"TIME IS LIKE A COIN"

What is your time worth? I read in Debbie Macomber's book "One Simple Act". that as per Carl Sandburg, "Our time is like a coin". The only coin we have. We need to spend it well/wisely. We should accept time as a gift from God and remember it is limited. We determine how we invest our time (we have been given free will), do we spend it all on ourselves or give ample time to others. Others should not spend our time for us and we should not allow that to happen. We should balance giving our time and taking others time. God determines what time we have. If we spend all our time on ourselves and do not give to others, we will not be given more we use it up. Just like the Magic Penny, Give it away and you will will be given more.

God is the Master of Time. When we seek His Wisdom through study and reading, we learn he wants us to invest our time and upon whom and how much. Invest well, give some time to others daily instead of demanding others time and robbing them of their time. God will bless you.

FROM 'THE MAJIC PENNY", A CHILDREN'S SONG----Love is like a majic penny, if you give it away, give it away, give it away, you end up having more. We all want more!

"UNITY"

Unity means to unite or come together and stay together. Philippians 2:3 says "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit."

Today as I was reading the content of the lesson in Our Daily Bread,I could not help but think about this message. It was about the above verse, selfishness. Oh boy did that take me back through my life. I see much of my life that was not selfish, but much that had become selfish. My need to become someone and to succeed took over. It was important and good to do what I did, but the problem was when it went overboard. Where is the line to the right amount of ambition and conceit? The other thing I noticed was that in my day there was a book "Looking Out For # One". The book was a big hit and most everyone read it, I did not read it but the premise rubbed off on me too! It even went to the next generation and the next one. When will the selfishness stop.

The verse above is a good one to teach our children. It is about giving to others and that is what we should do. I should have learned these words and planted them in my being and perhaps then things may not have happened. Selfish ambitions cause selfish thinking or stinkin thinkin.

We need to progress but the I'll take care of myself and get all I want is not good. It is selfish ambition and it is off course. I know that that book, "Looking out for # One" caused the selfish thoughts to generate into selfish ambitions. Those thoughts grew and clouded the marriages of the day. Thoughts became the movement of the days and it was a bad movement. Many marriages were lost because of the selflessness of that thought process.

We are meant to look out for others and with their good will in mind, and not from selfish what is in it for me attitude. Believe it or not, the selfishness shows through and no one wants to be around that self centeredness.

When we look out for others with selfish intentions in mind we lose unity and the end is near to any relationship. A heart that is truly focused on others (rather than # One)will not be consumed with self" Think about it, where do you stand?

God's love is universal and is here for all of us if we ask for it and practice it.


God be with you!

"LOVE AND THE 3 P'S"

Today I feel compelled to talk about love and the 3 P's. I rarely know if anyone reads these little Didi's, but if I get the urge to write about something I feel free to write it in here. I hope someone learns something from these writings.

A girl went to her parents and told them that she and her fellow was going to get married. The parents was rather surprised for she said she was not ever going to get married. She had a career and she was going to pursue it. Then maybe after awhile she would consider it.

The father asked her, "Do you love this fellow?", the girl said yes. "Are you sure?", "Yes!" "How do you know you love this fellow? How do you know you love him?" She replied, "I feel so good about him, he is so good to me, he makes me feel all funny and flushed when he is around and I get these excited feelings. I know it is love, I have never felt this way before." "So, who is he and what does he do and how long have you known him. and what things does he like to do, and where does he like to go and does he go to church?" The answer is, "I don't know and it really does not matter, we will work things out as we go along."

Those reasons my friends ARE not good reasons to get married. We can not rely on our feelings. Feelings are so fickle and change from day to day. Feelings are like a river, they keep flowing, and day to day or hour to hour they can go off in another direction and are long gone. We can not rely on feelings except they were given to us to sense something that is very wrong or very right at the moment, like someone close to us, or danger lurking in the mists. They are only temporary and very fleeting.

Love is something that is built and grows. So the best results are to look for characteristics and qualities in the other person. No one is perfect and one hundred percent what one would expect, but we must look for the qualities that are best and close to what we can live with and also look for the imperfections to see if we can live with them. We must give time to test these qualities and characteristics. Some will change over time, some are fake, but most still are retained as habits that may not change.

We should learn about love and PONDER on how GOD loves us. We should read up (Bible)on how he loves us. Learn that love does not seek for itself, but to give to others and especially to a marriage partner, without selfish reasons. The more we give for the right reasons the more we get back for the right reasons. So Ponder on God's giving.

