Category: African American

Dogs Don’t Bark at Parked Cars

March 6

Photo by u0418u0432u0430u043d u0412u0430u0441u044eu0447u043au043eu0432 on Pexels.com

Day One:

I’ve read “dogs don’t bark at parked cars” is a Black Proverb, however, I can’t verify where this statement of truth originated. Yet, it can become a mantra for living a successful life.

What does this thought-provoking proverb mean? It means when the wheels of acquiring a successful life begin to turn, the dogs begin to bark! And as long as a person and or a group is stagnant they go unnoticed.

I’m hoping for the next 7 days to post something that is inspirational/motivational for people that live stagnant lives and as a result forgo reaching their greatest potential.

Have a good day! And! Remember the greatest love ever could happen or is happening inside of you! ~Annette

The Prayers of Black Women – Bad Company

Thursday, April 23, 2020

takeittothelord2
Artist: Henry Lee Battle

1st Corinthians 15:13 states:  Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you for this day.  Your word says “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.”  Please help those that continue hanging out with people that aren’t good for them.  Put your loving arms around them.  Whisper in their ears that you love them and you want better for them.  Open their eyes so they can see the true character of their so called friend(s).  Give them your courage to leave and never look back.  Amen

 

Quote for Today: Embracing Change

Photo credit: www.akieleinc.com
Photo credit: http://www.akieleinc.com

 

 

In every crisis there is a message.  Crises are nature’s way of forcing change — breaking down old structures, shaking loose negative habits so that something new and better can take their place.— Susan L. Taylor

Quote for Today: If You Control A Man’s Thinking

Photo credit: Internet
Photo credit: Internet

If you can control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one.                     ~Carter G. Woodson

Quote for Today: Success Is To Be Measured

Photo credit: Internet
Photo credit: Internet

 

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.                                                       ~Booker T Washington

Inspirational Fridays: Liang Yaoyi and The Courage to Face Death

No Life Should be Lived in Vain

Liang YaoyiAs I ponder for meaning to the end of a young life I searched for meaning to my existence.  The world has lost a key-player.  His name is Liang Yaoyi.  He was only 11 years old when he died a heroic death of a man.  He lost his life fearlessly to brain cancer.  Which means he did not leave the earth as a beaten spectator.  He was in the game of life!  And he was indeed a key-player that world will miss because . . .

Had he lived he would have became a doctor with purpose.  He would have been a trail blazer to the world of medical science.  He would have set the world on fire with new medical ideas.  His ideas would have taken medicine to greater heights as his love for life became contagious.

His unselfish dying decree surrender him as a leader that understood he had came to the end of his journey.  And what is so amazing about his death is:  Liang Yaoyi passed the torch of life by donating his liver and kidneys as he bravely recognized he own life was ending.

And I do hope you realize I am writing about the bravery of an 11 year old boy.  Fate gave him choices that have spiritually flatten adults; but, he fought to the end of his life with a gallant spirit of a victorious man.  RIP Liang Yaoyi for your young life was not lived in vain.  [tears]

Inspirational Fridays: Keshia’s Choice

Keshia ThomasPicture of the Week:  Was featured on Interracial Dating with the below words:

When Keshia Thomas was 18 years old in 1996, the KKK held a rally in her home town of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Hundreds of protesters turned out to tell the white supremacist organization that they were not welcome in the progressive college town. At one point during the event, a man with a SS tattoo and wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a Confederate flag ended up on the protesters’ side of the fence and a small group began to chase him. He was quickly knocked to the ground and kicked and hit with placard sticks.

As people began to shout, “Kill the Nazi,” the high school student, fearing that mob mentality had taken over, decided to act. Thomas threw herself on top of one of the men she had come to protest, protecting him from the blows. In discussing her motivation after the event, she stated, “Someone had to step out of the pack and say, ‘this isn’t right’… I knew what it was like to be hurt. The many times that that happened, I wish someone would have stood up for me… violence is violence – nobody deserves to be hurt, especially not for an idea.”

Thomas never heard from the man after that day but months later, a young man came up to her to say thanks, telling her that the man she had protected was his father. For Thomas, learning that he had a son brought even greater significance to her heroic act. As she observed, “For the most part, people who hurt… they come from hurt. It is a cycle. Let’s say they had killed him or hurt him really bad. How does the son feel? Does he carry on the violence?”

Mark Brunner, the student photographer who took this now famous photograph, added that what was so remarkable was who Thomas saved: “She put herself at physical risk to protect someone who, in my opinion, would not have done the same for her. Who does that in this world?”

Keshia’s choice was to affirm what some have lost.
Keshia’s choice was human.
Keshia’s choice was hope.”

Prayers of Black Women: Lord Teach Me How to Write

The Little Red Writing BookAll week-long I have asked God to teach me how to write.  Writing well is such an essential part of communicating effectively.  And I wish to communicate without feeling less than.

Well-any-who-how, a couple of days ago I felt guilty, again, for spending too much time on Facebook.  So, today I prayed for the Lord to help me make better use of my time.  He quickly answered my prayer!  But what I didn’t know is that He was going to make this a treasure trove day full of blessings.

What seemed as meaningless chores became nothing but inspirational moments.

As I pulled weeds and grass from flowerbeds God was spiritually blessing me.  He was giving me answers to questions I had long forgotten.  I wanted to stop my gardening chores and run in the house to grab pen and paper to write what I had learned.  But something within said, “Don’t stop!  Keep going!  Because if you stop you will not return.  Set a goal and complete that goal.”

I did everything that was shouting from within and found my hour of gardening more refreshing for my soul than the long days I have worked in my yard.

But the motivational and inspirational blessings kept coming as I entered my home and proceeded to do housework.  I would venture to write the greatest blessing for today was finding a little red book.  I would have never found it had I not been rearranging books on the bookshelves.  It was tucked underneath books I have meant to read for a year now.  The titled “The Little Red Writing Book.”

I can only assume it was a college text for one of my sons.  They seem to throw their books here and there once they’ve passed whatever class.  I, however, seem to cherish books.  So, I walk behind them picking up their discarded books and place them on my bookshelves.

I was happy to discover such a fine.  I feel like the book was indeed sent to me by God.  And He used one of my son’s to deliver it to me.  His actions answered a prayer that lay deep within my subconscious for decades; as my wish was finally whispered a few days ago.

— Prayer —

Lord, thank you for my little red book.  Please help me to understand its content.  I will cherish it always.

Your Loving Daughter,
Annette

The Prayers of Black Women: Please Bless Us With Common Sense

Artist: Henry Lee Battle
Artist: Henry Lee Battle

Lord, I have read and heard a lot this week.  Many of those stories made me feel like I was traveling through a portal of stupidity.  Often I found myself asking the following questions:  Lord, is my thinking off track?  Or are people now enjoying conflict?  And why are they enjoying being hoodwinked?  What is making them so gullible?  And why can’t they see they are being invalidated?

Lord, as I sat in bewilderment over the troubles of the world, I asked, yet, another question, “Where is common sense?”  Has it left the world?  Has it found a hiding place?  Is it sad because humankind no longer has a need for it?  Lord, where is common sense?  Because as I see things, who would enjoy heartaches, trials and tribulations?

Nothing I read or heard this week made any sense at all except for:  “Something that sounds correct could be incorrect.” 

— Prayer —

Lord, please bless the world with common sense.  For without it mankind will become void in all their ways.  So, again, please Lord bless the world with common sense.  Amen