Just wanted to tell you it has been a very productive week here. Finished Nanowrimo with room to spare AND finished the edit of both The Big Red Chair ( my new story book book for grieving children – which also includes a CD!) AND Meeting Myself,Snippets from a Binging and Bulging Mind. I expect to be able to offer The Big Red Chair for sale for Christmas!
Monthly Archives: November 2011
Binge On This
Instead of eating…..try these on for size and send me your answers.
1. What book of the Bible mentions a bad baseball player?
2. What occupation did Paul have besides tent making and preaching?
3. What is the first medicine mentioned in the Bible?
4. How did Ruth treat Boaz badly?
5. How do we know that devilled ham existed in Bible times?
If these jokes don’t make you laugh, –well what can I say!
Proverbs 17:22– A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. (KJV)
Prayer: Lord, when you fill our hearts with yourself, what else is there to do but smile and be glad? Amen.
Breaking News!
The PITY ME train just derailed at the corner of SUCK IT UP and GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE.
It crashed into WHAT ABOUT MY PROBLEMS and came to a complete stop at YOU ARE NOT ALONE gas station.
Medical personal who attended the scene included Dr. SNIFFALITUS and Nurse STAND ON YOUR OWN TWO FEET.
The injured were transported to QUITCHUR BELLY ACHING Hospital.
Compensation requests may be forwarded to 1-800-CRY ME A RIVER.
All right before I get letters…it is a joke… but not if you are one of the wounded……
A Binging and Bulging Mind
Here is a sample from my new book–Meeting Myself, snippets from a binging and bulging mind…..soon to be on the shelves
Luke 6:27, 33– But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’do that. (NIV)
When I read verses like this, I knew that God expected me to forgive my (now dead) abuser. And I did. But when He told me to go to the cemetery, lay hands and flowers on the tombstone to complete the job, I balked. Some 25 years passed. Circumstances placed me in that graveyard and God spoke the same words to me again.
Body trembling, I forced myself toward the memorial stone. Aloud, I prayed forgiveness for him and healing for me. “God,”I said, “I am sorry. I don’t have any flowers.”I turned to walk away and found two silk flowers lying on the path I had just entered. “They’ll blow away, Lord,”I said, “but I’ll put them there anyway.”Then I noticed two small holes, equally spaced, at the stone’s base. I put the mauve flower in one. The mauve stood for mourning, for surely God mourned with me in the midst of sins committed against me. I put the white one in the other opening. White, for purity, because He had made my heart pure by wiping it clean of all bitterness.
Dear Ones, let us not postpone when God tells us to do something, for in that something lies our healing.
Ewe-Nique
Because each of us is unique, we are one of a kind. If we know Jesus as our personal Saviour, we are ewe-nique. We are one of his sheep. Jesus doesn’t do carbon copies, so it follows that even my grief will be different from your grief.
People who criticize us would be criticizing us over a hundred other things if they had the chance. Don’t think grief protects you. As a matter of fact, now your loved one is gone, a few people who wanted to tell you off before and didn’t, will think they are free to do so now. Don’t fight it. Instead take it to God. Tell him the truth and listen to it yourself. Do not let yourself be tied up in the barb wire others toss your way.
That Jabez Prayer
That Jabez prayer keeps popping up in my vision.
1 Chronicles 4:9-10- And Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, “Because I bore [him] with pain.” Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that Thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that Thy hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldst keep [me] from harm, that [it] may not pain me!” And God granted him what he requested. (NASB)
Who wouldn’t want this to be real in their life? I want God to bless me and expand my borders, (unless that border is my dress size). I yearn for God to be with me and keep me from pain. I yearn to get through this heavy grief.
I pondered this tiny prayer, seeking to apply it to my circumstances. Pain. What kind of pain do I want to get away from? Why, me, of course, me and my widowhood! I want to get away from my flesh, the part of me that is not God-like.
Jabez was known as Pain and no doubt lived up to his name. Don’t we all? It’s hard to get free from the stigma of the past. The world watches our label and expects more of the same. When Jabez asked God to keep him from pain, perhaps he too wanted to be free of his label, free to expand beyond being a Pain and free to escape that fleshly part of him that kept him from God.
Maya Angelou is credited with saying- “I’ve learned that even when I have pains I don’t have to be one.” Me too.
Twas the Night before Christmas
I don’t know anything about this author, but I love her truth. I hope she had this poem published as a children’s book. You may not have autism, but you can insert your own problem , anything from grief, to cancer to lonliness and more and find that the same truths hold true. Don’t you judge me…and I won’t judge you….