The next P is to PRAY for God's love so we can sense his love and so we can give his love to our marriage partner. When we think we are lacking in our love for our spouse, we need to ask God for guidance to be able to give more of our selfs in the right way. Our partner has certain love signals and we should consider what they consider love. We all have different ways and reactions we consider love. Someone might get a real hype from getting flowers and someone else candy. Someone else might be more practical and a jar of jelly will give a sense of real love. We must learn the love signals that turn on our partner and into a love machines and give that to them.To set the record straight, this is not about sex, sex is a small part of love, it is one of the acts of love, but not the only one. When people get older this act goes away for obvious reasons, we were not meant to give this type of love forever, we were to grow and give love in different ways. So learn to love in all areas and we will never feel without love. Show some love everyday. So Pray for God to show you the love signals of others.

The last P is to PRACTICE love. Love is not just a feeling, it is giving of ones self all the time and not just your body, By doing things and saying things, warm thoughts that emulated from you. Just being what you can be for your spouse. We have to get love from God and then give it out to those around us. Love is a feeling that is flitting, we must give it out every day, love is a giving away. The more we give away the more we get. We have to practice giving love to get love.

So remember the 3 P's and life will be loving.

God loves you!!! Just allow him to love you!

"THE THREE F'S"

This is about our health. Ha! not what you thought!Right? Yes, every one in my family has several problems and I am no exception. We all have bowel problems. I can remember my aunts and uncles mentioning problems of this nature. I think that this problem is inheretited. It is caused by many things; not eating the right foods,not enough water,not enough exercise and most of all we hold things in as a rule and it causes problems. My daughter and I have found the solution. It is simple and one of God's herbs he gave us. It is flax seed. I can not take flax in a seed, I can take the oil, but that is not even as effective as the ground flax. My daughter bakes with flax, she substitues 1/4 flour with 1/4 flax in the things she bakes like muffins,or cup cakes. You can improvise, it is important to have it at least several times a day, I advize not within three or four hours of each other. I like to have it for breakfast on my eggs or cereal and so does my husband. You can use it on anything; in soups, on cottage cheese, or what ever you think of. If I forget to take it for dinner in something, I go and get water or milk and put in there and drink it. It is good tasting and easy to take or eat. Boy do you get moving and regular if you are paying attention and taking it at least twice a day. It can be purchased at health food stores.

The next problem is that of MUCUS; coughing up stuff and spitting. It is so discussting. My dad did it and my brothers and yes me and my sisters. We all have the problem. I have finally found out what causes me the problem. I went to many doctors and they kept saying there was not a thing wrong with me. Well it is not easily found, if you do not test for it and who does. After all these years and many eliminations, I now know what it is. I am lactose intolerant. I react to the things that are supposed to be good for me (in moderation that is, like; milk, cheese of all kinds, ice cream, butter, milk chocolate, yogurt etc. There is milk in so many things. I got married and my husband kept saying get some cough drops, I took cough drops until they got sickening. They did not really take care of the problem. I was watching Dr.Oz a number of weeks ago and a lady got up and asked him about the mucus problem. He answered and said to get FENNEL, and then he said it was good for lactose problems. Aha Haw!!! now I have to try this! This is another one of God's natural herbs. I cannot take the seeds so I began my search. I looked at about twelve stores and online medical and herb sites. Finally I found that Puritan's Pride had it in ground form. Five bottles was less than $8.00 for all five. I did not have to pay shipping. I have been using it for about a week, if I use it at least twice a day I have no hacking problems. I have learned it tastes like licorise and is in powered form and I can use it for candies, cakes, cookies, soups,meats etc. It is almost like the flax. Last night I forgot to take it at dinner time. I then had a piece of milk chocolate and started to hack. I went and got a spoon of peanut butter and sprinkled on about a 1/2 teaspoon full of fennel and ate it. In about 15 to 20 minutes Walla, no problem and I have slept through the night every night I take it. I think it lasts for about 8 hours and then it is time to take more. What a relief!!! Finally, I coughed so much I was raw and used so many tissues.

