Who Can I Make Laugh Today?

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. ~Mark Twain

I believe God has me in a place where I am being stretched. This year has been something else. I am not sure what He is trying to teach me, but I do know I am going to try to learn fast because I do not like this stretching and pullling at the core of my being. This year I have been faced with overwhelming issues that have been beyond what I was capable of handlling, yet His strength is made perfect in my weakness and I have perservered so far. I haven't given up, I haven't quit, I am staying the course, running my race, maybe not as quickly as I would like, but apparently I am still in training, because when I think things are finally getting better, they don't, something else comes along and rains on my parade. Perhaps He is preparing me for something big, because so many big things happened this year and many times I didn't think I could go another step, but I did. I managed. Lord help me now, cause I need it!!!!

Faithfulness

I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness.

Mother Teresa inspires me. She didn't ask for success, she asked for faithfulness. Down deep within me that is what I want to. I want to remain faithful. I want God to trust me to put Him first in my life, to love and to serve others without seeking acknowledgement.

I want to be faithful in the small things, to lean on Him, to ask Him for direction, for help. I have found that when I try in my own strength to go through my day, at the end of it, I am exhausted.

But when I put Him first, things fall together, prayers are answered, doors are opened and everything just works out the way He meant it to work out.

One of the greatest things I have learned is He is faithful. So today I pray He will make me like Him.

The Light Has Gone Out!

When you look at electrical things you can see that they are made of small and big wires, cheap and expensive all lined up. Until the current runs through them there will be no light.

This quote from Mother Teresa reminds me of some of the people I know. They have allowed the light to be turned off. The current no longer runs through them. The sins they entertain have broken fellowship with Christ, they no longer let Him flow through them. What a sad existence to separate yourself from the one who made you.

I got a call from someone. I wouldn't really call them a friend, but she calls me to talk and to cry sometimes. I listen and encourage her. Tonight when she called she was telling me how she has nothing to live for. She is on all kinds of medications for her back and all kinds of ailments. She was telling me the meds were making her gain weight and she was depressed.

Tonight as I listened I decided to tell her what she needed to hear. I first told her I remembered when she used to be a drug addict and a prostitute. I remember when she accepted Christ several years ago. She quit the drugs and alcohol, started going to church and went to school to be a beautician. She had perfect credit, a good job, lots of clients who were christians and she was serving others.

Then slowly but surely she started to party again. It wasn't long until she was back to her old habits, going to clubs, smoking weed, taking xanax, drinking. Slowly but surely the life has drained out of her. She stopped attending church, then hurt herself on the job. She went on long term disability, then when that was over, faked a back injury and went out again. This time she went in the hosptial and had a test done on her back. They put contaminated die into her and she couldn't walk for three months. She was bedridden in the hospital.

I remember her crying and saying God was punishing her because she faked the injury. Now here she is several years later, no job, no car, hooked on perscription meds. She is about 45 yrs old and spends most of her days in bed, she is depressed.

So tonight, I told her that I was not saying she didn't have some of the illnesses that the doctors claim she has, but I too had been told I had this or that and I went all natural and didn't sucumb to it. I don't have any medical problems today. I just refuse to give in and I do whatever it takes to stay healthy. I told her she needed to get up, go to the Natatorium with me every morning where we will swim and do water aerobics. I told her she needed to leave the booze alone and look for natural alternatives to the meds she was taking. I said, you know I could enjoy a Marquerita or a drink with a meal, but I choose not to. In her case, she has an addiction and definately needs to choose not to.

I asked if she wanted her life tomorrow to be like it is today and she said no. So I said, it is time to do something about it. I reminded her it was her life and she was killing herself a little every day, she was existing, not living. She agreed. So, I asked her if she was willing to put the brakes on, get up and pull herself up and do whatever it took to claim her life back.

I advised her to get into church, reminding her she will have to overcome the flesh. That most of the things we should do, we don't want to do, but we need to do it anyway. I told her I would be there for her only if she made a committment to give 100% taking it one day at a time.

