Time is Not the Enemy

This picture was taken on July 20, 2019.  My dad loved buffet's.  This was at the Great Wall in Park West Plaza.  Our family tried to get together at least once a week for as long as I can remember.  It got harder as illness and disease set in for my mom and dad as they got older but we still tried.  We didn't necessarily spend a long time there but every week for an hour or two our family caught up on each other's lives and tried our best to enjoy time together.  In today's society family's spend so little time actually together.  When I was growing up we were more involved with each other as a family unit.  I personally feel sorry for the youth of today who will never know what it is like to sit on the porch and listen to old timers telling stories of days gone by.  It was so much more interesting that anything you could see in a video game or on television.  I also feel sorry for those that are addicted to computers, cellphones and video games.  They are so into being on their social media accounts that they have no time for the here and the now.  They don't know what is happening right around them.  They are missing out on the precious moments in life that will never come again.  If they can not see what is in front of them, then how can see the face of God or hear His word.  

I miss the days of going to family's homes and visiting.  I miss the days of playing bad mitten or horse shoe's.  I miss the days of going to the park or of getting together with family for watermelon and conversation.  Today's youth have no idea what that is.  Family's don't get together anymore.  They have no time for such things as they have to work long hours to pay for material things in this world of greed and selfishness.  I know it's a year of Covid and people are scared of it.  Each has a right in their own to feel how they feel about it.  No one should chastise anyone for wearing a mask or for not wearing a mask.  None of us knows what the reasoning the other has.  It's not ours to judge.  The person wearing the mask may have severe lung issues that should they get a cold or pneumonia its all over for them.  The person not wearing a mask may be suffering from post traumatic distress.  Even if the person is just being a butt in your opinion why make such a fuss?  Does the Father not watch out for us all?  Now, I know in saying this I'm going to get flack from the large group of people out there that are going to sight law and governors mandates and hatred for masks and everything else.  First off, it's not a law.  There is no LAW that states you have to wear a mask.  Can they make your life miserable yes.  Do most people go along with either because they agree with it or they don't want to rock the boat.  Yes.  Are there meme's on both sides of it I find funny.... well yes.  You either laugh in life or cry and I choose to laugh.  If you don't want to wear a mask... don't, but remember a business has the right to ask you to leave.  That is their right as a business.  You can put it on or you can leave, unless you have a health concern and even then the business may ask you to leave.  If you are wearing one and see someone without one, it's not hurting you. That is unless you go over and get up in their face.  Just stay six feet away from them and mind your own business and go on with your life.  How hard is that?  If you don't own the business or work for it you have no foot in the race.  If that still upsets you then leave yourself.  No one is making you shop in that store at that time.  My dad was deathly afraid of germs.  He lived 

with O.C.D. (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) his entire life.  I don't know that he would have been able to get through the last few months of his life if he had not found salvation.  God got him through it.  His only true fears were for my mother.  He was so devoted to taking care of her.  I think for him that was the hardest part of being sick.  My parents love and loved all their family.  There is nothing they would not have done for any of them and if they could be there for their family they would.  I was saddened by how few people paid their respect at the death of my dad.  Most people assume that Facebook postings are enough these days. I understand his funeral was on a week day and I understand there is Covid, but it was my actual reaction to it.  There are people who didn't come with legitimate reasons and those I understand, but there are those that used Covid as an excuse and go anywhere they want.  My dad is at peace though and those that loved him spent time talking to him on the phone or came to see him when they could.  My cousin Doyle is resting in peace too, but he never missed an opportunity to come see my parents when he's in town.  I've known family members who didn't bother being only five minutes away.  Do I think it's because they don't love my mom and dad or me?  No, it's just their lives are too busy and they always think there will be a tomorrow.  Tomorrow isn't promised to anyone.  So many lives I've known burnt out in 2019 and 2020.  My mother is still here physically and sometimes mentally but she won't be here with us long either.  I know men who claim to be men of God who put their neighbors and their congregations before their family and believe this is what God has asked them to do.  You can not do one or the other. God would want you to do both.  Be there for both.   It is sad that such men proclaim to be of faith yet will not cross the street to help their own.  It's no wonder that depression and suicide are so high as people put more value into their material objects than they do living the life God gave them. 

