True wealth is both the love you share and the love you receive.

003When a person puts wealth, power a career or social status above their family and friends they diminish their potential as human being. To put your wants and greed above those you care about is but a quick way to find yourself alone and wanting.What is all the riches of this world and what is the power you want if you have no one around you to whom you can help or share it all with. I am not against prosperity or wealth per se, I am just against putting money and power above your family, friends and the rest of humanity.

Money and power for all its glory in the end will fail or leave you, Family and true friends will stick with you through every trial of life. Why dedicate yourself and your love to something inanimate and undeserving as money or power which is but an illusionary state of mind more so than a reality. True power is found in the ability to have and share love, compassion and understanding. True wealth is both the love you share and the love you receive.

There is nothing more important than the family and friends we are blessed with within this short life.

Ray Barbier

Thoughts on Love and Forgiveness

Rembrandt – “The Return of the Prodigal Son

Love, one of the greatest gifts and blessings God gave us. The love we have for family and friends and the love they have for us as well . The love for our fellow humans and the love we share with all those we interact with. So much we long for and desire, but Love is the grandest prize we can obtain and definitely the greatest gift we can give and/or share.

We were created in Love, we were saved by Gods love and we will in the end bask in his love. We should live this short life full of love and sharing it everywhere we travel. Forgiveness and Love are the two things we have the power to manifest and to spread wherever we go. We should love one another for it is commanded that we do so and it seems to be the most joyful thing we have to do in our lives. To forgive lifts the burden from both the one who forgives and the one that is forgiven.  Love  fills us with light and happiness.

Ray Barbier

To all of you, Blessings and Peace.

010 To my friends I wish and pray for them to find happiness and peace in their life. I hope they will find forgiveness and know of its  power within their life. May they know love in its truest form and may they share and receive all the love they can. If I ever hurt one of them (being a human I know I have) I hope they can forgive me for my shortcomings and mistakes. If I helped any of them all I ask is they help someone out in their time of need. I wish to thank those who were there in the good times and stuck by me through the bad. Far as those who done me wrong, fret not for you are forgiven, for we are only human and we make wrong choices. May all of you live a long and happy life. For those who have passed away I hope you know I miss you all and pray you found peace.

God Bless you all, Friends, Family and even those who choose to be foes.

Ray Barbier

Thank you for being a part of my life

006To all my readers, friends, family and extended family, I pray that you have a merry Christmas. I also pray that in the new year to come you find peace within yourself, love for all living things including yourself. May you be guided by the hand of god and may his love fill your heart and lives. Know that I love every single one of you and that I know I have been blessed to have all of you in my life. I know I may not always have expressed how much you meant to me in the past because like everyone else I allowed the madness of modern life to keep me from the people and things that matter most. Thank you for being a part of my life and may God bless you all.

I know many of you will never see or read this post but I know within my heart you will feel it within your heart.

Merry Christmas to All

Ray Barbier

be their helpers in every way possible

MP900427738  Helping those who are in need and that are unable to help themselves is not only feeding, clothing, housing or caring for their physical needs it is also caring for their spiritual and emotional needs as well. We are supposed to be their helpers in every way possible. We are to be their best friend, mentor, brother / sister and so on. They are fellow human beings and fellow children of God so they are a part of our great extended family through God and Christ. It all boils down to having and giving the same kind of love God and Jesus has given us. We should take care of each other as if we were family, we shouldn’t see others as separate from our family in Christ. Christ taught compassion towards all people, regardless of race, sex and even religion. How are we to win the hearts of those who don’t know Christ if we shun them for believing differently. That just closes the doors to their hearts and minds to us and to Christ as well.

We are supposed to be good examples of both God and  Jesus’s  love and their mercy not Judgmental and hurtful.

Ray Barbier

Cherish the blessing of having good friends

dd43853 Friendship, Something most of us take for granted and few understand its power. God gave us the ability to love one another not only as family or spouses but also as neighbors and friends. The strength we gain in friendship is a gift from God. Friendship and Fellowship is close cousins if not siblings for to have true fellowship we must have friendships within it.  God knowing we alone are weak, gave us all the different types of relationships so we can help one another through life.

