There is probably red tones in your own hair that come out or show up after trying to lighten your hair. To actually lift out all the red tones in your hair you would need to really get a professional to lift your hair color first then dye it the desired shade. The home kits are not very strong, but trying to use them repeatedly will not yield the desired results, just a lot of damaged hair and raw scalp. The over the counter box of color should be within one or two shades different at the most and will always vary according to your starting shade.

I agree that any journal should be free-flowing and not structured. You may have to let go of your need to control and manage everything in order to do this...maybe this is part of your learning. Bless you on your journey.

I did something similar in highschool...except I invited people of all faiths or just anyone interested. It is definately more educational and interesting to have a variety of people and beliefs, and could be a wonderful experience for you as well. Whatever you decide, remember as moderator your job is to keep a peaceful and open environment where the goal is to learn not to judge. No two people will agree on everything, unless they are in a cult, so let disagreements have a place alongside agreements. Bless you on your journey.

Updated**
I am glad to help. The truth is always subjective and from the tiny glimpse I have of your perception of the problem, I am limited in my advice. However, it is obvious that you take that knowledge with the grain of salt and do the best you can. All of life is flawed, but for the creative, it is all useable. I have no doubt that you will do well and flourish. -------------------------------------------------------




I want to scream. Okay, I took a deep breath instead. What the heck does a "strong" Christian family mean? Why doesn't anyone ever say a "brainwashed" or "sexist" or "narrow-minded" or "strict" or "psycho" Christian family?...which would be closer to the factual truth in most cases. And why do people "receive prophecy" about everyone else but themselves...oh sister Mary, God told me he wants you to start dressing sexier or to go learn to sew. Be aware of these so-called "prophecies" that are used to control people. It is like owning your own Chinese Fortune Cookie Bakery and writing out the little fortune papers yourself and then pretending they are true for those that read them. Now for the tongues crap. The Bible does not require you to speak in tongues. Tongues is the least of any of the gifts given in the Bible...read up on it and you will see I am correct. Tongues in the Bible was not gibbly-gook nonsense, but real foreign languages! So, don't be impressed by "Hooba-Wabotho-shimmdigitty" unless it is real Korean or German or ancient Hebrew for example and can be accurately and immediately translated as such. This speaking in tongues crap is about impressing one another in the spirit of ignorance, not in the Holy Spirit. Oh now about touching your own body and the guilt. Well, your zealous family has really done their job if you feel guilty about feeling good. Yikes! Feel guilty about starving children or being a Republican, but not about touching your own body and feeling exactly the way God designed you to feel when God made you..."He" (for the sake of another arguement)made every part of you, so be grateful for your body and your nerve endings...that is not your "main problem." Your main problem is that your family is going to try to control every single part of your life and thoughts and feelings from birth to death. Don't let them.

There are some websites where you can go to test your psychic and telekinetic and every other ic ability. True gifts are things that you don't really have to seek out...they find you. Don't waste time on things you are not. Invest in magnifying your strengths...whatever those are.

What do you believe about God, that you actually think he has to be in hearing distance physically to your vocal chords? What if you whisper? Can he hear it? Does shouting a prayer hurt his ears? I think you need to investigate the idea of God you have and why you have it. God is spirit according to the Bible and everywhere...omnipresent. Prayer is also about listening to God's voice and not just a one way telling God what you want. God is not Jack in the Box. As a self-proclaiming follower of Christ, you should learn more and theorize less.

The spirit world is real. I say this as a skeptic and person who questions most everything. Be true to yourself and take it for what it is, not what other people say about it. Be open but not unaware, careful, not not afraid. Do not add more or take away from what really happened for anyone. The universe, the unseen chooses us when and where it wishes, and we are blessed for it.

