Just Some Thoughts

Pss. 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” 

Just a long note of thoughts…

I am still out here in the throes of pain and the end of it not in sight any time soon. I again wish I could just blink it all away but again, my time is not His time and that is what holds my keys to my sanity these days. My riding lawn mower will allow me to see the property and actually feel like I’m accomplishing something in each day, something besides the tedious mundane chore of cooking a meal or washing clothes. 

I haven’t been to WalMart in quite a few weeks and have allowed hubby to do all the shopping. The things I put this man through, I could just sit for hours and cry but I won’t because I know his love for me is deep and he does everything for me with endearing love. And we both know I’m on the slow road to healing, it’s just taking its good ol' time.

I finally got the chance to use my new mower last week since we had to return Murray the mower because his breaking down twice in one week was a sign that he was the little mower that couldn’t. He was made very cheap even though the sticker said MADE IN AMERICA, showed the little guy wasn’t up to par. Makes one wonder. The sun finally came out after the many damp and darkened days.

We returned Murray with no problem and my hubby just paid the extra money for a better mower at a different place. To someone else a hundred dollars or so is nothing; to me, it’s a million. What the heck, if you’re going into debt for a little, why not go into debt for a lot? I think he felt secure going into debt for this mower knowing my supplements are all up to date for at least another two months, so far. I have an amazing donor that helps keep my supply full allowing my hubby a little leeway in purchasing a riding mower (or organic foods) for me so he can see me happy this summer in some small way; to me, it is a big way!  

I did get out of the house last Tuesday by taking my hubby to the movies to see the new Avengers flick. I had money left from my birthday (shows how often I get out, right?) and he was willing to pay for it but I demanded it to be a DATE, a gift from me for our anniversary, for all he’s done for me! He knows I don’t care for Marvel movies so this was a true extension of what I’d do to show him how much I love and appreciated all that he’s done for me. 

It wasn’t a horrible movie but the incline going into the movie tripped me up (no I didn’t have my cane) and a muscle in my left leg screamed in pain, but I endured, for love. All in all it was a good day!

When Wednesday came and the sunshine was blazing I finally got the chance to ride my new mower Cubby! I finished my entire lawn in one hour compared to the four hours of back-breaking work with the push mower in previous years.

I haven’t been feeling too confident lately but getting out and mowing made me feel like a champ! I was recently berated by the BC group of women for reiterating something I said in one post. A lady lashed out with insults saying, “SOME PEOPLE, [me] always need to have the last word.” And went on saying something about my ego. I was insulted and left in peace with my head hung low and my tail between my legs but it was too late, the mud had been slung, was drying and hardening.

It’s weird, the only people in the group are women fighting breast cancer NATURALLY and we ALL know how sensitive each one is, but these ladies think their horse is higher and better than the lower mule riders like myself. Even the administrator was disagreeing with my link because it didn’t align with her links. Her protocol is right and everyone else’s protocol is wrong. She claimed I was misleading the women because HER links provided FACTS mine were different, even though I got the link from the very source she was touting, The Truth About Cancer. [Scratching my head] I was only trying to help and instead got insulted and hurt. All is okay though because by the end of the week another lady joined the group, Beth Misner, who healed her and her husband’s cancer within a year. It turns out I was right about the link I had posted, glutamine MIGHT NOT be good for this disease. Thank you, Jesus, for clarification!

I’m going to sit in my cubby hole awhile and think about my next step in the plan of winning on the road of this disease. Ironic that I named my [Cub Cadet] mower Cubby the very week I’m relinquished to a cubbyhole of sorts. Now that the rain showers came and darkened the finish to the week, and did so in a three-day spree of fifty-degree temps with lightning and thunder!

Then there’s my mother who very much still yearns for my dad who passed away in October of 2015. Her loneliness is understandable since she was married to him for sixty years. She isolated herself for those years to only living for him since she was a child of seventeen and now she is alone without her helpmeet. On Sunday, Mother’s Day, her parting words to me were, “Live every day like it was your last because you might not be here next year.” She has no idea I have cancer. In the midst of her heartache, her words were aimed at me but meant for her. I understand; I have to, right?

I’m feeling better going into this week and maybe I can write some more this week as the showers let up and the summer like temps resurface. No Spring this year, just summer! This was a longer note of thoughts than I expected but you get my meaning, life goes on in these parts and every day is a trial, and every waking day is a success. 

May the God of peace wash over you all! 

Godspeed!

Philippians 1:6 (NIV) “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” 

God's Not Done...

Rom. 8:25 "But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."

God’s Not Done

On Friday the 6th I began writing a blog post aimed at a Monday posting titled God’s Not Done… but if I had gotten it done, I would’ve posted it Saturday. Unfortunately it didn’t get done. Sunday I watched a sermon online, it was an Easter sermon. What jumped out at me were these words, “We can’t reach up to God He reaches down to us and assures us He is not done with us.”

Where had I heard those words, ‘He’s not done’? Oh that’s right, from my blog post I was writing on Friday! Coincidence? I think not! It was a direct message, a message on transformation! So here is what I had written on Friday.

God is not done…

God is not done with me yet! He’s busy transforming this broken, damaged, diseased woman into something beautiful; a cherished work of art that shines His Light in the dark places!

The statistics are in and the researchers have concluded that 90% of cancers are a result of diet, lifestyle, and environmental factors. And the single biggest factor is what you eat. Imagine that! We are what we eat! My lifestyle was eating junk and crud and look at me now in the battle of my life trying to reverse the damage.

It’s pretty sad that I’ve only begun embracing this new lifestyle after the diagnosis of an illness. I’m continuing to dig deep within my wounds, as deep as my arm will reach, to heal the core of the damage and make peace with my past. God and I are alone on this journey as there are parts so weathered and stained for the naked eye that I keep them there, never to write about. I guess you could say they are the demons in my closet.

Philippians 1:29 (NIV) “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him.”

I’m not changing just a portion of my life, I’m changing everything one hundred percent! [finishing post] I’m surrendering my all to God because I know He is looking down on me, reaching out to me, shaping me and transforming me for a better life.

Life sometimes takes hold of us to where we’re blinded by all of the chaos in the world. From the crazy weather, to the sudden deaths, to the upheaval of life as we know it. If you tell me your weather is just fine and dandy where you live, give it time, you’ll see the craziness He has planned coming to your state. God is not done with us yet.

