Just a thought...

Frankie the Scarecrow

October 8, 2012

Well, it's a good day for shining my shoes ... oh, it's a good day for chasing away blues ... and, it's a good day for blogging away ... yes, it'll be a good day from morning to night!  So much for my song writing!  I am in one of those singing moods today ... I whistle while I work and hum when I am outside.  Go figure!

Come on over.  Michael got me some more of those delicious scones I love and I thought, we might share some coffee and a treat - it is a little after 3 after all!!  I used to laugh at my mom -- she would ALWAYS have coffee and a treat at 3.  Now, I am doing the same.  Oh oh ... it's it funny how we take on the traits of our parents the older we get?

Pastor George & Cheryl

Today, Pastor George (one of my most favorite pastors in the whole world) posted some words of wisdom on Facebook.  "Just a Thought:  When you read God's Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, "It is talking to me, and about me."~~Soren Kierkegaard  I don't know Soren Kierkegaard but I do recognize wisdom; so, thank you PG for passing them on. 

So often we are so focused on what someone else is doing that we forget how flawed we are in our own right.  We point fingers, grumble, hold grudges, and focus on changing those around us all the while ignoring our own faults, sins, and fumbles.  My husband is reading a great book on self justification ... we decide we want something or want to do something so we find ways to justify.

Looking good for a day of shopping!!

I had coffee with my one of my friends a few days ago. We were chatting about our lives and she said, "You know I am committing adultery." I dropped my fork and with a shocked look said, "Ah...no."  She  laughed said that she was putting her love of clothes before her husband.  She began to justify her passion...  She and her husband have been married many many years and they are very committed to one another ~~ she just loves to shop!!   

I've been meditating on Kierkegaard's words this afternoon.  I thought about how many times I had highlighted passages in my Bible pointing to the faults of others.  I could feel my face getting red ... BUSTED!!  I was concentrating on my hurt, my pain, my views, my wants, AND my justification for behaving the way I felt I had a right to!!  Augh...  I began to realize that although people hurt us and events in life aren't always fair and to our liking, I needed to be working towards reconciliation and changing my own attitude.

I pulled out my Bible today and turned to the Psalms.  It was the Bible I took with me to the Women's Shelter when I spent 30 days there.  I prayed over the passages I had highlighted in a different way.  I felt this deep sorrow bubbling up inside me.  Maybe it was because my tormentor passed away some time ago.  I thought about the passage in the Bible, "Vengeance is mine saith the Lord."  Did that make me happy?  No, I felt compassion for a very sick man who had a horrific childhood.  I had always seen him the way God saw him and I mourned what caused him to be emotionally broken.

Funny how events shape my life, change, and mold me...  All of a sudden, I want to pick up my Bible and read in a different way.  How do I need to be transformed?  What faults and character faults do I need to work on and change.  I remember long ago in an Alanon meeting ... there was a very old lady who had worked her program for years.  She chaired our meeting one night and said, "You need to work your own program so hard that you do not have time to point any fingers at anyone else."

We all have our own faults and our own timeline towards transformation.  What takes one person a lifetime might take another a week to accomplish.  In my own case, my past was so painful that wholeness came like peeling an onion ... one stinking layer at a time.  God knew what and when I could accept and handle what was in my subconscious.  There are still blanks in my childhood that I wish I could remember.  For now, I must be patient in knowing that maybe there are things better left alone...



Hey Dottie, look what I found!!

My husband has a degree in psychology and we love to talk about transformation of the self and books dealing with why we do what we do.  I challenge him and he challenges me.  We have grown to love and accept each other warts, bumps, and all.  I love the outdoors and gardening ... he hates dirt of any kind and prefers the indoors.  We have had to find things in common and not dwell on the differences.  We had to realize that we were who God made us to be (period).  We have a passion for our grandchildren, children, antiquing, reading, certain TV shows, movies, trying new restaurants and on and on.  We also made a commitment and covenant when we got married and, although there are days when we'd like to kill each other, there are times when we have to agree to disagree.

Maybe I gave you some food for thought today ~~ I hope so...  I'm not saying that you shouldn't call a rat when it's really a rat; however, sometimes, we're the rat and are blind to that fact.

Always remember you are loved and prayed for ... YA YOU!!

Miss Dottie

PS  Beware, I pray thee, of presuming that thou art saved. If thy heart be renewed, if thou shalt hate the things that thou didst once love, and love the things that thou didst once hate; if thou hast really repented; if there be a thorough change of mind in thee; if thou be born again, then hast thou reason to rejoice: but if there be no vital change, no inward godliness; if there be no love to God, no prayer, no work of the Holy Spirit, then thy saying "I am saved" is but thine own assertion, and it may delude, but it will not deliver thee.~~Charles Spurgeon

PSS  Now, that's something to think about!!