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© Renee’ Belle Isle Green and Mom2MomFlorida, 2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Renee’ Belle Isle Green and Mom2MomFlorida with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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These Are The Chapters Of Your Life!


Not as catching as "The Days Of Your Life", but it gets my point across (I hope). chapters I have worked eith many young people. Some in classroom settings, others in church settings and some as their boss. Some were finishing high school while others were preparing for their college graduation. Papers, exams, hurrying up to get finished; they could not wait to graduate.

January is mid school year. So much to finish in so little time..

Graduation will be the page for the next chapter in their life. After they enter the work force, January becomes the beginning of chaoters for many.

Chapters, there are so many. Some we want to hurry and get through; we are ready to move on. Others we want to last forever and never change. But, life changes and new chapters begin. Our lives are like a book. There is the opening sentence, the closing sentence and a lot of “stuff” in-between. Sometimes,if you become a Christian, a main theme becomes inserted. If not, your life never has a theme and the book rambles and turns, going from place to place, never quite making sense.

The main theme: Christ is the thread that holds your story together. Are your chapters well written? Is there proper transition, a thread of continuity? Is God the author of your story, or do you try to become a ghost Writer and take "the pen in hand." If so, when a game changer like a tragedy, job change or loss, birth, marriage, loved ones death, etc. can come into place. All too often your story becomes muddled and confused, lacking structure and cohesiveness to hold the story together.


If I started a blog and some one pushed me out of the way to finish what I was trying to write, confusion would be the result. Why not let the Author finish what He started?

Hebrews 12:22 (NASB)“fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Or, you can go ahead and pick up the pen yourself, tell God you do not trust Him with your life and make a mess of the chapters of your story.

January. New Year. Which writer, you or the Author of your fauth?

RBGreenDesigns.com 2022

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“Pick-a-little, Talk-a-little”


Remember in the musical Music Man pickalittlewhen all the older women start chattering like a passel of hens?  They were bent on telling the Music Man about the librarian.  There was probably a little truth in what they said, but mostly it was their jealousies and need for gossip that spewed from their mouth.  We laugh when we watch the scene.

Working in a retail environment since the introduction of cell phones, gossip has gone global.  No longer just in the neighborhood (or church foyer), gossips have worldwide reach through cell phones, Facebook, Twitter and more.  Careless chatter gone out worldwide never to be retrieved.  I have blogged before about careless tongues (O Be Careful Little Mouth What You Say.) Words hurt, they scar and sometimes those scars ruin lives.  It does not matter if you are talking behind someone’s back or to their face, words once out are never taken back.  Like the toothpaste squeezed out, you cannot make it go back in the tube.

Working in retail you hear so much (you wish you did not have to hear) of people’s private lives as they wander around chatting on their phones.  Conversations best kept private are spilled out over aisles.  It seems people think they are in their own private phone booth and because no one is on the aisle with them, then no one can hear them.  And of course their are those that think they have to shout their words across the phone for it to get to the other end of the line.  People just like to talk.  In specific they like to PICK-A-LITTLE, it makes them feel better about themselves to tear others down.  Once started their TALK-A-LITTLE becomes talk-a-lot.  The art of silence has gone.  It is no wonder people do not “hear” what is being said any more.  Their ears are in overload and you have to get their attention.  Recently a father let a loud whistle in the store to get his kids to come.  He looked at my stunned face as if to say “what?”.  His kids don’t listen to their names or him talking, so he’s resorted to whistling for them like a dog.  (Shaking my head).

Wouldn’t it be better to really PICK LITTLE to say, and TALK LITTLE, so that when you did speak others would want to hear what you say? Wouldn’t there be less hurt and less anger if people slowed down and chose their words carefully?   Hmmm, that sounds like a verse from the Bible.

James 1:19 ESV  “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;”

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Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?


Interesting song from 1969 by CHICAGO lamenting if anyone really knows what time it is?  So, what about God, does He know what time it is? Hurry up Lord, I need an answer NOW, TODAY!

