars, vote, work in police or a big corporation, simply express their opinions, and not be regarded with prejudice. There is big ideology behind females wearing men’s pants and shirts.

What ideology would be behind males wearing skirts? If those men are not Irish and not homosexual, what point would they want to prove? Do men consider that women have more rights then men? After all, ladies today are allowed to wear all kinds all clothes and men – only men’s cloth. I think if a man want to wear a dress or a skirt, he thinks that women have to many rights and that they are not supposed to be better then men in any way, they are not supposed to wear better clothes then men.

Women had to wear men’s clothing in order to occupy the same jobs – to be a bodyguard, to work in police or serve in the army. There is not only ideology, but simple necessity for women to wear male clothes. There is nor ideology, neither necessity for men to wear women’s clothes. The only possible reason would be for them to say that they do not women to be even a step before men in anything. But that would not be fair since men still definitely have more rights and privileges. Women always have to prove something in order to show that they are not worse. Men have enough benefits in our society. Why do they want to have one more? Is it because they are afraid to lose their championship in gender relations?

I definitely would not want my husband to wear women’s clothing. I am not a feminist, but I am for equal rights for men and women. I want my husband to treat me fairly. I do not want to prove him every single day that women are not inferior to men.

Men do not have to stay at home raising children. They are excused for devoting more time to themselves and their career than to home and family. In our society, men are allowed to do much more things than women and they are easier excused for cheating, betrayal, and unusual preferences. They have enough rights and enough freedom. And to grant them one more right, even such seemingly unimportant, as wearing female’s clothing, would be not fear regarding women. As an equal and fair society, we are supposed to move towards greater equality between men and women. And allowing men to wear women’s clothing is a step definitely not in this direction.

Aaron is a senior writer at Custom Essay Writing Network. He is an experienced writer of custom essay and will be glad to share his experience of custom essay writing with you.

You should start looking on the Internet - it’s a quick and easy way to get lots of information about them. Virtually every Boston personal injury law firm has its website, so you can even contact all of them via e-mail if you really wish. The problems begin when you try to sift all this information in order to decide which Boston personal injury law company is the best for you.

Finding the best attorneys

If you want to decide if they’re good enough, you have to see them personally. No phones and no e-mails - just an old-fashioned face-to-face meeting. Look for problems - especially for them being too optimistic and the using of lawyers’ doublespeak. There are lots of such attorneys in Boston, but the personal injury law company you hire must be completely honest with you. You don’t need any lies or half-truths - you’ve heard enough of them from the doctors. You have to know exactly what’s going on. In Boston, personal injury law firm which follows this policy is something uncommon, but it is still possible to find. Look for the false in the lawyer’s words. If you can’t find it, hire them. He is either a too good actor or he is honest - and both possibilities bode well for the case you hope to win.

Coping with possible problems

Unfortunately your problems do not end at the moment you hire an injury lawyer. The merely begin. You still have to visit some courts in Boston, as your personal injury law company progress should be checked constantly. Even if you don’t have to go to the courthouse, you’d better do it. Listening to what your attorney says about how the case develops is one thing, seeing it with your own eyes is completely another. The lawyers will do their best when they know that they are watched by their clients.

The second most important problem is not about your attorney, but about yourself. You can’t be impatient or nervous and you must stay calm when you talk to your lawyers if you really want them to be honest with you. You have to understand them - no Boston personal injury law company can be a law firm and psychoanalyst’s office at the same time. They have to understand you, but you also have to understand them even if you don’t like what they say.

Dave Hoffman is the founder of Personal Injury Atorneys a website providing information on personal injury law

“…We’ve got a budget deficit that’s important, we’ve got a trade deficit that’s critical, but what I worry most is our empathy deficit.” – Interview in O Magazine with Barack Obama.

Perhaps this is not only a US national concern but a global crisis: people are dividing into camps and fighting one another with no mention of sitting down to dialogue.

We, as global human beings living on a shrinking planet, have to stop the insanity, start talking, and stop the fighting.

The fighting is not only among warring nations. It goes on in corporations, small businesses, between entrepreneurs, in schools, in neighborhoods, and in families. There is a lack of talking, listening, and empathizing between people. This is especially true when they are different from us in some way.