Water baptism is symbolic. John the Baptist in the New Testament baptized with water for repentance. He promised the people that Jesus would bring another baptism...one of the Holy Spirit. Water baptism symbolizes a repentance of sin. A saving baptism is through the Holy Spirit baptism that comes from Jesus. It is sometimes referred to also as a baptism of fire...again, fire representing the Holy Spirit of God throughout the Bible. Water is also associated with birth, and coming up out of the water having repented of sins, the baptized person is "reborn." When asked by a Pharisee what being reborn meant, Jesus replied, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (Matthew 3)."
The holy communion is revealed by Jesus who at the Last Supper told his disciples to remember him when they drank and ate, as the wine represented Christ's blood and the bread, His flesh. Communion is taking the meaning of the blood and the flesh and digesting those understandings through symbolism of wine or juice and bread or cracker as a church together. It is an act of rememberance for what has been sacrificed for one's salvation.

The inconsistency in your success with information gathering is two-part. First, you are grasping for answers to which have not been established. You are ignoring your part in the creative process of contributing to your reality. Self awareness must be the first goal. What you define as inaccuracy might be something else your higher self is designing to help you grow. Listen not only to your higher self, but to your "lower" consciousness as well. The dialogue is just as important as the outcome. Second, the process is always more important then the result. Take time out from all this testing the universe, to meditate. Also, reflective writing is a fabulous way to zero in on your hidden self and bring it into communion with the whole. This is about being the healthiest possible total you at every moment and with every choice you make to be present and aware. Last, I want to remind you that time is a tricky player in this game and does not have the boundaries that you and I forget we have. Be patient in your growth, because we cannot always monitor our success is visibles, until metamorphasis is complete.

Funny how we set out for something and then are worried when we get it. There are some strange stories that come out of people having used the witchboards. Really, what are the possibilities: 1. Just a game 2. Connects you with an unseen spiritual world through powers we don't understand which may be good or evil 3. Hit or miss, sometimes it is just a game and sometimes more. I have used one and there were some things that definately freaked me out enough to think I did not want to dabble with it just in case the unexplainable was connected to something bad. It is your decision, be smart and be aware.

It is exhausting to be someone you are not. At school you are distracted with friends and fun. When you get home, when you are alone, you have to face reality. You have depression and have a huge emotional burden. People at home have not been supportive of you and they do not realize the depth of your sadness. Talk to them. Talk to a school counselor. Write about it. Get it out. Bottling it up does not work. Whatever it is that you think you can't talk about is making you feel isolated, but you need to realize that you are not alone. Whatever you have been through, someone or a lot of someones have gone through a million times before you. Open up and share with someone you care about or just someone you trust like a teacher. You can and will get through this. People that care about you will not mind being affected by you...that is why you have friends and family...you would do the same for them. You deserve to be cared for, too.

Depends on the atheist. "Believe in nothing," may not be the most accurate though. The point of atheism is that they do NOT believe in nothing. They consider super-natural ideas like God to be nothing, since there is no proof or evidence for the existence of God or the Tooth Fairy etc...We all have a basis for our believes, but personal feelings do not prove that something or someone exists. Evidence is something that anyone can experience; See, Smell, Hear, Touch, Taste. There are proofs that can be arrived at through mathmatics and logic that are not empirical. Philosophy and Science and Math are all saturated in belief systems...we all have faith in what we choose to have faith in based upon our reasoning. So the question of whether or not someone has a valid belief system can be addressed first by looking at their reasoning. Is it logical and based on some objective reality or entirely stacked on ideas that don't hold water?

Your brother is gone and nothing you do on a Witchboard will bring him back to you the way you want it to. God is love and does not wish for you to be in agony, or living a life of guilt. God offers forgiveness and you need to take it not based upon your ability and promise to resist temptation, but based upon the ability and promise of God to redeem you completely and perfectly. There is a wide gap in what we believe to be reality and the unseen spiritual realm and there are things we will not know in this lifetime. Trust the faith you have. God does not require a perfect faith, just a faith in the perfect. Dreams are not a phone line from the world of spirits. They are a real part of our mental unconsciousness that perceives what our conscious mind will not grasp. Thoughts are extremely powerful and will set the course for your life and spirit. Examine all your thoughts and feelings in light of the love you have for your brother and the love God has for you. This life is temporary but important. When humans destroy the good in their own lives and stop believing in the possibilities of love, the result is disasterous for themselves and all around them. You have witnessed destruction and you are rightfully vexed by the horror of losing your brother. The path to knowing and honoring your brother is not in more destructive behavior. It was not his time to die, but we all face the same death eventually, and the same end. This can be a fearful thing to accept and demons real or imagined feed and breed on fear. Work through your fear and pain head on with a counselor, spiritual advisor, through prayer and meditation and in living a life of giving and joy. Do not hide behind dark games and meaningless shadows when you can live and heal in the light of all the good you know can be yours.