The thrid "F" is for forgiveness. We have started at the bottom and assended to the top. The Bowels,the Respitory, and now the mind/soul. God thought of everything, if we pay attention. In the mind, we have torment, we torture ourselves in the mind and soul, but we do not have to do this. God sent Jesus to show us how to live and to forgive. Then he had him die in our place, go to hell to experience what hell was like and then assend to Heaven. The reasons for all that had a purpose, like all things. The purpose was to allow Jesus to experience what it was like to be human, to experience the hell, to know we do not want to go there and then he gave him the power over the humans that want to go through him to learn to forgive and follow his way. He did an awesome job, but many do not want to believe and experience the forgiveness he offers us and that we should offer to others. This frees up our mind to not say or think things we should not think, like the world does. We have the opportunity to give it all to Jesus and allow total freedom of mind and spirit. God sent the Holy Spirit to be a guide for us but we have to go through Jesus to get there. When we do than the Holy Spirit is always there and Jesus is always there, we just have to discipline ourselves to talk to them daily and for me hourly.

So we have covered all three "F's that God offered us. We have Flax, Fennel and Forgiveness, it is up to us to find all three and make use of them. I am how about you?

God Be With You As You Go About Your Journey!

"OUR IDENTIFICATION"

I am calling this discussion "Our Identification". I read it "Our Daily Bread", that we often do not understand who we are verses what we do. I got to thinking how true this statement is. Identification means, our state of being, not what we do. Often and most of the time, we are asked who we are and we say; I am a teacher, preacher, actress, painter, accountant, dog trainer etc. This is our job and not who we are.

When we retire or become empty nesters, we often are lost. The reason is that we had identified (all our lives) with what we did for a living. For myself, I have worn many hats; a baby sitter, house cleaner, waitress, an elevator operator, a bank proofer (now it us done by machines, a mother, a wife, a teacher of many other jobs, a preschool/kindergarten director etc. These are things I did, but who I was and who I am today are different.

On my drivers license it says; my name, address, height, weight(if I havn't gained or lost),hair color(if I do not use the bottle and change the color),eye color and other things to identify me on the outside. This is only my exterior self. I still have to identify my inner self. Most of us wear masks and do not want anyone to see inside, to know the real person. We are wonderful from the inside, we have laughter, and thoughts that should be shared with others. It does not matter if anyone likes what we reveal, but the point is we are who we are inside. If we do not like who we are inside then we should change. We have a choice, surprise! What we are inside believe it or not shows to others, but they will not tell you, they tell others. He/she is selfish, a prude, not nice, cold, a spendthrift,recluse, does not care about others etc. Sometimes they are right and sometimes they they are wrong, it is what they perceive from what we give off or share. We can change who we are.

I am a Christian, I love myself and God. I am proud of who I am and I do my best to show others who I am. For years I did not show who I was,I was sure I would be talked about and ridiculed. Well that is true,(either way)it does happen so why not go with the flow. I feel much better than I did when I held everything inside and did not share. I have found out that if we are with God and not afraid, the Holy Spirit guides us and helps us in what ever we say and do. If we boo boo he will help us to get back on track and go back to who we are, a child of God, we will start again to exude the fruit of the good spirit and not the bad spirits.

I want people to see Jesus through me and I do my best. Though I do stumble and back track from time to time, God gets me back and on track. It is sort of like a train. The train gets derailed sometimes and it takes the engineers pulling the right strings/levers/buttons again to get the train back on the tracks and going in the right direction. Sometimes it takes another engine to help pull the train back.

Ask God to show you who you are and identify yourself with the right side of the tracks.

May God Be Your Guide and Director

"BEING HEARD"

I never really felt I was heard, no one seemed to listen. I was in a group one time some years back. Someone said to me, "Why do you always sit on the floor and in the corner?" I said, "I don't know, I just feel more comfortable." Then I was asked, "What happened when you were home with the whole group growing up?" I had to think about it. I realized that I did not want to raise my voice, and so I just shut up and was quiet. I realized I was not going to compete with the noise, with so many speaking at the same time. Those that needed to be heard would talk louder and louder. I did not want to have to work to compete with the noise. I was told, I learned to survive by keeping quiet, and I think that was the case.

If I did speak, no one seemed to recognize that what I said was important, so why talk? I learned to be quiet. In school, (I was told years later), I was considered, "Sweet little Janet". At home I felt like a neusance, and only a worker. I was told that too! When I had my school, I was listened to because then I was the person that had the information and needed to pass it on to my staff and parents.

Today, I am still quiet in large groups. I do not enjoy being in large groups, it is stressful. I enjoy a one on one or a small group of 6 or so people that are considerate and listen to each person and draws each other out.