Moving along, at first, I was bitter and angry and slowly I was losing patience. I was paranoid and frustrated and sought to be healed or let go. He didn’t let me go, He held on tighter and tighter and popped open my eyes so I could see a little more clearly.

The chaos in the world can lead to isolation. You’re running along just fine until someone tosses a roadblock up and you sit idle for far too long. Maybe you’re in a raging storm held back by gridlock. Maybe an angry blizzard came up and movement forward is at a standstill. Maybe you’re getting tired of the unethical society being the controlling factor in day-to-day living. Maybe you think you have life under control but rest assured, He’s not done with you yet.

Job 14:19 “The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.”

Recently I’ve noticed a slow migration from Facebook. People are dropping off of the radar for days if not weeks at a time. Last week someone asked, why are people leaving Facebook? I mentioned that maybe they’re tired of Big Brother watching their every move. I received a very aggressive snappy reply that said, “If you’re tired of Big Brother watching you, turn off your computer!” It is that type of nastiness that is causing people to migrate away from Facebook. It’s no longer a place of fun and sharing information in a congenial manner. It’s a paranoid aggression at its finest.

I myself could care less if Big Brother is watching my every move; I’m not doing anything wrong so I don’t have anything to hide. I could care less if they control the Internet, I’ll just find a hobby that doesn’t enlist the aid of online research, like painting and coloring. No skin off of my nose but apparently something is causing this mass migration.

Something is causing this shift in weather. Something is provoking this deviation in attitudes of negative energy that people are sending out. Something is compelling people to wake up and realize God is not done with us yet and are removing themselves out of fear and uncertainty. At first, in my paranoia, I thought it was just me, feeling like I had gone and done something wrong in steering people to a healthier lifestyle. I’ve come to the realization that people are who they are, and kill what they must, they’ll continue where they will and dust what they dust.

Job 6:20 “They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.”

As my, hopefully short, hiatus begins, I leave you, my fellow Christians with hope! There IS hope in tomorrow. There is hope in saving yourself. There is promise in transforming the old you into a new being of Christ’s. You might not see it as you gaze at the corrupt land you live; the unscrupulous badgering society is taking but there IS hope! God’s not done with you yet! Remember that with every breath. 

Death without the hope of the resurrection and eternal life brings despair!

He is RISEN! 

All Praise and Glory to God!

Acts 24:15 “And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.”

God's Not Dead, He is surely alive, living on the inside roaring like a lion! 

Rose In The Rubble

Deut. 22:9 “Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.”

The Rose in the Rubble

The world has become stone-faced in the face of crime, disaster, death and destruction. Nothing is shocking anymore and so many choose to look away. They’re more concerned with the clothes they wear or the shoes that will carry them but they turn a blind eye to all that is wrong in the world, finding it easier to overlook the rubble so all they see is the rose.

Imagine God during creation with a handful of seeds that he released to the earth. Let’s say the seeds were human beings. He fertilized by just breathing His word on the brown gritty earthy soil, stirred the land so we would be well planted, watered us and watched us grow.  
Some of the seeds that were scattered fell between the rocks, never really taking root by being nurtured by Him. Some fell on the sand again not being rooted in the strength He gave them. Others grew on the fertile soil, these are the upstanding righteous few who walk ROOTED in His Son. 

Do you see where I’m going here? 

Matt. 13:3-9 (KJV) “And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

Satan is a deceiver and a distracter. When all you can taste is bitter political vengeance on your tongue, when you keep your eye on what ISIS is destroying or maiming on any given day, when all that you hold in your hand is sand that slips through your fingers, you are being led by the one and only dark one. He has his eyes on you and is feeding you. He is reaping what he’s sown and you are planted right where he wants you, amid the rubble.

When I think of my son and how he has turned away from the church all I can think of is what I did wrong but then again I think of all that satan has done right. He led him,  along with an all too willing society, away from God. And no it isn’t just my son who was easily led away; he just wasn’t rooted right. There are many and I mean many who have been led away all because of society and the media’s choice of what is front and center and more important, the ‘ME Generation’. Some who are rooted on much stronger soil is fully aware of the lure of satan but as for me and my house, we serve the Lord. (My house meaning my body, my temple).

Take note, that just because you are led away does not make you a bad person destined for hell. I know too often people tell me that that is the very reason they were led away because the Christians made them feel they were destined for hell no matter what they did right. Hey, even Christians can distort the truth just like the media. I know I’ll catch backlash for that one but it is true, think Westboro Baptist church versus Billy Graham Ministries. 

The so-called Christians aren’t so perfect and made for heaven either, can you imagine if every single so-called Christian acted like God himself was sitting next to them as they posted on their wall on facebook? Would you see so many lies and mistruths then? No, all I see is satan’s hand guiding the posts on facebook, unless of course if you’re posting my blog. [wink wink]

Before judging me on my poor parenting skills and telling me what I have to do to make my son ‘right in your eyes’, why not look in the mirror, better yet, look at the last years posts on facebook and tell me that YOU are any better than anyone else. Satan has many of us deceived.

I don’t proclaim to have all of the answers to what is wrong with society but I DO have eyes to see (too many weeds) and ears to hear (not enough singing His praise) and I know that satan is pulling on the minutely detailed reins and you’re following just like a puppy needing a place to fit into a family. Don’t hide behind Christianity as if it is some form of agenda for you to fit into society. Look for the rose in the rubble, but be aware, the rubble is there for a reason.

Isaiah 26:8-9 (NIV) “Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.”

Goodness Makes The Badness Go Away

John 14:21 (NIV) "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

“Goodness makes the badness go away”

This song was a part of the Smurfs Christmas special one year. They sang the song to dispel an evil curse that was poured over them by mysterious dark man. Even Gargamel was under the curse and only the Smurfs could save them.

The lyrics go like this:

Goodness makes the badness go away.
Goodness makes you happy every day.
Badness cannot start if there's goodness in your heart.
Goodness makes the badness go away.

This song came to mind as I posted my blog. Yesterday I tried to post a blog about the evil taking over the world but wouldn’t you know it, a force kept me from logging in as our internet went out completely in the morning and didn’t return until bedtime 10 pm. So I posted my blog, The Legion Puzzle, on 6 16 16. Ironic isn’t it, that 666 is in the date?

The earth is being swallowed up by the evil permeating the souls of humans. In the news, images, lies, deceit, corruption all smother the mind and keep it away from the goodness that might be had in a day. Yes, there is goodness in the world but when you wake in the morning, is that the first thing you think about? Is all the good in the world the first thing you read about or fill your mind with? 

