What is reality really? Everyone shapes and perceives reality within their own framework, understanding, and unique viewpoint. But real, true reality is not so manipulated, it is the Ultimate- it is WHAT IS. It is undeniable, undisputed and the only truth. But how often do we really see it, understand it or see the truth in it?
Do you hear a dog whistle, can you see a sound wave or infrared light. What if you could see a bad smell...who and what might we avoid. (I would never enter the employee bathroom if that were the case.) Are you feeling the earth spinning? Do you have the sudden urge to fly south for the winter? Do you feel a magnetic attraction to certain earth elements?
The thing is we are incapable of seeing or perceiving so many things that are happening around us right now. This instant can you see the oxygen you are breathing that is so essential to all life on this planet...can you feel your own basic, chemical elements? I am really feeling my carbon today, and I think my phosphorus is a little low, I don't even want to know about my sulfur content right now.
If you stared and stared could you ever see the scope of the celestial samba streaking all across space. Are you hearing all the meteors burning by or can you only wish upon their brief light. It is all happening right now around you. The moon is pulling ocean waves close and thrusting them away. Do you feel that pull? Just because you are not seeing it or feeling it does not mean it isn't true. Just because you can not understand it does not mean it isn't a fact, an indisputable truth.
I love the bigness, the vastness, the incomprehensibleness of our world. I mean look again at that word it is pretty big and hard to understand...I am having a hard time comprehending what all I can't comprehend.
God revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush and said, "I AM WHO I AM". God didn't give his pedigree or an explanation of Himself, He didn't have to because He is God. I don't think Moses doubted Him or His existence for a minute. The Hebrew name for God that comes from Moses encounter is Yahweh (YHWH) from the verb "to be" or "to exist". God shows how He is independent of our revelation and acknowledgment.
Isn't the younger generations perpetual whine to the older, "you will never understand me." Yahweh never whines about this. He knows we will never fully understand Him for it is beyond our capacity.
Moses didn't need a five page essay on who and what God is and does, all God had to say is "I AM WHO I AM". What do we all need to believe? What are you waiting for...do you need that ray of sunshine from heaven to burn a bush... I don't know, maybe you do. I am so thankful that I already know it in every cell of my oxygen, carbon, and sulfur body. I know and believe and don't need to see, hear or feel anything more to know He exists. But in my reality I have already seen, heard and felt so much of His beauty, love and greatness that I know HE IS. He is and always will be unto infinity and I can't even understand infinity.
Somebody else said it all much better so I will just let him say it:
"We have been saying that the Christian does not stand on the ground of condemnation, that he is not under the law, that he has been taken out of the old creation, and freed from the Satanic realm of darkness and oppression. As we turn to the Word of God we find that is categorically declared that the Christian is before the Father in the Risen Christ enjoying the same favor as the Son whose throne he shares, for he has been made to sit together with his Savior in heavenly places. This and no other is the immeasurably exalted position of the Christian.
But this is a faith position. It is received by faith and held by faith. Faith does not make it real. It is real whether the Christian believes it or not. It is real because God who cannot lie declares it to be so. Whether the Christan accepts it or not is in a sense beside the point. His attitude does not affect reality. However, to enter into the enjoyment of this glorious position he must believe what God says about it. Faith, as we read in Hebrews 2:1, is the substance of things hoped for." Reigning with Christ by F.J. Huegel
I hope you see the real reality of God and His son Jesus and what we as Christians are really meant for. I hope you can sense, feel and hear all that our Heavenly Creator wants to reveal to you. Lord, please, I beg you to show yourself to us all in a new, powerful and undeniable way. Help us to see where we as Christians truly stand with you and help us to lead others to this understanding. Enlarge my comprehension, expand my ability to know, love and seek you. Thank you Lord for hearing my prayer.
Heaven helped me 1/28/09
God bless you immeasurably!
~~D. Jones shared some great insights in response to this:
"Wow -- such wonderful thoughts. I loved the book quote you included, especially where he said, "Faith does not make it real. It is real whether the Christian believes it or not. It is real because God who cannot lie declares it to be so." That is so true. That is true whether or not I feel loved, whether or not I feel safe, whether or not I feel like I can accomplish something, whether or not I feel accepted. The reality is that I AM loved, safe, able in Him to do whatever needs to be done, and I AM accepted. And it will always be that way, because He doesn't change.
Something that I began realizing a few years ago is how flipped our thinking often is regarding reality. In His presence, I begin realizing that what seems real most often isn't, and what seems like an unrealistic fantasy actually is real. My feelings, unchecked, gravitate to the things that seem real, but aren't (discouragement, feelings of aloneness, anxiety, etc.). But the true reality is that I always have a reason to hope, I'm never alone, He Himself is my peace, and on and on.
Thanks for letting out all the treasures He's packed inside you. You're a great treasure chest."
D. Jones
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
False Failure
“Perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. Neglect nothing; the most trivial action may be performed to God.” --Angelique Arnauld
I inherited from my mother the inability to gracefully prepare and pull off a party in which I have to cook and serve food. Thankfully we have lots of friends who excel in that skill and I always try and enlist them to help out when it comes time to throw a soirée. One such friend suggested we throw a baby shower for my expecting sister. (this is an old story so don't panic people, no currently preggo sisters)
The whole “let US” throw a party sounded good to me since it would be a team effort and I wouldn't have to be the sole provider of all the necessary party planning, cooking and entertaining. In my typical style I delegated out the majority of tasks to others. Most often my favorite role in things is “supervising” rather than the doing. Hey, if there are many talented and willing gourmet chefs who would love to contribute why take that pleasure away from them.
I decided to commit an absolute cardinal sin of cooking for a party and make something for the first time that was also my own concoction—as in no recipe. It is not a good idea to risk making a never before made dish to serve to 30+ people. But I have no time and no guinea pigs to test on, and I am a risk taker extraordinaire. I thought it would be tasty since it was a fruit trifle in a trifle bowl and I always think those are so colorful and pretty. If anything it would at least be eye pleasing if it wasn't taste bud pleasing.
As I was driving to the party destination I was praying that we would have peace and tranquility while adding the final touches to the party before the guests arrived. And that as we finished fixing the last minute parts of the meal we would have a great time of fellowship and the party would be a success. In the days and weeks before the party I had been asking God repeatedly for it to be a time of blessing to everyone there and kept asking Him to use me to help bless others in all the conversations I would have.
I was so pleased with myself that I was actually not running late and would have plenty of time to assemble my trifle before the party started. Pride cometh before a fall. I was mentally running through all the items in my car and suddenly realized just as I was arriving that I had forgotten one of the major ingredients for my dessert. Great.
I walked into the house and southing music was playing and my team mate was singing along softly and lit up and smilingly said “Wow, you are on time.” I instantly lost it and spit out “No, I am not, as usual I have to screw things up somehow, because I am a flake and have forgotten the main ingredient. I am going to have to turn around and drive home and back which is going to make me late, as usual.” My sister walked in about this time. And I continued on saying, “I was just praying that we would have peace and tranquility rather than the typical screaming and tearing out of hair that takes place in my family prior to parties. And now look at me screaming and totally NOT calm.”
My sister smiled and said, “Well, it was pretty peaceful until you showed up.” I then stomped out the door and when I returned with forgotten item in hand, many people had already showed up. Ugh, prompt people, I just don't understand them.
So instead of ushering in the guests with grace and thanks for coming, I was hurriedly with tear stained cheeks trying to assemble my trifle. The rest of the party I just felt a little harried and hurried, jumping from one thing to the next and never really got to talk to anyone. The trifle turned out delicious and was beautiful for a whole three minutes before we dug into it and devoured it.
After the party had ended and all but five of us remained I started crying and said, “I feel like a failure, because everything I had prayed about didn't happen, I wasn't calm and I didn't talk to anybody and certainly didn't pass along any blessing. The only person I talked to at all was Mystique*, I talked to her a couple of times, but she was the ONLY one. I totally failed.”
One of the ladies said, “Oh, wait was Mystique the 13 yr old who is Sandy's* first foster child. I hear they are both having a really hard time adjusting to each other and the whole foster parent process. When I tried to talk to her she completely ignored me and didn't even respond to me.” Another lady said the same thing, “Yeah when I said hello to her and tried to talk to her she just looked at me and then looked away. She didn't even say hi, back.” All four of the ladies admitted that she wouldn't even respond or look at them and they were completely shocked that she could even talk at all.
I said, “Really, I talked to her a bunch she followed me around for a while as I was cleaning things up, she kept coming up to me and talking. We talked about all kinds of things. She was really sweet and likes to read a lot too, so we talked about books.”
We all sat there looking at each other in astonishment. Then one of them said, “Your prayer was answered, God had one person in mind for you to talk to and connect with and you did. You weren't a failure at all. You succeeded where everyone else had failed.”
Therefore my new favorite reminder to myself rang true, “My sense of failure was false.”
I realized that it was indeed special and I should take it seriously that God wanted me for some reason to meet and talk with this girl. So when I got home I searched throughout my library for books I thought were age appropriate that she might like. I painstaking composed a card (I like writing but cards are torture) put the books and card together and included a cool silver angel holding a starburst that said “hope”. The next day was Sunday and I chased her down at church and shyly said, “Here I thought you might like these.” I had also printed out some of my little writing emails to give to someone else and impulsively decided to give them to her instead.
Later that week I talked to her foster mom and she told me that she had attached the angel to her most precious possession, her cell phone and that she had really enjoyed reading my emails. I then added her email address to this list. I decided that I would try and find her the following Sunday and see if she wanted to do something together. I was praying as I was running (late) into church that I would be able to find her and another person so that I could make plans with both of them. I opened the door took two steps and heard my name. There was Mystique and she said, “Wow, I was just thinking about you and hoping to see you.” I looked at her and smiled right back and sincerely said, “I was just praying the same thing.” And then we both said "Coooool.” I walked in and grabbed the first seat I saw and not two minutes went by and the other person I wanted to talk to walked in and came over and hugged me. I said to God... “Coooool, thanks for making things easy for me.”
Mystique and I decided to grab breakfast together at Ihop the next morning with her foster mom. We had a great time together and talked about so many things. We both just shared about our lives, a lot of it about the tougher things we have gone through. Her foster mother sat across from us and was pretty quiet the entire time. I wondered a couple of times if I shouldn't have been talking so much “Christian”stuff and all of my “Christian” advice of how to handle the hard times, might somehow be inappropriate. But she seemed interested and receptive to everything I said so I just went for it.
Her foster mom called me the next day and said she learned more about her and her life in the hour and half we spent at breakfast than she had in the previous 90 days they had been together. She said she was so happy to hear me say so many of the things I said, and that so much of my advice was about issues she would have loved to have brought up and discussed with her but never had.
