Monday Musings: The Countless Edition

Image from Pixabay.com

• Countless are the times I said things I wish I hadn’t.  

• Countless are the comments I didn’t type, and I’m glad I didn’t.   Ah, but countless are the ones I did type.  Nobody has all the answers; thinking you do might make you look a little trollish.   There comes a time when we need to learn when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em…comments and comebacks, that is…not the Gambler’s cards.

• The countless times I’ve thought of just what to say…after the fact.   It’s usually when I’m holding on to some unforgiveness, and having conversations with the offender in my head.   Forgiveness is always better than one-sided conversations. 

• Countless times I’ve laid down a grudge only to pick it back up because of something said or done that reminds me that perhaps I didn’t forgive as fully as I thought. 

• Oh, the countless fat grams, calories and carbs I’ve counted.   Countless more are all the ones I ate.

• Countless blessings in my life…some I recognize daily, others I take for granted.   For those I take for granted, God forgive me.

Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another,

And the Lord listened and heard them;

So a book of remembrance was written before Him

And who meditate on His name

Malachi 3:16

Will the Lord write a book of remembrance 

on what I speak about today?  

Lord, help me be a positive voice 

in a dark and negative world.

(From CommittedThoughts.com)

Wednesday's Word

God will always help us.  In times of trouble and in mundane of our daily lives, He is our strength, and He is forever available to us.  When we call on Him, He is right there…He was there all along!

He’ll never leave us, and no matter where we go or what we do, He will not stop loving us.   He knows us…but loves us still.   We are His children, there is great joy in recognizing all the benefits of being His child.

Would you like to be free from the snares (fear, depression, oppression) of the world?  Look to things above and not on all the strife surrounding us.  Freedom comes from knowing Him and by no other way.

Monday Musings: The More Better Edition

Sometimes less is better…the older we get, the better our skin looks with less heavy make up.  

Sometimes more is better...there are times when those skirts really are too short.   When walking out of church and a small wind gust exposes your...everything...a few more inches of hem would have definitely been better.   Is that judgmental of me?  Don’t want to be judging others, you know, but I don’t want to see their hineys, either. 

Less social media is better.   Facebook is a colossal time waster!  (“Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way.”  Psalm 119:37)  Some may say blogging is, too.  :::looking around to see who is agreeing with that:::

Speaking of social media…less politics is definitely better!  At this point, 97.8% of voters have made up their minds, and they won’t be changing them.  All of those political posts from questionable sites, and the rants from people who put stock in those stories…on both side…stop it!   If the story is sensationalized, exaggerated, or fabricated, just stop it!   Liberals and conservatives are equally guilty and equally stubborn.  (Disclaimer:  I made the 97.8% statistic up.  I’m only assuming the number isn’t 100%...or 110% if you count the dead folks who voted in the last election.)

Sometimes less government is better.   satan has worked long and hard for America.   With the last two elections, we nearly handed it to him on a silver platter.   I sometimes wonder why Donald Trump is being fought so hard.  When in history do you ever remember violence breaking out at a presidential rally repeatedly, as it is with Donald Trump?   A little unnerving, isn’t it?  Also kinda makes me happy to vote for Trump…not that he didn’t already have my vote because I sure won’t vote for HRC.  

Less Jeb Bush…why would a strong political figure publicly declare he would not vote in the presidential election?   Inappropriate and irresponsible!   Is he a little bitter and jealous, or is he and his ilk afraid that what they have made the Republican Party has been exposed, and people want their party back?   Someone needs to tell him to shut up…along with Lindsey Graham, Mitt Romney, Glen Beck and a host of other RINOs.     

Sometimes, less is better.  In this case, less is always better:  Weight.   Started a diet again today.  ::::Excuse me::: I mean I started a new healthy lifestyle.   Wish me luck. 

Be clear-minded and alert. Your opponent, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.  
I Peter 5:8

