An Auspicious Start to the New Year

I took an extra day off for New Year's this year, hoping to have a day to clean up & organize and a day to just chill. I decided not to be so lazy as to do nothing all day, so I sort of snuck the chillin' in between cleaning & organizing.

So yesterday, after doing a great job of cleaning up the den, I took some trash bags out to the van. As I was throwing the last one in, my knee felt like it was giving way. *Weird* It's done that before, but usually it straightens right up. *Hmmm....*Not so this time. This time, severe pain...

I hobble into the van, surprised at the pain level. A friend calls, & I pull off & talk to her when I get close to the dump. Once there, I get out & hobble around to the other side to throw out the trash, still amazed at the pain level. A kind gentleman helped me throw the trash bags away, and I hobble back to the van.

Once back home, still unable to walk properly, I decide that perhaps something is amiss. *Duhhh* I try ice, which causes more pain. I get in the tub and soon realize this is pointless, too. A call to my pastor for prayer, a call to my sis for general medical advice, and once I've eaten, my daughter drives me to the ER.

Visiting the hospital where I am employed, disguised as a patient, is an enlightening experience. (For instance, what stroke of genius made them to decide to put the restrooms at the very back of the long waiting room? It's not like there are sick people who might need to get there in a hurry or injured people who might have trouble walking there & back...) After a 2 1/2 hour wait in the waiting room, I finally make it to the back to be seen. *Thankfully, I am given a bed in a tiny room, rather than a hallway bed. They seem to be reserved for people suffering from nausea or dementia. A gentleman who doesn't seem aware of what he's doing accosts my bed as it is wheeled through the hallway, making me wonder what is going to happen next.*

After telling my story to a nurse, a doctor, a radiology person, a CNA, and another doctor, I am outfitted with a knee immobilizer, a pair of crutches, a pain shot, a pain pill and no prescription for pain. (Someday, I hope to advise a doctor whose bodily part has just been injured to take ibuprofen for pain until they see the next doctor.) First doc promised pain meds, second one just disappeared.

(*Note to self...it might also be good to inform someone at some point that giving crutches to someone who hasn't used them in eons in order to visit the restroom down the street and around the corner with a full bladder, I might add, is just short of idiotic. Add a self-flushing toilet to the equation which flushes twice before you're done and none afterwards, and you have a very entertaining few minutes to discuss...*)

Jenny & I arrive home around 2am. I am very sleepy from said pain pill, but I discover something interesting. It only makes me FEEL sleepy. Finding it nigh unto impossible to sleep on my back, I spend the night tossing & turning & keeping my husband sick with a stomach virus the last three days awake almost all night.

This morning, I venture into the kitchen to get a cup of Pepsi. *Sounds simple, huh?* Try it with a set of crutches. I wind up on the floor, on my keister, with husband and daughter flying into the kitchen to discover the source of the THUD that shook the house. Upon being scolded for trying to wait on myself, I meekly go into the living room to await yogurt & Pepsi.

It's been a rather interesting day. I go to the ortho doc tomorrow to see what he says about the whole thing. Is it a pulled muscle or a pulled or torn ligament? *Round and round and round she goes...* Then I hope to go back into work, since I have a big meeting Monday I must prepare for.

To say my life is interesting is an understatement. *Sheesh* I was just trying to clean up & get a good start for the new year. I think I must have missed something somewhere along the way!

Wondering...

Does anyone ever read this blog anymore?

I have kept the one on MySpace a little more current, but I've tried to post the same thing in both places. I really wonder if anyone reads this anymore, since I haven't had comments in forever. I realize I'm not too diligent about posting, but...

Anyhow, if you do read this, LMK. :-)

Hurry, Scurry, and Worry

(This is something I wrote a few years ago about the Christmas season. Hope you enjoy it!)

It’s the holiday season again, can you tell? People are rushing here, rushing there, rushing everywhere! So much to do, so little time. Lists to make; presents to buy, wrap, and give; parties to go to; decorations to put up…so much to do! Stress reaches an even higher peak, and we wonder why we can’t cope. Is this really what Christmas is all about?

Of course not! Christmas is about a babe born in Bethlehem nearly two thousand years ago to a virgin girl who truly trusted in the Almighty. A baby born to die and redeem the world of sin. This baby was a gift of love from an Almighty God to all of creation, a fulfillment of eternal promise. This baby came with hope and promise of transformation, yet His Father knowing all along that He would be despised and rejected of men and would ultimately die for their lack of love. Yet, still, He came.

