I think it’s sort of funny, how often one might think that money can make things so much better… don’t get me wrong, we all keep a mental list of what we would do if we suddenly had a plethora of cash on hand!
In truth, the first thing that popped into my head when I read the prompt, was how nice it would be to have a hot shower… not in a hotel or high-rise apartment, mind you, but right here inside my little RV. Sure, I can come up with many different ways to bless the whole of the earth with my newly won riches, but if I don’t feel safe, secure, and clean within the very place I reside… what good is any of it?
It’s like when the Three Amigos are laying in bed, the night before they were supposed to defeat El Guapo, thinking they were just putting on a show for money, one asks the other two what they were going to spend their earnings on after they got home. Dusty rattled off something about a new car, Lucky mentioned some other expensive dreamy item, and then Ned chimed in that he wanted to help all the less fortunate… both the other two promptly chime in that they were gonna do that too! We all like to make suggestions or promises about things like money or good will towards fellow man, when we are feeling good about things. Though the move was ridiculous, in nature, by the end of the story the Three Amigos left all the money, never actually accepting payment… maybe they found out that the journey was much more important than the money, who knows.
I’d like to think that I could offer anything within my means to help my fellow man, in whatever situation I find myself in, with or without winning a lottery. I suspect that a great many of you feel the same way, so however we choose to answer the prompt today is neither here nor there.
What would be very telling is if the question were to be answered in the form of
“What do you think others would expect you to do, if you won the lottery?”
Go ahead, give it a try… see if you can guess what I might spend the money on, were I the one winning the lottery!
Here are three choices of cookies to motivate you, this might give you better odds at guessing correctly…
As I left the book of Exodus behind, heading into Leviticus, a thread of thought began pulling my mind towards Moses brother, Aaron. By the time I got midway through Chapter 8, where God told Moses how to consecrate and present Aaron and his two sons as the priests to be in service within His holy dwelling… I began to wonder how Aaron felt about everything. Don’t forget that this wasn’t too long after that little incident with the Late Night Bovine Hoo-ha! Aaron wasn’t exactly looking or feeling like a winner, after his last leadership catastrophe!
As I was reading along, I began to wonder about the life of Aaron, before Moses returned to Egypt with Gods instructions, that included both brothers. Was their conversation that of two brothers, men of God, in full alignment and agreement as to how things would go? Or was their initial reuniting more like a recruiting session, with Moses laying out Gods plan like a sales pitch, hoping to entice Aaron to come along?
The only thing I saw clearly in scripture, was the part where Aaron melted down the Golden Calf, while Moses was on the mountain retrieving the Stone Tablets of Gods Law… it was for sure, Aaron that did the deed!
Chapter 8 of Leviticus was the next time I really focused on Aaron, as well as, all the other parties involved in the building and service of Gods Holy Dwelling, situated in the midst of His people. It can be easy to do, as there were a great many details, and a myriad of rules to be adhered to… for every single man, woman and child.
When I arrived at the part of the story where Aaron and his sons had been sanctified and placed in service to God and the people, it was very troubling to my heart when Aarons sons were instantly killed for not obeying the rules. Oh, I wasn’t caught up in why God destroyed them, but rather, how had they so quickly become lazy and flippant in their tasks. When it happened, God instructed Moses on how to handle things, leaving words with Moses on what to say to his brother Aaron. The part that has stuck in my mind ever since then, was when Moses told Aaron what God said, regarding their deaths, and the bible only states that Aaron remained silent… that’s it!
Now enters two more of Aarons sons, for service in the dwelling place of God. As a parent, I am already considering how difficult it may have been for Aaron, to watch yet two more of his children picking up where the first two had left things. This was not anything like a posh position in an elite executives office, it was a do it or die if you fail kind of job, if I am to be blunt! Being in service to the Most High God is not a job to perform by the law, without the heart being All In!
How many times, as a parent, did I think my children would do the right thing in questionable circumstances, only to see them choose poorly? How many times did my kids say they were sorry for something, not because they really felt contrite, but because they got caught? I am supposing that Aaron was no different, as a parent, than you or I might be, watching our kids make the wrong choices. Once, when my oldest was a teenager, I discovered that she had stolen some items from her job, so I took both her and the items back to the company, making her return what she had taken and apologize. The police were called, she was terminated and escorted off the premises. My then husband was furious with me, and my child did not speak to me for nearly a month… but I would do the very same thing to this day, as I don’t think she ever shoplifted again.
