In the early 1970’s my Grandpaw had a lake and a pond dug out on the farm in Looneyville. The lake was for fishing and swimming. The pond was for the cows to wade in and drink from.
He built a fish fry/barbecue pit pavilion next to the lake. The lake also had a T shaped dock.
I have wonderful memories of many barbecues, fish fries with family, friends and neighbors there and of summers canoeing, fishing and swimming in the lake with my cousins.
I think back now and realize how incredibly blessed we were. I thought we were poor, but have come to understand we were rich beyond measure.
So many times we think being “rich” means having lots of money and material possessions. We fail to recognize the true blessings God has given us. The most valuable blessings in life cannot be bought.
Love
Loyalty
Faithfulness
Friendship
Family
Generosity
Respect
Time Shared Willingly
Moments of Joy
Encouragement
Forgiveness
Acknowledgment
Affection
Prayer
Listening
May we be willing to give gifts of great value. Gifts that require more from us than what money can buy. Gifts that require God’s love, understanding and mercy. Gifts that require us to have a close relationship with God.
Before vascular dementia had weaved a web of confusion around Momma’s mind, she loved to share a Looneyville Sunday morning memory.
Dressed in shorts and sleeveless shirts Momma and Aunt Peggy were sitting on the front porch swing when a station wagon stopped in their dirt driveway. A tall dark-haired man dressed in a suit got out and came to the porch. They soon recognized him as Preacher Kesler of the Jefferson Holiness Church. He asks them “Would ya’ll like to ride with us to church?” His wagon was already filled with his wife and their children, but he was inviting them to ride along.
Momma and Peggy replied to him, “We ain’t dressed for church.” Preacher Kesler told them they were dressed just fine. God didn’t care what they wore to church. Despite her dementia diagnosis, Momma remembered this memory until a few years ago.
Preacher Kesler had a love for others and did not pick and choose who God would or would not accept. He did not care if you were poor or rich, young or old, or how you dressed. These actions were the reasons that she recalled that Sunday morning and all the subsequent Sunday mornings when she and Aunt Peggy attended church into adulthood.
When Preacher Kesler moved from the Jefferson Church to the Nicholson Church Momma and Peggy were married with homes and children of their own living back in Looneyville. They took us Looneyville children to church. All of us. They filled up whatever car they were driving and off to church we would go. Aunt Peggy didn’t work a public job so she made sure we went every Sunday morning, night and Wednesday night.
A wagon load of youngins. No seatbelts. No carseats. Only faith in God. Praying the love and protection of God over our lives. Planting the seeds of God’s word.
Load up your wagons my friends. Load up your wagons.
My brother DeWayne was known for his comedic talent. He could quickly respond with funny remarks. If Momma was mad about something and fussing and yelling, He could have her laughing in just a minute. Not me. If ever opened my mouth all I ever did was make her angrier. One day after he had calmed her down with one of his quick thinking remarks I ask him “How do you do that?” his reply was “You just have to remember Momma ain’t happy if she ain’t bitchin so don’t get yourself all bunched up.”
Now, I know some of you may find that word of advice a bit unsavory and unchristian. I admit it is yet; it holds a ton of truth.
We all know someone who is always fussing or complaining about something or someone. They are always unhappy. It seems as if they dwell on finding something wrong with everything and everybody. They love to be miserable. Sometimes we allow their attitude to affect us. The key as DeWayne said is “don’t.” There will always be negative, bitter, anger and unpleasant people in our lives. Some will be family, some co-workers, school mates, committee members, church members and even our own friends. In mine and DeWayne’s situation our Momma was not a person who chose to be miserable. She was simply a stressed working wife and mother. Many people, however, chose to continually live their lives in bitterness and contempt.
First, ask yourself – am I one of those people? Am I constantly complaining about something or somebody. I will be honest by nature I can be negative. All throughout the Bible many of the people God chose to use had been betrayed, abandoned, mistreated and forced to live incredibly hard lives. When God sent Moses to rescue the Israelites from slavery in Egypt you would have thought they would have been grateful. No! They were constantly fussing and complaining about this and that. Never satisfied. Because of their ungrateful hearts, negative attitude and words, they never saw the Promise Land.
Second, Ask do I want to live a life of promise and hope? Or are you content living in the desert of discontent and complaining?
1 I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. 2 I will glory in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. 3 Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together. Psalms 34
If we fill our hearts and mouths with worship and praise, it’s difficult to complain about everything. I must focus on this every day. When I pray, I ask God to bridal my tongue. I do, because I know how deadly it can be.
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord , my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalms 19:13
Do everything without grumbling or arguing, Philippians 2:14
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Colossians 3:16
We all have days when we are grumpy but choosing to be “Negative Nancy” all the time gets old to everyone around us. Choose joy. Choose thankfulness and remember the goodness of God everyday so you won’t be happy complaining.
I had struggled for years with a neurological disorder. The symptoms became worse with stress so I resigned from my position as a director at a local hospital.
