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.

Emotional Rescue

Rev. 4: 3 And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
***

Words are to me, a form of expressing my feelings. Whether it is fiction or non fiction, words are what heals my soul.

As you all know and have read, last week was not a good week for me. Emotions ran at an anxious high, my esteem dropped for a few notches, my brain was not wrapping around anything that I read or did, and I was just an emotional wreck.

On about Thursday, I was God slapped. This is what I call it when I have one of those clarifying moments that is telling me to wake up and smell the coffee. I lived! Not that I was ever close to death, it just felt that way to me, since it was my very first accident and the more people I talked to, the more I felt that this was a rite of passage that all drivers go through. My son said, “It has to happen at least once in your life.”

Good, I got my one accident over and done with, now I can move on, right? It’s an eerie feeling this moving on stuff, I want to just relive the moment of the accident over and over like my brain is a movie film. Rewind, play, rewind, play. This weekend I pushed STOP! I need to take the film out and put in new film.

I decided to own my fear. I pulled the truck around and washed her off. She had so many of the ditches weeds clinging to the top and the underside, she looked like a truck who had been through combat, survived and came back to tell the story. The mud was caked in the wheels, the injured headlights, the demolished grill, but when I got done washing her, talking to her and pampering her, I told her her straight up, “I own you Destiny, you don’t own me!” I’m gonna own my fear and not allow anyone or anything to hamper my healing.

My writing community has been so supportive, I don’t think I could have gotten through this without their love and support. There is Bro who is tending to the trucks mechanical needs, and mom is trying her darndest to help financially in her loving supportive always- there- for- you mom way, my sister called from miles away, then there is my writers!

An awesome community that knows how to wrap their words around me like a blanket, put the road barriers up to my fear, hug me in a worded way that only they know how to do. My final words today come from a dear writing friend named Standing Deer, she is Native American and knows me spiritually. I wish everyone could see the Native Americans brilliance. I treasure their wisdom and guidance.

Standing deer says:  I know you have wings too...I feel them. They are soft, iridescent, with all the colors of the Rainbow. Only Rainbow carriers put others before themselves
before they can even think any other way.
Rainbows are not just after a rain, they are always there, only special beings know this.
All one has to do is look inside, look within, and there, they will see one.
Darkness cannot hide them for they are what light is made of.
The shining Light from all that exists, it is all that is and more.

What awesome words from my deer friend! Love ya deer!

The Sounds of Christmas

1 Cor.14:7 And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?
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The Sounds of Christmas

The year has been new and wrought with change
A blemish renewed a life rearranged
What I have, is sounds of my heart
they give me a stir with love to impart.

The lights draw dim no longer a pleasure
the music now holds the sounds that I treasure.
The presents they sit but who knows where
it’s as if my Christmas tree is bare.

The sounds of Christmas are what I have now
music,chimes,bells, the crackling bough.
The snow is cold, wet and a bore.
My eyes can’t see the white stuff no more!

The joy and laughter is what I’ll hold close,
the family around me with hugs I suppose.
The light will be bright right inside my being.
Until the day comes when I’m once again seeing!
***

author's comment: Did you ever hear the saying, "You don't know what you've got until it's gone?" Or something like that? I guess, just guessing here, that that is what it is like to lose your sight. You kind of appreciate the sounds more.

Merry Christmas to all!