Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that but the really great make you feel that you too can become great. When you are seeking to bring big plans to fruition it is important with whom you regularly associate. Hang out with friends who are like-minded and who are also designing purpose-filled lives. Similarly be that kind of a friend for your friends. ~ Mark Twain
You’re going to meet many people with domineering personalities: the loud, the obnoxious, those that noisily stake their claims in your territory and everywhere else they set foot on. This is the blueprint of a predator. Predators prey on gentleness, peace, calmness, sweetness and any positivity that they sniff out as weakness. Anything that is happy and at peace they mistake for weakness. It’s not your job to change these people, but it’s your job to show them that your peace and gentleness do not equate to weakness. I have always appeared to be fragile and delicate but the thing is, I am not fragile and I am not delicate. I am very gentle but I can show you that the gentle also possess a poison. I compare myself to silk. People mistake silk to be weak but a silk handkerchief can protect the wearer from a gunshot. There are many people who will want to befriend you if you fit the description of what they think is weak; predators want to have friends that they can dominate over because that makes them feel strong and important. The truth is that predators have no strength and no courage. It is you who are strong, and it is you who has courage. I have lost many a friend over the fact that when they attempt to rip me, they can’t. They accuse me of being deceiving; I am not deceiving, I am just made of silk. It is they who are stupid and wrongly take gentleness and fairness for weakness. There are many more predators in this world, so I want you to be made of silk. You are silk. ~C. JoyBell C.
Let someone love you just the way you are as flawed as you might be, as unattractive as you sometimes feel, and as unaccomplished as you think you are. To believe that you must hide all the parts of you that are broken, out of fear that someone else is incapable of loving what is less than perfect, is to believe that sunlight is incapable of entering a broken window and illuminating a dark room. ~Ash Sweeney
…treasure what it means to do a day’s work. It’s our one and only chance to do something productive today, and it’s certainly not available to someone merely because he is the high bidder. A day’s work is your chance to do art, to create a gift, to do something that matters. As your work gets better and your art becomes more important, competition for your gifts will increase and you’ll discover that you can be choosier about whom you give them to. ~Seth Godin
Marty wakes up at home with a huge hangover. He forces himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins and a glass of water on the side table. He sits down and sees his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed. Marty looks around the room and sees that it is in a perfect order, spotless, clean. So was the rest of the house. He takes the aspirins and notices a note on the table “Honey breakfast is on the stove. I left early to go shopping. Love you.”
So he goes to the kitchen and sure enough there is a hot breakfast and the morning newspaper. His son is also at the table, eating.
Marty asks, “Son, what happened last night?”
His son says, “Well, you came home after 3 a.m., drunk and delirious. Broke some furniture, puked in the hallway, and gave yourself a black eye when you stumbled into the door.”
Confused Marty asks, “So, why is everything in order and so clean, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me?”
His son replies, “Oh That! Mom dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your pants off, you said,” Lady, leave me alone. I’m married! ~Author Unknown
For the past couple of months I have corresponded with a female family member. She lives with a man, age 28, that has custodial issues with his child’s mother.
It seems he has problems keeping a job and a roof over his head. And now that she lives with him, it seems he struggles with keeping a roof over her head. Should he gain custody of his child, the hand-writing on the wall clearly shows he won’t be able to keep a roof over his child’s head either. Yet, my young impetuous family member feels she and this guy are more suitable to raise the child than its mother!
Ooh! I forgot to add, my young and gullible family member is only twenty-one years old. She seems to believe living life as an adult is stupid. Well at any rate with her childlike behavior she has been told by whoever, whomever, she is more suited to raise another woman’s child. And with that noted I want to say the following:
It pisses me off to the highest of pisstivity when parents move on and find foolish people who believe they would make a better parent to children than the custodial or non-custodial parent. And, trust me when I write, it really does rip my seat of toleration when these foolish people truly believe they are better than the parent in question.
Children don’t come with manuals. And every parent (male or female) will make mistakes in parenting. And I don’t give a hoot who spouts they are the better parent! There are no perfect parents! There are parents that do the best they can with what they have. There are parents that are good parents because they do exceptional jobs at parenting! But there are no perfect parents! Like there are no perfect children.
Lord, my prayer today is for women that have given their children up for adoption. Please comfort their hearts in knowing they made the right choice. Please let them know that it’s not for others to say who should keep their child or who should give their child to another. Please let them know that it is stronger woman than I that can bless another family with the gift of life. Lord, please help the adoptive parent(s) receive their precious gifts with understanding of the sacrifices made for them to be parents. Please guide the adoptive parent(s) on their journey so the birth mother’s parental sacrifice is not in vain. Amen.
You can say sorry a million times, Say “I love you” as much as you want, say whatever you want, whenever you want. But if you’re not going to prove that the things you say are true, then don’t say anything at all. Because if you can’t show it, your words…don’t mean a thing.
One day, Heaven suddenly became extremely full, and something had to be done. So the Lord decided to have St. Peter wait at the gate and ask everyone how they died. If it was a grisly story they told, they could go ahead into Heaven. But if not, they had to go to Hell.
The first man walks up and St. Peter tells him what’s happening. “You see, Heaven is quite full today, and we have to ask everyone how they died. If it sounds good, you can go ahead. But if not, you go to Hell.”
“Ok,” the man says. “Well, for awhile I’d been suspecting my wife of cheating on me. So today I thought I’d leave work early and catch her. Sure enough, I got to my apartment and she was lying naked on the bed. I ran all over the apartment searching for the man but couldn’t find him.
Then I remembered that we lived on the 25th floor of an apartment building, and we have a balcony. And there was the man, hanging off my balcony. I beat at his hands and he just wouldn’t let go, so I ran and got a hammer and beat his hands until he fell into the bushes below. I saw he was still alive so I got the refrigerator and pushed over the edge on top of him. But the strain of the effort gave me a heart attack and I died.
“Wow!” St. Peter said. “That really is bad! You can go ahead…”
The next man walked up and St. Peter gave his spiel about Heaven being full and the man would have to tell his story.
“Ok,” the second man said. “So I live on the 26th floor of an apartment building, and everyday I do exercises on my balcony. Well, today I fell over the edge, but luckily I caught the railing of the balcony below me.”
“Suddenly, this man came running out and started beating at my hands. He ran back inside and I thought I was safe, but then he came back out with a hammer and beat my hands again. I finally fell off, but luckily I landed in the bushes below and they saved my life. But that wasn’t enough for the man because he pushed his refrigerator over the edge and it landed on me and killed me. And now I’m here.”
“Wow, that’s a good one too! You can go ahead…”
The third man walked up and St. Peter again gave his spiel about Heaven being full and the man would have to tell his story of how he died.
“Ok,” the third man said. “I don’t know what happened. I was hiding naked inside this refrigerator…”
![Photo credit: C. JoyBell C [Twitter]](https://blackwomenhaveitgoingon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/c-joybell-c.jpeg)
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