Poetry Sunday: A Mother's Trials

Prov. 31: 10, 27-28 "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her."

A Mother’s Trials

Six children born to parents 

At different eras and times

One during a peaceful age 

One during wartime crimes

Two were born surprisingly

Two lost along the way

Then came two bouncing girls

Making the family a buffet.

The mother’s trials were endless

With her six kids underwing

While father being the breadwinner

Made mother’s trials the sting.

Nothing perfect happened

In the years that followed suit

One son went into the service

While the other a different route

Four kids left to figure out

What right and wrong would come

Mother taking a job to help

The kids not under her thumb.

The years passed by so quickly

Each different memories to hold.

Some boast of great harmony

While some had pasts of cold.

Not every life runs perfectly 

Not every childhood is grand

A mother’s trials are silent

With each child in a different hand.

A mother remembers the good times

While the child will store the bad.

But both will hold a great life 

No matter which one was had.

A mother’s trial is what forged us

Whether we like the image we see.

Her trials are what formed and shaped

The intricate family.

As Mother’s Days will come and go

Just as each life will come to pass

Remember through trials and errors

It’s our Mothers love that will last!

~*~*~*~*~*~*

My mother and dad would've been married 61

years this year. He's passed over and she waits for the day to see him again. But this is MY story, not hers. I just want what is best for her, a great day!

Good and Bad Days: We All Have Them

Matt. 13:48 (KJV) “Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.”

Good days and bad days: we all have them

I’m sure we all have our good days and bad days; we know they’re bad when things go wrong and we see them as good when everything falls into place like a row of dominoes. While yes, I admittedly suffer from PTSD, I myself see more good days than bad and to me, they are all positive steps toward my healing. 

Jer. 29:11 (NIV) “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

As home slowly becomes more familiar to me, I feel the healing in the core of my being. The first few weeks though, of being home, felt like an unending carousel ride. That very first Monday I was Mrs. Popular in that everyone wanted a piece of me. I had calls from the home health nurse, the physical therapist, my oncologist office and the Cancer Center’s radiation office. Emails were sounding in from my mother in law wanting to come see me, sister in law auntie and uncle, everyone wanted a piece of this broken woman and how do I tell them all to just SHUT UP in a polite manner? 

My first Monday morning was an assertion day, I was going to take hold of my surroundings, my activities, and my appointments. I was not going to be TOLD to come here, or do this or do that, I would tell THEM what I was willing to do! I was going to take back what I lost!

First up, the home health nurse, Mandy, the woman I had only met on that day I was exiting in an ambulance, yes, she could come. Physical therapist, yes she was allowed. The oncologist? I’ll see you sometime next week. The radiation nurse, I asked if it could be put off for a week as I regained my bearings now that I was home. They were fine with that, setting me up the following week for my two (week) five-day sessions. Ten treatments in all to the healing left femur.

The emails were more targeted to my husband than me because it hurt to type on my laptop. I didn’t have a bend and stretch out mobility, I had a stiff-as-a-board-lay-there-and-be- good, semblance. Computer stuff would have to wait for a spell. I’d send out a 'hey' to friends and let them know I was still alive and as I knew they would be, they were more than understanding and just happy to know I was home. 

Monday was going along smoothly except for me missing my husband who had to go to work with worry on his mind trying to remember if I was set up well enough to be alone. Since we fibbed a little to get me home, I assured him I would be fine, and I was. As scary as the surroundings were, I was HOME and that was good enough for me! 

Now keep in mind, I had not bathed in twenty days. A wipe-down at the hospital but not a thing at the nursing home! Not a wipe, not a rag, nothing! I even used my own kleenex when I had to do my business. So when my mother-in-law wanted to bring his uncle to the house because he’d be ‘in town’, I had to say no way! I was not up to ‘visitors’, I needed to HEAL. I needed time! It all felt so rushed and the kaleidoscope began with its pretty colors and I was getting dizzy.

She said she understood but could her friend from church bring out food? I think she mentioned cookies or something. I told hubby to gently say, NEXT WEEK! Dang. I loved that everyone was so concerned, but I felt like the people who just lost a family member and friends would clamor to come over and bring food at the most inopportune time. Not to be rude but please send love, condolences and give them some space and time. Not a month, just breathing room. Please, don't turn this into how you lost someone and loved those people doing that for you. I appreciated EVERY bit of stirring also. I was suffocating and I needed to BREATHE! 

All appointments set, I slept. I slept and slept some more. Now it was time to move onto healing. The home health nurse brought me a hair-washing cap. You place it on your head, rub your fingers intensely and voila, your hair is water-free washed. It worked marvelously! She supplied an ample amount of body-wipes, and hubby he produced a bucket of water and a rag where I felt refreshing water on my face for the first time in twenty some days! Moving right along. 

I did have the nurse in tears, not bawling because they need to maintain distance and composure in their job, but her eyes were brimming at the sad painful story I’d tell. I had to get it off my chest so each person, professional or family, my story spilled into their ears and leaked from their eyes. They were shocked, then amazed at the strength I carried. I made it perfectly clear it surely was not me, it was God that they saw IN me! 

My healing was nothing short of astonishing to all who were witness to me. The radiation nurses saw me go from gurney to wheelchair within a week. From assisting me onto the slab to minimal help to no help needed at all. This was happening in a ten day period of time! 

My oncologist even showed signs of wonderment at my speedy recovery time. Not only my Oral Chemo and blood cell count healing time but my physical mobility healing time. All were displaying awe and wonder and were quite vocal in letting me know that this was nothing short of amazing. Doctor’s will not touch the ‘miracle’ label, but here I was, in their face, a living breathing healing miracle!

