postaday

Going through the “change”

A friend has three children, two older girls, and a son, who is 13. She was joking yesterday that she wondered when her son’s voice was going to change because he gets mad when she confuses his voice with that of one of the girls. I’m not certain I reassured her when I said, “I think I was 35. I know that sounds bad, but I was really bummed because they threw me out of the boys choir just when I was starting to get solos.”

Your Personal Highlight Reel

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Do you often stop do consider your thoughts? Thinking about thinking, now there’s a deep concept. As Christians, we seem to most often consider our thoughts within the context of sin: Sinful thoughts of one sort or another that drive a wedge between ourselves and God. Thankfully the Bible doesn’t simply leave us there, it also tells us what to think about. In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he says, “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

So we know generally what God wants us to think about. Under that banner is something I like to call “my personal highlight reel.” If you have ever watched a recap of sports events, you’re familiar with the collection of highlights, or brief films of the plays deemed significant for that particular day. They’re entertaining because they contain the most action, and often illustrate which plays led to a win or loss. I believe each of us have highlight reels that we have racked up, ready to play at a moment’s notice. There are positive and negative highlights that each of us carry around. What I’m suggesting is that we increase the impact of the positive highlights and decrease the impact of the negative. Let’s say you’re a singer, and during a performance you hit a wrong note. Everyone hears it and you’re embarrassed. You might play that episode over and over again in your mind. Your replaying of it may hold you back because you’re afraid to step out and sing solos. Let’s turn the same situation around and say you were in excellent voice that day and got lots of compliments as a result; You would hope to play that back often enough to help encourage great performances in the future.

We can’t guarantee we won’t have bad days. We can’t always hit home runs. But we can take what lessons, if there are any to be learned, from negative highlights and decide not to give them unlimited air-time. We can also use positive experiences to give us the confidence we need to perform well. Our prayer should be to ask God to help us limit the impact of negative highlights. Where healing needs to occur, we should seek help as it is needed. Learn, with God’s help, to control which highlights get played, and how often. Ask God to give you His perspective so that your life’s events are given their proper place in your mind.

For as he thinks within himself, so he is… Prov 23:7

Bible Drama

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I like a book
Times I can tell by its cover
it won’t be like any other
it’s a hook

Draws me in to read
just a little of the lead
I have to know
more of the story

One thing leads to another
like the Bible story of the brothers
Cain and Able
they each brought something to the table

Cain was the first human born
not created
God said his sacrifice
compared to Abel’s
was lower rated

and Cain was jealous
he was a pretty angry fella
he struck out
and Abel went down

“Where is your brother?”
said God to Cain.
“What is that sound,
his blood crying from the ground?”

so God cursed Cain
for Abel’s brother things were never the same
he was left to wander with a mark
a sign for those tempted to cause him harm

Am I my brother’s keeper?
Does God see what I do to the least of these?
Am I an honest seeker?
Is it me or God that I seek to please?
God examine me as I drop to my knees.
God please look in my heart as it’s You I seek.

First Haircut

The moment his mom sat him
in the chair at the beauty shop,
he knew in his very small heart
he’d be losing his favorite locks.
The ones he’d been working on growing
from when he was smaller still,
than today, the day when they sat him,
and he felt just a little ill.
Not the sick you feel when you’ve eaten
too much ice cream and berry pie.
Not even the sick you experience
on a twisty turning car ride.
No, this was more like foreboding,
if he knew what foreboding meant.
It was the fear that his mirror at home
would never be the same again.
So for now best to think up a strategy,
again, if he knew what one was,
to make all scissors go away
and in their place put a brush.
Don’t cut his hair for a while now.
He’ll need some time to recover
from this time he was sentenced to the chair
and experienced such a trauma.
He’ll grow his hair for some time
and come up with a weird design
fitting for a teen age.
You might then wear the face
he’s sported this day
when his favorite locks went away. ©

My First Big Laugh

I love to make people laugh. That’s something that strikes me as being a little strange when I consider my personality. I really think of myself as a bit of an introvert, although that might surprise some people who know me. However, there are a handful of times that I remember especially well when I consider getting big laughs. Of those times, the first ranks near the top.

I was around six I think, and the whole family, including my parents, two brothers, and my sister were eating dinner together. Mom was a pretty good cook, and took pride in putting out a well balanced meal. This particular evening one of the vegetables on the table was squash. I had never seen it before, but since I already had experience with vegetables I didn’t like, I figured anything new only deserved suspicion until proven innocent. Seeing that I had been given something plantlike to eat, I proceeded to give it the evil eye. Looking up from my plate, I looked at my mom and asked, “What is this?” She said, “That’s squash.” In response, I exclaimed, “Squashed something!” It brought the house down, the house at that time being my family. I’m sure it struck me at the time that turning words and their meaning around in surprising and fun ways can make people laugh, almost in spite of themselves. Ever since that first taste of success, I’ve been looking for ways to make it happen again. I don’t know who is having more fun, myself or the people laughing.

