Accomplishment As Artwork

Parents, if you’re already reeling from the costs of today’s college education, take a deep breath. According to one expert, if your kids lack conflict resolution skills, it could end up costing you even more.

“Students who can’t handle conflict run into trouble with roommates almost immediately,” said Susan Fee who is the author of My Roommate is Driving Me Crazy! Solve Conflicts, Set Boundaries, and Survive the College Roommate From Hell (Adams Media, 2005). “They avoid the issue rather than deal it, causing increased stress, lower grades, and additional moving and housing expenses,” said Fee, who is a licensed professional counselor. She said students who focus only on academic success do so at the expense of other life skills.

“Some students have spent so much time studying and fitting in extracurricular activities that they never develop necessary social skills. Well-intentioned parents have become overly-involved in their kids’ lives, planning their time, and solving their dilemmas. By the time these kids enter college, they have no confidence in speaking up for themselves,” said Fee.

Another factor leading to trouble adjusting is a sense of entitlement. “It’s not uncommon for students to come from homes where they had their own bedroom, bathroom, and TV,” said Fee. “They have unreasonable expectations about having things their way.”

The bottom line for parents: Children’s poor communication skills can hurt your wallet. Kids who can’t get along with their roommates request single dorm rooms, which are not only more costly, but usually unavailable. Others move off-campus, transfer to another school, or return home. Grades can be affected by the stress causing some students to repeat entire semesters. “The ultimate solution is for students to learn how to resolve their roommate differences rather than find ways to avoid them,” said Fee.

She offers these five tips to parents:

1. Offer suggestions, not solutions. Telling your child what to do, or worse, handling the problem yourself, does more harm than good. Conflict resolution is a skill that needs to be practiced and the more you do for your kids, the longer it will take them to become confident. Instead, help them become critical thinkers by imagining scenarios, brainstorming solutions, and considering possible outcomes and consequences.

2. Prepare for conflict. Students who assume things will be “perfect” get thrown for a loop when they’re not. Conflict is inevitable because people are different. Even best friends should expect to have differences in needs, living habits, stress levels, and communication skills. Teach your child that conflict does not have to be negative; it’s an opportunity to be creative and learn how to problem solve.

3. Share expectations. Roommate contracts are popular today and many universities require them as a way to get kids talking about their expectations. Even if your child’s school does not have formal contracts, encourage him to discuss things like sleep and study habits, bills, sharing items, cleaning, and the best times to have visitors. Just like pre-marital counseling, the more that’s discussed upfront, the better the relationship.

4. Encourage face-to-face conversations. More and more, kids today would rather communicate through e-mail, IM, and text messaging rather than talking face-to-face. Without the benefit of facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language, messages can be misunderstood. Also, warn kids that gossiping to others instead of talking to their roommate directly only escalates the problem.

5. Ask for help. Residence life staff will help to mediate, as long as the student has already tried problem solving face-to-face. (In reality, most students wait to mention there’s a problem until they want to move out, or at the first sign of trouble, they report it to their RA expecting that person to solve it.) Campus counseling centers are also available for help if a roommate is exhibiting signs of mental illness such as depression, substance abuse, or cutting. If nothing else, a counseling session can help your child learn to better deal with stress and find other ways to manage the situation.

Susan Fee is a licensed counselor and author of, “My Roommate Is Driving Me Crazy! Solve Conflicts, Set Boundaries, and Survive the College Roommate from Hell” (Adams Media). She offers more college survival tips on her site, http://www.myroommateisdrivingmecrazy.com

I bet your wasting a lot of time and money on your real estate
advertising that could be better utilized. What if I told you of
a way to know exactly how to spy to see what you’re competitors
are doing so you can outshine them every day of the week? What
if I told you there was a way that you could position yourself
totally different from all the other ‘We Buy Houses’ crap that
you see out there?

See, here’s the deal: when I think of these guys, the first
thing that pops in my mind is the investor handyman with a beat
up crappy truck with all types of garbage in the back. No
offense if this is you, it just happens to not be what I want
for my life or my business.

