Walk In Faith

Matt. 6:30 “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”

Sometimes in this rushed and hurried world walking in faith is sometimes a struggle. This week alone I needed the armor of a tank to get through. I pulled a muscle in my neck or I have a pinched nerve. I don’t know which exactly it is but the pain left me almost immobile for four days straight. I looked out the window saw the sun shining but couldn’t move to go out and enjoy the seventy-degree days. That meant no walk, no bike, just rest. Sometimes we need to hold onto faith tightly and just trust the Lord in all He is doing.

It’s been one of those weeks where everything goes wrong in the beginning but by the end of the week it turns out to be pretty awesome. I learned a few things this week. I learned it is okay to ask someone for help to do something for you even if it feels like a bother, just ASK! 

I’ve had a pretty stiff neck for the past couple of weeks because of the way I sleep but nothing too painful. But Sunday when I decided to take the trash out and feed the birds, apparently the trash was too heavy as was the bird feed container I carry to fill the birdfeeder. I was too stubborn to ask my son or husband to do the chores for me and the experience taught me a lesson. Let the food in the trash stink up the place, whatever you do, don’t carry the hundred pound potato sacks! That’s how heavy the items felt but the weight was too much on my neck and it rendered me almost 99% immobile by Sunday evening. I could have saved myself a lot of pain had I just asked someone to do the chore for me.

Monday morning found me with my cane and heating pad (blessings) as I sat in my jammies the entire day slowly feeling better but continued resting. The more rest the better is the way I saw the situation. No clothes were washed, no cleaning got done; the men had to fend for themselves, and by the way, made sure MY needs were met. Yeah, they came through for me.

By Tuesday I woke to feel somewhat better but not well enough to clean, do chores and stuff but I was able, albeit a struggle, to take a nice hot shower. I had a writing assignment due and was at a loss on posting the thing, as I could not spend much time on the computer due to the literal pain in my neck! The slightest lowering of my neck or turning it to the left or right was a labor of pain; more rest was necessary. I would give my hubby a percentage of my progress, Tuesday I was at 50% percent feeling better than Sunday. I had washed a load of laundry but was at a standstill when it came time to retrieve the clothes from my very deep washer. I asked for help. I rested more than I worked. I knew my limits and adhered to them strictly.

By Wednesday I was at 80% better! Walking was not hurting, lifting was still an effort but bending my knees when lifting helped immeasurably. I had learned a lot of techniques many years ago when my grandmother had a stroke and needed physical therapy. I was the one who’d be with her daily so I needed to learn techniques in getting her to stand, to lift, to put shoes on etcetera. I didn’t know that I would need the knowledge for myself but it is quite amazing how the techniques all came back to me in an instant.

Wednesday found me asking my son to check the mail. I took over the chore when he got a full-time job working forty to forty-eight hours a week. You might find it funny that retrieving the mail is a chore but just to let you know, my mailbox sits I’d say a half a football field length away from the house if not more. I live in the middle of nowhere remember? The soil is soft, spongy and uncertain terrain in many areas that can jerk the neck into pain all over again so I steered clear of walking, biking and going outside on the beautiful spring-like days.

My mailbox had been overflowing with, you guessed it, the hounding oncology and radiology bills (still) and junk mail but also a card from the angel who has taken a mission upon himself to tuck me under his wing to aid me monetarily so I can continue buying the vitamins, nutrients and even the necessary food. This month’s donation may be used for a knee brace and a foot massager, as both of those will aid me in strengthening my bones and the ability to move in the upcoming cold months.

Since my YouCaring funds have been depleted, I’m on my own now. I should have enough vitamin supplements to get me to January, only because I spent the money wisely on the vitamins most vital to my healing. My physical address can be received by a simple email to jonismuse @ yahoo. com! Or you can ask one of my dear friends for my address as I allow a select few to know my actual whereabouts. Just ask. I would love hearing from the outside world during the holidays as this is going to be a very trying, different Christmas this year as I fight the battle of a lifetime. Unconditional love and support work wonders.

The Survivor

This little fella greeted me on my walk the other day, he survived the recent freeze! 

By Wednesday, late in the day, I felt 90% better so I ventured out and took a small fifteen-minute walk. I could have gone longer but I’m no fool, I will be taking it quite easy for a while before I get back into my crazy insane routines. 

