UnAmerican

The American Flag at Fort McHenry

Baltimore, Maryland

Pss. 136:1 “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

UnAmerican

I’m jumping on the bandwagon here. I’ve been called un-American so many times it makes my head spin. Why? Not standing for the National Anthem? No. Not picking left OR right? No. I’ve been called un-American because I don’t like chocolate or fatty foods like bacon and enormous amounts of cheese. Well I’ll be!

I don’t think this post is really about being un-American as much as it is going to be about what riles the world, gets under their skin, irks people to no end. If the cause does not fit into the norm, meaning the [supposed] majority, then you are on the outside, the minority. If you’re black you’re in the minority, orange, minority, alien minority. What if you’re Irish or German does that count you as a minority too? Are the majority of Americans Irish and German? I don’t think this day and age they are. 

It makes you think. What does it mean when someone calls you un-American? I respect soldiers who were drafted at a young age and basically forced to fight for this country. I admire the men and women who choose to continue to fight for this country day in and day out. But does it make me un-American because I don’t and won’t conform to what YOU might want me to post on facebook, Instagram, or twitter?

I was and never will be someone who votes because you tell me I HAVE to vote or be called un-American. When the National Anthem is on, STAND, place your hand over your heart! Say the pledge of allegiance daily. Well, we want our kids to pledge allegiance to a flag for twelve years of their life and we get all riled up because some lying meme says it’s going to be taken out of schools? Americans want everything THEIR way and you’re UNAmerican if you disagree with one or two people who don't think like you think.

I think that our founding fathers when writing the Constitution knew back in the day that God (or mere mention of Him), our rights or our liberties would continue to be an issue in the distant future. I don’t think they thought that allowing people from other countries here was going to be such a big issue but here we are being our American selves and not wanting immigrants to share in our wealth and prosperous land. (I say that loosely as I look around at other countries, impoverished nations and their debts.)

You know, I find it quite amazing that individuals are not allowed to think for themselves, speak out about something they don’t believe in or are shamed because the small brained feel it necessary to be louder than the minority of people who just want to be heard. I thought we had rights to protect us but year after year, political figure after political figure wants to change the way things are run.

I blog today because it is my right as an American to say what I want to say but to lump me together with the other billions of Americans is offensive to me because I am not like them or you for that matter. I don’t read the ‘what people are talking about today’news. To be honest, I go to facebook and see what people are griping about, reeling about, who is offending whom on this or any given day. Then as the writer in me takes over, I research and see if it is worth blogging about. More times than not, the answer is no because I won’t conform to what the masses expect from me. I won’t be a part of the hate brigade and if that makes me un-American, then so be it, off with my head!

Yup, I’m all about God and I’m sure that offends the majority of people but I don’t care. I don’t live to serve man and debate about who’s right and who’s wrong; I live to serve God. Not a country, not a flag, not a battalion, not a president, not anything but God, so yes, if serving ONE God makes me un-American, then Hail to the King of Kings! 

God you reign, God you reign!

Forever and ever… God you REIGN!

Peeve Of The Day ~ "Just Get Over It."

1 Pet. 4:12-13 “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.”

My peeve of the day? People minimizing pain.

“Just get over it.” 

“Suck it up, buttercup, life goes on.”

Yup, those words right there grate on my nerves like screeching nails on a chalkboard. Telling someone to just get over their pain, depression, or anxiety, whatever burden they bear or cross they carry is minimizing what they are going through on a daily basis. 

If you’ve been through the depths of hell and have come back to tell the world about your experience that’s just great, you’re the one human God has chosen to break the gates of hell but if you’ve suffered in similar pain as someone else, don’t minimize what they endure daily by telling them to just get over it because YOU survived a similar pain.

You don’t know the pain someone is going through unless you’ve walked in his or her shoes and I’m pretty sure no one has walked [metaphorically] in another person’s shoes. No, we are on our own path in life and while you may have comparable pain, similar circumstance, identical health issues, you need to know that the person enduring the affliction owns what is happening to them, it can’t be borrowed or stolen it has to be LIVED.

Offering sympathy is one thing but comparing your incident with their daily struggle takes away the healing that they have in place and the prayer that they utilize by making their illness seem like they will just ‘get over it’ when that is not the case at all. They need time to drink in the healing that they are going through so they can make plans for what they need to change (if anything) and possible routes they might take.

Can you imagine if we were all on the same exact journey? Life would be no fun that way and would we all arrive at the same destination? Of course not. Just because the journey was ‘similar’ does not mean they are the same. Life is like that sometimes, we all think we’re headed to heaven but we do nothing in our life to get us there.

Reading and believing the bible isn’t going to get you there. Attending church isn’t any assurance that heaven will be your end destination. People tend to be misinformed when they think that the outward appearance of being a Christian is going to get them into heaven. 

All Christians may ‘appear’ to be the same but that is the farthest thing from the truth. We all are different in our journeying path but the one thread that unites us in a genetic strand of life is the blood of Jesus Christ running through our veins. 

Our disability isn’t what bonds us together. Our illness doesn’t define who we are in the living world. Our outward appearance isn’t the link to an eternal heaven. The only thing from the physical realm that is universally ours that we carry into the spiritual realm is LOVE. Love binds us all. Without love, the path will lead straight to hell and there will be no coming back to tell us about it on twitter, or facebook or through images on Instagram. 

So before telling someone to just ‘get over it’, or to pray more, hope for more, be more to the world; dig into the depths of your soul and find the love that lives there. When you want to hate…find love. If you feel the need to compare…do it with love. When you find a burning fire in your soul…douse the flames with love. 

Love is one of the hardest paths to journey on. You might think it is a simple task but tapping into the well of love on a daily basis is a struggle we all must face. You can give someone directions but that doesn’t mean they’ll follow them. Just as life and the trying storms we muddle through; we own our journey, it is ours alone. We might all strive to get to the same destination but we’ll all take different routes to get there.

May the God of love bless you all!

1 John 4:16 “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”

Amen!

An Overly Obsessed World

Job 26:6 “Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.”

An Overly Obsessed World

There is a sickness running rampant through the veins of society as a whole. I’m not finger pointing a color, culture, nation or country; nope I’m pointing fingers at human beings, well those things walking on two legs that CALL themselves humans. Judgment? No, just an observation of the reality that we all have to face.

