Category: American Social Topics

It Takes All Kinds Of People to Make This A Beautiful World

diversityMost of you know that I enjoy couponing. I really enjoy giving to others. But for the past year what I have learned about me is that I HATE hypocrites!
 
I get all kinds of thoughts coming across my Facebook feed. Most of it is well wishing something personal, some of it deals with cruelty to animals, but the bulk of it deals with racism in America. Let me return to the subject of me couponing.
 
When I started my money-saving journey I never knew the doors of understanding that would open because of a paradigm change. In the last year I’ve lost friends for various reasons and most of those friends claim to be extremely religious or extremely knowledgeable about sex, race, religion, politics, and all other things that goes along with living life. And as I began to coupon I found myself in a spiritual place I didn’t even know exist and was able to read the hearts of those that claimed to love me.
 
I found myself caring less of what the world thinks of me as a black person. I found myself caring less of how people viewed my beloved car that is missing a quarter of its front bumper, a broken pulled down latched that was done by a Walmart worker. I found that my opinion mattered despite the rejections of others. I found I could validate another person’s opinion even though I didn’t agree with their belief.  I found myself feeling more put off by folks forcing themselves in my life in one form or another. I found myself being inspired by the single good-looking younger than me caring about morals successful business owner man down the street. I found myself reflecting upon my marital vows and how I treat the guy that goes to work everyday and misses sleep because he must get his load to the buyer on time.  I began to really put thought to how he gives me his paycheck each week (should he make a check) and questioned if I could do the same. I found myself wondering how I was going to pay back all the student loans my youngest took out in his name to attend college. And for you folks that feel my youngest should pay his student loans, close your pie holes! Please!

As my son’s parent it’s my job to see that he gets the best start in life. And! Since I made such a mess of my life by making poor decisions when I was young and netted nothing financially to aid my children when it came to helping them enter into the world as successful adults, then my son’s student loan repayments became mines because his entry into adulthood debt free is my job as his parent.

 
But the thing I’ve learned from couponing is that it takes all kinds of people to make this a beautiful world. 

The Prayer’s of Black Women: Sad and Lonely

Artist: Henry Lee Battle
Artist: Henry Lee Battle

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us today our daily bread.  Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.  Matthew 6:9 – 13

Heavenly Father thank you for this day we have never seen before.  Father God it’s Sunday!  Someone will wake up sad because they are lonely.  Can you please give them your joy by filling their hearts and minds with your perfect love and perfect peace.  Amen

Quote for Today: A Rare Attribute of Women

Photo credit: Internet
Photo credit: Internet

There is nothing more rare, nor more beautiful, than a woman being unapologetically herself; comfortable in her perfect imperfection.  To me, that is the true essence of beauty.                  —Dr. Steve Maraboli

Quote for Today: Don’t Ever Criticize Yourself

Photo credit: Internet
Photo credit: Internet

Don’t ever criticize yourself.  Don’t go around all day long thinking, ‘I’m unattractive, I’m slow, I’m not as smart as my brother.’  God wasn’t having a bad day when he made you… If you don’t love yourself in the right way, you can’t love your neighbor.  You can’t be as good as you are supposed to be.                          —Joel Osteen

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: You Are Not an Accident

Photo credit: Internet
Photo credit: Internet

Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He was not at all surprised by your birth. In fact, he expected it. Long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God. He thought of you first. It is not fate, nor chance, nor luck, nor coincidence that you are breathing at this very moment. You are alive because God wanted to create you! The Bible says, “The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me.”  God prescribed every single detail of your body. He deliberately chose your race, the color of your skin, your hair, and every other feature. He custom-made your body just the way he wanted it. He also determined the natural talents you would possess and the uniqueness of your personality. The Bible says, “You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.”

Because God made you for a reason, he also decided when you would be born and how long you would live. He planned the days of your life in advance, choosing the exact time of your birth and death. The Bible says, “You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your Book!”

God also planned where you’d be born and where you’d live for his purpose. Your race and nationality are no accident. God left no detail to chance. He planned it all for his purpose. The Bible says, “From one man he made every nation, … and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”

Nothing in your life is arbitrary. It’s all for a purpose. Most amazing, God decided how you would be born.  Regardless of the circumstances of your birth or who your parents are, God had a plan in creating you. It doesn’t matter whether your parents were good, bad, or indifferent. God knew that those two individuals possessed exactly the right genetic makeup to create the custom “you” he had in mind. They had the DNA God wanted to make you.

While there are illegitimate parents, there are no illegitimate children. Many children are unplanned by their parents, but they are not unplanned by God. God’s purpose took into account human error, and even sin. God never does anything accidentally, and he never makes mistakes. He has a reason for everything he creates. Every plant and every animal was planned by God, and every person was designed with a purpose in mind.

God’s motive for creating you was his love. The Bible says, “Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love.”

God was thinking of you even before he made the world. In fact, that’s why he created it! God designed this planet’s environment just so we could live in it. We are the focus of his love and the most valuable of all his creation. The Bible says, “God decided to give us life through the word of truth so we might be the most important of all the things he made.”

 

Article excerpted from The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren and taken from http://www.christianity.com.

Quote for Today: Never Give Up On You!

Photo credit: Internet
Photo credit: Internet

I believe that we are who we choose to be.  Nobody is going to come and save you.  You’ve got to save yourself.  Nobody is going to give you anything.  You’ve got to go out and fight for it.  Nobody knows what you want except you, and nobody will be as sorry as you if you don’t get it.  So don’t give up on your dreams.

Barry Manilow, Sweet Life:  Adventures on the Way to Paradise

Quote for Today: The Paradoxical Commandments

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The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.  Love them anyway.  If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.  Do good anyway.  If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.  Succeed anyway.  The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.  Do good anyway.  Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.  Be honest and frank anyway.  The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.  Think big anyway. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.  Fight for a few underdogs anyway.  What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.  Build anyway.  People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.  Help people anyway.  Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.  Give the world the best you have anyway.