Being a follower of Jesus is what it means to be a Christian, so of course there is a focus on the teachings of Jesus in being "His" disciples. Christians additionally believe that Jesus is not only the Son of the one and only God, but that He is God fully in human form manifested. In submitting to Jesus, one is submitting to God and it is only through Jesus that a human can access the Divine God. Jesus is the Savior, Whom God Himself provided to all humans. In the Christian Faith Jesus is the spiritual reflection of God in human flesh, and a part of the triune or three in one, personhood of God. Hope that clarifies.

Tornado's are a real threat to some communities and recently have been responsible for deaths in many states. Perhaps you have been watching the news? It does not matter, really, except that our minds are usually full of unprocessed data from an overload of stimulation that winds up disturbing our sleep. However, if we want to look at meaning in the way of dream symbolism, it is clear that you wish to communicate something to your mother and are unable to find your voice or courage to do so. What is holding you back? Think about any secrets or fears that are preventing you from a relationship with your mother. Do you trust her enough to share? It is important to talk to someone, and release the burden. If you can't talk about it with her, find someone else you can share your fears with. It is normal to have fears and you need to find your voice.

Dreams are very clear when we are not.
1. You ask someone else to be daring first in the dream...your confidence may be based upon seeking and gaining her approval either for the threesome, or in general, because you admire her.
2. Your experience while gratifying still is lacking something...you replay it like a movie and your peers/friends approve and praise you. You actually profess to the audience that you admire people who can dive right into something completely naked or vulnerable.
3. This dream is obviously about your desire to shed your inhibitions, your admiration of this girl, whom you hope will take the lead and finally your need for peer approval once you have risked being vulnerable. Clearly you are playing out emotionally how you hope a threesome will feel.

4. Reality Check. Dreams are pretty much under our control and in real life people are not. Examine your desires as well as your deeper needs and fears. Proceed with caution, because while fantasy is great, acting out in reality is different...not necessarily bad, but usually not what your expectations predicted. While I believe your dream is a metaphor for your desires, including sex fantasy; it is not entirely about the act of sex. Sex itself can be a metaphor for power and possession...we seek to become one with another soul whom we admire and gain something of that magic for ourselves in the chemistry of intimacy...which ironically is more often achieved in non-sexual relationships.

5. Keep listening to your dreams, your heart, your mind.

Are the girls in your school who are wanting abortions able to get them? Whether or not you beleive it is wrong, it is legal and their choice. The problem with any major decision, is that once it is done...that's it. So, I just hope that these girls are educated enough about all their options and the risks of each one as well as the potential benefits. Abortion is only safe if done by a professional medical doctor and it is safest when done early on.

Jesus instructed His disciples to pray to God..."Our Father, Who Art In Heaven...Thy Will Be Done..." God gave mankind freewill and choice. When our choices are outside of God's will there are natural consequences that follow. God by definition is all knowing and all powerful, and not bound by our restrictions of time and space. Time itself was created by God, if you are speaking of the Biblical God. God is outside of our definitions of time. God made Man and all Creation...we ARE His plan. Freewill is His plan...God allows choice...allows us to experience what it is to exist apart from His protection. In the Bible God is also referred to by Christ as Father. A parent may watch in pain as his or her child makes a bad decision, but sometimes that parent knows it is the only way a child who will not listen to the teachings of the parent, will know for his or her self, what the outcome will be. God did not desire a planet of robots, but a people to have relationship with. His plan includes and enables man to participate in the creative process. When you are a parent you will plan to have a good relationship with your child. Your child will test you as a parent and every rule will be questioned if not broken. Children are rebellious by nature and want to find out for themselves...but the parent trys to warn and protect and limit freedom for the child's good, but eventually the child will grow-up and screw-up like we all do. The parent will always love and welcome that child to come home...that is what God does. He is always ready to welcome us back home.