“If diet is wrong, medicine is of no use when diet is correct, medicine is of no need.” ~ Ayurveda teaching

I am still on an extremely low sugar/low carb diet, among other things. The only sugars I get are from NATURAL sources like fruit! I know anything I tell you all about the harm you’re doing your bodies is basically a moot point because, like me, you’ll wait for a death sentence before ever changing your diet. I know we all basically live to die, but yesterday I think I made it quite clear what I’m doing, I’m living to live! Eternal life is my destination and as anything else in and out of this world, the endeavor is no easy task. I walk on faith and that has been one of my strongest assets throughout my life, this time is no different.

God bless each and every one of you for caring for me. That alone has healing powers! 

Deut. 32:20 “And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.”

Food, Glorious Food!

Pss. 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” 

Food Glorious Food!

Over the past four months, I’ve groaned, I’ve grumbled, I whined and complained all about… food!!! This week I went food shopping and hit a welcome relief to my shopping excursion; I left feeling good and not wanting to cry my eyes out over what I couldn’t eat or the unhealthy food choices available to me.

I think I’m finally coming to terms with this new healthy lifestyle! I challenge myself every day building my strength by cooking (unhealthy to ME) meals for my hubby and son. It doesn’t bother me and never has so why should food shopping, right? I think because, with food shopping, you’re smothered in opportunities of choices, good or bad.

I’m all about God working in mysterious ways and throw nothing, and I mean nothing to coincidence, I’ve never believed in coincidence and never will. I believe God has plans for each and ever little thing in our life and when ‘things’ happen that others call coincidence, I believe it was really God’s planning the seasons of our life.

Like the stationary bike I wrote about yesterday, God was planning all of those years ago for my hubby and me to benefit from that little piece of equipment. He was also in the planning stages for something else when my husband lost his job over a year ago. 

You see after my husband got his sight back, he had to get back into the workforce. I wrote about how, because of his blindness in one eye put him on the disabled list, his driving limitations were set on his license and he had to take a job that would work with those limitations, hence the minimum wage part time job at WalMart where he was a cart pusher for four years. Just a note: WalMart works with people with disabilities and gives them the opportunity to work, so before making fun of WalMart employees remember, that person just might have a disability you can neither see or hear.

After WalMart, he took a job at HyVee supermarket. This was a newly constructed high-end supermarket that apparently this small town needed even though there are numerous nostalgic, long time food markets in the area. HyVee is a food chain and even hubby’s aunt said they had one in South Dakota. HyVee would hire hubby as an online food shopper. I’ve mentioned before that my sweetheart is a shopaholic, so God placed him in a store where he could shop his heart out, for other people mind you, but still he’s an online food shopper.

HyVee is home to a coffee shop, a diner, a quick-stop gas station and an enormous array of good food; more expensive, as all healthy food is but the store is remarkable at catering to the health conscious of America. You wouldn’t think there was a need for online shoppers but HyVee is an employer to at least twelve online shoppers. How does online shopping work? You place your order online and people shop for you. You get it delivered to your house or pick your order up at the store. 

What I’m getting at here is, not a commercial for HyVee, but to show you how God was making plans all along for this illness of mine. You see, had hubby been working at WalMart, we would have never known the opportunities of healthy food sitting right across the road at HyVee! From fake noodles, grass fed chicken to cheese made from coconut milk, no dairy! That store caters to my needs at this very time.

With him being an online shopper, he knows where everything is in the store, what they sell, what’s on sale (they have GREAT sales BTW) what’s healthy and what’s not. As opposed to WalMart, this store actually has a host of organic fruits and vegetables! They have an entire corner of the store dedicated to the Health Market where there are gluten free, healthy organic processed foods! How awesome is that?!?!

You see, God had this alternative treatment route planned for me all along! The money we save on the unhealthy food I’m not eating goes toward the healthy, non-toxic food I CAN eat. So when I walk into the food store now, I no longer think of what I can’t have (I do still have small tweaks) I am getting better at accepting and enjoying all that I can eat and that is food, glorious healthy food!

Ephesians 4:22-24, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (NIV)

Comforting Words

Heb. 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Comfort in Trying Times

I was going to hang my hat up for the rest of the year of blogging but as many of you already know me so well, I do what God calls me to do and last night it was evidently clear that He wanted me to send out some comforting words to you, who need to hear.

