What Is Spiritual Personal Development?

Dr. G. Steve Kinnard

You might have read a personal development book within the last year or two. Have you ever read a book on spiritual personal development? What is the difference between the two? Personal development books are also called self-help books. Spiritual personal development is not “self-help.” Spiritual personal development is “God-help.” In that one change of words, from self-help to God-help, is a world of difference.

Spiritual: Spiritual personal development focuses on giving us the tools we need to become mature, spiritual, and productive disciples of Jesus. Spiritual personal development focuses on our spiritual nature. If we feed our spiritual hunger, then the character of God’s Spirit will grow in our hearts.

Personal: First, spiritual growth is a personal matter. Although we live with each other in community, each of us has a personal relationship with God that we must nurture. At the end of the day, each individual disciple is responsible for his or her own spiritual growth. Second, we all grow in different ways. We also grow at different speeds. In this way, spiritual growth is personal.

Development: “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” Luke 2:52 Jesus grew. Growth is good. Since Jesus grew, we need to grow as well. We need to develop into the people that God meant for us to be. God wants us to mature. He is fully committed to helping us grow into solid, mature, fruitful disciples of Jesus.

Do you have a plan for your spiritual personal development? Most of us don’t. This web site will help you develop a plan for your spiritual personal development. It will help you ascertain your spiritual gifts. It will teach you how to make wise, spiritual choices. It will teach you various spiritual disciplines that will help you to connect with God and to feed your spirit. It will help you to set and to achieve spiritual goals in your life.

A wise man once said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Let the journey begin!

Dr. Kinnard is a teacher and evangelist with the New York City Church of Christ. For more inspirational articles on spiritual growth visit (http://www.stevekinnard.com) The Way of The Heart.

Source: http://www.PopularArticles.com/article151658.html

Posted By Ina Woolcott

Yesterday I went to Horsham with Mum and Inky to do a spot of Crimbo Shopping. We were pleasantly surprised when we got to the town centre and saw ‘The Jailbreak’, an annual event done by Steyning Grammar School, that raises money for a charity of the students choice - this year the chosen charity was the NSPCC. Inky loved it, and watched the loud, live music (which reminded me of the samba music I heard in Brazil) without saying a word for a good few minutes - very rare for her

There were people in fancy dress going round collecting money. Of course we donated too… Inky got a balloon which she loved - until it burst about an hour later…one guy really stood out to me, he looked a little camp - he wore extremely tight green leggings/tights and silver platform boots a la Gerri Hallowell (spice girls). I must say the leggings/tights were a little tight in in the crotch area and he was getting quite a few looks, especially from the older generation. From the look on his face he was loving every second though…

Posted By Ina Woolcott

Europe’s largest vegetarian event VIVA! comes to London in April 2009, featuring everything you ever wanted to know about being or going veggie or vegan - or simply learning about a whole new alternative and delicious cuisine.

This promises to be a fun day out for people looking to improve their health, save animals and protect the environment. Admission is £4, under 18s free and you can save 25 per cent by booking your tickets in advance by visiting www.viva.org.uk , or by calling Viva! on 0117 944 1000 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              0117 944 1000      end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

Show highlights include:

* everything you ever wanted to know about being or going vegetarian or vegan - or simply cutting down on meat;

* the chance to discover a whole new world of animal-free products including food and drink, body care, clothing, footwear and much more!

* over 100 stalls

* cookery demos

* three talks areas

* free food samples including dedicated areas run by Viva! providing a selection of hot dishes from around the world and ready-to-eat products

* free nutritional advice, provided by the Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation;

* competitions and special offers

* kids play area

* vegan café

I may see you there

Related link:

The Incredible Veggie Show

Posted By Ina Woolcott

“Plans to create England’s largest new native forest took a major step forward at the beginning of October 2008, when the Woodland Trust took possession 858 acres (347 hectares) of land, on which 600,000 trees will be planted. Incredibly, it takes just 12 years to turn bare land into flourishing native woodland, complete with a diverse range of wildlife and towering trees. - WOW, it really never is too late.

It immediately marked its ownership by opening six new, British-made, larch kissing gates into the site. Now, members of the public can walk miles of permissive footpaths through formerly private farmland containing 3 pockets of ancient woodland - 44acres in total -hosting the UKs richest wildlife habitat, located near Sandridge, just 3 miles north of St Albans in Hertfordshire.

Getting out and active in woodland is great way for adults and children to connect with nature. Over 2 million people live within 15 miles of the site which can be accessed via public transport, and we want everyone to come and take part”.

Editors comment:
As my regular readers already know, I am very connected to nature. I could disappear into the wilderness forever with the knowledge to survive, a tipi, horses and those closest to me wishing to join me (and who would live by my rules, lol). My daughter naturally would have no choice but to come with me…. I keep coming across inspiring projects like this, and they make me teary-eyed with happiness and hope. Someone said to me the other day “its too late to save the planet/nature”. (pessimistic so-and-so). If everyone had that attitude, we’d get nowhere in life. As me and my mum like to say, ‘its never too late’. .

