Many people find making decisions difficult especially when it is necessary to take risks. In addition, there is the fear of possibly being transformed into what is new. Of course the decision will change you. A lot more will be different: It might be the way your day develop, where you live, your circle of friends, and acquaintances. All this can alter. The greatest change, however, will be in you. That is precisely what most people fear. However, truthfully, do you truly want to remain the way you are? Or would you rather grow and change in a beneficial manner? Growth and change are always introduced by a decision. There is a great fear of making a wrong decision. It is the dread of leaving the known and “safe” ground for something unknown. This step, however, signifies the chance to grow. This is where each person has one’s great opportunity. With every decision we choose an opportunity to detach ourselves simultaneously from every other possibility. Whoever truly makes a serious decision actually consciously blocks access to other possibilities.  When it comes right down to it, successful businesses have an abundance of customers. Large or small, companies that are doing well have more customers than they can handle—which means they are easily able to cover their cost, reinvest in the company, and expand. Unfortunately, many small businesses struggle to reach this level of success, to find an admiring target market, and to develop business relationships with enough customers to stay in business. They struggle because they are not using all the marketing tools they can; that is, their marketing is weak. Fortunately, there is a lot that can be done to turn the situation around or to get a business on the right foot. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

However, if you already have a successful big business, you make not want to alienate your target market by taking on a social cause because the goal of running a business is to make profits and when you are dealing with other people’s money, you have an obligation to make responsible decisions. For the truly vital decisions in our lives, we are actually confronted with a choice between the past and the future. We can decide to hold on to what we have. If so, we would not be free to have another opportunity. It also means that we have decided to sever ourselves from our dreams and a vision of a fulfilling future. We can also choose to let go. Then we souls have both hands free to achieve our goals and dreams. It is impossible to hold on to that which gives us “security” and to reach for a vision at the same time. You must separate yourselves either from your “security” or from the possibility of fulfilling your dreams. Winners do not cling; they do not frantically hold on to a situation that they consider unsatisfactory. They can assume risks because they know that anything is better than an unfulfilling minimal existence. For most Europeans, poverty does not mean suffering from hunger, rather, it signifies living a senseless life. There is an enormous difference between playing in order not to lose and playing to win. Whoever endeavours only not to lose is concentrating on the risks and dangers. Whoever it betting on winning, however, has the possibility of victory in view. Which one of the two do you think is happier? Make decision. A person who cannot make decisions loses faith in oneself. Aside from that, it is impossible not to make a decision. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

Even when you think you have not made a decision, you really have. You have chosen that everything remains the way it is. Or you have selected indecision. This state cost an enormous amount of energy It weigh heavily You are not free and cannot move around with ease. Why do so many individuals find it so difficult to make decisions? It is owning to the fear of making a “wrong” decision! Yet, that is not even possible because with that choice you have decided against an alternative. You will therefore never know how your life would have turned out had you decided otherwise. Once you have thought about it for a while, you will realize that any decision is better than no decision. Another reason why it is so difficult to make a decision is caused by the illusion that it should be easy and painless. The ideal decision, however seems to be the one that downright forces itself on you. Therefore, people often tend to wait until only one alternative remains. The other alternatives have with time become unattractive. We overlook the fact that it is no longer a matter of making a decision. It is then no longer a choice: it is an escape. Your choice will only really have power when you assess both alternatives. The more you evaluate the alternative that you do not choose, the more you enable the choice that you did favour. We take it to be the unique new task of the contemporary American family and its official helpers to prepare each member for continual reinvolvment and resocialization as a member of the various changing institutions in which one participates outside one’s family. The aim which must accordingly run across all family research and all action by family agencies is to endow every family member with competence for genuine participation, the ability to develop shared commitments to some defined and defining values in every sector of one’s life activity. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