As you know, we have all experienced a year of awe-inspiring deaths; deaths that affected the very core of our soul. Yes, I know everyone dies, and every year we have our shocking deaths of the year that just makes our jaw drop open and hang there in wonder. Last year for me was a blur as I had three deaths in the family and it looks like this year my husband might be losing an aunt. She is in the hospital being kept alive by feeding tubes as I write.  

I’m referring to the current year of celebrity deaths that seemed to touch many generations not just my generation as Prince, Glen Frey, George Michael in the music world, but to the older generations as in Garry Marshall, Gloria DeHaven, Arnold Palmer and the space exploring Astronauts John Glenn and Edgar Mitchell to writer Harper Lee. These deaths touched many generations. The list goes on and on and the year isn’t even over yet. This seems to be the year of icon deaths. 

When growing up what is magnified in shaping you is what goes into your mind, body, and spirit. While God may have shaped the early years, the television and radio input has also chiseled little pieces of your psyche. As you travel down memory lane December 31st, remember those icons who shaped who you are today. 

The political arena where people fought like pit bulls tossed into a pit with a bunny running in circles overshadowed this dismal year also. Devastating fires and earthquakes in places that rarely receives any media attention carved the year and the disheartening ending. This was a year for the record books from weather, destruction, deaths, politics, wildfires to entitlement. We the people who feel entitled to everything our fingers and minds can grasp are being put into our place for certain. 

We are not entitled! This is not our world to do what we want, this place is on loan and the sooner people realize how close we are to the end and that it is time to pay our dues maybe people can focus deeper on their soul and the continuance of the spirit that will leave the body, leave the beloved family behind to mourn and leave you to cleave only to your own spirit.

I watch as people succumb to their wants and needs. Even if all of their needs are met they seek more; more meds, more money, bigger house, better car, more materials, want, want, want. Their heads are spinning from the confusion instead of calmly looking around at all they have within their grasp and meditating what is right at their fingertips.

Heb. 13:5-6 “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me."

I have nieces and nephews with small children that have to grow up in this world and this is not the world I want to leave them. I want to leave my mark so that when I go, like the iconic figures that have gone on before me this year, I want to be remembered for my poetic life, the laughter I shared, the smiles I gave, for the joy I bestowed and for the God I loved in life and in death, and His comforting words that I share with you today.

Heb 6:10-12 NIV “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” 

Some of these icons that passed over were either well aged or who had not even begun their life, but take note, they all left their mark on the world. I can only assume that God is ready for His chosen to be lifted and taken to a better place. 

I find comfort in knowing that I have a place to go after this life. While some still struggle to understand the depths of the hereafter, probably because they are too consumed by the here and now and the wants and needs of today, I am comforted in knowing that there IS a hereafter and that this life is a continuum of a path that never really ends for us. 

Heb. 6:17-20 “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf.”

So as I am saddened by the recent deaths of George Michael, Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds I can rest assure with the fact that the choir of angels amassed in heaven this year alone is going to be its own resounding trumpet. 
To the literalist I say, don’t wait for the brass, to the realist I say see what is real, to the pessimist I say, stop conjuring and to the optimist I say, keep the faith! 

Maybe we should all… be Praying for Time. 

God Bless one and all!

Nurturing The Seed Within

Pss. 72:7 "In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth."

People are going to ask, how do I nurture the seed within?

Well, I can only tell you what works for me. I think every individual is different and will react to His blessings differently as they begin to nurture, continue to feed, and discipline themselves to receiving all of the knowledge the Lord has to offer. Through good and bad, the seed is within you just waiting for the water so it can blossom.

If you think God handpicks the perfect in society, boy are you ever wrong. He doesn’t choose the most beautiful to guide, He doesn’t ask the strong to come to Him, He doesn’t want the saint that man appoints, nope, he wants the ugly, downtrodden, dirty muddy sinner. Why? Because He sees what is deep inside. If he knows every hair on your head, you can bet your bottom dollar he can see the mud built up on your feet from going barefoot for long walks at a time.

1 Sam. 16:7 (KJV) “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”

Going barefoot is like a man who never knew or wanted to know the likes of Christ. He’s washed his hands of everything to do with God and is living the life that he has planned for himself. You know what? That is the kind of man or woman that God has set His sights on even when you think there is nothing, there is something calling you to Him. You might not acknowledge the pull, but you know, deep in the night as you try and fall asleep, the stars are out there twinkling and you wonder.