These guys are in love with their work and most don’t have the
slightest clue how to work a deal creatively. So what makes you
different from all the other goons out there? I’ll tell you in
just a moment, but first I have an exercise for you.

If you already have a property that you have control of or that
you’re trying to sell, then call up every “We Buy Houses” ad
that you see. Now, I want you to play dumb (I know that’s not to
hard for some but amuse yourself- OK?) when you talk to the “We
Buy Houses” guys. Act like a homeowner would that is trying to
sell their house. Don’t let them in on your little experiment,
just do it and play the role of the motivated seller- OK?

Also, call any of the people that are offering a Free Report on
“How to sell your house”.

Now, I want you to document everything they did during the
appointment. Document if they were late, if they didn’t show up,
or if they didn’t even call. For those that are offering a Free
Report, document everything they send you, the time period it
takes for them to send you and any follow up they have with you.
Keep up with all this in a binder, under each company’s
information that you called.

I can here you screaming through the internet right now - “Wow,
Derek, that sure sounds like a lot of busy work. Why in the heck
do you want me to do all that nonsense?”

You’ll thank me when you’ve completed this little task because
it’s one of the most down and dirty tricks that I’ll ever teach
you. As a matter of fact, I don’t know anyone that has this
clear type instruction for you to attack and spy on your
market’s competitors.

So, what’s the freakin use?

Ok, Sherlock. First you’ve got to realize that many of the “real
deal” investors in this business are not going to share with you
openly what they know. They want to protect their market and
many will flat out lie to you or will fabricate the truth just
to keep you out of their market. Well, this little technique
will show you exactly what their marketing approach is and how
they conduct business with their entire marketing campaign at
your fingertips.

Imagine knowing how to tap into their mindset knowing exactly
what approach they take to real estate deal making.

What would you give to know exactly what your soon to be
competition is doing?

Well, now you can because I’ve given you the exact steps to go
about spying on other real estate investors. That’s powerful to
be able to know exactly what your competitors are doing in terms
of their marketing approach. As a matter of fact, you can sit
back and watch what they do for several months to see who
remains in business and who doesn’t.

Now, I’ve done this little task and the results are simply
amazing.

Here’s what you’ll find: That most investors that are pouring in
their hard earned money for advertising do one thing: Nothing.

They’ll fail to call you back, they’ll fail to keep the
appointment, or they’ll be late.

Here’s what else you’ll notice:

They always take phone calls during meeting with the sellers;
they fail to build any type of rapport, simply going in for the
kill by immediately talking about the numbers. They appear more
desperate than a high school boy on prom night.

As you sit back watching this dog and pony show, ask yourself if
you’d be willing to sell your home to this idiot or would you be
skeptical. You will quickly realize there is not as much
competition as you initially thought. The only competition you
have is yourself.

Let me ask you this, if your competition was doing this, then
how hard do you believe it would be to smoke them, leaving them
eating your dust?

The fact is that it’s the same way in all businesses. You only
have a handful that seems to use their brain. You’ve probably
been to numerous businesses or restaurants in the past few
months or even weeks where you noticed the service wasn’t up to
par. The same is true with investors as most piddle, waste time,
and appear to be un-caring about the seller’s situation.
Therefore, they don’t do deals, which in turn makes it easy for
you to outshine the others.

Take time out to spy on your competitors and you’ll see exactly
how you can bring more to the market than any one else.

Sugaring hair removal is similar to waxing but unlike waxing, does not involve heating the substance that is applied to your skin.

Like waxing, sugaring hair removal can be painful and it tends to offer similar results to waxing in terms of the degree of time that you might be free of the hair.

Generally, unwanted hair might start growing back within several weeks time so like waxing, sugaring is something that you’ll have to do regularly to continue to have hair-free skin.

Some people choose to create their own sugar product at home from a recipe rather than buying it from a store but there are commercially available products available if you’re not into creating one yourself.