It used to be taken for granted that one’s family, social-psychologically speaking, would automatically be identical with one’s biological kin. There have always been exceptions to this correspondence, however, and in the perspective of the present it is conspicuously evident that there may be the widest divergence between one’s circle of intimates—one’s quasi-family of significant others—and one’s actual parents, relatives, mate, or children. The period of adolescence is the classical example of this divergence. The classical picture of the adolescent in revolt against parents seeking still to control one is the classical example of this divergence. The classical picture of the adolescent in revolt against parents seeking still to control him as if he were a child, however, has been superseded in subtle but crucial ways. In the transition of the past half a century from patriarchalism toward liberal, equalitarian relations between parents and children, a transition which children have received greater leeway for developing individuality and self-direction than in the past. They have less need to revolt, or perhaps it could be said that their revolt has been successful. At any rate, restrictions upon the development of a personal style of life and a set of companions to support it have diminished. Yet it is doubtful if parents and children have been brought closer to each other, or, on the other hand, if the children have found the degree of unquestioning support from nonfamily intimates that in the past they expected and got from their families. The gap between generations, so wide in America because of the rapid rate of social change and relatively provincial origins of parents, has if anything continued to widen, despite the countervailing influence of mass media of communication. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

It is almost commonplace to expect that children will see thing differently from their parents. However, the dilemma is that if they are going to see things differently from their parents, how are they going to see them, and what other groups of identification are going to fortify their views? In becoming detached from the values of their parents, millions have not become reattached and committed to alternative, more timely, values. Those in this condition may be compared to a ship which has neither anchor nor rudder nor sails. It would undoubtedly be futile for parents, assuming they themselves hold firm to definite values, to attempt to fasten these on their children, yet nothing can give, or should give, parents more concern than the belief that their children are merely drifting. Moreover, more and more parents themselves seem to have no stable values, and when the obligations of marriage and parenthood are not strengthened through mutual commitment to common value, requiring faithful collaboration through the years, they are seriously weakened. If, therefore, the problem of the guidance of youth is solved, it is likely that it will be solved for whole families at once, and not just for their adolescent members. It would be fatuous to wish for a return of hardships. Yet for the millions of young Americans, especially for those middle-class homes, the problem seems to be that of finding some powerful purpose in life. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

Merely to find a job, raise a family, and feed their children seems insufficient for them. It is too easy; it calls for no courage, no great struggle, no sacrifice, no threat of failure, no test of self. And it leaves vast potentials unused. To attempt to divert these unused human resources to unplanned recreation—to kill time by having fun—does not do it, or does it only in part, as in the deliberate seeking of danger. Certain thoughtful union and industry leaders are groping for a more challenging conception of “more,” not more in the sense of material gain, but more use of the talents of the man who works. Probably the average student in the liberal arts college at the present time is typical. The most favored of American youth, one yet often is the least happy, because happiness comes from the realization of values, and one’s values are inchoate or not really one’s. Many parents today seem unable to divine the nature of the problem facing their children. Some quite frankly admit to being baffled. “What more can we do?” they say. Like the theorists of adjustment, they only imagine fulfilling wants. What might be more effective is the exact reverse. The creation of wants may seem absurd, until one witnesses the frequent resentment of young adults when their parents solve all their problems for them, thus preventing the from doing things for themselves. Success in struggle is very satisfying. The levity and flippancy now so characteristic of youth only poorly conceals a craving for challenging purposes. If family agencies can transcend the outlook of the older generation and articulate these values, then the potential energies of youth will be directed to new and promising uses. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

If moreover, not youth alone, but parents also, can be imbued with these emergent values and involved in their attainment, the rent between generations could be narrowed. The problems of adolescence (which might justly be called “problems of obsolescence of parental norms”) might then become memorials of that turning point in industrial society when, freed at last from the bonds of scarcity, and recognizing their freedom, human beings began to re-create themselves through their children in a more ideal and versatile image than as slaves of nature. If family agencies construe their tasks in terms most appropriate to the present, they will take the responsibilities of community leadership by attending to emergent values and organizing action for their realization, and in getting the involvement and participation of families and quasi-families. To foster such involvements means to start with the child in the family, for it is here that one’s identity and capacity for further identification are cultivated or discouraged. It is also necessary to think of leadership in nonauthoritarian terms and in a way that is most evocative of spontaneous self-expression. The bulk of the current professional literature on strengthening the family, about the widespread longing for love and commitment, and about the meaning of the small group, revolves around this matter of identification. Modern man is in search of a soul. That is, in secular terms, in search of an identity to which he can be firmly committed. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