So as I have good days and bad days, it is all a part of the intricate veins of healing. People sometimes think healing happens in the blink of an eye but they need to know and understand how to appreciate the time and effort that goes into producing a work of wonder. Noah’s Ark wasn’t built in a day, the great Pyramids didn’t appear out of thin air and Jesus Himself took nine months to make a physical show. One step at a time is truly meant to be one breath at a time, and it is never our time, it is always His time. 

All praise and Glory to God! AMEN! 

Ecc. 3:11 (NIV) “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

Gateway to Health: Spring Cleaning Your Diet

1 Tim. 3:5 “(For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)”

Spring Cleaning Your Diet

I know it’s a little early being January and all, but it is never too early to clean up your health. I know with January first everybody made resolutions to lose weight but do they realize you don’t just stop eating and wait for the pounds to melt off? You need to clean your system out if you want a healthy weight loss that will actually work and last.

By cleaning up, I mean detoxification! You need to meticulously clean out the toxins in your body that have your liver, bladder and other essential organs not responding because of your unhealthy eating.

Tamara St John, who NATURALLY successfully healed her cancer has a great website for the Big C patients and the non-C patients. Allow me to say that not all cancers are the same and thus are not holistically healed the same. We all have to do what works for us!

But if you want to lose weight, it is advisable to do a detox. first. This will help you clean out the mechanisms that keep you going day in and day out. A probiotic will assist you in cleaning out and keep the house kept up. Because once you clean out your system, you don’t want to clog it right back up with toxins and junk.

If you don’t want to go the diet route then it is possible to just clean up your ingested food. You see, you might think that buying ground beef in bulk saves money, or buying really pink ground beef is safe to eat but know your grocer. A lot of times they spray freshness additives (toxic to your cleaned out system) to make the meat stay fresher on the shelf longer.

Some people feel they NEED meat but I can guarantee, it isn’t a NEED it’s a want, I totally get carnivorous amongst us. All I’m saying is buy the least toxic food available to you to keep your system clean and functioning properly. I found some really good recipe sites for you to try out. No, I haven’t made any myself YET, but I am surely going to try. If you absolutely NEED meat, add some. This is a lifelong journey of health for me, not a do and fail option.

Food Revolution 

Wisebread 

Also, find alternatives for your sugar cravings. I use 100% organic maple syrup in my oatmeal and it is delicious instead of stevia or processed sugar. There are so many other ways to a healthy diet. I buy a big organic sweet potato, chop it up put it in a lidded casserole dish. I ‘paint’ the sides and bottom with organic coconut oil first so nothing sticks. I sprinkle, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and a hefty dash of cinnamon, drizzle the maple syrup on top, toss in some FRESH pineapple chunks, cut up an apple also and throw that on top, toss it in the oven (350 degrees) for forty-five minutes! It is better (to me) and just as filling as any meat dish you can throw in your face!

There is a healthy alternative cheese also. It’s not as good as cheddar or processed cheese but I love the creamy grilled cheese sandwich my coconut cheese makes! A diet does not need to be restrictive; it just needs to be tweaked with better for you ingredients.

I know how people are addicted to chocolate too. For some reason, they don’t want to try the healthier raw cacao powder to make their brownies or cookies, but this way they could eat without the guilt of the chocolate being bad for them! I don’t like chocolate but I am tempted to try the raw cacao in a smoothie! 

There are healthy eggs out there, healthy chicken, healthy sausage, and even, yes Benning, a better for you healthy BACON! It isn’t a matter of going on a diet, it is a matter of changing your unhealthy eating to HEALTHY alternatives. I know, I know, no one likes change; not many like healthy either.

If we all became aware of what unhealthy food goes down the tube, we’d surely not be an overweight nation. Fast food restaurants would lose business, restaurants would change the way they cook and offer healthier foods to the patrons.  Papa Johns is testing an organic and gluten-free menu and we’re definitely going to see a rise in awareness of what we’re doing to our bodies. I don’t know how long Papa John’s will stand to the pressure of going organic if the founder was made to quit after comments about the money grubbing NFL and their protest ‘people’.

The crazy world we live in is really weird in not wanting people healthy and opposing anything the people do to better their health! Take the FDA, for example, wanting to ban herbs that they call DRUGS because these freakish people don’t know what they’re doing. I think they all WANT us to die, not thriving and healthy, they want us sick and on drugs! REAL drugs like opioids and oxycontin.

Sadly, you say you don’t want to change. I guess you like going to the doctor and handing them your money month after month? You like the pills they offer yet won’t call yourself a drug addict because they’re legal drugs prescribed by a doctor who has had eight hours of training in nutrition? There are a few doctors out there willing to hear you and listen to your plan of healing and will work WITH you to see you to good health. They are out there but if you come from a small state, don’t count on it, they are out for themselves. Do some research and make your health a priority! How can a manicure/pedicure, getting your hair done, buying ‘stuff’ set precedence over your health? It makes no sense to me. How will you enjoy all the stuff if you’re hospitalized or worse, dead?

Do some spring-cleaning for your health! Not just as a passing fad, not as something you’re thinking about, not just a do and fail trip; make your HEALTH your lifelong journey to survival! Illness shouldn’t be about sickness and the endgame; the surfacing of a disease is about HEALTH and a new way to LIVE!

Poetry Sunday ~ The Voice of the People

Jer. 17:23 “But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.”