I imagine that Aaron was heartbroken, at the death of his sons, but also very aware of the sanctity of God and His dwelling place. God was actively establishing His Holiness, and the life one must live to become separate from the sin of the world. Sin always starts really tiny, barely noticeable if you are not quick to catch it. These people had been living beneath the feet of the Egyptians for generations, but they also picked up on many bad habits of a “Worship Who You Want, How You Want and When You Feel Like It” kind of people.
The amount of rules, regulations, Laws and By-laws God set down in both Exodus and Leviticus, leaves me to believe that there were many behaviors and habits that were far from Godly, which had gotten the Israelites into this mess generations earlier.
Wickedness was rampant in every fiber of society, at that time, and not just with the Egyptians and Israelites, but throughout the lands. It was apparently normal, on any given day, to spy your neighbor down the path sacrificing one of their children to a false God.
Cleanliness was far from being on any ones list of concerns, as well as many of the same criminal acts we face currently… same stories, different times, as far as I can see. The problem that the Israelites faced was the fact that they had become so accustomed to the norm, they didn’t even realize how many bad habits they had accumulated over the generations spent in bondage.
God is a Holy God, flawless and more glorious than our minds can even fathom. The Creator of all, fully intended to dwell in the midst of His people, as they traveled to the promise land. Because of all the Stinkin Thinkin, as I like to call it, going on in the minds of the Israelites, God had to ensure that His children approached with reverence at all times.
Perhaps Aaron was so overcome with sorrow and disappointment, in his sons flippant behavior, it simply robbed him of anything worth saying to his brother that day. Knowing what is right and doing what is right are two separate things, and often they do not end up hand in hand… for any of us.
There was a time, back in the day, where I would skim over much of what was written in any of the books of the bible involved in, whosoever beget whom, or how many cubits high and wide, because it either seemed like someone’s ancient family tree or just a bunch of rules by an angry God. There is so much more in those passages… so very much! As it stands now, I can barely get through a chapter or two each week, without having to go back and reread something that I’d previously skimmed past, that now had a great deal to do with what I’d been studying.
It says in Gods Word,
“All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”2 Timothy 3:16, 17
I believe this to be true, All of it!
The more time I spend in the Bible, reading what was written so long ago, I find it just as applicable today as it was back then. Aaron may have been serving as high priest for God Almighty, but he was also a man with human flaws, bad habits, weaknesses and emotions. The beauty I found within this story is shared, not only by Aarons desire to stay the course in his service to the Most High, but God’s tireless efforts to bring the whole of His people out of a very sinful gutter, so to speak!
One of my lessons here, is that I too have bad habits needing to be replaced with good ones, one of which, is my skimming over of things I deem unnecessary for my study. If the Bible tells me that it is ALL God breathed, and that it is All useful for my learning… skimming ANY of scripture, could be causing me to miss many of the words given to me by God, for my journey home! Trust me, there are a good number of lessons I’m getting from the book of Leviticus, but if I keep sharing them all at one time, none of us will ever get anything else done.
In all honesty, with the amount of writing I do on a daily basis, along with the studying of Gods word, applying it, and then sharing it with you in the Lobby, I simply can’t think beyond this right now!
I rise anywhere from 4 to 6 am, usually, and I begin my day with study and prayer. From there I will write my personal daily message, followed by the daily prompt. I’ve been told that I talk a lot, and therefore, I also write a great deal! I make attempts at reading as many of my followers articles as possible, as well as, commenting and responding to anyone in the Lobby.
What you may not know is that I write for several more hours each day, between my novel and several other literary projects I work on. My site numbers show that in the last year I’ve written enough words to fill approximately 4 to 5 novels, so that’s a lot of writing. In the past, I’ve read more books than I can even remember… but I wasn’t writing like I am currently.
I have the desire to read all the time, but not the time for all thereading, if that makes any sense.
I know you might say, all work and no play makes Wiwohka a dull girl, but I already told you about my play, just the other day on a word prompt question, point in fact!
Will there be a time, in which I can feel the pleasure of diving into a delicious adventure, other than the ones I’m creating? I believe there will be… just not right now!
You might not think this is true, but I worry about reading others works, while I am working on my own, for fear of encountering cross contamination, if you get my meaning. While other writers may not concern themselves in this regard, this writer is still developing her technique, so I’m not there yet!
Yes, I tried to make myself look like Einstein in this prompt… and no, it didn’t turn out the way I thought it might, but that is neither here nor there! It did make me giggle, though!
Why did I go to all the trouble of making a picture of someone resembling this Scientist, you might be asking yourself, when this is supposed to be a Note To Self day? It’s just my quirky side, thinking that we all have our own level of Einstein, being born with brains of similar shape and size.