The newspaper, online or offline, never focus’ on the good happening in the world, they have to target all the bad and ill will that is suffocating humans in every part of the world. People find pleasure in reading about a botched facelift, they cheer on broken marriages, they post and repost about all that is wrong in the world and rarely posts about the good going on in the world. 

There has to be more than the rescue of animals that makes the good news rounds. While I’m all for the saving of animals lives, isn’t there ANY good happening out there in the human form? Are people so consumed with sharing all that is wrong in the world isn’t there anything going right?

Is it possible for goodness to make the badness go away? Am I just a dreamer who wants nothing but good things for this world? Am I alone in my quest to see a turnaround? If every single human alive today took one day out of their lives to consciously become aware of the hate they’re spreading and instead traded it in for something positive, I DO believe the world could be changed.

But such as it is, we don’t want a universal good in the world. We’ll justify our anger by saying, “Well he’s not spreading love and good thoughts, why should I?” That is the problem, you see? You are so worried about what the other person is doing and not caring about what YOU are putting out into the world. 

We live in a click-bait world where you see something interesting on facebook, click it and share because someone said you are heartless if you don’t share. You then have opened the door for advertisers and prey to follow you around posting what they KNOW you’ll click and as a bait, you snag it up and are ensnared and are also blindly walking into a web of deceit.

We live in a self-serving world; ‘if it doesn’t benefit ME than I’m not interested’ attitude. So I’ll ask, doesn’t goodness interest you? Does sharing good positive thoughts hurt you? No? Then why cling to anger and hatred as a daily sport?

I know that this is a political year, and I know everyone has their opinions of who is the best choice but the way I see it, the darkness has taken over the world so much so we are left with two bad choices. This is the way that evil works. You don’t get to choose the best man/woman for the job, you have to choose what is offered universally and there is nothing good left in the world; no light at the end of the tunnel.

Control the input that seeps through your veins and into your mind demeaning your brain. I’m so tired of the ‘If you’re a true friend, you’ll repost this’ as a way of GUILTING me into action. I cannot be made to do anything I don’t want to do but I see so many committing the action because I guess they ARE a true friend? All of us who don’t repost are just normal, non-caring, insensitive souls.  I see fewer people on facebook because it has become a mission of some to destroy the many people and their joyous being.

Why is the world wrapped in badness and sadness? Why do people choose pain over joy? Why is evil over saturating the innocent? Why has darkness swallowed the Light? You can’t blame religion, politics, the Muslim, Islam, radical Islam on this alone. No, EVERY single person who chooses hatred over love is a part of the problem. Your anger and rage should be targeted at YOU! 

A friend’s friend C. Amsden wrote: “Hate is so much easier and less painful than love. Hate allows us to feel superior and righteous. Love tears at our guts and emotions. It leaves us vulnerable and weak. Hate builds an altar to our own egos and lets us worship our own perfection. Hate is never really about the person it is directed toward, it is always about the person it stems from. Love is always about the person receiving it, not the one giving it. Hate is the ultimate selfishness.”

We now accept sin as a way of life. There is only one defense and that is love and forgiveness. Here are the words from a man who just lost his daughter in the Orlando, Florida brutal carnage. 

"We forgive the shooter. We talked about it," said Deonka's father, a pastor who runs a nonprofit that helps the poor and elderly. "Hatred will find a way to destroy you, so we forgive the shooter. It wasn't very hard to do. Anger was in me and there was no place to release it. Forgiveness was the way to release it." 

Can goodness make the badness go away? I fear I’ll never find out. I fear it is too late. So continue what you’re doing and never change. We’re right on the path that was set at the beginning of time.

Are You Addicted to Technology?

Ps. 26:2-3 “Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart. For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth.

Are You Addicted to Technology?

I wasn’t expecting a sermon on the Power of Prayer to start off with, are you addicted to technology, but it did. After speaking about Ecclesiastes Pastor went on to speak about the selfie-driven world, then listed astronomical statistics. He said there are 93 million selfies taken EVERY DAY! He went on to say that the younger generation will take 25,000 pictures of themselves by the end of their lives.

This was not against technology this was about the self-driven nation. We are so absorbed with ourselves that we then forget about God. We may fool ourselves into believing we’re all about God but seriously when you’re so absorbed in a technological gadget, posting on facebook and twitter, hanging out on Instagram and Pinterest, where is God in your life then?

He asked:
Do you take your cell phone to bed and keep it close to you?
Do your friends and spouse complain about it? (the time spent cradling it?)
Do you check your phone first thing in the morning and the last thing before bed?
Do you feel bummed when you forget to bring your phone into the bathroom with you?

Then you’re addicted.

He said, “We think of our phone serving us but we wind up serving them, and that is really the definition of an idol, isn’t it?” He went on to tell us he was not anti-technology he was just pointing out the fact that the more we are absorbed by the techno gadgets, the more our prayer life will be hindered. Connecting with God is an afterthought after we’ve connected with the media world.

Pss.139:1 “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
[2] Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
[3] Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
[4] For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.

[23] Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
[24] And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

You may say, “I’ve got my friends, I’ve got facebook.” But how many friends do you have right now that you could call and they’d come to your assistance? Your thousands of friends that LIKE your posts release a dopamine high and you get the rush of feeling loved and that’s all well and good, but do they KNOW you? Really?

Burger King had an offer for a free Whopper meal if you unfriend ten friends on facebook. They had to pull the plug on THAT little promotion because over 230,000 people had been unfriended and were angry! They did find out how much a facebook friend is worth, .37 cent!

People like the appearance of having over one thousand friends, people thrive on being liked but in reality, the average person has four friends, some have less. Four true friends that they physically see on a regular basis and are actual friends, but for appearances sake, they have thousands of friends in the social world, each of which they have no idea who they are they just feel important adding people to the list.

Ecc. 4:9-11 “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?”

“We are drawn to our technology, that provides the illusion of companionship without the demands of relationship.” Terry Sherkel says, “Technology seems to address all the greatest needs we have, the need for attention everywhere, to be heard and to never be alone.” 

Ecc. 5:1  “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.”

Yeah, these days’ people even take their media gadgets to church with them. I hear many say it keeps the bible at their fingertips but I wonder, is that in between a selfie? A picture of their breakfast/lunch/dinner? I’m only asking because I have no idea what the excitement is by taking a picture of yourself. I’ve never taken a selfie. My phone is for phone calls and I don’t text so it is used just for phone calls. Enlighten me on why people need to let the world know what they’re doing every minute of the day, even when they’re sitting in church?

