Spiritual Sisters
Spiritual Healing Serene Salad
Spiritual Voices Creativity Bakery
Musings
Making a Difference
Our actions that make a difference in someone else's life may be unanticipated
February 01, 2007
Until a miracle occurs:
When Grandmother tired of the nothingness and entered a GED program to get her high school diploma, it is doubtful she had any idea the significance of her decision for, not only her own future, but the future of her children and grandchildren. Grandmother has now been joined in the GED training by her daughters. Husbands and significant others are considering doing the same.
One daughter has been told her youngest will have to repeat the first grade for the third time next year. In any previous conversations with her, she has blamed the school and the teachers for her child's failure. She has been adamant the teachers had hated her and she believed that hatred was being transferred to her children, thus depriving them of any opportunity to learn.
Today, as the daughter spoke of the conference with the teacher, where she learned of the child's failure to learn, she did not heap blame on others. She agreed with the teacher that the child should receive the help with vision and hearing which the school was willing to arrange. Last night mother and child sat together at the table and worked on their homework while enjoying each other's supportive comfort.
I cannot imagine the joy one Grandmother must be experiencing at this time. I cannot comprehend the difference her simple action is capable of making for her family.
"If a child smiles, if an adult smiles, that is very important. If in our daily lives we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. If we really know how to live, what better way to start the day than with a smile? Our smile affirms our awareness and determination to live in peace and joy. The source of a true smile is an awakened mind." --Thich Nhat Hanh
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Rants
It is bitter cold outside and a fresh blanket of snow is creating a blissful scene. Were I not so consumed by the necessity of "delete", I might be snuggling with my dogs and a good book. But no, I must sit here and delete the inappropriate posts waiting at the SpiritualSisters Message Board for approval.
When I closed the message board, I mistakenly believed they'd eventually quit trying to put up obscene messages, stop trying to sell drugs, and stop encouraging all kinds of base human behaviors, as they realized their messages were never showing up on the message board. I am so dumb!
I am seriously concerned about corporal tunnel syndrome of the thumb!
So I will continue to play the "delete" game until I can stomach it no longer. Then I will take down the message board like so many others have done.
That's really sad--just like I quit doing a newsletter as so many others had done. We understand not being thanked. We have a problem with being tortured. I hope the merciless ones don't figure out a way to destroy blogging.
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Musings
Early in the Colts march toward the World Championship, Coach Dungy was quoted by the press as saying, "Three (in a row) is starting a pattern. We'd like to start a pattern. Two is still a coincidence." I believe this statement applies in both the physical and the spiritual world. Perhaps that is why God says, "test me". He realizes we need more than a coincidence, we need a pattern and a trend to solidify our faith.
God seems to be quiet for long periods of time and I used to become concerned I had somehow displeased The Father. He has established a trend in my life which is so consistent, I need not be concerned about quiet times. If He is displeased with my actions, He is quite capable of letting me know. So is the adversary who is a master at manipulation.
Today began as a nightmarish day: My work decided I should drop a project in which I had invested a great deal of myself, The Living in Simple Faith House had a water leak which flooded the kitchen, I experienced four hours of dizziness and nausea whereupon I laid down to rest thinking this would help with the problem. As the mailman approached, my dog jumped off the bed to bark at him, catching my earlobe with a claw on her rear foot. While I'm still trying to keep from passing out, all the blood must have upset the dog's stomach because she started vomiting. Shortly thereafter, a woman knocked on my door to tell me my sidewalks were icing over and she nearly fell. It was hard to appear to be the caring person I was expected to be at that time.
The human side of me took over at this point and I began to moan to The Father, "What have I done?"
That's when I received the distinct impression I was moaning when I should be thanking and to prove this point by the end of the miserable day, I'd received the largest donation ever given to The Living in Simple Faith House and an all-expenses paid trip to the East Coast.
Yes, my Heavenly Father understands patterns and trends and how to use them to build my faith.
"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it" --Malachi 3:10 (NIV)
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Musings
May such a romantic beginning continue to bless all the couples commitments to each other through all their lives.
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Meditations
The same attitudes and reactions apply to our relationship with our Heavenly Father. If we were fortunate enough to gain an understanding of the ways of the Loving God before we feel the condemnation of His stern side, we know all that occurs has a purpose in the grand scheme of things. As the Master of the Sky and the Master of the Earth make moves in the Eternal Chess Match, the devil manipulates us and God turns those manipulations into something which can be used to further His Plan. The Book of Job in the Old Testament clearly lays out how this came down in the lives of Job and his well-intentioned, but misguided, friends. The devil manipulated the situation from the beginning; then God recorded His way of looking at the men's thoughts and actions as a source of guidance in order that we may be able to understand God's ways. Afterwards, God lavishly rewarded Job for maintaining an attitude of faithfulness through great adversity. Much understanding of God's Mystical Ways can be gained from spending time in the Book of Job.
Anyone old enough to be reading this has probably made some mistakes. The mistake is not as significant as the person's way of reacting to the mistake. If I harshly condemn myself, thinking I've messed up so badly I'll never be able to straighten it out, the devil is snickering in delight. If I justify my actions and expect everyone else to understand, THEN I have really lost--the devil has won the battle, because I've moved into an attitude of self-sanctification. If I turn to The Father and genuinely express my regrets, asking how I can make amends, He'll accept me with all my blemishes. God will provide a way to turn things around.