So now I wait, if she is serious about getting her life back, I will help her. I told her if she continued where she is now, she will get worse not better. So she had to decide.

To keep a lamp burning we have to put oil in it.

Work: Quotes by Mother TeresaTo keep a lamp burning we have to put oil in it.

I Know How She Feels!!

This past weekend, I went to my mother's in Oklahoma. I loaded up some things to redecorate my mother's home to cheer her up and give her something she can enjoy. So off I go with a rug I had gotten a few years back at Lowe's for $400, two paintings, some vases with silk flowers a cactus and a futon.

My mother's house is very small and she had a hospital bed in the living room and in the bedroom also. When we visit there is little room for anyone to sit down comfortably. I also felt mom would not feel so much like an invalid if her bedroom and living area were separate.

So I called my sister to tell her we were moving the bed into the bedroom and setting up mom's house like it should be. So she came over and we got with it. Wow! those beds weigh a ton. I had to go next door to get a man to help me.

Anyway, we get it all done and it was beautiful. The rug was an 11 X 9 and it almost covered her whole living room. The paintings were perfect and the color scheme all matched. I didn't get to hang the pictures of us and the grandkids back up, but told her I would return next week with two matching quilts to go on the beds in her room, along with curtains for the living room and bedroom.

My next project there will be to decorate the guest room and build a small room on the back for storage and give her dogs a place to stay warm for the winter.

Now to get to the rest of it. Mom was so proud of it, then about three days after I left she started saying I probably spent her money to buy everything. She told my sister she was giving everything away and moving. It is hard trying to do the right thing and not get discouraged. I know my mother won't be around for a very long time and she has to depend on others, so I give her grace. That doesn't negate the fact that I sometimes want to give up, but I know I can't. I am just trying to help her to enjoy what time she has left.

Who Brews The Coffee?

A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning.
The wife said, "You should do it, because you get up first, and then we don't have to wait as long to get our coffee".

The husband said, " You are in charge of the cooking around here and you should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee."

Wife replies, "No you should do it, and besides it is in the Bible that the man should do the coffee."

Husband replies, " I can't believe that, show me."

So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testament and shows him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says .

"HEBREWS"

Life Without Parole

These boys are all in prison serving life sentences without parole in adult prisons. These are pictures just before they were incarcerated, they are all older now. Every week I spend time with boys about their age serving sentences for drug offenses, unauthorized use of motor vehicles, burglary of a habitation, etc.

I just ask myself, am I doing enough? I mean, I don't think about praying for these boys who are already incarcerated. I know God still loves them and many are victimized in prison because they are so young.

I just think here we are in America. We have so much, yet our youth are in trouble in epidemic proportions. I wonder if we each were able to pick out an at risk kid in our neighborhood and spend time with them, guide them and love them if it would make a difference. I am sure some of them would still end up in prison, but I wonder if the number would decrease radically.

Every day I see a kid who needs to know someone cares. Sometimes it is on the school grounds. Sometimes they pass me on the street or in the grocery store. I recognize them at the games, and even in church.

I am not sure why but I am one of those people who can't get their faces out of my mind. I always remember Mother Teresa's quotes of how when she looked at the hurting, dying and suffering, she saw the face of the Lord.

Jesus says, "I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me" (Mt 25:36). Jesus says, "I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me" (Mt 25:43). The truth that Jesus makes clear is that, "...just as you did it to one of the least of these you did it to me..."(Mt 25:40).

Cash in the Casket

There was a man who worked all of his life and had saved his money and was a real miser when it came to his money. He loved money more than just about anything.

Just before he died, he said to his wife. 'Now listen. When I die, I want you to take all my money and put it in the casket with me. Because I want to take my money to the afterlife with me.'
And so he got his wife to promise him with all of her heart that when he died, she would put all of the money in the casket with him.

Well one day he died. He was stretched out in the casket, the wife was sitting there in black, and her friend was sitting next to her. When they finished the ceremony, just before the undertakers got ready to close the casket, the wife said, 'Wait just a minute!'