The first two years at home were extremely challenging. No longer the ninety mile per hour driven woman I had always been I sank into a deep depression. The new medication I was taking made me sleepy and it wasn’t long until my weight began to climb. I mean I really blew up! My little 5’ 2” self got up to over two hundred pounds.
I was miserable! I couldn’t stand the thought of anyone seeing me. I wouldn’t go anywhere or talk to anyone. I just lay in bed watched television and surfed social media. My home in Looneyville had become a den of self-pity, hopelessness and envy.
It’s amazing how easy it is to get sucked into the “Am I?” torture tornado when scrolling through social media.
Everyone looks so happy and beautiful. Going on vacation here and there. Buying this and buying that. Perfect teeth, perfect kids and perfect spouses! Agh!!!!
The torture starts:
Am I ever going to have this …..?
Am I ever going to be…….?
Am I ever going to see…….?
Am I?
Am I?
Am I?
The wrong “Am I?”questions will drive you into a miserable state of discontent, resentment and anger. I know this from experience.
How can we keep the “Am I” tormentor defeated?
Be grateful!
Look around you.
Seriously, look.
You have things others can only dream about. You have accomplished successes in life others are still struggling to achieve.
In the book of 1 Samuel King Saul began to focus and fixate on David. His jealousy and envy of David blinded him. David was fighting for Saul, winning battles in the name of Saul, but all Saul could hear and see was the roar of the crowds shouting “Saul has killed his thousands, but David his 10,000’s!” His “Am I?” torment destroyed his life.
Focus on your relationship with God.
This can be hard.
Life has a way of stealing our time. Pulling us into a hundred different situations. It’s so easy to get caught up in emotions, battles of will and just plain survival mode.
God knows. He does, but He also is there with the Holy Spirit bidding for our attention and request for wisdom and direction.
Turn those “Am I?” torment questions into:
“Lord, show me…..?”
I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. Psalms 34:4
When we truly only desire what God wants in our lives our significant “AM I?” will be Am I pleasing you God?
In the 1960 ‘s it was uncommon in most rural homes to have central heating and air systems.
In Looneyville none of our houses had air conditioners in the summer. We would use boxed fans to stir hot air around just for a breeze of relief from the Georgia heat.
Screen doors with spring hinges allowed air to flow into the house and also served as a barrier to keep insects out of the house.
Most people had a spring on their door with just enough pressure to pull the door closed without great noise.
My Grandpaw on the other hand had a completely different approach to keeping unwanted pests out of his and Granny’s house. Their back door had a spring on it with enough power and pull it could slam you into February of the next year in the middle of July.
Lots of people had to go around yelling “shut the door you’re letting the flies in” at their house. Not Grandpaw! He kept keeping the flies out seriously! His screen door was full of enough spring power you couldn’t hardly get it open, much less hold it open if you even tried it felt like you were being pushed backwards by a thousand pounds.
Do we take what we allow into our mind, heart and body seriously? How strong is the spring on the screen door of the house of our spirit.
Is it loose and stretched out? Can someone or something hold it open far enough to let a whole swarm of flies of doubt, wasp filled with stings of fear and other creatures determined to steal our peace come right in?
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” Proverbs 4:23
We had heard and read this scripture many times but how serious do take the instruction?
I struggle with depression. I have for years. I tried for years to try and be “happy.” Just pray and trust the good Lord I was told by others. I am sure they meant well but the truth is swatting down the flies of the enemy requires more than just prayer.
After years of struggling I now know constantly have to say to myself “close the door you’re letting the flies in.” If I don’t keep check on the spring of the door to my thoughts by reading God’s word, resting, praying and fellowship with close godly friends I would have a back door that stayed wide open all the time. Leading to depression and anxiety constantly.
Our thoughts and heart need a powerful spring. The power of the Holy Spirt lives within you. He is the strongest barrier to Satan’s attacks against our minds.
“And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. “ Romans 8:27
We have an interceder. We have someone working on your behalf.
“The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. “ Exodus 14:14
You have a guard and a protector. So keep that door closed and don’t let the flies in. Be like my Grandpaw and take keeping your house pest free seriously. You have everything you need in His word! Just call upon the name of the Lord and place an order for a heavy duty spring!
Nothing is more humbling than to see your picture on the front of the Bad & Busted especially when you have been a minister of the word of God for years.
I found myself in this very situation a few years ago, not once, but twice. Drinking and driving. Me in my sixties an ordained minister, wife, mother and grandmother.
How did I get to such a low point after all God had blessed me with? Simple really, I began to believe the lies of Satan.
O I began to believe because of a doctor’s diagnosis my life was over. I began to believe because my children had grown up and left home I had no life. I believed my husband did not love me, never had and never would. I began to believe I was a failure. I became convinced I had no hope and no future.
Have you ever felt any of these feelings? If so, I want to tell you Satan is a liar. He comes to kill, steal and destroy. He wants to kill your hope. Steal your joy and destroy your dreams for victory In Jesus Name.
If you are struggling don’t isolate yourself! Don’t cut yourself off from praying friends. Don’t be ashamed. PM me I will be there to pray for you.
