One Grateful Year: The 30 for 30 Plan

One Grateful Year: The 30 for 30 Plan: It is almost April! It time to demand SPRING!! Many of us will take on the big "Spring Clean" We are ready to shake...

One Grateful Year: The 30 for 30 Plan

One Grateful Year: The 30 for 30 Plan: It is almost April! It time to demand SPRING!! Many of us will take on the big "Spring Clean" We are ready to shake...

Not Right, Just Real

In the Jewish Talmud there is a reference that states  “greater than one who does mitzvah, is one who causes others to do mitzvah"

Mitzvah

 

In Luke 17 Jesus talks about sin coming into the world but woe to the man whom they come.

He goes on to say  that it would be better for a milstone to be hung around the neck

and drown in  the sea than to cause one of these little ones to sin. 

This scares me  -

For any teacher, mother, father, or mentor this is scary --they are watching you – 

they want to be like you ,

you have a rare window of opportunity to shape, mold, teach, preach and

have a trusting relationship with your children and then its gone. 

Then in verse 3 Jesus says “Pay attention to yourselves”- this is self introspection –

 

I wonder if we could review a video tape of ourselves at the end of everyday with our key moment’s in it

Would we like what we see?

Would we be pleased with  how our children reacted to what we said and did?

Would we be pleased?  or Horrified? 

Probably a mix of both.

I know I wish I would have slowed down to SEE

Our behavior and poor choices can cause another to accept

our sin as okay and  then follow suit.  

In equal measure  our good choices or our “mitzvah” can cause others to do well.

 

We can inspire rather than degrade

We can encourage rather discourage

We can be light and not darkness.

But either way we pay it forward,

plant something somewhere in each other with every action and choice.

 

It can be overwhelming yet

This isn’t about doing it “right” -it’s about doing it real.

We are thinking, wonderfully ,fearfully created beings by an all knowing and all loving God.  

We can as Jesus says “Pay attention to ourselves,"

Not in pride or self absorption but in SEEING ---

Pay attention to what you say, what you do.

And prior to doing that it is advisable to pay attention to what you hear,

what you look at,

what you read,

what you allow to get into your soul via your time, schedule, money and environment

 

The old adage garbage in, garbage out has been proven over and over.

And to that we might add garbage picked up.

 

Feed yourself with trash, vomit that trash up and watch others pick it up and make it their own.

But the opposite is also true

 

Feed yourself with goodness, and give goodness to others

and they will pick it up and make it their own, and they will give it away.

And light will give light

 

While Mitzvah means commandment it  has a secondary meaning of doing  acts of human kindness.

 

Want to be great?  Give kindness.

Want to be greater? Be one who causes others to be kind.

Isn’t that how God starts with us?

 

He is kind, so kind.

His loving kindness has no bounds.

He, the greatest of all, gives us His kindness and when we receive it we are kind to others.

 

May I add here to also be kind to yourself...

Self loathing and guilt have no place in forwarding the gift of kindness you have been given. (but that’s another story for another day) 

You do not have to earn God’s kindness over and over.

He just gives it to you – moment after moment

 

May we do the same with others, because we are His.

Don’t make people earn your kindness,

don’t let your circumstances dictate weather kindness makes and appearance or not. 

 

God is kind to you –

 You be kind to you

 You be kind to others,

 So kind that you cause others to do mitzvah too.

LOVE is spelled TIME

I do not like to be bored. 

"Idle hands are the devils workshop."

"Necessity is the mother of invention."

These two proverbs have proven their wisdom time and again.

I have been both the criminal and the genius with my time.

I like to get stuff done. I do. I’m a huge list maker. 

It helps me get my thoughts in order and I like the feeling

 I get when I cross and item off!!

 Yeah accomplishments!!

But in my pursuit of conquering said list I get tunnelvisioned  into tackling the tasks, 

and before I know it I missed life in real time. 

What will fill my time?

Wanting so badly to get the dishwasher unloaded I dismissed a little one who wanted to help mama.

Wanting it done just so that I lost the opportunity to make a new friend.

Crossing it all off only to look up and see the day has passed me by.

Trying to get to a state of “doneness” so I could get on with life bit me in the bum. 