Some years ago there was a show on TV with Marlo Thomas as one of the actors. She and Donald went to a party. It was a large party. They were not even noticed. She suggested they should mingle and talk to everyone. There was small groups chatting and laughing, so she went up to a few groups and no one noticed her. She then decided to see if it mattered that she was there, so she started to say, "Mingle, Mingle", "Mingle Mingle", and sure enough no one noticed she was there. That is what I feel like in large groups. I guess the reason I enjoyed Square Dancing was that, everyone gets a chance to mingle and feel important. It did help that I was fairly proficient and not too bad looking either, but for the most part everyone got to dance most of the time.

Everyone wants to be heard and feel a part of the group. Without co-mingling, one feels like they do not matter. I have learned to stick to small groups and I feel very comfortable, even though I can feel lost there too! I don't have to work so hard to be heard. I listen mostly, but once in awhile I do have things that are important to say. That is why phone calls work for many of us, we are talking on a one to one basis. Someone listens and someone talks.Years ago, I took a heart to a group. The purpose was that the person holding the heart did the talking, everyone else listened. I don't think the idea was well accepted.

God does not need me to be in large groups, he just wants me to talk to each person I meet. To make each person feel important and then I feel I make a difference. We each have our job in this world. God sent the apostles off from their home territories, he knew they would not be heard with those that knew their old habits, old mistakes/faults. They would not be judged, but heard.

"GROWUP-RSR"

Yes, today we are talking about growing up by surrendering,relying and relaxing. Is that possible? It certainly is! When we surrender to God, we rely on God, and then we relax. Why? we then do not have any worries. Jesus who is God, said, he would take care of us, he will take care of all of our needs, and he will give us the desires of our heart, but only when we follow him, we obey him and his word, but on his time.We must wait until he knows we are serious and we are really ready.

We need to move on from our past,give up and give in and trust our savior. Many of us tend to hang on to old habits and desires, we are rebelling,running and wearing ourselves out. We are killing ourselves by fighting to keep total control of our hearts and minds. We have not made up our mind to give God control and trust him.

The Carnal Christian is spiritually immature, but we think we are mature in all ways. Not so! that is too bad, we can not see we are not in control of ourselves, we are controlled by our environment, our parents, though we are gone from them, and they are gone from us, some even passed on. We are ALSO controlled by our habits. The results most of the time, ends in hate and consontration on negatives. We are on the spiritual roller coaster of spiritual up and downs. We are stunted spiritually.

God resides within us through the Holy Spirit(the third nature of God), which we acquired when we gave our hearts to God. If and when we really surrender, rely and relax upon him, we will growup. Go to Psalms 23 and really study it. You will learn that our Shepherd really does take care of us.

God Be With YOU!

"Lesson's From My Grandfather's Orchard"

My grandfather on my mothers side had an orchard. Grandma and Grandpa lived in town a few miles away but they had a farm too! My aunt and uncle lived in the house, but grandpa did the chores twice a day and tending two cows for milk and a few chickens for eggs. I remember that grandpa spent a great deal of time in the orchard each day with the trees.

He seemed to be alone, but now that I think about it, he was there having mental time, thinking and cleaning out the cobwebs from his mind. Maybe having discussions with God? He could tend the trees; sit down under the trees and rest or take a nap as long as he needed. He would clean under the trees,fertilize and water them, and some of the trees every year had to be pruned. The trees produced lots of good fresh fruit that supplied their table and the aged people they cared for. They had plenty to gave away and some was sold for money. That was good.

There are lessons here if we look at the things he did. My grandfather was slow and meticulous, but cared for his trees and animals. In return the trees produced for him. His caring. feeding and pruning of the trees allowed new shoots or growth to produce more good fruit each year. It might seem cruel to trim away at the trees, but that is the way to get rid of old dead or dying limbs that were not going to produce fruit. The new growth came forth and kept producing strong tasty fruit.

God works much the same way for us. He tries to keep us producing good fruit. We most of the time, get in the way by trying to keep our old habits, bad thoughts or opinions, and we stop producing. We accumulate so many bad attitudes that God has to clear away the old to make way for new thoughs, habit, opinions and attitudes to form new clean, clear ones.

One way is to wake us up to hear him and what he wants from us, what he planned for us to do for him. By pruning away the old dead stuff in our lives, we can again hear our maker. He needs us to listen to him and he will help us renew our lives and make us new creatures. He wants us to be happy and warm people so we can love as we are to love. We are to learn to produce the fruit of the spirit as is stated in Galatians 5:22; Love, joy, peace, longsuffering,gentleness, goodness and faith, meekness, temperance. God loves us and wants us to be like his son Jesus, at least to do our best and be as close to Jesus as we can be. May you produce the fruit like the orchards.