A Today after eating lunch I rode with Bre to the Costco down in Oconee County. You know where all the stores THAT use to be in Athens moved. Oh my word!! The parking lot looked like the Atlanta Airport! There was at least 1000 cars there and 1500 – 2000 heathens running around in Costco acting like they was giving away stuff for free! By the time me and Bre finally got out of there we couldn’t even remember where we had parked at! Unfortunately, unlike the Atlanta airport Costco did not have the parking rows alphabeticalized! The wind was blowing like a South Georgia tornado lifting the boxes we had in our shopping cart out throwing them everywhere. Bre don’t weigh 90 pounds wet hardly. Here we are running through the parking lot – me and my big self trying to hold on to the buggy why she is chasing down the boxes and pressing the alarm for the car. Suddenly we hear a woman screaming out and waving “Y’all right here! Rit here!” She looked at me and said “I can’t never find my car unless I bring my teenagers with me either!” Bah ha ha ha 🤣 Bre just laughed knowing she is 34 years old! 😜 As they say “we may not make a lot of money, but we always have a lot of fun!”
I enjoy the art of hand embroidery. It is a favorite hobby of mine. I love the challenge of pulling together stitch after stitch of various colors to create beauty.
The work can be tedious and I must admit I do as much unstitching as I do stitching in order to make sure all of the stitches are uniform in shape. If a stitch is not the right length, if it is angled incorrectly or if it’s not tight enough to lay flat unstitching must be done.
It takes time, persistence and practice to master the skill of hand embroidery. You don’t become a master of the craft overnight and even the most skilled stitchers still make mistakes.
Hand embroidery is much like our Christian walk with Christ. When we start out we don’t know everything about God and His word overnight. It takes time spent in His word and time learning about His word to grow in our knowledge of Christ and God’s ways.
If we are persistent in our Christian walk we will keep “stitching “ even when we have set backs. When doing embroidery often we make a mistake and have to remove a stitch and redo it.
In our Christian walk we will make mistakes because we are human. We will sin, we will fail but we unstitch that sin by confessing it to God. We ask for forgiveness resolving in our hearts not to keep sinning (1 John 1:19). When we have “unstitched” the fail we don’t stop stitching; “NO,” we dust ourselves off and keep on serving Jesus just like Peter did.
Peter failed Jesus not just one time but three times before the rooster crowed (Mark 16:66-72). Afterwards Peter wept bitterly with remorse and grief for his fail, but he did not stay wallowing in condemnation. He met up with the disciples, had a life encounter with Jesus and then was later filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:8-12). Peter kept on stitching!
The more we practice the word of God in our daily life the stronger and more “skilled” we will grow in faith, hope and the joy of the Lord.
Does this mean we will never have a fail? No, but because we have spent time in the word, been persistent in our determination to keep serving God and our practice of God’s word; we will know by faith we can trust God because we have seen Him restitch and put our life back together so many times we have no doubt we can trust Him.
We may not be able to hold a colorfully stitched cloth work of art in our hands at the end of our life, but if we have lived God’s word there will be beautiful souls touched and delivered by Christ through the stitches of our faithfulness and love.
January’s cold weather spurs a hungry desire in me for Progresso’s Tomato Basil Soup. It is my favorite winter comfort food.
There are so many different food combinations you can pair with tomato soup. If you were to poll random people each would name various food choices to go along with their tomato soup.
Crackers are always a crunchy easy partner. No cooking or heating required just open a box of your favorite brand and proceed.
Grilled cheese sandwich is a hot çheesy delight! It only takes a few minutes to cook up a good grilled cheese sandwich while your soup is warming for the perfect meal.
Cornbread is a southern favorite. A warm moist delicious mixture of cornmeal, buttermilk and oil. Cornbread, if you make it yourself requires extra work, but you will have enough for more than just yourself. A pan of cornbread allows you to feed many.
One thing all three of these side foods have in common is they can all be considered a carb or bread.
In John 6:35 Jesus declares,“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
When we are saved and washed in the blood of Jesus then we are considered “covered in the blood of Jesus.” Now since we are let’s consider this analogy. What if we compared the tomato soup to the salvation we received through Jesus’ death. What we choose to partner with our salvation is up to us.
Some pick the easy “cracker.” ‘I’ll take my kids to church on Sundays but I’m not going to get all crazy caught up in this Jesus stuff!”
Some might choose the “grilled cheese.” “Y,all I serve on the church finance committee, volunteer at the senior center and pay my tithes. I am thankful for my salvation so I don’t mind a little work but don’t expect me to be welcoming the homeless, visiting any prisons or loving people who disagree with me!”
Some will choose to bake some “cornbread.” “I once was lost but now I’m found. Let me tell you what my Jesus has done for me!”
We should take our children to church. We should support our church but let’s not forsake to share the “bread of life” who died for our salvation. Share the love of Jesus. Reach out to the lost, the hurting and those who are outcast. Be the good Samaritan in someone’s life.
What has Jesus done for you? Share your cornbread.
For Real, Elaine?! 