RBM001122 Friends are there for one another through thick and thin, they support one another and are not afraid to tell each other the truth, Nor are they angry at each other for doing so. True friends are inseparable and are compassionate, forgiving and understanding with each other. Friends are the support network outside of the family and the church. Some friends are considered as family and are also a part of the fellowship within the church as well.

Cherish the blessing of having good friends for it is hard to make it through life without them.

Ray Barbier

Thank you God for this morning

jesus22God has blessed me yet again with another day of life, a job and a few good friends. Thank you God for this morning which I have been blessed with and all the gifts that it contains and for those blessing that remain from the days before. Thank you for another chance to serve you and yet another chance to improve myself and help others. Thank you for the excellent writers you have sent my way to write on the blogs. Thank you for the readers and other blog writers who take time to read, comment and like our posts. Thank you most of all God for the son you gave and sacrificed to save me from my wretched ways and Thank you Jesus for being that sacrifice and being our savior.

Each morning is a blessing and another chance to serve God, Every evening is a blessing and another day of life we had to live for God and his glory.

Ray Barbier

it’s the quality of the family and friends you have

MP900442811Through ones lifetime we are born into a family, obtain friends and colleges and form a family of our own. The family we form on our own is composed of our life partner, our children and the close friends we have made and kept throughout our lives. Many times we tend to take all of them for granted, forget to show them appreciation, love and compassion. Our friends and Family are what gives us strength and what keeps us rooted when times are tough and when times are good. Without them we would be a solitary and lonely being which would find unhappiness as our daily companion. I have met many of people who claim they do not need family and / or friends in my life and usually either they do have one or the other and when they are unfortunate enough to not have either they become bitter, lonely, depressed and have a hard time dealing with this world and all of its realities. Of course there are the exceptions to the rule and I have met one or two who seem fine, but who knows what goes on in their minds.

dd43853 It isn’t the quantity of family members or friends that matters it’s the quality of the family and friends you have. I have noticed the better you treat them the better they become and the more they are a part of your life. So we should always try to be the best friend and family member we can and treat those that are our family and friends as the treasures they are to us. When you lose a good friend to death or to life’s circumstances you will notice a hole in your life, it may not be immediately but down the line you will. I have lost several to death so far and even those friends that were distant or that I haven’t seen  for a long time still are a part of who I am and a part of my heart.

Lately I have been gaining new friends both in the real world and on the internet through blogging and social networking. Both are just as real as the other and mean just as much as one another as well. The greatest treasures in my life are my family and my friends, even those friends who chose to forget me or to move on are still jewels in my treasure and will remain so till it is my final time to rest. So god bless my family, friends and all those in between.

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Thank you god for all the blessings you have given me in my life.

009Sometimes I could just slap myself in the face, I need it to wake me up and remind me of how God blessed me. I may have been denied the blessing of my own children, but I have been blessed with nephews and nieces both by marriage and blood. I was blessed to be a part of my nephews life and watch him grow up to a teen, I am currently blessed with having a 6-year-old niece and get to help raise her on the weekends and most of the summer. I may not have many friends like I used to but those who stuck with me are true ones. There is not one person I truly hate or can not forgive in time, not one of the past loves I had, do I hold anything against them and most of them are still my friends.

God blessed me with a kind heart though sometimes I let stress and frustration to get the best of me, God gave me a good family to grow up in even with all our problems we love one another. I have good memories of my youth in Overland Missouri and of the friends I had along with my time in Georgia. I had ran my own business twice in my life and now I have a job I like for the most part. I have made some new friends and they embellish my life in their own unique ways. Even through some of the worst times in my life I survived and had friends offer me a helping hand. Thank you god for all the blessings you have given me in my life.

Pray in thanks for your blessings and ask him to help you remember those blessings when times are tough.
Ray Barbier

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