One would think that being able to give a simple sincere “I’m Sorry”, would be easy peezy! Not nowadays!
When I was growing up, I learned through grown ups and public school, how I was supposed to apologize when I gave offense. Just say you are sorry and try not to repeat the negative behavior.
Gone are those days, I fear…
Now, when someone offends another, they make every effort to give an extensive excuse as to why they did or said whatever it was that was so bad, and push the blame onto another… most often the one who was offended!
If anything comes out of our mouth after the words “I’m Sorry”, often it reflects that we are not really sorry for the offense, but rather, sorry that we have to say we are sorry… if you get my drift.
It would be so refreshing if we could begin, once again, teaching our children to just say I’m sorry when they err in some way. If they can see that making mistakes is human, and no one is perfect… perhaps they would grow up in a society where they can take ownership of their own actions… the good, the bad, and the ugly.
We grown adults need to step up and make a better effort to instill the things our young ones need to survive this life. When it comes to teaching the art of “I’m Sorry”, we simply have to practice it… in front of our kids! There is absolutely nothing better to do, as a grown adult parent, than to say we’re sorry when we mess up with our kids… show them that we too mess up, and can be brave enough to admit our error.
While I cannot say I wish to think back on my own childhood to answer this prompt, I will refer to my own children when they were little, as those are much happier examples.
One of the best things about being a child at heart, I think, is the ability to have such a vivid imagination… about everything… they were so gullible!
I had more fun playing tricks and practical jokes on my girls… hey, don’t judge! As a parent, we come to understand very early on that the job is a thankless one, and any form of good hearted fun that brings us pleasure, is worth the effort!
I did everything from planting fake Magic Christmas trees, to get them to clean their rooms, to convincing my youngest daughter that if she stood in front of the Christmas tree and sang “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth”, she would get a very special visit from both Santa Mouse AND the Tooth Fairy… she actually sang it like three or four times before going to bed just to make sure she had done enough. When they got up the next morning to open stockings, there was a small ribbon on the front of the tree, and when she pulled it, a whole string of tiny toys and treats emerged from within the branches of the tree, where I had stashed them.
Priceless!!!
I guess that’s the sort of stuff that came to mind when I saw the prompt. It’ll have to do…
You’ll have to bake em real quick… and add your own m&ms… it was too early for all that effort, as I would rather just sit her and sip my coffee while giggling about the time we made the kids believe that the Easter Bunny had been in the house while we slept.
I will take things one day at a time as they come, but as far as I see from my first appointment with this new specialist, I’m not crazy and there is for sure something going on. Beyond acknowledging there being a problem, there is not much we know, as of yet. But this doctor seems ready to tackle things, and has begun tests for some better answers. That is more than anyone has ever been willing to try yet. If he is up to the task, then I am too.
One of the things he may have discovered, oddly enough, is a growth up under my armpit. He believes it to be a Lipoma or fatty tumor resting on the area that gets blood and circulation to my arm… which I find hilarious.
I am sort of smallish, as I walk 6 miles on a trail most days… and they’re telling me that I have managed to somehow stash a pocket of fat somewhere? How absurd! You mean to tell me that I have been shoving tons of calories in this body to keep up with my walking and my own body was holding out on me? I could have used that fat on several occasions, thank you very much!
Anyway, I guess there are multiple things going on within this body, and it will take a bit of work to figure things out, but I am actually fine with this… at least someone believes me when I say that I am in pain… constantly… have been for as long as I can remember. I am unable to take any form of pain management any longer, as too many years of differing drugs did their damage.
Due to all the years of stuff and things, I am no longer able to take any medications via my stomach… she’s shot! Somewhere about two years ago, I had to sit down and have a serious heart to heart conversation with both my roommates… IBS and Fibro. We had to make the desperate and risky decision to cut out all modern medicine… cold turkey, though I would not suggest this for anyone, as I nearly died doing it this way.
In approximately six months time, I lost over 100 lbs, nearly all my hair fell out, and I slept nearly 16 hours a day, having lost any desire to get out of bed at all. It was nothing out of the usual for me to go weeks at a time without ever bothering to shower. I lay in bed watching rerun after rerun of Forensic Files of all things. Those days were dark indeed!