We are hell bent on destroying the world in any manner that we can. I am hard pressed to see any generation over the years that didn’t bring about some form of destruction on the world. I sometimes wonder if God didn’t create the world just to watch us totally annihilate the planet we live on, and you wonder why we’re looking to see if Mars is habitable? We’re obsessed bringing about the destruction of earth.

All you have to do is turn on your computer and it is evident. I have a mother who has never used a computer so she has to see it firsthand on television or read about the ruination in the newspaper. And we all know that those forms of information are lies that the media allows through our open window.

Ezek. 31:16 “I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.”

We are:

Destroying the atmosphere – I see this in contrails and the emissions from cars. The slaughter of perfectly healthy trees to make way for roads and more homes to house more and more people who are spreading out into the world by the billions causing us to be in astronomical debt for the extinction of the human race.

Destroying the waters – Polluting waterways is nothing new but a new exterminating process is underway in the form of pipelines running under the sea or river ways. Yeah, I don’t see a catastrophe happening there. 

The oceans are just vast graveyards for bodies and excrement that we relieve ourselves from, thinking the garbage hides on the ocean floor not realizing the chemicals bleed into the water taxing an already deplete ecosystem. 

Destroying farmland – By justifiable means of chemically treating our food sources and justifying our decision, we are encouraging unhealthy spores of illness to arise in a nation wrought with cancer killing illnesses on the rise and it is not going down. New illnesses are bred from the misdirection and misinformation being fed to humankind.

Matt. 10:28 “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Destruction by overmedication – We have a world dependent on drugs, prescription or illegal sources, we dish out medication like a daily dose of candy on Halloween night. Hand the person a pill to pacify their illness, make money and raise addicted children who need the same meds, daily. When the pacified child no longer feels good from the meds he/she has been prescribed to all of their life they seek out a stronger (illegal) drug to quiet the demons eating them to pieces.

Destruction by monetary gain – If there is a dollar to be made, rest assured destruction is not far behind. Whether earned, begged for, borrowed or stolen, money is all part of the downfall to humankind. Money is the root of all EVIL!

Isa. 28:15 “Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:”

Destruction of morality – There is a massacre taking place by the elimination of morality on a grand scale where even our newborns are being exploited. Humanity is obsessed with nudity, sexual pleasures, defiance, brazenness, naiveté, and gullibility.

We obsess over breast – to the point that something that is supposed to be beautiful between mother and child has become a contrived exploitation of a viral epidemic where breastfeeding is no longer a bonding moment between mother/child, it is between mother and the virtual world.

Prov. 27:20 “Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.”

We obsess over sex – to the point that millions of dollars are made by legal ‘gentleman’s clubs’? ~ Seriously, what kind of GENTLEMAN lusts over naked women? 
Pornography sites, illicit boob-bearing hamburger joints, all the way down to the barely-there costumes of the surgically enhanced cheerleading squad; sexual deviation is another legal sickness that will never be addressed. 

We obsess over looks – So much so, that beautiful women have themselves sliced and diced to ‘look’ better when all that the surgery does is makes them look like an ego driven living Barbie doll; plastic and not real. We’re obsessed with the real and the surreal. The fantasy and the delusion of fabricated truth.

We’re obsessed with rights and being right in a world where everything is wrong! We’re obsessed with clicking and baiting; we’re obsessed with primping and prepping. We’re victims of having or being had. I, as a God-loving woman, (Christianity doesn’t live on this earth anymore) have become a delicacy to the masses that are trying to devour me and ridiculed because I won’t be a part of their game plan.

Pss. 9:17 “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”

I won’t do the YouTube boob bait. I won’t partake of the Instagram food bait, the facebook, I’m  right, you’re wrong bait or any-other-virtual-predator bait. We are an obsessed nation with baiting you with legal sinful pleasures that you later justify as just being normal.

Prov. 15:24 “The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.”

I have come to the conclusion by merely observation that this world is NOT God’s world this is satans domain and we’re all in hell digging and clawing ourselves out of the pit to gain access somewhere in the heavens. May God have mercy on our soul!

Pss. 86:13 “For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.”

Poetry Sunday ~ My Talent

Matt. 25:15 “And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.”

* ~ * My Talent * ~ *

God asked me to use the talents

That He has blessed me with

The sharing of the Word I hear

The truth and not a myth.

I sent the Word into the world

A message delivered to me

It was a ripple on the lake

For all the world to see.

The words they entered in my ear

And out of my fingers bled

My gift of writing words to you

Is where my soul was led.

God was pleased when he saw

My talent not gone to waste

The gentle words about His Son

I fed the world a taste.

Some people sit idly by

Saving earthly treasures

Their talents, gifts and so much more

With all their worldly pleasures.

Rise up you sleeping people

For the new world that awaits

The life that’s left behind you

As you enter heaven’s gates.

Matt. 25:23 “His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”

Competitive By Nature

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (NIV) “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” 

I called my mother the other evening, like I always do every night and twice on Saturday and Sunday, but this time it went to the answering machine as she waited to hear my voice and then pick it up. 

I asked, “Why the machine. You have caller ID?”
She retorted, “Why all the questions, you writing a book?”
I sarcastically replied, “Well yes, yes I am.”

I could tell right away she was in ‘a mood’ the kind I tolerate since my dad has passed and she clings to so much bitterness, for his death and for her being left alive, alone. I just try and be the relief pitcher and comfort her in any way I can. Since I’m the only child of six who talks to her on a daily basis, I take the brunt of her moods from a distance. 

To be honest, I cherish these phone calls to my mother because I know there will come a day when I don’t hear her voice on the other end and I’ll be alone without any communication from the family I once had. I don’t miss my family like I do my mother because we were never really a family in any sense of the word; we were competitors in the field.

You see, when I was born, I was the sixth child of a family all vying for a prize, the prize being the attention of my mother and father. My sister had held the baby position for three years and here I come into the fray as the fresh living competitor baby, the new attention getter, the new baby with a nickname, the baby that would, in her mind, replace the love my parents gave to her, and so she set out my demise from the day I was born. 

