Well, at least there’s that...

 I’ve often heard the saying “ keep the peace”. How do you do that? Recently I encountered an unacceptable situation. One person was disturbing the peace of many. It really made me angry.  I’m 1/2 Irish and 1/2 English. For the most part the English keeps the Irish in check. So, I don’t get angry very often.  When I do get angry it’s best to leave me alone. Anyone else?  Don’t try to talk me out of it and certainly don’t try to prove your point.  This particular situation caused me to get so angry that I wrote a complaint and signed a petition. I know, how horrific… not.  I started thinking what does keeping  the peace mean? I had it in my head that keeping the peace meant keeping quiet; tolerance.  I think our world is full of peace keepers that just don’t cause or point out trouble.   My source for reason is always the Bible.  The beatitudes do not say “blessed are the peace keepers” That was a stunning thought. The blessing comes to the PEACE MAKERS”.  How in the world do you make p

 Maybe it’s just me, I’ve been thinking about my life. I’ve been a “fill in the blank” person. In ministry there’s a saying “buy one get one free”. I always knew when I was the “free” part when the hiring committee asked me “do you play the piano” when interviewing my husband for a job at a church.  I don’t know what that has to do with anything, but it strikes me as ironic. Would any other kind of work pose that kind of question to a potential employee?  Like “Ok. We’re going to hire you as manager of this restaurant.” “Does your wife cook?” “Great! You’re hired. . Back to my point. Did Thomas Edison need a light at night? Did Alexander Graham Bell need to talk to people that weren’t in his immediate location?  Did David “in the Bible “ need to be king? I don’t know the true answer to the first two. I do know they had a strong desire to solve a problem.  It had to be a strong desire because they failed over and over, until they didn’t.  David is a little easier to figure out. Most of

 Have you ever believed something for so long that you didn’t even consider another option?  I’ve heard and even sung about “ seeking”. You know , “seek and you shall find.” It sounded so simple.  I envisioned myself knocking on doors in a room full of doors until I found the right one.   I’ve given that a lot more thought lately.  I was looking back at patterns in my life. Someone would give me a solution to a problem and in my heart I’d say “that’s not it” and move on.  I think I’ve gotten better at moving on when the door isn’t the one I need.  For the longest time I’d go to one door and knock and knock and even though I was getting undesirable answers I kept returning. Let me take you back to my bout with cancer.  I knew something was wrong. I went to the Dr and he gave me antacids and told me I was fine. I went back to him and told him I was in a lot of pain and he said “cancer doesn’t hurt “. I went back again because I couldn’t sit up by myself and my stomach looked like I was n

Patience has been given a bad rap! Let me start with what patience is not: tolerating bad behavior, accepting abuse, keeping silent when others are overreaching the boundaries you have placed, waiting in denial that something or someone will rescue you. It is not passive.  I have heard many people say “don’t pray for patience because you’ll get stuck in traffic.” Hmm. So, praying for patience will put me in situations that cause me great anxiety and “tolerating it” gives me patience ??? No, it makes me angry and at that point “patience” becomes my ability to control my anger ? Which leads to another subject : self control, which I will not discuss here.  So, what is patience?  Patience takes guts. Let me give you some examples. Training a child does not mean that I get hostile or angry or tolerate bad behavior.   Patience in this situation requires the ability to communicate in a way that can be clearly understood. Patience is work .  A child has no reference for right or wrong until g

 I know that most people don’t believe in ghosts, but I’m going to tell you a couple of true experiences that happened to me. Then I’m going to ask some questions. First true story. Our first daughter was less than a year old. We were living in a house that had been in my husbands family many years earlier.  It was a cute farmhouse, but it was so old that someone had added a hall that went from the main house to the kitchen. The only closet with any size was in that hall.  I had set up our silverware, etc and displayed our wedding glasses, etc on a shelf. I thought it was pleasant.  My husband was working days and I was working nights so we kept our daughter at home.   One morning I was awakened by a crash. Talk about scary! I made my way to the sound. It had come from the kitchen.  I thought “what in the world could happen in this kitchen?” There was only the one shelf that held wedding mementos.  I opened the door and the shelf had fallen. Here’s the kicker. Everything that had my na