Live your faith. Let your actions speak louder than your words..people will know your sincerity without being preached at, and will want to know how and why you are able to do what you do, at which time you can share the testimony of your faith. If your words and actions are not in harmony, you will look like a hypocrate...and while all humans are prone to error and hypocracy at some time, no one likes a full-time preacher who does not practice what she preaches to others. Practice the values you believe in. Be honest, kind, etc..

There are a lot of conflicting opinons out there and in the advice you will be given about who god or God is and what he wants from you as a person or Christian will be dependent upon the beliefs of the answerer....no one can give you an objective answer, or the only answer for that matter. What made you suddenly realize last month, that you need or wish to have a better relationship with god and what does better mean to you? I can give you better advice if I have a clearer understanding of your particular situation. I wish you the best and hope you are finding your answers...let me know if I can help more.

"Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable. To say something you value deeply to another and to have him or her value it equally by listening to it carefully and apppreciatively is the most universal way of exchanging social interest or demonstrating affection." David Augsburger, CARING ENOUGH TO HEAR AND BE HEARD.


All sincere persons will be given thoughtful examination and reply. Please be specific about your situation as it applies to your question, the applicable information and facts necessary for me to properly assess your situation and give you the benefit of my knowledge and experience, which includes: experience/education with mentoring, relationship study, self help, spirituality, poetry, literature, philosophy, psychology, color theory, teaching, parenting, and debate that will be used to your advantage. I am concerned with offering an objective and realistic perspective more than ratings, because this will help YOU. Artificial sweetness is found in diet soda, not in my advice. If you feel that I did not understand your question or need more specifics to help, please let me know, but while all truth is subjective, questioners should be mature enough to hear answers not necessarily agreed with. If you are only looking for someone to tell you just what you want to hear, then you may not be ready for my advice. I believe in personal responsibility, self and other awareness and your power and ability to recreate and redirect your own life. All our misery and joy begins and ends within ourselves, but our willingness to be open can bring the positive or negative energy we seek. If you or someone you know is open to positive help, the resources and caring individuals needed are available now.

http://www.coolnurse.com/

http://www.4woman.gov/violence/

http://www.childhelpusa.org/about/programs-and-services/childhelp-national-child-abuse-hotline-1-800-4-a-child

drug/alcohol abuse help go here: http://www.4drugabuse.com/addiction-treatment.html

http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/1800-273-TALK(8255)
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a 24-hour, toll-free suicide prevention service available to anyone in suicidal crisis. If you need help, please dial 1-800-273-TALK (8255). You will be routed to the closest possible crisis center in your area. With over 120 crisis centers across the country, our mission is to provide immediate assistance to anyone seeking mental health services. Call for yourself, or someone you care about. Your call is free and confidential. -----------------------------------

http://www.kidscrisis.com/

http://www.teenadviceonline.org/gethelp/numbers.html

You can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline, operated by RAINN, 24 hours a day, free & confidential. 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)

For info. on birth control etc.
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/

The Girls and Boys Town National Hotline is the only hotline that children and parents can call with any problem at any time:
Open 24-hours a day, every day at 1-800-448-3000

Spanish-speaking counselors available; translation services for 100+ languages

TTY line available for the hearing-impaired at 1-800-448-1833

Counselors can help find services and agencies in the callers' local community

Help at the End of the Line
Callers talk to highly-trained, professional counselors who listen and give "right now" answers. They're sympathetic people who have expertise dealing with these and other problems:

depression

suicide

running away

parenting problems

relationship concerns

physical, sexual, and emotional abuse

chemical dependency

mental health

anger

aggressive behavior

Toll Free
Operated by Father Flanagan's Boys' Home, hotline services are free of charge to every parent and child in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and Canada.

Toll-Free: 1-800-448-3000

http://www.sex-ed101.org/links.html

http://www.anorexicweb.com/anorexicweb.html

Report Child Abuse
Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline
1-800-4-A-CHILD TDD: 1-800-2-A-CHILD



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All our motivations stem from two: Love or Fear. When in turmoil or indecision, ask yourself from which of these you are acting. If you want an honest response outside of yourself, you need to first be honest within yourself. Bless you on your journey!

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