About two or three days later Mystique was allowed to return to her family. This story happened about 6 or 7 months ago and I continue to pray for her and for her life. Out of the blue, she called me last night and left a message which prompted me to write this email. She said that she is currently living with her grandparents in another state. I wonder what might have happened to lead to that. I don't pretend to know or understand what she has gone through in her young life of only 13 years. I only know that God had us meet and connect for a reason. Therefore I will do what I can, which is pray and ask you to do the same.
Sorry this one is long but I feel like all the components were necessary. Who knows if I would have felt the gravity of meeting her, if I hadn't been boo whoooing about being a failure...I try and remind myself that sometimes even my accidents can result in good. I am pretty accident prone so...
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
It is also great to remember that there is a much more efficient and calm Supervisor over us all. And we can rest assured that He isn't forgetting any essential ingredients in our lives.
Lord, please help us to try to do all of our ordinary things extraordinarily well for You. Use us in good times and bad to help others look to you for all their needs and remind us to do the same. Help us to find peace and tranquility amidst turmoil and remember that you are always watching over us with love and affection.
**Everybody's names were changed to protect their identity. If you want to pray for them I am sure God will know who you are talking about no matter what you call them.
Heaven helped me 1/10/09
God bless you,
A*
I inherited from my mother the inability to gracefully prepare and pull off a party in which I have to cook and serve food. Thankfully we have lots of friends who excel in that skill and I always try and enlist them to help out when it comes time to throw a soirée. One such friend suggested we throw a baby shower for my expecting sister. (this is an old story so don't panic people, no currently preggo sisters)
The whole “let US” throw a party sounded good to me since it would be a team effort and I wouldn't have to be the sole provider of all the necessary party planning, cooking and entertaining. In my typical style I delegated out the majority of tasks to others. Most often my favorite role in things is “supervising” rather than the doing. Hey, if there are many talented and willing gourmet chefs who would love to contribute why take that pleasure away from them.
I decided to commit an absolute cardinal sin of cooking for a party and make something for the first time that was also my own concoction—as in no recipe. It is not a good idea to risk making a never before made dish to serve to 30+ people. But I have no time and no guinea pigs to test on, and I am a risk taker extraordinaire. I thought it would be tasty since it was a fruit trifle in a trifle bowl and I always think those are so colorful and pretty. If anything it would at least be eye pleasing if it wasn't taste bud pleasing.
As I was driving to the party destination I was praying that we would have peace and tranquility while adding the final touches to the party before the guests arrived. And that as we finished fixing the last minute parts of the meal we would have a great time of fellowship and the party would be a success. In the days and weeks before the party I had been asking God repeatedly for it to be a time of blessing to everyone there and kept asking Him to use me to help bless others in all the conversations I would have.
I was so pleased with myself that I was actually not running late and would have plenty of time to assemble my trifle before the party started. Pride cometh before a fall. I was mentally running through all the items in my car and suddenly realized just as I was arriving that I had forgotten one of the major ingredients for my dessert. Great.
I walked into the house and southing music was playing and my team mate was singing along softly and lit up and smilingly said “Wow, you are on time.” I instantly lost it and spit out “No, I am not, as usual I have to screw things up somehow, because I am a flake and have forgotten the main ingredient. I am going to have to turn around and drive home and back which is going to make me late, as usual.” My sister walked in about this time. And I continued on saying, “I was just praying that we would have peace and tranquility rather than the typical screaming and tearing out of hair that takes place in my family prior to parties. And now look at me screaming and totally NOT calm.”
My sister smiled and said, “Well, it was pretty peaceful until you showed up.” I then stomped out the door and when I returned with forgotten item in hand, many people had already showed up. Ugh, prompt people, I just don't understand them.
So instead of ushering in the guests with grace and thanks for coming, I was hurriedly with tear stained cheeks trying to assemble my trifle. The rest of the party I just felt a little harried and hurried, jumping from one thing to the next and never really got to talk to anyone. The trifle turned out delicious and was beautiful for a whole three minutes before we dug into it and devoured it.
After the party had ended and all but five of us remained I started crying and said, “I feel like a failure, because everything I had prayed about didn't happen, I wasn't calm and I didn't talk to anybody and certainly didn't pass along any blessing. The only person I talked to at all was Mystique*, I talked to her a couple of times, but she was the ONLY one. I totally failed.”
One of the ladies said, “Oh, wait was Mystique the 13 yr old who is Sandy's* first foster child. I hear they are both having a really hard time adjusting to each other and the whole foster parent process. When I tried to talk to her she completely ignored me and didn't even respond to me.” Another lady said the same thing, “Yeah when I said hello to her and tried to talk to her she just looked at me and then looked away. She didn't even say hi, back.” All four of the ladies admitted that she wouldn't even respond or look at them and they were completely shocked that she could even talk at all.
I said, “Really, I talked to her a bunch she followed me around for a while as I was cleaning things up, she kept coming up to me and talking. We talked about all kinds of things. She was really sweet and likes to read a lot too, so we talked about books.”
We all sat there looking at each other in astonishment. Then one of them said, “Your prayer was answered, God had one person in mind for you to talk to and connect with and you did. You weren't a failure at all. You succeeded where everyone else had failed.”
Therefore my new favorite reminder to myself rang true, “My sense of failure was false.”
I realized that it was indeed special and I should take it seriously that God wanted me for some reason to meet and talk with this girl. So when I got home I searched throughout my library for books I thought were age appropriate that she might like. I painstaking composed a card (I like writing but cards are torture) put the books and card together and included a cool silver angel holding a starburst that said “hope”. The next day was Sunday and I chased her down at church and shyly said, “Here I thought you might like these.” I had also printed out some of my little writing emails to give to someone else and impulsively decided to give them to her instead.
Later that week I talked to her foster mom and she told me that she had attached the angel to her most precious possession, her cell phone and that she had really enjoyed reading my emails. I then added her email address to this list. I decided that I would try and find her the following Sunday and see if she wanted to do something together. I was praying as I was running (late) into church that I would be able to find her and another person so that I could make plans with both of them. I opened the door took two steps and heard my name. There was Mystique and she said, “Wow, I was just thinking about you and hoping to see you.” I looked at her and smiled right back and sincerely said, “I was just praying the same thing.” And then we both said "Coooool.” I walked in and grabbed the first seat I saw and not two minutes went by and the other person I wanted to talk to walked in and came over and hugged me. I said to God... “Coooool, thanks for making things easy for me.”
Mystique and I decided to grab breakfast together at Ihop the next morning with her foster mom. We had a great time together and talked about so many things. We both just shared about our lives, a lot of it about the tougher things we have gone through. Her foster mother sat across from us and was pretty quiet the entire time. I wondered a couple of times if I shouldn't have been talking so much “Christian”stuff and all of my “Christian” advice of how to handle the hard times, might somehow be inappropriate. But she seemed interested and receptive to everything I said so I just went for it.
Her foster mom called me the next day and said she learned more about her and her life in the hour and half we spent at breakfast than she had in the previous 90 days they had been together. She said she was so happy to hear me say so many of the things I said, and that so much of my advice was about issues she would have loved to have brought up and discussed with her but never had.
About two or three days later Mystique was allowed to return to her family. This story happened about 6 or 7 months ago and I continue to pray for her and for her life. Out of the blue, she called me last night and left a message which prompted me to write this email. She said that she is currently living with her grandparents in another state. I wonder what might have happened to lead to that. I don't pretend to know or understand what she has gone through in her young life of only 13 years. I only know that God had us meet and connect for a reason. Therefore I will do what I can, which is pray and ask you to do the same.
Sorry this one is long but I feel like all the components were necessary. Who knows if I would have felt the gravity of meeting her, if I hadn't been boo whoooing about being a failure...I try and remind myself that sometimes even my accidents can result in good. I am pretty accident prone so...
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
It is also great to remember that there is a much more efficient and calm Supervisor over us all. And we can rest assured that He isn't forgetting any essential ingredients in our lives.
Lord, please help us to try to do all of our ordinary things extraordinarily well for You. Use us in good times and bad to help others look to you for all their needs and remind us to do the same. Help us to find peace and tranquility amidst turmoil and remember that you are always watching over us with love and affection.
**Everybody's names were changed to protect their identity. If you want to pray for them I am sure God will know who you are talking about no matter what you call them.
Heaven helped me 1/10/09
God bless you,
A*
Christmas Caroling continued
"Charlie Chaplin said, 'A day without laughter is a day wasted.' I try to laugh once a day just in case." --movie Shining Through
So where did I leave off in my last email...Hmmm yeah I don't remember either.
Oh, that's right I was Christmas Caroling with my little group of 3. I had cried because I didn't get the raise I wanted and God showed me just how blessed I was while walking around caroling in public housing. Both little girl 1 and 2 had offered me great advice in my time of tears that "God must have a better job for you" and "Maybe in being lost God was trying to take you somewhere new." Girl # 3 had her chance a little later to offer wise words as well.
I had previously promised the young ladies that in honor of one's birthday I would take them roller skating. They had been begging me while we were trying to spread Christmas cheer to leave and go skating. I told them that we needed to "enjoy the now" and decide after we were done, what to do next. After we finished singing the whole group convened back at Granny's house and we had cocoa and listened to a great story shared by a lady I greatly admire. Her story on the power of prayer was very relateable to our young audience because it was about a prayer she made when she was 7. God had answered it thirty (or so) years later by making it possible to go on a trip to Africa, which is what she had asked for when she was a wee little one.
Everybody was then encouraged to break into groups and pray. I was asked to join a different group than my girls and tried to wrangle some four year olds into praying together, which was interesting in and of itself. Girl 1, 2, and 3, I could hear intermittently giggling in the background. I asked if they had prayed for me since I had been previously told by one of them that I needed it and with wide eyes they simultaneously said, "Ohhhh...." and then went right to it.
Soon after, we all climbed in the car and I looked at them and said, "Okay, let's go rollerskating." They all three started laughing and said, "Our prayers were answered because that is what we had prayed for." We arrived at the roller rink, all ran inside and were told Thursday night is private party night and we couldn't skate. As we were walking back to the car Girl #1 pointed out that they had only prayed to GO to the rink not to actually skate, next time they should pray to skate. Next we drove to the bowling alley and there wasn't even a parking space to be found so we thought it was probably to crowded to even bother going inside. Next we tried the movie theater and all the movies had already started.
After all that driving around and nothing seeming to work out, I turned to them and said, "Well, ladies I guess we are all having to deal with big disappointments today." And this time it was Girl #3 chance to shine as she piped in her happy little way, "But it's not what we do, it's all about spending time together." So true, so true, I am not sure, really, who is teaching who.
Despite much protest, I decided we would just meet up with Girl #3's foster mom who was at the mall and then I would take the other girls home.
