( Only) TEEN EMOTION (?)

[I'll be tired today. Woke up 1.5 hours too early and could not go back to sleep due to anxiety (bad dream?).Searching Internet found this poignant poem. How many adults have truly recovered from teenage sadness, abuse, judgement, fear, low self-esteem, addictions, guilt, neglect, rejection, bad memories, disappointment, lack of direction?]
"why i can't sleep at night" by Sandy, age 15
Look at me i'm on display
harsh public inspection
all cuz i dont got any direction
looked down upon cuz im not your average girl
don't really care about my image
im just me..don't care about much else
too many things to worry about
so many reasons to be average
reasons I never understood
don't wanna be your good litte girl
don't want to give in to being one thing
too many things to think about
too many reasons to be down
push them down till you feel like youre going to explode
throw the pillow
pound on the door
Till u realize your sorrow is drowned out
By accusations of teenage normalcy
Just cuz I cant figure out what I need to be happy
fake smile..too many dawning thoughts
you feel unwanted, misunderstood
as your hope slowly rots
http://teenwriting.about.com/library/submissions/poetry/blsandy-why.htm

THANKS GIDEONS

Luke and I were each given a small book including
New Testament, Proverbs and Psalms
outside of his Middle School today.
THANKS GIDEONS!
http://www.gideons.org/

"A LIFE POEM" (good advice)

"A Life Poem" posted by Heart and Soul Group 2/25/2000
http://www.storybin.com/builders/builders125.shtml
Life can seem ungrateful and not always kind.
Life can pull at your heartstrings and play with your mind...
Life can be blissful and happy and free...
Life can put beauty in the things that you see...
Life can place challenges right at your feet...
Life can make good of the hardships we meet...
Life can overwhelm you and make your head spin...
Life can reward those determined to win...
Life can be hurtful and not always fair...
Life can surround you with people who care...
Life clearly does offer its Up and its Downs...
Life's days can bring you both smiles and frowns...
Life teaches us to take the good with the bad...
Life is a mixture of happy and sad...
So...
Take the Life that you have and give it your best...
Think positive, be happy let God do the rest...
Take the challenges that life has laid at your feet...
Take pride and be thankful for each one you meet...
To yourself give forgiveness if you stumble and fall...
Take each day that is dealt you and give it your all...
Take the love that you're given and return it with care...
Have faith that when needed it will always be there...
Take time to find the beauty in the things that you see...
Take life's simple pleasures let them set your heart free...
The idea here is simply to even the score...
As you are met and faced with Life's Tug of War

I believe in Angels...

[Have you ever been delayed or decided to drive a different route home just to pass a horrific accident right where you should have been? I have. Often.

I try to remember to pray for the victims and thank God for the paramedics and also thank God for protecting me and my passenger(s), usually one of my sons.]
I WATCHED THE WHOLE MIRACLE by Richard Macwilliam
I watched the whole miracle;

The child on his mother’s arm, walking home,
The teacher, leaping in a frenzy, shouting and calling,Running across the crowded playground, middle-aged speed.
I watched the whole miracle: Saw her chase and catch the boy, Hold the Mum, return the toy, And as I walked closer heard fragments of their breath. I watched the whole miracle. Moments later The car smashed where they should have been. I watched the whole miracle -

She took a day’s rest.6/10/99
http://www.richardmacwilliam.com/miracle.html
This poem is about a little miracle I witnessed from start to finish, with a teacher talking to a toddler in a classroom then jumping up a few minutes after he and his mother had left, clutching a toy he'd forgotten and charging out as fast as she could.She was in time to stop them both, to chat for a moment, and whilst they chatted a car driven by one of the local drugged-up yobs knocked down a lamp-post, precisely where they would have been.They were the only ones who ever walked on that bit of pavement.This teacher was full of energy, full of life and personally I believe that 'God' somehow spoke to her directly, short-circuiting her in some way. Next day she had to take a rest. I was the only one who actually 'saw' the miracle - it seemed to pass everyone else by, including the teacher, including even the mother who I had a brief chat with some time later. The fact that she would have been there and been dead, yeah she realised it but it still didn't register - well, what can you say? (R.M.)

I believe in Miracles...