Tuesday's Top Ten: The "Just Don't" List

1. Don’t leave conservative comments on liberal sites.  They don’t like that.   They write things in response that you won’t like, vulgar, classless things.   They want things for you that are worse than death.
2. Don’t respond to people who just want to rile you.   I promise, you are getting more revenge by not giving them a reaction than anything you could say.
3. If you need to vent…vent.   Do it in your car, tell it to God, say it to your best friend.   But don’t hold it in.  It may cause your eyeballs to pop out.   You don’t want that, do you?
4. If your good friend needs to vent, let them.  Don’t keep cutting in with your own great advice (looking in the mirror as I type).  If they are venting about their loved one, don’t ever say anything negative about that person!   Just listen.
5. Don’t tell secrets you’ve promised not to tell.
6. Don’t keep secrets that will harm someone else.  
7. Don’t be contradictory.   (I know.   I read the above two lines as I wrote them.) 
8. Don’t spend your life not liking yourself.   If you’ve done terrible things in your past, ask God to forgive you, and then forgive yourself.   It doesn’t matter what you’ve done…it really is okay to forgive yourself, even if someone else doesn’t.  Pray for that person.  Learn to like you.
9. Never hold unforgiveness in your heart.  God has great rewards for those who have suffered.   It’s called justice, and it’s mentioned over 500 times in the bible.   Justice and righteousness are the foundation of God’s throne.   Forgive that person who hurt you because God’s compensation for what you’ve been through outweighs the hurt you’ve suffered.  Only He can repay like that.
10. Never think that someone got away with hurting you.  Even if it devastated your life as you knew and loved it, and they seem to be prospering from it.   God is not mocked, what we sow, that’s what we will reap.   The reaping won’t be pretty, either.  Don’t miss your compensation by holding on to unforgiveness.

Monday Musings: The Truth and Integrity Edition

Does integrity still mean anything? 

In a world where everyone is talking, truth gets lost amid the noise and distractions.  Truth is vitally important.   Our continued freedom depends on knowing it, and without it, we are in a very dangerous place!

Do we have a responsibility to fight for truth?   Though it may seem like a small deal, shouldn’t we demand truth even in the simplest of news reporting?   How about in the headlines?   The things we repost and share on Facebook or Twitter?   

What about in our everyday life?   Do we exaggerate a story or share gossip?  Matthew 12:36-37 reminds us that we will give an account for every idle word we speak, our own words will either justify or condemn us. 

Truth is absolute.  It is what it is.  Denying it won’t change it, and it cannot be altered to suit our lifestyle, just as the words of the Bible cannot be rewritten until we have justified our sin. 

If we had known the truth from our government about Islam extremists, would we be in a safer America today?  Would the fifty men and women killed by Omar Mateen in Orlando still be alive today?  I can’t help but think they would be.

The path to a better America has to start somewhere, it may as well be with you.  And me.  Truth and integrity should be important to all of us.   Be kind to someone today.  Don’t repeat gossip, listen more than you talk.  Make Truth a priority in your life.  And say a prayer for the families and friends of Orlando’s slain. 

Personal Responsibility: A Friday Weigh In...

No, I’m not talking about my weight, though I did see the lady doctor today (don’t think too hard about that) and she asked me how my diet was going.   I think we can safely assume she knew the answer before she asked.  She told me to start back on low carb today.   Today?   Isn’t there a law against starting a new life style on a Friday?   After listening to her run down the list of all the terrible things in my future if I continue to eat sugar, I realize I simply must take personal responsibility for myself.   Monday's coming.

Judge Aaron Persky.  Wow!  Two separate petitions with over one million signatures each calling for his removal from the bench.  Aren’t sure who he is?   He’s the judge who sentenced convicted rapist Brock Turner, a former Stanford star swimmer, to a mere six months in the county jail (to serve only three months with good behavior, and he will be in a protected area due to the “nature of his conviction.”)  He is scheduled to be released September 2. 

The light sentence was due in part to a presence of alcohol and lack of prior convictions.  The judge decided sending Turner to prison would have a “severe impact” on him.   Does it matter that the Judge Persky graduated from Stanford and was involved in sports?  Does it matter that Turner’s “twenty minutes of action” (how his father described the rape) had a severe impact on his victim?

The victim wasn’t careful with her own personal safety and drank her way into oblivion at a party where she didn’t know many people.  That gives no one the right to assault her, but it did open the door to her attacker, who dragged her unconscious body behind a dumpster and violently violated her.   It’s never a good idea to drink until you are at a pass-out level, if for no other reason that there are Brock Turners and Aaron Perskys lurking about.   She was allowed to address Turner in court, reading a lengthy statement to him, a statement so heart-wrenching, Vice President Biden wrote an open letter to her in response.  It was the first time I ever took Joe Biden seriously. 

Deception in America is rampant.  Is it any wonder that our youth are so mixed up and distracted?  

And these distractions?   Eleven children so far this year (which means since it got hot again) have died, having been forgotten in hot cars by their distracted parents. 

While the world is distracted by dead gorillas, six month sentences, our leaders, candidates, and the false teachers of the world are sowing dangerous seeds of untruth.

For they will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!  For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,  always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.   (2 Timothy 3:2-7)