First of all, Congratulations! You deserve to celebrate. But as your celebrations subside - which they quickly must - may I offer a couple of words of advice from the We The People gallery?
Watch your crowing and gloating. Remember, we weren’t overjoyed with any of you. Nor do we completely trust you. You have a chance to change our opinion, but it will take some doing.
As you consider the state of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and Obamacare, remember that we are the ones with few - or no - options. Congress, you have your self-voted-in gold-plated health care plan, your retirement, etc. etc. etc. (for which we are footing the bill, by the way). It would make your words of concern ring so much truer if you planned less for yourselves and more for us.
As you look for ways to pare down the budget, why not begin by giving back the most recent raise you in Congress voted yourselves? In fact, how about freezing your pay until you actually get meaningful work accomplished on our behalf? Had we been able to do that with the last Congress, our treasury would be way ahead of where it is today.
And speaking of We The People, how about establishing a system whereby a group of regular citizens would sit on an advisory panel and give direct grass-roots input on various issues? Input you would actually listen to and incorporate into your actions? It just might help you understand why we so distrust you.
Rip yourself loose from the tentacles of lobbyists. Even those to whom you had to make elaborate promises to get elected. Hey, you break your promises to us all the time. Why not to them?
Please, Mr. President… Please Congressfolk… do the job you were elected to do. Think of the United States of America. Think of We The People. We are, after all, your employers.
You have a golden opportunity to make our country a better place. Will you accept it?
YOU HAVE BEEN on a long, uphill journey, and your energy is almost spent. Though you have faltered at times, you have not let go of My hand. I am pleased with your desire to stay close to Me. There is one thing, however, that displeases Me: your tendency to complain. You may talk to Me as much as you like about the difficulty of the path we are following. I understand better than anyone else the stresses and strains that have afflicted you. You can ventilate safely to Me, because talking with Me tempers your thoughts and helps you see things from My perspective.
Complaining to others is another matter altogether. It opens the door to deadly sins such as self-pity and rage. Whenever you are tempted to grumble, come to Me and talk it out. As you open up to Me, I will put My thoughts in your mind and My song in your heart.
“I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.” JEREMIAH 31 : 25
Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe. PHILIPPIANS 2 : 14 – 15
I am absolutely LOVING this semi-summer weather! How about you??
Today I'm linking up with both Jamie AND Miss Priss to share what I'm loving about Wednesday.
Wish I could say she got her blogging skills from her Mom, but that's so not the case!
I'm LOVING that our small group meets tonight.
I love how God placed me among a group of strangers who have become extended family. :)
I'm LOVING that a doctor's appointment ended with encouragement yesterday.
Waiting on a call to schedule treatment. Getting schooled in patience ~ again.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31
Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.
Psalm 37:7(a)
I'm LOVING, LOVING, LOVING my Bella!
She is the sweetest little cuddle bug!
She loves to ride. So I'm pretty sure she's going to be an awesome travel buddy. ;)
Now if you've spoken to The Mister since Bella joined our family
I'm sure you've heard him say 'Not my dog!'
Mmmhmmmm . . . .
First off, I'm pretty sure he asked for that smooch . . .
and then we have - seriously??
And here we have - man's best friend, a remote AND an afternoon nap :)
But 'Not my dog!' (hehe . . .)
Today I'm also LOVING the fall scents of harvest and pumpkins. All warm and cozy smelling!
But apparently I'm not the only one. :)
And then, last but definitely not least . . .
I'm LOVING that these sweet little miracles are coming home today!!
I cannot wait to get my hands on them.
Need my Nana fix!
Right Priss? ;)
Meet Makinsey (left) and her big brother Bentley.
“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart ..."
(I Want to Run Away - By: Lysa) You want to know one of the worst feelings in the world to me? Feeling stuck.
Stuck in a situation where I can’t see things getting better. I look at the next 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days and all I see are the same hard patterns being repeated over and over and over.
I try to give myself a little pep rally of sorts and tap into that Pollyanna girl that’s inside me somewhere. The part of me that knows the glass is half-full and chooses to see the bright side. But Pollyanna isn’t there.
Life suddenly feels like it will forever be this way.
And this dark funk eclipses me.
