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.
This video is priceless (totally not what I expected)! Laughter! What person doesn’t want to go to Disney World?!!! They must be insane or something [laughing hysterically]. But after seeing this video your heart will break. It will have total compassion for the little person that doesn’t feel the same as most of the world when it comes to visiting the most famous place of all. Disney World!
3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.
Jonah 1:3
This is Throwback Thursday! So! I’m reposting one of my favorite posts. I first shared this video on June 15, 2014, at 6:45 am. It appears 7 years later I will be reposting this wonderful video around the same time.
So much has happened within those seven years of living life. I’ve lost my mom. I’ve become a great grandmother! I’m told my oldest grandson’s girlfriend is having twins. My children are doing great, making wonderful lives for themselves. Two wonderful women have been added to my family, along with a host of new friends and family members. And all of that good stuff can’t compare to my spiritual growth. I’m over the moon concerning my spiritual journey. It has been tough and often I’ve felt like throwing in the towel but . . . OMG! My life is on fire because of my spiritual awakening! And this repost can’t be more appropriate when it comes to sharing what I learned from my latest lesson.
LESSON LEARNED: God loves everyone, including our enemies and people that come across as unlovable. He expects us to show those that are lost or have lost their way compassion. Our actions will light the path for His love and mercy to become healing ointments. Bottom line! God wants all of us to be saved despite our differences. Let’s pray!
PRAYER
Lord, my recent private prayer request was that you cover my enemies with your blood. I wanted the blood of Jesus to open their understanding. Allowing them to see they were their greatest obstacle when it came to not getting money bequeath to them. But how can they see when everyone spiritually in their life is superficial. Show me how to pray for them. There is nothing worse than being lost in the maze of life. Amen
PARAGRAPH FROM 2014
I have been in church for nearly 53 years. And I have never heard the story of Jonah with so much feeling. Mary Margaret is full of passion for telling this great story. Her passion causes her to be very (and I do mean very) animated. Enjoy this cute little girl telling the story of Jonah.
The First Thanksgiving, painting by Jean Louis Gerome Ferris (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
With Thanksgiving quickly approaching I am at a lost for a dinner menu.
Honestly, I am so over turkey and dressing, collard greens, black-eyed peas, mashed potatoes covered in turkey gravy, corn, candy yams and sweet potato-pie with a dollop of cool-whip. But if I met one person that has never feasted on such a lavish Thanksgiving meal I would find the strength to prepare it and cultivate an appetite to eat it once again.
Yesterday my cousin Theresa told me I was not the person she once knew. She said, “You’ve changed.” She went on to express how she remembered my tearful outbursts and moments later how I would be extremely happy, or short-tempered. Honestly, I had forgotten those moments and the young woman that felt life was not worth living. And I find it spiritually amazing how God will allow others to remind you of days gone by. And how the kindness of others helped transformed your life during difficult moments. As a result of my transformation I am grateful for all things.
So today I am taking the time to search for and post inspiring messages to help someone along the way. If the message I share is not for you please pass it on. You never know who will need words of encouragement. So to kick off my inspirational Friday messages is the below video of a businessman’s compassion for humanity.
Yesterday a friend posted on Facebook she had to cut her long beautiful hair. Apparently this has been a year that has tried her soul. Medically she has opted for chemo and feels she is hanging onto life as she knows it.
Within her personal message she wrote she didn’t want us to feel sorry for her; but it is hard to be joyful when your friend is fighting to live. It is even harder to be joyful when the illnesses of others make you question your own mortality. So today I wrote a prayer for her and it is called “A Kiss from Heaven.”
A Kiss from Heaven
A kiss from Heaven is what I prayed for you.
I wanted you to know that God will see you through.
He knew you would lose your hair,
But a kiss from Heaven will show His care.
A kiss from Heaven is what I prayed for you.
I asked for God to kiss you at half-passed two.
God said He has already kissed you
And I know His kiss will heal you too.
A kiss from Heaven is what I ask for God to do,
So you will see His love shining through.
I asked that He give your skin a glow
So you will know He still runs the show.
A kiss from Heaven is what I prayed for you.
When I felt you might become a tad thin too.
I want God to let you know you are going to win,
Because He gives you courage from within.
A kiss from Heaven is what I prayed for you.
So when you feel down with sorrow
I want God to let you know He holds your tomorrows.
