Why Didn’t we believe more when it mattered?

Natasha's says she is not afraid of anything, except Donald trump.
The kids in her class are mixed as to whether he should be president or not. the boys are Macho and think his actions are "manly" and cool. The girls are a bit more reticent. The one thing clear is their parents mostly fear the out come of  this election.

 Being Aware of the Danger...

We went to a “Fright Night” offering held at  Magnolia Plantation last Halloween.. It was set for kids, the usual skeletons, movie serial killers, chain saws and mad scientists and candy. Natasha and her two sidekicks, Jordan and Gabby were mesmerized.

By the lights, costumes. They couldn't wait for the train ride. It promised chills and thrills, and lots of delicious scares. 

The bravest of all of us was 7-year-old Jordan. She took it all in stride and did not scream once, not even when Jason (Friday the 13th)  tried to chop her head off with a chainsaw. She grabbed my arm, flinched; as soon as he had moved on to his next hapless victim: she was hanging out the train looking for more surprises.

Jordan

At seven, she has learned how to cope with the unexpected better than most. Alternatively, was she prepared because she knew something was coming, just not what: and she was ready.

Catastrophic Events, How did this happen? 

A friend on Facebook posted she had lost  her job. They had shut the door fired her, without warning, Just like that! She was out. No Fair, with a capital “F”

She was going to lose her house, and had not any way of saving it now. Her power was off.

Now. this friend works for a company that I, myself, had given fifteen years to, I knew how their management and separation policy worked: I had fired associates myself.

How many times were you warned?

So I wrote back and asked her if she had not had meetings with the managers, warning this was a possibility?  Didn’t your immediate supervisor speak with you?

Moreover, of course in the end she had, for six months she had been warned of lateness and absences, shoddy work. Nevertheless, she needed her job; they should not have fired her knowing she was losing her house. Why didn’t they cut her a break?

Nothing is going to happen, 

We all do this at times, believing the worse could not happen to us. Therefore, we ignore bills, and only have listen to people who warn us of upcoming situations.  One day they wake up and fine themselves, retired without retirement income (I can start to save next year).

or on  the beach during a thunderstorm, on the roof of your house after a tornado (I did not believe it would be that bad)

Losing your license from a DUI or caught texting while driving. I did not think they would really take the time to enforce such a stupid law.

Sometimes we ignore warnings because they are too terrible to believe. You wait to go to the doctor, fearful of the diagnosis

I do it. I read about the terror in Israel, the bombings, the stabbing and I think “can this be real?” I talk myself into believing it is not until it suddenly appears on the nightly news. Did they ignore it to until it was too late and they had to say something?

Then I think about World War 2. There were hints, stories coming out of Europe. The same with Vietnam, Rwanda and others. Backs were turned, could not possibly be. However, it was. When we finally faced it: it was far worse than we ever dreamed.

We believe there is nothing we can do..

Sometimes we ignore warnings because we think there is nothing we can do.

There is. We can write our congressional representative.  We can do a communication with all of the upper powers, its called prayer.

Prayer?

One day we will stand beside those persecuted people. Also people we have hurt, talked about, failed.

They will tell us horrible stories of suffering and pain, and as we cringe, they will tell us of miracle brought by prayer, performed by God.

On that day, we will cry out, why did we not pray more? Why did we not listen more? Why did we not believe in pray when it mattered?  We will weep until our Savior ends our tears.

Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3, we will not heed the warnings of the judgement. We will not take heed to the warnings given to us. We will once again become as Sodom and Gomorrah. Well that we have done, in so many ways on so many levels.

In this day of school shootings, mass murders, political conflict, God is not ignoring us or turning a blind eye. He is giving us time to bring in believers so that all my see eternity. It is not his wish for any to perish but that we all come to repentance.

So.........

So, let us rediscover the basics. Prayer. Bible reading, loving your neighbor, faithfulness and repentance, let us not be among those who whisper:

Why didn’t we care more, pray more, believe more, when it mattered?

2 Peter 3:9 [Full Chapter]

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 

Book Review Fearless- Max Lucado

I don't usually do book reviews on this blog, I generally do them on my Hello, book review blog. But this book was so special, and so wonderful I wanted to share it here. If you have ever read Max Lucado make sure you rad this book, if you have not ever read him, this is a great first book for you to read.

I just finished reading Max Lucado's Fearless, and it is a wonderful book! The fact that Max Lucado is my absolute favorite Christian Non Fiction writer, I believe he has outdone himself with this book.