How have we come from this wondrously simple gift of love to the present hustle-bustle, where Christmas is a burden and not a pleasure? Where Christmas has become a time to simply be gotten through and most people are glad when it’s over? How? Because we have forgotten WHY we do what we do. We have our traditions in place and feel we must keep them religiously. Perhaps we need to recall exactly why it is we do what we do.

To children, the most important part of Christmas is surely the gifts. The excitement of knowing you’ll get some great new toy that you’ve longed for, plus some other neat stuff, too. But the gifts are meant to be a reflection, a symbol of love for one another. The gifts are but a token way to say, "I love you and want to please you." They are a symbol of the great gift God gave us at Christ’s birth. Gifts are not important in and of themselves, but we have allowed the "Gimme" factor into this important time of the year until often, there is no room for celebrating anything else.

We should celebrate at Christmas the simple pleasures in our lives that we enjoy every day…our families, our friends, and the fact that we have food on our tables and a roof over our heads. There are many who are not so fortunate…there are many who will be alone at Christmas, with no Christmas feast, with no Christmas gifts, with nowhere to live or eat. We are blessed, and we should not take this precious gift from God for granted.

So how do we change from hurry, scurry, and worry? We must regain our focus of Christmas, and capture the true meaning once again in our hearts. We must share the love of God with those who are close to us and perhaps, with those who are not as close to us but need our love. We must look back to that time of simplicity when the Messiah lay as a babe in a manger. Do not look ahead to the craziness of the season; instead, savor this as a time of love and fellowship. It is all that is truly worthwhile.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Good day...bad day...

Well...it's been a good day overall, depending on what you focus on.

Good day...I got a very good score on my eval today. If you know me well, you know that I detest evals at work and equate them with "Here, let me beat you over the head for a while." But the tide has turned at work, and that is no longer the case. I got an excellent evaluation (which means I get a good raise in a year...just got the one from last year's.) But moreso than the $ to me is the fact that someone in authority over me has seen my hard work and actually acknowledged that I make a valuable contribution and that this is appreciated. This is still a somewhat new concept to me, but one for which I am very grateful.

However, as I pulled into the driveway tonight, my car died. Ker-plunk. The engine will not turn over, which is a bad sign. I love my little Escort, and I hope it is fixable without spending a ton of money. So in that aspect, it was a bad day. :-(

Good day...church was excellent...good Word, good fellowship. John & I even rode together.

And last but not least...good day...I won a bid on e-bay for a Lady Dorby top & jacket for less than ten bucks! Woo Hoo!

So I'd say, overall, good day!

Hope yours was too! :-)

Casting Your Care on the Lord

"Casting Your Care on the Lord"

Proverbs 16:3 (AMP)
Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.

Read Word Weatlh @ Prov. 16:3, Spirit-Filled Life Bible for "commit"

We’ve all been through those times when things are pressing on our mind, and we have a hard time not worrying about them. Worry is based in fear, so if we allow our thoughts to dwell on the "what if’s," we quickly become bogged down in a negative thought process. Our thoughts are spiraling in a circle that is taking us quickly down. What can we do when we come to a situation like that?

First of all, we should stop and pray as soon as we realize we’re doing that. Ask the Lord to forgive you for worrying instead of trusting Him. You WANT to trust Him, but sometimes the worry in your mind almost seems to have a life of its own. There are sometimes situations that the only thing that works is the Word!!! You have to actively use the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, to defeat the enemy. As a friend of mine said, "The Word works when you work the Word!" This is also called "praying the Word." It is a VERY effective weapon against the enemy – the Sword of the Spirit.

Let’s break this verse down into parts:

Roll your works (care) upon the Lord by trusting Him.

We see from the WW given above that we must commit our works or our cares to the Lord. Just as the camel has to kneel down and roll his burden off, so we have to kneel down in prayer and roll our burden off onto the Lord. Use this verse as a model prayer to help you roll your works on the Lord.
"Lord, I roll my works concerning ___________ onto you. I trust and commit ________ wholly to you. As I trust in You, You will cause my thoughts to become agreeable to your Will concerning ________. As my thoughts become agreeable to Your will concerning ___________, so shall my plans be established."

It is the normal inclination of the human mind to worry. Therefore, we have to TEACH our minds to follow after what God desires us to follow after. We have to train ourselves to follow righteousness. This requires some discipline on our part. Just as our mind is telling our tastebuds that we want a piece of that chocolate cake in the kitchen, we have to put our spirit man in charge and remind our waistline that we don’t NEED that cake. So it is with worry…our normal human mind will keep going back to that thing over and over again. We have to retrain ourselves by the Word, not to do that.