I can tell it was a bitter competition to her from the stories she’s told all of her life, I guess in a way to make me feel guilty for being alive? A way for maybe getting me to go far away from the family so she could take her position as the center of attention? I don’t know, I just surmise an intuitive guess. And yes, my writing will hold the story whether they ever see it or not, this is MY story, not theirs; my truth, not their jumbled mess of perception.

Granted I was a tattle-tale brat but I did not deserve, at three-years-old to be pushed on a swing so high that I’d fear for my life and jump off the swing to be caught by a chain link fence, the kind with the barbed-wire looking top? Yes, I have the ugly memory and nasty scar to prove it and over the years my sister vehemently denied it was her doing the pushing but my brother. Gee, that didn’t make me feel any better.

She gave me my first cigarette at eight, my first joint of marijuana at I don’t know what age, the damage is real though, it was young. My first beer, my first jump in a raging river, my first kiss from some boy she set me up with. Also the first voice I overheard whispering when I was sixteen, “She should’ve just had an abortion.”

This was a real competition, not some contrived imagination of my overly drugged mind that went right into my twenties when at the time I was closer to my brother and she wanted that position but he didn’t want a relationship with her. My entire family fought with the battle of Dad loved me more, mother liked you best, neither of them liked me and there I was the baby, the relief pitcher who would try to bring a broken vase to the table and try to glue the pieces back together. And it bled into my late thirties when I finally left home and left all the bad memories behind and never looked back.

While the world is busy bustling with sharing all the beautiful moments of their family, pictures abounding of happy times, I often wonder when people say that they too had a hard life or trying times where are THOSE images? Mine are either in a box somewhere or lost in the portals of time. I understand it though when people aren’t as ready and willing to share their trying times as I am. It’s okay, we all have our own way of healing or hiding behind masks.

People are not willing to share the ugly times, that’s ‘their little secret’ that they’ll carry with them to the grave. Sometimes they’d rather people only see the good and happy posts spread out on Instagram and Facebook so that people visually see the good life they had or have when deep down the pain and hurt comes out in snide remarks.

I myself sometimes use humor to hide my pain but really it doesn’t hide it too well, I think humor, to ME, is just a form of medicine I use to help with my healing. I love to laugh, I love to see people laugh, I love to share my pain and most of all my GROWTH, through smiles and laughter. Some may see it as me letting too many skeletons dance freely out of the closet but hey, we all need to let them free some time or another, I’d rather do it sooner rather than later when they decide to jump out of the closet as regrets. 

It all boiled to a steep head last year in October when my father passed away. I no longer wanted to be the relief pitcher. The last straw was the poem that I wrote for my father to hear on his deathbed since I couldn’t be there for one of the hardest days in my life. My sister held the poem in her hand and withheld reading it, a scar that singes burning hot to this day at just the thought. 

Don’t say I’m mean and unforgiving for not sharing any love for a lost family. Respect me for the forgiveness I HAVE shown and chose to move on from it all, in a healing place for ME! The best thing I carry with me from my past is my son! And I will continue to give him the best part of me and we’ll have our very own memories, good ones that outweigh the bad ones. He said to me this morning, "You're not a phony like everybody else, you lay things out in the open."

Wow! Thank you, son. Not only does he see the real me, YOU see the real me too! Nothing phony or fake here, people!  

Sail On, Joni

Lam. 3:24-25 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

Time heals all wounds

That is one of the biggest lies I’ve ever heard. Time might heal the part of you that was wounded but as proof the hurt existed, you’re left with a scar. I have a scar on my left wrist with a whole lot of stitches and the scar nor the memory of the three-year-old that incurred the scar has ever healed and went away. 

I always joke and say that my sister had it in for me from birth when I took her place as being the ‘baby’ of the family but more and more as time and years pass, it’s no longer the funny that I thought it was back then. As my past comes back to haunt me and the wounds resurface as the scars metaphorically reopen to leak blood onto the written page, the anguish along the lines come with the broken path.

The choppy waves are hurtling me so to speak, in a way I had not anticipated. You see, when you’re finding healing, you move forward and help others like you to move on in life. Sharing the same hurts and pains with another is just a way of being in tune and picking up the spiritual channels that drew you, as friends, together on the same wavelength in the first place. 

I have a circle of friends that I met, maybe at first it was writing that drew us together but as the years go on I tend to learn more about the people and the common thread that ties us all together. More times than not it was God and His mighty power that drew us all together in one way or another because He knew we’d need and rely on one another for support to get us through those choppy waves where we felt all alone out on the sea.

A man came to my rescue thirteen years ago and as the sea began moving to and fro the waves crashed all around leaving me with somewhat of a disillusionment until we both reached a shore where we could be at peace with one another and grow. Any lesser of a man would have dumped me a long time ago with all of my insecurities, paranoia and anxiety-filled world but my now husband is still here, holding my hand through all of this. While I accept his quirks and unsavory characteristics, I find we are a scale that has balanced one another nicely. 

God placed new people, a new life, a new beginning in front of me that I embraced and soared with so as not to look back, only occasionally look down at the scars and remember from whence they came. All too often the scars are from the family I left behind. And when I hear people say things like, ‘it is the only family you’ll ever have.’ I’ll have to disagree because it may be the only blood family I have but my new loving family that God placed me with doesn’t leave scars of abuse in their trails to be reckoned with. 

Sure, my friends can be blunt and unknowingly hurt my feelings but that is okay because I learn from them and find healing in their spoken words whereas my blood family cuts to the bone of my existence and holds no shame or offers anything that remotely looks like an apology. I can’t help the family I was put into but I can embrace the family I have now as a blessing and THIS is why I will remain an optimist because I have HOPE in every tomorrow. A wobbled walk or not, I’m alive and I breathe in each new sunrise and thank the Lord for the friends I call my spiritual family that I have surrounding me here in my later years. (later to me) This is the childhood I yearned for, the one that will walk with me to my death and mourn the me that they’ve grown with and have come to love and respect.

My long lost friend who called me did say something that I found to be true. He said, “You were never allowed to be a child. You were made to grow up too soon.” 

While the wound seeped open I remembered with loving care the family of friends I have now who will comfort me during this seepage. While God is my Rock, they are the sand that this mighty wave crashes onto to find relief.  