Basically, you take a suitable amount of the sugar and press it against the skin to be treated and then cover the sugar with a cloth or paper strip similar to what you’d use for waxing.

You then quickly remove the strip in the opposite direction of the hair growth in a similar fashion to a wax strip to remove the hair. You repeat the process until the unwanted hair is removed.

As with other hair removal options the results and side effects from sugaring hair removal will vary by person. Certain body parts shouldn’t be treated and some body parts are best treated by a professional.

Temporary and permanent hair removal technology is evolving constantly and is relevant to both men and women who want to remove unwanted hair.

For more information on hair removal options, visit http://www.PermanentHairRemovalTips.com

Psssssssssst, Want to know a great way to make FAST money in real estate? Listen closely now because this tip is definitely cashable… The sweetest spot for you to hit as a real estate investor is a
deal that no one else is bidding on.

Take away the competition and you win every time!

So how do you find a sweet deal like this? Well, you could spend
days on end looking at multiple properties. But that’s not what my students do. My students get coached on how to attract sellers so the sweet deals find them!

You see, half of the money that is made in real estate investment is with property that never made it onto the Multiple Service Listings. It is insiders only money.

Inside the knowledge circle is where you want to be.

Think about this: Most people have never sent out a letter asking homeowners to sell them their homes … or put signs on their cars … or passed out flyers … or placed creative ads in the paper.

It’s not rocket science. It’s about what you know and who you know.

You need to know how to attract these deals to you without ever
breaking a sweat. Because the best deals are NOT listed with your local realtor.

And, you need to know what to ask the seller on the phone, so you don’t waste a moment of your valuable time.

My favorite cash cow is a 3 bedroom house that needs simple
updates. Things like carpet, paint, new light fixtures and bright new plumbing fixtures from a place like Home Depot will
dramatically increase a good home’s value.

Don’t outbid other buyers. And don’t buy a house you
can’t add value to. Buy a property that is the right size
for an average family, and affordable for the masses.

That is how you hit the sweet spot in real estate investing.

Go to the site RIGHT NOW and get the program that
is guaranteed to teach you how to beat the system.

It is the ULTIMATE NO MONEY DOWN program
because you will learn to buy real estate using a new
business line of credit instead of your own cash.

And we hold foreclosure training calls on a regular
basis to support our foreclosure course that is included
in the system.

Plus, you get UNLIMITED FREE teleconference calls.

That means you will be coached by me on LIVE phone
calls so you can ask your questions and get real time
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No book you buy will let you ask the author your
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Everything you get is 100% GUARANTEED. Your money will
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Let’s talk on the FREE Training Call soon!

Sincerely,

Thomas Kish
President of CashFlowExperts.Biz

About Thomas Kish

Now a full time real estate investor, Tom has bought and sold
over 5 Million Dollars worth of real estate in less than 2 years.

Tom is a bona fide expert in using new business lines of credit
instead of cash to buy real estate. There is no one else teaching
anything like this SYSTEM!

Many more money making tips are available at:
http://cashflowexperts.biz/cmd.asp?ad=137545

So, here you are again. Seeing out the old year, along with its
broken promises and failed, good intentions.

You arrive, fresh with newly found conviction, after the
excesses of the Christmas period, at the New Year’s resolution,
an annual triumph of hope over reality!

Hope, that this time you will have the single mindedness to
succeed, where last time you failed. I’m not suggesting for a
moment that you do not want to succeed, I’m sure that your
desire to stop smoking is genuine, but here’s the reality, it’s
a hope, a dream and what’s the point in having dreams if you’re
not going to make them happen?

You may dream of winning the lottery and yes, you could win! But
it’s down to chance and you have a better chance of flying to
the moon, than of winning the lottery.

Making a real change to your life? Well that’s a dream you can,
make happen! And you can start right here, right now.