So imagine what happened at the mall, not doing anything special....We had a great time. Girl #3's mom gifted us with ice cream cones for each...I even got one due to a miscalculation. And there sitting at the table we had the best time giggling as only little girls can. It is the time spent together that is special not the activity, or amount of money I try not to spend. It is the moments when we all together, enjoy each other's presence. Nothing more, nothing less, just the sheer pleasure of being together.
Since God wastes nothing, my earlier tears and anguish were used for good later. When I took the last girl home I went in and hung out with her family and I heard her say how she was "no good at school, she just can't do it, she is no good." I instantly turned to her and said,"Do you remember how in the car I was being mean to myself and saying how I was a loser, etc. Remember how you stopped me. Please, don't be mean to yourself, please stop this now and forever, don't ever give up and say you can't do something, no matter what it is...Never be cruel instead remind yourself constantly "I can do all things through Christ'.
I gave this verse to my 1st and 2nd grade Sunday school class to memorize and her little brother who is in that class was standing there and he lit up with a great big smile and instantly he said, 'Yes, Philippians 4:13."
It blew me away. I teach a pretty big class of anywhere from 20-30 kids. You never know how much they are actually absorbing and learning. To hear him say that made my heart soar...he goes to public school so it is not like he is learning scripture there. Whatever though, the point is if I can help one kid remember that and tell themselves that instead of the negative jargon I like to replay in my head, I just can't imagine what a positive impact that would have on their self esteem etc.
I am my own worst enemy so much of the time and I need to take my own advice and build myself up with that scripture verse. I need to stop focusing on the things I didn't do or in some cases did and instead see that the reality of many of my "disappointments" is not what I make it out to be. I once read in a prayer book a very timely phrase, "Your sense of failure is false." And so often it is.
Yeah the girls and I didn't do any of the big cool things like, roller skating, going bowling or to a movie, but it really didn't matter. We had more fun just being together and we didn't need to do any of those grand things to have fun.
Lord, please let the desires of my heart not be for any grand worthless things but instead let me simply desire a better relationship with You Lord and with others. Let me seek not empty earthly pleasures but instead let me search for more of your gifts. Help me to know deep down that your scripture is true in that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." -Philippians 4:13
Heaven helped me 1/6/09
God bless you,
A*
So where did I leave off in my last email...Hmmm yeah I don't remember either.
Oh, that's right I was Christmas Caroling with my little group of 3. I had cried because I didn't get the raise I wanted and God showed me just how blessed I was while walking around caroling in public housing. Both little girl 1 and 2 had offered me great advice in my time of tears that "God must have a better job for you" and "Maybe in being lost God was trying to take you somewhere new." Girl # 3 had her chance a little later to offer wise words as well.
I had previously promised the young ladies that in honor of one's birthday I would take them roller skating. They had been begging me while we were trying to spread Christmas cheer to leave and go skating. I told them that we needed to "enjoy the now" and decide after we were done, what to do next. After we finished singing the whole group convened back at Granny's house and we had cocoa and listened to a great story shared by a lady I greatly admire. Her story on the power of prayer was very relateable to our young audience because it was about a prayer she made when she was 7. God had answered it thirty (or so) years later by making it possible to go on a trip to Africa, which is what she had asked for when she was a wee little one.
Everybody was then encouraged to break into groups and pray. I was asked to join a different group than my girls and tried to wrangle some four year olds into praying together, which was interesting in and of itself. Girl 1, 2, and 3, I could hear intermittently giggling in the background. I asked if they had prayed for me since I had been previously told by one of them that I needed it and with wide eyes they simultaneously said, "Ohhhh...." and then went right to it.
Soon after, we all climbed in the car and I looked at them and said, "Okay, let's go rollerskating." They all three started laughing and said, "Our prayers were answered because that is what we had prayed for." We arrived at the roller rink, all ran inside and were told Thursday night is private party night and we couldn't skate. As we were walking back to the car Girl #1 pointed out that they had only prayed to GO to the rink not to actually skate, next time they should pray to skate. Next we drove to the bowling alley and there wasn't even a parking space to be found so we thought it was probably to crowded to even bother going inside. Next we tried the movie theater and all the movies had already started.
After all that driving around and nothing seeming to work out, I turned to them and said, "Well, ladies I guess we are all having to deal with big disappointments today." And this time it was Girl #3 chance to shine as she piped in her happy little way, "But it's not what we do, it's all about spending time together." So true, so true, I am not sure, really, who is teaching who.
Despite much protest, I decided we would just meet up with Girl #3's foster mom who was at the mall and then I would take the other girls home.
So imagine what happened at the mall, not doing anything special....We had a great time. Girl #3's mom gifted us with ice cream cones for each...I even got one due to a miscalculation. And there sitting at the table we had the best time giggling as only little girls can. It is the time spent together that is special not the activity, or amount of money I try not to spend. It is the moments when we all together, enjoy each other's presence. Nothing more, nothing less, just the sheer pleasure of being together.
Since God wastes nothing, my earlier tears and anguish were used for good later. When I took the last girl home I went in and hung out with her family and I heard her say how she was "no good at school, she just can't do it, she is no good." I instantly turned to her and said,"Do you remember how in the car I was being mean to myself and saying how I was a loser, etc. Remember how you stopped me. Please, don't be mean to yourself, please stop this now and forever, don't ever give up and say you can't do something, no matter what it is...Never be cruel instead remind yourself constantly "I can do all things through Christ'.
I gave this verse to my 1st and 2nd grade Sunday school class to memorize and her little brother who is in that class was standing there and he lit up with a great big smile and instantly he said, 'Yes, Philippians 4:13."
It blew me away. I teach a pretty big class of anywhere from 20-30 kids. You never know how much they are actually absorbing and learning. To hear him say that made my heart soar...he goes to public school so it is not like he is learning scripture there. Whatever though, the point is if I can help one kid remember that and tell themselves that instead of the negative jargon I like to replay in my head, I just can't imagine what a positive impact that would have on their self esteem etc.
I am my own worst enemy so much of the time and I need to take my own advice and build myself up with that scripture verse. I need to stop focusing on the things I didn't do or in some cases did and instead see that the reality of many of my "disappointments" is not what I make it out to be. I once read in a prayer book a very timely phrase, "Your sense of failure is false." And so often it is.
Yeah the girls and I didn't do any of the big cool things like, roller skating, going bowling or to a movie, but it really didn't matter. We had more fun just being together and we didn't need to do any of those grand things to have fun.
Lord, please let the desires of my heart not be for any grand worthless things but instead let me simply desire a better relationship with You Lord and with others. Let me seek not empty earthly pleasures but instead let me search for more of your gifts. Help me to know deep down that your scripture is true in that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." -Philippians 4:13
Heaven helped me 1/6/09
God bless you,
A*
Monday, December 22, 2008
Christmas Caroling
I had signed up weeks in advance to go Christmas Caroling with Granny's House which is an awesome charity for kids to participate in after school. It is located in the public housing section next to downtown and provides love, snacks and teaching about Jesus to boys and girls of all ages. The first time I was supposed to go I backed out because I was sick and honestly, I wasn't that enthused about going this time either. It was so cold out and I had been working a lot and not getting enough sleep. I had also signed up my little girl group to join me. I was leaving straight after my 7am to 4pm work shift to go pick up the girls to get there at 5 pm.
As I walking to my car in the parking lot my supervisor chased me down and finally informed me about my potential promotion. I didn't get it. I quickly got in my car and started crying. I was surprised at my tears because I didn't think that I had really cared about it that much, but apparently I did. It wasn't really the slight that stung because the other person had more experience, it was more that I wouldn't be getting the raise I was hoping for; it wasn't that big of a raise but anything would help.
I was driving and crying and decided to take a different way to pick up girl #1. I got thoroughly lost. So now I am driving around lost, angry, sad and crying. I decided that I better call Girl #2's mom and inform her that I was going to be super late and wasn't sure I even wanted to go at this point. I had now seriously escalated into full blown freak out. It wasn't the mom that answered it was actually one of my girls and I just started crying to her about everything. I said I didn't get a promotion so I won't get a raise, I am lost because I am stupid and I am going to be late and I am always late because I am a flake and I don't want to bail on this again and be an even bigger flake. Waaaa waaaa waaaa.
Thankfully my little ten year old friend was thinking more clearly than me and she said, “Well, that means that God probably has a better job for you.” That shut me up. I had finally found the house and Girl #2 jumped in the car just as I was hanging up with Girl # 1. She took one look at my red watery eyes and her bright eyed smile faded and she said, “Are you okay, what's wrong.” I have no idea why the question of what's wrong always so easily reopens a wound. But sure enough the flood gates were reopened and I started crying about how I wasn't going to get the raise I was really hoping for and I had been lost forever; and why do I always get lost, why, why?
Once again my other little friend provided excellent advice also. She said, “Well, maybe God was trying to take you somewhere special while you were lost.” I said, “I was driving around the Parkade neighborhood and I don't think God was trying to take me anywhere, there.” She excitedly piped up, “Oh, did you see my school? You haven't picked me up at that school, you have only been to my summer school.” She was right I now knew how to get to her school. God had definitely taken me somewhere new.
I still wasn't sold on the idea of caroling at this point and girl #1's mom had advised me not to go in my upset and late state. I decided to call Girl #3's foster mom and see what her thoughts were about going. As always, she was as sweet as a pixie stix and said I should do whatever I wanted. Then she softly said as an afterthought the crucial statement of, “You never know, if you go God might show you something.”
I had to go then...when someone says anything like that or “you are going to miss out if you don't” or other such phrases along those lines, I just have to go. I would hate to miss out on anything God might want to specifically reveal to me.
Because we arrived a half an hour late all the kids and adults were already outside of Granny's House and about to set off singing. We were told to join the group already holding hands in a circle. The lady leading the group said, “Let's pray before we go, who wants to pray?” Nobody offered and suddenly girl#1 and #2 are pointing at me saying, “She wants to pray. I thought to myself, “Great I am not in the mood for this, if anything I should pray about my mood.” So I bumbled and mumbled around with a pretty lousy prayer.
When I was done and we were setting off to start caroling I turned on the girls and said, “Gee, thanks a lot for offering me up to pray.” Girl #2 looked at me and she said, “YOU REALLY DID NEED TO PRAY!”
It hit me like a ton of bricks. Wow, was she right! I really did need to pray. I tried to rewind back and recall if I actually prayed during that whole lost, tear fest. Did I or was I just whining? There is definitely a difference. You can pray a whining prayer and or you can also just be complaining to God. I think it was more a big boo-whoo, whoa is me, cry baby tirade and I should have spent that time PRAYING, trusting and relying on my faith in God for my future and finances.
“I cry aloud to the LORD; I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is You who know my way.” Psalm 142:1-3
It is an easy guess if you think about it, what God showed me while caroling to all the different public housing tenants...