My only techno-gadget is my laptop and I use that for my blog/writing or playing a game of chess or solitaire. I read mail, and sometimes go to facebook to say hi to friends and see all of the prayer requests needed for each day but that is the gist of my techno use and knowledge. I’m happily old-fashioned and I like myself that way, not tainted by the media and all the baloney people post to sling hate to their thousands of friends. Yup, attention seekers survive via their social media outlets. Poor things, they need all the prayer I can give.

My prayer isn’t only for the attention seekers and media addicted folk, my prayer is for the awakening of the world that they may see how they are all a piece of the puzzle that is forming the world-wide web of hate. I can now see how a sermon on the Power of Prayer turned into an enlightening piece of the technology addicts of the world. By tuning into our gadgets that is one less minute we are spending with God. Wonder no more why the world is the way it is today. 

A Break

John 5:30 “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”

I’m taking a break. Maybe you’ve noticed, maybe you haven’t but there comes a time when God puts a halt to your daily routine and lets you know you need a break from it all. 

I’ve almost given facebook up completely (except for the prayer requests) since facebook is no longer a feel-good place. Instead of the place lifting my spirits up, what has happened is the complete opposite. There is no way to bathe yourself in negativity on a daily basis and it makes you feel good. 

It has grown to be more than all of the political crap being spewed by the ‘so-called’ Christians, there is a blanket of negative posts that leads one to see people differently, like not in a good light? I just have to take a break. I don’t like seeing people in a negative light. My blog writing will pay the price because not even writing positive stuff makes me feel good anymore. The negativity has saturated my being and I need a break so I can refocus and come back in full form.

There used to be a couple of positive posts that I could look to and it lift me up and carry me through the day but no, two positive posts do not outweigh the twenty or so negative posts. Yes, this election year has turned people into some sort of demon seeds, spilling out hate like an oil slick on water damaging anything it comes into contact with. 

People think they are being helpful and insightful but all that they do is generate a negative energy that feeds the other legion of negative dwellers. They swarm like bees, gnawing the very essence of positivity and draining the site of all the good left in the world. And then people wonder why they can’t sleep at night?

That’s the one good thing that hasn’t been ruined by the negative virtual world and that’s my sleep. I sleep soundly, I fall to sleep right away and the only thing that awakens me is the sound of the early birds chiming in my window and letting me know the sun is about to rise. So that’s my positive; yay me!

The downright chilly mornings are refreshing. Open windows, low electric bills, no heater needed or A.C., a roof over my head and food in my fridge. All are the positive things that I hold onto while venturing into the negative realm. 

The babies; my niece (and her hubby) have a daughter about to turn one-year-old, my nephew (and his wife) has a daughter turning one in August, my other niece (and her hubby) have three beautiful well rounded adjusted kids that I love seeing their faces and pics to make my day more merry. And I also have a friend who has a daughter with a baby who has the most beautiful eyelashes and laughter that can make any downer of a day a pick me up of a day. Those beautiful faces keep facebook alive for me.

I’ve suffered from depression my whole life, I’ve never been medicated for depression or back pain and I walk with my head high because I will not throw negative crud in people’s faces to make them feel worse? We have a very sick nation that enjoys spewing hate!

Thank you for telling me what I already know. Thank you for letting me know what Memorial Day is all about because God knows, the stupid people who read your wall were not too sure. Thank you for telling me how stupid Democrats are and how intelligent Republicans are? Because again, God knows I don’t know this stuff and I need YOU to make your ego feel good and yes, that’s all it is, YOU on an EGO trip.

I need a break because the more time I spend in the virtual world the less I feel like a human being,and the more anger fills my soul. I knew I didn’t need this world to invade my world and turn me against the world. Yeah, I know, that makes no sense. But hey, nobody sees me as having sense anyway, so enjoy your life. Enjoy the mask-wearing ego-tripping person that you are and leave me to my God. Oh was that name calling? My apologies. You the people have done this and I THANK YOU! For showing me who you truly are and who I will never be in my lifetime.

Oh, and God forgive me. Oh, that’s right, I know you will, thanks. 

May God Bless Everyone! Yup, Muslims too! 

The Fog

Pss. 71:1 “In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.”

The heavy fog sneaked in on the sixth of January, a cold eerie evening. Hanging around smothering the atmosphere blinding any visual sight of land out there in the icy frost. The seventh day of January felt like a suffocating mass filled with darkness, fog looming in a mirage of moisture. I only wish that I were exaggerating. 

My day began with the Lord piercing through the mist to allow me to see Him while the demon fog was filled with trying to cloud my mind. The dark one seems to be mounting an army trying to attack the Christ bearers of this world.

The bellows of satan's bowels were unleashed in a comment section of a facebook post that had me immediately praying for the lost soul. 

Kiler wrote: death and suffering have been our constant companions.
I am talking about real suffering
If you can sit around all day and write and play on fake book
If you can type you ARE NOT SUFFERING
I am talking about tripping over dead bodies suffering

I thought for sure that this man must live in war-torn Iraq living in the throes of an ISIS assault but upon further inspection of this man he is from Oregon. It startled me to think that in Oregon, he is tripping over dead bodies? Boy, my writing talent went into overdrive with the possible stories hidden behind this obscured soul.

These comments were targeted at me and you can only imagine what he unleashed on others as he spewed his hatred. His anger filled rant on an innocent beloved author had me reminded of the fog that hung around for most of the day yesterday. This was the culmination of a darkened day.

I was instantly reminded of the reason I steer clear of Facebook and all the antics. As I try to casually visit once a day, I’m always smacked with heinous behavior. No matter how good and precious you are to the Lord, satan is always one step in front as it has been since the beginning of time as he lured Eve away from innocence.

The fog was a pretense to hinder my sight. This morning I rose and while the sun was not shining, the Son had already risen and welcomed me to the oncoming day. I breathed a sigh of relief in knowing I am always welcome in the sight of the Lord. 

I notice the world walking around in a fog, preoccupied with what satan has to offer. A click here, a post there, subliminal thoughts here, a judgment call there all wrapped in a fraudulent ornamental box carried off to the masses.