You might think He’s washed His hands of you but I can assure you, God did not create us to dispose of us because we don’t fit His bill. No siree, God has his eyes on you when you think you’ve ridden yourself of Him. Even when you shun Him and don’t seek him he has landed his eye on you and is deep within you pulling you toward him, to an eternity with Him. 

Samuel chose David over all of Jesse’s sons, the ones who were taller, smarter and better looking for small little David who was out in the fields tending the sheep. Did God overlook David? No, he saw in him a King and that is what David would later become. 

If you read the book of Samuel you’ll see, David, the one who would one day be king, is the same boy who fought Goliath. Was it an easy task? Did he just walk up to him and say Boo, be gone? No, I do believe David struggled all of his life to be accepted by his family, fought to want to be included as a warrior but was overlooked by man and was tread upon and ground into the dirt but overcame a giant! HE was the one chosen by God.

This is the God I love and praise, One who sees me in all my tattered clothing, broken body, dry crinkly skin, He sees in me a King, so to speak. As I realize this, I begin ACTING like a king, in character and dignity and carrying myself for the entire world to see God IN me!

He sees something in each and every one of us no matter how small we think of ourselves, He’s choosing us to come to Him. That is how we nurture our Spirits. We fill our lives with everything God. From animals to plants, from flowers to trees, from the clouds to the moon, He is all, living in all and once you start seeing Him in everything you begin to want to know more and more about this God.

Does this mean He’ll heal you of your pains and illnesses? No, they’ll become bearable. Will He pay your high electric bill for you? No, but you’ll have the means to do it. You have to be willing to SEE the blessing instead of seeing a coincidence. Sometimes we have to sacrifice our WANTS for our NEEDS to be fulfilled. That right there is God working in you. You are important to Him. As with anything that is important to you, you take care of it, you nurture it until the seed becomes you, the you God intended. 

When you finally accept that science will never find Him or ‘prove’ Him and live with the faith that KNOWING Him is well enough for your soul, blessings and miracles fall like sparkling confetti and you see them and know they are from Him, the Him you didn’t even believe existed. May the Spiritual seed that God planted in you be nurtured until you bond together, grow, and flourish.

Praise be to God!

1 Samuel

Quotation Saturday ~ Love

LOVE

“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” 
~ Mother Teresa

“When we meet someone and fall in love, we have a sense that the whole universe is on our side. And yet if something goes wrong, there is nothing left! How is it possible for the beauty that was there only minutes before to vanish so quickly? Life moves very fast. It rushes from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds.” 
~ Paulo Coelho

“When I look in the mirror, I know I’m looking at someone who isn’t sure she deserves to be loved at all.” 
~ Nicholas Sparks

“About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won't like you at all.” 
~ Rita Mae Brown

“Was it hard?" I ask.
Letting go?"

Not as hard as holding on to something that wasn't real.” 
~ Lisa Schroeder

HAPPINESS

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.” 
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“Always forgive, but never forget, else you will be a prisoner of your own hatred, and doomed to repeat your mistakes forever.” 
~ Wil Zeus

“Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here.” 
~ Leo Tolstoy

“Happiness does not come from without, it comes from within” 
~ Helen Keller

WANTS

“The life of less, one bent on simplicity, and not needing or wanting anything other than what God has deemed good for you turns out to be all you could ever need or want.” 
~ Hayley and Michael DiMarco

“What we all want, really, is to be loved. That craving drives our worst behavior.” 
~ Jodi Picoult

“What do I want? What kind of question is that? I want what everybody wants. I want someone who has my back. I want someone's name to put in the space after "in an emergecy please call." I want someone who will drink the other half of the bottle of wine so I don't. And someone to make it worth sitting down at an actual table to eat. I want someone who's dying to get home after a long day because I'm going to be there.” 
~ Claire Cook

“Sometimes, I think we're afraid to admit we want certain things. Especially things that contradict the image we have of ourselves.” 
~ Debbie Macomber

NEEDS

“If Christ has been given us, if we are called to his discipleship we are given all things, literally _all_ things. He will see to it that they are added unto us. If we follow Jesus and look only to His righteousness, we are in his hands and under the protection of Him and His Father. And if we are in communion with the Father, nought can harm us. God will help us in the hour of need, and He knows our needs.” 
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