The family is the ideal type of all social bonds. Marriage is the ideal type of formal commitment to a tie of common identity. Courtship is the ideal type of experimentation in finding others to whom full commitment appears promising. Parenthood is the ideal type of identification with the welfare of posterity. The solidarity of the whole community cannot surpass the solidarity of these its nuclear constituents. The solidarity of the whole community cannot surpass the solidarity of these its nuclear constituents. The family will be solid as long as there are vales for which it may function; its members will unite with others in the community as their families endow them with competence for sharing the orientation of others. If a child can make such commitments, no parent need worry about sending one out into the World; without them—or the capacity for making them—the child most removed from want is still in peril, even while in the custody of one’s parents. In the cause of husband and wife, also, since personality is never formed but always in the process of being formed regardless of age, it is likewise true that only as there exists the capacity for widening and deepening involvement will the marriage progress. The salvation of the family, of the person, and of the community, in today’s dynamic World, is through continual reinvolvements, adventures in scaling the heights of social responsibility for the optimal development of each. Mr. Calvin’s doctrine believed in predestination. He assumes that God not only predestine some for grace, but decides that others are destined for eternal damnation. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

Salvation or damnation are not results of anything good or bad a man does in life, but are predetermined by God before man ever comes to life. Why God chose the one and condemned the other is a great secret man mut not try to delve. He did so because it pleased Him to show His unlimited power in that way. Mr. Calvin’s God, in spite of all attempts to preserve the idea of God’s justice and love, has all the features of a tyrant without any quality of love or even justice. In blatant contradiction to the New Testament, Mr. Calvin denies the supreme role of love and says: “For what the Schoolmen advance concerning the priority of charity to faith and hope, is a mere reverie of a distempered imagination.” The psychological significance of the doctrine of predestination is a twofold one. It expresses and enhances the feeling of individual powerlessness and insignificance. No doctrine could express more strongly than this the worthlessness of human will and effort. The decision over man’s fate is taken completely out of his own hands and there is nothing man can do to change this decision. He is a powerless tool in God’s hands. The other meaning of this doctrine, like that of Mr. Luther’s consists in its function to silence the irrational doubt which was the same in Mr. Calvin’s and his followers as in Mr. Luther. At first glance the doctrine of predestination seems to enhance the doubt rather than silence it. Must not the individual be torn by even more torturing doubts than before to learn that he was predestined either to eternal damnation or to salvation before he was born? Although Mr. Calvin did not teach that there was any concrete proof of such certainty, he and his followers actually have the conviction that they belonged to the chosen one. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

They got this conviction of belonging to the chosen ones by the same mechanism of self-humiliation. Having such conviction, the doctrine of predestination implied utmost certainty; one could not do anything which would endanger the state of salvation, since one’s salvation did not depend on one’s own actions but was decided upon before one was ever born. Again, as with Mr. Luther, the fundamental doubt resulted in the quest for absolute certainty; but though the doctrine of predestination gave such certainty, the doubt remained in the background and had to be silenced again and again by an ever-growing fanatic belief that the religious community to which one belonged represented that part of mankind which had been chosen by God. Mr. Calvin’s theory of predestination has one implication which should be explicitly mentioned here, since it has found its most vigorous revival in Nazi ideology: the principle of the basic inequality of men. For Mr. Calvin there are two kinds of people—those who are saved and those who are destined to eternal damnation. Since this fate is determined before they are born and without their being able to change it by anything they do or do not do in their lives, the equality of mankind is denied in principle. Men are created unequal. This principle implies also that there is no solidarity between man, since the one factor which is the strongest basis for human solidarity is denied: the equality of man’s fate. The Calvinists quite naively thought that they were the chosen ones and that all others were those whom God had condemned to damnation. It is obvious that this belief represented psychologically a deep contempt and hatred for other human beings—as a matter of fact, the same hatred with which they had endowed God. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