Looking back on that time seems like a bad dream of someone else’s horrible life, but it was only me on a desperate journey of survival. Through the Grace of God alone folks, did I make it here today.
With all the ugly of those days, slowly fading away into distant memories, I will once again seek medical help, diligently making efforts to have a bit of faith… maybe not in people yet, but in God’s ability to make a way where there once was none.
While I am still of a mind to trust no one in the human kindness department, I am aware that they are still out there, and I trust God so that’s a start, right?!
I have a toilet needs fixing, a car that won’t run, and currently no heat… so I am feeling pretty practical at the moment.
I am being fully serious, as a matter of fact, because I have a hard time dealing with an imaginary friend, when my toilet isn’t working well… this is not the Four Seasons we’re running here, it’s an RV!
Besides, there really isn’t anything that a Genie can do to really fix anything. Haven’t we all seen enough movies about these guys to know that it always ends up messy. What we thought we wanted didn’t end up with the ending we had first imagined.
You know I will end up talking about Jesus here… this IS me we are talking about. I will just say that He is the only one I have ever had the opportunity to read or hear about that did wondrous things… water into wine, feeding the five thousand, healing the sick, and bringing the dead back to life… it is hard for me to take anyone else serious in the magic department.
I am now preparing to get up and do the Blanket Burrito Shuffle over to my very magic bean processor and enjoy some very magic coffee, so I will share some… along with some warm accoutrements for us all to enjoy on this brisk Tuesday Mornin…
Ok… before I mention what’s going on this week in the lobby, I just gotta get something off my chest.
IT IS FREEEEEEEEEEEEEZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have spent the last 4 nights hovering around 31 degrees, and when I say hovering… I mean hovering. I have been lost in a crazy dream of sleeping balled up in bed like a potato bug for long brutal nights, followed by sitting cocooned in layers of blankets and hoodies for the daytime hours, trying to type and unthaw my fingers simultaneously. This cold snap showed its face smack dab in the middle of us gutting the interior of our RV to lay a new floor. Guess what this means… no working heaters… yay us! What doesn’t freeze us to death will make us stronger, at least I decided they used to say this sort of thing back in the day.
Well… enough said about that!
This week is not a big thing for writing stuff, as tomorrow is Halloween, so everyone will be out celebrating throughout the day. Remember… we don’t have to eat all the candy at once, and if we play our cards right, some of us may be able to pay our rent after exchanging our candy with the dentist. I plan to start knocking kind of late, so that people will simply be to tired of handing out candy to look, too closely, at the woman on her knees pretending to be Baby Yoda… what… I could you know!
Ok, joking aside, have an awesome day tomorrow, and be safe everybody.
There is a new chapter in My Truths available in the lobby, for anyone interested.
Live Novel Friday continues with another chapter of Brutus.
Saturday is another edition of Note To Self and Sunday is more on the life and times of Moses in another edition of Live Wire.
Be sure to stick around for a potluck filled with foods to sooth our candy soured stomachs. Don’t ask me what kinds of things to bring, as I have no idea… so please suggest some things to help a girl out.
As I sit here writing this, I am in my mid 50’s and things today look a whole lot different from the way they looked when I was a child… including how I see God, how I see myself, and how I look at and understand the Bible. It has been a long and unforgettable journey, to say the least.
Something I find interesting about the Bible, is how I can read the same passage multiple times throughout my life, and get something completely different out of it each time. Others have said this, as well, so I know I’m not crazy. I think it means that not only is the Bible an incredible book, but my heavenly Father is pretty darn smart!
As a small girl, the only pictures of God that I had, came from skits and movies depicting mans idea of how things happened in biblical history.
When I first believed, I was just 18… so young, so sure I had things figured out. I was certain that if I read all of the Bible, I could make better sense of the world… so off I went to Bible Seminary for a full year of life changing study. We went through the whole thing… all of it!
As life unfolded and the years went by, I found myself caught up in every Bible in a Year reading plan, still trying to make sense of it all… sometimes finding peace and understanding of things… sometimes not.
Funny thing about the word of God is… no matter where we are on our life’s journey, it is always applicable to where we are at that time, in some shape or form. Life forces our perspectives to shift and sometimes change, in ways we never saw coming.