Hmmm, that didn’t work did it? Think of yourself as a small rock.   You can lay beside the stream, in the sun and dry and crack, or you can get in the middle of that stream and wait … and wait, sometimes submerged totally; all the while being shaped and smoothed.  The stream may be low and you can see the sun, the waters may be flood waters covering you with rushing waters, you may tumble further down stream, but you’re being shaped and smoothed.rocksmoothing

I have discussed time before (Got Time? , Hurry Up and Wait, and One Step At A Time), it’s a constant theme with us humans.  The truth is, as I have said before, TIME is for humans.  God does not have time.  He was, is and forever will be, so time is always then, now, and coming: all in one. There is no need to hurry for Him, you can’t hurry what doesn’t exist.   It’s past, it’s present, and it’s future.  We need time, not Him.  Time to shape and mold, to learn patience and to grow like Him.

It is no coincidence that as I was jotting down my notes on these thoughts I stopped to read my daily devotions in “Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers.  Today’s scripture:

Habakkuk 2:3 NASB “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay.” 

“If God gives you at time spiritually, as He gave His Son actually, of temptation in the wilderness, with no word from Himself at all, endure, and the power to endure is there because you see God.” ~ Oswald Chambers (updated edition – My Utmost For His Highest)

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Event Planner Needed


Have you ever used a travel agent?  keep-calm-and-call-your-travel-agent-7Maybe you would like to be one.  Think of it, planning a vacation for someone, getting all the right connections; planning all the best places to eat and assuring them they will see every wonderful sight.  You might cater them a picnic on a tropical beach and bring in a four piece ensemble to play island sounds.  You might provide them all the right clothes to wear for each and every event.  You thing of everything, every detail and you sit back and wait for them to enjoy.

They start their journey and soon the emails, texts and twitters start flying.  They find fault with the timing of their connections, they do not like their seats. Oh, they might throw in a “smile” or a small thank you for something, but all in all they complain away.   One detail after another they manage to tear down all your hard work, totally destroying all the joy you could have found in their enjoying their trip  you planned.

INGRATES!

Welcome to your life. Are you thanking the Event Arranger from time to time? Daily? Hourly?  Or are you one of the mumblers and grumblers,  finding fault throughout your day.

Jeremiah 29:11 HCSB “For I know the plans I have for you”–this is the LORD’s declaration–“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

Psalm 107:8 HCSB “Let them give thanks to the LORD for His faithful love and His wonderful works for all humanity. “

Romans 8:28 NASB “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

 

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How Many Footprints?


I am sure you have all heard or read the poem “Footprints”. Footprints-in-the-Sand121

It is a wonderful sentiment to reflect on during hard times.  Recently, actually over the past several years, I have had time to remind my self that the Lord carries me through the tough times.  But, this got me thinking the other day after coming through a medical trial.  Over the past five years as I look back I see where the Lord has carried us through during loss of jobs; my mother’s illness and death; our daughter being buried in the tornado; the bank trying to foreclose on our home, financial difficulties to pay for the broken elbow, a funeral, a wedding; difficult child births of grandchildren and finding a way to be there; and my chronic illness.  Yes, He definitely carried us through.

But, then I thought, “Lord, what am I doing?”  It is like we go through life and an “earthquake” rocks our world and we beg and allow the Lord to carry us through.  Then we basically say, “Lord, I got this, put me down”.  And we start cruisin’ along until we are hit by a “tornado” that sends our world spinning and again we beg and allow the Lord to carry us through.  Then we get back on our own and a “whirlpool” sucks us in, or a  “tsunami” or a “hurricane” , “quicksand” or “molten lava” hits us and on and on we go up and down out of His arms.

Life is HARD so why in the world do we keep taking control and asking to be “set down”?

WHAT IF looking back on our life there

WERE ONLY ONE

set of Foot prints,

HIS?

Isaiah 40:28-29, 31 “28Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding isinscrutable. 29 He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. 31 Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.

RBGREENDESIGNS.COM 2020