While modern thought has led to an increasing assertion of the equality of men, the Calvinists’ principle had never been completely mute. The doctrine that men are basically unequal according to their racial background is confirmation of the same principle with a different rationalization. The psychological implications are the same. Another and very significant difference from Mr. Luther’s teachings is the greater emphasis on the importance of moral effort and a virtuous life. Not that the individual can change his fate by any of his work, but the very fact that he is able to make the effort is one sign of his belonging to the saved. The virtues man should acquire are: modesty and moderations (sobrietas), justice (iustitia) in the sense of everybody being given what is his due share, and piousness (pietas) which unite man with God. In the further development of Calvinism, the emphasis on a virtuous life and on the significance of an unceasing effort gains in importance, particularly the idea that success in Worldly life, as a result of such efforts is a sign of salvation. However, the particular emphasis on a virtuous life which was characteristic for Calvinism had also a particular psychological significance. Calvinism emphasized the necessity of unceasing human effort. Man must constantly try to live according to God’s word and never lapse in his effort to do so. This doctrine appears to be a contradiction of the doctrine that human effort is of no avail with regard to man’s salvation. The fatalistic attitude of not making any effort might seem like much more appropriate response. Some psychological considerations, however, show that this is not so. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

The state of anxiety, the feeling of powerlessness and insignificance, and especially the doubt concerning one’s future after death, represents a state of mind which is practically unbearable for anybody. Almost no one stricken with this fear would be able to relax, enjoy life, and be indifferent as to what happened afterwards. One possible way to escape this unbearable state of uncertainty and the paralyzing feeling of one’s own insignificance is the very trait which became so prominent in Calvinism: the development of a frantic activity and a striving to do something. Activity in this sense assumes a compulsory quality: the individual has to be active in order to overcome his feeling of doubt and powerlessness. This kind of effort and activity is not the result of inner strength and self-confidence; it is a desperate escape from anxiety. This mechanism can be easily observed in attacks of anxiety panic in individuals. A man who expects to receive within a few hours the doctor’s diagnosis of his illness—which may be fatal—quite naturally is in a state of anxiety. Usually he will not sit down quietly and wait. Most frequently his anxiety, if it does not paralyze him, will drive him to some sort of more or less frantic activity. He may pace up and down the floor, start asking questions and talk to everybody he can get hold of, clean up his desk, write letters. He may continue his usual kind of work but with added activity and more feverishly. Whatever form his effort assumes it is prompted by anxiety and tends to overcome the feeling of powerlessness by frantic activity. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

A doubt generally first pierces the mind either from truth pointed out by others, or arises from some flaw in the experience which arrests the attention of the believer. In the case of some supernatural manifestation, for instance, which bore the appearance of being device, there was some slight contradiction which perplexed the soul. And as no contradictions can possibly occur in any of the workings of the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of Truth, one single contradiction is sufficient to reveal a lying spirit at work. This axiom must not be ignored. For instance, a believer declares under supernatural “power”—assumed to be divine—concerning one who is ill, that God purposes the restoration of that one, yet the sick one dies. This is a “contradiction” which should be fully examined, and not put aside as among things “not to be understood”; for the supernatural element in the declaration could not be of the Spirit of God, who cannot depart from truth in His revelation of the will of God. To “prove the spirits” (1 John 4.1), so as to discern between the “Spirit of Truth” and the “spirit of error,” is a clear command to the children of God, as well as to “prove all things and “hold fast to that which is good” (1Thessalonians 5.21); bring “to the proof…with all longsuffering” (2 Timothy 4.2). To question until all things have stood the test of full examination is the safest course, and is far removed from the doubting of God Himself, in His faithfulness and love—the only doubt which is sin. The newness of the New Being, the beginning that heralds the end, has appeared in a that heralds the end, has appeared in a personal life, and could not be otherwise. For the only being which has finite freedom is a person. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