Lam. 3:26-29 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.

Heal Today...Gone Tomorrow

Fort McHenry cannon looking toward

the Francis Scott Key bridge

where my uncle took his life

Pss. 30:2  “O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.”

Heels today… gone tomorrow

You ever have one of those days where everything is going along fine. Then you see something and reality smacks you upside the head? We’re doing some fall cleaning here; we get to the cluttered closet and there sits a box of shoes. Heels that I’ve never worn. 

I said, “I have to get rid of that entire box.” 
He replied, “Well when you can walk again, we’ll pull them back out of the box.”  

Tears filled my eyes and kept on filling. The reality is…I’ll never be able to walk normal again. Just thought I’d share that with you all as I release some of this anguish I’m lugging around.

I used to love wearing high heels, not real high, just a classy kind of heel with jeans or a skirt; then about four years ago, with too many Omaha trips (eight hours round trip) high-heel wearing came to a screeching halt. I remember going to the doctor and she sent me to the hospital for some x-rays and a day later it was explained that I had lower lumbar facet joint arthritis. Sure, some meds and a highly paid chiropractor could offer some relief, but that's just it, a false relief, not a healing plan.

Here I was, still enjoying my youth and am told that I have arthritis and as many of you know, that is a chronic disability that doesn’t just go away. I had tried to wear my lower heels and even they were awkward to walk in and the limp in my stride didn’t sync with a low heel. I was relinquished to tennis shoes and even they were getting uncomfortable mainly in the summertime heat. I did buy some comfy sandals by Earth Spirit (yes, WalMart brand) but don’t ya know, I can’t wear them in the winter now can I? 

I have my up and down days where I feel sorry for myself and the me I once was but have to learn to accept that this is the new me and whom God created.  But when we were cleaning out the closet and the box with my heels in it passed me by, I cried. I admit it, it hurt to see a part of myself shoved in the basement never to be seen again. I think my husband was trying to make me feel good when he said the words, “When you walk again.” The reality was and is, I’ll never walk normal again.

My dear friends try to comfort me, “there is Hope,” they say. My first thought was yeah when I get to heaven and can run free! They mean well, they really do and I won’t for one minute minimize the love I feel for them or from them, and the comfort they bring to my life but understand, I was one on the go woman all of my life. You don’t fit into the same jeans you wore twenty years ago by NOT being an overly active woman. Then yesterday…

Heal today… gone tomorrow.

I don’t know what the universe is trying to tell me when yesterday I answered my phone, thinking for one idiotic moment it was my sister calling to tell me about her daughter. No, it wasn’t her, it was an old friend who called me last year some time (he got the number from my mother) and wanted to rehash the past just like he did last year when I stopped answering my phone because I AM NOT ABOUT MY PAST!

I told him last year that I didn’t want to talk about that stuff but he just kept going on and on, “Do you remember…” You name the memory, I remember it with all its hurts and pains that I let go of, in vivid painstaking detail. His call started that way this time in asking where my ex-husband lived (they were friends) and talking about my abuse until I finally said, “I’m really busy right now.” (Joni is a terrible liar! Luckily I WAS busy!)

He said, “I better let you go or I’ll keep talking and talking.”
My instant reply was, “yes you will but call me when I have FREE minutes, like the weekend.” I seriously was trying to hang up without hurting his feelings because that’s just the way I am, then and now, I don’t like to hurt ANYONE. I just wish he had shown me the same consideration because I know I won’t be answering the phone this weekend. 

For thirteen years I wrestled with my pained past. When I first left Baltimore and left my family and past behind, I got caught up in a tornado of healing as memories whizzed passed and choked me into anxiety attacks where running off alone in the rain on darkened streets were my only solace. I would lie in bed cradling my pillow as tears soaked the very sheets where I slept. I was in a better place but it was a place of healing that had to be measured by agonizing sickened memories of the past.

Haunting is the only way to describe the lingering past. A ghost that would appear out of nowhere when I least expected it and scare me into a non-drug induced panic attack. I don’t take drugs for my pain and dealing with what I’m dealt in a meditative God loving fashion is all I’ve ever known to do. 

A close friend once told me that I needed to just let go of those memories and the people who hold those memories if all they’re there for is to hurt me, why hold on? Yes, that meant family and old friends who think rehashing an excruciating pain-filled past is what the future is all about. 

My now and my future is all about healing. My pain is washed away with every rainfall and I release the past as if it never existed into a tornadic funnel to be released wherever it may go. I will not allow thirteen years of healing to be scrubbed by one phone call of the bitter past. I face my tomorrows with the prayerful meditation that I have known to grow me into a hopeful tomorrow.

I woke this morning only to be hit with news of an earthquake where a dear friend lives. I prayed. The universe will leave something in my life called HOPE, LOVE and COMPASSION; he arrived to let me know he and his family are well. 

Praise be to God!

Poetry Sunday ~ Seasons in the Sand

Matt. 19: 24 "And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."

Seasons in the Sand

On wayward sand, I stretch my hand

as frothy water flows

on the solid Rock, I stand

relieved of passing woes.

The seasons of my mind are lit

with every wistful shower.

The Spirit’s here where I sit

to fill my every hour.

 Morning comes He breathes in me

the dawn of a new day.

He gives me sight so I can see

the path I went astray.

On wayward sand, I stretch my hand

granules in my clutch

I'm taken by the wavy band

the grains I dare not touch.

It's much easier for the camel

to pass through the needle's eye

Than you who’s merely mortal

to seek answers in the sky.

The seasons of my mind unfold

His Word for me to preach

As ribbons of the Truth be told

like footprints on the beach.

Quotation Saturday ~ Seasons - Changes

Pss. 55:19 “God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.”

SEASONS

“Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love - that makes life and nature harmonise. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."
[Letter to Miss Eliot, Oct. 1, 1841]” 
― George Eliot

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” 
― Lewis Carroll

“Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.” 
― Yoko Ono

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."