The problem with New Year resolutions lies in the forward
planning. Moving towards a significant target date in your life,
to contemplate doing something that you know is going to be a
struggle, makes it even harder to live up to your own
expectations.

Of course you’re not looking forward to it! What do you expect?
As you begin to experience a steady build-up of tension, leading
up to the big day when you’re finally going to start putting
right everything that’s wrong with your life!

No pressure there then! I’m sure you’ll feel ready to start on
that day!

In the meantime of course, you now have the perfect excuse to
behave badly, because it doesn’t really matter if you let
yourself go over Christmas does it? You can do everything to
excess. It won’t really matter! After all, you deserve to have
one last binge before the deprivations of the coming year ahead!

If you believe that, then you’re delusionary. You’re just
fooling yourself because it makes you feel better at the moment.
It’s the high, before the deep low that will inevitably follow
and damage your self-esteem, sabotaging your chance of success
even before you start.

Wake up and smell the coffee!!

Do you really want to stop smoking? Then do something about it,
NOW! Clear the house of all the things that you know will
prevent you, NOW! Do not put aside an emergency packet “just in
case”, that’s just planning for failure! No “last one for old
times sake” Do it NOW - as you read this article. Don’t put it
off until tomorrow, because tomorrow never comes!

How we think and feel about ourselves is often the difference
between happiness and success, or frustration and failure,
therefore success and real lasting changes, only comes from
changing the way we think. We are all products of our own
thinking.

So, every thought we think has an impact on us. We respond to
our negative thoughts and to our positive thoughts. If you have
a history of failing to live up to your own expectations, your
memories are loaded with negative programming.

No matter how much conscious effort you put into changing your
habits, your subconscious mind is flooding your body with
negative messages that have been ingrained for years.

You can however, change the way you think about stopping smoking
using the help of hypnotherapy DVD’s. Many people trying to give
up smoking, struggle to maintain willpower. They feel that they
need help and are often too embarrassed to admit to anyone that
they have a problem. Now, many sufferers of low motivation and
low confidence and self-esteem, are benefiting from hypnotherapy
treatment, which can literally change peoples lives for the
better.

Your life will improve if you begin to believe in yourself and
your abilities, you will feel respected, giving you that extra
boost to increase motivation, and your enthusiasm will increase
noticeably. Some people say it feels like magic because it is so
easy to make powerful changes. Hypnotherapy simply allows you to
access the resources you already have in your subconscious mind.

Desire to make changes is good. Taking action to start something
is even better. Let’s assume that you’ve decided right now, to
start making the changes that you want. If you have tried before
and failed, you need a support structure put into place as
quickly as possible, to help you to maintain your resolve and to
keep your thought processes focussed on your goals. A
hypnotherapy DVD programme for home use can help. You certainly
don’t want to be obsessing about smoking all the time.

You can succeed and you can quit smoking for good. You will have
success this time if you make sure that you put an effective
support system into place as soon as possible. What’s stopping
you from stopping?

So, don’t wait to make any New Year resolutions at midnight on
the 31st of December, decide to start making the changes that
you want to make in your life, RIGHT NOW!

Do something different this time.

For many Americans, as well as a lot of other travelers around the world, a trip to New Zealand is the trip of a lifetime. New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places on earth. It’s geographic isolation has made it a perfect setting to film Hollywood blockbusters that require exotic locations, and the variety of geography and climate, as well as the flora and fauna, make it fascinating for visitors of all types.

One of the best ways to see New Zealand is to rent a car. However, since you’ve never been there, how do you know how to find the best deal and situation? This article will give you some tips on finding a rental car in New Zealand.

Most of the big, international rental car conglomerates operate in New Zealand. That means companies like Avis, Budget, and Hertz all have multiple offices in-country. This is a benefit in two ways: one, you can make reservations on those companies’ websites, or by calling them from your home country before you leave. Two, thanks to the free-market economy, competition helps keep prices low.

You will find rental car offices for those companies in most cities in New Zealand. Hertz, for example, has offices in 28 of the biggest cities. And if you know New Zealand, you’ll know there aren’t even 28 “big” cities to begin with.