Sometimes life might make us feel like less than an Einstein, but I would wager to bet, if we all thought about it long enough, we could each come up with something very wise and knowledgeable to share with one another. I suppose that I could have made up a list of Note To Self sayings, by myself, but I talk to myself too much every day already, so I prefer to listen to the wise words of wisdom from others… within reason, of course.
What is the first thing we usually do when someone gives us a bit of advice or encouragement? Do we not ask ourselves, how does this person know this to be right and true? Usually, we look at that person’s life to determine the value of their words. I know that I do! Take the words of Einstein, that I’ve selected for my Note To Self #23…
“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” Albert Einstein
Everyone should be familiar with how brilliant and forward thinking this man was, so it needs no real explanation, as to the meaning behind his words. Knowing how much he contributed to science, as well as looking at his tireless efforts to learn and understand the world around him, adds weight and meaning to Einstein’s encouraging words.
You may not believe me, but I wrote this list of Note To Self cards, months ago, so I find it funny that this quote was before me this morning, after the last several weeks of Life Interruptus we’ve been living through. Talk about perfect timing for such needed encouragement!
Through all of this ugliness, there has also been beauty. From behind the caution cones of this current accident zone/road block, I see God’s progress, in and around us. With the plumbing inside this RV completely shattered, one might think it spelled the end of things for us, as we have no materials to completely repair the damages, currently. That means no hot water, no shower water, no toilet water… just one faucet that now feeds water to us, until the other half of the pipes get replaced. It has been several weeks now, without a fully working water system, and we just discovered that the only way to complete the repairs is to fully rip the entire shower out, cutting into the floor beneath it to access the heart of the damage.
My first reaction to this news, was not one of my better reactions, probably making my husband feel even worse than before. Not my finest moment! Here is where the quote of encouragement came in handy! Our shower has been in need of work for some time, having come loose from its wall screws from time, as well as, from all the movement that occurs within an RV every time you drive it on the roads. While I could look at this as a nightmare, I’ve decided that it is, in truth, a good thing… my shower will get fixed!
There are other things God is actively doing within our lives, but I will wait until another time to share them. As I see things that might happen in the near future, I have learned not to jump the gun, as they say. It’s like that beautiful package sitting under the Christmas tree that you know is yours, but you have to wait til the right time before you can open it. The fun and excitement come from the waiting, hoping and dreaming that we do, in anticipation of our Christmas Morning surprise!
For now, Einstein will win the day with his meaningful words! While we may be in the heart of difficult experiences, I see God’s opportunities all around me… whenever I remember to Look Up! In every trial, every storm… there is an opportunity to find hope, joy and purpose, in all things!
I’ll be honest in saying that any prompt regarding family can be difficult for me, which anyone who knows me can say is true, having read my story.
That being said, I also told you yesterday that I am committed to answering each daily prompt with sincerity and honest effort. The only safe answer surfacing this morning, is Pajamas… and I will do my best to explain why.
I was born into a family that practiced a religion that forbade celebrating any secular holidays. This means no Birthdays, No Christmas, No Thanksgiving, No Valentines, No Mothers Day, No Fathers Day, etc. You should be getting the picture! The only traditions my family participated in and left in my memory banks, were ones that I’d rather not remember.
I wrote a story some time last year, regarding me trying to secretly create a Christmas tree next to my bed, on the eve of a holiday that everybody else got to celebrate except for me!
I made a point to do this tiny tradition for several years in a row, before eventually running away from home and leaving that life behind. I was approximately 11 years old when I left that place for the last time.
The reason I share this sad bit with you is because it is linked to the only good tradition that I hold dear to my heart, even now! Christmas has to be my absolutely favorite season, bringing with it an entire world of traditions shared by many… it is heartwarming, touching, and beautiful to me.
When I was 15 years old, living in a fostering facility that kept me hidden from my family, I got my first taste of what Christmas was, being given the opportunity to spend the holiday with a very wealthy family that did things up big for C Day, if you know what I mean… it was the most love I’d ever been given by anyone, and I’m not even talking about the gifts.
It was my first time feeling like someone had noticed the child that had been forgotten. They made me feel like I belonged there, instead of being treated like they were only babysitters. That experience started me on my journey of love with Christmas time.
I’d lived there about a year before a family, that volunteered at the home, took me home with them and fostered me for the next several years until I graduated high school and moved on. One of the things my foster mother did each Christmas morning was placing a brand new set of pajamas and a new pair of slippers, at the end of my bed. Honestly, you could have given me nothing else for a gift and I would still have been elated. There is nothing like the feeling of climbing into a pair of brand new, freshly laundered and folded pajamas… then follow that up with pulling on a fluffy soft pair of slippers to go with the jammies. To this day I have the same feeling, upon wearing a new pair of pajamas and slippers… utter bliss!
