Tag: dailyprompt

Comfort you say….

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL…

LOLOL…

Ok, I am finished laughing at the thought of comfort…

Seriously, I only laughed at the thought of trying to make comfort out of the level of poverty we have come through and the continued clawing effort my husband puts in, ALONE, to try and pull us out of the pit that life’s circumstances put us in…

In truth, it has been the BEST horrible, exhausting, devastatingly painful journey EVER! At least for me, that is…the learning to let go of things I thought were so important, things I thought I HAD to have…

With those days far distant from the here and now, we are incredibly comfortable… you know why… because we spent so long and still do sometimes, having to choose between toilet paper or laundry quarters… that’s the real stuff of life. But it is not a complaint I want to leave anyone with… it is encouragement!

When things seem so incredibly impossible, that’s the place where God ALWAYS shows up… I have never gone even one day without some form of edible food. My husband and I live to the best of our ability, to appreciate each and everything we receive, and we care for it more so because we do not have the assurance that it can be easily replaced… ergo our refrigerator debacle.

And let me tell you, when you go without your creamer for a week and have to smile through black coffee, for me this is borderline criminal behavior… When that creamy French Vanilla swirls magically as you pour it in, you are as excited as a kid at the gate to Disneyland.

My point is this… if we try too hard to focus on what will make us more comfortable, we waste a lot of beautiful opportunities to appreciate the One who provides everything that we enjoy. We are also more likely to argue with Him when we are expected to share with others in need.

I highly doubt that even I would feel brave enough to ask this gentleman what strategies he uses to increase his comfort…

Maybe I should just guess and show up with a few things that might help…

**P.S. Let’s leave these cookies here just in case there is anyone out there who reads this post and really could use a virtual hug (cookie)…

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future..."   Jeremiah 29:11

My excitement comes from not having to figure this ole world out myself. The One who came before me, has prepared the way home for me… I need only look up and follow the path… whew!

I am excited because of each and every other soul that stops into this virtual lobby of mine. My future, until I get home, is here in this lobby with you sweet fellow journeyers… sharing love, encouragement, and hope. You might not think this to be a big deal, but for me it’s very important. If I am a part of the body of Christ, and my gifts are writing, and being empathetic to those who I encounter each day, well I guess you all are my church, and this lobby is where I serve God… by serving you… the only way I can… with love…

If you are ever in need of someone to just love you for YOU… please stop by for a chat or a read from my silly stories, and stay as long as you like… the door is always open, and I am only a whisper away…

No I am not a stalker, maybe just a shut in that talks way too much to squirrels… but my heart is as true as you will ever find… because it is not actually mine… I gave it to God and He upgraded it!

Sorry, that dog ate your cookies leg… just dry off the sticky part and I think it should still be ok…

When I was a small girl, we went on a camping trip with about 10 to 15 other families, up into one of the wild mountain ranges of this great country. I was young enough that I cannot place the where, but I remember it being remote, as we had pack mules and horses to ride into our camp. Said camp rested within an upper meadow between two mountain peaks. If my memory serves well enough, it took an entire day of horse back riding to arrive at our destination.

My family and all the others were avid hunters, fishers, and the like so it was a lively bunch of folks. There were a mix of extended family, church friends, and close neighbors within our small city of campers, and man were they organized… it looked like a military fort when they were set up! Large campfires within and around the sleep areas, cooking pits, and tents set up in fashions meant to house children in the center, and adults camped on the outer ring that encircled the little ones during the night.

The reason that I remember this particular trip more so than others is a funny, and somewhat insidious reason… This is where I learned that parents develop that funny gramma and papa sense of humor, by practicing on their children when they are too young to know any better.

This particular camping trip was at the height of the hunting season, and the Elk were absolutely huge that year; the tags given out had been generous, as the numbers were too high at that time. I want to say that the norm were 5 point bucks. Please don’t judge my ignorant wordage, as I was young, and I have not been hunting since then, so my memory is jaded. Big Big Antlers!

Anyway, it was night time around the fires, and the parents decided it would be a great idea to tell scary stories to the kids… right before bed… in the dark… in the mountains…

I think it started as a way to keep kids scared enough to not wander outside of their tents in the dark without a parent, maybe, but that was when the insidious part began… Cretans…

The story was about a Ghost Elk that haunted the ranges where we were camping… sorry, I can’t remember the story, the horror was too real… lol. Basically, they put us to bed, waited for us to fall nearly to sleep and then play acted like a huge elk with a big rack, hollering and scratching its antlers against our tents…

Which by the way… we were able to only see the antlers through the reflections caused by all those ridiculously big fires placed all around the camp… realization right now, tells me they built those fires for effect, the big Turd Blossoms…

They got their come uppins though, since nobody ended up getting much sleep that night. All the parents ended up having to sleep in our tents to stop all the cryin and bellyaching…

***Lesson to learn here for parents is, with great power comes great responsibility… if you want to torment your children, You should always bring babysitters sillies***

Sorry if all I did with this picture was to make you hungry, but actually that works…

If you are hungry for knowledge, well then learn away friends. I simply used the pie picture as an analogy, if you will, for being Humble…

You know… humility, that thing that opens many doors in a world filled with selfishness, arrogance, and Pride… yeesh lady… lay off the HEAVY, right?!?

