Around the World in Eighty Days!

Saturday, February 11, 2017

sharpening the uses of our tongues? Can we? May we? Might we?

There are many exercises that I use with the babies to make their tongues more able. As I feed them, I do little mouth games with my tongue... "make a fishface" or "twirl your tongue". I try to implore them not to use harsh tones of voice to one another without reason. etc. Some of them eat it up and play with words and talk and tongue stuff and some do not. How to talk about one another is something that is a soul issue.
When it is our responsibility to use our tongues to direct others and to speak to the public, it is a sacred place before God. The fear of God is very important in such a place. Pray before you talk to people. The image of Nehemiah and his heart prayer before the Lord, remains in my mind. Pray before the questions. Pray before the answers. Ask others to pray for the use of your tongue in the public eye.
Laugh with those who laugh about your talk and take criticism well. See how your children {those whose job it is to decipher what you say} are percieving your words. They are asking us what we are doing and why. We are correcting their misconceptions with gentleness and kindness. When we must hollar about things, let it be about the things that are of a sinful sort. The things that will take them to hell are the things that will make us crazy and they must feel the difference between the things that are important the things that are essential. This is impossible, apart from the grace of God and the empowerment of the Spirit. He is able to make all grace accessible to us in our labors which are above us! Let us trust Him to empower and guide us to use His grace to do just that. amen
James 3:5

Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

James 3:6

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth thewhole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

James 3:8

But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

1 Peter 3:10

For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Communicating and Carrying the Consciences of the Governed---thoughts

Oh, what a transparent Pastor to have governed us with his soul exposed to us, as much as he did. There is a dearth of men who can and will lead and it is no wonder that there is so much chaos in the world. I am remembering Pastor Martin, who told us of the theory of "carrying the consciences of God's people". I remember some of the streets of gold that we trod upon in our youthful zeal for a Theocentric family worship experience.

I am certainly rambling on about many things that have fallen by the wayside and I really have a very deliberate intent to direct you to right leadership skills; should God ever call on you to lead anyone.

This week we have seen good expressions of leadership from our new President and some poor expressions as well. Yesterday, the President gathered many to announce a pick for the Judgeship. He explained his purposes exquisitely. I said to myself, he didn't really need to say that, but he really did. You will find in your life that there is often a need to declare the obvious, to anyone who would follow you. I am doing this, for this reason; is something that should often come out of your lips if you want anyone to follow you anywhere.

Pastor Martin would sneeze and take out his hanky and tell us why he had a hanky and not a tissue. I would stick my hand in my throat to say "TOO much info!" We love you Pastor and we would follow you anywhere why so much explanation? I wriggled with uncomfortability, to know so much about a man whom I respected so much.

If we had visitors, it would take him an extra 20 minutes to explain why we are having consecutive readings with or without commentary and where we had been in the scriptures and why. Why do they need to know, I wondered? They are not coming back to visit us again!

I think that the stinky look on my face, whenever he would rant in such a way would make him go on worse and sometimes discuss the "Theory of 'Carrying the Consciences of God's People'": his terminology, my theorizing it...

Boiling it down to the brass tacks is, when people know why you do what you are doing, it is harder for them to buck the systems. They may complain, but it won't be because they can't see your point. Some may forgo complaining just to keep you from having to repeat your why, explanation again, and again and again.

He wasn't a perfect man, at all, but he was a perfect example of seeing people's consciences as worthy of being carried. I hope that our President can learn this early in his Presidency. He is a good business man, but a poor conscience carrier. God, send him help!!!

Thursday, January 26, 2017

What do we do when we've lost the game?

What do we do when we lose the game?

I will never, ever forget the day we lost and one of our teammates threw the ball over the net at the other team. OOOOOOhhhhh! We were in TROUBLE! We had lost all decorum in the eyes of our illustrious coach. It was as though we had run to the other side of the court and hit each of the other girls in the nose and blood was rushing out. Coach had no tolerance for sore losing.

This episode changed the rules of the game for everybody. There had already been a rule that throwing the ball over the net was a no-no. This incident stiffened those rules immensely for us all. I don’t think we lost many games after that sad moment. Coach T hollered at us as only he could, in silence and we all went home in tears, because we knew that our teammate’s activity was agreed to in sentiment by us all. His simple and convincting reproof sent us completely, penitently home to our knees. He had our hearts in his hands and our behavior would reflect our penitence.

The new rule meant that win or lose the teams had to stand at the baseline after the final point had been played and wait for the referee to give us the whistle to shake our opponents hands. This was a real civilizing inclusion to the game. It is inevitable that in the heat of the attempt to defeat your competitor the wrong heated effect can come about. Giving a person a couple of minutes to catch their civility and their right mind, before shaking hands can do much to keep the disappointment from dominating the situation.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

What is the definition of a forked tongue?

We always learned about the reputation that the "White" man had with the Native Americans that he spoke with a forked tongue. This has always had a question mark in my mind as I thought about the language and articulation of words between people and people groups.