I saw that I was blessed to have the job I do and that so many people would love to have it. What I think is such meager pay would be a lot of money to other people and that I am spoiled in so, so many ways. I should be unendingly thankful to God for every single little and big thing I have- be it my beloved highlighter pens or my paid off car. I have so many blessings, I really have so much and even if I didn't own a thing or I didn't have a condo full of stuff, I would still have a heart full of all the love I feel for everyone.
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17
My whole life is a gift, everybody I know is a gift. Every smile or laugh I get is precious and the best present I could ask for from anyone. I am already rich and thinking I am poor is a lie. I am rich in love. I am rich in God's blessing. I am rich with happiness and joy. I am rich with family and friends. I am rich in that I have already lived such a full and unbelievable life and I am still young. I am rich because I am finally coming to realize the reality of how wealthy I really am!
"You have kept count of my wanderings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life." Psalm 56:8-13
This story is to be continued because so much more happened that evening.
Heaven helped me 12/22/08
Love Always,
A*
As I walking to my car in the parking lot my supervisor chased me down and finally informed me about my potential promotion. I didn't get it. I quickly got in my car and started crying. I was surprised at my tears because I didn't think that I had really cared about it that much, but apparently I did. It wasn't really the slight that stung because the other person had more experience, it was more that I wouldn't be getting the raise I was hoping for; it wasn't that big of a raise but anything would help.
I was driving and crying and decided to take a different way to pick up girl #1. I got thoroughly lost. So now I am driving around lost, angry, sad and crying. I decided that I better call Girl #2's mom and inform her that I was going to be super late and wasn't sure I even wanted to go at this point. I had now seriously escalated into full blown freak out. It wasn't the mom that answered it was actually one of my girls and I just started crying to her about everything. I said I didn't get a promotion so I won't get a raise, I am lost because I am stupid and I am going to be late and I am always late because I am a flake and I don't want to bail on this again and be an even bigger flake. Waaaa waaaa waaaa.
Thankfully my little ten year old friend was thinking more clearly than me and she said, “Well, that means that God probably has a better job for you.” That shut me up. I had finally found the house and Girl #2 jumped in the car just as I was hanging up with Girl # 1. She took one look at my red watery eyes and her bright eyed smile faded and she said, “Are you okay, what's wrong.” I have no idea why the question of what's wrong always so easily reopens a wound. But sure enough the flood gates were reopened and I started crying about how I wasn't going to get the raise I was really hoping for and I had been lost forever; and why do I always get lost, why, why?
Once again my other little friend provided excellent advice also. She said, “Well, maybe God was trying to take you somewhere special while you were lost.” I said, “I was driving around the Parkade neighborhood and I don't think God was trying to take me anywhere, there.” She excitedly piped up, “Oh, did you see my school? You haven't picked me up at that school, you have only been to my summer school.” She was right I now knew how to get to her school. God had definitely taken me somewhere new.
I still wasn't sold on the idea of caroling at this point and girl #1's mom had advised me not to go in my upset and late state. I decided to call Girl #3's foster mom and see what her thoughts were about going. As always, she was as sweet as a pixie stix and said I should do whatever I wanted. Then she softly said as an afterthought the crucial statement of, “You never know, if you go God might show you something.”
I had to go then...when someone says anything like that or “you are going to miss out if you don't” or other such phrases along those lines, I just have to go. I would hate to miss out on anything God might want to specifically reveal to me.
Because we arrived a half an hour late all the kids and adults were already outside of Granny's House and about to set off singing. We were told to join the group already holding hands in a circle. The lady leading the group said, “Let's pray before we go, who wants to pray?” Nobody offered and suddenly girl#1 and #2 are pointing at me saying, “She wants to pray. I thought to myself, “Great I am not in the mood for this, if anything I should pray about my mood.” So I bumbled and mumbled around with a pretty lousy prayer.
When I was done and we were setting off to start caroling I turned on the girls and said, “Gee, thanks a lot for offering me up to pray.” Girl #2 looked at me and she said, “YOU REALLY DID NEED TO PRAY!”
It hit me like a ton of bricks. Wow, was she right! I really did need to pray. I tried to rewind back and recall if I actually prayed during that whole lost, tear fest. Did I or was I just whining? There is definitely a difference. You can pray a whining prayer and or you can also just be complaining to God. I think it was more a big boo-whoo, whoa is me, cry baby tirade and I should have spent that time PRAYING, trusting and relying on my faith in God for my future and finances.
“I cry aloud to the LORD; I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is You who know my way.” Psalm 142:1-3
It is an easy guess if you think about it, what God showed me while caroling to all the different public housing tenants...
I saw that I was blessed to have the job I do and that so many people would love to have it. What I think is such meager pay would be a lot of money to other people and that I am spoiled in so, so many ways. I should be unendingly thankful to God for every single little and big thing I have- be it my beloved highlighter pens or my paid off car. I have so many blessings, I really have so much and even if I didn't own a thing or I didn't have a condo full of stuff, I would still have a heart full of all the love I feel for everyone.
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17
My whole life is a gift, everybody I know is a gift. Every smile or laugh I get is precious and the best present I could ask for from anyone. I am already rich and thinking I am poor is a lie. I am rich in love. I am rich in God's blessing. I am rich with happiness and joy. I am rich with family and friends. I am rich in that I have already lived such a full and unbelievable life and I am still young. I am rich because I am finally coming to realize the reality of how wealthy I really am!
"You have kept count of my wanderings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life." Psalm 56:8-13
This story is to be continued because so much more happened that evening.
Heaven helped me 12/22/08
Love Always,
A*
Monday, December 15, 2008
Care Instructions
“...because this garden is your soul. This mess is you! Together, you and I, we have been working with a purpose in your heart. And it is wild and beautiful and perfectly in process. To you it seems like a mess, but to Me, I see a perfect pattern emerging and growing and alive—a living fractal.” --William P . Young
I was doing laundry the other day and had properly sorted through the multi-colored items making piles of whites, lights and darks. Since my mother had lectured me on the proper way to load a washing machine, I now follow what she claims she read straight from the manual. You first add your detergent and then select the settings and wait until the water has filled the tub before dropping the clothes in the now well mixed water and soap. The machine is on and running with the washing stem in the center twisting away while you load your laundry.
I thought all I had were whites and suddenly in the turbulent water entered one of my favorite sweaters that was white with black trim.
Oh no! Black in a load of white with hot water and bleach is not a good combination. Not only could I potentially ruin my sweater, I could ruin everything in the whole load. I frantically tried to pull it out but half of it was already twisting around the twirling center stem. It was like slow motion as the sweater stretched to three times its original size. I had to stick my arm elbow deep in the suds and dig around to wrench it loose. Poor sweater. The one arm I had rescued before it hit the water was dry and normal looking while the rest of the sweater was dripping wet and sadly, super stretched.
I thought, “Oh, no, what do I do. Should I toss it back in, I wonder what temperature of water it should be washed in, can this even be washed in a machine and what is it made out of? Yikes, I know nothing about this lovely sweater other than my liking it. So what did I do, what did I do? I read the care instructions on the tag of course.
There on the tag it told me all about the garment. Where it came from, what it was made of, even the exact combination that comprised the fabric makeup. Knowing what comprised it gave you a better idea of why you need to care for it the way they instructed.
Wouldn't it be awesome if we had, like our clothes, a label with care instructions. Every article of clothing you purchase no matter how teeny it may be has a tag with instructions of how to properly clean, care for and handle it, as well as listing all the materials used to make it. Wow imagine that for people. You take one look at them and know they came from New York which explains the accent. You know that one parent is Italian and the other American Indian which explains the beautiful complexion. And then the greatest part is you know how to handle and treat them.
Hand wash only....beware high maintenance. Dry clean only... expensive to clean and annoying. Hand wash separately.... probably doesn't play well with others? Warm iron if needed....needs a little help getting the kinks out, little rough around the edges? Tumble dry low, avoid high heat.....doesn't react well to stress. Line dry only.....holds a grudge forever and needs lots of time to let go. Machine wash warm, tumble dry....pretty easy going, not to sensitive.
It would make entering a relationship much easier because you know what you are buying upfront. “Honey, you knew I was Hand wash separately, Line dry only when you married me, I am sorry I can't be like you and be a Machine wash, cold gentle cycle. I am 100% silk not a 100% cotton.
I have noticed though that easy is kinda boring. Simple can be nice, but isn't complex so much more interesting. Doesn't the mystery in life make it worth living. If you knew everything you needed to take the best care of yourself would you even do it or would you be hopping in that dryer on high heat just to see what might happen.
If you are wondering about my sweater I read the instructions and said, “Que sera sera, whatever will be will be.” And tossed it in, even though it advised that hot water with bleach was exactly what you shouldn't do, it came out just fine.
So sometimes even when you read the instructions and do NOT follow them things still work out okay. It probably will not be pretty in the middle of it, like my stretched out sweater but it can all be redeemed in the end. Thankfully it is called God's grace and it has been threaded throughout my whole life; we all have it in our fabric makeup. 100% of my happiness is due to His grace being weaved in me when I least deserve it. If you want to know what is on my tag just ask.
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;”~Psalm 139:13-18
Lord please help us to take better care of ourselves, reveal to us how we should best care for others and help us to be happy for each and every thread that is in us. Weave us all closer together and closer to you, help us not unravel in the hard times but instead let us just become stronger in every fiber of our being.
Heaven helped me 12/12/08
Love Always,
A*
I was doing laundry the other day and had properly sorted through the multi-colored items making piles of whites, lights and darks. Since my mother had lectured me on the proper way to load a washing machine, I now follow what she claims she read straight from the manual. You first add your detergent and then select the settings and wait until the water has filled the tub before dropping the clothes in the now well mixed water and soap. The machine is on and running with the washing stem in the center twisting away while you load your laundry.
I thought all I had were whites and suddenly in the turbulent water entered one of my favorite sweaters that was white with black trim.
Oh no! Black in a load of white with hot water and bleach is not a good combination. Not only could I potentially ruin my sweater, I could ruin everything in the whole load. I frantically tried to pull it out but half of it was already twisting around the twirling center stem. It was like slow motion as the sweater stretched to three times its original size. I had to stick my arm elbow deep in the suds and dig around to wrench it loose. Poor sweater. The one arm I had rescued before it hit the water was dry and normal looking while the rest of the sweater was dripping wet and sadly, super stretched.
I thought, “Oh, no, what do I do. Should I toss it back in, I wonder what temperature of water it should be washed in, can this even be washed in a machine and what is it made out of? Yikes, I know nothing about this lovely sweater other than my liking it. So what did I do, what did I do? I read the care instructions on the tag of course.
There on the tag it told me all about the garment. Where it came from, what it was made of, even the exact combination that comprised the fabric makeup. Knowing what comprised it gave you a better idea of why you need to care for it the way they instructed.