There are also local companies that will rent you a car. Some of these include Ace Tourist Rentals (Auckland freephone: 0800 502 277), Pegasus Rentals (Auckland 09 358 5757), and Trusty Car Rentals (Christchurch 03 366 6329). Another one, Maui Tours (Auckland freephone: 0800 651 080), specializes in renting recreational vehicles (known as “caravans” in New Zealand).

Often, the smaller companies will be more willing to work with a traveler on price breaks. Rental cars that are sitting idle in the parking lot are not making anyone any money, but the bigger companies can absorb that idleness better than the smaller companies can, giving them less incentive to make a deal.

Some of the local companies will also offer additional deals. Maui Tours, for example, which has offices in Auckland on the North Island and Christchurch and Queenstown on the South Island, will give you free passage on the Interislander ferry (from Wellington to Picton) with rentals of 10 days or more. You can also find deals on one-way rentals that may include one ferry crossing, as well as transportation to and from the airport.

Renting a car in New Zealand over a longer term, such as a full month, will give you better price breaks than weekly, and especially daily, rentals. That goes for recreational vehicles as well.

And what the heck, as long as you’re taking the “trip of a lifetime” to New Zealand, you may as well stay a month and enjoy it!

Learn more about finding deals on a rental car in New Zealand at globalcars4hire.com

Saturday Evening,

November 12, 2005,

Tel Aviv -

100,000 gather at the annual Rabin official memorial ceremony
for Yitzhak Rabin. Included were me and twelve of the bravest
and best Jews Israel has to offer. Here’s how we got there:

In late September, I vowed to gather people to come to the
ceremony with signs demanding the Rabin truth. The call to
gather was made more urgent by the promised appearance of the
disgraced ex-president Bill Clinton. By mid-October the
Committee To Reinvestigate The Rabin Assassination was on board
and two meetings were held to plan the rally. It was decided
that preceding the rally, they would hold a press conference,
with all members and me speaking for five minutes and then all
taking questions.

I prepared myself for the fiasco.

As I expected, you couldn’t get any of the speakers off the
platform with a hook for forty minutes each. When my turn
finally came, I announced the rally and got off the mike in five
minutes. Then I got out of the place, or at least I planned to
until who walked in but Yigal Amir’s sister Hadas, phoney wife
Larissa and their Shabak tagalong named Nachum.

So I spent a little time watching and talking to the official
Amir gang. What was clear was they had no intention of ever
freeing Yigal Amir. There was no family desperation to liberate
an innocent brother or husband. So I told them off for their
ingratitude and got out of the ugly atmosphere pronto.

Once I had left, the tagalong took the mike to explain what a
dangerous Shabak agent I was. Then the “wife” announced that she
would have nothing to do with anyone who considered Shimon Peres
a suspect in the murder.

I was told that sealed their fate for almost everyone in the
room. The Amir family is doing the Shabak’s bidding. Like I
didn’t know that anyway.

This was a press conference with almost no press and it had
nothing to do with organizing a presence at the memorial rally.
And in fact, only one member of this committee even showed up at
the rally and he left after half an hour, once the dirty work
began. The real planning of the rally belonged to me and Tova
Rubin. I wrote and she printed 6,000 flyers asking relevant
questions about the murder in Hebrew and English. I brought a
five foot long sign asking Who Really Murdered Yitzhak Rabin in
both languages and wore my tee-shirt with the same message.

Now add the twelve best Jews in Israel and we really rocked the
place.

Stage one - We handed out the flyers to the tens of thousands
of rally goers coming at us up Ibn Gvirol Street. Most took mine
and read them. Three threw them back in my face. And one called
the police to stop us. Fortunately for us, Attorney Dov Eben-Or
had arranged a city permit to be there and he was nearby to
scare the cops away. We were free.