[Meditations Divine and Moral]” 
― Anne Bradstreet

“At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honeysweet where you feel it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost.” 
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters on Cézanne

 “The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools.” 
― Henry Beston

“SEASONS OF LIFE

Sometimes I fall
And feel myself slowly wilt and die,
But then I suddenly spring back on my feet
To go play in the sun outside.
I am no different than the weather,
The planets or the trees;
For there do not always have to be reasons
For the seasons turning inside of me.
The magnetism that swirls
In the sky, land, and sea
Are the exact same currents found twirling
In the electric ocean within me.
I am a moving vessel of energy.
And if my emotions do not
Flow up, down,
Within and around,
Then I am not alive.” 
― Suzy Kassem

CHANGES

“Bottom line is, even if you see 'em coming, you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are.” 
― Joss Whedon

“Half of me is filled with bursting words and half of me is painfully shy. I crave solitude yet also crave people. I want to pour life and love into everything yet also nurture my self-care and go gently. I want to live within the rush of primal, intuitive decision, yet also wish to sit and contemplate. This is the messiness of life - that we all carry multitudes, so must sit with the shifts. We are complicated creatures, and ultimately, the balance comes from this understanding. Be water. Flowing, flexible and soft. Subtly powerful and open. Wild and serene. Able to accept all changes, yet still led by the pull of steady tides. It is enough.” 
― Victoria Erickson

“The purest form of faith happens when you reach the bottom of your reasoning and find there is nothing that you can do that will make sense out of what you have been through.” 
― Shannon L. Alder

“Sacred blessings and divine opportunities appear in your life disguised as unforeseen changes and challenging circumstances.” 
― Miya Yamanouchi

“When you receive God's love, it means you're getting close to Him, spending time in His presence, opening your heart to Him, seeking to know Him, and desiring to be more like Him. Remember that choosing to receive God's love changes your life.” 
― Stormie Omartian

Refiners Fire ~ Perfection

Zech 13:9 “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.”

I’m Not Perfect!

I sometimes feel like I come across as a miss-know-it-all. Let me stop you right there in that thought, I am the farthest thing from known perfection since my son was born. To me, he was the most perfect thing I’d ever seen!

Guess what, he grew up and is not perfect either! Wow, how did something so perfect, reshape and transform into an imperfect being? Life, that’s how. Life happens to all of us and instead of being perfect we are refined. We are but grains of sand in a shell waiting to become the perfect pearl.

We are an imperfect species and as we grow we, in all of our instabilities, try to refine ourselves to become the most perfect beings possible. To me, there is only one way to achieving such status and that is to allow the Holy Spirit to live in me and take up a residence in my soul.

Only through the storms are we going to find the refiners fire to go through the hailstorm and shape our inner beings into something of perfection. Maybe not what perfection is to you but what perfection is to me. Since we’re all on different paths leading to different places we will all achieve our own perfection in our own time. Maybe not even in the time that we want or expect but by the Holy Spirits time. 

As I woke today and encountered a double rainbow I knew right then that there was a beauty that was going to encompass my entire day. If I were to allow negativity to drive my day it would have wiped the slate clean of such beauty so early in the morning.  The sun was struggling to peek through heavy clouds in the east while I was facing west and there it was a double-arced rainbow alight in wondrous color right before my eyes. 

I tried with all my might to see the beginning and the end of the rainbow and what I saw was myself, standing midway underneath the joyous arc. I smiled taking in all the beauty and became one with the luminous shape, so much so, I stood in the quiet coolness of the morning and allowed the aroma of the crisp air to shape my day.

As the day progressed the clouds swallowed the rainbow; lightning crashed as thunder erupted in a calamity of rumbles unleashing a torrent of rain that washed over the parched fields. I sat in the stillness of the darkness that had blanketed the room. The rain, calling me to write…I embraced my inner peace of perfection and sat to write today’s blog. 

No, no one is perfect and judging people for their imperfections makes you even less perfect than the Holy One had intended when he refined the pot of gold He shaped you into. He never left you alone to sort out this thing we call life. He never once made you feel that you had to achieve perfection because one thing I’ve learned, He loves us the way we are, only because in his perfection He created you! You ARE perfect in His eyes.

When my son drove off today to go to work in the rain, my maternal instincts wanted to worry about the muddy roads, the nighttime driving when he comes home and all the worries a mother faces but the words ‘I love you, mom’ as he drove off, was like a rainbow of peace washing over my soul. I thought of him going off in his own direction perfecting what his soul means to him. 

Peace has completed my day!

May the Light of the Lord wash over you all and bless you on your individual journey.

Justified

Isa. 28:12 “To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.”

Justified

Do you want to know how I come up with my blog topics? Believe it or not, I pray. I wake in the morning and pray for all the sick on my prayer list, then I ask God’s guidance on what to write for the day. I don’t always get a reply on what I’m to write about so I might skip that day as I wait, patiently!

After prayer, I open the news of the day, open facebook also, to find a plethora of topics but usually one topic will stand out a few times and God lets me know, write about THIS!

I so wanted to write about my niece getting her purse returned, after losing it somewhere sometime during her day, by a young black gentleman after he had found the purse on his way work, and returned it to my niece at ten thirty in the evening when he returned home.

My niece cried because she was so happy to not have to renew her license and cancel all her credit cards and she thanked the young man profusely! She even gave him twenty dollars of the fifty that had been inside. I’d also like to add that this was in Baltimore, Maryland. The place you only hear bad stuff about and never the good stuff. 

As I continued searching for a blog  post, a few things stuck out and THAT is what God wanted me to write about, while my nieces story is a beautiful one God wanted me to know that there is something more important to write about at this time and maybe, all of the stories will mesh together? I’ll have to finish this before I know. 

Getting it right with God is a struggle all Christians go through and at times I never feel worthy enough of His love. I’ve already blogged about that one in a feeling unworthy post. But let me say this first and foremost, I AM WORTHY of God and that is all that matters to me. 

I loosely call myself Christian because all Christians are not the same. These days they are drinkers, self-righteous, judges of all. I do understand that we are ALL different and on different paths. Jesus (NT) himself didn’t choose perfect people to carry his ministry, and God (OT) certainly didn’t pick perfect people that He created to do His work. Nope, He picked the most imperfect people He could find; maybe that is why He chose ME to be a writer. For some reason He had faith in me and that I’d carry my testimony/His ministry to His people. 