The Voice of a People (rewrite)

Divided nation defined by complexion

Giving people of color their own little section

We’ve taken blood and changed it to blue

To suit what’s befitting in all that we do.

Changing the prism that reflects amber light   

Cannot be shaken amid darkened night

Believers are ones who bear heavy burden

To stand together as people are hurting

Sharing the Word through love rearrange

the hearts of men for hatred exchange

Caring for people too feeble to take action

The light we emit gives trails to our traction

As your somber soul grieves, God has a plan

For nations, the living, the slain and for man

Bring forth to the world, the difference, the spark

The part of Light that shadows the dark.

The Results Are In

Acts 4:22 “For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed.”

The Results Are In

I can honestly say I patiently waited. I thought the doctor said she’d call Friday but I remembered I did ask for a written copy of the results because I do better visually seeing with my own eyes.

I felt good about the blood test because I know I’ve been doing everything and more to get this crud under control! In my mind, I shouldn’t even have this disease, this belongs to someone else. But such as it is, I got the diagnosis.

To many, this is the jaw dropping death sentence disease that no one wants but millions each year get and quite frankly, die. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, a million times if you’d let it sink into your brain, cancer does NOT kill, chemotherapy DOES! 

I’ll quit stalling because I know you all, my dear spiritual family, who has been with me through this illness these past six months, are as eager as I am to get the results, to actually SEE the results. Just so you know, by the end of the letter I received, the doc did encourage me to get treatment (chemo) for this disease but understood my want for alternative treatment first. She is a medical professional, I’d expect nothing less from her.

Now let me start out with, when you’re diagnosed with cancer, NOTHING is normal; no blood counts are normal, no vitamin counts, everything registers deficient.  That is another signal (besides the mammogram, CT scan, and biopsies) you have the ugly C or some other illness festering inside. Here are the results with comments from me in parentheses.

The letter started off…
Your white blood count including your INFECTION cells (CELLS), were NORMAL at 6,000. Normal range is 4,000 to 11,000.  (comment: mine is 6,000 meaning to me it is ascending daily or can stay where it is, normal range!)

Your hemoglobin was normal at 13.8 and your platelets were normal at 306,000. These should be between 150,000 and 400,00 (comment: I am almost ABOVE normal!)

Other lab testing included comprehensive metabolic panel which looks at your liver, kidneys and all of your electrolytes. Your blood protein ratio was a little bit off (not a lot). This can be affected by hydration, nutrition—this can be mildly affected. (you all know my diet, so this is a normal response, to me) Your liver function tests and your kidney function tests including your sodium, potassium, blood sugar and chloride were all normal! (Comment: this means the detoxification I’m doing is registering in my organs. This is a very good sign when these organs are functioning normally with this disease.)

Your vitamin b12 level was actually ABOVE normal range at 998. Normal range is 193-986. This is just fine to be slightly high. (comment: You bet it is! B12 is a major component of the vitamin that’s essential to fighting this disease. She even said that at the office.)

Your vitamin D level is at 37. Anything over 30 is considered normal. (Comment: Vit. D is another major nutrient component in the fight.)

Overall, all of these tests are essentially NORMAL!!! (my caps and exclamation marks)

Tears flooded from my eyes at this point! Six months of not knowing if what I’m doing was really working. Yes, I most certainly have faith it is, I can see things that SHOW me this diet, my eating habit change has all been working. How everything is just a part of a working machine that when taken care of properly it all works in order to heal.

She also added that while these tests were good, none can be a direct indicator of progressing cancer or improving (the immune system). She has to say that so she is not held liable in any way. I did tell her that I would hold myself directly responsible for whatever outcome happens. And well…it looks like I might be NORMAL after all, at least my blood is. * Big ol’ smile *

My God is an awesome God He reigns. I could not be doing what I’m doing without Him. Once again as so many other times in my life, He has NEVER let me down. My prayers have been answered and I walk along a tough road in faith but now I have actual tests to prove, what I’m doing is showing signs of working. Onward I go on the healing path I’ve chosen.

Thank you and God bless you all!

Luke 9:11 “And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.”

Quotation Saturday

Eph. 4:18 “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:”

NEGATIVE

“Save your skin from the corrosive acids from the mouths of toxic people. Someone who just helped you to speak evil about another person can later help another person to speak evil about you.” 
― Israelmore Ayivor

“Bloodshed begets bloodshed. Hatred begits hatred.” 
― Hiromu Arakawa

“Thoughts are like an open ocean, they can either move you forward within its waves, or sink you under deep into its abyss.”
― Anthony Liccione

“Beware of those who are bitter, for they will never allow you to enjoy your fruit.” 
― Suzy Kassem

POSITIVE

“When you are joyful, when you say yes to life and have fun and project positivity all around you, you become a sun in the center of every constellation, and people want to be near you.” 
― Shannon L. Alder

“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.” 
― Ashley Smith

“Do not dilute the truth of your potential. We often convince ourselves that we cannot change, that we cannot overcome the circumstances of our lives. That is simply not true. You have been blessed with immeasurable power to make positive changes in your life. But you can't just wish it, you can't just hope it, you can't just want it... you have to LIVE it, BE it, DO it.” 
― Steve Maraboli,

“Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity.” 
― Roy Bennett

IGNORANCE

“Confidence is ignorance. If you're feeling cocky, it's because there's something you don't know.” 
― Eoin Colfer

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” 
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” 
― Daniel J. Boorstin

“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.” 
― Harlan Ellison

TOLERANCE

“Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the wrong. Sometime in life you will have been all of these.” 
― Lloyd Shearer

“It's an universal law-- intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.” 
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.” 
― Albert Einstein

“Don't be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn't do what you do or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn't know what you know today.” 
― Malcolm X

Seeing Good In The Bad

2 Sam. 14:17 “Then thine handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable: for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad: therefore the LORD thy God will be with thee.”