No worries, I have no intention of jumping onto some soap box to shout out crazy lady opinions. I basically saw the prompt question and thought, Hmmmm, I have taken a lot of said “PIES” in my face on the good ole walk of life, and it has sort of made me pretty good at bending a knee and letting God carry me through to the other side.

I got this definition off of Google:

Humility – freedom from pride or arrogance : the quality or state of being humble. accepted the honor with humility. The ordeal taught her humility.

Also found this off the computer:

The meaning of AUTHORITY is power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior.

I guess if I go off of the definition of Authority, I have power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior… IN MYSELF!

I will not go as far as to say that I have authority over others in this regard, simply my own attitude and behavior…

I know I made you hungry with the picture of the pie, so, here…

I even gave you milk this morning, see how much I love you…

Now that I have finished laughing at myself for some of the silly thoughts that flash through my brain…

Yup! Something as small as takin out the trash…

Hang on, I am just getting started so as not to let anyone off lightly…

Don’t leave yet… I know that you are thinking you know where I am going with this, but come on… it’s me… in the words of Castle, “It’s what I do!” Besides, you get a cookie at the end, so it is a win win.

Oh, come on, babies are cute Always, so this should be doable…

I chose a burger, not because I want to go out, but because I wanna cut a guy some slack if he ain’t got it in the food prep department… us girls just want to sit down for a hot minute, so if ya wanna chuck some frozen nuggets in the microwave, pop a beer, and squirt some ketchup in the broad vicinity of said nuggets, we good!!!

If you think I am going to be drawn and attracted to my man, based on works, well in this instance, YES! I say this because it is not the actual works at all, but if he is willing to be there in the dirty, tired, and hard times… well, then I feel Valuable to him. He will know me enough to know that my heart is held by attentive hands, not spendy ones!

See that wasn’t so bad…

Here, have a cookie…

I promised, remember…

So, I did the ole Google is our friend play for this prompt, just to see how helpful the www can be in seeing what the collective minds came up with, before I try to answer…

The first thing I typed was “ways to express gratitude”, and the first thing that popped up was a list of the top 10, and as I suspected, they were all actually words of action, or Verbish behavior…

• Write a letter
• Be an active listener
• take a mindful walk
• give a thoughtful gift
• start a gratitude journal
• be specific
• Offer your help
• Cook something you love

Lets break this list down a bit…

Ok, I gotta ask… who should I write a letter to and why…

I spend all day alone, for the most part so the active listener has to be loosely interpreted…

I do walk most days…

And I am not sure it fits here, as one may not consider it a thoughtful gift, but I have given away my coffee cup to a homeless person… with coffee and my favorite creamer still in it, so I am going to say it fits here…

I do actually keep a gratitude journal, and I do write in it, but I also do a lot of other writing… on the computer… in a journal… all over in my bible… Lets move on, as I am beginning to sound like a Doctor Seuss story…

Come on Google… Be specific??? How ambiguous is this? Be specific about what… where… when… who… and how… really?

My husband and I try to be consistently offer help to others, but as I am most often very secluded, my opportunities are limited, but certainly ready to be employed if someone is in need…

Cook something I love… hmmm… I got nothing here…

Overall, this list seems “alright” I guess… some pretty good suggestions here, though there were a few that have left me perplexed.

So, I changed the question a bit, by asking Google “ways to express gratitude from Scripture”. I got another list, shorter this time…

• Begin the day with thanks
• Thank Him in your worship
• Speak of all His benefits
• Thank Him as you read His word
• Thank Him for the hard things

Sorry Google, this one was just awful… The bible is not nearly as boring and ambiguous as you have tried to make it seem. This list has to be the laziest list for such a smart computer engine. This is it? Thank this and thank that… no action at all… maybe that is why the world seems to have an absence of love for ones fellow man, more often than not.

When I changed my question up to simply ask for a number of verses in the bible that use the word gratitude or write about being grateful or thankful, that was when the good ole www went nuts… it loves numbers. I am not even going to attempt to quote all of the different numbers thrown out there, but it is safe to say that the bible has a LOT to say about this subject.

Long story short, in an effort to answer the prompt question, I have come to an insight, for me, about how I express my gratitude.

It is you… It is this blog… this is my action, my verbage of Gratitude. When I write here on this site, telling my silly stories, offering virtual cookies (hugs), chatting and commenting on others written thoughts, this is my way of acting out my gratitude to God, for His protection, guidance, and grace for me. I share it with you…

You might be thinking that I am being funny, but not at all…

What one thing can be used to hold together all the education, determination, and drive to be a teacher? What is it that keeps the passion alive to serve tirelessly every day to instill wisdom, knowledge, and positive behavior in our young…

Underfunded, overworked, and bound with myriads of red tape from a government struggling to be in control of that which they have no business doing, in my opinion…

I figured it out, I think…

It’s LOVE…

I was just reading this yesterday and I figured I would share it with you, as it seems rather relevant to the daily prompt question…