My grandmother Lula's favorite song was "Give me the Roses".  It talks about how one should treasure times together while a person is alive and not profess love only when they are gone with flowers.  I have no doubt that Jesus weeps daily as he watches down on the world and the people turn their backs on the glories of a rich life he would have them live.  Not of wealth but of peace and love.  The sins of this world are not born of the Father, but are born out of the hearts of men.  I am grateful for  the couple of months God gave me and my dad.  They were hard months.  They were a lot of work and some of it was very hard to watch, but God gave my dad and I that time I believe as a gift to his children.  He gave dad and I time to heal old wounds and to find that parent child love that had been strained.  It took me a while to really cry more than a little at a time.  That hard cry took a bit, but it did come.  Through all of this though God has embraced me in his arms and helped me through.  God also gave me a husband to lean on and a brother of pure gold.  I pray daily for my brother for taking care of my mom daily is no easy feet. I also pray for all of you reading this.  My soul  

has had so much more peace since I found the Lord and accepted him as my savior.  God is good.  My year has humbled me in so many ways, but through it all He has never left me.  In my heart He reminds me all the time that He is here with me.  I needed to be humbled.  I needed to remember where I came from and what was important.  The Devil will tempt you constantly with doing the wrong thing.  The funny thing is it never brings you satisfaction when you do the wrong thing.  I'm not saying I'm perfect.  I still sin daily and I still have to work at it.  I don't go see my mom as much as I should.  I know that, but it's hard to see her the way she is.  One never knows if she will be there to truly be with you or not.  I pray for her.  It has to be hard to always be afraid and her disease has gotten to that place where she's always in fear of something.

Father, I thank you for Sarah, Chris, Gwen, Daphne, Mitch, Jeannette, Larry, Ashley, Dakota, Ritchie, Aunt Jib and all my other family members.  I thank you for my love Jacob and my pets Bear, Prancer and Tobi.  I thank you for providing a roof above my head and food for my tummy.  I thank you for helping me to find more peace and to know that anger is never the way.  I thank you for giving me the strength to work on myself daily and to get rid of the flaws I have as many as I can.  Lord I would ask that you be with those out there that are lost and do not know you.  I would ask that you help them to see the way and seek the path.  I would ask that you be with the sick and you help to give them and their family's peace and strength.  I also want to thank you for the job that I will start on January 4th.  It will be good to go back to work Lord.  Keep me with you Lord and live within my heart.  I pray this in the name of your precious son Jesus Christ.  Amen.

May God be with you and bless you and your families.  Enjoy time with them while you can.  Be with them.  Forgive them and understand they are human.  

xoxo

 

In My Dreams They Are Still Young

 In my mind and in my dreams you are both still young.  As I sleep we take trips where dad is strong and takes charge.  Mom has no problems moving around or hearing.  In my dreams my dreams nothing has changed.  In the reality of the morning mom sits quietly in her own world.  Her hands are shaking and her knowledge of what all is being said in the room is almost nil.  Sadness fills me for I know her heart is silently breaking.  Her soul mate, my dad, is slowly succumbing to water that is putting pressure on his brain.  In the reality of the day dad eats less, makes less sense when talking and seldom has clear and lucid thoughts.  When he is lucid he understands where he is and what is going on and he tells us he does not want to live this way.  He's no longer capable of walking and most often he can't sit up on his own.  It's heartbreaking to watch and to listen to, as are the tears my mother lets out during times she acknowledges that we are losing dad slowly day by day.   A preacher asked me not too long ago why it was that he, being a preacher, had to live after his wife had died. I told him what I believe in my heart.  Preacher your works is not done. God still has work for you to do.  As we may or may not understand the why of the continued life my parents are living, if you can call it living, there is a purpose. Every day with them in this life has been a gift.  God's not done with them here yet.  As in my dreams I know when God does call them home they will be able to do all the things they can not do now.  They will not hurt, nor will they need for anything.  When God calls them home I will miss them, but I am comforted in the knowledge that it will not be long until I see them again in heaven. Until then they will be forever young in my dreams.