Seeing Good in the Bad

I knew today was going to be a different day when I woke while it was still dark outside, put the beloved coffee on, and made my way to let my dog go out back to do her morning business. The ground was wet so I knew we had gotten the much-needed rain overnight.

Sassy had made her way around to the front door so I turned to go in, after seeing a small toad off to the right of the steps, I greeted him with a good morning and proceeded to come in the house. I heard a noise in the darkness.

I had to turn on the light to see what I was encountering hoping beyond all hope it wasn’t the huge snake we’ve seen out in the garden. With the mudroom lit, I see movement on the shoes that are left on the floor. More movement, then an appearance. We have a really big toad, I call Flipit, making his home out in the garden and this morning, he made his way into the house but now he’s stuck behind the shoes. I got a broom and graciously led him to the door to hop back into the garden. To the left of his exit and plopped right there on the top step was the little toad I had previously seen to my right. Maybe big toad was the momma to little toad? No camera in hand so no pics available.

I like to greet the cool outside morning air with a prayer. This morning was no different but I got a treat with the visit of the toad family. I came in the house, poured a cup of coffee and shuffled my way to the computer where I would begin my writing day. 

I’m always leery of opening the internet because of the news I might find glaring at me from behind the screen, begging me to read. Day after day it seems killings, slaughter, murder and death are usually right up front ahead of the headlines. The political garbage gets passed over, just like on facebook if you post political crud, your words fall on deaf ears because I ‘HIDE THIS POST’ and see less and less of what garbage is being spewed out from an angry nation.

I am not pained by the atrocities of the daily news so much so I ignore it. I can’t, I will not allow the shock value to scare me from doing nothing and if you dare say prayer is nothing I will boldly slap you upside the head with the TRUTH about prayer. 

I’ve heard people say that God is ignoring us and this is the farthest thing from the truth. We live in a country founded on God and we the people work to remove Him from the land but it is impossible. Why is it impossible; because God HEARS OUR PRAYER that’s why. 

If we look back in history, we see that our founding fathers loved God. They brought God to this new country and built a land full of believers. So what happened? Well, greed and corruption leaked in and grew, no different than a seed that is planted, it grew and blossomed but the end result wasn’t a beautiful rose, it was a weed of ugliness.

To the non-believer, they would say that that’s all hokey but if they read the Bible they would know from the very first chapter IN the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation the Word states that this is the very thing that would happen. Amid all of the beauty created, weeds of greed and corruption would defile the very beautiful creation and it has to the point of almost total destruction. Have you ever tried to kill the weeds in a garden, only for them to come back full of livelihood and take over? You can try and try but the weeds will pop up somewhere and try to destroy all the beauty.

It’s fact! It’s truth! God tried to give us a moral compass and we planted weeds in that fertile place of mind growth, THAT is why the world is the way it is, we are slowly destroying the beauty. 

Back to the morning news, I was greeted with a small prism of shining beauty in my own neck of the woods in the state of Nebraska. A couple from Texas had purchased a two thousand dollar RV from the corrupted Craigslist only to arrive in Omaha, Nebraska to find they were swindled. I don’t know all that went down but a couple purchased an RV for them, filled it with groceries and all sorts of hospitable products. Cash donations are also pouring in for the couple. 

THIS is the kind of news I like to wake and read. This is what the world is supposed to be about. This is the reason I believe in the Power of Prayer! Yes, in my morning prayer I asked to be greeted by the good in the world through all of the bad. My days are shaped by the good I see, not the bad. I will not, CANNOT ignore the good in the bad. 

Alleluia AMEN! All Glory to God.

They Ruin It...

Prov. 13:18 “Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction: but he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured.”

They Ruin It…

They’ve [humans] ruined my relationship to church; it’s now relinquished to a place to show my face so I can come home and boast of how great the sermon and praise was. They’ve ruined what little trust I had in people by being more about the manipulative angle they can use to abuse me. They make drinking alcohol all about fun and games like it is just a second nature and fine to do without ramifications, they spread lies like mosquitoes spreading Lyme disease injecting their poisonous falsehoods for the world to see and STILL claim to be Christian. 

It is Christians, you know, the very good Christians that are destroying the religion, for ME. I have a faith in Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father but I have zero faith in humankind. I don’t have faith in the churches because they are imploding while touting their growth. Church is no longer about God, it is about an opinionated what-you’re-doing-wrong drama. 

I read the headlines and the stories are unending of a collapsing society. I should say societies because this is happening worldwide and if you just happily ignore the succession of downfall going on around you, then to me, you are part of the problem. We are perverting society by accepting sin like candy from a dirty old man, it’s become the norm.

Evil is stampeding across the globe knocking down pillars that have been in place for centuries. I’m saddened not celebratory at all. Everything is about race, sexism, politics, shoot or be shot, kill or be killed, blatant propaganda spoon-fed by the media to the masses and fed to innocent children who know nothing yet but are being programmed to follow in the footsteps of the hate in the world.

We as a human race are not coming together to solve problems, I see too often people sitting back and being PART of the problem and enjoying their placement in a world of fellow angry citizens who can’t even rise from bed without feeling hate in their veins.  And that makes you a good person?