Because, life, REAL LIFE, was happening all around me .

important times

 The items on any daily list should  be worked into the main event, not be the main event.

How often are we guilty of the reversal?  Working our families, our marriages, our friendships into sidebars as we plow through our “to do’s”.

crazy time

time well spent

Time’s ticking can neither be slowed nor halted, but it can be gathered.

Gathered into poignant moments that lead to precious memories.

Even in the midst of our daily deeds.

Don’t let time tick away without purpose.

Take back your time from meaningless tasks,

mindless entertainment and unproductive thoughts.

Refuse to have an attitude of tackling time because you might just get sacked.

I wrote a bunch of stuff yesterday  on thinking, 

and  before you get preconceived notions

That I’m some kind of  “think good –good always happens”

or some name it and claim it theology.

Let me be clear about my process. 

Any thought worth thinking has to meet certain criteria for me.

So you might want to think on that a bit.

What standards are you  going to set for your  thinking?

You get to decide

You get to be the gatekeeper to the door of your mind.

That is a gift.

Use it wisely.

For me the standards of my mind have to meet 3 criteria:

1. It must be true
2. It must be positive
3. It has to teach me.

 For a thought to be  true some would say is subjective.

So pick your subject of truth.

I am lover of God and follower of Jesus.

Every word that God has spoken is true.

If the thoughts about the situation don’t match God's  thoughts

They shouldn't make it into my thoughts.

Can we really just decide not to think our way

and trust His even when there seems  to be no visible evidence to do so?

⁷ Let the wicked forsake their ways
    and the unrighteous their thoughts.’

Isaiah 55 says yes.

You can forsake your own thoughts!!

 Yeah this is good news!

I can reject that thought of popping my child’s head off like a Pez dispenser

when she rolls her eyes at me.

 Or the random thought of

“Why are we married?’ when my husbands tracks mud

 all over the newly mopped floor.

Yes this is good news indeed!!  For all concerned.

( And if your concerned that in the above scripture You would be the unrighteous,

just get over it – because that’s all of us)

At the very least even if the thought made it into the foyer of my mind-

the brakes of forsaking were applied and it never became cemented in the basement,

( which by the way is next to the front door of the mouth- more on that later.)

So today’s assignment: FORSAKE AWAY

Don’t want that thought- Forsake it

Untrue thought  coming your way -Forsake it

If you live in Jersey – Forget About it

You see my point.

You do not have to entertain every thought that comes into your mental realm

Weather you thought it , read it , or heard it. You get to decide weather or not to keep it

 Take it from a person with OCD this is a huge.

 Hard but Huge.

According to Webster forsake means to renounce or turn away form entirely.

 Another definition is to abandon. 

That doesn't leave ANY wiggle room to keep that thought hanging around in the back of your mind.

This isn't a stiff upper lip thing.

I’ll  make the best of it.

I’ll just  keep this dung heap of a thought but put a glittery bow on it.

NO its got to go.

Abandon it

Forsake it and Forge ahead.

Because there are better thoughts to think.

I've Been Thinking

I have been thinking lately a lot about thinking.

  It seems everywhere I turn I am receiving messages about thinking.

 Messages of hope and encouragement.

And messages of rebuke and action. 

 I have OCD and I suspect a touch of ADD,

ask any friend of mine they will whole heartedly affirm this! J

And at the risk of sounding prideful or crazy

I have at one time or another thought I could be a genius or a lunatic.

See I have the gift/curse of being able to have two or more thoughts at once.

 Not just half a thought or scattered thoughts but complete thoughts at the same time.

No there are no audible voices or multiple personalities (that’s just my hormones).

And at times it’s great I am free flowing with creativity.

I can’t write an idea fast enough or get my hands on something as quick as possible.

 I often can not express a thought without stuttering because I’m already onto the next one. Other times it is just maddening.

 Especially when the thoughts are negative, uncomfortable and untrue. 

You know which ones.

 We have all had them .

 Insecure thoughts.

Unkind thoughts.

Fearful thoughts.

 And when those thoughts run wild and pile one on top of another I just want to scream . It is a mental wrestling match.

And at that point taking a nap is my best ally. 

I literally want to be unconscious and NOT THINK.

  Maybe this is a reason why some turn to the bottle or the drug or anything else that deconstructs them as a person.