Autism Night Before Christmas by Cindy Waeltermann
Twas the Night Before Christmas and all through the house
The creatures were stirring, yes, even the mouse.
We tried melatonin and gave a hot bath
But the holiday jitters, they always distract.
The children were finally all nestled in bed
When nightmares of terror ran through my OWN head
Did I get the right gift? The right color and style?
Would there be a tantrum or even, maybe, a smile?
Our relatives come but they don’t understand
The pleasure he gets just from flapping his hands.
“He needs discipline,” they say “Just a well-needed smack,
You must learn to parent” and on goes the attack.
We smile and nod because we know deep inside
The argument is moot. Let them all take a side.
We know what it’s like to live with the spectrum
The struggles and triumphs, achievements, regressions…
But what they don’t know and what they don’t see
Is the joy that we feel over simplicity .
He said “hello!” He ate something green!
He told his first lie! He did not cause a scene!
He peed on the potty. who cares if he’s ten?
He stopped saying the same thing again and again!
Others don’t realize just how we can cope
How we bravely hang on at the end of our rope.
But what they don’t see is the joy we can’t hide
When our children with autism make the tiniest stride.
We may look at others without the problems we face
With jealousy, hatred or even distaste,
But what they don’t know, nor sometimes do we
Is that children with autism bring simplicity.
We don’t get excited over expensive things.
We jump for joy with the progress work brings
Children with autism try hard every day.
That they make us proud more than words can say.
They work even harder than you or I
To achieve something small, to reach a star in the sky
So to those who don’t get it or can’t get a clue
Take a walk in my shoes and I’ll assure you
That even 10 minutes into the walk
You’ll look at me with respect, even shock.
You will realize what it is that I go through
And the next time you judge, I can assure you
That you won’t say a thing. You’ll be quiet and learn,
Like the years that I did when the tables were turned…
Cheese and Onion Faith
Scholars estimate that Moses needed fifteen hundred tons of food and four thousand tons of firewood every twenty four hours.
Keeping those folks watered and washed required about fifty million litres of water daily. To get them across the Red Sea in one night, he had to form them into a line more than three miles long. That meant the ‘road’ they travelled on through the Sea had to be at least three miles wide. Whew! How did he do it?
Hebrews 11:29a- By faith— the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land…
Moses did what he could and believed God for the rest.
I’ve been trying out that Moses faith and it reminds of my recipe for Cheese and Onion Pie.
Toss four cups of chopped onions with four cups of grated cheddar cheese. Pack the mix into a deep pie plate lined with pastry. It will be too full. Pay no attention.
Stick all the mix into that pie shell. Add a top crust, pierce it, and plop it in the oven. Bake at 425 degrees F. for ten minutes and then 350 degrees for another 30-35. Serve it hot or cold. Yum!
For a crowd, line a 9×13 baking dish with pastry, follow the rest of the instructions. Cut into two
inch squares and serve.
Everyone always wants the recipe. They never believe that the only ingredients are cheese, onions and pastry.
“Haven’t you forgotten something?” they query? And I say, “Just try it.”
They do and when they serve this delicious dish to unbelieving others; they say “Just try it.”
I invite you to try my pie recipe and my God.
Then let him try you.
Promises are Forever
Just when you think God forgot you….He shows up all over again. This is today’s devoitonal in my book Heartfelt:366 Devotions for Common Sense Living. Still true today.
Philippians 4:19–my God will liberally supply (fill to the full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (AMP).
Down to their last 15 dollars, she prayed, “God, I am taking this last 15 dollars to have mother’s ring sized to fit me. It will be a covenant between you and me, God that things are going to get better.
She did that and things did begin to get better.
When I heard the speaker that day, my heart cried out, “Oh God! I wish I had a ring as a covenant between you and me that things were going to get better!” When I remembered that not every one meets God in the same way, I quickly apologized. “Lord, forgive me. I don’t need a ring, but God! I need a covenant with you that things are going to get better.” The meeting ended and I forgot about my prayer.
Five days later, my husband came home from work, got down on one knee and said, “Will you marry me?” I thought he’d lost it! We had been married over 30 years! He held out a wedding ring of 14-carat pink gold that he found in his job at the local recycling plant. It fit me exactly. And then I remembered my prayer.
Thomas-like, we crave something tangible to remind us that God is always near, making decisions that are right for us. Why is it that He understands and fills our hearts with just the right response?
Prayer: Amazing and wonderful God, thanks for meeting us in such personal and private ways. In Jesus’ name. Amen.