Ecc. 9:7 “Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.” 

Ephesians 5:18 ESV “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,”

Proverbs 20:1 ESV “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.”

You see, God has called us ALL to carry His ministry. Not to drink, get drunk, whoop it up and praise God or claim to be His all in the same stinking drunken breath. 

We justify what we do so we don’t feel so bad but the only one who is going to judge us for allowing ourselves to be led astray is our One and Only Savior. We ALL walk a dimly lit path, we find the Light but then get led astray by all the inhumanity in the world that gets us unsettled so we turn to drink to justify the reason we’re sitting alone in the dark with a bottle in our hand. Some find the Lighted path only to continue on struggling to stay on the very straight and extremely narrow path.

As I walk the path, for ME, I do not believe in the drink and be merry babble. For one, you’re not drinking to be merry, you’re drinking to get drunk, bottom line. It makes you feel good, it unfurls your twisted tongue, it has you allowing your loose lips to sink ships. Thoughts are free to roam the wilderness and usually, the wild is not a place to be alone because you’re bound to get bit.

When a person comes to Christ, he (or she) is new to Christ and struggles daily to get it right with God. I understand that they’ll still drink it up, curse like a sailor, call themselves Christian just so they fit into a society over running with Christians but they have yet to learn the true meaning of the word, Christ-like. Christ was not a drunk, and I think He knew the right words to use so as not to come across as a liar and hypocrite. 

I often think about what it must have been like back in Jesus’ day. Here He was gathered around a table with His twelve chosen, knowing He was going to His death. When they took a drink of wine, did they all yell out, “Let’s finish off the bottle.”??? I seriously don’t think so; it was not a merry event to celebrate.

In the course of the Last Supper, Jesus divides up some bread, says a prayer, and hands the pieces of bread to his disciples, saying "this is my body."[metaphor] He then takes a cup of wine, offers another prayer, and hands it around, saying "this is my blood [metaphor] of the everlasting covenant, which is poured for many." ~ source Wikipedia

The church is the way it is today because people divided up what was right and what was wrong; what was/is acceptable and what is not acceptable. Some churches look down on the homeless and only reach out to the parishioners in need, not everyone in need. Some churches look down on homosexuals by judging them and letting them know they are not right with God because you know, God made them judge and jury of the people. Divided the churches are.

Eph. 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

I myself CHOSE to get my life right with God and follow His Son to the cross and weep prayerfully at His feet. We are not called to judge others because we feel they are beneath us, we should judge ourselves, our actions, our ways, our character, and virtues, only then should we call ourselves Christ-like. 

This post didn’t end the way I intended but it did help me see that there are good people out in the world trying to do what is right, whether FOR God or because of God. Goodness is all around and as soon as we stop justifying our negative actions and living the way WE want, we’ll see the good in the world or the world will never change.

God bless you all!

Blessed Bounty

Joni's blessed bounty of 2012

Pss. 136: 25 “Who giveth food to all flesh: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

He’s In Here

As many people think of Christ up there looking down on all you do, or over there watching you, or even beside you walking with you, that’s a good feeling because you know He’s on the journey of life with you.

Now think of Him right here, IN you instead of over, beside or under. It’s like this: Say you’re invited to dinner and the host has a bountiful display of food for you, over there. That’s what reading the bible is like, the bible is over there sitting, just waiting for you to partake from. 

Okay, now the host says the food is ready, go and fix yourself a plate. You walk toward your bible, pick it up and begin reading. As you fix your plate you put all of the good food on there and then she says, don’t forget the broccoli, but you hate broccoli but this looks so nice you oblige her and take a few stalks. 

You begin reading your bible, filling yourself with all of the good stuff, happy, cheerful, loving good stuff then it happens, you’re full but have yet to touch the broccoli. There are some dark, bitter tasting words in the bible that you just want to gloss over but you don’t want to leave the host hanging so you indulge.

Oh dear, you’ve touched on rape, incest, murder, and polygamy. You’re tasting the bitterness of the broccoli and just want to spit it out and pretend you never had it but you begin to chew and chew and read and read so you can understand that ALL of the bible is the Lord’s buffet, broccoli and all. Mingled with the good is the ugly and all those words are left for you to discern whether you continue in the meal.

Now, you’ve finished the entire meal, you’ve read the entire bible, sat it on the table and wiped your mouth of any leftover gravy that might be on your lips. You walk away full, filled with the meal you’ve just eaten, filled with the words you’ve just read. You can see it as a fictional tale because honestly, some of that stuff was over the top fairy tale stuff. A whale swallowing a man and for three days he was in the stomach. A man called to build a big ark to carry two of every animal away from the impending flood, a man lying with the lions. Give me a break, right? (Oh there’s more crazy stuff for you to read)

You thank the gracious host and are on your way home, only to realize instead of leaving the bible on the table, you’ve taken it with you and it’s sitting in the other seat as a companion on the ride home. Your mind starts going over the wonderful meal you had with the mashed potatoes and delicious brown gravy, the juicy steak, meaty turkey and ham all of which melted in your mouth for you to savor on the way home.

The vegetables were a bit over the top with the likes of spinach and okra, eggplant and corn, carrots and yams, then the broccoli, the bitter tasting broccoli which climbed back up into your throat allowing you, in the quiet confines of your car, to let out a loud releasing burp. Ah, now you feel better. 

As you approach home, you glance over at your bible, you realize that there was some truth in there that you might want to believe like loving your neighbor, turning the other cheek when someone hurts you and forgiveness, yeah you like that one, the ability to forgive.

You arrive home. Do you leave the bible in the car, take the book with you, or place it in the trunk because it really wasn’t something you’re into? Your mind lingers to the host, the creator of such a grand meal that the remnants are still lingering in you. The piercing eyes, the heart of gold, the sweet laughter of a child on the merry-go-round, the host is lingering.

Imagine this: God being the host. He’s created such a grand meal in  the way of planet earth, giving you everything to partake of, the good, the bad and the ugly bitter tasting remnants. Man and woman were happy at one time with all of this bounty, so much so we had a day of celebration called Thanksgiving for all that we have.