Wouldn't it be awesome if we had, like our clothes, a label with care instructions. Every article of clothing you purchase no matter how teeny it may be has a tag with instructions of how to properly clean, care for and handle it, as well as listing all the materials used to make it. Wow imagine that for people. You take one look at them and know they came from New York which explains the accent. You know that one parent is Italian and the other American Indian which explains the beautiful complexion. And then the greatest part is you know how to handle and treat them.
Hand wash only....beware high maintenance. Dry clean only... expensive to clean and annoying. Hand wash separately.... probably doesn't play well with others? Warm iron if needed....needs a little help getting the kinks out, little rough around the edges? Tumble dry low, avoid high heat.....doesn't react well to stress. Line dry only.....holds a grudge forever and needs lots of time to let go. Machine wash warm, tumble dry....pretty easy going, not to sensitive.
It would make entering a relationship much easier because you know what you are buying upfront. “Honey, you knew I was Hand wash separately, Line dry only when you married me, I am sorry I can't be like you and be a Machine wash, cold gentle cycle. I am 100% silk not a 100% cotton.
I have noticed though that easy is kinda boring. Simple can be nice, but isn't complex so much more interesting. Doesn't the mystery in life make it worth living. If you knew everything you needed to take the best care of yourself would you even do it or would you be hopping in that dryer on high heat just to see what might happen.
If you are wondering about my sweater I read the instructions and said, “Que sera sera, whatever will be will be.” And tossed it in, even though it advised that hot water with bleach was exactly what you shouldn't do, it came out just fine.
So sometimes even when you read the instructions and do NOT follow them things still work out okay. It probably will not be pretty in the middle of it, like my stretched out sweater but it can all be redeemed in the end. Thankfully it is called God's grace and it has been threaded throughout my whole life; we all have it in our fabric makeup. 100% of my happiness is due to His grace being weaved in me when I least deserve it. If you want to know what is on my tag just ask.
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;”~Psalm 139:13-18
Lord please help us to take better care of ourselves, reveal to us how we should best care for others and help us to be happy for each and every thread that is in us. Weave us all closer together and closer to you, help us not unravel in the hard times but instead let us just become stronger in every fiber of our being.
Heaven helped me 12/12/08
Love Always,
A*
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Game of Life
"The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it." - William James
I decided I wanted to be friends with one of my ten year old campers when she was making me laugh so hard it hurt. She actually had just done a recap of the 5 most embarrassing things I had done at camp, starting with the Plumber incident. (you might recall that story from an old email.) I looked at her and thought to myself how I like hanging out with her and should do it in the future. We had such similar senses of humor and often I would start singing a song and she would join me even if she had never heard it before. I make up my own lyrics and songs all the time so we were quite a duet.
At one point we walked into our cabin and I started singing, "Oh when the saints go marching in, Oh when the saints go marching in, I will still be marching in LATE when the saints go marching in." She thought it was hilarious and started singing it with me and we started stomping around the cabin and when we walked up to each person she would say what they would still be doing. For the other girls it was always a nice characteristic about them like they will still be considerate or helpful, unlike my original negative one of always being late.
Other big revelations occurred which made me decide I should take the time to spend with her but those will have to wait for another story. As with most things it just kinda happened that it ended up being a group of us, myself and three girls one 9 yr old and two 10 yr olds. At camp I had realized that I am multi-ageall. (yeah I made it up, off of multi-lingual - speaking many languages).
--- Multi-ageall means I can pretty much fit in with any and all ages. From the young campers, to the teenage co-counselors and the other adults many of which were older than me, whatever age, I fit in just fine. My number of years never seemed to be an issue and I could relate to all the ages with ease. I can revert right back to immaturity in a heartbeat or did I ever really leave it... point to ponder.
Just the other day my little girl group was hanging out, deciding what we should do next and somebody suggested playing the game -Life. I instantly in a funny voice quipped something like, "Honey, I don't want to play the game Life, I live life every day and it ain't no fun game."
The one 9 year old looked at me intently, then understanding spread across her face as she got the joke and started laughing. She then was said, "Seriously, do you want to play Life."
Seriously, I didn't. I have never liked the game. I never chose to play it as a kid and in my household the only time the board ever came out was when my ever entrepreneurial brother used the spinning wheel of numbers for the game he made up called stock market. In that game you were to give him your allowance and based on the number he spun the stock market either rose or fell and you made more or less money accordingly. It was more like roulette and the house always won. But for brief moments you always had a little more money which made you want to keep playing the market until it crashed and game over your brother has all your deniro.
I told them I would watch them play and help, so they asked me to read the instructions out loud. You have to read the instructions to get the object of the game and learn how to win. They went something like this, first you have to decide if you want a career or to go to college. In a career you instantly get money but if you go to college you will make more money when you randomly pick a salary card. You have a car in which the plastic peg representing you travels around the board and if you decide to get married or have kids additional pegs are added to your car.
As you travel around the board you will land on squares that determine if you get tax breaks which give extra money or if you lose money for car accidents and such. All around the board if you land on certain squares you can get little multicolored "life" tiles randomly. The object of the game is to have the most money and most "life" tiles. Whoever has the most wins.
After reading the rules I said, "Ladies these rules just explained how you win at the game of Life. “How do you think you win in real life?" The ever quick 9 yr old instantly said that she thought it was a lot like the game that you had to go to college, have a family, make a lot of money and have a nice house and car and that is how you win in life. My little camper said yeah, I guess that sounds about right. The quite one in the group just shrugged her shoulders.
When I was telling this story to my sister she interrupted me here and said, "Looks like you are losing at life then." She followed up with one of those fast "just kiddings" but whatever, I told her let me finish the story.
You got to wait for it with kids sometimes, and then sure enough they all looked at me and said, "How do you think you win at life? Those are the moments that matter when they actually ask you a question and are ready to hear your answer and it's not just you droning on in the background like some boring soundtrack to their fast paced thoughts.
I looked at them each in turn and said I think what we are doing right now, this is how you win at life. When you just share your time, experience, life with friends, make new ones and show Jesus' love and how He lights up your life, that, in my opinion, is winning at life. It's not about nice houses and cars or how much money you make, those things don't really matter in God's eyes, it's about sharing Jesus' love with everyone and trying to be more like Him.
You didn't see Jesus being all about the dollar bills and rolling around in a chariot with rims. He was just hanging out, breaking bread with all kinds of people and sharing his wisdom, insight and most importantly His father's love.
My little camper instantly said I like your answer better, I change mine to that. And then they all said yeah, me too. Yippee, ding- ding- ding, you all are on your way to being Big Winners in the game of real life, because realizing what is important is the first step.
It might be worth remembering in these uncertain times when it seems like my brother is still in charge of the stock market and gas for your chariot can bankrupt you, what the Bible says:
Matthew 6:20-21”But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
Hebrews 13:5-6 “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “the Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
Heaven helped me 10/9/08
God bless you,
Love Always,
A*
I decided I wanted to be friends with one of my ten year old campers when she was making me laugh so hard it hurt. She actually had just done a recap of the 5 most embarrassing things I had done at camp, starting with the Plumber incident. (you might recall that story from an old email.) I looked at her and thought to myself how I like hanging out with her and should do it in the future. We had such similar senses of humor and often I would start singing a song and she would join me even if she had never heard it before. I make up my own lyrics and songs all the time so we were quite a duet.
At one point we walked into our cabin and I started singing, "Oh when the saints go marching in, Oh when the saints go marching in, I will still be marching in LATE when the saints go marching in." She thought it was hilarious and started singing it with me and we started stomping around the cabin and when we walked up to each person she would say what they would still be doing. For the other girls it was always a nice characteristic about them like they will still be considerate or helpful, unlike my original negative one of always being late.
Other big revelations occurred which made me decide I should take the time to spend with her but those will have to wait for another story. As with most things it just kinda happened that it ended up being a group of us, myself and three girls one 9 yr old and two 10 yr olds. At camp I had realized that I am multi-ageall. (yeah I made it up, off of multi-lingual - speaking many languages).
--- Multi-ageall means I can pretty much fit in with any and all ages. From the young campers, to the teenage co-counselors and the other adults many of which were older than me, whatever age, I fit in just fine. My number of years never seemed to be an issue and I could relate to all the ages with ease. I can revert right back to immaturity in a heartbeat or did I ever really leave it... point to ponder.
Just the other day my little girl group was hanging out, deciding what we should do next and somebody suggested playing the game -Life. I instantly in a funny voice quipped something like, "Honey, I don't want to play the game Life, I live life every day and it ain't no fun game."
The one 9 year old looked at me intently, then understanding spread across her face as she got the joke and started laughing. She then was said, "Seriously, do you want to play Life."
Seriously, I didn't. I have never liked the game. I never chose to play it as a kid and in my household the only time the board ever came out was when my ever entrepreneurial brother used the spinning wheel of numbers for the game he made up called stock market. In that game you were to give him your allowance and based on the number he spun the stock market either rose or fell and you made more or less money accordingly. It was more like roulette and the house always won. But for brief moments you always had a little more money which made you want to keep playing the market until it crashed and game over your brother has all your deniro.
I told them I would watch them play and help, so they asked me to read the instructions out loud. You have to read the instructions to get the object of the game and learn how to win. They went something like this, first you have to decide if you want a career or to go to college. In a career you instantly get money but if you go to college you will make more money when you randomly pick a salary card. You have a car in which the plastic peg representing you travels around the board and if you decide to get married or have kids additional pegs are added to your car.
As you travel around the board you will land on squares that determine if you get tax breaks which give extra money or if you lose money for car accidents and such. All around the board if you land on certain squares you can get little multicolored "life" tiles randomly. The object of the game is to have the most money and most "life" tiles. Whoever has the most wins.
After reading the rules I said, "Ladies these rules just explained how you win at the game of Life. “How do you think you win in real life?" The ever quick 9 yr old instantly said that she thought it was a lot like the game that you had to go to college, have a family, make a lot of money and have a nice house and car and that is how you win in life. My little camper said yeah, I guess that sounds about right. The quite one in the group just shrugged her shoulders.
When I was telling this story to my sister she interrupted me here and said, "Looks like you are losing at life then." She followed up with one of those fast "just kiddings" but whatever, I told her let me finish the story.
You got to wait for it with kids sometimes, and then sure enough they all looked at me and said, "How do you think you win at life? Those are the moments that matter when they actually ask you a question and are ready to hear your answer and it's not just you droning on in the background like some boring soundtrack to their fast paced thoughts.
I looked at them each in turn and said I think what we are doing right now, this is how you win at life. When you just share your time, experience, life with friends, make new ones and show Jesus' love and how He lights up your life, that, in my opinion, is winning at life. It's not about nice houses and cars or how much money you make, those things don't really matter in God's eyes, it's about sharing Jesus' love with everyone and trying to be more like Him.
