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.
Category: books
14 February 2023 Getting Older
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
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
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
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
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.
41 July 2022 Faces
These are some of my drawings. The glory, the “payment” goes to God.
30 July 2022 Betrayal and Forgiveness
https://youtu.be/ND-nldJc8kU – How Do We Forgive Our Fathers – Smoke Signals
28 July 2022 Obsessions – “Passion”
28 July 2022 A Personal Relationship
For a long time , most of my life, I have loved God. As I have matured and learned so much about matters of organic energy and matters of the spirit I have learned through personal experience how important it is to have s personal relationship. A relationship no one outside of myself can define. No book or written word. Sometimes just the sound of aspen leaves blowing in the wind. Always present. Recently I made a choice I had been straddling the fence about for many years. I decided to surrender my soul to Jesus Christ….not in the book but the one I have come to know through a personal relationship. In the sky, God and the Earth my mother…our shared mother and once they made a son. I don’t believe he left such is not the way of this system as I understand it. Too many words. Human beings trying to make sense of things as they had understanding at the time. Words of the time that have changed in ours. So many translations. So many individual perceptions. We are in the one circle. Sometimes mythology is our only comfort in times of great loss and confusion.
“Two halves of one whole.”
https://youtu.be/xFtgj2m_Mk4 – Control Mind in a box
To be 