The older I get, the more that I see the forkedness of my own tongue. The "rubbish" language that I use to get my own way, here and there. A bell sounds in my mind that I am speaking with the "forked tongue". I am using words to sensitize my victim, perhaps, so that I can accomplish some unsuspecting goal. Not exactly deception, but doping, perhaps. Using words as a sedative, perhaps.

I am writing this to you, who wrung every scripture verse out of my soul about the use of the tongue. The tongue of the wise...The angry tongue, etc. Never did I talk about the forked tongue, which is perhaps my own blindspot.

Straight talk and undeceptive speech is very difficult and learning to choose the right word for the right situation is becoming more and more evasive, with the use of emoticons and emojis. What am I trying to say gets lost in what do I want people to think about what I am saying. This is a very complicated soul wrestling. Don't miss the wonderful corrections from God, in the complexity of growing to speak the "truth in love." Pray about your posts and your emails and stories, etc. Pray about how to say what you say to the people you love and care about, as well as those with whom you could care less, what they think.

Think about pleasing God and getting your tongue bridled and narrowed from a fork tongue to a single mind and a single tongue. Love you!

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Arise, my soul to meet the challenge of the day!

I am praying for you and for me to rise to the challenge, today! Somedays this is easy. Somedays we are limping through, with little vigor and expectation. I pray that God will give great joy in His presence today. This is hard to find, if one is not in the presence of God on a regular basis.

We have seasons of life where this is the most important thing to us. Then, we have deceptions that whisper of its lack of importance. I needn't prioritize worship so highly, these deceptions whisper and if heeded, they yell. Help us Lord to shake off the guilty fears. Help us to see the importance of worship as our most important love interest.

If we put this in our pocket then when we pull out our priorities they will fall out in tact. If not it cuts the connector of our priorities and they fall out all over the place. Scattered priorities aren't pretty and sometimes we can't get them back together for a long while!

God grant us the presence of mind to know how important the worship of God is and give us the determination to keep it the highest of all in our hearts and mind. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Friday, August 5, 2016

Leading us through the mist!

It was a slightly misty morning. I am more happy to take the babies out on a misty morning, than on a heat advisory morning. They looked at me like it was snow to the rooftops, the babies did. The very same babies that love to go outside on a sunny day, were afraid of the mist. Not all two year olds, they had learned a fear of the mist, similar to my problem with the fog. It took ten minutes and they were completely engrossed in this new and wondrous element. The bubbles mostly fall to the ground and few of them fly.

We stomped the bubbles, instead of chasing them. The clothes were soaked by the time we got inside and the shoes were sopping. We overcame a huge fear of mist, I hope.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Baby Brother must learn to respect his elders?

I was grieved in my spirit by the tone of voice that Ezra used with Enoch in trying to get into the car. I understand that he was trying to expedite the process, but the tone would have gotten him a swift bop, had he been born into my family.

I know that there are verbal ways to establish this truth into the soul, but grown-up brother doesn't defend his respectful position, as he ought, in my opinion. Another elder or larger person would have taken offense to the tone of talk and perhaps this is a reason that he isn't doing better in school. Perhaps there are no decorum rules of respect in his heart and mind at all.

"What's it to ya! Get out of my way! So what!" If these are his defense mechanisms and outbursts, he may get a black eye or 2 to help him understand manners. I hope not. I hope that there is a way to civilize this little barbarian, before life has to.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Coup de Tat-- My Queen Deposed!

The beauty of the Spaniard was my only comfort, as I watched the vanquishing of my "reigning" Queen Serena! I am in Tennis agony, as it were. She has sat upon her throne, virtually unscathed, until yesterday.

A thorough spanking it was, in straight sets. It sent my good woman, though probably not dispondant, for she made a very good showing; she better get some practice sessions in, before their next meeting, which will probably be at Wimbledon.

Garbine is a wonder on the court. Her legs don't seem to have to be on the ground when she makes contact with the ball. She seems to have overcome the nervous choke that beat her, last year at Wimbledon. So the season has much to anticipate in the possible complete wall of protection from the breaking of the absolute record, which seemed totally inevitable, last year, to the unchallenged real Queen of the Modern Tennis Era!

The good thing is that the Queen may not retire this year and we may have some time, to watch her get back up on her throne, this season.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Happiest Mothers Day!

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Where are my scissors?

A Soft Word Turns Away Wrath

How many times have we discussed this? Why is it that you find it necessary to holler about stuff like where your scissors are, etc.?

A gentile North Carolina girl learns to discuss matters in a soft tone. They indirectly touch at the emotion of the situation, without resorting to the guttural nature of hollering. I say, they save the guttural for the tennis courts. These are the same women who find strength in grunting at their backhand crosscourt shot.

I find this a guttural practice, myself. Still, I can see the effectiveness of evoking an intimidation response from your opponent. You stand there and say, is that going to be a harder ball to return? You really do, but if it's not followed by power, it serves the opposite purpose. It serves to create an anger and intensity that it wasn't supposed to, at least in my heart. The intensity that it produces is not usually an easy one to overcome.

Anyway, keep it down in the morning about your, stupid scissors. Would you?