What exactly constitutes a good Christian or a good person? I shouldn’t have to struggle to see them; they should be quite obvious among the crowd yet they’re not. They’re hidden among the booze drinkers, layered with, if not covered in, the hatemonger; splintered by the right and wrong in the world.

Actions are what separate the good, not color, religion, race or sex but that is what we’ve done to the world, divided man and thought, and has made information so liquid we bathe in the offering. It does not make us good people by agreeing to everything the hate spewers feed you.

Greed has ruined any form of celebration for me. People want and want but are not willing to give a little time and effort to the term ‘change’. They’d much rather be herded together like cattle and be tagged and counted among the crowd as one of the all.

I feel alone as I wade in the ocean of life. I’m out to sea and see no land in sight. Ruined is the joy in a day. Gone is the hope in tomorrow. I have but one thing to hold onto as a life preserver and that is my faith in God. 

While man has destroyed everything, burnt the promise of growth, singed the tide of deliverance, damaged the blossoms of love and buried the plateau of joy, I remain alone. I will count by single digits the good ones and remain skeptical of the boasting 'good' people; skeptical not judgmental because I hold no right in judging. We each have to judge for ourselves what is right and wrong and prayerfully I choose right.

Ten Things Money CAN’T buy?

Manners
Morals
Respect
Common sense
Character
Class
Integrity
Trust
Patience
LOVE!

Bonus: Faith, Hope and Charity

1 Cor. 13:13 KJV “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”

Angel Always... Godspeed

Pss. 104:4 “Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:”

Have you ever had one of those really good weeks where you wonder when the bottom is going to drop right out? It’s been that kind of week. 

Let me take you back two weeks when a dog, a yellow lab rounded the corner of the big blue barn-shed beside my house. Timid and scared, she made her way through my garden, around to the front of the house only to come back and sniff me out to see if I was an evil master or a good angel that she could trust. Anyone who knows me, knows she found a good person to trust in, right? 

I put up signs the next day looking for the owner, I searched lost dog sites and Facebook Lost Pet society to see if ANYONE owned this beautiful but scared dog. The one dog I saw on FB was named Reilly and this dog, for some reason, was responding to that name, but after posting a pic, the lady said it was not her dog. 

I own a dog, a pretty sizable female dog, so keeping Reilly is not an option but every day I’d wake and find her on my front steps or curled up in my garden. The days pass by and she’s still here letting us know she isn’t going anywhere. 

She has one of the deepest barks I’ve ever heard and keeping my neighbors and myself awake at night was going to be a serious problem! I bought a leash to hook her up to in the evening for when she goes on her midnight romps of chasing deer, skunk, raccoon or whatever she can bark at and it is working. She fell silent the nights hinged (a long chain with a collar) to a tree so I’ve since let her off to allow her the freedom, she barks it’s back on but this intelligent dog knows, just knows what I’m doing or trying to teach her. 

I posted a pic and my niece, Sara, right away said she looked like a dog I used to own named Shannon and that I just HAD to keep this dog. Another friend said that I HAD to take care of her because, Angel always? (my signature from way back) And that God would never turn ME away (yeah, the guilt card) and I’m kind of buying it but my husband has not softened up to her, yet. My sister said the dog was an angel sent for me. Oh my…

This was right around the time my husband lost his job but also right around the time he applied for a new job and got a call right away. Now, we can’t feed this oversized dog AND our oversized dog AND feed the family since well, no job and the time it will take to get money from the new job. Everything is stacked against me, or so it seems, from keeping this dog.

My neighbor has two small terrier dogs, a miniature Chihuahua and Reilly seems to think they’re her play toys. One day she played with them all day acting like the puppy that she is, not hurting them mind you, just jumping all around them telling them to play. Being older dogs they wanted nothing to do with Reilly. It brought back some unsettling memories of me as a child wanting to play and no one wanting to play with me because I was annoying or just the riff-raff type that their mothers wouldn’t allow their kids to play with. (Thanks Reilly)

Just so you know, I HAVE been feeding Reilly and giving her food and maybe THAT is why she won’t leave. When a thunderstorm hit the other night I was totally nervous for this dog being outside and I tried so hard to get her into my shed but she just shied away from me. Yesterday’s rain had me calling her again but she sauntered off and went under my neighbor Lisa’s trailer that she keeps as a doghouse for her dogs. It is just a trailer full of junk like old books and papers, magazines, old rugs and stuff. Reilly is one smart dog!

That brings me to today. Yes Reilly is still here wandering around this big old run down Turkey Ranch and greeting us when we walked out the door this morning to take my son to get his driver’s license. He had to take the same test that he failed three times before. But today would be different yes? YES!

Different from the other times was Adam’s optimism and confidence. I allowed him to wear my thumbprint necklace, which is a thumbprint of my deceased father. I wanted a part of my dad to be a part of this day. When Adam walked out the door of the DMV with a MALE who was going to test him, I knew, I just knew that this would be the day he passed! I even said, “He’s going to pass.” Just by seeing whom the tester was.

The other times he had a female to test him and Adam was not confident with them. This time was different Adam left with a smile and returned with A SMILE! A smile that signaled to me, he passed! I cried! I didn’t bawl my eyes out but tears began trickling out of my eyes. He came out the door with his temporary license in his hand, a smile on his face and I gave him the biggest hug ever! 

The week has been richly full of blessings. My mother has seen to it that we can make it until we get a real paycheck again by sending me ‘a treat’ which will buy me food and me taking care of Reilly is essentially ‘paying it forward’.

May the week continue to be joyful and prosperous as I head into my birthday week!

Angel Always, Godspeed.