We lose patience with others not like us or not of the same viewpoint. We stop listening. And consequently, we lose our ability to understand and find solutions.

We are missing opportunities for talking and dialoguing about what really matters. Dialoguing of course means listening and hearing what the other person is saying. It is not a monologue. It requires more than listening—it requires empathy.

Lesson # 1 in Empathy

Empathy has several ingredients. Most people understand empathy to be “walking in someone else’s shoes.” It is more than that. Information when communicated to us by another human being is processed through the limbic system in the brain, the center for emotions and memory.

The trick here is not to get lost in our own memories and emotions. This requires self-management so quick that it is out of our awareness. We sense that the reason we feel sad that our neighbor is telling us that their dog died is that we have also experienced loss and know what it must be like for them.

To summarize, lesson #1 of empathy has several parts:

1. Take in information
2. Process your personal emotional reactions
3. Reorient yourself to the person and what they are saying
4. Self-manage personal reactions and memories
5. Ask questions such as, “Tell me more,” and “How does that feel for you?”
6. Don’t assume that what they are feeling and experiencing is similar to your experiences
7. Ask more open-ended questions, such as, “And…?” or, “What else?”
8. Just listen
9. Refrain from trying to fix things before step #2

Lesson #2 of Empathy

People usually have a tendency to jump in and want to do something to help too soon. They want to get out of their own discomfort by solving the problem. Often they don’t take the time to really understand what the real problem is before offering solutions. This is how many people come across as NOT being empathetic, when they actually are. They respond too quickly with the wrong solutions.

So, the next important step after lesson #1 (feel the feelings and just listen), is to communicate back to the person that you are hearing them on a deep and personal level.

Simply state back to the person some of what you’ve heard, without interpretation or distortion. This communication requires a deep and honest caring about how other people feel, avoiding judgments and any attempts to minimize the importance of feelings or offering advice.

Like so much, empathy begins with developing ourselves individually, permeates our families and is taught to our children, and then must be communicated with the leaders we entrust to deal with other countries. A continued lack of empathy will result in global degradation.

© 2004 Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D.

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Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D., CBC, is a psychologist, executive coach, and writer. She customizes newsletters for life and executive coaches, providing both content and PDF and HTML ezines for busy professionals. Patsi lives and works from Ajijic, Mexico where she plays tennis daily, and enjoys other creative activities with her husband Rob and two Maine Coon cats, Huey and Dewey. Email patsi@customizednewsletters.com.

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Your first guitar can become a good friend that you’ll have around you for many years. On the other hand, it can be something that you put in the attic after six months and basically forget about.

If a parent or loved one is reading. Dear friend, make sure the first guitar that you purchase as a gift is playable and not a piece of junk. Your son or daughter, regardless of talent, may be turned off from the git-go with a lousy instrument. Seek out an adult friend who plays guitar to go with you for the purchase.

The following refers to acoustic guitars.

If you are just beginning guitar, it’s important (I think) that you get a first guitar with the following traits.

Your guitar should play easily. Since you may be beginning, it’s a good idea to take a guitar playing friend with you to the music store to try out guitars. He or she can tell you whether the instrument is easy or difficult to play. Remember, you don’t have to agree with all your friend says about the guitar. But he or she has been playing guitar and their input is very valuable.

Your guitar should stay in tune. In tune basically means the strings don’t loosen,even slightly, on you guitar as you play it.

You guitar should sound good. When your friend is playing the guitar that you’re looking at, does it sound smooth,warm-when he ends the song, does the chord seem to float for a while in the air? That’s sort of what you’re looking for.
And for 80% of us in North America-Your guitar should be reasonably priced.

Here are some recommendations based on my own experience. They are not all inclusive and I am not endorsing a particular brand.

Low Priced Guitar-For the money, if feel that Yahama is a fine beginner acoustic guitar. I have never played a bad one. I’ve never played one that would slowly go out of tune as you did a gig or played more than one song.

If you got the money (or mom or pop’s got it) Martin, I believe, is hard to beat. The sustain or how long the note goes on after you stop picking is incredible. The Martin tone is warm, distinct and….beautiful.Other quality instruments that I have played and that I can give my imperfect heads up are Gibson, Acoutic Fender, and the lower priced guitars made by the above companies.