7/24

-----PSALMS 23:2

He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.

We mostly just say the words and do not think about what the words mean. At least that is what I have done for most of my life. Most of us are in a hustle bustle world and do not take time to pray, read or stop and rest.

My husband and I want to sell our house and move from where we are right now. We are in the mountains up 7200 feet, this is a resort area, in the winter lots of snow and we can not get out some times for several weeks. There aren not too many people here during the week. Most of the people come up spuratic and on vacations or to rest. My husband and I are retired now, but we remember when we were in the on the go rat race as most people are, but now it is different for us.

Now we are, for the most part, separated from most people most of the time. It seemed unusual for some time, but now it is rather natural. I think that God is saying to us that it is time we lie down in green pastures; and live by the still waters, we have a lake here. We do things when we want to do it and we rest when we want to. We have little distractions except for the TV, and the phone which we can control if we want.

As I see it, our young people are inundated with constant mental distractions; texting constantly, too many TV programs and games, the computers, I pods and other high technology. These are wonderful and useful gadgets and have their place, but they are for the most part taking up too much of our thinking time and not giving the brain the time to process the input. Too many people are just taking in information and not doing anything with it. People are becoming burned out on information.

If we are allowing God/the Holy Spirit to work with us, he said, "He makes me to lie down in green pastures;(rest and think), He leads me beside the still waters."(A peaceful place(quiet time). He restores our soul and leads us in His paths (v3).

I wonder how many of us have quiet time or are we on the go and busy 7/24?

"Messages"

Growing up in a large family (14), I was the oldest girl and second in the family from Ohio, as children the atmosphere was that our importance was of little significance except to work. So I grew up feeling that the only way to get any recognition was to work hard. I became a work a holic and thought that was the way it was for everyone else. That is excluding the rich and the spoiled. I knew no other way to get my feeling of importance. There was no love shown.I could feel it from visiting family but not my folks, oh yes, occasionally my dad would give me a hug, but that was far and few between. I had to continually prove my importance, so I grew up to think perfection (what ever that was), was what I needed to do or be.

I got married and had children, it was my goal to be the best wife and mother ever. Well I blew that because I became so demanding and through that I over did it. I had to have everything as perfect as I could get it. I would have parties and beat myself to death, cleaning, cooking, preparing the house and everything for the best party. It was for me, and everyone marveled at everything being so perfect, but some said they could not have us over because they could not compete. I did not want them to compete, we wanted to be invited to their house too!

I was so bad at the perfection part that if I went to bed and noticed that the drape was out of place, I had to get up and fix it so I could sleep. Dumb, but that was the way I thought and thoughts take over. As far as the mother part, I thought I was a very good mother; taking the kids to everything, getting them into everything I could, getting what I could for them, allowing all their friends to come to our house and on and on. Unfortunately, that was not what they really wanted.

I know now that the messages I was sending was not love, it was to work and do for themselves. It was the one thing I did not get that I could not give....love. What a shame, for I loved them above all else and wanted to be the best for them. However, I did teach them some very valuable things and I hope one was to give love and not try to make love.

The messages we pass on are the way we feel and think, children can feel that better than all else. God is love and if you have God in you, you will pass on love without even trying, I am sorry I was not with God as I should have been for my family. God bless each and everyone of you!

"THE PENNY"

Today I walked to the post office and in the middle of the road on the way I spotted a penny. I always pick up the pennies, I think of a penny as pennys from God, he is reminding me that we are not alone and that he is going to help in what we need.

I put the penny in my pocket and kept fingering it. It was rough, beat up and discolored. So often we think the penny has no value, and worst of all if it is beat up and ugly. When infact, any penny has the same value as the other, it spends the same shinny, rough and beat up. We can add it to others and it spends just like new. We can take it to the bank and they will send it to the Federal Reserve Bank where they will either exchange the penny, melt it down, shine it up and have it re-enter the market again.

I could not help thinking how this is the way we see many people. We see only what is on the surface, the battered up outside, the roughness of the personallity, and think they are worthless and have no value. We can help them to see God (The Federal Reserve), and they can be re-established, renewed and return in a new state and back to usefulness. God restores us back to a new person and we become very valuable to others. We all have value in Gods eyes, we just need to bring him into our lives and folow his little voices and he will not steer us wrong. God sees in everyone value. He has a plan for all of us to be used by him.

Ask and he will receive you and meet your where you are and restore you to new again as the penny,you will soon see your value.

God Bless!