This is the one tradition that I can think of that I have always loved, continuing it’s practice with each of my three daughters, every year that they were growing… perhaps they now do this for their little ones, as well.
There ya have it folks… I answered the daily prompt, without getting too far off track down rabbit holes resting in the ditches of my memory lane.
Here, have a cookie…
I left two choices because I don’t know what everyone wears…
If we make fun of him, that would be such a shame!
Whilst I was playing in my GenCraft AI art studio, searching for new characters to invite into my barnyard menagerie, it accidentally gave me this adorable baby. He seems to be a cross between a squirrel and a dragon, hence the name I gave him… Squagon! Don’t judge, because both Tilly and Dinky came up with it!
I was planning on making up a different name later on, after those two piped down about the goofy name, but once Brutus got wind of the agon part, there was no going back!
I’m trying to create several lines of children’s books that have unusual, yet adorable creatures… with their own little lives and adventures taking place every time they leave the yard. Tilly was so much fun to write that I added Dinky next, though it hasn’t been seen yet. For some reason, I wanted at least 3 new friends to share my barnyard, eventually welcoming in Tilly, Dinky, and Brutus. Actually, I first discovered Squagon, while fine tuning my descriptors with the AI, to help me create Dinky.
Somewhere in the AI’s pool of imagination came some past suggestion of a squirrel, jumping into the mix of my request for a dragon… go figure! One can say that this was a Happy Accident! The crazy thing is that most of my best literary work has felt akin to this accident… and he definitely makes me feel Happy!
The barnyard is an explosion of cuteness overload, from all my new ideas and discoveries, which are mostly just oopsies that happened, while working with the AI on other articles. I love it when happy accidents come together!
In honesty, I don’t yet know if the name will stay as such, but I have to wait for Brutus to stop running around the yard, singing ” You say Squagon but I say Dragon… Squagon Dragon, Squagon Dragon”… honestly, he’s gone round the bend! Either that or I have…
I know we have seen this question recently, in several other forms, which makes us question whose manning the prompt desk. I surmise that we are in the hands of an AI program, that does its best to generate questions, while not grasping enough about what the question asks, to recognize its own repetitiveness.
This newest remake of the other recent prompts, gives me the perfect opportunity to answer the prompt… again… without repeating my previous answers. Everyone visiting my lobby should get a clear picture of the type of Writer/Christian/Woman/Barrel of Laughs I consider myself to be, most days. You never know, for sure, which one you will see on any given prompt. The reason for this wacky, fly by the seat of my pants style of writing, is because, point in fact, writing IS my leisure!
When you see the things I write, they are the result of my prayer, my study, and my fully transparent life… my joy is from sharing my world with you, each time you visit the Lobby.
I committed myself to answering each and every prompt this year, regardless of what the question is, so I had to consider the reality of repeats, stalker probes, and nosy Prompt neighbors. In order for me to write freely, and without a moody attitude, I’ve opted to approach each prompt, with leisure… taking my time in restructuring the question however I choose, to make it fresh and real for my friends. There is no rule book for how to answer prompts, nor is there any penalty for turning it for my pleasure… it’s my leisure… my website… and my literary box to open and share with anyone wishing to stop in and visit.
I will confess, however, in the realm of work that one also considers leisure, I am not above burn out! Even if it is pleasurable to write at such an intensive pace, after a long day of writing, my brain actually feels overly fatigued, yet still firing on all cylinders! You might laugh at this, but crazy video games are the only way for me to disconnect, fully, long enough to bring my brain and body to a place of calm and blissful rest… I call it the Numbing!
If I don’t take a break now and again, to ride around the desert on my faithful companion Brodie, shooting imps, evil pirates and slave traders… well, I’m fairly certain that I would eventually begin looking at my writing as nothing more than work. I love what I do enough to maintain a balance of required play and leisure play… I love them both.
Be grateful that I write and play this way, or you might tire of the same old cookies day in and day out…
The pitter patter of rain falling upon the roof, was my morning wake up call today, drawing me from my dreams somewhere around 5:30 a.m.
Typically, I don’t sleep more than 4 to 5 hours a night, waking up anywhere from 2 to 4 a.m. in the blackness of night. I am one of those sleepers that gets her best rest, somewhere between not to light or dark, and not too loud or quiet… it’s maddening, to be quite honest!