Let’s look at the following verses:
Psalm 55:22 (WW for "sustain")
Psalm 28:7
I Peter 5:7 (WW for care)
(read portion from TD Jakes Bible)

When you trust Him with your care, you are lining up with the Word. Because you are trusting Him with your care, He is able to cause your thoughts to come into alignment with His Will.

Isaiah 26:3 (AMP)
John 14:27 (WW for trouble)
Read footnote in SFLB for Isaiah 26:3.

Isaiah 26:3 says that He will keep us in perfect peace if our mind is stayed on Him. If we keep our mind on Him, then we can walk in peace. Does that mean that we will never think about anything but God? No…we have to live in this world. We have to deal with the things of this world, and sometimes that means we have to walk through things that stir up strong emotion. Does that mean that we never will think about those things or never feel that emotion? Of course not. We have to deal with the situations that come up in our lives. We have to deal with the emotions these things stir up. We can’t be so heavenly minded we are no earthly good. But if we want to walk in peace, we have to stay focused on Him so that we can stay in peace. When that thing you are facing starts stealing your peace, you know it is time to cast your care on Him so that you can walk in His peace.

John 14:27 – it is a choice whether or not we allow our hearts to become troubled or agitated. Think of how a washer has an agitator in it so that the clothes are turned and moved around while they are washing. That is what the enemy wants to do to our hearts – agitate them, trouble them about things so that we become ineffective in fulfilling God’s destiny for us.

When your thoughts become agreeable to His will, then will your plans be established (steady, stable, firm, faithful, not wishy-washy,) and your plans will succeed.

I Peter 5:10 (AMP)
Psalm 37:5
John 15:7
I John 5:14,15

When our plans are established and based on God’s will for us, then they will succeed…it is only a matter of time.

Let’s look at this process in another way now.

When you are faced with a problem, you have a choice. You can believe that God is Who He says He is and He desires to help you and to bless you, or you can worry about what’s going to happen. There is a process you can follow which will help you to keep your mind pointed in the right direction.

Refocus your mind. Colossians 3, 2 (AMP)
The enemy loves to play with your mind if you will let him. If your mind is leading you in the wrong direction, begin speaking the Word to remind yourself of what you are supposed to be doing.

This week in prayer, the Lord showed me something that I was dealing with that was distracting my mind from where God wanted it. As I was praying, God showed me I would be trying to focus on Him and on what He wanted me focused on, but that this thing that distracted me was much like focusing to take a picture with a camera. You can get the camera set on something in the background so you can take the picture with the background thing as the focus. But if something starts jumping around in the forefront, it distracts you, it takes your focus away from that thing you really want to focus on. So it is with anything that is in our life that we find ourselves focusing on. If it distracts us from the "prize" – Jesus and fulfilling His call on us – then we must take steps to remove that thing that is distracting us from Him.

I talked with a friend this week about how sometimes things happen in your life that upset you or make you angry. She told me that she tries to redirect that anger or emotion that would normally make you "lose it." She redirects the energy and tension of the moment into something more positive – like her family. Then later when her emotions are calmed down, she can deal with the other thing and put it in its proper place.

Refill your mind. Philippians 4:6-8

If something has been on your mind for a long while, then you need to try to
refill that empty place with God and His Spirit. Find Word that applies to that situation, to fill in that void. Refill your mind with good things, and refocus your mind, and point it in the right direction by speaking the Word.

Renew your mind. Romans 12:2

The best way to renew your mind is to speak the Word of God. The Word of God is the Will of God. Find scripture for your situation, and begin to speak the Word over your life. Work the Word, and the Word will work for you!

To sum things up…we will all face issues in life that are upsetting, that tear at our emotions, that make us want to lose control. We are human, we are emotional creatures, and we must acknowledge where we are in our humanity and process what we are feeling. But it is easy to get "stuck" there, and we cannot afford to do that. Our spirit man is listening to everything that’s going on, and we need to let him be the one in "charge." While we must have and process our emotion, we can’t let it rule us and drive us. We must allow our spirit man to be the one in charge, so that he can properly direct us in the right direction.

If you have two dogs and you feed one meat and the other nothing, which one is going to be the one that wins when they start towards you? The one that you fed the most, the one who is stronger. If you feed your spirit man Word and refuse to get stuck in emotional battles, you will come through victoriously with your head held high.

Pain

Pain...
Shouting,
Screaming
For my attention,
Trying desperately
To distract me
From the path where
God is leading me.
Physical,
Emotional,
Spiritual
Pain that seems
Torturous
And unending.
How long
Must I bear
This?

