Adversity

Take A WalkThroughout the seasons of life all of us on occasion endure losses that leave us breathless. Sometimes, of course, it is not we but instead our friends who face adversity. When they do, our mission is simple: We must help in any way we can, either with an encouraging word, a helping hand, or a heartfelt prayer.

This is practical advice: “Make it a rule, and pray to God to help you to keep it, never, if possible, to lie down at night without being able to say: “I have made one human being at least a little wiser, or a little happier, or at least a little better today.”  Amen to that  . . . Especially when times are tough.

When a friend is in trouble, don’t annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it. Advice is easy to give and harder to take. Edna St Vincent Millay wrote to a friend requesting, “Please give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to take it.”  Remember it’s very wise of us to follow good advice and we all have a potpourri of wisdom worth sharing and receiving with our friends but we must also remember that it’s all in the delivery  . . .  timing is everything. Isn’t it?

~ Granny In Training~

Let Go And Surrender

Letting go is an emotional and spiritual surrender. It means willingly jumping out of the lifeboat of your preconceptions of reality and taking your chances out in the open sea of anything-can-happen.

It means that even as your definition of reality is dissolving before your very eyes, you willingly relinquish it, instinctively comprehending that the state of surrender itself will be a creative condition. It’s hard to let go, to live in a formless, destinationless place. All our lives we’re taught to hold on, to be the masters of our fate, the captains of our souls. Letting go isn’t comfortable; it can feel like anything from laziness to utter loss of control. It’s not aggressive and self-assured. It’s not the American way.

But letting go is, in truth, is a most elegant kind of daring. It is vulnerability of the highest order, an emptying out of self, of all the clutter, chatter, ideas, attitudes, schemes, and plans that, ordinarily, we all contain. In this emptiness, there is room for so much; in this vacancy, anything can happen: breathtaking transformations, changes of directions, miracles that will purely astound you, love that comes out of a spiritual conversion. But only if you are willing to truly let go of it all: as the tree dropping her bright leaves for winter, the trapeze artist, suspended in midair between two bars, the diver free-falling from the high dive, have all unequivocally, wholeheartedly let go.

Letting go is being alive to the power of anything is possible. It is living in surrender, trust, and the belief that emptiness is at once the perfect completion and the perfect beginning. So let go. And remember that if you hang on to even a shred or try to make a deal with Gods meaning of letting go you might not experience all the wonderful things that are ment happen to you.

A Test of Love by St. Augustine…

 “A Test of Love” is a sermon once preached by St. Augustine where he proposed a kind of self test to see if we truly love God.

 Lets suppose God proposed to you a deal and said, “I will give you anything you want” and you can own the world.

Nothing will be impossible for you, nothing will be sin and nothing forbidden. You will never die, never have pain, never have anything you do not want and always have anything you want.

 Except for just one thing you will never see my face. Augustine closed with this question: Did a chill rise in your hearts when you heard the words you will never see my face? That chill is the most precious thing in you; that is the pure love of God.” What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? I wonder…

Veggie Tales

God is Bigger Than the Boogie Man” is one of my grandson’s favorite songs to sing. It’s a catchy little tune isn’t it?  When we sing it over and over and over we laugh a hardy laugh. You try it, say it over and over and see how you feel afterwards. Wasn’t that fun?  Doesn’t God have a great sense of humor?  Talking Veggies! Veggie Tales is an American series of children’s animated films featuring anthropomorphic vegetables in stories conveying moral themes based  on Christianity. They frequently retell Biblical stories, sometimes anachronistically reframe, and include humours references to pop culture in many different ears by putting Veggies spins on them. Big Idea has also published Veggie Tales books and music CDs and branded items such as toys, clothing, and garden seeds for vegetables and flowers. I for one love the name “Big Idea Productions.”  for the name of the publishing company. That’s a God thing. Isn’t it?

Their aim was to produce children’s videos which conveyed Christian moral themes and taught Biblical values and lessons. The animated featured involved stories told by a group of recurring vegetable characters wh lived on a kitchen countertop. The first 30-mintue program called   “Where’s God When I’m S-Scared?”  They also released two feature-length movies in 1993 “Jonah” A Veggie Tales Movie and “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.” 

VeggieTales has a continuous back story that all the cartoons are actually teleplays, performed by various vegetables and fruit that live together on the same kitchen countertop. Some of these characters have “real names,” and take on various roles in the teleplays, although they will also often appear as themselves. Most of these “regulars” were established in the very earliest videos, while some have been added more recently. 

Don’t forget!  God Is Bigger Than The Boogie Man,  God Is Bigger Than The Boogie Man. Did I tell you that God Is Bigger Than The Boogie Man? I don’t think that Veggie Tales is just for kids. It’s for parents and grandparents too. Remember God Is For You!

 

A Poem Called Grandma Wings

This is a poem called ” Grandma Wings” author unknown. The other day when I read it I started to image what it would be like if grandmothers really had Grandma Wings. I hope that you enjoy reading this poem and my thoughts about it.

“GRANDMA WINGS AUTHOR UNKNOWN”

 I wonder where you keep your wings? Are they in your closet, with the rest of your stuff?  Do you put them away, and just use them at night?  Do give them to grandpa to polish up bright? I know you have wings, for this is true. Because God, always gives them to Angles like you!  I wish that I had a pair of wings. That would be awesome. Wouldn’t it?

Can you image?  The places we could go if you had angel wings? If I had angel wings, I would go to the heaven’s. I would ride with my grandkids grandpa, on his heavenly motorcycle. What would you do?

 We know that angels exist. We know God uses them, to send his messages and the angles meet among us. The holy angels never draw attention to them-selves. They typically do their work and disappear. We are told, that these heavenly beings are invisible. Being created by God for his service. They are mentioned 294 times, in more than half the Biblical books. The books record the activities of angels as serving as warriors, guardians,delivers, messengers, instruments of praise. It’s awesome, to read that grandmothers have a lot in common with angles? Isn’t it?