“When I save, I lay something aside for future need. If I sense God's leading, I will give it away to meet greater needs. When I hoard, I'm unwilling to part with what I've saved to meet others' needs, because my possible future needs outweigh their actual present needs. I fail to love my neighbor as myself.” 
~ Randy Alcorn

“You won't discover God is all you need until God is all you have.” 
~ Reverend Claude Nicholas

“First you find out what you have, Dad would say. Then you figure out how to make it work for what you need, 'cause you don't get what you want. You get just what you have and no more. ” 
~ Lilith Saintcrow

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. 

My Own Little World

My Own Blessed Little World

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

Out here in the middle of nowhere, I sit in my own little world. People expect me to be absorbed in the virtual world but no, it serves no purpose in my life so I sit in my own little world tapping on keys writing to my hearts content. 

The mornings here in this springtime world are bathed in sunshine, after almost a month of gray clouds and rain. The crisp cool mornings are still upon us where a light jacket is needed in the morning but by afternoon, no jacket is required, just sun, grass, and endless fields.

The pivots are making their morning stroll releasing a mist to the newly planted fields. Big-wheeled tractors are making their morning rounds discharging a fertilizer to protect the greenery from insects. Then there are the cottonwood trees freeing the clumps of cotton-like substance landing on the ground looking like a newly fallen snow.

Then there is the insect world. The spiders have been awakened from their winter slumber, the flies are mounting an army to attack any living creature in their way, and the hummingbird moths have made their appearance on my Salvia bush. Butterflies flit off in the distance inspecting the newly bloomed Marigolds that resurface every year. Note that marigolds are not perennials but the mild winters have been protecting the seeds as they fell from last year and so I am blessed with hundreds of marigolds each season.

I was in a bit of depression a few weeks ago and my one friend asked me what was wrong. I didn’t really give him any clear answer but sure enough, a week later he prodded further and I told him I was healing. I had been down for who knows what reason but I was now working on myself and finding healing. That’s a friend, who senses when you’re down and actually cares enough to poke in your business to see what the problem is and checks up on you to make sure you’re doing okay. 

He assured me that I am blessed and it hit home. I began counting the blessings in my life instead of focusing on what I can’t do. You see, I’m not an idle person; I always like to be moving whether planting in my garden, digging up weeds, mowing, cleaning, and doing laundry or whatever. I type/write in the few minutes of rest that my disabled body needs, then I’m back up moving around. 

My disability gets me down a lot of the times. I don’t even know what the disability is but I do know if I was pulled over and asked to take a sobriety test I’d fail for my inability to walk a straight line and not from alcohol either. My vision isn’t too good either so I stopped driving for my safety and the other drivers, too. I was diagnosed with arthritis in my back but after reading the M.S. symptoms, I’m not going to rule that out.

After I throw myself a pity party, I find a healing place in counting my blessings. I know this doesn’t sound like a blessing but my neighbor finally mowed down her waist high grass. Her riding mower needed blade repair and a push mower that she bought (so that she could lose weight, she told me) was too hard for her so she had her riding mower repaired and spent four hours for three days out there in the sun, stirring up my allergies, but I was feeling blessed by not having to see the eyesore any longer.

On the cooler days, I take advantage of getting outside, in my own little world. Sometimes I mow (carefully, knowing my limits) sometimes I just sit out there watching trucks roll by, other times I’m out there, counting my blessings.

While many people are consumed with what they don’t have, what they HAVE to have, what they WANT and what they’ll spend their money on, I’m here in my own little world counting my blessings of all that I HAVE! Cherishing the fact that I have all that I NEED and want for nothing but cool nights so I can continue sleeping with my windows open and the breeze chilling me so much that the quilt is pulled up to my neck!

I know spring will end and summer will arrive, and in my own little world, that will be fine by me! I’ll just continue to count my blessings!

Deut. 28:2 “And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.”

Family Values

Job 13: 4 But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.

Well here we go again, yet another heinous school shooting. I remember back in 2000 when my son was old enough to start school, I knew in my heart that it was a bad idea. I could feel the winds of change although there had been no school shootings in my area, I was not going to send my kid to a government run, bureaucratic system.