 I’ve heard so many sermons on “breaking.”  I thought it was a horrible idea. Sometimes I get images in my mind that give me an alternate way of looking at things that bother me, I saw breaking as either an emotional or physical act, but I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. Why would the God I’ve given my life to want me in a state of despair? He’s supposed to be my father. I’ve seen fathers break their children by destroying their dreams or making them feel unworthy,  Is that what God wants?  As I was thinking about this I got a picture in my mind,  Does this picture give you a new insight? It really made me see breaking as a miracle that I would ask for, I saw myself trapped inside a heavy boulder It surrounded me. It kept the light out and I felt trapped, The weight of the boulder was too much to bear, Then I saw myself struggling to get out of the boulder. I would push with all my might, but the boulder was too heavy and fortified to get free from it. Then I gave up. Thinking this is

I know that healthy jealousy sounds impossible.  Well, it is. So, let me explain.  There are people that have major issues that could be solved by “doing something “.  One person has high blood pressure and if they’d stop eating salty food and go for a walk… they wouldn’t have high blood pressure. But they don’t choose to be well.   I’m jealous of people that could be healthy and choose not to. It aggravates me because they have a solution, but won’t do it.  My life is full of “don’t do that’s “. I abide by those rules. Most of the time , it doesn’t make any difference. The Drs will figure out one thing and I learn to cope with it or manage it and something else happens.  I’m always looking ahead to “ now I can get my life back”! For example.  I was having severe back pain; degenerative discs. I found a surgeon that knew how to help stabilize my back. I was so happy and had the “now I can do…” feeling. When the surgery was over my lungs failed so I’ve been on oxygen for over a year.  R

 Ok. Reality check.  First of all I’m now a blog-aholic… Quick question… did hell invent pain? Awww got you.  Why did God invent pain? To let your body tell you something is wrong.   Are you overly tired, working too hard, stressed out? The body responds using pain.  When I was diagnosed with cancer the Dr thought it was in my head so he politely said “cancer doesn’t hurt!” Of course that was before I was told I only had 6 moths tops to live and it did hurt.  It hurt so bad that I refused to accept his dismissal and found a more competent dr. What if there’d been no pain to encourage me to keep fighting for a reasonable answer? If I had no pain when I put my hand in a blender (ewe gross) think about all the times that pain saved you from permanent harm.  Next part. Does the devil pervert pain and inflict it for no reason? Excuse me, but hell yes.  He wants us to get a taste of what he will experience for eternity.  He doesn’t even know how he will suffer. A “pit of fire?” Maybe he thin

 This is a picture of my black lab "Daniel" swimming in a lake! So, cool. I always wanted a parrot. They are so fascinating, they talk, they laugh, they make sounds, what could be more fun than that? I found out that some people are just not "parrot people." However, our family was driving down a back street one day and the kids yelled "there's a parrot!" We stopped the car and my girls started calling to the parrot. I guess it was tired of walking, so it got in the car. They were thrilled! I was too. We decided to name that bird "Lucky" because he was lucky we found him. We found where he came from and the owner told us to "keep him". You're kidding! We were all so excited. Lucky learned how to say his name and he learned to whistle and sing and then it got night time and he didn't stop. My husband put a towel over Lucky's cage to make sure he knew it was night. That worked for a while. Unfortunately for Lucky, we didn&

I grew up thinking that the only value I had was to preach, or sing, or play the piano or to do all three at once. This thinking was not about what my parents taught me, it took me years to figure this out. I only knew that when something needed to get done, it was my job to do it. I had spiritual answers for everything. "I don't want to do that!" "But those who suffer for Jesus will partake in his glory." "Never say you'll never do something, that's what you'll end up doing." So, unlike many of my friends I did not decide what I would  not do. Missionary - great. I hope they serve hamburgers. Traveling Preacher - great I hope they have hamburgers. Worship leader - great, I hope they have hamburgers. So, I guess my never do was "go without hamburgers." Who knew? So, when I was in my teens I was invited to speak to the Sunday night church service. I had every point written out. It took me four minutes to read the whole thing. There