Before I depart, I offer the following tips:

Buy a case with your guitar. You have made a serious investment to purchase something that should give you enjoyment for many years. It would be a shame if Bubba, the bull-dog, pushed your guitar down the stairs or left his reprocessed lunch on the guitar laying on the floor! If you don’t have a lot of money, just buy a cheap case. It will give you protection for your guitar. Additionally, it’s easier to carry around.
Guitar picks-When you buy your first guitar, make sure you get picks. Buy one light, one medium, and one heavy. As you learn the guitar, select the pick that you like best-the one that works for you. The medium pick is a good place to start for the beginner.

Guitar tuner-These little electronic devices are relatively cheap. They allow you to turn your guitar as close to perfect as you can get. They are a good and useable investment.
The recommendations above are only for steel-string, acoustic guitars. If you’re in to electric guitars,you can find relevant information on the web about them.

Good luck on finding and purchasing your first guitar. I hope that you will develop your new craft and find years of enjoyment in your purchase.

Gene Smith is an essayist, songwriter and author. His songs include Mina de Plata and Silver Mine. He has published songs in the US and in Europe. He has also produced several spoken word book CDs. He lives in West Virginia, U.S.A.

During the dark ages the scriptures were chained to pedestals in the major cathedrals of the world. The common people could not read the bible and even the clergy were limited to reading it only where it stood. Those days have been eliminated by the courageous efforts of clergy and reformers like Luther, Calvin, Tyndale and a host of others who in some cases gave their lives in the effort. We now enjoy the fruit of their labors throughout most of the free world. Not only are all the versions of the bible available here in America but one publisher has begun offering the bible bound and covered in your choice of designer colors!

Yet for all of this profusion of bibles one of the flimsiest excuses for not reading or trusting the bible is still being used everywhere throughout the land. Who has not heard someone say, “The bible is open to interpretation and that’s why it can’t be trusted”?

If honestly examined, this excuse will be found to be just another one of those “common wisdom of the day” utterances that has no more truth in it than water in the desert. It is grown out of ignorance, watered by indifference and harvested in laziness. It is used glibly but has dire consequences; in fact it could cost a person their entire future.

The first rule of interpretation says that no one has the right to interpret the scripture in a merely personal or private way. …Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. I Peter 1:20 If the bible is not open to private interpretation then it must only be open to public interpretation. That is the key. The universal bible believing church the world over has an interpretation that qualifies this fact, the minor doctrinal differences and the trend toward liberalism notwithstanding. Whether Pentecostal, Evangelical, Baptist, Methodist or any other major historical denomination the bible is interpreted the same. Jesus death and resurrection is the key to salvation and his teachings are the key to our best behavior. When people stray very far from this kind of interpretation of the bible they are bordering on heresy, cultism or something worse.

Another great rule of sound biblical interpretation is to let the bible interpret itself. Let the whole bible reflect on any part of it in particular. You will rarely ever go wrong by applying this rule. This of course implies that you would have to study the whole bible. That alone would just about eliminate any problem with bible interpretation you will ever encounter.

An old preacher from Vermont once told me of a basic rule of interpretation he had learned while attending Bible College. I have never forgotten it and I’ve never failed to use it. He said, “If the scripture makes plain sense, seek no other sense”. Being complicated is not a prerequisite to being a bible student so don’t bury your self in hidden meanings and obscurities, just get on with what is known and apparent.

Finally take a lesson from the smallest child. Ask them what Jesus meant when he said we should love each other, or that we should forgive others. They know what these things mean even when those who hide behind the idea that the bible is riddled with too many interpretations don’t. Some passages are simple but that does not mean they aren’t profound. Other passages are more complex but can be clearly understood by the simplest approach, much like that of a child. The child like approach to scriptural interpretation is the shortest route to understanding; in fact it is also the shortest route to salvation itself. Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. Mark 10:15

We must cease to view the bible as some deep manual of religion only to be known by the initiated or specially trained. Someone once said that the bible and more so, the New Testament is a letter from God the Father to his children. Who would think a letter from your father was meant to create confusion. It would speak of his love, his intentions, his plan and his final return home. It would give instructions and details on what to do until he returns. No one would throw a letter from their father in a corner and say I don’t understand any of that so I’ll just do what I want to until he returns home and take it up with him then.