You didn't see Jesus being all about the dollar bills and rolling around in a chariot with rims. He was just hanging out, breaking bread with all kinds of people and sharing his wisdom, insight and most importantly His father's love.
My little camper instantly said I like your answer better, I change mine to that. And then they all said yeah, me too. Yippee, ding- ding- ding, you all are on your way to being Big Winners in the game of real life, because realizing what is important is the first step.
It might be worth remembering in these uncertain times when it seems like my brother is still in charge of the stock market and gas for your chariot can bankrupt you, what the Bible says:
Matthew 6:20-21”But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
Hebrews 13:5-6 “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “the Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
Heaven helped me 10/9/08
God bless you,
Love Always,
A*
Friday, December 12, 2008
5 Minute Friends
"The only way to have a friend is to be one." Ralph Waldo Emerson
This might seem like bragging but it is actually only bragging about how cool God is and that He can use anybody. Many of the particulars of this story are a little foggy. I will begin where my memory was first jolted back into the misty past. I don't remember if I was in Kansas City again or Columbia, but I remember I was in a crowded location like a mall, with a group of people. Suddenly this woman around my age starts yelling my name and comes over and hugs me and says, “I always wondered if I would ever see you again.”
I am looking at her and have absolutely no earthly idea who she is or where I might know her from. I am frantically flipping through my mental Rolodex. Oblivious to my lack of recognition she just keeps gushing, “Oh my goodness, you have no idea how you changed my life. I just don't know where I would be if I hadn't met you that night. Wow, I always wanted to thank you, you just have no idea what you said meant to me.”
I am feeling completely bewildered and wondering if she has the wrong person. Meanwhile the group I was with have walked a safe distance away and are staring at us giving me facial expressions like should we save you from this loony fan.
She then noticed my hesitancy and my friends and said, “Oh, I'm sorry, am I keeping you from something, I will let you go in a second. I just always hoped I would see you again so that I could thank you. I guess you might not remember it, it was a long time ago but I was in Westport in Kansas City and was fighting with my boyfriend. He was standing over me yelling all kinds of horrible things and I was sitting on the curb crying. You came out of nowhere and sat down next to me and put your arm around me and said that I didn't have to listen to him. Because what he was saying was not true and that I was worth so much more. And that nobody ever deserves to be talked to that way and life is too short to let someone treat you so badly. You said I was too smart and too pretty, Jesus loved me and that I was worth so much more than this. Then you hopped up and started walking away and I asked you your name and you told me it and said you would be praying for me.”
Suddenly I started remembering that night. Bits and pieces and flashes of images are coming back to me. And I tell her that I remember it now but I am still pretty speechless and dazed.
She said after you walked away, I realized you were right and I left him and never went back. Now I have met a great guy who isn't abusive and we are going to get married. I don't know if I ever would have left him since I had been listening to his lies and putting up with his abuse for years and years. So thank you so much for your hug and kind words when I needed them. She hugged me again and walked away.
I would like to think I had some good parting words here, like I will keep praying for you and God bless you and what is your name again, but I honestly don't think any of that happened. I think I was still kinda standing there in shock till the group I was with came over and asked, “what was that all about?” I don't even think I tried to tell them the story. I never knew this girl's name and both times our encounters were maybe five minutes long.
It is so obvious to me how God put me in the right place, at the right time and gave me the right words to say to this girl. And that five minutes can make a world of difference, it can change your mind and change your world.
“Giving is the secret of a healthy life. Not necessarily money, but whatever a man has of encouragement and sympathy and understanding.” --John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
The great, big irony and the part that really, really speaks to me about this story is the condition I was in at the time. This story happened lifetimes ago for me and in actual time it was anywhere from 5-7 years ago. I was such a different person then and was so deep in a sin filled lifestyle and didn't even know it.
Here are a few of the things I remember about that night: For one I was drunk, very drunk which is the big reason my memory is a foggy haze. I had on a new pair of black and white striped pants. I remember the pants because I remember sitting on the curb with her and they were doing funny things to my eyes....beer goggles aren't very clear. I also remember when I walked away from the girl my friends said to me, “What on earth were you thinking sitting on the filthy sidewalk in white pants. Do you even know her.” I think I mumbled something about how I needed to talk to her.
That is pretty much all I remember about that night. I don't remember “helping” anybody. I don't remember imparting any words of wisdom. I am pretty sure we were walking to another bar when I happened upon her. I am sure I proceeded to get even more inebriated in the next bar.
And that is the real beauty in this story. The real beauty is that I was a complete and utter mess, I was just as lost as she and probably needed a hug myself. But God.... But God was still able in my flawed, foggy mind to reach me and help me to reach out to someone else in need. I didn't know what I was doing or how God would use it, but He did. He can use anybody, anytime, any place for any thing. He can, He did and He will continue to. I believe it, know it and can't wait to see it.
Lord please use us all to do your work. Lead us to help and hug those in need and impart to them Your word and Your wisdom when they need it most. Put us in the right place at the right time and give us the courage to do Your will. Reveal to us that we are all capable of doing so much for you and help us to be willing to do it everyday.
“What I kept, I lost,
What I spent, I had,
What I gave, I have.”
--Persian Proverb
Heaven helped me 12/8/08
God bless you today!
Love Always,
Amaris*
This might seem like bragging but it is actually only bragging about how cool God is and that He can use anybody. Many of the particulars of this story are a little foggy. I will begin where my memory was first jolted back into the misty past. I don't remember if I was in Kansas City again or Columbia, but I remember I was in a crowded location like a mall, with a group of people. Suddenly this woman around my age starts yelling my name and comes over and hugs me and says, “I always wondered if I would ever see you again.”
I am looking at her and have absolutely no earthly idea who she is or where I might know her from. I am frantically flipping through my mental Rolodex. Oblivious to my lack of recognition she just keeps gushing, “Oh my goodness, you have no idea how you changed my life. I just don't know where I would be if I hadn't met you that night. Wow, I always wanted to thank you, you just have no idea what you said meant to me.”
I am feeling completely bewildered and wondering if she has the wrong person. Meanwhile the group I was with have walked a safe distance away and are staring at us giving me facial expressions like should we save you from this loony fan.
She then noticed my hesitancy and my friends and said, “Oh, I'm sorry, am I keeping you from something, I will let you go in a second. I just always hoped I would see you again so that I could thank you. I guess you might not remember it, it was a long time ago but I was in Westport in Kansas City and was fighting with my boyfriend. He was standing over me yelling all kinds of horrible things and I was sitting on the curb crying. You came out of nowhere and sat down next to me and put your arm around me and said that I didn't have to listen to him. Because what he was saying was not true and that I was worth so much more. And that nobody ever deserves to be talked to that way and life is too short to let someone treat you so badly. You said I was too smart and too pretty, Jesus loved me and that I was worth so much more than this. Then you hopped up and started walking away and I asked you your name and you told me it and said you would be praying for me.”
Suddenly I started remembering that night. Bits and pieces and flashes of images are coming back to me. And I tell her that I remember it now but I am still pretty speechless and dazed.
She said after you walked away, I realized you were right and I left him and never went back. Now I have met a great guy who isn't abusive and we are going to get married. I don't know if I ever would have left him since I had been listening to his lies and putting up with his abuse for years and years. So thank you so much for your hug and kind words when I needed them. She hugged me again and walked away.
I would like to think I had some good parting words here, like I will keep praying for you and God bless you and what is your name again, but I honestly don't think any of that happened. I think I was still kinda standing there in shock till the group I was with came over and asked, “what was that all about?” I don't even think I tried to tell them the story. I never knew this girl's name and both times our encounters were maybe five minutes long.
It is so obvious to me how God put me in the right place, at the right time and gave me the right words to say to this girl. And that five minutes can make a world of difference, it can change your mind and change your world.
“Giving is the secret of a healthy life. Not necessarily money, but whatever a man has of encouragement and sympathy and understanding.” --John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
The great, big irony and the part that really, really speaks to me about this story is the condition I was in at the time. This story happened lifetimes ago for me and in actual time it was anywhere from 5-7 years ago. I was such a different person then and was so deep in a sin filled lifestyle and didn't even know it.
Here are a few of the things I remember about that night: For one I was drunk, very drunk which is the big reason my memory is a foggy haze. I had on a new pair of black and white striped pants. I remember the pants because I remember sitting on the curb with her and they were doing funny things to my eyes....beer goggles aren't very clear. I also remember when I walked away from the girl my friends said to me, “What on earth were you thinking sitting on the filthy sidewalk in white pants. Do you even know her.” I think I mumbled something about how I needed to talk to her.
That is pretty much all I remember about that night. I don't remember “helping” anybody. I don't remember imparting any words of wisdom. I am pretty sure we were walking to another bar when I happened upon her. I am sure I proceeded to get even more inebriated in the next bar.
And that is the real beauty in this story. The real beauty is that I was a complete and utter mess, I was just as lost as she and probably needed a hug myself. But God.... But God was still able in my flawed, foggy mind to reach me and help me to reach out to someone else in need. I didn't know what I was doing or how God would use it, but He did. He can use anybody, anytime, any place for any thing. He can, He did and He will continue to. I believe it, know it and can't wait to see it.
Lord please use us all to do your work. Lead us to help and hug those in need and impart to them Your word and Your wisdom when they need it most. Put us in the right place at the right time and give us the courage to do Your will. Reveal to us that we are all capable of doing so much for you and help us to be willing to do it everyday.
“What I kept, I lost,
What I spent, I had,
What I gave, I have.”
--Persian Proverb
Heaven helped me 12/8/08
God bless you today!
Love Always,
Amaris*
Pudding Pool
“If the sun of God's countenance shine upon me, I may well be content to be wet with the rain of affliction.” --Joseph Hall
Imagine with me for a moment...if you had a swimming pool and filled it with chocolate pudding. Now when you jumped in what would you be swimming in? Not a trick question here, you would be swimming in chocolate pudding. If you jumped in expecting to be surrounded by crystal clear, refreshing and cool water you would be sorely disappointed. But what do you expect, if you filled it with chocolate pudding? You should notice before jumping in that you would be covered in gooey, brown slime.
This might seem like fun for about one day. Overnight raccoons, rodents and opossums would have drowned in it. It would have a haze of flies hovering over it, laying eggs that would soon be maggots. The milk products in it would have soured in the hot sun and you would have a stagnant, stinking mess.
Does it still sound like fun to jump in on day 2?
Life is like this pool. If you constantly fill your backyard bathtub with negative thoughts, mean observations of others, criticism of self and everyone else, gossip, whining, self-hatred, regret, unforgiveness, bitterness...etc, then what do you expect to be swimming in? What do think you will feel and see when you are wading around in this negative and nasty soup?
