I Am NOT Just a Number

An old Proverb claims that even a greeting "at the wrong time", such as in the early morning, can be qualified as rude... And so goes the lesson for today... That many of us struggle in our lives with the "chains of rudeness"... The Love Dare lists 2 reasons why people are rude and they are good ones... Ignorance... and selfishness... Many of us would swear that the crux of problems in a relationship is the "tone" of another... But what if, by chance, it was "OUR TONE" that is the problem... I have heard many people say to me in dealing with rocky relationships that the fault lies not with them, but with their spouse or friend or coworker... But usually what that means is that they have a problem with ignorance and a secondary condition of selfishness... Here is how the Bible describes it "A constant dripping on a rainy day and a cranky woman are much alike! You can do no more to stop her complaints than you can stop the wind or hold onto an...

Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy This girlchild was born as usual and presented dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy. Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs. She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity. She went to and fro apologizing. Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs. She was advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile and wheedle. Her good nature wore out like a fan belt. So she cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up. In the casket displayed on satin she lay with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on, a turned-up putty nose, dressed in a pink and white nightie. Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said. Consummation at last. To every woman a happy ending. My interpretation This is a poem focused on a perspective of the cruelty of life for the character portrayed. T...

If I were to look back at my week which included bocce ball, fishing, a cabin on the lake, games, good friends, flying through the Ocala National Forest in a jeep... it is still overshadowed by one failure... in reflection... I realized that I had prepared for months...for one test... it all led up to one event... and I bombed... How do we handle failure? Well many of us run from it... I tend to walk away, dismiss those who object me, and then dwell on it for days after beating myself up for making an "F"... Failure is humbling... Failure shows us what "subjects" we need to improve... whether or not we deserve to fail is an argument we can’t win with the "instructor of life"... Before I packed my bags last weekend, before I loaded my car, before I opened my sleepy eyes and dressed and entered the "critical incident", God knew I would fail... How could He let me fail when I have been faithful in reading His word and testifying His love to stranger...

Looking for satisfaction? Can't find it in your job, things, the one you love, the bottom of a bottle, pills, the gym... God's ways flood the hollow of your heart... We are lacking... empty... on our own... Someone... only pleases you for so long... then the quiet hits... and you again find yourself fighting the screaming longing... the pounding ache.. That you fight in the dark of night... a large spotlight beams down on your beating heart... the missing piece... is never found where we relentlessly pursue...it’s in giving it over to the one who holds the key... God is that missing piece... and gently completes our scrambled puzzle... Do we take delight in honoring each other? Or do we hog the spotlight? The Bible says "unt uh"... or sort of... what it really says is to love each other...genuinely... and not fake it... so....take delight in honoring each other..Romans 12 also say to work happily together... and "don’t try to act big" and "don’t try to ...

Harsh... Everyone and everything seems so harsh sometimes... I think that is where we get wrinkles from... we watch the news... earthquake in Haiti... we work all day... take classes at night... to survive.. To compete... feed kids (not all of us, but do dogs count?), we have to eat, clean, make our beds, unmake them, how can we be kind... loving...gentle... not so harsh... to the ones we love... when we barely see them... and when they look at us wrong.... SNAP! Today's love dare continues from last time... go another day with NO NEGATIVE COMMENT to the one you love... plussss...do one unexpected gesture as an act of kindness... maybe throw ur coffee sugar packets in the trash..Or unsqueeze the toothpaste from the middle and roll it up like ur asked... You know in today's love dare challenge the words kindness, patience, good, favor, and circumstances are repeated. That’s because love includes all of these. When you first meet the love of your life it is focused on all these t...

The problem with patience is that it does not come naturally... It is something that we must pursue daily... Patience is something you choose to have... As the Love Dare states "you choose to have a long fuse instead of a quick temper"... and "patience brings an internal calm during an external storm"...Few people are as hard to live with as an impatient person... So the question is... are we impatient? Impatience spews out poison and creates a "warzone" in the home... and I love how the Love Dare puts it "patience stands in the doorway where anger is clawing to bust in"... My dad used to always say to me "don't demand your rights"... and "submit your will"...it would infuriate me because I wanted so much to control and he was telling me to let go... I thought then that he was attempting to control me but what he was really teaching me was to relinquish the reigns... not to him... but to God... I would cling so tightly to ...

I figured today we would take a look at some relational love tanks in the "Hollywood" community. Of course, our perspective will definitely be obscured as we cannot see directly into the hearts and relationships of those among us, but they can definitely be a guide-of-sorts for us to observe and report.... (Don’t EVER watch that movie)... anyways... Tiger Woods - This is definitely the time Tiger Woods' love tank is definitely on empty. Now maybe he is replacing his usual high octane (God's best choice, our spouses) with "cheaper versions" but in a relationship when your spouse or "dating partner" deserves your love the least, that is when they need it the most. As Christians, our job descriptions include loving... The fact that we are called "God's children" even though we fail Him daily is quite amazing. We need God's love the most when??? When we fail... when we're alone... when we're rejected... hit rock bottom... Just...

Today Tila's fiancée, Casey Jones, died at the age of 30 which brings us back to the chaotic MTV show that littered TV screens across the world.... a shot at love... it was definitely a shot.... a longggg shot..to win the heart of this seemingly discontent women searching for who she was... and what she wanted... in a festering swamp of barbarians seeking fame and recognition as well as maybe a "romp in the hay"... no one really "succeeded" in winning the heart of this Hollywood socialite on the show... though some would probably list themselves as "fortunate"... but what Tila was looking for legitimately is rarely found behind a video camera... what she did find eventually is now gone......... Society would tell us... that there is no such thing as a "shot" at love... because love fails... love hurts... love = pain... and so on... Our friends encourage us to bail at the slightest drop...and we don’t dare risk our hearts... or perhaps change....

"Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another." Romans 13:8... It is not easy to love those around us... the fake ones... we know who they are because we can see through their actions... we are not blinded by their "charm" like many are... we are not amused by their "witchiness" nor do we find it captivating... So how do we love those that trash us... that put us down...those we call "frenemies" defined as an enemy disguised as a friend... this word has been around since the 50's describing those that we either cant think quick enough to respond to.. Or choose to bite our tongue so that we dare not offend...... Recently I attended an event where at every angle... almost every word... I was either met with a critical response... given a smart comment... or just verbally slaughtered...it was a "tough room" and I was either working hard at biting my tongue...or too tired to argue...anyways... later that...

When relationships and marriages crumble, couples claim that it was due to their irreconcilable differences. True love, however, slashes through the red tape of "negotiations" and settles with forgiveness and reconciliation. The temptation to walk away from a relationship that is mislabeled as "unhealthy" is a glue stick fix in many cases to a broken board. You need a nail! We don’t work hard to keep what we have. We throw something good and precious and valuable away for a "fake" because at the time we are so blinded by discontentment, lust, and selfishness that we cannot see clearly what we want or even have. Why do we throw away a diamond for a cubic zirconium stating financial standing or sexual satisfaction? These are circumstances that are subject to change. We use politically correct excuses to camouflage our behavior but miss the directive that love is the key to a solid relationship. Our coveting hearts push us to go bigger... buy bigger houses, T...