Invisible to the multitude, ignored by many, passed over by the bountiful and forgotten by the manifold, I am alone in my wanderings, never alone in my wondering and embraced by the Almighty. While this New Year of change surrounds me, my words have become plentiful, my thoughts have been laid bare to the naked eye for all to see, and I’m growing daily, replenished by the Light of the Lord while the sun is shielded by cloud cover. 

As you ride ambiguously in the cusp of the unknown, you seem to be catering to the confusion. When you find yourself veering off the beaten path remind yourself daily that God is not a God of confusion. If you don’t see harmonious love surrounding you wherever you may walk: a store, a park, or possibly your church, or whatever you read or see, ask God for guidance and know that you are not and never will be alone in this world. Don’t allow the fog to veil your soul.

Dan. 9:7 “O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.”

The Cave Dweller No More

Luke 12:27 “Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

It seems like the last year I’ve been living in a cave. The world is going on around me and many things have gone on in this world that I care not to discuss because I can discuss them quietly at home and in the depths of my mind, I don’t need all of my thoughts out there for the world to see.

I stop by facebook once a day to see what people are sharing and well, it’s the same ol’ same ol’ basket full of deceit, cunning opinionated news (usually lies), abused animals, lost children and prayer. My page is full of prayer request and that is just how I like to start my day by being in prayer for those in need. 

I’ve changed my facebook page so much I no longer get the negative feed that was turning my stomach early last year. With every visit my heart hurt, my mind ached and I was left puzzled by some of the things people felt the need to share, so I climbed into the cave crowded by grief and didn’t ever want to come out and view the social world again.

Something happened along the way. God spoke to me and asked me what I was doing sulking in the cold darkened damp cave. Never one to shy away from God, I told Him the truth about what was bothering me. He set me on a straight and narrow path and I came out the other end of the cave dragged there by the light that was pulling on my shirt.

After God showed me what was wrong, I took action to change. Then the New Year erupted and I made a commitment to be more focused on my writing craft. I don’t need a best selling novel, I need to WRITE! If I write one word that changes the way people see the world, one word that speaks volumes to them, one word to encourage them, then my writing is not in vain, my gift is being used the way God intended and the positive energy that comes from my writing will light me up and allow me to SHINE!

Since I don’t believe in coincidence, what do you make from this meme that came across my feed? 

“God wants to bring you out of your cave, out of that place in your mind where you have been lost.”

Now some will say, it’s just a meme. Well, since I believe God works in mysterious ways, more ways than the human mind can comprehend, I believe I was in the right place at the right time. Has that ever happened to you? Well it clarified what was truly on my mind and that is that God doesn’t want me languishing in the cave. He wants me out here in the spinning world sharing my words that are ‘on my mind’ and words that might reverberate in other minds also. 

Also, this lovely sentiment came across my screen:

Believe it... in your mind. 

Receive it... in your heart. 

Achieve it... in your life.

I sat up, took notice and got busy working on the plan God has set before me to change the darkness into light, to take a breath, inhale and exhale the positive flow that needs release to this world of negativity. 

I know it’s a stretch but if others see me actively taking a stance to change, maybe they too will follow suit and by years end I will have changed some small portion of the world. Remember this, social media is not just a place to share pictures, memes, and what the news media wants you to believe, it is also an avenue to share the true inner you that the world has come to know and love. 

Continuing down the same path as last year, you are consciously blocking the pathway to change. The choice is up to you my friends. Live, grow and change! It is after all a New Year.

God Bless each and every one of you!

2 Thes 1:3 “We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;”

I'm Thankful! Happy Thanksgiving!

1 Chron. 16: 8 “Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people.”

HappyThanksgiving

It is with joy and not sadness that I approach Thanksgiving this year. I’ll probably be filled with sadness the closer we get to Christmas when I get the blues because I can’t share yet another Christmas holiday back home with my family. I’m okay with that, it’s just the songs bring about a melancholy spirit that hovers around the Christmas trimmings.

I’m an optimist so I do try to see the good in everything. For some reason that gives me a sense of peace that washes over me like a soft summer rain. So this Thanksgiving I have to reflect on what I am thankful for. I know, I know, I just lost my father and CAN I find something to be thankful for? Yes, yes I can!

Yes I’m thankful for all of the normal things: a home, a roof over my head, food in the refrigerator and heat for the house. I am also thankful for more:

*I’m thankful that I had the years I did with my dad.

*I’m thankful that we shared the stars, the storms, and the rain.

*I’m thankful my dad stood by me for so many years, then allowed me to spread my wings and move far far away from home, knowing full well he’d never have the chance to see me again.

*I’m thankful my dad loved my mother so much and instilled in her the strength she would need to get through his death.

*I’m thankful my dad found God!

*I’m thankful my husband finally decided to marry me!

*I’m thankful for my son who has grown to be his own man.

*I’m thankful for shooting stars as a way to communicate with my dad.

*I’m thankful for my dog that has a wonderful loving family surrounding her on cold nights.

*I’m thankful for Facebook as a form of communicating with my family back home and the chance to watch my nieces (and nephews) children grow without ever meeting them.

*I’m thankful for my spiritual friends, the writing ones and the ones that I met through God’s leading them to me or me to them, who in a virtual way, wrap their loving arms around me and comfort me in amazing ways via Facebook.

*I’m thankful for Auntie Sue & Papa John and for Ben, for showing me their love extends past the virtual screen!

Let me just say, I didn’t need to do the 30 days of thankfulness because I am thankful 365 days a year; for being alive, for sharing God’s word and my faith, and for friends and family!

May each and every one of you have a safe a Blessed Thanksgiving!!!

I Give Thanks

For all we are and all we do

we give our thanks each day.

We live, grow, change and mend

I give my thanks and pray.

I thank my mother and father

for all the things they gave.

Within their hand they held my life

but only One could save.

I led the life He wanted for me

although the road was rough.

I never look back with any regret

the rocky roads were tough.

The path was laid before we were born

the forks were all in place.

Which we chose was a cosmic bend

that altered time and space.

I found a cross in my walk

as I wandered through each year.

Whimsical times and frenzied mind

He made it all seem clear.

The crystal shell lay in shards

glass was torn to pieces.

He put them all together again

my love for Him never ceases!

I thank the Lord for carrying me

through my most daunting days.

I’m mended now because of Him,

a path of new-found ways.

Flashback

Baltimore, Maryland

“Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.”

~ Cormac McCarthy

Here recently I’ve been struggling with flashbacks. Not the good kind with happy memories that follow but truly ugly ones I thought were dead and buried, never to resurface again; but here they are upon me in a tidal wave of emotion.