She had a box with her, she came over with the box and put it in the casket. Then the undertakers locked the casket down, and they rolled it away. So her friend said, 'Girl,I know you weren't fool enough to put all that money in there with that man.

She said, 'Listen, I'm a Christian, I can't lie. I promised him that I was gonna put that money in that casket with him.'

'You mean to tell me you put that money in the casket with the man?
'I sure did,' said the wife. 'I wrote him a check.'

Love Is Action

Every work of love, no matter how small, brings a person face to face with God. It is not the magnitude of our action that counts but the love we put into it. It is not how much we do that pleases God but how much love we put into the doing.

Mother Teresa

Tonight one of the boys came home frustrated because he was in charge at work and some of the other employees wouldn't respond to him the way he wanted them to. So I sat down and asked him if he always responded the way Christ wanted him to. I tried to communicate to him that he couldn't just give up, which is what he was saying he was going to do, but this was a test a lesson to learn. We talked for awhile about how Christ never gave up on us, how the ministry is about serving others and how a good manager is a leader and not a boss. I challenged him to figure out ways to get the employees to respond because they wanted to, not because he told them to. So now I pray....God help me to help him, I don't have all the answers but you do.

Thank You Lord by Gloria Martel

I have many things to thank you for,
I don't know where to start.
But, on bended knee I'll try to say,
What's deep within my heart.

I thank you for the moon and stars,
A kaleidoscope to see.
An ever changing picture,
Arranged so Beautifully.

Sometimes you send a sunrise,
Such beauty to behold.
I stand in awesome wonder,
At rays of yellow and gold.

On days you send those showers,
I might feel a little blue.
But, then you send a rainbow
And the sun comes shining through.

You give me many blessings,
But, Dear Lord, the greatest one,
Is knowing that you care for me,
That's why you sent your Son.

Miracles Happen

Tonight before I came to work, I went to the church to pick up the boys. They went to a Draft party for Flag Football to see which team they were playing on this Saturday. I called as I arrived at the church, they met me in the parking lot, laughing because they both ended up on the same team.

Interesting thing was on the way home both of them were talking on the phone. One of them was saying something about how he never thought he would have a job and be on his own. He was explaining to someone how he used to be. He said I thought I would be in prison one day. Then he explained I used to think I would never get married, but now, I want to get married. He was saying how he used to want to sleep with as many girls as he could with no committment but now he wanted to get married first and he wanted to raise a family, go to college and have the life God intended for him to have. This same kid told his father he wasn't going to be the man he is, that he had seen him sell drugs, stab someone and put his hands on his mother. The miracle in all this is only God can change a life.

Where I Have Been!!

Alot has happened since my last post. The boy I posted about, well, God has answered my prayers, he is finally settled in, he is doing well. He called his uncle and spent the day with him and his uncle made him pay his own way, in other words, he had to buy his own food when they went out to eat and he had to pay for everything they did. I am so surprised because most of the kids we deal with...their parents and family enable them and don't make them stand on their own two feet.

So I am praising the Lord, he is working, he is happy, he is going forward. We have his GED scheduled for Thursday. He is involved in College Life at Church and Huddle Ups which is Bible study for High School. He plans to go to college for Computer Technology, we are going to try one class the first semester in January and he is saving money for a car. Thank you Lord Jesus, He does hear and answer prayer.

Also, last Friday I got a call from my husband. He was working in the middle school where he was contracting and he asked the school nurse to take his blood pressure. She did and found his heart was skipping beats so she told him to go to the doctor and have it ckd. He did and they sent him to the emergency room. So three days later he gets out of the hospital with two prescriptions, the diagnosis..undetermined. They said he might have a small infection in his heart, but they aren't sure, so I am scheduling him for a second opinion. He has felt great, had no symptoms but now he thinks he is having a reaction to the medicine, but is unsure if it is because he knows something is wrong. Anyway, his heart is skipping beats still, but it is better, it makes you stop and think of how vulnerable we are and how we aren't promised tomorrow. It made me want to just stay home with him, but I had to put it in God's hands.

So if you think of it, will you say a prayer for him today, I really appreciate it.