Ezra 5:31 “Now when I had spoken these words, the angel that came to me the night afore was sent unto me,”

Reilly

Content

Ex. 2:20-21 And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread. And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.

You could see this post as content [kon-tent] significance or profundity; meaning:
a clever play that lacks content.
Or: substantive information or creative material viewed in contrast to its actual or potential manner of presentation:

Or content [kuh n-tent] satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else.

I was going for the being satisfied with what one is or has but it can also be seen as significance. I see a problem that has risen to record proportions in a nation of contentious people. They are not happy with what they have or with whom they are, causing an upheaval of indecisiveness.

Rom. 2:8 “But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,”

Not only do I see this in the (I never talk about) politics, but in people’s lives. They are never content with the blessings they have and always seeking out more, whether it is more clothes, a bigger house, more selection or more choices, then they’re left confused wanderers by not being content with what they have. 

Why can’t people be content? People are no longer impressed with integrity, kindness, humility and generosity; they’re too busy being overcome by anger and hate as if something has possessed them that they’ll never admit is happening.

“I still get very high and very low in life. Daily. But I finally accepted the fact that sensitive is just how I was made, that I don’t have to hide it and I don’t have to fix it. I’m not broken.” ~ Glennon Melton

We must be able to overcome the dark force that is waging war on our souls so much so that we act like a roaring lion filled with hate, not a gentle Lamb like Christ. It is much easier to come out and attack, lash out at anyone and everyone who doesn’t have the same perspective as we do and yet we find ourselves clinging to the ones who are also filled with the maliciousness.

One of the hardest things to do in my Child of God walk is to forgive, to love my enemy, to turn the other cheek. People see me as either naïve or blind to reality but do they ever see me as a Child of God? No, and yes, do you know why? They’d rather pick a negative connotation not knowing it is an evil dark force that is drawing them to the conclusion. 

You see, they are the ones blind. They are blind to the blood of Christ that they claim is seeping through their veins. Jesus knew the men who were killing Him. Did He choose to lash out and spew hate filled words to carry Him to heaven? Did He choose to separate himself from the prostitutes, the poor, the lame and the different?

I know what you’re going to say. He was a better man than you. Yes, this is true but He is the one whose words should be first out of your mouth, not the ones that satan chooses for you.

We’re human and we are weak but He is strong! He is the one who has the strength to overcome the evil in the world and instead of rallying around satan, without demeaning hate-filled words, whose end has been prophesied about and will come, Jesus’ end is just the beginning.

When you are filled with love and joy part of the time in your daily living then you are not filled with Jesus all of the time. Being human allows you that right to choose good and evil.

I choose to overcome the evil force playing tug of war in my soul. Do you think it is easy? Do you think Joni just wakes up with her head in the clouds? No, she has to work at being there like everyone else but again, it is her CHOICE to choose good over evil.

Being content with all that I am and all that I have, not wanting more and more keeps me grounded in the here and now.

Phil. 4:11 “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”

The LOVE of Life

The LOVE of Life

I see so many people distracted by hate that they are losing sight of the love of life. Entangled in bashing whether gay or religious, these people thrive on the negative aspects of everything to do with life.

I find myself wanting to distance myself from these people but I do have hope that one day they’ll see the err of their ways and give it all up to God like they proclaim. If you sincerely have given it all up to God, should you be dwelling in the judgment seat of all men?

In a matter of minutes people are seen praising the Lord one minute, then bashing gays or Muslims or political figures or what can I say, the list goes on and on. It’s ironic I know but when God said you can’t serve two masters, for some reason I’ve never had the impression that He meant money and Himself.

I seriously think God meant that in a metaphorical sense because so much of His word is built on metaphor. No He did not mean for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, He did not want us to take an eye for an eye, or pluck out our eyes, the list is endless here too, so why would we think God meant, serving two masters meant God and money?

I PERSONALLY don’t feel we can serve love and hate. I do not feel with one iota of my being we can serve good and evil. Love, hate, good and evil are masters of our soul. They reign over us and we need to know which one to serve in an every day, every second situation. *I* choose love and good, over hate and evil but man cannot serve both on their platter of climbing the social ladder.

The definition of serve:

To render assistance; be of use; help

How is dishing out your hatred of someone or something of any assistance to anyone?

The definition of masters:

A person whose teachings others accept or follow: ie: a Zen master.

Matt. 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

The definition of mammon:

Riches or material wealth.

(often initial capital letter) a personification of riches as an evil spirit or deity.

Do you see clearly how in Matthew 6 it is stated you cannot SERVE (assist) two MASTERS? You will HATE the one or LOVE the other. I don’t find it odd that the Words used are HATE AND LOVE. You my friend, cannot serve (dish out) HATE and LOVE (praise the Lord) at the same time, you are serving TWO masters.

I’m not going to run to Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook and shout out how much I love and praise the Lord then in the next post shout out how much I hate, despise, dislike or disagree with something (color it any way you’d like) it is still a love hate relationship with whomever it is you show allegiance to.

Again *I* personally choose love. I choose to love my enemy, love my neighbor as much as myself, love the Lord my God and serve only ONE master of my soul and that is the Lord of LOVE!

While you can dislike or disagree with my opinion, I will love you and pray for you.

Ezek. 34:11 “For thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out.”

One definition of sheep: a meek, unimaginative, or easily led person.

Idiom: Separate the sheep from the goats, to separate good people from bad or those intended for a specific end from unqualified people.

While some will call me a sheep because of my optimism, hope, strength and LOVE for humans and humankind, I have to say thank you, why?