It all started a few weeks ago on my facebook family page. I was looking at friends of  friends and WHAM it hit me; flashbacks. I’d see a familiar name and think, Hey, we were friends once, I wonder why she/he hasn’t friend requested me? Then I remembered, maybe we weren’t really friends we were acquaintances. Maybe I’ll friend request them, then I said to myself, no, they seriously didn’t like me – then all of the bad memories flowed.

No matter how much I’ve grown and changed in life my past is always there to remind of the evil little witch that I once was and I realize pretty vividly why no one likes me or would like to catch up with me and see how I’m doing now. You know what they say, ‘Once a witch, always a witch’ so they steer clear of me.

I have struggled all my life to put the past behind me, forgive the evil-doers, move on in a walk with Christ but like a worm, the past just slowly inches its way into my present when I least expect it and slaps me upside the head. Sure I shrug it off and look at the writing friends I have now and how they help me to see the change in me but my past is a part of who I am today.

“We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it.”

~ Rick Warren

Sure I hear the whole spiel that people feed me. Look to the Lord -- Walk with God -- Read your Bible and quite honestly I’d like to slap THEM upside the head for not understanding one thing I’m going through.

Are they trying to tell me that if I walk with Christ, the past won’t resurface? Are they trying to tell me that if I focus on God, the past will disappear? Are they offering to me a safe haven in reading my bible and that the past will no longer be present in my mind? HOGWASH!

I have for many a year (not just a spur of the moment of caring about Christ) looked to Christ for my healing and yes, I have come a long way, some might even say I am a new person. Well I AM!!! BUT, and here’s the clincher, THAT does not change my past or make it miraculously disappear and make people from my past want to know me again.

I imagine that when people see on the sideboard of their facebook that little picture asking, “do you know Joni?” They look at it and shiver and tremble and say, “Yeah and I don’t want to know her again!” And don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to know them either only because of the ugly past that I need to leave behind to burn, but it doesn’t hurt any less realizing I’m not that likable because of who I was back then.

Then my traumatized childhood rears its ugly head and I remember the not so nice life I had growing up in a neglectful household. I didn’t have parents who cared dearly for their children, I had parents who dragged their young child into bars while the older kids stayed home or ran the streets getting into their own sort of trouble. I have to hear now that I’m grown, from my mother, “Why don’t my kids love me?” And I cannot and will not give her the God’s honest truth, “Maybe because you didn’t love THEM enough.”

I love my mother and father dearly and have dealt with the neglect and the non-neglect of me; after all my brothers and sister see it as me being the baby getting EVERYthing while I see it as me getting the traumatic events that they didn’t receive.

As I continue my journey and heal I AM walking with Christ because I know that it is only through Him I can truly heal. Make the past disappear? Probably not because by looking back into my past I can see how far I have come and also see it as a blessing that I am still alive today.

While I lock the hard-to-deal-with-flashbacks in a secure trunk, I will send it up a river never to be seen from again. I WILL heal and continue to create positive memories that I’ll enjoy looking back on.

“It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can't relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don't know if there is one.”

~ George Harrison

~ Nebraska ~

Tuning Out

Rom. 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

It is quite sad that so many are working hard to bring people to God yet turning them away from Him unaware. I’ve been tuning people out for some time now but still, that doesn’t keep me from observing their behavior. The negative aspects still have a way of seeping in when I least expect. I’m not offended as much as I’m saddened at their inane actions while claiming to be children of God. Human beings are a sad lot.

I see why people are turning from God in record numbers, not just because they don’t believe in the first place, but they are being deceived and that can lead to a falling away of forming any sort of belief system.

It’s confusing when people are touting that they KNOW the truth but don’t LIVE the truth. People boasting of their love of God but are visually so filled with internal hate for everything. People seeking the truth are then led to believe that you can do no wrong and the bible then becomes a laughable joke. They see people practicing not what they are preaching.

I’ve come to the conclusion that we don’t live in God’s world, we live in a political world and man uses the bible as a footstool to base their belief system on and of course, the non-believers are not going to stand for the word Bible or God in their vocabulary. Everyone is too busy seeing the left and right or the wrong and right of things, not the God things. Their focus is NOT on God but the world.

Rom. 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

I realized something last year; that I had raised my son in a Christian household and when he turned eighteen; I realized his beliefs were not the same as mine. Sure I tried to instill all my Christian beliefs into him but there came a backfire when he said to me, “I don’t believe the same things as you.”

A shocker right? Wrong! I realized (an awakening of sorts) that my son is not my property, he is God’s property. It was my job to teach him in the way that he should go but in the end, he is his own person and can form his own ideas/beliefs. He hasn’t turned from God, he’s just drinking in all the foolish lies people spout and forming his own opinion. Wow, how did that happen, he turned out to be his own being? He doesn’t do the facebook thing because, “There is no good in that place.”

This is what is happening in the world today. We try and shove OUR belief down people’s throats and it backfires, people are not buying what we are trying to sell. To a believer you’ll get an AMEN sometimes but to the non-believer you get tuned out. You are turning them AWAY from God instead of TO God.

I was taught as a child that you don’t discuss money, religion and politics because it causes disagreements, arguments, and division. It’s not a law to abide by but it is a non-formal moral code that humans have supposedly grown accustomed to, you’d think.

I think of facebook as a gathering of friends. It would be no different if it were everyone sitting around in the park at a picnic table sharing food and family fun. What I don’t expect is to be hit (and hit hard) with a barrage of political crud, religious buffs (who know everything, BTW) and gabfests on money. Oh wait, the only time money is brought up is when people are sharing the abundance of the amount they have, which is almost NEVER! So why not hold the religion and politics to the same stature? You’re among friends, act like it!

I’m starting to think that these folk don’t have a moral code that they live by. They just want to point out that they are right and you are wrong. It makes me want to tune out and turn away from the very people I’ve come to know and love. Facebook has become a cesspool for the arrogance of society; taken away (or lost in the crud) is the fun-loving, God embracer. Oh they’re there, but far and very few between. My newsfeed is down to about five people now, a much more POSITIVE flow of the GOODNESS in the world.

This is what is happening in the world today. People are tuning out and turning away; tuning out from the hypocritical society, the political garbage and turning away from God. Guess what, people can actually THINK for themselves. They don’t need YOU to tell them what is wrong with the world, clearly showing them where YOUR focus is, and it isn’t on God!