The words of the bible never create confusion. In fact it is the dismissing of these words that creates confusion. If we hide behind the worn out cliché about “it is all open to interpretation” we will find ourselves with no where to hide in the final day. Jesus said the very opposite about his words, He said they would illuminate our lives and bring peace to us not confusion. In fact they would produce life itself within us…the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 6:33

Rev Bresciani has written many articles over the past thirty years in such periodicals as Guideposts and Catholic Digest. He is the author of two books available on Amazon.com, Alibris, Barnes and Noble and many other places. Rev Bresciani wrote “Hook Line and Sinker or what has Your Church Been Teaching You,” publisher, PublishAmerica of Baltimore MD. He also wrote a book published by Xulon Press entitled “An American Prophet and His Message, Questions and Answers on the Second Coming of Christ.” His book is now being heralded as the clearest book on the subject of the second coming of Christ since Hal Lindsey’s “Late Great Planet Earth” Rev Bresciani’s website is,
http://americanprophet.org

Lonely, bored, tired of eating that same old stick, then maybe you would like to dig yourself a hole.

When it comes to the canine thought process this could be the reason why Scraps keeps tearing up your finely groomed lawn. This article will help you find the behavioral reasons why your dog digs and offers some suggestions on how to stop your companion’s pesky habit.

First and foremost as an owner don’t go placing blame on your good friend until you are sure it is their fault. A good way to find out if your dog has been digging is to check its paws and nose for soil or pica. This is a good indicator to see if they have been eating dirt. In this case consult a veterinarian because there are all kinds of nasty bacteria in dirt that can affect your dog’s health. Another full proof method to find out if your animal is the culprit is to hold yourself a stake out and catch it in the act. Don’t start correcting the problem until you are sure it is your animal causing the problem. Otherwise you might cause the dog more anxiety than it has already endured from watching some other animal dig up its master’s lawn.

Once you have assessed that it is your dog doing the digging then you need to find out why it is digging. It is instinctual for dogs to dig for a number of reasons: boredom, loneliness, animals in the yard, to cool down, or just for fun. First you can judge by the nature of the whole and where it is located why your dog is digging. If your dog is digging next to the house or in shaded areas then it is probably too hot for it. If it continuously digs up the same spot in the yard then it is most likely a foreign animal and you should thank it for the early warning—gophers and moles can be a gardener’s nightmare. If the placement of holes is sporadic then it is not receiving the stimuli or attention that a dog needs.

After you’ve come to a conclusion why your dog is digging then you can try some of these suggestions to help thwart its efforts. If it is an animal causing the problem then you should call an exterminator or animal control to handle the matter. Building a dog house or adding a pet door can give the animal the comfort level it needs while you are away. The more difficult digging scenario to mend is the digging out of boredom or digging for fun case. Do not, I repeat DO NOT, physically punish your dog as this will teach the animal nothing except disrespect for humans which can lead to biting and other misbehavior. If your dog is digging out of boredom try giving it a tasty alternative such as a rawhide bone. It is a common misconception that dogs bury their bones. More likely if they are digging for a bone it is because they can’t remember where they left. So give them the treats where they can find them easily. If toys and chews don’t work then try exercising your animal more often throughout the day. It could be that they aren’t expending enough energy and need some kind of outlet. If these simple methods do not work then you might have to get creative. One method is to bury a piece of chain link fence where the dog has been digging—it will not like this rubbing against its paws. You can also bury a balloon or sneak up on it with a paper bag; the popping will work as shock therapy. Other suggested methods are burying the dog’s feces, mousetraps, or moth balls to deter the animal.

In my own personal opinion the best way to keep the mischief down in an animal is to give them more love than they know what to do with. When you leave them alone they will more curious as to when you will return than with anything else.

Stephanie Hetu
Find over 200 pages of dog training tips, information and cute pictures at Cutepuppydog.com