Only where existence is most radically existence—in home who is finite freedom—can existence be conquered. However, the manifestation of the New Being in a personal life still has cosmic significance, not quantitatively, but qualitatively, since in man all levels of being are present. The New Being inaugurates a new cosmos. The Christ is the bearer of New Being in the totality of His being which must be distinguished from its modes of expression. The biblical picture of the Christ expresses His being in His words, deeds, and sufferings. However, underlying these expressions is the very being of the New Being. Hence, as the Word, He is more than all the words He has spoken, for being precedes speaking. His deeds are not models to by piously imitated, but rather actions which render his being transparent. His sufferings are not works of supererogation that effect atonement, but an inescapable implication of His appearance within the sphere of existence. The New Being which shines through its concrete expression in the New Testament is analogous to divine being as the power of being. The power of being conquers non-being. The New Being in Jesus as the Christ overcomes the non-being which is existential estrangement. New Bing is essential God-manhood. Man is the only being who possesses a genuine finiteness because he is the only being who possesses a potential infinity; for finiteness has meaning only in correlation with infinity. In essential man finitude and infinity are related. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

Consequently, the phrase “essential God-manhood” should not come as a shock. It simply indicates that divine self-objectification and essential manhood belong together, because man is essentially the divine image, and anthropomorphism contain an indestructible element of truth. Incarnation could take place only in the personal life of a human being. In the man Jesus, who faith accepts as the Christ, essential God-manhood appears in history and not only does not succumb to the disruptive forces of existence, but unleashes the power to transform them. The New Being, manifest in the picture of Jesus as the Christ, represents the essential unity between finiteness and infinity, or the undisrupted unity between man God. Essential God-manhood means that there is one man in whom God found His image undistorted, and who stands for all mankind—the one, who for this reason, is called the Son and the Christ. It must be emphasized, however, that the paradox lies not in the essential union of the divine and the human, but in the maintenance of this union within and under the conditions of existence. Jesus as the Christ is in permanent unity with God, a unity which does not exclude the consequences of existence, not even death, but transcends them. Moreover, true altruism no longer exists. Most people who seem altruistic are only doing so because they get recognition from the media or from others. However, a community is more likely to condemn a person, than to advocate to help or save that individual because Satan’s hold over this World has grown. Most people no longer turn to the message of Jesus as the Christ for their spiritual food, they now turn to the television, which is full of negativity, not family values. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

The United States of America was once a Christian Nation, but now it has become one nation under Satan. Satan has been able to take hold over this nation because…people no longer fear God nor think about their future in the afterlife. They cannot be bothered with that. Instant gratification feels so good and with these dollar-for-dollar installment plans, everyone can now afford to be superficial. Times are no longer hard, like they were during the Medieval Times, so this has lessened people’s dependence on God because their will always been food on the table or a new job to be had. Even the people who actually do good are doing so for some reason. It may have a benefit for them, even if their goal is not to exploit anyone else. Calling attention to a charity or a business can make one feel good about themselves, make one feel productive, and it feels good to see them thrive. However, it is better to seek joy in building, instead of destroying. Agency is a precious gift from God; it is essential to His plan for His children. In Satan’s rebellion against God, Satan “sought to destroy the agency of man” (Moses 4.3). He said: “I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefor give thine honour” Moses 4.1. Satan persuaded “a third part of the hosts of Heaven” to turn away from the Father (Doctrine and Covenants 29.36). As a result of this rebellion, Satan and his followers were cut off from God’s presence and denied the blessing of receiving a physical body. Individuals do not have to give in to Satan’s temptations. Each person has the power to choose good over evil, and the Lord has promised to help all who seek Him through sincere prayer and faithfulness. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

