my dad came and fixed my computer. i am so happy!!!!! I am very scared it will mess up again but I will try and have faith. I will be posting again soon but since it is friday night I will probably start back up monday.
It is a wonderful world!
Taming the tongue December 1, 2008
Those of you who know me know that I have a mouth that has a hard time being quiet. I’m pretty much an open book. What I think comes out before I have a chance to think, ” Should I say that?”. This is probably one of those times.
Before Michael and I had a chance Sunday to get out of the sanctuary ( isn’t it called that for a reason?) Michael was approached by someone who was not intending to show ” Christian Love” and they didn’t. Well, I jumped right into that conversation when I probably shouldn’t have. I was really upset.
I had just asked God to forgive me for the way I felt about this person before communion and then this happens. God has really been working on me. Trying to tame my tongue and the question was raised ( by me), ” When are you suppose to speak up about the monstrosities of this world and when are you just suppose to shut-up?” It is in my nature to say something but now I think sometimes I need to bite my tongue. During Sunday School I decided to take a short walk to clear my head so I could concentrate on the lesson and while I was out I got hit again! COME ON! When I returned to class one of the girls said “God is growing you today.” Man, that was an understatement.
How do you discern when to speak up and when to stay silent? Maybe I should just cut out my tongue.
symbolic or literal September 25, 2008
Noah and the flood. Moses and the red sea, plagues and a burning bush. Daniel survives a night with lions and Jonah is swallowed by a whale.
Wars and love, sheep and shepherds, laws and a new law. People going up in the sky on a cloud. The dead walking around. Darkness and light. Cities destroyed and cities raised up. Sex and seas. Men being thrown into a fire and not burning. A man listening to his wife and changing the course of history. A little boy slaying a giant and another boy, and his colorful coat, having dreams about the future.
A baby born of a virgin and beatin’ and killed so long ago for us. So that we could be forgiven and have a life forever with God.
Some people debate on whether or not the Bible is symbolic or to be taken literally.
If God wanted us to take a man being swallowed by a whale symbolically, wouldn’t he have said “It was like being swallowed by a whale.” instead of ” he was swallowed by a whale and lived in it’s belly for days and was coughed up onto shore.”? What do you think?
veggies with love or steak with strife September 19, 2008
Proverbs 15:17- Better a meal of vegetables were there is love
than a fattened calf with hatred.
In a world that values money and power over just about everything else. It is easy to start thinking,” if only I had more money, we would be happy.” or ” if only we had all the stuff the Smith’s have, our family would have it all.” But just because someone has more in terms of wealth or position doesn’t mean they are better off.
Human beings are created for relationship, so when their relationships with others are not good they really can’t be happy, no matter what they possess. Without love they might as well be starving.
BETTER VEGGIES WITH LOVE THAN STEAK WITH STRIFE.
While you were sleeping September 15, 2008
yesterday Mr. porter started teaching and preaching out of the old testament book ” Amos”. I really think it was a great message especially with our up and coming election. The book of Amos is about judgement on the complacent and speaks against materialism. It made me think of this Casting Crowns song.
Whenever things are going good it is easy for smugness to creep in. In Amos 6:6 God says they “should be grieving over the state of their nation”.
Instead of dining on fine food and resting in ivory beds. we need to dine on his love and rest in his mercy.
September 11th 2001 September 9, 2008
WARNING:the content of this video is very disturbing to some viewers.
Where were you when you heard about the act of terror on the world trade centers?
I was at church, working in the 2 year old room when michael called and told me to turn on the t.v. because a plane had just flown into the world trade center and they didn’t know if it was an accident or on purpose. When I turned on the t.v. my assistant and I saw the 2ndplane hit live. at first we thought it was a replay but quickly found out that it wasn’t. It was definitely an act of terror.
Michael was at home recovering from meningitus and came straight to the church and there was a prayer vigil.
And lets not forget the Pentagon and the hero’s who didn’t let one plane make it’s destination.
When it first happened everyone turned to God. Where are they now? I think people have forgotten what happened. The pain they felt. The sadness and anger.
Unknown Illness August 26, 2008
Lately I have been thinking a lot about this one memory, and since this blog is about things I think about, I figured I would share this thing I am thinking about.
Some of you may remember this. Some of you may have experienced this with me. Some of you might not have really known us then but remember being asked to pray. For some reason, God has it in my head so I’m going to let it out.
About this time 7 years ago my husband (the love of my life, my best friend, my soulmate, the bread winner, the father of my children,and..) was put in the hospital by his doctor for an unknown illness.
I remember he was suffering from a terrible headache he could not get rid of. His head hurt for a few weeks before he finally went to the doctor. The pain was so bad by the time he finally went that Dr.Perry called me at work himself and told me that he had given Michael a shot for the pain and had him laying in a dark room and he was going to put him in the hospital for tests.