My only saving grace is turning away from the world and tuning into God. God is my refuge; He’s not my platform, I don’t use Him for gain, I use Him for comfort. He is my Soul Food!

Let me let you get back to your political propaganda, your regularly scheduled program. I’m tuned out of Social Media and I’m tuned into God.

Pss. 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

AMEN!

Growth

Rom. 2:19 “And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,”

How can one expect to grow if they are always clinging to the negative fundamental seedlings of non-growth? I see it all too often; people I used to admire, respect and care for feeding off the vulnerable of society in hopes these folks share in their negative thought process.

I love reading people and their positive thoughts. They wake up proclaiming the love of God with WORDS, they continue on in their day with positive WORDS and for some reason, I’m drawn to them like flies to sugar.

On Facebook I have 86 friends. Wow, you might say, only 86? She must be unliked/unloved/unfriendly. Well allow me to tell you, I choose my friends wisely. I don’t just accept friendships to LOOK like I’m popular; I accept friendships of people I truly want to be friends with. That’s pretty hard when you have over 1,000 so-called friends and only a few who you are actually friendly with.

I used to have 89 friends but it is obvious that some have unfriended me because I won’t get on their Political Cruiseship of hate bashing, or their color/race bashing, or their sexual preference bashing. Nope, I am me, a happy go lucky person wanting and NEEDING to share love, period!

Out of my 86 friends I can honestly count on two hands how many of these people I would love to meet and have coffee with in a nice surreal atmosphere. A handful to me is pretty sad, you want to know why? If most of these folk are this political crazy and being the megaphone of injustices in America on facebook, what must these people be like sitting around a table?

Here’s a  meeting scenario for you:

You meet one of your online friends for the first time. Your excitement is building as you assume they’re at least right in the head, right? You meet at Starbucks.

You go to sit down and he says, “Not at THIS table, let’s sit over here.”

“What’s wrong with the table I picked?”

“Well you can see that gay couple can’t you? I won’t sit next to THEM.”

“Seriously?”

Or let’s take this scene:

You meet and want to attend a church service with them, assuming they are okay with a service.

“Not that church”

“WHY?”

“They allow gays, I won’t sit and worship MY God with a bunch of homosexuals! Or even attend a church allowing such!”

*scares me* "Who IS your God?"

Imagine my jaw dropping and my eyes about to burst out of my head as I rush to just leave the visit completely! Surrounding myself with people like that will have a negative impact on me spiritually.

Some will say, “I would never do that.” Wouldn’t you really? Why? As a show of how good you are for real? Then why would you show this sickening side of yourself on a Social media wall where you have hundreds if not thousands of friends looking at you?

Sure, a good post here, a funny post there, then WHAM ‘hate post’ threaded into the weaving of scripture and love. That’s the way many work these days. I’ve lost friends because of my love of Christ posts, but I’ve not removed anyone for their love of the drama posts. If they act this way on a Social Wall, what are they like in reality? Character is built by what you project.

I had to actually deactivate my family facebook account for a few weeks where I have even less friends. When did facebook go from a friendly place of life event sharing to a world of a political platform, drama of everything wrong with this or that party (note: more this party than that party), or everything WRONG with the world??? This is people and their daily lives, really?

I sit back and watch the soap opera Facebook Unleashed, in slow motion and am just left wondering, ‘and they wonder what is WRONG with the world?’ I find myself looking within on many levels and share only the positive things I see and feel around me. Anything negative I might glance at, I don’t allow it to sink in like a sponge and spew venom day after day. Boy, that must be a boring and unfulfilling life that one must lead.

I’m from the old school of you reap what you sow. If all of these people are reaping in the hate, they must be sowing it too. I can only pray for them and try to emit Light and love to the world in hopes one day someone will grab onto it and hold it in their hand and rejoice with it the way I have and try to do daily; not just for show for REAL!

To the few that I would love to meet – keep your light shining bright, I see it and feel as if I know you already on a much more personal level. God has blessed your hearts and souls and I am honored to call you friend. I can only hope that my light will shine as bright as yours one day!

To the others – keep working on it, you might get there someday. God bless!

“6+3= 9 but so does 5+4. The way you do things is not always the ONLY way to do them.

Respect other people’s way of thinking.” A Message of Light post on FB

I will truly keep that in mind.

1 Cor. 4:5 “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”

I'm Alive

 I'm Alive

Yes siree, I’m alive and well and writing! Thirteen posts so far (this one makes fourteen) and my New Year is off and running in the right direction. I say the right direction because I’m not wasting my time sitting endless hours on facebook just waiting for some kind of activity for me to like. Nope, I’m writing!

Don’t get me wrong, if you’re retired and enjoying the Golden Years of your life, by all means use facebook for what it is good for, games. If you’re disabled, facebook and socializing can be great therapy. If you’re wealthy and don’t need to work, facebook can be a great form of relaxing or if you’re sick and in bed seeing some familiar names to chat with can sometimes make you feel all better.

I always seem to come down hard on facebook maybe because I am dead to facebook and facebook is dead to me. I’m getting back into what God intended for me to do and this is to write. I think if He intended for me to twiddle my fingers and thumbs, He’d see to it that FB was a joy in my life instead of an idle/idol distraction.

It’s taken me a while to realize that facebook is an actual lifeline for folks and by me always negatively harping on it, may do more harm than good. My son almost slapped me upside the head and told me to stop ragging on facebook; that some people actually LIKE it. Okay sure, whatever. I notice HE is never on facebook but then it’s just not for him. To him it’s a retirement community for old folks. (remember, he’s a kid!)

Maybe I should stick to being lonely in the confines of my mind. I notice that no legitimate, successful author ever made a name for himself by sitting on the walls of facebook becoming oh so popular. Nope, his/her writing is what spoke volumes and that is where I’m at, at this juncture in my life; making my writing stand out!

I think this is the year I need to focus more on the seriousness of writing. Not just spitting out blog posts, I mean some serious writing. It might mean spending a lot of time inside my mind and that could be quite dangerous. It also means focusing on courses that will move me forward with my writing.

I often wonder if I died tomorrow, would all of those so-called friends miss me? Would they say what a great friend I was and how they’ll miss my whining, loving, caring words? I don’t think so. I think they’ll wipe me off the bottom of their shoes and continue on in their Mardi gras life, whooping and hollering about all that is wrong with the world and doing absolutely NOTHING to make a change. All talk, talk, talk and no action, except a facebook post.