There have been over one hundred school shootings since 1980 and a massive amount of fatal deaths in those shootings. Statistically it began ascending after the Columbine incident and to this day is a growing trend in America. That’s not taking into consideration the massive shootings in malls and movie houses.

What is happening in America that people just want other people dead because either their life isn’t as good as the next person’s, or they’re mentally unstable, or they’re angry at a country which is failing them.

I follow the vile hatred of these stories in disbelief. While others think I have rose colored glasses on and am blind to the world around me, I AM aware. I find it quite silly to place blame. No, school shootings are not our government’s fault, guns are not to blame, the ease of getting guns are not to blame. The mind is to blame. Self value is to blame!

Somewhere along the line we lost the value in life. These days we glorify death, we support the smarmy entertainment business, (yes, even Christians who say they can’t stand this and that are supporting the sleaze that comes through the box!)

I hear so many couples (with kids more times than not) say they can’t make ends meet. They can’t afford their two cars, clothes that they worked for, no less, eating out five or six times a month, they can’t afford the cable bills or electric bills and barely have food for the kids. What?

Sure blame the husband because he’s tired of having no money. Blame the wife for having too many shoes that she DESERVES; blame, blame, blame!! Here we go. The modern family has two people working (to barely make ends meet) the kids are off in a school system where parents allow the system to raise their children, so they can make ends meet, mind you. And what value do parents place on their children?

Sure we live in a society of let me buy you this let me buy you that. Buy materials, you’ll be happy. Enjoy trash on TV, you’ll be happy. Have two cars, buy steaks, eat out at restaurants, you’ll be happy.

Guess what people, YOU’RE NOT HAPPY!! You’re a devalued human being, being manipulated by materials and you’re ALLOWING it to happen instead of taking a stance for your FAMILY and family VALUES!

Kids are having kids, they become hard to handle so they put them on drugs. ADHD drugs that from every commercial I see come with a warning: May cause suicidal tendencies. This is what the kid’s flipping out and killing people were more than likely on as a child. Their mother’s, who became divorced, couldn’t handle the wild child, and placed him on meds. We lost value of life along the way of medication and an over abundance of materials. The media is saturating society with what they THINK people want to see, and people claim to hate it but the majority is watching it and buying into the devaluing of society.

We no longer value marriage, we no longer WANT to spend time with the kids, we’d rather put them in front of a TV and let a game system raise them. We over feed them on takeout food, we’d rather work to make more money so we can have luxuries of the world. A tainted crop of humans has emerged and it is not pretty.

Blame evil, blame satan, blame the government, blame everything but yourselves who are showing as much lack of control as these very angry students. Just because you don’t wield a gun doesn’t mean you’re NOT to blame. YOU are enabling them. You are feeding their fire with every meal and tv show, every luxury you bathe in, YOU are to blame.

My son just graduated high school. He CHOSE to go the last four years but he soon discovered it wasn’t HIM who had the societal problem it was society itself. He was taught the rights of Americans and realized he really had none at all. He has CHOSEN not to go to college so as not to burden himself with the money it will cost. And while people frown on his decision and almost laugh at his indecision, I think he made the right decision. He’s thinking of his future while the naysayers are thinking of MONEY in his future. Yeah blame me, his mother, whose life does NOT revolve around money and materials. I taught my son that.

2 Cor. 12:14 Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

Parents need to stop owning children and raise them instead. Values are taught at an early age and you can’t tell a sixteen year old that what he is doing is wrong when he was allowed all his life not to respect morality.

We need to change. We need to put family values back in this world. I think returning to a one person working household is a start. I know you’ll say, “But we can’t AFFORD to be a one person working household.” And I’ll say why? WHAT is it you won’t be able to afford? Cable? Get rid of it. New shoes? Wear the ones you have! Take-out food? Cook at home. This alone will save you HUNDREDS each month!

How are we as adults going to teach our kids responsibility if we ourselves can’t even sacrifice for the luxuries we want and put our NEEDS first? It’s going to be a hard climb back into morality and values when our eyes are fixed on blaming everyone and everything else for the situations we find ourselves in.

God is not to blame! Satan is not to blame! Our government is not to blame! Guns are not to blame! YOU my friend, are to blame. When we start taking responsibility for our own selves, that is when the blame game will end and morals in society will surface and we can begin placing a value on life.

Rom. 30:28-32 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.