Pss. 37:11 “But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”

I am whom God created me to be and for that very reason is the reason I am!

Praise be to God from whom all blessings flow.

Daily Slaughter

Pss. 62:1-2 Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved.

Daily Slaughter

I see it; it is happening all around me and far from me but it still has fingers to touch me; the persecution of Christian believers. Death and slaughter is on the banks of every shore reaching in and finding the ones who believe in God, in Christ, in anything but the distorted Islamic religion.

I won’t justify the terrorists by giving them a name, which is too good for them. I just like to refer to them as slaughtering beasts. By the reading of morning headlines, I see that the terror isn’t restricted to one part of the world. I see men and women losing their mind over here in the good old U.S of A. also.

We live in a world where sanity is laughed at, insanity is a way of life, so much so that even the sane people are left to feel somewhat insane. Slaughter takes on many shapes and forms and insanity is driven by an evil force although no one wants to call it what it is for fear of being thought insane.

I think people of today are finally waking up and seeing with their own eyes that there is something going on that cannot merely be explained as insanity. Just as light is a force of growth (sunlight causes trees and flowers to grow) darkness is a force that causes people to be driven from the light. Even the definition of darkness is ‘absence of light’.

While we stand in awe of the tangerine orb hanging in the sky, we know that it will settle off on the horizon only to give light of the cratered cantaloupe light hanging from the sky with its beads of pearls strung all through the infinite realm of darkness.

Daylight and moonlight are our sources of light in a darkened world but as humans we have not come to worship the sun and moon, we worship the Creator of such gifts. The insanity of life is formed when we are consumed with the worship of the physical and material aspects of life.

I often think of the time when the world was being formed and the angels were in discussion. Lucifer wanted control of the earth and God wanted man to be at the helm of its glory and thus the unraveling of the conscious mind began.

Gen. 1: 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

We can be told by scientist of the Big Bang theory and possibly believe it, but honestly, could an astronomical event create the human mind, body and soul? Did the Bang have the power to separate the Light from the Dark? Yes, you say? Well how did it divide the atoms to make up the spirit residing in the human mind called a soul?

Since the beginning of time the light and dark forces have been at war. These same elements are in us. IN US! Running through our veins in a rampant force just waiting to surface. Obviously, the dark forces causing us to do evil shadowy things in the land that we were to make prosperous and not destroy causes the insanity of man.

We’re taken back to the control of the situation. When I see men/women being beheaded I think of the control freaks doing the injustice and I see the demon gloom hanging from a sword. When I see beasts killing men and women in MY land with a gun or knife, I see that person who is dying for control, losing his mind to darkness that has blurred his vision stealing the light from within him/her.

No gender or age is immune from this cloudburst. No profession is off limits to the unruly behavior that the force seeks out to destroy. The dark force is upon us, hanging over in an impulsive manner almost forcibly shaking us to do what we normally would never do in a thousand years. Our only sense of self-control is to cling to our sanity.

I feel as if I’m in the midst of a Zombie apocalypse just waiting for the guillotine to wrap around my neck. I observe the seemingly sane give into insane behavior lapping up all the darkness that is there to feed off of.

How is man to ward off the evil taking over the world? Just as he did in the beginning of time, giving up control. Man is to give up control of his material possessions, his physical world and be bathed in the Light that God so freely gives to all.

Luke 18: 22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

I think of the entire fleet of atheist wandering around groping in the dark. If just once they gave control over to the Light, I can bet God would see them and they’d see Him, whether they want it or not. But it looks to me like they’re accepting living in a dark world of pessimism giving control over to the wind that carries them to and fro.

When I think of Israel and the land where my Savior was born, I also think of the persecution that went on there. I think of the first man and woman who were led out of the Garden of Eden with the promise of life. I think of the Eternal life that we are given when we choose, quite simply, light over dark.

While the world is succumbing to the evil darkness washing over us like a summer rainfall, we become parched and depleted in a world without light. The sleeves of armor are wearing thin as we watch the takeover. Our only saving grace is not out here in the physical world, it is in the moisture of our insides drinking the fresh, ripe fruit juice of the Spirit living within us.

Pss. 63:1-4 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

Good Things Happen

Gal. 5: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

We spoke of bad things happening this week. While we know bad things happen, we also know good things happen. It seems to me, being an optimist and all, good things happen for me all the time.

I listen to people complain about things over and over again. The same things they complained about last year are still the same things they complain about this year and will complain about next year too. They never try to change.

People flee from the optimist because they’re always applauding the good things happening; people flee from the pessimist because they keep harping on the bad things that are happening. But people flock to the realist because, let’s face it, they embrace the good and bad things and just go through life accepting the fact that good and bad things happen, deal with it.

Let’s pick these three apart:

There is the optimist, who when something bad has happened, chooses to see it as a bad thing but something good is about to happen, or something better is yet to come. It’s not bragging when something good has happened, it’s sharing. I like to share with people (who may be going through the same thing) that while I was on a darkened path, something in the form of a ray of light came through and Lightened the way. And more often than not, it happened by way of Divine Intervention. That’s just the way * I * see it, the optimist.

Then there is the pessimist. While he or she is on the darkened path, they feel the need to share that pain and anguish. It is as if they are wallowing in the pool and waiting for someone else to throw them an anchor to hold onto, preferably from another pessimist.

They scream and wail for help and the bystander pessimist announces to the sufferer, “Here’s the anchor, just claw your way to shore and I’ll give it to you.”

Or they’ll scoff and say, “Well I told you so. You got yourself in that mess, you can get yourself out of it!

