Let's Join Our Hands for Nature

Good morning today.

We are here today in our first teaching is from a course Christian Personal relationship. It’s a six topics of talk
Learning to love one another
Honor and respect
Taming the tongue
Correction
Working our difficulties in CFC
Relating with people outside CFC

As we start year 2024 our Chapter would like to focus to build up relationships in each one of us and to others

Today our talk is about

TALK No. 1: LEARNING TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

A. THE WORLD SITUATION TODAY
1. Society is changing rapidly.
• Move from a slowly-changing, tradition-conscious, rural world into a high-speed, computer-equipped future.


• Characterized by technological change, mobility and the individualistic ethos.
These weaken the bonds that tie a person to a family, a community, a kinship network, a geographical location.

introduction of Ai technology relationships makes life more complicated as we are in competition with robots specially in some of people’s workplace

• The moral consensus of the past on how people are to relate is disintegrating.

For communication among family are getting rare. People tend to use mobile phones instead of talking about each one’s life in a dining table.

• Society provides fewer and fewer guidelines for relationships, and leaves large areas of life open for individual decision.

with the advance of technology information moral values are over taken by values of individualism, independence and worldly self gratification.

• But society also suggests more and more possible models. As various lifestyles and value systems assert themselves, many people find difficulty in directing their lives in a consistent way.

people that cannot live up the fast face in life. Many people are having problems of depression that end up in suicide.

1. The result is a society without common values and without stable patterns of relationships.

• Society values people according to standards of physical beauty, intelligence, productivity, material success, or youthfulness.
•
• People who don’t “measure up” end up troubled with a sense of failure and worthlessness.

1. Five aspects of personal life and relationships have been affected:
a) An emphasis on feelings. Feelings are too often allowed to determine how people relate to one another.

• Traditional Christian morality is rejected as arbitrary and impersonal.
People are introduced with secular ways of getting themself happy.

For example
Drugs, mantra, witchcraft, Scientology. Etc etc.

• Modern society tends to admire the expression of feelings. While people in the past were largely concerned with whether behavior was right or wrong, many people today are concerned with whether their behavior is “real”.

With this behavior, we have seen friends and even family members are being unfriend. Or being canceled. Clearly it is the work of this evil in this world. For evil divides but Christ Unites.

• Guided by uncontrolled emotions and without confidence that they can handle their feelings, people drift passively in and out of depression, anger, moodiness.

In many occasions, we are now getting problems like bullying that was not a norm of the past.

There is issues of car rage. We even a new norm “Karen”. Those people full of anger

b) Fear of commitment.
* In an age of uncertainty, people fear commitment in personal life. People like to keep their options open, and this attitude has carried over into personal relationships (e.g., not marry, just live together).

Being committed to one another is something rare for people take chance of getting their partners on date sites and in social media

c) Poverty in relationships. Many people are lonely.
* People have been moving away from living in relatively small, close-knit groups where relationships were strong.

Society sometimes dictates the way we live.
An example of this is when a child reach the age of 18. They are expected to independent at the age of 18.

d) Relationships lack expressions of affection and personal support.

Being alone and neglected
* Aside from erotic relationships or physical affection to small children, expressions of affection between adults are rare.

e) Low self-esteem. People have a poor sense of self-worth.
• Society values people according to standards of physical beauty, intelligence, productivity, material success, or youthfulness.
• People who don’t “measure up” end up troubled with a sense of failure and worthlessness.

* There is a great deal of superficial activity and sociability, but people still struggle with feelings of insecurity and find themselves unneeded and alone.

Low self-esteem refers to long-term negativity about who you are and how you show up in the world. These negative feelings can be persistent and hard to challenge.

B. RELATIONSHIPS TODAY
1. As relationships among relatives, in neighborhoods and within the local church have weakened, a new ideal of personal relationships has come into focus. This ideal is two-fold: a sexual relationship, and a circle of close friends.

1. These types of relationships tend to be:
• Exclusive. Within these relationships people may relate in an intimate, honest way, but with outsiders they tend to be cautious or indifferent.
• Not bound by clear commitments. When feelings conflict or fade, relationships often give way.
3. Such relationships are often not successful.

C. THE CHRISTIAN ALTERNATIVE
1. Jesus taught his disciples new ways to relate with one another.
• John 15:12-13; Phil 2:1-8; Acts 4:32-35.
• A recognition that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ.
• The ways Christians relate to one another reveal something of the very natur he e of God.
* Mercy, forgiveness, faithfulness, service love, compassionate authority, loyal obedience.

The situation of the world in which we live is neither better nor much worse than what it was in the time of Christ and his apostles. Even now there are so many aberrations to be corrected, injustices to be rectified, abuses to be curbed. There are so many forms of man’s inhumanity to man. A certain “culture of death” seems to be expanding at unrelenting speed. This is why a
“New Evangelization” is needed.

It is now often known as the ‘world’s happiest country’, but Finland used to have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. From alcohol to antidepressants.

this may be linked to behaviors that are out of sync with your value system or personal ethics. It may also be caused by being in an abusive relationship with a romantic partner, boss, or significant other.
The roots of self-esteem are often found in early childhood or adolescence. Genetics may also play a role. In some instances, a combination of genetic and environmental factors may influence a person’s self-esteem.

RELATIONSHIPS TODAY

Potential causes of low self-esteem during childhood and adolescence include:
• experiencing ongoing harsh criticism from authority figures, such as parents or teachers
• being raised by emotionally distant parents or caregivers
• going through childhood trauma, such as parental divorce or sexual abuse
• having trouble keeping up at school
• having a physical or mental disability
• feeling less attractive than the ideal image portrayed in social media

Characteristics of people with low self-esteem include:
• having self-deprecating internal conversations with yourself (negative self-talk)
• comparing yourself negatively to others
• ignoring your achievements or not believing you are responsible for them
• blaming yourself for circumstances beyond your control
• not accepting or believing compliments
• avoiding challenges or goal setting
• thinking you don’t deserve happiness, love, or fun
• not handling criticism well
• feeling shame and worthlessness
• focusing too much on physical characteristics, such as weight and height
Self-care and self-affirming behaviors are not one-size-fits-all. Things to try include:
• letting go of the past and stop worrying about the future through mindfulness and meditation
• reciting positive affirmationsdaily
• journaling
• practicing self-hygiene
• utilizing stress reduction techniques such as deep breathing
• physical activity such as exercising and yoga
• grounding exercises that quiet negative thoughts
• socializing with people you trust and feel good about The “demander” may feel they’re constantly asking for something, but never getting through to their partner. This can result in:
• frustration
• resentment
•

The only way to confirm we are loved is if we know we are children of God. Because of this relationship, everything else in our world becomes true, good and beautiful. Our identity in Christ makes our accomplishments meaningful, our relationships enjoyable and our wildest dreams at least fun to think about, if not completely possible!
Our identity as children of God is confirmed and nourished above all in our celebration of the Eucharist. At the moment we make the sign of the cross, not only does the Mass begin, but as I sign myself, I am reminded of my identity — that I am made in the image of God, a trinity of persons bound in a relationship of self-giving love. As the Mass continues, I am drawn into deeper communion with the God who loves me, hearing his word, spoken for me, witnessing his offering, prepared for me at the hands of the priest, and gazing upon his hidden presence in a tiny white host, given, completely, for me.

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