The Word says
By His Stripes
I am healed
And that if
We touch and agree,
It will be done.
Yet it has not
Manifested yet,
And I grow
Weary, Lord,
In the waiting.
And yet I stand
Here
In faith
Speaking life
To a situation
That looks
Like death.
I must trust and believe
And continue standing,
Knowing God has heard
My prayer,
He sees my tears
And the cry of my heart.
And surely,
That which He has promised
Will come to pass
As I stand on His Word
And walk in His way.
My healing shall come forth,
And as I am tried,
I shall come forth
As pure gold.

Carolyn S. Smith

Coach LeClair

Coach Keith LeClair passed away today. For any who might not know, he was a baseball coach at ECU who was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) about 5 years ago. He went from being a coach to being wheelchair-bound in 4 months. But his faith was VERY strong, and he was such an inspiration.

The praise team at my former church went to his home & sang for him in an informal outdoor setting for an hour or so a couple of summers ago. Afterwards we went inside to meet him & pray with him, and his wife served us refreshments. Coach LeClair was amazing. He communicated with us through some kind of eye/laser technology in which he could look at an alphabet board and use it to form words thru the computer, and it "talked" to us. He encouraged US. I stood there in tears at this man who literally could not move anything but his eyes, and he was still praising God. What did I have to complain about?

I wrote an article about him, which was published in the Sunday School curriculum that lets me write for them, a year or so ago. The same article is also published this month in Carolina Life, the magazine for WAGO, which is the radio station where my husband works part-time. The timing is just amazing, isn't it? I'm sad for his family but I know he is in a better place now. He made quite an impact on this community before he got sick, and even more so afterwards, I think.

He died being known as a man of faith. What a wonderful legacy!

The Blessing of a Father

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost ten years since Daddy went to heaven. In some ways, it seems as though it was yesterday, and in other ways, it seems like it’s been a really long time. I miss talking with my dad a lot, because he had a lot of wisdom. He was the kind of man you could sit down with and just share your heart with. He could tell when something was on your mind, and he was always willing to listen. Daddy was by no means perfect, but he rated pretty high in my book.

Daddy was born in the early 1920s and grew up during the Great Depression. He told me stories about buying a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve for a quarter and about the year he only received an orange for Christmas (which was quite a treat, at that.) His family was so poor during that time that they ate corn flakes with water. His dad worked as a floor sander, and his mom was a seamstress. Times were hard, but somehow, they always made it.

Daddy didn’t serve the Lord for much of my life, but he instilled in me a love for the Lord and for the Word of God. Some of my fondest memories of Daddy are sitting around the kitchen table with him, reading the Bible. He taught me a lot of things about the Bible and helped me understand the King James Version Bible until it seemed like an old friend. Daddy probably read the Bible a lot more than some "good Christians."

Daddy taught me good morals and that a man’s word was his bond. He taught me a lot about dealing with people, as well as the importance of having compassion for others. A lot of this was taught to me by example. Even though our family would have been considered far down on the socio-economic scale, Daddy was a giver, with a heart as big as all of outdoors. If he heard of a family in need, he found a way to bless them. He spent several weeks stripping wire in the evenings to earn money to send me to Summer Bible School one year.

Daddy was not all sweetness and light, though. He wasn’t afraid to confront someone if it needed to be done, and he wasn’t afraid to tell something like it was. If that hurt your feelings, he would give you a hug when it was all over, but he would always tell you the truth. And even after I became an adult, if Daddy thought I was straying from the straight and narrow, he didn’t mind telling me.

I’m told that in Jewish families when a boy reaches the age of twelve, he goes through a certain ritual in the synagogue that publicly acknowledges he has reached manhood. Part of this ritual includes the blessing of his father. The father speaks words of blessing and encouragement to his son; sometimes the words are prophetic, as Jacob’s were, but always they show the love and acceptance of the father of his son.

I know that one of the greatest blessings of my life is to have been raised by the man who was my father. Those that he loved, he loved unconditionally, no matter how many times he was hurt or wronged. He wasn’t a glutton for punishment, but for those people that he truly cared about, he was willing to go the extra mile. I saw him apologize more than once when he was not in the wrong. He was just that kind of man.

Daddy taught me to love others in the same way. He taught me that the risk of loving others was a risk worth taking. While you might get your heart stepped on a few times, he taught me through his life that the rewards were priceless.

We didn’t have much money when I was growing up, but we always had a lot of love in our home. I will forever thank God for all that he gave me in the blessing of a father.