I went straight to the doctor and there he was. Laying down in a dark room, feeling pretty weird from the shot. I think that at this point God put blankets over both of our eyes, because I never realized how sick Michael really was until it was all over and I don’t think he did either. He told me his head hurt pretty bad but he was more focused on the fact that his doctor prayed with him.
When we got him to the hospital, they immediately got him in a room and did all the usual things and then Dr. Perry came over and started running tests. Very quickly they found out that his white blood cell count was not good, so they decided to do a spinal tap. ( I will not go into detail about this because it brings back very bad memories, ones that I don’t want Michael to relive.)
Shortly after they came back with the results. Michael had bacterial menegitis. He was very sick. Dr.Perry said that only 1 person in the last 11 years had contracted this illness in our city. It was not common.
So, they had Michael on a steady flow of pain meds and antibiotics and he was in the hospital for a really long time. I remember at one point we thought he had a stroke because he was in so much pain his eyes were not blinking together.
After he came home he was still out of work for awhile. Michael hardly ever gets sick and hardly ever misses work and I think he was out of work for at least a month. When he came home from the hospital, it was September 9th, because 2 days later was the attack on the World Trade Center. (But that will be another post)
The reason why I said that God put a blanket over my eyes was because my husband was so sick and he could have died, but I never thought of that as a possibility.
I love the way God works. He really does know what is best for us and he knew that me thinking that way would not be a good thing, so He just took it out of my brain. Awesome!
what is in a name? July 31, 2008
PROVERBS 22:1 A GOOD NAME IS MORE DESIRABLE THAN GREAT RICHES…..
i have always thought that a name is very important. it defines who you are and your personality. when michael and i were naming our children it was a very big decision. it couldn’t be common and it couldn’t be just any old name. i am sure everyone out there has a reason why they have their name and a reason why they named their kids what they did.
my name was suppose to be jessica or jennifer but when my dad went to sign my birth certificate he came back with “jamilia”. my mom was so mad and i spent my childhood trying to hide it. it was not normal and all children want to be normal, but now that i am older and like not being normal, i like my name more. i think i will try to use it more. as you know i grew up in the bahai’ faith and my dad said jamilia is a bahai’ holiday and in the name book jamilia is Greek for beautiful princess.
what does your name mean and why did your parents give it to you? or if your child has a special name and you would like to share that is cool too?
it is only fitting July 23, 2008
it is only fitting that i write this post after the post i just did a couple of days ago on not complaining and grumbling, but i am sad and i need to vent.
I CORINTHIANS 12:12-31 THE BODY IS A UNIT,THOUGH IT IS MADE UP OF MANYPARTS; AND THOUGH ALL IT’S PARTS ARE MANY THEY FORM ONE BODY. SO IT IS WITH CHRIST. FOR WE WERE ALL BAPTIZED BY ONE SPIRIT INTO ONE BODY-WHETHER JEWS OR GREEKS, SLAVE OR FREE- WE WERE ALL GIVEN THE ONE SPIRIT TO DRINK………
ONE BODY, MANY PARTS- I HOPE YOU WILL GO TO YOUR BIBLE AND READ THIS IN FULL.
part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to give spiritual gifts to each believer for the building up of the body so that they might reflect Christ to a broken world. paul talks about a “greater gift”(1 cor 12:31)-those that encourage, lift up and edify fellow believers through humility and unselfishness.
i am not getting ready to do that, but i hope by saying something maybe i can get someone else to be an encouragement and lift up some of our children in the church who need it. this is how i feel about what i see at the moment.
my husband has been teaching RAs every wednesday night for 7 years and i have been teaching GAs or mission friends for 8 years and this is the first year we have descided to take a brake and refuel. GAs is fine and i think they are still looking for a few in mission friends, but the thing that has upset me is that out of probably 150(at least) active men in our church not even 2 men will step up and say ” i want to teach our boys.” there is talk about having to maybe have “children in action” instead of GAS and RAS, which would mean that our girls would not have that great girl time and our boys would not have their great boy time. this makes my stomach hurt to read those words back to myself.
please be in prayer about this and please be in prayer for me. maybe someone could comment to me on how i can feel better about this or how as a believer i am really suppose to feel.
johnny the baptist (su su sent this funny) July 17, 2008
JOHNNY THE BAPTIST…
Johnny’s Mother looked out the window and noticed
him “playing church” with their cat. He had the cat
sitting quietly and he was preaching to it. She smiled
and went about her work.A while later, she heard loud meowing and hissing and
ran back to the open window to see Johnny baptizing the
cat in a tub of water.She called out, “Johnny, stop that! The cat is afraid of water!”
Johnny looked up at her and said,
“He should have thought about that before he joined my church.”
