s_e said:
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...concern that if I "re-establish" a solid sense of personal identity I'll somehow have diminished some hard-won spiritual lessons.

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i'm not certain what it would take to lose those hard won spiritual lessons s_e...

i think turning our back is one way... disclaiming and repudiating would be a way...

i think as long as we are growing there will be some fall-back but more move-forward..

i often like to disclam my current understanding of anything... "the more i learn, the more i realise the less i know" ...

any statement in time is just that... a statement that exists and is true, for someone, in that moment, in that time.. and it is always subject to change...

some of the smartest people of the day believed that the Earth was flat....

i dont beleive we lose spiritual growth by accepting a compliment in the correct way... if we allow vanity to bloom, we do however "stop" growing while we entertain ourselves with an inflated sense of self image..

1oxbowgirl said:

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Another thing we don't often think of or understand until humbleness comes, is the possibilites that illness is a way for God to show us what we need to see or understand in others. Unless we have been there we can not really understand what someone else is going through, or how to help others.

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many times i've felt the "illness" take over any rational thinking i could have..

ive often thought that healing could only come when those underlying issues were resolved... treating with "surface relievers" only delayed the inevitable and in my view, the delay made healing harder...

chocolatelover said:

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After all they are God's way of expressing His divine love for each of us. How the Great Spirit speaks through physical forms. He uses each of us to speak praises and to show us the Love.

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i agree with this statement whole-heartedly.. Spirit is wise and mysterious and speaks to us in many ways... it is our challenge as disciples and followers of God to understand...
thanks to all ...