Growing up on the streets began my nocturnal confusion, wandering through the dark most nights, in search of a safe place to catch a few winks. This unusual habit was followed closely, in my adult years, by the night owl behavior required by parenthood; raising tiny humans is a pretty taxing job for both mom and dad. Completing the circle of my love/hate relationship with sleep, lay the mind of an overthinker! Once the brain gets poked, whether it is from the outside environment or a dream, there is no shutting it back off… I finally learned to just get up!
Anyway, this is how my nights usually play out, though recently, I’ve started having random days of a solid 4 to 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Don’t let this get out, but I have actually had a couple of nights where I slept for a full 8 to 10 hours, and it wasn’t because of being sick, which is normally the only way I get that many zzz’s. It’s really not that big of a deal, but as I noticed how much better I feel from the added rest, it made me wonder what might have caused the change.
One would think that a higher stress level, brought about by heavy storms in our life right now, would make sleep impossible for this overthinker. Currently, we are only half way to finishing the rebuild, of literally every one of the RVs internal water pipes, which shattered from the intensely low temps of the recent deep freeze. This unpleasant reality, among a large number of other storms, raging around us right now, should be turning me into some strange form of Naked Mole Rat that bites anyone approaching.
I’m sure that many of you noticed my strained writing, of late, as it has been a bit emotionally charged, to say the least. I pray your forgiveness, if I have reflected poorly, God’s faithfulness to us, in these circumstances. Rest assured that while you may see some blips on my writing radar, God is definitely here in the Lobby, carrying me through the parts of the storm that are too much for me to bear.
As the maelstrom rages and blows all around us, here at the center of it all, I am at peace!
God has been undoing me, storm by storm! It seems that I have begun to write better, stronger and deeper… the louder the squall! I know I told you that I had challenged myself to start writing live every day, in order to break the habit of editing my own work before writing it down. I wonder if this change has freed my mind, allowing God to empty my brain onto the page more freely, thereby, relieving the literary traffic jam inside my head. Honestly, I don’t know exactly what that even means, now that I’ve said it!
All I can say is that I have felt more akin, recently, to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who stood in the furnace, where they should have been consumed by the intense flames. But… there was another within the fire along side these three men… a 4th! I am never in the fires of this world without Him who has overcome the world, leading me through. Instead of getting a writers block, due to the pressure of the storm, it appears that God has given strength to the literary waters that feed my Wiwohka side.
As the pipes in this old RV finally burst and gave way, due to wear and tear, accompanied by too many severe temperatures… so too have my old habits, bad habits, and just plain lazy habits.
God is completely restructuring my spiritual, emotional, as well as, physical pipes. He has begun replacing the old with the new, flooding my system with fresh, living water! From now on, I get to sport the new and improved pipes that have a 100% money back guarantee, never to break again, even in the worst of storms! Everything God has ever repaired or replaced for me, has come with this guarantee; there have not been any failures or malfunctions on His part yet, so I don’t anticipate any problems with this newest installment of equipment.
Somehow, through all of the intense wind and turbulent waters surrounding us right now, I am actually halfway through writing the book of my dreams! I no longer care or worry about anyone’s approval, aside from Gods whispered, “Well done child, I think it is beautiful!” If I get my Fathers thumbs up, then I’m good! God has been showing me that to write is a gift, and I should not waste it…
I guess we can all consider this note I wrote for you, as sort of a pep talk for all of us. It was important to me that I acknowledge, and apologize for letting my emotions get the best of me for a few of my entries, of late. I truly care about all of you, not wishing for you to be affected by my words, in any unhealthy way.
That being said, I do wish to encourage you, with all of what God IS doing in and around my life… the good stuff, not just the bad and the ugly that the world offers. Raising my daughters, I always tried to wrap guidance and/or discipline between two pieces of Gods love and encouragement. Guess whose example I learned that one from?
I’ve not seen any pictures yet, but I’ve heard that the streets are paved with Gold! While it is far more than an attraction, or similar to any town ever built, I am packed and ready to go to the place prepared for me! Though it may seem so far away, at times, it couldn’t be closer! The only thing I had to pack was my spirit, as my room has already been fully furnished … go figure!
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:3
Bloganuary writing prompt
Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.
This child will be found standing at the ready, because Home is just one step away…
This world holds nothing in comparison to my true home…
Sometimes music can sing what my heart feels better than any words I might type. These songs should sufficiently reflect the place near to me, and though I’ve not been there yet, I am on my way home to the very place that the prompt asked about. So, Heaven is my answer. Your Welcome!
This child of God wishes to share my cookie with you…
Journey With Me! 