Originally Posted by HerPapaBear
Originally Posted by GreenMile
It made me into a real life villain.

The encouraging part is... this is no longer your modus operandi.

Are you perfect...... Of course not, nor have you claimed to be. But I want to suggest that you be very careful with the defeatism that can substitute for a desire to become humble.

Defeatist attitudes are counterfits for the real deal of humility.

IMVHO defeatist attitudes, when examined closely, are really no more than selfish, self-centered, look-at-me attitudes that actually stand in the way of achieving real humility. smile



It would also serve you well to remember that it is never enough to just eliminate old habits and break old patterns. They must be replaced with something.

Otherwise your life will become like Jesus was explaining in The Book Of Matthew 12:43-45

"When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first."

My simple interpretation.... This man cleaned up and swept out all the old..... but never replaced the old with something new, leaving it unoccupied. Therefore the old was able to return, except the old returned with an even greater fury.

These verses impacted me greatly once I read them with new eyes just a few short years ago.

I would recommend replacing the old habits with some new habits.

1) The habit of Prayer pray

2) The habit of Study think

3) The habits of Charity & Love loveheart

These are just my top three..... you can ask DWG and others for some suggestions in this area as well. But keep it simple.

Thanks, HPB. I do have those defeatist feelings at times, but it never lasts. I'll fight this problem till the end. I'll go down with the ship if necessary. Fortunately, that is also part of my makeup. The caution about the vacuum left when eliminating demons is understood. I will keep it in mind and replace it with positives as you have cautioned. (If I need a dose of defeatism and humiliation to replace that vacuum, I know where to go...Bubbles4U. LOL.)

FWH, age 63. 24 years of narcissistic behavior, infidelity, and emotional abandonment of my BS, age 57, DancesWithGoats (DWG). D-day two years ago, leading to emotional breakdown. Been working MB program and toward spiritual transformation and personal growth since then, with some slow but real progress. DWG still with no trust, but with grief starting to subside a bit.