Quotation Saturday

LOVE

“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”
~ Mother Teresa

“When we meet someone and fall in love, we have a sense that the whole universe is on our side. And yet if something goes wrong, there is nothing left! How is it possible for the beauty that was there only minutes before to vanish so quickly? Life moves very fast. It rushes from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds.”
~ Paulo Coelho

“When I look in the mirror, I know I’m looking at someone who isn’t sure she deserves to be loved at all.”
~ Nicholas Sparks

“About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won't like you at all.”
~ Rita Mae Brown

“Was it hard?" I ask.
Letting go?"
Not as hard as holding on to something that wasn't real.”
~ Lisa Schroeder

HAPPINESS

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“Always forgive, but never forget, else you will be a prisoner of your own hatred, and doomed to repeat your mistakes forever.”
~ Wil Zeus

“Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here.”
~ Leo Tolstoy

“Happiness does not come from without, it comes from within”
~ Helen Keller

WANTS

“The life of less, one bent on simplicity, and not needing or wanting anything other than what God has deemed good for you turns out to be all you could ever need or want.”
~ Hayley and Michael DiMarco

“What we all want, really, is to be loved. That craving drives our worst behavior.”
~ Jodi Picoult

“What do I want? What kind of question is that? I want what everybody wants. I want someone who has my back. I want someone's name to put in the space after "in an emergecy please call." I want someone who will drink the other half of the bottle of wine so I don't. And someone to make it worth sitting down at an actual table to eat. I want someone who's dying to get home after a long day because I'm going to be there.”
~ Claire Cook

“Sometimes, I think we're afraid to admit we want certain things. Especially things that contradict the image we have of ourselves.”
~ Debbie Macomber

NEEDS

“If Christ has been given us, if we are called to his discipleship we are given all things, literally _all_ things. He will see to it that they are added unto us. If we follow Jesus and look only to His righteousness, we are in his hands and under the protection of Him and His Father. And if we are in communion with the Father, nought can harm us. God will help us in the hour of need, and He knows our needs.”
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

“When I save, I lay something aside for future need. If I sense God's leading, I will give it away to meet greater needs. When I hoard, I'm unwilling to part with what I've saved to meet others' needs, because my possible future needs outweigh their actual present needs. I fail to love my neighbor as myself.”
~ Randy Alcorn

“You won't discover God is all you need until God is all you have.”
~ Reverend Claude Nicholas

“First you find out what you have, Dad would say. Then you figure out how to make it work for what you need, 'cause you don't get what you want. You get just what you have and no more. ”
~ Lilith Saintcrow

Angry...at God???

I’ve been on this planet for many a year. I gave my life over to God and I did it for a reason. A couple really; to be closer to the creator, salvation, redemption, saving grace, and the promise of eternal life.

1 Tim. 3: 9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

I didn’t become a Christian so I could get things, you know, prayers answered. But upon accepting Him and all His glory, there were standards that I had to meet. I could no longer walk in the dark, do what I wanted to and never be held accountable. No, I was living my life for Christ and as such, I would try with every vein in my being to be the best person He created me to be.

1 Tim. 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

A lot of people I know, assume things about faith. “Well I won’t have to answer for THAT sin until I meet him in heaven.” So they go about doing what they want in life, never feeling they have to answer until they are dead, so why worry about stuff like that while they’re living?   
1Tim. 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

4:7 But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.

So when we, as Christians, don’t get what we want, is it God’s fault? Are we to blame him for not giving us what we want? Why would anyone assume that? When you get angry, you do things that aren’t in your Christian nature, losing sight of the One who created you, the Almighty God that would never give up on you, yet you, you feel you can just turn your back on him and stomp off like a child who didn’t get that toy he wanted?
 
You know, I lost two children and everyone expected me to be angry at God. Angry because he took away something so precious to my heart, that I had wanted, but he ripped them away before I ever had the chance to see them smile.
 
Instead of anger, I gave Him GLORY. I praised Him and rejoiced. Why? Because I know that HE knows what is best for me in any circumstance I am facing. No he don’t give me what I want, he fulfills my every need. 


1 Tim. 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

Don’t be told what to pray for. Know what to pray for. Don’t ask to be given something, pray that he knows what you need. NEED! Not WANT!

Tim. 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.15 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

My sermon has thus commenced.