The pessimist takes a negative and amplifies the situation with more negativity. That’s just the way the pessimists work.  Negative people feed off one another. Not much good can come from two negative people! Put an optimist in the path of the pessimist and guess what, we toss that anchor of hope out and reel in the pessimist.

Then there is the realist who says ‘Deal with it.’ Yup, they’ve been dealt a raw deal and they just shrug and deal with it. They don’t seek promise, hope and faith. They just deal. They don’t trash the situation, they just deal. They see things as they ARE not the possibilities of what could BE.

I guess that’s an okay kind of merry-go-round sort of life but in reality it is no life. They just circle the days and deal with whatever comes; they don’t strive to become anything more than what they are dealt, they just deal. TO ME, a realist has covered his tracks in rose petals and lies to himself that a swift wind won’t blow them away. And remember, a liar always believes what he sells himself; and usually more times than not, the lie catches up, a gust of wind blows all the rose petals away and they are made to see what reality they have created for themselves.

I’m not ragging on the pessimist and realist of society, I’m just enlightening the fact that they’re out there. Society is made up of billions of them actually and basically that is why the world is in such disarray. We optimists can’t carry the world, you know, but we do keep it spinning. Why? Because we see HOPE in tomorrow, no matter how  bad it is today.

What I’m trying to say is this: pessimists survive, realist live, while optimist have hope. I have friends in each of these categories and I don’t judge their choices. I try and give them hope in turning that negative into a positive, even when they SWEAR there is not a problem, I extend HOPE! Call it the optimist in me trying to see the good in everything.

Good things happen to me because you can throw all the negative crud you want at me, and somehow, some way, I’ll make it positive and good will flow like living water from me! It’s all any of us can do to make it in the world today.

Maybe try looking up > optimist, instead of down > the pessimist, or side to side > the realist. Walk with a clear conscience and embrace the good about to happen, the hope that the best is yet to come.

Amen! 

Poetry Sunday ~ The Road

Phil. 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

The Road

The road is blemished in an odd way

it started with my waking day.

A pebble here, small stone there

tossed about without a care.

My road is darkened, often bleak

I wander the path for all I seek.

Purged from innocent winds I fly

longing to know the reasons why.

Throw in the towel and give it all up

am I worthy to drink from His cup?

He kissed my head, held my hand

gave me strength for which to stand.

The path was lit in a rainbows flare

my eyes soon saw possibilities there.

All from me or blessings from Him,

the road now bright no longer dim.

Sometimes we see no light to guide

Mistruths, mistrusts we long to hide.

Inner peace is not from this world

nor in agenda of a flag unfurled.

Struggles are often the seeds of growth

I am full owner of them both.

As I stand and knock at pains door

a blossoming blessing rocks my core.

It’s not about our physical sight

that gives us all the will to fight.

Simply put it’s how you revere love,

as muddy waters or a snow-white dove.

I give it my all in withering strife,

the road less traveled becomes my life.

It’s not the road, in which you travel,

It’s that which you sow in rich soil or gravel.

Chess anyone?

It is impossible to win gracefully at chess. No man has yet said "Mate!" in a voice which failed to sound to his opponent bitter, boastful and malicious. ~A.A. Milne
***

So you were anticipating a blog post about the correlation between writing and chess? Well let me tell you, I can give a really good analogy of a chess/life scenario but I’ve really got to work on the writing/chess scenario.

Okay where do I begin? I’ll start with the white side. This is the team I always go for in playing chess. It reminds me of purity and all that that entails. Strength,wisdom, knowledge,etc.

In writing, the white team can be visualized as the protagonist, or the good guy. The dudley-do-right, the main character of the story. Then we have the black team and they are the antagonist, the bad guys, the dark force, the one or ones that will be causing all kinds of trouble in the story.

We have pawns on both sides, correct? The same powerful pieces standing behind the pawns on both sides too. The pawns can be seen as the disposable characters, if you will. Now you have all of these characters standing behind you vying for a place so lets give them a place.

The rook will be the homestead or the solid foundation of your story, the dark side has an ominous looking castle which probably houses Count Dracula or some other dark figure.

The knight will be the character in your story that does all the fighting for you. They don’t call it the Knight in shining armor for no reason at all. He just might save, your damsel in distress. The dark fights for the light, the light normally wins IN THE END, hopefully, with fingers crossed, the Light will win. (emphasis on WILL win)

Then we have the bishops. They can be your moral compass. The bishop can stand for our values, beliefs, hope, faith and promise. The good seed buried in all of us that sometimes we call a conscious. Now the dark bishop is who in your story? Well it’s the dark force or the bad seed that will not and can not take root because you’ve given him/it no fertile soil in which to grow. He is going to be the turmoil around every corner in your story.

Ah, now we have the king and queen. This will be the strong lead characters in your story who eventually are left standing with the dark side (king and queen) all alone on that big checkered board, or white paged palette we call a storyboard.

What do we do in this position? We do what any good writer would do and that is knock the pants off of the Dark Force and we have our main characters all full of light left standing in a triumphant glow of completion. Check Mate!

Does any of this make sense? Well to my demented writers brain it does. Look out Stephen King, I figured you out! Now lets see if I can see what gardening and writing have in common. Okay, I’m kidding! (not really)

Now we know what makes a story so what are you waiting for? Why are you sitting here reading, shouldn’t you be writing? 

***

'Tis all a chequer board of nights and days,
Where destiny with men for pieces plays;
Hither and thither, and mates, and slays.
~Edward Fitzgerald