Monday, November 28, 2005

Repost - Proverbs

I have added to my original Proverbs post from time to time, so I decided to repost it.

On a recent trip to the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago I noticed that it seemed to be an ancient custom for fathers to write down proverbs for their sons. I thought this was pretty cool, so even though I am a single mother, I decided I would start to do the same for my sons. What follows is the beginning of my list. I hope to have more and will add them as they come to me.

1. The words that you speak about another person reveal more about what is in your own heart than it ever will about them.

2. Arrogance is the hubris of the deeply insecure.

3. Confidence is knowing what you have. Arrogance is acting like you have more of it than anyone else. Making others feel that way is obnoxious.

4. Anger doesn't need a reason, just a target.

5. In general, people don't decide they like or dislike you based on how they feel about you, but rather how they feel about themselves when they are around you. (this is not something that is always under your control)

6. If you do what you need to do when you need to do it, eventually you will be able to do what you want to do when you want to do it.

7. Empathy is not an abstract concept. You should have it, and people should feel that you have it.

8. Life is like a baseball game. There are those who step up to the plate and swing at the ball, and there are those who sit in the dugout and watch others play the game.

9. Look where you are going. Think like you are already there.

10. Stay away from people who consistently badmouth others. They have a way of separating you from the people you need the most.

11. Prayer saves time. Tithing saves money.

12. Human communication is an inexact science at best. Just because you heard what someone said, don't believe you necessarily heard what they meant.

13. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1) If we stay focused on things as they are and have been, it is unlikely that we will ever see them become as they can and should be.

14. One of the most revolutionary things you can do is to tell the truth, especially when it isn't easy and it isn't welcome.

15. The people who say the most aren't always the people who have the most to say.

16. Anyone who thinks they are incapable of being deceived already is.

17. Remember, the stone you throw today might just come crashing through your own window tomorrow.

18. Never allow your personal relationships to blind you to the screaming obvious and inhibit your ability to make sound decisions.

Saturday, November 26, 2005

How times have changed . . .

When I was in high school my best friend went to Austria and Germany as a foreign exchange student. When she first arrived the father of her host family ran up to her and hugged her and said to her in broken English. "You American? I like Americans. Me POW in WWII. American's treat me good!"
There used to be a time when the best thing that could happen to average Joe soldier was to be captured by the U.S. Many times you were treated better, clothed better, and fed better than you were fighting for your own country. We set the standard for treatment of prisoners of war during a military conflict and it was a high one. We were the example.
What happened? When did sickening acts of sexual, physical and mental torture become acceptable?

Friday, November 25, 2005

Torture is not us!

Click on the picture to send an email to your representative asking them to support the anti- torture amendment.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

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You may or may not know this, but I was married to a man from India for 8 years. We have two sons and have been divorced for a little over ten years. Despite this fact, it is only recently that I have become interested in Indian cinema. If you have not been exposed to Bollywood, the name for Bombay's movie industry, they are unashamedly the biggest film producers in the world and they play by no one's rules but their own. Every Indian film is a musical with several obligatory song and dance routines incorporated into the movie. More often than not the plot involves lovers for whom it seems the whole universe is conspiring to keep apart.
Nobody does romance like Bollywood. The lovers dance, prance, flirt and sing through fields of wildflowers. They embrace in the pouring rain. They swing back and forth in the moonlight, and dance under waterfalls, all the while singing of timeless passion that burns like a flame.
However sweet and sometimes silly these scenes come across, recently I have found myself facsinated with them. And the funny thing is that I think of them most often when contemplating intimacy with God. In fact, it seems as if to me God is beckoning me to let go and allow him to woo me with this same type of abandon. I've been in love, as has most everyone. And when you're in love, and its new, doesn't it seem like nothing can touch you? you can lose your job, you car and the roof over your head and you don't care...because you've found something money can't buy...you're in love.

Excuse me, I have a field to prance across with the lover of my soul...

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

A Dream

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Funny dream.
I dreamed that I was laying face down riding on the roof of a train. I was holding on for dear life. The train was going very fast and it was out of my control. I thought, " If we come to a tunnel, I may lose my life." But oddly enough, I wasn't afraid. I closed my eyes and I began to thank God for the life He had given me so far. Then I began to sing praises to Him. The train stopped and I was in a different place. I was safe and everyone was surprised that I had survived.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Jesus Unedited.

Jesus didn't play the church game.
He wasn't running for political office.
He didn't have handlers.
He didn't hire a PR firm.
He didn't try to make people "happy."

In fact, he upset people on a regular basis. Not everyone walked away from what Jesus had to say with a smile on their face. In fact some went away mad, sad, glad and everything in between.

He turned over tables.
He spoke the truth.
To everyone.

Peter, the Scribes and Pharisees, the woman at the well, the rich young ruler... and of course how could it be otherwise, after all, He was the incarnation of the Spirit of Truth. A ruckus ensued nearly everywhere this man went. Not everyone is ready for the truth.

Not everyone is ready for Jesus unedited.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Fall Leaves

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One of the things I love about my new place of residence is that I walk to work every day. It is close to a mile and a half. After doing this for a month, I am really beginning to feel great physically. As I walk, many times I pray. Just last week I was walking along, kicking the fall leaves, I was praying about my attitude, which I admit, really has not been great lately. I have been wrestling with depression, fatigue, and just a downright negative attutude in general. I have been complaining quite a bit to be honest. I have yet to find those particular attributes listed among the fruits of the Holy Spirit...

I was praying about this, and asking God to help me to give Him what He deserves and He spoke to me in a crystal clear voice, "Not grudingly, or of necessity." Wow. I hear that quote every Sunday before offering. I always connect it with money. I had never really connected it with personal service. I realised that my service to God of late has been given grudging and forced. I realised I hadn't been giving out of a sense of joyous gratitude. I had just felt tired, tired, tired all the time. And no wonder. Dragging your feet certainly has the capacity to drain your energy.

God must have not felt He had gotten through, because He had yet another message for me.
1 Corinthinas 15:58
"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord for you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."


Sunday, November 06, 2005

More Langston

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MOTHER TO SON
Well, son, I'll tell you
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor,

Bare.
But all the time
I'se been climbin' on
And reachin' landin's
And turning corners
And sometimes goin' on in the dark
Where there aint been no light.
So, Boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you find it kinder hard.
Don't you fall now-
For I'se still climbin'
And life for me ain't been
no crystal stair.

Langston Hughes


Wednesday, November 02, 2005

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When I was a teenager I loved reading Ray Bradbury. I had actually forgotten about his work until just recently. I ordered this book on Amazon.com and began reading it almost the minute it got here. I couldn't put it down. It was even more thrilling than I remembered it. If you haven't read " The Martian Chronicles", you don't know what you are missing. For all of you Star Wars fans, he was the original. He was the best. I highly recommend this book.