Stage two - When the traffic thinned out and the proceedings
began we began parading. We proudly walked with my sign, two of
the men brought their own signs and I was wearing my shirt. It
was too crowded to get to the front of the gathering but we
found our perfect spot, under the screen where the ceremony was
being projected. Facing several thousand rally-goers we stood
firm and proud.

Then Peres began his speech and I took out a horn to blast his
words away. I was politely warned that this went too far and
desisted. Another in our group but a hundred yards away, David
Rutstein, apparently didn’t take the warnings and was manhandled
to the ground by the police and briefly arrested.

When the despicable Clinton began his speech, I booed long and
loud. This led to a ruckus. We were surrounded by a pretty angry
crowd and lots of cameras. The star of this moment was a tiny
Haredi lady named Reena, who stood her ground like a tiger.

After that, we were followed by the cameras wherever we went.
When the rally ended, we stood on the raised traffic island as
the proudest group in Tel Aviv and let 50,000 passers-by see our
message. We brought the truth to the lion’s den and the negative
cost was low. Twice the sign was ripped from our hands, and
twice we fought to get it back. But now, consider the plusses:

The next day, the IDF radio station broadcast our activities
and then interviewed Rabin’s daughter Dahlia. She admitted that
she also was dissatisfied with the official version of her
father’s death and wanted answers.

Then the popular Tel Aviv station FM103 reported our work and
interviewed a political scientist who concluded that because
Rabin’s murder was political, we had every right to be at the
memorial service doing what we felt was right. The station was
then barraged with faxes and e-mails commenting on his
controversial conclusion. We didn’t make world news as we had
hoped and as we would have if only another hundred people had
joined us. But we accomplished something undefinable and after
the ceremony was over, six of us sat together at a Tel Aviv pub
to figure out what happened that night. Here are some of the
notes I quickly took:

- Far, far more people read our flyers and politely ask to know
more than resisted them. When I spoke to the young people who
wanted to know what I meant by Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin, I saw
the same faces as the settler youths who had asked the same
question at their rallies. The difference between these kids is
really minimal.

- The only people who violently opposed us were old men. And
there weren’t many of them. If there were 100,000 people at the
rally, easily half were wearing uniforms of the Scouts or
political youth movements. If these groups hadn’t been organized
to come en masse, there would have been almost no one in that
square mourning Rabin.

- And I was a hero to dozens of those kids, Peace Now included,
who saw me recently on television and had read my books. And
these kids, yes Peace Now as well, helped us all night long by
explaining our cause to those who didn’t understand it. And by
the way, the press photographers took rolls of film of this
magical encounter without being able to explain it to themselves.

- But as for the leaders of these kids…Here’s Noar Avoda at
work. To stop us from distributing the flyers, two Labor Youth
leaders volunteered to distribute them. After wasting a few
hundred we figured out they were ending up in the bins. So the
next generation of Labour is already being prepared for lying
and deceit. Anything for the right cause.

- And who should pass by me but Rabin’s Health Minister,
Ephraim Sneh. “Hey Sneh,” I shouted to him. “Was it two bullets
or three?” He knew what I meant. Bet he didn’t expect me there
to ask. He thought he was in hallowed territory, protected from
Israel.

- And, just like any other rally, I met people who admired my
work and passed on information. One young man proudly showed me
where I mentioned him in my Rabin book. Amir knew him from
school and ran to the other entrance of the sterile zone when he
saw him. He noted that he had a tiny role in history. Another
Laborite in his fifties told me, “You don’t know what you did in
the last two weeks. Peres was thrown out of leadership because
of the suspicions that he murdered Rabin. I know people who
switched to Peretz just to get rid of the murderer.”

The lion’s den was filled with my people and most were good.
All they needed were a few facts leading to an awakening. And
the twelve of us provided it to tens of thousands of our people.
Of the twelve, two were over sixty, and three were middle-aged
women.

Now, let us ask where everyone else was.