Today, man has left the host in the trunk of the car pretending they didn’t partake of any of the hogwash they read over dinner. Some people got out of the car remembering the bible and took it with them carrying it close to their heart and went in the house to place it on the table, so it would always be close to them. 

What I’m saying is this, some people put Him back there to take Him for a ride, some put Him over there so they can glance at him once in awhile, while some see Him up there looking over them as they journey through life and me, I see Him IN HERE, my heart, my soul, my veins to always carry Him and His words with me and savor every last drop. How about you? 

Poetry Sunday ~ Lift Me... I Fell Today

Job 14:22 “But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.”

Lift Me… I Fell Today

I fell today upon my face

At Jesus’ feet here in this place.

I bowed my head in humble grace

The Lord spoke to my soul.

I fell today at His feet

My eyes are sore my body beat

Chin now raised our eyes did meet

I praise the One who makes me whole.

I fell today my body pained

He washed a heart forever stained

I thanked him for all I’ve gained

As we take our heavenly stroll

I fell today but then He lifted

The weakened me whom He gifted

The me who once He’d thought had drifted

Redeemed I’ve reached my goal.

Quotation Saturday ~ Change ~ Faith

1 Cor. 15:51 “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,”

CHANGE

“We can't be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don't have something better.” 
― C. JoyBell C.

“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don't.” 
― Steve Maraboli

“We are not trapped or locked up in these bones. No, no. We are free to change. And love changes us. And if we can love one another, we can break open the sky.” 
― Walter Mosley

“You can’t save others from themselves because those who make a perpetual muddle of their lives don’t appreciate your interfering with the drama they’ve created. They want your poor-sweet-baby sympathy, but they don’t want to change.” 
― Sue Grafton

GROWTH

“One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.” 
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” 
― Anaïs Nin

“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and—in spite of True Romance magazines—we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely—at least, not all the time—but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.” 
― Hunter S. Thompson

“Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralysed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds' wings.” 
― Rumi

LIVING

“I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” 
― Rainer Maria Rilke

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.” 
― Louise Erdrich

“She is free in her wildness, she is a wanderess, a drop of free water. She knows nothing of borders and cares nothing for rules or customs. 'Time' for her isn’t something to fight against. Her life flows clean, with passion, like fresh water.” 
― Roman Payne

“People are strange: They are constantly angered by trivial things, but on a major matter like totally wasting their lives, they hardly seem to notice.” 
― Charles Bukowski

FAITH

“I want neither a terrorist spirituality that keeps me in a perpetual state of fright about being in right relationship with my heavenly Father nor a sappy spirituality that portrays God as such a benign teddy bear that there is no aberrant behavior or desire of mine that he will not condone. I want a relationship with the Abba of Jesus, who is infinitely compassionate with my brokenness and at the same time an awesome, incomprehensible, and unwieldy Mystery. ” 
― Brennan Manning

“Fear is the glue that keeps you stuck. Faith is the solvent that sets you free.” 
― Shannon L. Alder

“Faith is not so much something we believe; faith is something we live.” 
― Joseph B. Wirthlin

“We never know how God will answer our prayers, but we can expect that He will get us involved in His plan for the answer. If we are true intercessors, we must be ready to take part in God’s work on behalf of the people for whom we pray.” 
― Corrie ten Boom

Copy/Paste or Die

Concordia, Kansas

Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Copy/Paste or Die

Are you tired yet of the copy/paste this, don’t share, to show your support for (whatever the cause of the week is) on facebook? People who really care will copy this. Show the world you really care, copy this, don’t share. What is up with the world these days that people can’t even think for themselves? People need someone to guilt them into doing something? And I see the naïve weaklings suffering day after day as they fall into the rut of copying.

It kind of reminds me of when satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. Here she was enjoying living and breathing, I imagine rollicking through the countryside prancing through the sun and minding her own business when out of nowhere there came a tree, the very tree of good and evil that God had forbidden them to eat from. 

Click bait is basically the same thing. Come now, taste the fruit of evil.

Gen. 3: [1] Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
[2] And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
[3] But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
[4] And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

The click/bait scenario is ‘pleasant to the eyes’, looks good enough to eat or drink, makes you feel that if you don’t repost it, then you will surely die. Out of guilt and fear you post it, just so you don’t die. You’ve been snared by satan. You allow something that simple to draw your attention, fall into the web and smother yourself in the blood of satan. Why? Because surely you don't want to die.

Gen. 3:6  “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

People share pictures of tortured animals, grossly deformed children, along with unhealthy food pictures all the while calling themselves 'good'  Christians, lovers of God, do-gooders of society. God is ashamed of the human race. He created us for good and this is what we give back? Basically slap Him in the face as we enjoy all of His pleasures but not in the way he intended, by no means.

By sharing or copying and pasting, you will not find a cure for cancer, you will not stop the nation from crumbling, you will not heal the sinner, and you certainly won’t find a cure for the lost, not all the scripture in the Bible will do that. (YOU have to be willing to change YOU before scripture takes root.) But you sure think it makes you look good falling in line with satan, right? I personally don’t think facebook is going to find the cure for ANYTHING except loneliness.

This world is so angry, so fed up they are hating themselves for not being able to do anything to make the change. I’m sorry people but facebook is not where you’re going to make a change, through a meme? Copying/pasting/sharing is NOT changing the world it is separating people from real life into a virtual belief that I’m almost certain is not from God.

James 1:26 “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.”

People will say anything if it makes them look funny and lovable. While God loves a cheerful heart He does not condone your unbridled tongue. What you say on facebook does not stay on facebook, it goes out into the world and shows many your true colors; that of a deceiver ruled not by God.

Ephesians 5:4 “and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.”

People say they read the bible, live the bible but I seriously think they just skim the bible and take words out of context so they can live the way they want to live. It saddens me to see people defaming the Word of God by blatantly defying the very Word they proclaim to live by. They hold no shame because they are who they are, God will always love them but will He excuse their reckless behavior of His Word? Yes, He is a forgiving God but there is no excuse for vain ego driven actions to make you look good. Your actions speak louder than words any day. 

Psalm 109:17 “He also loved cursing, so it came to him; And he did not delight in blessing, so it was far from him.”