I know that I have had enough education and life history to fully take folks on a very informed and educated journey through the word of God, but that is not who I am… not my style. Why? Truthfully, I am wise enough to understand, after all these years, I still am no closer to complete understanding than when I began. How can I be sure that what I try to teach is, in fact, the correct answer? Besides, I don’t feel like doing someone else’s homework, that’s why! What I mean is that while I like to share thoughts and insights with you, regarding my journey, it is just that… mine… not yours, as that is for you to share.
And… let’s all not forget that even with all that education, I still managed to perform quite a Kerfuffle of my life, so I certainly hope you didn’t think I had stuff figured out. Along this line of thinking, I suspect that perhaps my own painful family mistakes, were to play a part in why I see Moses story the way I do this time around my reading of Exodus.
I suppose that my mind, nowadays, always looks right through the ugly mess of things, seeking to better understand the heart of man, in all of it. Otherwise, I think we would all simply find each other disgusting and evil… leaving no room for grace, mercy and forgiveness, all of which are fueled by LOVE!
I set aside my soap opera skew of the situation, as I delved into this part of the bible. I realized pretty rapidly, that I was going to have to put all my scholarly school caps on and hoof it into some ACTUAL Ancient Egyptian and Israelite history archives. I learned way back in Seminary that Context is a vital part of reading, studying and applying the word of God.
Before I can have an insight, with both wisdom and clarity I must grasp what it was really like at the time of Moses birth… laws, traditions, and history of all involved.
I viewed some of my questions next to the Torah… as well as balancing it with insights from other Well known theologians. In all of it, I keep in mind that I am utilizing Google, who can be a fickle friend when it chooses. I will handle the search engines with kid gloves as I continue my research.
I have discovered a great deal about birth, infant care, and ancient traditions regarding a baby’s first few years. I feel pretty confident in my idea that traditionally, mothers of that time, regardless of whether they were Egyptian or Israelite, ALL nursed their babies for approximately 2 to 3 years of age minimum… sometimes as long as 4 to 5 years of age, depending on where I read.
I also came to understand that there is a mixed pot of understanding as to whether the two midwives were even Hebrew, but quite possibly they may have been Egyptian midwives who converted. I ended up down a rabbit hole of who was who, for several hours, and then decided it wasn’t worth arguing over. The important thing in my mind, is that those woman chose to obey God over their Pharaoh… bottom line.
As far as whether Pharaoh knew that Moses was Hebrew early on, is also being tossed back and forth with the scholars. What my take away is here, is that I am pretty sure that a good number of people knew, some articles even suggest his family kept in contact with him, even after he moved into the palace.
What does all of this stuff mean… what did I get out of it… what’s my insight?
People see what they want to see… when WHAT they see… is NOT what they want to see…
Sometimes this is good and works in ones favor, but often it does not turn out so well… not at all like we were sure it would.
However we wish to look at this story, for whatever her reasons, Moses mother put him into that basket, and for whatever her reasons, Pharaohs daughter took him as her son. Facts are facts!
No matter what his attitude was, the Pharaoh allowed Moses to live in the palace as his grandson. We also know that Pharaoh tried to kill his grandson, causing Moses to flee into the desert. Family bonds were destroyed, and even to this day the same thing holds true for me… fact is fact, and the why’s here just don’t matter. What does matter, for me, is believing that God saw everything happening and had things well in hand, as we see further down the road in the Israelites story…
That is for another time though, as I have been rambling now for a good bit. For today, I want to leave you with a song by Elevation Worship titled What I see and it seems to line right up with my heart this morning. I hope you take a listen before we head to the tables for some Fall Festival Delights…
Just as the wordprompt question keeps doin, I too will continue to walk off after starting a conversation.
I had planned to write a whole play on words using that song, These Boots Were Made For Walkin. There were a good many rhymes in there too, but alas… it’s Sunday, and I am too lazy and comfortable inside all my cozy blankets to work it out.
In answer to the prompt this morning, as you already know, I enjoy walking as my favorite way of stretching the ole muscles every day.
In honor of the squirrels I feed peanuts to each day when I am out walking, here, have a peanut…
Journey With Me! 