This happened to me when my two oldest daughters were babies. Hope was not quite 16 months old when I gave birth to Ashley. I was thankful for these two amazing gifts. I knew they were blessings. I loved them very much.
But there was this other side of motherhood no one talked to me about beforehand. It never came up at my baby shower or a doctor’s appointment or in conversations with the mommies that had gone before me. In the midst of all the pink happiness, the dark funk came.
This desperate feeling that life would forever be an endless string of sleepless nights. Leaky diapers. Needy cries.
Forever.
One night in between feedings I went to the drug store to get some baby Tylenol. I pulled into a parking space right in front of the restaurant beside the drug store and stared inside. There were normal people in there. Laughing. Eating. Having fun conversations. They had on cute outfits and fixed hair-dos.
I looked at my reflection in the rear view mirror.
I cried.
This is my life. Forever.
Suddenly I had this crazy desire to run away.
Far away.
And then guilt slammed into my already fragile heart and I convinced myself God was going to punish me for feeling this way and take one of my babies. Teach me a lesson. Smite me for being so stinkin’ selfish. I cried until I could hardly breathe.
I thought about this the other day when I started feeling stuck in a different situation.
A situation that felt so big and made me so sad. I felt myself on that edge of the dark funk thinking this is the way it’s going to be forever.
But then I remembered that night crying in my car. I realized those days of diapers and no sleep weren’t forever. It was a season. A season that came and went. And this would play out that way too. It’s the rhythm of life.
The ebb and flow of struggles and victories.
I closed my eyes and whispered, "Are you here God? Hold me. Breathe courage into my weak will. Help me."
And in that moment I realized all that God ever wants from me is to want Him. Love Him. Acknowledge Him.
In the midst of struggles. In the midst of my victories. "God, I love you. I don’t love this situation. But I love you. Therefore, I have everything I need to keep putting one foot in front of the other and walk through until I get to the other side of this."
One step at a time. With the full assurance God is okay with me even when I’m not okay with me. "If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow – to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to hold fast to Him – then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you." (Deuteronomy 11:22-23)
I love how the Scriptures say, "hold fast" to the Lord. The dark funk makes me want to hold slow. Make God the last thing I try when I’m stumbling and falling. But if I close my eyes and simply whisper, "God…" at the utterance of His name He "dispossess" things trying to possess me.
Then I can see this is a season. This isn’t how it’s going to be forever. Though my circumstances may not change today, my outlook surely can. And if my mind can rise above, my heart gets unstuck.
First let me clarify one thing. I’m not sharing this devotion because I ever (that I can remember, anyway) considered running away in those days. Not even during the Terrible Two’s or the Trying Three’s. I have always, always loved being a mom. And yes . . . that’s even true during those horrific teenage years . . .
That doesn’t mean however, that I don’t completely understand what she means by the rhythm of life. The ebb and flow of struggles and victories. Of closing my eyes and whisper-ing, "Are you here God? Hold me. Breathe courage into my weak will. Help me."
I also totally understand the guilt of wondering or daydreaming about the ‘what-if’ things were different . . . then waking up to remember that God is the One truly in control. Or the guilt of wandering into that fantasy land of writing the ending I’d like to see - and almost flinching at the punishment I know I fully deserve. Satan can do a number on us, can’t he?
We’re in one of those ‘to be continued’ seasons right now. Not the first, and surely won’t be the last, But we’re in a holding pattern. And anyone who knows me, knows I tend to not be a very patient person. Particularly when it comes to the medical community. That’s heightened by the fact that, like most, I don’t like seeing the people I love in pain. And that I feel like they are in the business of diagnosing problems - and therefore providing answers. Add to that the fact that I like answers - yesterday - and . . . (well, you get the picture)
So this devotion, like them all, spoke to me.
It’s reminded me that when we wake to the blessing of a brand new day, all God wants is for us to want, love and acknowledge Him. That along with the uncertainty of every situation, struggle and triumph - He wants us to celebrate the fact that though things might not be what we choose, we have a Father who loves us beyond our wildest dreams. We serve a God that showers us with grace, mercy and strength to put one foot in front of the other and walk through to the other side one human step at a time.
"If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow – to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to hold fast to Him – then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you." (Deuteronomy 11:22-23)