“Beware of despairing about yourself: you are commanded to put your trust in God, and not in yourself.” --St. Augustine
What you fill your head with is what comes out of your mouth. It affects your actions, facial expressions, feelings, attitude every part of you is touched by what you are allowing to splash around in the tide pool in your temples. What you fill your head with is what radiates off of you. Others can see and smell the stink of the spoiled sludge miles away. Not to mention how bored they are of hearing it spill forth from your mouth.
A friend of mine whose husband is a psychiatrist had accompanied him to a conference on changing brain pathways. Basically your thought patterns are like creek beds and that when you have a stressful stimulus you typically react in the same way and your brain travels down the familiar pathway, like water taking the path of least resistance. She was telling me that with practice you can actually re-route and redirect where your brain typically goes. So if when you get upset about something you instantly go to a sing-song chant of negativity for instance saying to yourself, “your fat, lazy, old and worthless over and over again.” You could instead stop that and instead sing to yourself, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13
I speak from personal experience in that this can work and you can change where your thoughts habitually go. Take the high road not the low road. If you are always looking for the ugliness in others it won't be hard to see. If instead you try to think, feel and see the best in yourself and others you might be surprised at what you find.
If when you walk into your friend's newly decorated room and the first thing you see is what you don't like, take a breath, and find what you do like and then speak. If it's your own house stop staring at the stain on the carpet and instead focus on the pretty picture on the wall.
It's not too late to clean out your pool and start with fresh water. Start putting on a water filter to first catch and stop pollutants from entering. Pray and ask the Lord to help you to redirect the pathways in your brain to go to positive and encouraging messages instead of negative. Constantly get out the little net and clear out the debris that has wafted into your water. Just because it's in there doesn't mean it has to stay. Toss out the recurring record of hopelessness and instead put on a positive track of praise and worship. Remind yourself that, “You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you!”
“When you have no helpers, see all your helpers in God. When you have many helpers, see God in all your helpers. When you have nothing but God, see all in God; when you have everything, see God in everything. Under all conditions, stay thy heart only on the Lord.” --Charles H. Spurgeon
Please dear Lord, open our eyes, hearts, minds and very souls to see ourselves and others with the love You have for us. Help us to change our minds and change our thoughts to focus on the positive, banish the negative and work towards seeing You in everyone.
“Finally, brothers whatever is true,whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praise worthy, think about such things.” Philippians 4:8
Heaven helped me 12/4/08
Love Always,
A*
Imagine with me for a moment...if you had a swimming pool and filled it with chocolate pudding. Now when you jumped in what would you be swimming in? Not a trick question here, you would be swimming in chocolate pudding. If you jumped in expecting to be surrounded by crystal clear, refreshing and cool water you would be sorely disappointed. But what do you expect, if you filled it with chocolate pudding? You should notice before jumping in that you would be covered in gooey, brown slime.
This might seem like fun for about one day. Overnight raccoons, rodents and opossums would have drowned in it. It would have a haze of flies hovering over it, laying eggs that would soon be maggots. The milk products in it would have soured in the hot sun and you would have a stagnant, stinking mess.
Does it still sound like fun to jump in on day 2?
Life is like this pool. If you constantly fill your backyard bathtub with negative thoughts, mean observations of others, criticism of self and everyone else, gossip, whining, self-hatred, regret, unforgiveness, bitterness...etc, then what do you expect to be swimming in? What do think you will feel and see when you are wading around in this negative and nasty soup?
“Beware of despairing about yourself: you are commanded to put your trust in God, and not in yourself.” --St. Augustine
What you fill your head with is what comes out of your mouth. It affects your actions, facial expressions, feelings, attitude every part of you is touched by what you are allowing to splash around in the tide pool in your temples. What you fill your head with is what radiates off of you. Others can see and smell the stink of the spoiled sludge miles away. Not to mention how bored they are of hearing it spill forth from your mouth.
A friend of mine whose husband is a psychiatrist had accompanied him to a conference on changing brain pathways. Basically your thought patterns are like creek beds and that when you have a stressful stimulus you typically react in the same way and your brain travels down the familiar pathway, like water taking the path of least resistance. She was telling me that with practice you can actually re-route and redirect where your brain typically goes. So if when you get upset about something you instantly go to a sing-song chant of negativity for instance saying to yourself, “your fat, lazy, old and worthless over and over again.” You could instead stop that and instead sing to yourself, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13
I speak from personal experience in that this can work and you can change where your thoughts habitually go. Take the high road not the low road. If you are always looking for the ugliness in others it won't be hard to see. If instead you try to think, feel and see the best in yourself and others you might be surprised at what you find.
If when you walk into your friend's newly decorated room and the first thing you see is what you don't like, take a breath, and find what you do like and then speak. If it's your own house stop staring at the stain on the carpet and instead focus on the pretty picture on the wall.
It's not too late to clean out your pool and start with fresh water. Start putting on a water filter to first catch and stop pollutants from entering. Pray and ask the Lord to help you to redirect the pathways in your brain to go to positive and encouraging messages instead of negative. Constantly get out the little net and clear out the debris that has wafted into your water. Just because it's in there doesn't mean it has to stay. Toss out the recurring record of hopelessness and instead put on a positive track of praise and worship. Remind yourself that, “You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you!”
“When you have no helpers, see all your helpers in God. When you have many helpers, see God in all your helpers. When you have nothing but God, see all in God; when you have everything, see God in everything. Under all conditions, stay thy heart only on the Lord.” --Charles H. Spurgeon
Please dear Lord, open our eyes, hearts, minds and very souls to see ourselves and others with the love You have for us. Help us to change our minds and change our thoughts to focus on the positive, banish the negative and work towards seeing You in everyone.
“Finally, brothers whatever is true,whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praise worthy, think about such things.” Philippians 4:8
Heaven helped me 12/4/08
Love Always,
A*
Live in the Now
“Blow wind of God and set us free from hate and want of charity; strip off the trappings of our pride, and give us to our brother's side.” --William Charles Braithwaite
Whenever I spend time with my ten year old girl group I constantly have to remind one of them to “live in the now”. She is always wanting to worry about what are we doing after this or when are we going to meet again, and when we do, what will we do.
I always have to tell her not to waste our current time together worrying about our future time together. That is in the future, lets enjoy and live it up in the NOW! The last time we went on a hay ride another one of the girls brought up going home and she got so upset. I tried to rationalize with her that obviously we were going to have leave sometime. We couldn't ride around behind a tractor all day long sitting on prickly hay bails, eventually she would have to go home to her family.
Ten year olds don't exactly have the best logic skills hammered out yet. I believe there was some arm crossing and pouty faces pulled after my attempts to explain the inevitable.
In an effort to cheer her up I decided to bring up one of her favorite topics of -- what will we do next time we get together. One of the girls suggested having a sleep over and her older sister whom I had invited to join our group for the first time, said, “Yeah that sounds like fun.”
Wow, it was like a scene from the exorcist as her little sister's head swiveled so fast I thought she might have whiplash. The change in her demeanor was that dramatic. She instantly spit out that there was no room for her to join our group and that she absolutely could not play with us again. For emphasis she pointed to each one of us and said, “Only us four are in this group, not you, you are not in our group.”
Ooops, my bad at trying to make room for one more. I had never heard her talk so fast or so vehemently. I was definitely seeing some new sides to my sweet little girls. Interestingly I had once been talking to her foster mom while she was standing there and I said, “Yeah we need to come up with a name for our group, because I never know what to call us.” Her mom suggested “the three musketeers.” And she instantly said, “No, mom that won't work because there are FOUR of us not three, duh.”
I am not going to lie, it made me inwardly smile that to her little four foot self ,I was an equal. We were all the same height in our group. I wasn't some big looming “adult.” I was one of them.
So back to the hay ride...now three out of the five people are mad as we bounce alongside the corn field. Awesome. Thankfully the only little girl not mad stepped up and gave a lecture along the lines of: “Look we are here together now, lets make the most of today and have fun. I want to have fun, don't you, so come on lets have fun.” Well put, well said and all the better that it wasn't coming from me. We did just that and had a good time the rest of the day.
I grew up reading a story about two little mice and one mouse worked all summer long storing up food and provisions for the coming winter. The other little mouse ran around and played all day and did nothing to prepare for the seasons changing. When winter came the one mouse that had spent all summer working was safe, snug and well fed in his warm house. Sadly, the other mouse because he didn't prepare for winter was starving out in the cold.
So the spin I like to put on this story goes a little different. When all the trees are losing their leaves and the winter wind starts to blow both of the mice happen to cross the street at the same time and they both get hit by a bus. Poor mice. Which mouse had a happier last year of life, the one that worked all day constantly preparing for the future or the one that danced away all his days playing in the sunshine?
Would I rather be here at work bored to death at my desk or outside smelling the fresh air? Pretty easy answer. Obviously, though, I can't scamper out of here and go bask in the sunny rays outside, I don't get paid for that. We have to think about the future because if we don't get hit by a bus then we don't want to be freezing our tails off, hungry and unhappy come winter.
“Life has burdens that no one can escape. Christianity does not remove the load: it teaches us how best to bear the burdens that fall rightly to us.” --Anonymous
So where is the happy medium. I would suggest don't forget to “Live in the NOW.” Worrying about the future and current economy actually isn't going to make it any better. Mental preparation does not include constantly whining, worrying and obsessing. I don't think that would be storing up for winter. Praying, trusting in God, looking in His word for comfort, no discretionary spending and making informed decisions on your current finances and investments might be the better way to go.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes...12:25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life...12:30 For the pagan world runs after all such things and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well.” ~Luke 12:22-30 (abbreviated)
Stressing about the bus or hoping it comes sooner has no bearing on whether or not you get hit by it. It is inevitable. Perhaps if the mice had combined efforts and played and worked together they would have had more fun and gotten more done. Instead of criticizing, judging, and thinking they were superior, they should have explained and helped one another see each other's view points. I think they both were lacking essentials in their life. “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy... or something like that.”
If anything the hard working one should have at least smiled in the sun as he was gathering his food for later. He should have lived in the now and attempted to enjoy his work while preparing for the future. As usual and as always I am talking to myself. I need to buck up and smile a whole heck of a lot more here at my workplace. Pouting about finances doesn't pay the bills, but man if it did.... Living in oblivion, ignorance is bliss and yada, yada are no help either, sad to say. Ignoring your bills by piling them on your desk doesn't get them paid by the tooth fairy. Living in the Now also involves accepting and doing something positive in your current situation no matter what it may be.
“My God, give me neither poverty nor riches, but whatsoever it may be thy will to give, give me, with it, a heart that knows humbly to acquiesce in what is thy will.” --J.E.L. Gotthold
Lord, let our hearts not worry or yearn for the future but let us instead look forward to only more of Your goodness. Please help us to put our trust in You, while valiantly working with joy in all that you give us to do, this day and the next. Help us live our lives to the fullest everyday and avoid the bus a little while longer.