More and more people are trying to turn things around and encourage nature to flourish, and encourage the wildlife that has been driven away for so many centuries to return. Our inner shamans, our inner children, are coming out - about time too. I love it, it makes my heart and soul glad. Lets go an play in the woods Lets be Indians and DEFINITELY NOT COWBOYS.

To find out more info, what you can do to help and/or to make a donation (go on, I did!) go to:
WOODLAND TRUST WEBSITE

Related reading:
Great Fen Project
Great Fen Project: What You Should Know

Posted by Ina Woolcott

The Great Fen Project’s aim is to create a 3,700 hectare (9142.899 acre) wetland, restoring over 3000 hectares of fenland habitat between Huntingdon and Peterborough, safeguarding threatened habitats and providing a massive green-space for people, with a wealth of possibilities for recreation, education and the local economy.

This will connect Woodwalton Fen Nature Reserve with Holme Fen Nature Reserve - Holme and Woodwalton Fen are National Nature Reserves - to create a very large site with conservation benefits for wildlife and socio-economic benefits for people. When the project is complete, the area will be enhanced to the extent that new species will breed there.

The project, which is long-term, is managed in partnership by the Environment Agency, Huntingdonshire District Council, Middle Level Commissioners, Natural England and the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough and is impressive in its ambition and vision. It aims to combine nature conservation and management with tourism and other income-generating activities. It could also play a strategic role by storing flood water for the protection of the Middle Level System and the homes, farms and businesses that depend on the system.

EDITORS NOTE:

I find the whole project simply amazing and awe inspiring. Just what wildlife, nature and people need. Its so nice to hear of a project of this scale where people are working with nature and not against her, not destroying her but encouraging and helping her and the creatures and plants and trees that live within her. Heart warming. A 3 hour drive from me, but at some point in the next year I plan to go with my daughter Aiyana, and also with my MUM, but she doesn’t know it yet

RELATED LINKS:
The Great Fen Project
Wildlife Trust UK | Water for Wildlife UK
Arundel Wildfowl and Wetland Trust
Wildlife Travel - Worldwide Wildlife Viewing With Local Experts
The Great Fen Project: What You Should Know

Posted By Ina Woolcott

Below are just a couple of pictures of just a few of the bird me and my 3 year old daughter saw today at the Wildfowl Trust in Arundel, West Sussex. We’ve seen chaffinches many a time there, but it was the first time we’ve seen a Greater Spotted Woodpecker (I hear they are rare) and a Nuthatch. We had the pleasure of watching the woodpecker for about 5 minutes, until Inky got a bit bored and wanted to move on… anyhow, well done Inky, 5 minutes is a long time for a little girly - especially you - to concentrate on something without hardly talking. The woodpecker was still there feeding off the bird feeder when we (me very reluctantly) left. Something about seeing these wild birds I was so unaware of in my youth gives me a rush of happiness. We also saw a Wren for about the 5th time, but it was gone in a flash. At this particular feeder where we saw the Woodpecker et al, there were also coal tits, marsh tits, blue tits and a gorgeous male pheasant.

We have been loving the crisp, cold yet sunny days and autumn colours of Arundel this week. Yesterday we walked around Swanbourne Lake . It always amazes me how far my little Inky can walk, her stamina is great at such a young age. She loves puddle jumping in her wellies (I wore my new wellies yesterday too so I had to join in on madams request, haha) , as well as climbing up and around the roots of a very old looking tree on the other side of the lake. Another of her favourite activities is climbing up the grassy hill on the first half of the walk and rolling down it, reminds me of me when I was little. We gathered lots of twigs, feathers and leaves yesterday, today and in the past few weeks and are in the throes of an art project, making a tree on a huge piece of cardboard covered in paper which me and Inky made - I will be putting the pictures up as soon as we have completed our ‘mission‘. Not sure how long it will take, but I reckon we will need maybe up to 10 hours over the next week or so.

Chaffinch

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Posted By Ina Woolcott

Organic farms support biodiversity, encouraging and supporting wildlife, when so much wildlife has been, and is still is being, destroyed by non-organic farming methods.

Just some of the benefits of organic farming are:

* Wildlife is an essential part of the organic farming

* More hedges

* Wider Field Margins

* Herb and Clover

* Mixed Crops

* No artificial, chemical pesticides or fertilizers

* No GM

* Tastier more flavour-full products

ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCTION WORKS WITH NATURE NOT AGAINST IT. I personally have an ‘organic only’ policy in my home, and no meat apart from fish. I just cant get enough of organics! We do eat out occasionally though and that cant always be organic.

Related reading:
www.organicfoodee.com
Young Farmers are Going Organic
Organics Say No to Chemicals and Additives
Earth Friendly Products for Home, Lawn and Garden

Posted By Ina Woolcott

Media Scare of the Week #246:

Mother’s breast milk is full of environmental contaminants capable of causing harm to our babies. True? Yes — but nobody recommends not breastfeeding because of it.