Where was the Committee To Reinvestigate The Rabin
Assassination? Weren’t they taking credit for planning this
counter-event? And where were the other Rabin investigators and
writers? It turns out it’s much easier to be brave behind a
computer screen. And where were the fine people of Kedumim who I
spoke to just a week earlier and told them this was a way to
save your homes. I guess they really want to be uprooted without
a fight.

And where were the Gush Katif activists? They had a chance to
arrive en masse and show the world what was done to them. But
they were far too busy having their winter coats stolen from
them by the Shabak and gathering in Jerusalem to talk to
themselves in an auditorium to take real action. And that goes
for all the right/religious protest leaders. It struck us all at
that Tel Aviv pub, that they are all too cowardly to face the
Israeli left. They are actually afraid of confronting scary
groups of teenage leftists and a few angry old men.

And that is why they are losing.

The Kempler
video

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Matthew 6:12.

The petition of our Lord’s Prayer at first glance seem to intimate that the pardoning of our sins is predicated on our pardoning those who have sinned against us. Yet, we have the uneasy feeling that this certainly cannot be so. It is inconceivable that God would have a need to bargain with us.

Rather, it is less problematic if we understood this passage to mean that our forgiveness is a necessary condition of our ability to receive God’s forgiveness. If we allow egotism to envelop our hearts and minds with prideful thoughts that focus on the sins of others (which is most often the case), we thereby render ourselves incapable of recognizing our own sins and hence, completely block the forgiving mercy of God. Jesus directs our attention first to our own sins. This order is significant. After all, the faults we see in others are also in us in one form or another. The main point is, if we are willing and able to pardon our offenders, then we will also be able to receive God’s pardon.

Robert Stein concurs that the “as” in the petition should not be misconstrued to mean that God forgives us to the same degree that we forgive others. He points out that no believer praying this prayer is sinned against by others as greatly as he sins against God. Certainly this is true, but Barclay advocates a more liberal view.

According to William Barclay, this petition to mean that our sins are forgiven in proportion as we forgive those who have sinned against us. He maintains that if we pray this prayer with an unsettled quarrel in our lives, we are virtually asking God to not forgive us. “To be forgiven,” Barclay claims, “We must forgive and that is a condition for forgiveness which only the power of Christ can enable us to fulfill.”

Karl Barth, on the other hand, is disposed to reject Barclay’s idea that human forgiveness is a condition of God’s forgiveness. He treats this petition as a criterion necessary for our comprehending God’s forgiveness. Insisting that God’s pardon has already been granted even before we ask, Barth points out that the “hope one entertains for oneself necessarily opens the hart, the feeling, and the judgment, in respect to others.

It seems that Barth’s interpretation is, in fact, the reverse of mine. Whereas I maintain that the believer must be free of the spirit of un-forgiveness in order to be open to receive God’s pardon, Barth contends that when the pardon of God is received by the believer, it enables us to forgive. I think Barth makes a good point too when he indicates that the “pardon of God is something that occurs at the divine level and a comparison cannot be drawn with what happens on the human level.”

I would be egregiously remiss if I failed to include Stein’s raising the question of which comes first: believers forgiving others and as a result, God forgives them; or God forgives believers and as a result, believers forgive others; or is our forgiving contemporaneous with God’s forgiveness? These are relevant and crucial questions that must be given careful contemplation and examination.

Though all of our (and others) interpretations differ at several points, we seem to generally agree that forgiveness and forgiving are intrinsically connected. Pardon is inevitably linked both to God and to one’s fellow sinner.

Rev. Saundra L. Washington, D.D., is an ordained clergywoman, veteran social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries. She is also the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances: Homilies that Teach which can be reviewed on her site. Her new book, Out of Deep Waters: My Grief Management Workbook, though delayed in publication, is expected to be available early 2006.

You have an open invitation to visit us at AMEN Ministries: Your Soul’s Service Station for reviewing spiritual services being offered, obtain spiritual refreshing and soul edification, get your daily dose of humor, browse our newly expanded Stop & Shop Store (which now include the “Lord’s Prayer” and other inspirational home decor) and to visit our prayer sanctum for quiet time with God.