Some Writer Types

Writers
Put words onto pages
or onto screens
in this digital age you know what that means

Wordsmiths
remove thoughts from the ether
and bring them to earth
where we cast them about
debating their worth

Some famous scribes
have been known to imbibe
but it’s not necessary
to drink when spreading ink

Lyricists
can write songs by the score
while their heart’s on the floor
amidst the notes that they wrote

Poets
eschew convention
with their own invention
which becomes… convention

Dramatists
know all the world’s a stage
and seek to engage
those in the seats
patrons they may never meet

Very Inspiring Blogger Award

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Yesterday I mentioned that I had been nominated for the “Very Inspiring Blogger Award” by Tony Roberts of the blog, “A Way With Words” http://writingforfoodinindy.wordpress.com Today I’m going to continue fulfilling the conditions for acceptance, which are:

1. Display the award logo (see above)
2. Link back to the person who nominated you (also see above).
3. State 7 things about yourself (see below)
4. Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award and link to them (see further below)

7 things about myself (definitely not in terms of importance).

1. I can play the tenor sax (badly). I sing better than I play the saxophone. I can’t dance, don’t ask me
2. I became a Christian at a church summer camp in 1972.
3. I am the father of one and the grandfather of two. You might ask, “Of what?” I assure you they are humanoid and often bring tears to my eyes, mostly tears of joy.
4. I have successfully completed over 30 years of marriage to the same wonderful woman and I’m grateful for each day, including the extra day in leap years.
5. Though my wife treats them like the most delicious treats, I have never completely come to terms with Brussels sprouts.
6. I have a very large tattoo of a dragon on one side of my chest and an equally large tiger on the other side. I added a Celtic cross to my right forearm recently. The comment I have received most over the years: “You don’t seem like the kind of guy who would have tattoos.”
7. I have survived many years in the retail world, most of them selling books.

Now, on to the blogs I find inspiring. I will gradually add to this Inspiring blog list until there are 15.

Soul Artist: “Giving Hope When Times are Hard” http://soulartist.blogspot.com

Raising 5 Kids With Disabilities and Remaining Sane Blog: http://5kidswdisabilities.com

Life Out of the Box: Giving back in Nicaragua. http://lifeoutofthebox.com

God and Stuff: “Christianity, not just for old people” http://www.godandstuff.com

A Devoted Life: “Practical Daily Devotions for the Real World” http://boyslumber.wordpress.com

Mine?

First, I would like to say thank you to Tony Roberts, of the blog “A Way With Words” http://writingforfoodinindy.wordpress.com for nominating me for the “Very Inspiring Blogger Award.” (See left) I’ll post more on this later. Now, on to today’s post.

‘The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,’ declares the Lord of hosts.
Haggai 2:8

“But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given You.
1 Chronicles 29:14

Our attitude towards money and time often reflects that of our children’s towards their possessions. Anyone who has had to referee an argument over the ownership or right to play with a toy is familiar with the back and forth exclamations of: “Mine!” “No, mine!” Our perception of what we own or deserve is often skewed by our sinful nature. It doesn’t take practice to develop, it’s right there from the moment we take our first breath, and we may not always know what we want, but we’re pretty sure we want more.
You probably have a drawer of things that you just can’t seem to give or throw away.
Mine.
We have garage sales to get rid of our clutter, only to take the money to buy other people’s clutter.
It was yours, now it’s…
mine.
If you have the wherewithal, you may just fill a warehouse full of beautiful cars, boats or whatever.
Mine.
Matthew 6:28 says, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where is your heart?
Really, where is it?

Here on earth in the mire
I find of my own making
gathered tight in my arms
the things that I’ve been taking

only to find what what I’ve held so tight
turned to refuse and dust.
What first appeared as jewels and silver and gold
turned to sand and rust.

What if I became instead
a caretaker, investor, steward
eager to add value for my Lord
instead of by possessions lured?

Would my attitude change?
Would I become a conduit?
Would I by his love and wisdom give away
all of the time and money and things
by fear of loss kept to stay?

Instead of building prisons of possessions
by our Lord’s mercy might we open doors.
Pray blind eyes like mine be open and see
to give away God’s stores.