Tag: Self Affirmation

Granny’s Wisdom: Do Not Wear Out Your Welcome

This is my second cousin, Felicia Hayes, and my grandmother, Queen Hayes.
This is my second cousin, Felicia Hayes, and my grandmother, Queen Hayes.

I wonder how many people have heard the phrase “do not wear out your welcome.”  Hum . . . I first heard the expression from my grandmother when I was young.

Back when I was once a kid, and a know-it-all, it seemed my late maternal grandmother would always say those words to my cousins, my siblings and me.  I’m not sure how my family members took her wisdom; but back when I was a child I thought my grandmother was old, uncaring, uneducated, mean-spirited, and truly out of touch with the mental and emotional needs of the young.  [chuckle]

I can remember as if it was yesterday sassing her for this or that.  But nothing stands out more than the time she would not let me go over to my cousin’s house as often as I wanted.   And, sadly, it was late into my adult years before I understood the meaning ‘do not wear out your welcome.’

As I’m looking back on things and reflecting upon how I dismissed her words of caution, I now understand why my life was filled with heartaches.

I hate to admit to myself but I deserved all the bumps I got from being hardheaded; and my self enlightenment really makes me feel foolish about things I had blame on others.

Well, any-who-how . . . It was by divine revelation I found the phrase in the Bible one day.  I was shocked!  It was amazing to read that God gives his children the same warning!

Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house– too much of you, and they will hate you. Proverbs 25:17

The message I get from this passage is:  don’t be so darn clingy!  Get a life!  Explore parts of your life without others.  Enjoy family when can.  And remember a bit of you goes a long ways.

I’m coming to terms with my granny’s wisdom.  My grandmother has passed but her words live on.  And each day that I live I think about her abrasive and unharness wisdom.  I’m learning she was indeed the smartest woman I will ever know and most of all she loved me.

The Prayers of Black Women: Balancing Pain with Pleasure

Photo Taken From: https://twitter.com/AuthorESkoglund
Photo Taken From: https://twitter.com/AuthorESkoglund

A few years after my mother died, I remembered more vividly the times in childhood when she had made gloomy days seem cheerful.  When something special to do inside, such as new paper dolls or a coloring book.  Later, when I was in school, I always knew that on a rainy day I would come home to the smell of cookies baking in the oven . . .

I remembered, too, that in my childhood my mother had always balanced grief with comfort, pain with joy . . . To compensate for my childhood illnesses, for example, she used to read me stories which made the afternoon fly, or she would show me how to knit doll clothes out of the scraps of yarn which she had saved in a worn, brocade knitting bag . . .

Whatever the specific method used, my mother had learned, long before I knew her, how to balance pain with pleasure.

Elizabeth Skoglund

Today’s Prayer:

Lord somewhere in the world there are people in mental anguish over life’s trials and tribulations.  Often such pain is psychologically unbearable.  During these moments sometimes people don’t have the ability to hold their heads high with the assurance of knowing God’s powers to set things right.  Because of their inability to see your spiritual support most times every breath taken produce questions of their existence.  Lord to be honest it is during these times when emotional pain makes a person feel every so often they do not have much use for others.  And everything accomplished is tarnished with the shadow of sorrow; as it seems to their misfortune they were not given loved ones to uplift them during moments of afflictions.  Hum . . . Lord, it is within our moments of tribulations that we see the hand prints of God on our lives.  Therefore, I’m asking for your Holy presence among those who have yet to learn how to balance pain with pleasure.  Lord I’m asking that you teach them that sorrow only last for a moment.  Lord, I’m also praying they learn how to allow thoughts of joy to diminish their temporary gloomy day(s).  So, again, Lord, I’m asking that you turn on your spiritual lights for these people that they might see how to truly balance pain with pleasure; and in turn they will enjoy living once again.  Amen.

Your Loving Daughter,

Annette

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Inspirational Fridays: Letting Go vs. Moving On

Claiming What’s Yours

You need to claim the events of your life to make yourself yours.  When you truly possess all you have been and done, which may take same time, you are fierce with reality.  –Florida Pier Scott-Maxwell

Photo Taken From: www.usatoday.com
Photo Taken From: http://www.usatoday.com

It takes a long time to understand the difference between letting go and moving on, especially if you try to bypass the transitions following life-altering change.  Most women believe we can avoid transitions by becoming very busy.  “Waiting, done at really high speeds, will frequently look like something else,” observes Carrie Fisher hopefully.  Its’ called multitasking.  How often do we use the congestion and sheer occupation of our days to anesthetize ourselves against emotion, thought, and action?  When I make myself busy and permit the activities swirling around me to grab my attention, I tell myself over and over that I can’t think today about the choices I should be making or mourn what my heart is begging my brain to remember.  Call it the Scarlett Syndrome.  I’ll think about that tomorrow.  I’ll grieve over that tomorrow.  After all, tomorrow is another day.  “Life must go on,” Edna St. Vincent Millay Wrote, “I forget just why.”

Sarah Ban Breathnach

The Prayers of Black Women: May 5, 2013

Dear God:

Artist: Henry Lee Battle
Artist: Henry Lee Battle

It is me again.  I come boldly with a humble spirit before you.  I’m asking for your help to pray for those that are in need of prayer.  Lord it has been a long time since I have prayed in a public setting.  So, once again, I’m asking for help in praying for the needs of others.

Lord, I ask for peace to penetrate the hearts of humanity.  I ask for love to transcend the walls of racial issues, marital issues, relationship issues, sibling issues, self-hatred issues, low self-esteem issues and etc.  I’m asking for the Holy Trinity to aid all leaders from different nation’s in serving the needs of their people and the needs of the world.

But, Lord, I come to you with a special request on the behalf of American Black girls.

Someone once told me Lord that you love when your children repeat your Holy Words back to you during petitioning you for favor.  Well . . . Lord here I am.  I am reminding you of your promises.  Your word says,  “I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts.  It was I who sent this great destroying army against you (Joel 2:25).”

Lord, my life is almost over.  I am 51 and will soon turn 52; and, if you are kind I might successfully live another 30 to 40 years.  I realize I can do a lot within 30 to 40 years but my heart laments over the wasted years of my youth.

Lord, because I feel my caregivers dropped the ball when it came to guiding me successfully in my youth I am praying for Black American girls this morning.

Lord, I am asking that you give them each a protective angel; an angel that will sweetly speak words of affirmation and encouragement in their ears to help them throughout life.  I’m praying they understands they have a purpose in life.  I’m praying each understands without question that they are not personal dumping ground for other’s.  I am praying that you convey to them early the plans you have for them and their lives.  Jeremiah 29:11 states, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”  Awe the words ‘future’ and ‘hope.’  

Lord it is standard pattern and practice for other’s to feel their purpose is to rob American Black girls of their futures and hope.  Therefore, Lord, I’m praying American Black girls will understand self-respect, self-love, and self-affirmation.  For in doing so they will know their futures will be brighter with the knowledge of knowing they have hope.

Also, Lord, I am asking for you to set in motion a plan to restore order to American Black girls inherit fragile souls and give them your prosperity promises.  Lord, I’m praying that each American Black girl is given the mindset to accept your gifts and learn to appreciate them.

So often others will make American Black girls feel guilty for having when they have not.  But, Lord, I release your protective spirit in the lives of Black American girls that they will have life according to your riches and glory in Heaven and on Earth, and in doing so they will not allow others to steal their blessings.  I’m praying Lord that you will allow American Black girls to see themselves as you see them:  Psalm 139:14 states, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

Your Loving Daughter,

Annette