I thrive on the blessings bestowed upon me. I share all that He has done for me and I don’t lower myself for man so they think better of me, I live for God and God alone. I don’t profess to be something I’m not. I’m on fire for the mistreatment of God but only He can take care of self-indulged humans who think this life is a playing field.  Life is not a game.

As we get closer and closer to the end, this is not the time to toss away all you claim to live and believe in, now is the time to stand strong against the lures of satan whether in a simple meme post or the copy/paste/share scheme. Don’t be a victim in the hands of satan, stand up for God. Your eternity is counting on you, don’t let yourself down. 

God Bless!

It's Not About The Money

1 Cor. 3:13  “Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.”

It’s Not About Money

Last week I told you that my son got a job. He took that job just as another place was calling him for an interview, a job that was offering more money. It’s not about money, he needs someone willing to take the time and train him in a setting that doesn’t overwhelm him and with people that aren’t degrading.

You see, he had a temporary job in December that lasted all of three days. He had no idea how much money he was making until he quit and received a pay. They were supposed to be training him but all they had him do was the ladies mule work that they obviously were too tired to do? They gave him absolutely no direction except to ‘put this away’, he had no idea where ‘away’, was. Was he supposed to guess? Yes, he did ask, but only to the frustration of the ladies unwillingness to train.

He suffers from anxiety and depression so he made the decision to quit just after three days of no schedule, no direction, and no training, just mule work. I say mule work because he was their beast that carried their burden. The women hated their jobs (and told him), they hated the hours, the sloppy store and cared more about the breaks to go outside and smoke, my son is a non-smoker.

This new job that he started on Monday started off the same exact way. Training was, ‘here load this furniture here and move it here.’ Five hours of unending mule work, he came home in severe pain. He works out but the muscles used for furniture lifting and moving did a number on his back and his leg muscles.

He made it to work Tuesday after telling me that he’d give it another try and that he’d be talking to his boss. The talk went over well apparently because he came home in much better spirits than the day before, he was still in pain but it was pain carried from the day before. They wanted him to go Thursday at eight a.m. to go fifty miles to another store to pick up furniture and bring it back to this store he’s working in and unload it there. An eight hour day scheduled of more heavy lifting. Yeah, he didn’t sign up for THAT! After the talk, they gave him the hours of four until eight pm to continue his training today, Thursday.

What I don’t understand is, don’t they have people doing that kind of work for them or are they just shoving the work on this new kid because they can? Needless to say, he told the manager that he couldn’t do all that heavy lifting and that it almost put him in the hospital. The manager replied, “well that’s just part of the job.” I’m even more curious, do the girls/ladies have to do THAT part of the job? Stocking food and other items might be part of the job but furniture? Is moving a hundred pound sofa part of the job? Do the ladies get to NOT do it because they’re female? Sounds like a double standard to me.

It’s not about the money. Sure money is nice but when you’re degraded and belittled does the money become a means to an end? Adam applied for job after job and ninety-nine percent wanted people with at LEAST six months experience. How is a kid supposed to get experience if no one is willing to train him and give him the experience?

After two years of taking care of me, jumping into the workforce is a little harder than saying just do it! This week we ordered him a phone as an incentive to keep the job but also to relieve my worries of him driving in the darkened hours of the day. I think he’ll stick this one out for a little while but not because of the money, because of the experience. Let’s hope it’s a good experience.

We’ll see what happens.

Poetry Sunday ~ Peace

Ecc. 9:5 “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.”

Peace

Peace like shadows on the water

listening to the gentle whisper 

of God’s Spirit leaving ripples

on your soul.

Peace like the sunrise rising

without sound but the warmth

washing over your being bringing 

you to a new day.

Peace like the night sky alight

with embers of your soul

fragmenting you to who matters

to Him.

Peace like the veil of death

the breath of everlasting

life’s first kiss that stirs

your soul awake.

Quotation Saturday ~ Encouragement

Pss. 26:3 “For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth.”

ENCOURAGEMENT

“How would your life be different if…You walked away from gossip and verbal defamation? Let today be the day…You speak only the good you know of other people and encourage others to do the same.” 
― Steve Maraboli

“You can get a thousand no's from people, and only one "yes" from God.” 
― Tyler Perry

“...You can do something extraordinary, and something that a lot of people can't do. And if you have the opportunity to work on your gifts, it seems like a crime not to. I mean, it's just weakness to quit because something becomes too hard...” 
― Morgan Matson

“Do not sit still; start moving now. In the beginning, you may not go in the direction you want, but as long as you are moving, you are creating alternatives and possibilities.” 
― Rodolfo Costa

ACTION

“To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.” 
― Mahatma Gandhi

“To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend.” 
― Jacques Derrida

“You are what you do, not what you say you'll do.” 
― C.G. Jung

“Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe.” 
― Mitch Albom

DECEPTION

“Just because something isn't a lie does not mean that it isn't deceptive. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction.” 
― Criss Jami

“People trust their eyes above all else - but most people see what they wish to see, or what they believe they should see; not what is really there” 
― Zoë Marriott

“When you look at the past without God’s eyes, you subject yourself to deception. The past no longer exists and God doesn’t linger there. However, Satan will show you whatever you want to see and believe, so you will be trapped in an emotion that cannot communicate truth, beyond what you want to remember.” 
― Shannon L. Alder

“People appear like angels until you hear them speak. You must not rush to judge people by the colour of their cloaks, but by the content of their words!” 
― Israelmore Ayivor

TRUTH

“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.” 
― Abraham Lincoln

“I quote others only in order the better to express myself.” 
― Michel de Montaigne

“The truth is not for all men but only for those who seek it.” 
― Ayn Rand

“There is beauty in truth, even if it's painful. Those who lie, twist life so that it looks tasty to the lazy, brilliant to the ignorant, and powerful to the weak. But lies only strengthen our defects. They don't teach anything, help anything, fix anything or cure anything. Nor do they develop one's character, one's mind, one's heart or one's soul.” 
― José N. Harris

Thought for the Day: "Just as we can always find an encouraging word from God when we need one, always try to have an encouraging word for someone else in need. A well timed word of encouragement can change someone's day or, in some cases, their entire world." (see Ephesians 4:29) I hope you have an incredible day today my friends! – Elmer Laydon