According to the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, testing infants from virtually anywhere in the world today would uncover a body burden of industrial toxins including dioxins, PCBs, mercury, phthalates, pesticides, flame retardants, bisphenol A and other dangerous substances. But it’s not just breast milk that’s in danger: environmental toxins are everywhere.

Because testing breast milk is a cheap and convenient way to look for chemical contamination, it is often used as an easy way to demonstrate the toxic load of our bodies overall. “Chemical residues found in breast milk are like the messenger, the canary in the mine, telling us about the body burdens found in everyone,” WABA relates.

Human milk is hands down the best bet for babies, even considering contaminants, says Dallas physician and lactation expert Dr Maria Blois… For the full story click HERE

Personal Note:
My daughter was 3 on the 15th September and im still breastfeeding her. Breast is always best, if you are a nursing mum or mum to be, eat as much organic fresh produce as possible, during and after pregnancy. Then bring your children up on as much organics as possible. In my home we have 100% organic produce. My daughter is not vaccinated. We only use homeopathic remedies. Im not totally strict on only having organics though - we do eat out occasionally and this generally not organic as there are not any organic restaurants nearby. In between I treat my little girl to ice cream (100% fresh fruit ice lolly). I kept sugar away from her totally for the first 2 years of her life. Also, don’t consume anything with ‘E’ numbers, artificial sweeteners, flavour enhancers etc and keep sugar intake minimal. Who knows - maybe the ‘test results’ aren’t even accurate. The media can tell us what they want, blow the results out of proportion… especially when other peoples interests are at stake. E.g. formula manufacturers want to boost profits by selling more formula! Why do we need studies to prove that breast is best? Its blatantly obvious. Everybody should be breastfeeding! Unless its medically impossible of course. If only the ‘experts’ were so bent on keeping chemically laden vaccines away from us…

Posted By Ina Woolcott

What a chilling story! Unbelievable, and the poor baby being separated from its parents. What a f****d up world we live in…

….When Ron and Nadine from the Living Libations beauty care and chocolate company www.LivingLibations.com attempted to fly to the United States in August of this year, they ran into something completely unexpected: Drug-sniffing dogs at the Toronto airport. When their dogs took a special interest in their raw, unrefined chocolate with hemp seeds and superfood extracts, they were arrested, handcuffed and put through hours of tortuous interrogation. Such begins the journey of Ron and Nadine, the chocolate freedom fighters from Canada.

Accused of trafficking two and a half pounds of hashish (which was really just raw, homemade chocolate), Ron and Nadine were arrested, physically separated into interrogation rooms and handcuffed to chairs. Their six-month old baby was forcibly taken from them, and they were immediately subjected to intense interrogation.

Their chocolate looked suspicious, they were told, because it wasn’t in a commercial wrapper. If it’s not Hershey’s, it must be drugs! An on-the-spot drug test from the NIK company (which makes portable drug testing kits) returned a positive result, the Canadian police claimed, and that’s all the evidence they need to arrest anyone.

As you’ll learn later, however, it turns out the NIK drug testing kits return false positives nearly 100% of the time if the results are interpreted incorrectly, as they were in this case…

For the full story click HERE

Akiane was born on the 9th July 1994, in Mount Morris, Illinois, to her atheistic stay-at-home Lithuanian homemaker mother, and an American father, chef and dietary manager.she is an internationally recognised 14 year old prodigy, considered the only known child binary genius, in both realist painting and poetry. At age 4, she had a life-changing spiritual transformation, bringing the family to God. She began drawing at 4, and painting at 6, teaching herself and learning mostly from her own keen observation and study. At age 7 she began writing poetry and aphorisms - her poems often arrive fully conceived. The inspiration for her art and literature comes from her visions, dreams, observations of people, nature and God. She paints from imagination, reference materials and models. She considers her style Akianism -a universal blend of realism and imaginism.

She gets up at 4 a.m. 5-6 days a week to get ready to paint in the studio and write; works for about 4-5 hours each day. Often she works over a hundred to two hundred hours on a painting, producing 8 to 20 paintings a year. Usually many sketches are made before painting commences, and she works on one painting at a time. Akiane wants people to find hope in her paintings, and has the same goal with each painting: to be inspiration for others and to be the gift to God.

Having attended both public and private schools, she is now home-schooled with her four brothers, Delfini 16, Jean Lu 14, Ilia 5 years old and Aurelius, her new baby brother.

Akiane also speaks four languages: Lithuanian, Russian, English and Sign Language. Her favourite activities and hobbies include art, poetry, piano, reading and helping people.

Akiane’s biggest wish is “that everyone would love God and one another”. Her life goal is to share her love for God and people around the world.

The only official website dedicated to Akiane: www.artakiane.com

Watch the CNN video of her. REALLY TOUCHING and EMOTIONAL. Spiritual Young Artist