The 1787 Constitution of the United States of America sensed that a civilization was dying and a new one was being born. The founding parents, men and women, the farmers, merchants, artisans, lawyers, printers, pamphleteers, shopkeepers and soldiers who together created a new nation on the distant shores of America, could foresee the future. That piece of paper, with the Bill of Rights added in 1791, is clearly one of the stunning achievements of human history. They were driven to it—were compelled, carried along by the tidal force of events, fearing the collapse of an ineffective government paralyzed by inappropriate principles and obsolete structures. Even now their principles move us, as they have moved countless millions around the planet. It is difficult for us to read certain passages of Jefferson or Paine, for example, without being brought to the edges of tears by their beauty and meaning. We thank you, the revolutionary dead, for having made possible our lives as American citizens under a government of laws, not men, and particularly for that precious Bill of Rights, which has made if possible for us to think, to express unpopular views, however foolish or mistake at times. Time has come for us to imagine, to discuss, dissent, debate, and design from the ground up the democratic architecture of tomorrow. Not in a spirit of anger or dogmatism, not in a sudden impulsive spasm, but through the widest consultation and peaceful public participation, we need to join together to reconstitute America. As new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must also advance, and keep pace with the times. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

Failure to report is itself a deviation from equilibrium and brings on the punishment. This is necessary because reporting is costly and victims would otherwise not supply this public good to the group. However, it vastly raises the cost of the mechanism, because in a well-functioning system, trade with good outcomes of the mechanism, because in a well-functioning system, trades with good outcomes constitute the vast majority of all trades. Instead, we rely on the natural tendency of victims to complain to their neighbours, and theirs to pass on the gossip along the network. This is a probabilistic mechanism that decays with distance, but that is also realistic. Consider traders each of whom is connected to a subset of the others by a network of contacts, which allows information about the history of a trader to disseminate to others over time. This focus on the dynamic process by which spontaneous order may emerge, not on comparing different systems of governance. It improves our understanding of how information transmission becomes less good as the size of the group expands. It gives us the limits of global self-governance in terms of parameters that capture the efficacy of the technologies of matching and communication. We see that in communities that are too large for full self-governance, there emerge neighbours that can sustain honesty in dealings among people sufficiently close to each other. The civil society in the United States of America and some other modern societies have frayed or disappeared. Churches, charities, local social and business associations like Rotary Clubs—serve many purposes. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

Among other things, they provide the contacts and information networks, and repositories of social norms and sanctions, which make it possible for individuals to build reputations, and for the society to achieve self-governance in economics. As economies become larger and more globalized, such self-governance must eventually give way to formal rule-based governance. Then the communal networks eventually give way to formal rule-based governance. Then the communal networks lost some of their purpose, and their relative decline become understandable. If this is true, then at least from an economic perspective the decline of civil society may be less damaging. The jobs of social capital are getting one in other ways. Of course, I recognize the complexity of the phenomenon, and would not regard this economic explanation as contributing more than a small and speculative part of its explanation. Terminating a miscreant’s membership in a group or network constitutes a harsher punishment if that reduces the efficacy of one’s search for trading partners. Therefore joint models of search and governance may yield some further insights and results. Happy are they that are upright, and walk in the law of the Lord. Happy are they that keep His teachings, that seek Him with their whole heart. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the teaching of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandments of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The ordinances of the Lord are true, they are righteous altogether. Happy is the man that walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law he mediates day and night. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19

CRESLEIGH HAVENWOOD

Lincoln, CA | from the high $600s

Now Selling!

No appointment needed! Cresleigh Havenwood features four distinct floor plans ranging from 2,293 – 3,377 square feet and offering up to five bedrooms.  Each plan has been thoughtfully designed and includes great features such as single story homes, guest suites, optional offices, garage workshops, and more!

Get the most out of your new home with Cresleigh’s All Ready smart home featuring all the connectivity needed to keep your house running. Best of all, each Cresleigh home comes with owned solar included! 

Located off of Virginiatown Road and McCourtney Road, residents of the 83 homesites of Cresleigh Havenwood will benefit from a brand new neighborhood in the charming City of Lincoln. Palo Verde Park, is  just down the street and there’s plenty of recreation to take part in all around town.  https://cresleigh.com/havenwood/

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