I can see the temptation for escape.

 I just nap and while its not heroine.

 Its still an idol.

Sleep helps my exhausted mind-

heck if my body would workout as much as my mind

I would be the best paid supermodel and most decorated Olympian all in one.

So  I want to begin a series on the topic of thinking.

Since not thinking is not an option ( and who really wants that option anyway)

  Logically (there goes that thinking again) it makes sense to deal with the content of thinking and the control we have been given over that.

What shapes our thinking?

 Why do we think the way we do and should we?

Why do we think a certain way and why do we continue to do so?

Can I change my thinking?

 And what will that look like in my life?

The answer to the last questions I have  answers in the form of a proverb

As a man (women) thinks, so he is.

Prov 23:7

Let’s paraphrase this for ourselves

As a woman thinks, so she is.

Let’s personalize this

As I think, so I am,

As you think, so you are

Now put your name here

As_______thinks, so she is.

Yes lets get started thinking ourselves into who we are.

If your not there yet, no problem.

You are about to think yourself into who you want to be.

Critters

A throwback Thursday

The sun is just beginning to peak over the trees this morning of our big mountain trip.

It seems like we have been planning this forever.

 This is our first grown up all-by-ourselves vacation

(Minus the weekend get away at camp) since we have been married.

Once every 14 years I say!!

We are not taking relatives.

We are not visiting relatives. 

We are just traveling just the 5 of us to an adventure through the smoky mountains.

Going to sleep in a real live hotel!!! Whoo hoo!!

Now some of you may be thinking this is way overdue

Yes… Yes  it is. But it was either this or the bills that had to be overdue.

So bills are paid and we are off.

It is possible we will be close to broke,

as in no liquid assists for a while,

when we get home but we will be mountainside!!!

And by that I mean we may have to become

 mountaineers and live off the land as we drain the savings.

But in the words of Scarlett O Hara:

 “Ill worry about that tomorrow (or next month)

At 5 a.m. the alarm went off and our oldest was already up and ready to fly out the door. 

I on the other hand was just stumbling to the kitchen to the coffee pot.

Thank goodness Marc had set it all up the night before

 and all I had to do was push a button.

Some of my worst mornings have come when Marc fails

 to complete this step as part of his nightly routine

In this event I usually find myself fiddling with the filters,

and trying not to have a heart attack as the grinder pulverizes the beans into dust.

 Then I half  hazardly pour the water into a two inch opening while my left eye attempts to twitch open.

As I stare into space awaiting the 3 beeps

that signal caffeine completion my pulse begins to recover from

the bean mutilation machine

I am still in such a state of confusion that I fail

 to notice the enormity of coffee grounds in my coffee cup.

But as I sip my already prepped coffee this morning

 I am somewhat perky and excited about our road trip.

  I hear a slight stirring in the next room and

 I assume it is Mr. Rodgers and go to greet him.

However it is not Mr. Rodgers

It is in fact the largest horsefly in North America.

If you have never had the pleasure of seeing a southern horsefly you are blessed.

I believe they are the Alabamian curse for participation in the confederacy.

They arrive every May and the BITE

The only relief comes when the dragonflies swoon in 3 weeks later to devour the beasts.

Ahhhh circle of life.

The only thing worse I have ever experienced came in the summer of 2000

when the 17 year locusts came out in literal Biblical proportions. 

But that’s another story.

I guess each region has its own quirks. 

Once Mr. Rodgers came back from South Carolina

 with his legs all bitten up from some critter.

“What in the world got you “I asked?

“I don’t know I never saw them”

“Excuse me?’

“Really, I asked the local boys what the heck was making me itch so badly because I couldn’t see them.’

“They all replied ‘We know and they will eat you up.’”

I told them “I obviously knew that but what –are-they-called?”(Silly south Carloiners)

They said “Noseeums”

Now wanting to engage in intellectual dialogue at all times

and being blonder than I pay to be I replied:

“Oh is that Lithuanian?”

My husband just shook his head very slowly and said

“They are called “NO-SEE-UMS” because you don’t see um!!”

Oh got it.

Gotta love local flavor.

  Wonder what lexical wonders we will encounter in the mountains?”

What do you have from your neck of the woods?

Provide definitions please!!