May I walk with God all the days of my life and may His light shine ‘round about me. Amen!

Rom. 1:21-32 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
  Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
  For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
  And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
  Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
  Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
  Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
  Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

The 'Year in Review' goes over bad

2 Pet. 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

In the facebook world everyone knows everything about you, especially what you post and LIKE. Some people don’t know that what you LIKE or COMMENT on is showing up in your friends’ news feed. You know like all those Bible pages you LIKE and comment on? Or maybe your thing is LIKing HOT BABES and not realizing all your friends see you for who you really are.

Needless to say, facebook has taken it upon themselves for people to glorify their productive and bountiful year and has an APP for showcasing your year in review. While it seemed like a good idea at the time, facebook is now being slapped in the face with the folks who DIDN’T have a good year.

Facebook is a place to share your pains and sorrows as much as your joys but since there is no dislike button, when someone dies, people show their support by clicking LIKE! The APP is compiled of your activity on facebook in way of posts that people LIKED.

I’m wondering if the like button isn’t a measure of popularity.

When people post meme’s they get less likes than someone pouring out their heart of pain which gets all 800 of your friends in a LIKING frenzy. To a person (and I know many) who have had a bad year, the APP will glorify the painful posts because they got the most likes.

The APP. does ask if you want to share your year in review; I myself only having 90 friends tops, chose NOT INTERESTED. Of the ninety friends, I’m lucky if five people like ANYTHING I post and that’s in a week, so I am kinda curious how facebook would handle an unpopular person’s year in review. Showcasing what OTHER people have posted on my wall? Boy, that should make me feel real good.

While I think the whole thing was well intentioned, the APP. has caused a lot of heartache to people who have lost children and parents or pets and siblings. It just brings up the worst part of your year. Haunting reminders that your year wasn’t really all that good.

I’m sure the boasting people that bought new houses and cars, new dogs and new this and that like showcasing all the good that has happened to them in the year, the only people who are hurt by the APP. are the people who have been HURT throughout the year; by the looks of it, it’s the majority of people on facebook.

Yeah, as you can tell facebook has worn off for me. No more joy, no more idle chit chat and fun banter, it has become a ‘Popularity Contest’; one that I’ve never been a participant in. Sorry, that’s just me. I’ve never been like everyone else and I guess God made me that way.

To those that have hurt this year, my heart goes out to you. I totally understand that nobody’s life is perfect and having it displayed hurts. May you all find a peace wash over you in the coming New Year. Toss this old year in the garbage where it belongs. Make the best of what you have – be yourself! That’s what works FOR ME!

A Dislike Button?

Well we know THAT won’t happen because of the state the nation is in right now. We’re divided, we’re colorized and we’re full of DISLIKE for more than we LIKE.

I was thinking of writing to Mr. Zuckerburg to offer some suggestions for a ‘possible’ dislike button. While the Like button, introduced in February 2009, is used up to 4.5 billion times each day, I’m sure I have a few friends who have used half of those millions in one week.

I personally think the LIKE button is as demeaning as Mr. Zuckerburg feels the DISLIKE button would be. Maybe the like button was for you to feel good about yourself, but not much unlike being in a schoolyard with surrounding friends, when one child is left in the corner with NO ONE liking them, it can begin to feel very isolating; intentional or unintentional.

Here’s my ideas:

Instead of a like/dislike button, why not have a like button with options? It hurts (yes truly hurts my heart) to see people announce the death of a loved one and people LIKE it? I think they’re trying to express emotion without actually using WORDS of condolences. Emoticons can only do so much. A heart symbol means love, it doesn’t mean an offering of sympathy, empathy, prayer or agreement. Simply put emoticons display emotions of love, happy, sad, angry and so on.

When I purchase an item online I’m often asked when giving a review of the product--

Do you: LIKE, NOT SO MUCH, AGREE, or DISAGREE. I think the like button on facebook should be upgraded with the changing trends of this world. Give us options.

Just like those questions on products, facebook offers a place to ‘leave a message’; many choose not to express emotions and click the LIKE button for no apparent reason other than clicking to acknowledge that they saw the post.

When a review is left for a product, again we’re given options:

Was this review helpful yes or no.

Quite simple. We’re given options!

I think Mr. Z is apprehensive for fear of it affecting advertisements, trolls, and bullies. We have options whether we want to SEE the ads, or choices of what we DON’T MIND seeing, so why can’t the LIKE button express more emotion. Facebook is an emotionally driven site. We need more than emoticons, again, they just don’t cover it all! We need choices!

If Mr. Z is afraid of the downside of a DISLIKE button, why not take the LIKE button away completely and replace it with the silly emoticons? Then when someone dies, the emoticon with tears can express what the person wants to say. If someone disagrees with a post, the angry face emoticon, smiley will replace LIKE, and a heart will signify LOVE. THEN a person can actually feel free to use WORDS to convey their joy, sadness, sympathy or love for a post in the message box.

An example: Joni received – 5 smiley faces, five angry faces, 1 million hearts. Okay I exaggerated the hearts a bit.

Here’s another suggestion for FRIENDS. Have you ever seen a person with over 300 – 800 or even a thousand friends? What is up with THAT? Do they seriously know these people or are they friend thieving? Jumping on the grab-a-friend-of-a-friend bandwagon?

I love the LISTS. We can name them and then click on what we see in our feed. I have a WRITER list and view what my writing friends are posting. My suggestion is this, what can people see on my wall? That option is FRIENDS ONLY which kind of stinks if you have a bandwagon of friends. I would LOVE to see OPTIONS of who can see this! FAMILY, friends, close friends, etc. Not too hard but apparently Mr. Z wants us sharing with total, possibly stalking strangers! Just because a friend APPEARS nice, is not always the case when he begins stalking you now is it?

We live in a techno text world, one I am not accustomed to in any way. If I go to a page and see a bunch of txt lingo I click away from it quicker than you can blink an eye. I will not be dragged into trying to interpret what people are TRYING to say. Can’t people write WORDS anymore? Can’t people express themselves like normal people? I have one or two friends who actually uses words, it’s comforting to know out of millions of people caught up in this age of technology, I can find two or even three that still use words to express their emotions.

Mr. Z, something needs to change. The site is no longer a social friendly service for teens, it is a community of adults overwhelmed by not being able to express themselves. If the emoticons do it for people, give them what they want. Me, I’ll just keep writing for myself. “Better to write for myself and have no public, than to write (and be a showcase) and have no SELF!”

Here! Here!