Perspective

This past year I have felt my perspective slip often into the cynical cycle which made me see mud and not stars.  Or maybe it's the other way around, I have viewed the mud of life and it made me cynical.  Either way my perspective from behind the prison bars of life has taken a hit and left me sometimes discouraged and depressed.  Our circumstance is not everything but our perspective on our circumstances is everything.   So I have been thinking of ways to change my view inside my life. 

Become more thankful...even when I don't feel thankful...find something as simple such as breathing to be thankful for.  Mix mud with a few seeds,  some sunshine and flowers will grow.

Become more others minded even when I don't want to think about others, do something kind, on purpose for  someone else.    Help them build a mud pie. 

Add more laughter to my life, either at myself  or with others  but laugh more.  Enjoy a mud fight and a dance in the rain with some friends. 

Cry more...tears  not only refresh the eyes but wash the mud from my  soul  so I   can see more clearly which will change my  perspective.

Have a treasure hunt in the mud instead of just  wallowing in it.  

From my perspective this is the cutest picture.  But for some of you a cute dog picture would work better.  Remember I said I was looking for ways to change my perspective and since I love cats this picture works for me.  What works for you? 

Jesus

Our  Christmas was filled with family, friends, gifts, food, a great sermon at church and good holiday music.  Yet I am glad the language of Christmas is over.  I said Merry Christmas a lot more then I talked about Jesus. I thought more about what to buy for others then I thought about Jesus.  I got caught up in the holiday spirit more then I was filled with His Spirit.  Truthfully I am just glad to have Christmas behind me so I can get back to worshipping Jesus. 

                           Any thoughts on your Christmas? 

Selfie

 

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Sometimes others say it much better then I ever could. Such is the case with this post written by a young courageous wise hearted women, Abbi Jean Short.                                                

                                                  The age of the selfie

"Selfie" is a pretty good description of what's on most of our minds.
Oxford Dictionaries named "selfie" the 2013 "word of the year."*
While we're taking pictures of ourselves, there are 870 million* people in the world who are hungry.
While we're buying a venti at Starbucks for $4.45,almost half the world, over three billion people*, are living on less than $2.50 a day.

While we're deciding which of the 52 churches in our community we'd like to attend, 2.9 billion people in the world have no idea that they have a Creator who has a Son.  There's some balance that's clearly a little off.

I love America, I love Americans, I love having plenty of food to eat, I love churches.
God bless developed nations.

What I do not love, however, is that while many of us Americans come up with new extra things to burn our money on to make our lives a little more comfortable, our faces a little bit less flawed, our appetites a little more satisfied, other people are drawing their last breath because they don't have food to eat, without having ever heard the name of Jesus.

What are we going to do?

The One I'm serving, Jesus is His Name, told me that the way things are right now is how He knew they'd get.
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,…-2 Timothy 3:1-3

Aren't we all a bunch of lovers of ourselves? Lord, help us.

If American young people spent as much time praying for the nations as they did taking pictures of themselves, the 2.9 billion who have not heard the Gospel would probably have already heard it.

When is the last time you spent an entire day thinking about things that really mattered?  It's possible that you have never had such a day. Let's ask Jesus to give us more days like that and less days staring at our selfish selves.  Let's put down the cameras that we're holding up in front of our faces and get down on our knees before our Holy God.

He's got some things He wants us to accomplish on the earth, and some people He wants us to love.
When we listen, He guides us. I believe He will always guide us away from "selfie

 

 Posted by abbiejean 

What say you?

Standing In The Need of Prayer

It's me, it's me oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. 

I don't think I have ever written something  as "fresh" as this is. 

The condo we rent is up for sale as of two weeks ago.  It's been a constant stream of real estate agents with their clients passing through. 
This morning I was in the bedroom still in my bed clothes heard people coming up our steps then heard them in our hallway.   Thanks God I was able to get the door closed and start reaching for clothes.    My husband heard them too,  went to see what the noise was when the door opens and about eight  real estate agents just came walking through right past him without even ringing the door bell first.  Of course they apologized, well sort of.  Within a  hour our door bell rang and there stood another agent with her clients wanting to go through the place.  All I could think was, the bathroom is a mess.  They went on and on how cute and warm the place looked and why were we not buying it? 

I have written a lot about control since it's a major struggle for me.  A lack of control makes me depressed, grouchy and hard to get along with.  Looking at circumstances through the words, "lack of control" makes me think I need to do something to get the control back.  But if I look through the lens of "lack of trust" I realize only God can build trust in me.  It's not something I can do naturally especially in the middle of the trial. 

God's timing is always perfect for I just started reading "The Fires of Delayed Answers"  by Bob Sorge.  Two months ago I bought this book for my kindle but just got around to reading it during the Thanksgiving week.  We were flying standby to Minnesota and back to California which holds a lot of unknowns, thing I cannot control.   We just made it out of Fargo, North Dakota before the hard snow storm hit, Chicago was a mess due to the front moving in.  We sit all afternoon through about four flights trying to get back west...finally after last flight of the night left  full we  got a hotel for the night.  The next afternoon we had to fly viva Las Vegas to Los Angeles through some pretty rough turbulent, you know the kind you grip your seat mate hand real hard.   Thanks God it was my husbands hand.  I tried hard to "lean in" to Jesus waiting for rough weather to pass, it did when we landed, only to have to go back through it on the next flight west.   

It has been encouraging to read how those bible character struggled with bad attitudes, worry, anger, depression and countless other negative feelings.  I know God is going to bring me through another move, His did it twenty seven times before and His grace and mercy will do it again.  I am just having a little trouble keeping that perspective at this point.   So that's why I am standing in the need of prayer.  Not prayer that our condo won't sell or an investor  will buy and we  can continue to rent it. Not even prayer for the next place we will move to.  Not even for the money it would take to buy this place ourselves.  Well maybe that would be my second prayer.  My first would be to trust Him so much so that I am a good testimony to those around me, my husband, our son, family, friends. 

It's been a couple of hours since the last restate agent left and we just found out in Simi Valley, Fridays are open days for realtors to come by...without calling first.   Totally out of my control.  

 Will you pray for me?  And is there something I can pray for you?