Do not be surprised if God works through you in the most perplexing of ways. He has no problem with making us feel like a fool. He knows the more foolish I feel today, the greater my delight when I begin to see His Plan come to fruition. Giving me instructions to attend a wedding reception with my gift of an empty wine bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag was highly embarrassing. Having to reply, when asked the significance of the gift, that I did not know what it meant, was doubly difficult. Having to admit weeks later that I still did not know why I was to give such a gift--HARD!! But God has a plan and He knows why--doesn't matter what I know.
"In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory." --Ephesians 1:11-12 (NIV)
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Teachings
"The ego, as a collection of our past experiences, is continually offering miserable lines of thought. It’s as if there were a stream with little fish swimming by, and when we hook one of them there is a judgment. The ego is constantly judging everybody and everything. It has its constant little chit chat about things that can happen in the future, things about the past, too, and these are the little fish that swim by. And what we learn to do—this is why it takes work—is to not reach out and grab a fish." --Hugh Prather
Oh, yeah! In the last couple days, I've been hooking those little fish right and left. I've got a mound of little gripes and groans and judgments--I've completely misplaced "Live and Let Live." Nothing is working right in my life at the moment: there's snow issues and water issues and dog issues and computer issues and self-pity issues and nobody-is-doing-anything-right issues....
Thankfully, I've disciplined myself to not chit-chat on the phone or I'd be digging deeper and deeper into the "poor little me" syndrome. So, I'm admitting my insufficiences and then I'm turning back to the computer and attempting to complete the download which keeps hanging up. God willing, I'll be able to put all the little fishes back in the stream as I download.
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Meditations
And so it goes for all of us, no matter our status: dogs lacking exercise will fight over who lays where for hours, the leaders of the world have never-ending turf battles. When we have too much time on our hands, we are prone to turn inward--not to seek and to find, but to dwell on what we don't have, what we should have, and who is depriving us of our greatest desires. Ugly, isn't it?
"The love of our neighbor is the only door out of the dungeon of self, where we mope and mow, striking sparks, and rubbing phosphorescences out of the walls, and blowing our own breath in our own nostrils, instead of issuing to the fair sunlight of God, the sweet winds of the universe." --George MacDonald
It is so easy to slip into the dungeon of self. We usually fail to note the signs we are slipping until we are way past gone. When we realize we're in the dungeon, we know we should come out but that does not mean we really want to come out. We need help to do it and that help is right there all the time.
When reading the news had me so depressed I just wanted to eat chocolate and stay in bed, it shook me up enough to get me out of bed. If out of bed means flopping into the computer chair, that's a big mistake. Do something mundane but physical--mop the floor, sweep the sidewalk, or shovel some snow. Better yet, shovel your neighbors' snow. That's the beginning of moving into God's sunlight: doing something physical and for someone else.
Just be sure any return to the computer is not to read the news. There's lots of websites featuring God's sunlight.
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Praise
I believe The Father works all, no matter how simple or small, to the good of those who will honor and obey him. Even when things seem tragic from my earthly perspective, I believe He has our best interests at heart and we must believe in His vision, which is not limited.
He really outdid himself today--it was so much fun! It seemed I could see God at work in many instances throughout the day.
We held a local resource fair and some of us really hoped to reach the people most often left behind when good things are being handed out. God knew how much I wanted the really useful door prizes to go to persons who most needed the particular item. One disabled woman with a real need for food for her great-nieces and nephews won three months of Angel Food. Many people walked to the fair and it was such a delight when free bus passes were picked up by people wearing worn walking shoes.
But best of all was the drawing for the Grand Prize, a complete computer system. One Latino family had patiently waited the entire day filled with dreams of winning the computer. They would come to the announcement area and tell Jesse and Ondina how much they wanted a computer and how they were hoping to go home with the Grand Prize. God was listening. They won the new computer. Their expressions were priceless! And once more I have seen The Master in action and have thrilled to watch his loving ministrations.
"Believing is a daring adventure into the unseen, it is a radiant faith in the unexplored, the undiscovered, the miracles of the future. . . There is magic in the art of believing! Believe! Engrave these words of the Master in your memory: 'All things are possible to those who believe.' Believe! Believe in the limitless supply of God's goodness. The universe is filled with more wonders than you can imagine." --Wilferd A. Peterson
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© Jane Mullikin used by permission of Project Ripple
Delete
I am seriously concerned about corporal tunnel syndrome of the thumb!
February 06, 2007
God's Patterns
Did Coach Dungy say something about a pattern?
February 09, 2007
Love, Marriage and Valentines
May a romantic beginning continue to bless
February 14, 2007
The Mystical Way
according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will
February 15, 2007
Swim on, Little Fish
I'm admitting my insufficiences and then I'm turning
February 18, 2007
The Dungeon of Self
To find the door out of the dungeon of self
February 21, 2007
Believe in the limitless supply of God's goodness
I believe The Father works all to the good of those who will honor and obey him
February 24, 2007