Blessings to all!

Although desirable, digital cameras are not fully functional for an advanced photographer. Photographers select their lenses according to need, with each lens having a special use. For the most part, the advance digital photo trainings include the utilization of lenses.

For now, we will focus on landscape photographs. To ensure your landscape photograph is clear, you need to use the proper lens. You need to determine the proper lens for shooting landscapes. Focal lengths that are commonly used range between 20mm and 35mm. Many people would rather use a 24mm set at f11 when photographing trees at the altitudes because it focuses mainly on the subject and includes everything that will produce desirable effects.

No one set of principles governs how to take digital pictures. The quality of your photographs will correspond with your experience and the effort you put into capturing them. If you do not know about capabilities of your camera’s lens when it is in your hands, then go out and find it out. Try out the lens to see the maximum width and how much area can be covered. If the camera you use is not good quality, the pictures you take will have no depth, which is where the lens can enhance a photograph.. To take a landscape photograph, try using a 20mm.

Examine your photographs; compare them to the others you have taken. Keep in mind the lens you are using, your position and your subject’s position. Make sure you concentrate on all of these factors. It is also wise to compare the photos as to draw a separation between those that are bad, good and great.

Finding the best personal loan rate that you can get isn’t always easy… it does, however, save you a lot of money in comparison to simply taking the first interest rate that you’re offered for a loan.

If you’re in the market for a new loan, whether it’s an auto finance loan, a mortgage, a debt consolidation loan, or simply a cash loan, you owe it to yourself to take the time to get the best personal loan rate available to you. In order to do this, you’ll need to request loan quotes, compare rates, and make the decision as to which loan is really the best one out of all that you’ve been offered.

When all is said and done, however, you may find that the time you spent looking for your best personal loan rate was time well spent after all.

Requesting loan quotes

The first thing that you need to do in order to find your best personal loan rate is to begin requesting loan quotes from a variety of different lenders. Take the time before you start your loan search to decide exactly how much you need to borrow, as well as what collateral you plan on using to secure the loan using high-value collateral if you can, as it generally brings better interest rates with it.

Once you’ve got that information, begin requesting interest rate and loan term quotes from a variety of different lenders… banks, finance companies, mortgage lenders, or any other lending companies that you have access to in your area. You should also take a little bit of time to search for lenders online, as those lenders tend to offer competitive interest rates and 24-hour access.

After you’re satisfied that you’ve obtained quotes from all of the lenders that you can (within reason), then it’s time to start comparing so as to find your best personal loan rate.

Comparing quotes

In order to find the best personal loan rate from all of the quotes that you’ve collected, you’re going to have to compare them to each other and determine which ones are the better ones that you’ve received. Begin by looking to see if any of the quotes have unreasonable fees or additional costs associated with them… eliminate the ones with the highest fees, or all of the ones with fees if there are only a few.

Begin sorting through the remaining quotes, dividing them into groups based upon low interest rates, flexible loan terms, and those which have both low rates and flexible terms. Any quotes that don’t fit into those categories should be set aside in their own group.

You’re going to be looking at the loans which offer both lower rates and more flexible terms for your best personal loan rate, so take the best loan quotes that you’ve received and review them once more in order to choose the loan that’s right for you.

Choosing your loan

Just because a loan quote has a low interest rate doesn’t mean that it’s going to be the one that offers the best personal loan rate… after all, you’re wanting a loan that has both low interest rates and reasonable terms.

Carefully consider the various offers that have made it into your “best quotes” group, choosing the one that seems the most balanced as the loan that you’re going to apply for. Should you need to, you can always come back to this group later for other options.

You may freely reprint this article provided the following author’s biography (including the live URL link) remains intact:

About The Author

John Mussi is the founder of Direct Online Loans who help homeowners find the best available loans via the http://www.directonlineloans.co.uk website.