 

Skin Tone and our Savior

Praying for people is not always easy.  It’s what we are called to do by God, but it’s not always easy to follow that rule.  I will do it.  I do it daily.  What do I mean by this?  It’s easy… yesterday I was notating/commenting on someone’s post.  I have that post saved and all commentary.  Let me first tell you that this person is very full of herself and self-actualization.  It would have been easy to get angry at her and fly off the handle, but no through the grace of God all I felt for her was sadness.  She’s lost in an inability to look at the broad scope of what I was trying to say to her.  Anger is a wasted emotion.  She allowed a comment someone put on Facebook on Christmas Eve to get into her soul and eat at her to the point she felt compelled to write about it.  Let me tell you that this woman is not short on words either.  She can go on for days and say little to nothing.  I tried to get her to understand that her anger towards this man and her post written about him did nothing more than to justify him doing it again.  I understand that the law must stop abusive behaviors.  I understand that she has as much a right to voice her opinion as he did; however, that being said if he read her post he smiled from ear to ear as people like that are trying to get a rise out of people.  It’s their whole point.  It’s the game they play in hopes that they will get people talking about them and their point of view.  She also called Christmas Eve as a Holy day.  It’s not the day that is holy.  It’s what we do with it when we worship God that is holy.  She also was walking on the very thing she stated she was fighting for which is equality of religion.  Now whether this guy is religious or not could be debated but why go there.  He stated his opinion.  He made a vulgar post to most that to him was not vulgar.  She was also taken back by the fact that he as much as called Baptist Atheist.  I’m Baptist and he can call me whatever he likes.  It matters not.  Did our Lord and savior Jesus not get called a false prophet?  People lash out at what they do not understand.  The devil lashes out at anything that is righteous.  The people of God will be crucified for following His word.  Now she’s a politician so I guess she has to spin it.  I had a laugh when she stated she was a lapse Catholic.  Anyone out there know what exactly that is?  I imagine it means she professes to be Catholic but doesn’t follow or practice it except for when it suites her needs.  I’m writing this post out of humor.  I had a good laugh on her behalf yesterday and I felt sorry for her at the same time.  I put a post and tagged her in it because it was so long and I wanted dual color to continue the conversation with her on my blog.  It didn’t name her and it held no picture of her.  She threatened to sue me for using her intellectual property and her image and name.  well the two later I didn’t use and the first one first assumes as she claims that her written post on Facebook is one intellectual and two as she stated creative.  I guess some people would call an anger post written because you’d been allowing a silly post to crawl up under your skin and live there for a couple of weeks creative.  I personally didn’t find anything very creative about it.  First off it was all about race.  I’m so tired of people trying to split everything up into race.  I personally don’t find it racist to have a picture of a white Jesus, a black Jesus or any color you want.  It comforts people.  What color was Jesus?  Well since he was middle eastern I would assume olive or darker of skin tone.  Does it matter?  No.  I don’t know anywhere in the Bible where it debates his skin tone.  She’s missing the whole point of Christ.  She also said what would Jesus do more than once in her post.  Jesus would forgive.  Jesus would not care what color they made his skin.  God created all people and all races.  He loves them all equally and He could make Jesus any color he wanted.  He did have a virgin bride after all did He not?  Our only job as a Godly people is to live the way God wants us to.  To honor him.  She stated it’s basically our job to police people like this guy.  Ok, if it offended her so much she could have done what you’re supposed to do and sent the post to Facebook as offensive and they could have dealt with it.  This woman is not judge and jury.  It’s not her job to jump to this gentleman’s defense by writing a post that has no more help for him, but perhaps looks to further her needs and her agenda.  If she wanted to defend him why not do it on that post to that gentleman who was saying these things?  She also didn’t answer any of my questions in my post to her but wanted to meet.  My time is too valuable to meet with someone who wants nothing more than to beat her point of view into my mind.  There are several things I’d like to know about her out of curiosity such as does she believe in Jesus?  Is she pro-life or pro-choice?  They are only idle curiosities though.  When it comes to politics I vote the way I feel Jesus and God would want me to vote.  I don’t get offended if someone doesn’t like my opinions.  I have people of all walks on my page.  I still speak my mind.  They are free to stay or leave.  I love all my friends and my true friends love me.  We don’t have to like or agree with the others posts or lifestyles or religions.  I very rarely drop or block people.  I blocked her because she went to threatening real fast.  I understand she used to be a paralegal and I understand she’s worked in politics and law offices and the first instinct for her wasn’t to say will you please remove that post I don’t want it out there.  Here’s my email let’s take this offline and I’ll answer.  It was to say take it down now or I’m going to sue you.  Really?  This is supposed to be a rational person.  If she had asked me kindly I would have taken it to a place of discussion, but her first thing was to lash out and try to strong arm me.   All it left me to do was to save and document for future use if needed.  I will pray for her.  I will pray that she comes to understand that a soft word and a kind gesture always go farther than a bat.  Since she likes presidential comments so much maybe she should remember to “Speak softly and carry a big bat.”  I wish her well, but I’m still smiling ear to ear.  God bless you all.