He starts with the story of his brothers death. His brother was a man, troubled by fears and insecurities. He was a recovering alcoholic who at the end faced his fears only to be called home.

We all have fears, fear of not being a good enough parent, fear of dying, fear of not making enough money,

The premise of the book is how much better our lives would be if we didn't have so much far and more faith. The first thing we do is become filled with fear.

A new job opportunity is offered to us, it is different then we are used to so the fer sets in,

a move to a new state, even new food. Sure you love Sushi now, but how calm were you when you sat down and ate it the first time?

God doe snot want us to live fearful life's, as a matter of fact he says in the Bible that we are not to have a spirit of fear but of peace. Why is fear the first feeling we have?

Feed your fears, and your faith will starve.

Feed your faith, and your fears will.

The next time your reaction is fear, turn to God, let Him know.

I recommend this book because it is so uplifting, it is what you need in a scary situation

Max Lucado's book immediately put me in a calming spiritual frame of mind. He mentions several ways to change fear into faith, but reading his books does it for me.

If you are coming up on change that is scary, or different. You are sitting there worried about something. Pick up this book and change you whole frame of reference. God doesn't want us to be scared, he wants us to have faith. This book tells us how.

The one chapter that really touchged me wa chapter "There's a Dragon in your Closet"

What is your dragon? All of us have them. You have to learn to slay that dragon, because it is usually something that is not likely to happen, we just think it will or might, then we are scared.

Read this chapter and learn how to slay that dragon.

The bottom line youneed is your Bible. God tells you how to allay fears, slay dragons, deal with inlaws all of he things you fear. Turn that fear into faith.

Children and fear, Charleston and moving Random Friday

Imagine your life wholly untouched by angst. What if faith, not fear,

was your default reaction to threats? If you could hover a fear magnet

over your heart and extract every last shaving of dread, insecurity, and

doubt, what would remain? Envision a day, just one day, absent the

dread of failure, rejection, and calamity. Can you imagine a life with no fear?

Max Lucado - Fearless

I have been thinking a lot about fear lately. I have stepped out in faith on some things that have been absolutely scary. Starting my own business meant going for a while without income.

Scary.

Moving to a strange town.

moving again

and again

and yet again.

Is life supposed to be fearful? I don't think so, bu I think it is our first reaction to any situation we are not sure of or appears strange to us. I wonder what would happen if our reaction was faith.

Tasha likes to watch a show called Yo Gabba Gabba. The show positivity irritates me, but it is one of two shows she will really sit and watch. Not to mention sing to and with, do the dance movements then spend 5 minutes telling me all about what happened in the show.

One of the "robots named Trudy was afraid of the dark, and the other robots joined to assure her there was nothing to be afraid of the dark. This show made a profound effect on Tasha. Now she is not afraid of the dark, but since yo Gabba Gabba told her it was OK, she was not going to be afraid of the dark. It is amazing how much of an impact a TV show has on a 3 year old, if we realized this more I think we would be more careful what is on in the background.

I was watching a war movie, and Tasha wasn't paying me or the TV any attention, but after she asked me why the men were playing with firecrackers.

But she wasn't scared. But I was, and kicked myself many times that day for making the mistake for thinking for a second her subconscious wasn't paying attention.

I think fear is a learned exercise. Although some fear is good, (fear of strangers, etc) I don't think we want our kids to be fearful all the time.

Maybe just very cautious. But I don't know how you teach this without scaring them.

Tasha is never left alone, not even in the back yard. She doesn't

't know it is because we worry about things, she just knows that Mom, Nanny and uncles Eric are always there for her.

Do we tell her about the bad people who might reach over the fence and take her away.

The very interesting thing is, even 20 years ago these were not fears we had, kids played in the backyard, or on the front porch.

Polly Klaas's abductor had not made it unsafe for kids to even go to bed at night.

Are you afraid ?

Tasha and the pizza man

The phone was raining yesterday evening and I told Tasha to answer it, because I knew it was her mom, Tasha picked it up and then immediately returned it to it's cradle. She looked at me and said , well Pizza's here! Apparently that's more important then mom. She ran to the door opened it and said: Hello Pizza man! Do you think she likes Pizza?

I am moving my blog to Wordpress next week, I hope all of you will follow.

It is cloudy and overcast in Charleston, I like days like this. It is what I call a thinking day or even a reading day. I can do both.

I hope for you it is a wonderful day.

And so it goes...

Angel