22 March 2024 Teacher

March 22, 2024 by saymber, posted in animals, Bipolar life, books, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Who was your most influential teacher? Why?

The teacher I remember and have fond memories of is a grade school teacher at Harvey Dunn her name was Mrs. Maxwell. She encouraged my writing. She gave me a certificate stating that I was the most likely to be an author. She was right. After we lost Sam our cocker spaniel we wrote a book. The title was The Gospel According to Sam an e-book.

Matthew 12:30-32 Niv

³⁰“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.³¹And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. ³²Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

18 September 2023 Early Lesson

September 18, 2023 by saymber, posted in books, history, Home, human rights, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Movies, Spirituality and Religion, trust, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.

The lesson I wish I had learned earlier in life is my value or worth. I don’t think I’ve ever really learned that lesson. To this day I still don’t really have this down. The book by Amy Tan Joy Luck Club talks about this concept. It’s a sort of muti-general trauma that gets passed on from one generation to the next. Not realizing our value or what we have until it’s compromised or gone.

https://youtu.be/tJzxpUkJYXo?si=05oiHpavYP07IU2p – Joy Luck Club Knowing your Worth

1 Corinthians 6:19-20New International Version

¹⁹Do you not know that your bodies are templesof the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;²⁰you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

7 June 2023 Favorite Childhood Book

June 7, 2023 by saymber, posted in books, history, Home, Leading Life by Example, Nature, photography, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?

Hello to you. How are you? I’m doing ok. I decided to try out volunteer work next Tuesday. Our local food pantry asked for help so I gave it some thought and decided it was an answered prayer. I had asked God for an opportunity and this came up! I just hope I have the stamina for it – I get tired so easily and my lower back is still a problem.

Todays prompt calls to mind my favorite books from when I was growing up. I don’t remember my early favorites from when I was a little spud. The ones I do remember were the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Nancy Drew detective series books. My Mom encouraged me to read and bought the books for me. I tried to re-read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books as an adult and just couldn’t get through them! I think it was how much detail she went into as she wrote them in such a way that her blind sister Mary could see through them. It’s sad that an award was taken away from Laura because of the way she wrote about First Peoples. She wrote about what she knew at the time. Being PC wasn’t part of her stories. She wrote about what she knew and experienced at the time. The Nancy Drew books were fun but I don’t remember much about them – it’s been so long ago that I read them!

These little flowers are just so cheerful!

1 Peter 4:8New International Version

⁸Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

1 March 2023 Loving Ourselves

March 2, 2023 by saymber, posted in books, Home, human rights, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. How are you in your today? I hope well. Last night I went to the Bible study and had a good discussion with the ladies there. I have been having trouble with the devotional we are using. I know it’s not the intention of it to disempower women but some of it comes across that way. I feel like loving ourselves is kind of under scrutiny. I was raised Catholic and I’m attending a Christian church. When I was attending Catholic Church services I feel like the emphasis was on God and not so much Jesus. To me Jesus’s messages is the best part of the Bible. Lately the messages I’m getting is about loving God and others as we should love ourselves but some of us don’t love ourselves. I feel like as Christians we get beat up a little for loving ourselves – for seeking wisdom from inside versus all external in relationship with God/Jesus. I know we are all sinners but I don’t like getting beat up about it. I don’t like being told that no matter what I do I am not good enough. This is where belief in Jesus becomes a focal point. If we are good enough we don’t need Jesus. Anyhew I’m struggling a little bit because I have and know those who have had low self esteem and have turned to God with it and it didn’t help. Sometimes it makes it worse! So keep me in your prayers as I keep you in mine.

14 February 2023 Getting Older

February 14, 2023February 14, 2023 by saymber, posted in books, Home, Leading Life by Example, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. How are you? I hope well. Yesterday was my 55th birthday. We celebrated as a family on Super Bowl Sunday at my cousins house as it was a celebration of both of us. He is 4 years older. It was really nice to celebrate together. I didn’t do anything yesterday but did get some nice cards from my Mom and family.

Today is another one of those Hallmark holidays. I think every day is an opportunity to be someone’s Valentine. When I was married to my last husband, we didn’t do anything as we believed every day was a day to treat each other specially. It’s kind of like Mothers and Father’s Day and holidays like them.

My devotional Beauty Beheld arrived today and I started reading it. I can tell it’s not going to be an easy read! Having others to talk about it will help I hope.

8 February 2023 First Meeting

February 8, 2023 by saymber, posted in books, Home, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Spirituality and Religion, trust, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. How is your day going? I am doing ok so far. Last night we had our first meeting of the Women’s Bible study using the Beauty Beheld devotional. There were nine of us which was a nice amount I think. We read from Genesis the first seven days of creation and how God perceived his creation as good. This correlates to each person on this earth and other creation. Even if we might not perceive something as good of beautiful it is to God depending on what it is. There are some activities that people take part in that are in contradiction to good like child pornography was one example. Even if those who participate in it perceive it to be good it is harmful to the victims of it. We talked about the common phrase beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that can be twisted around sometimes too.

I can tell this will be a pretty challenging read and look at the Bible but I’m curious to continue on. The ladies that were there were all looking for the same things I am and that was namely fellowship with other members of the church. Very nice group of women I’m looking forward to knowing better through the next six weeks.

14 January 2023 Passages

January 15, 2023 by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, books, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Spirituality and Religion, trust, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. I hope this finds you well. The message from A Woman’s Spirit for today resonated – May be it will resonate with you as well:

We are not unlike a particularly hardy crustacean……with each passage from one stage of human growth to the next, we too, must shed a protective structure. – Gail Sherry

Our passage into a new stage of development was initiated by our desire to stop using chemicals. The values we lived by while using chemicals no longer got us. We need to shed our old skin and grow a new one that reflects our current world view.

We are now, and always will be, in the stage of becoming, of trying to fulfill our changing dreams and aspirations. What we can accomplish at one stage of life is different from what we can handle at another. And yet an overall design is being shaped by all our endeavors. The more willing we are to shed yet another skin, the more centered, stable, and spirit-filled we’ll become.

Do my actions fit my values ? As I outgrow my values, I will release them. I we I’ll relish my growth today and celebrate my new skin.

5 December 2022 Every Lesson is a Teacher

December 5, 2022 by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, books, Health, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

My life is challenging these days. With the ears and swaying issues I feel tired a lot of the time. I feel like I want to sleep most of the time. I haven’t heard about my referral yet. God is testing me I think!

1 December 2022 What you praise you increase

December 1, 2022 by saymber, posted in books, Mental Health, Spirituality and Religion, trust, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. Todays message from A Woman’s Spirit is really good:

What you praise you increase – Catherine Ponder

Getting trapped in negativity is far too easy. When we get stuck, we soon are overwhelmed with shame. When we’re feeling miserable, we can be certain no one else is enjoying our company either.

It may feel impossible to break out of this painful cycle. Some of us may become complacent in it, yet we recognize that some women seem to experience much more peace and joy than ourselves. What do they do that’s different? Careful observation reveals how accepting they are of others. They can be serene because they aren’t invested in how someone else lives. This is the Serenity Prayer in action.

The easiest step in becoming like these women we admire is to begin praising what we do like in others. The more we praise their positive qualities, the less we’ll focus on those parts we’d like to change. The miracle is that our inattention to the negative qualities dissipates them.

I will praise, not criticize, everyone today. It’s a decision , nothing more. My friends will benefit, but I’ll benefit even more.