A kiss from Heaven is what I’m praying for you.
As my sister celebrated her birthday this year she was and is unquestionably delighted to turn 50. I on the other hand did not look forwards to turning another year older. Yet my 52 birthday was creeping closely and did manage to arrive on scheduled. My birthday is never late! Honestly, I really wish after I had turned 30 my birthday would come around once every 10 years.
It appears my regretful and wounded soul continues to look for the life that was lost so long ago.
My person questions all of life’s ambitions, my life’s ambitions, to a point where I’m silently asking the following: What makes the aging graceful and ready to grow older and old? What makes the aging mean and bitter as they do grow older and old? And what will I become as I age and my physical beauty continues to fade? Will I be a sweet old woman that has few regrets? Or will I become an old bag of bitter bones that is mean because I failed to live my life to its fullest?
Truthfully, I would say at this point I am becoming by default ‘an old bag of bitter bones that is mean because I failed to live my life to its fullest.’
Are you shocked at my brutal conclusion of my self awareness examination? Are you shocked that I can be as truthful about what I inwardly harbor? Don’t be shocked because there are other’s just like me. Perhaps you are like me. Maybe you are worse than me. But it is never too late for us to change the course of our lives as long as we continue to breathe hope.
At this moment my beloved Colorado is under flood watch. Because of flooding many of the smaller cities and towns have been force to evacuate. Lives are being uprooted by force of nature and people have to take shelter of safety in unfamiliar places. Uncertainty about the course of their lives looms over the evacuees’ heads as they wait for the storm to subside.
After carefully watching video footage of flooding areas in Colorado I have come to the conclusion, it is the amount of life’s storms and their surges that determines if we will age gracefully or bitter.
And regrettably sometimes our personal lives from beginning to end are under flood watch or in the eye of the storm.
At least my life is consistently under storm watch; and often my poor choices continue to place me in the midst of raging floods. And, since, I didn’t know how to swim to safety I have found myself spiritually and emotionally drowning over and over again. As a result, I regret a few things I have done, moreover, my biggest regrets are the things I failed and continue to fail to do; therefore, for me aging is a big reminder how I wasted my talents and my life.
With remorse I must write, my life [outside of my children] was squandered on people and things that could not validate my existence. In a nutshell, I confess, I spent the majority of my life looking for validation from people who had never been validated themselves. So when I turned 50 I felt life was over for me. I felt nothing about me depicted a life of success and that included the children I dearly love.
But as I continue on this journey we call life, every day I am reminded people age 50 and over that are living wonderful lives with little to no regrets. And Lillie McCloud is one of those people. She is an amazing singer. She has an amazing outlook about her life. She does not regret putting her singing career on hold to raise her children. At the age of 54 she feels now is her time to fulfill her dream. I just love her confidence during her X Factor audition. She selected the right song. She wore the right outfit. Her persona said what she stated “I’m here to win” as she sang Cece Winans’ song “Alabaster Box.” Everything about Lillie says age 50 is where it’s at! Check her out:
Those Who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream by night.
Edgar Allen Poe
Eleonora
In my daydreams I soared high above all the unpleasant memories I wanted to leave behind. Flying meant escape from the surly bonds of earth and reaching up for a glorious place of peace and freedom.
I have few memories of a normal family life. Periodically my parents lived together, and for that short time we were a real family, living in a house as other families do. Dad went off to his carpentry work, Mother to her teaching job, and Wendell and I to school. Weekends we attended church, spent time at the beach, or visited relatives. But all too soon the raised voices and angry accusations began again. And when life became unbearable, I retreated into my dream world. It was so much more pleasant than my real world.
To a child, dreams are more than just animated flights of fancy. They are part hope, part illusion, part pretense, and part prayer. Dreams carry children soaring high above the anguish of their circumstance into a galaxy where anything is possible. Dreams take children to a hallowed place, where all that is conceived can be achieved and where all that is envisioned can be accomplished.
Dreams carry within them hope and healing. The ability to dream is one of the most mysterious and glorious privileges of the human heart. From the time I was a young child, I somehow understood that dreaming was a gift from God. Before I knew God personally, my dreams were my only link to him.
My dreams became for me my lifeline. That’s why to know me, you must know my dreams. to understand me, you must understand something of their place and power in my life.
Black Women Have It Going On 