Heaven helped me 11/22/08
A*
(*I honestly have no earthly idea if I heard this phrase, “Live in the Now” somewhere else so I apologize if it originates elsewhere.)
Whenever I spend time with my ten year old girl group I constantly have to remind one of them to “live in the now”. She is always wanting to worry about what are we doing after this or when are we going to meet again, and when we do, what will we do.
I always have to tell her not to waste our current time together worrying about our future time together. That is in the future, lets enjoy and live it up in the NOW! The last time we went on a hay ride another one of the girls brought up going home and she got so upset. I tried to rationalize with her that obviously we were going to have leave sometime. We couldn't ride around behind a tractor all day long sitting on prickly hay bails, eventually she would have to go home to her family.
Ten year olds don't exactly have the best logic skills hammered out yet. I believe there was some arm crossing and pouty faces pulled after my attempts to explain the inevitable.
In an effort to cheer her up I decided to bring up one of her favorite topics of -- what will we do next time we get together. One of the girls suggested having a sleep over and her older sister whom I had invited to join our group for the first time, said, “Yeah that sounds like fun.”
Wow, it was like a scene from the exorcist as her little sister's head swiveled so fast I thought she might have whiplash. The change in her demeanor was that dramatic. She instantly spit out that there was no room for her to join our group and that she absolutely could not play with us again. For emphasis she pointed to each one of us and said, “Only us four are in this group, not you, you are not in our group.”
Ooops, my bad at trying to make room for one more. I had never heard her talk so fast or so vehemently. I was definitely seeing some new sides to my sweet little girls. Interestingly I had once been talking to her foster mom while she was standing there and I said, “Yeah we need to come up with a name for our group, because I never know what to call us.” Her mom suggested “the three musketeers.” And she instantly said, “No, mom that won't work because there are FOUR of us not three, duh.”
I am not going to lie, it made me inwardly smile that to her little four foot self ,I was an equal. We were all the same height in our group. I wasn't some big looming “adult.” I was one of them.
So back to the hay ride...now three out of the five people are mad as we bounce alongside the corn field. Awesome. Thankfully the only little girl not mad stepped up and gave a lecture along the lines of: “Look we are here together now, lets make the most of today and have fun. I want to have fun, don't you, so come on lets have fun.” Well put, well said and all the better that it wasn't coming from me. We did just that and had a good time the rest of the day.
I grew up reading a story about two little mice and one mouse worked all summer long storing up food and provisions for the coming winter. The other little mouse ran around and played all day and did nothing to prepare for the seasons changing. When winter came the one mouse that had spent all summer working was safe, snug and well fed in his warm house. Sadly, the other mouse because he didn't prepare for winter was starving out in the cold.
So the spin I like to put on this story goes a little different. When all the trees are losing their leaves and the winter wind starts to blow both of the mice happen to cross the street at the same time and they both get hit by a bus. Poor mice. Which mouse had a happier last year of life, the one that worked all day constantly preparing for the future or the one that danced away all his days playing in the sunshine?
Would I rather be here at work bored to death at my desk or outside smelling the fresh air? Pretty easy answer. Obviously, though, I can't scamper out of here and go bask in the sunny rays outside, I don't get paid for that. We have to think about the future because if we don't get hit by a bus then we don't want to be freezing our tails off, hungry and unhappy come winter.
“Life has burdens that no one can escape. Christianity does not remove the load: it teaches us how best to bear the burdens that fall rightly to us.” --Anonymous
So where is the happy medium. I would suggest don't forget to “Live in the NOW.” Worrying about the future and current economy actually isn't going to make it any better. Mental preparation does not include constantly whining, worrying and obsessing. I don't think that would be storing up for winter. Praying, trusting in God, looking in His word for comfort, no discretionary spending and making informed decisions on your current finances and investments might be the better way to go.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes...12:25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life...12:30 For the pagan world runs after all such things and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well.” ~Luke 12:22-30 (abbreviated)
Stressing about the bus or hoping it comes sooner has no bearing on whether or not you get hit by it. It is inevitable. Perhaps if the mice had combined efforts and played and worked together they would have had more fun and gotten more done. Instead of criticizing, judging, and thinking they were superior, they should have explained and helped one another see each other's view points. I think they both were lacking essentials in their life. “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy... or something like that.”
If anything the hard working one should have at least smiled in the sun as he was gathering his food for later. He should have lived in the now and attempted to enjoy his work while preparing for the future. As usual and as always I am talking to myself. I need to buck up and smile a whole heck of a lot more here at my workplace. Pouting about finances doesn't pay the bills, but man if it did.... Living in oblivion, ignorance is bliss and yada, yada are no help either, sad to say. Ignoring your bills by piling them on your desk doesn't get them paid by the tooth fairy. Living in the Now also involves accepting and doing something positive in your current situation no matter what it may be.
“My God, give me neither poverty nor riches, but whatsoever it may be thy will to give, give me, with it, a heart that knows humbly to acquiesce in what is thy will.” --J.E.L. Gotthold
Lord, let our hearts not worry or yearn for the future but let us instead look forward to only more of Your goodness. Please help us to put our trust in You, while valiantly working with joy in all that you give us to do, this day and the next. Help us live our lives to the fullest everyday and avoid the bus a little while longer.
Heaven helped me 11/22/08
A*
(*I honestly have no earthly idea if I heard this phrase, “Live in the Now” somewhere else so I apologize if it originates elsewhere.)
Handle It
I just walked into the break-room at work and a woman was talking on the phone and she was asking the other person on the line in a very concerned way, “Can you handle it, can you handle it?” She repeated it a few times. I thought to myself I hope that person is okay and I hope they CAN handle it.
What if I was asked that question before I undertook things? What if God asked me that before he gave me something-- what would be my real, true and honest answer? How often would I sell myself short and say, “No, I can not do that, I can't take it, and more importantly I don't want to do it.
My mother tells me that when I was little and got really mad I would say, “I am going to go lay down in street and when I get run over, you are going to be sorry.” I think I must have dreamed that up after watching to much Wiley Coyote and Road Runner cartoons.
Unfortunately I still think that the give up, go lay in the street attitude is still part of my chemical makeup. If something seems really hard, too big to tackle, or extremely unpleasant, I just want to scream, “Aaaahhhh, I can't do it- don't make me- I give up!”
Lately in the midst of my whining I try and remember that other people really have a lot to handle and they do so with grace. “Saints are persons who make it easier for others to believe in God”-Nathan Soderblom
I constantly look at these two blogs of some “saints” and try and learn from others lives:
I look to Amanda's to be inspired on courage and joy in the midst of cancer.
http://cheersforamanda.blogspot.com/
And I look to my bro-in-law for a good laugh on how to juggle 4 girls, 3 under the age of two.
http://www.hadleymakesthree.blogspot.com/
I don't know what they all might have said had they been asked if they could handle it, but they are handling it—Beautifully.
I am sure there are ups and downs, highs and lows, doldrums and typhoons on a day to day basis; but I think because of the solid bedrock of the love and constancy of the Lord in their lives they shine with a testimony that proclaims, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!”
“A true saint is a divine landscape or picture, where all the rare beauties of Christ are lively portrayed and drawn forth. He hath the same spirit, the same judgment, the same will with Christ.”-Thomas Watson
“God could have kept Daniel out of the lion's den...He could have kept Paul and Silas out of jail—He could have kept the three Hebrew children out of the fiery furnace....But God has never promised to keep us out of hard places....What He has promised is to go with us through every hard place, and to bring us through victoriously.” --Merv Rosell
Lord please help me to have a better attitude with whatever comes my way and enable me to handle more and more and in return give more and more. Please give strength and encouragement to all the weary saints and give them abundant joy and peace deep down in their core.
God bless you today!
Love Always,
A*
Heaven helped me 11/1/08
Be that as it may, I constantly sign up and volunteer for all kinds of different things. If someone asks me to help with something I rarely say no. I like helping, I really do. I once tried to examine all my motives to see if they were selfish, glory seeking or because I want everyone to like me which I am sure there is a little of all of those in there, but really and truly I like helping. Ever since first grade where I learned the golden rule I have tried to live it. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
What if I was asked that question before I undertook things? What if God asked me that before he gave me something-- what would be my real, true and honest answer? How often would I sell myself short and say, “No, I can not do that, I can't take it, and more importantly I don't want to do it.
My mother tells me that when I was little and got really mad I would say, “I am going to go lay down in street and when I get run over, you are going to be sorry.” I think I must have dreamed that up after watching to much Wiley Coyote and Road Runner cartoons.
Unfortunately I still think that the give up, go lay in the street attitude is still part of my chemical makeup. If something seems really hard, too big to tackle, or extremely unpleasant, I just want to scream, “Aaaahhhh, I can't do it- don't make me- I give up!”
Lately in the midst of my whining I try and remember that other people really have a lot to handle and they do so with grace. “Saints are persons who make it easier for others to believe in God”-Nathan Soderblom
I constantly look at these two blogs of some “saints” and try and learn from others lives:
I look to Amanda's to be inspired on courage and joy in the midst of cancer.
http://cheersforamanda.blogspot.com/
And I look to my bro-in-law for a good laugh on how to juggle 4 girls, 3 under the age of two.
http://www.hadleymakesthree.blogspot.com/
I don't know what they all might have said had they been asked if they could handle it, but they are handling it—Beautifully.
I am sure there are ups and downs, highs and lows, doldrums and typhoons on a day to day basis; but I think because of the solid bedrock of the love and constancy of the Lord in their lives they shine with a testimony that proclaims, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!”
“A true saint is a divine landscape or picture, where all the rare beauties of Christ are lively portrayed and drawn forth. He hath the same spirit, the same judgment, the same will with Christ.”-Thomas Watson
“God could have kept Daniel out of the lion's den...He could have kept Paul and Silas out of jail—He could have kept the three Hebrew children out of the fiery furnace....But God has never promised to keep us out of hard places....What He has promised is to go with us through every hard place, and to bring us through victoriously.” --Merv Rosell
Lord please help me to have a better attitude with whatever comes my way and enable me to handle more and more and in return give more and more. Please give strength and encouragement to all the weary saints and give them abundant joy and peace deep down in their core.
God bless you today!
Love Always,
A*
Heaven helped me 11/1/08
Be that as it may, I constantly sign up and volunteer for all kinds of different things. If someone asks me to help with something I rarely say no. I like helping, I really do. I once tried to examine all my motives to see if they were selfish, glory seeking or because I want everyone to like me which I am sure there is a little of all of those in there, but really and truly I like helping. Ever since first grade where I learned the golden rule I have tried to live it. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
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