(I thought she was dead.)
Jill Carroll, U.S. Reporter in Iraq, Freed by Captors March 30 (Bloomberg)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000082&sid=aala0EmQiaRs&refer=canada
U.S. journalist Jill Carroll has been freed after almost three months in captivity in Iraq, her employer said.......Concern for Carroll's fate increased after the body of Tom Fox, an American kidnapped with three other Christian peace campaigners in Baghdad in November, was found earlier this month. Sunni leaders including al-Duleimi called for Carroll's safe return.......
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&u=/nm/20060330/ts_nm/iraq_carroll_dc_7
......"I'm just happy to be free. I just want to be with my family," Carroll, wearing a headscarf, told Baghdad Television, adding she had had no warning she was being freed.
"Never hit me. Never even threatened to hit me," she told the channel, which run by the Iraqi Islamic Party, the Sunni Arab organization to whose officials she was released......

"TODAY'S JOY" poem

Today's Joy Was Born Of Yesterday's Sorrow

Who said the "darkness of the night"
Would never turn to day ...
Who said the "winter's bleakness"
Would never pass away ...
Who said the fog would never lift
And let the sunshine through ...
Who said the skies now overcast
Would nevermore be blue ...
Why should we ever entertain
These thoughts so dark and grim
And let the brightness of our mind
Grow cynical and dim ...
When we know beyond all questioning
That winter turns to spring ...
And on the notes of sorrow
New songs are made to sing ...
For no one sheds a teardrop
Or suffers loss in vain,
For God is always there to turn
Our losses into gain.
And every burden born TODAY
And every present sorrow
Are but God's happy harbingers
Of a joyous, bright TOMORROW!
~ Helen Steiner Rice ~
http://my.homewithgod.com/lanell/TodaysJoy.html

Riddle 2

What goes around the world but stays in a corner?




[ read answer right to left
pmats a]

SHARING

The early Christian Church shared what they had.
What a "novel" idea!
"The group of followers all felt the same way about everything. None of them claimed that their possessions were their own, and they shared everything they had with each other. In a powerful way the apostles told everyone that the Lord Jesus was now alive. God greatly blessed his followers, and no one went in need of anything. Everyone who owned land or houses would sell them and bring the money to the apostles. Then they would give the money to anyone who needed it."
Acts 4:32-35 (Contemporary English Version)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%204:32-35;&version=46;

"MONEY" poem

Money, Money, Money by Neil Harding McAlister

Money, money, money!
Mammon Almighty!
We drive to the Outlet Mall
Where we can worship thee,
Seeking second-hand fame
From designer brand names;
Programmed consumers
On a spending spree.
Money, money, money!
God looks down glumly.
Slaves of illusion
To golden calves we pray,
Negligent of others,
Careless of our brothers.
Blind acquisition
Soon must pass away.
Money, money, money!
Junk food aplenty.
Buy a bigger pair of shorts
Our buttocks to contain.
Kids in Third World nations
May die of starvation;
Casual gluttons,
We more weight shall gain.
Money, money, money!
Drowning in plenty,
Who can value anything
When nothing is denied?
Foolish ads we all heed,
Then buy things we don’t need,
Driven by greed that
Can’t be satisfied.
Money, money, money!
Fives, tens and twenties.
Can’t we see that who we are
Is not the stuff we buy?
Souls cannot be measured
By the goods we treasure.
Fashion’s a blink in
Time’s eternal eye.
Amen.
http://www.durham.net/~neilmac/money.htm

THANK YOU ITALY!

Afghan Christian Granted Asylum in Italy
http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1781010

......Rahman was put on trial last week for converting 16 years ago while he was a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan. He was carrying a Bible when arrested and faced the death penalty under Afghanistan's Islamic laws......

(I'm proud to be 1/2 Italian right about now)

"STORM" verse

"If any of you need wisdom, you should ask God, and it will be given to you. God is generous and won't correct you for asking. But when you ask for something,
you must have faith and not doubt.
Anyone who doubts is like an ocean wave
tossed around in a storm. If you are that kind of person,
you can't make up your mind, and you surely can't be trusted.
So don't expect the Lord to give you anything at all. "
James 1:5-7 (Contemporary English Version)

"STORM" poem

"STORM"

"The rain will wake me even as I dream,
and carried into clouds unfolding in the bay,
there will be the herring swimming through the fields,
and the salamanders climbing up for air,
pulled from dirt, from silence,
like single words of praise,
and the knocking of our children's boots
along the dock, and their standing out,
half-dressed, beneath the threaded sky.
Then their joy will wake me too,
to how we lay our lives
like a finger
against the earth's rapacious pulse,
until the world returns in kind,
bending low
just to touch the spirit
as it struggles to survive the flesh,
and how the flesh, grown mute with grief,
must be carried back to greed,
must be brought to bear
the fluid weight of love,
our window cracked an inch for air,
the sheets thrown back in heat,
rain calling out the roof, the trees,
the children calling forward,
calling back along the shore."
COPYRIGHT 2002
Mothering Magazine
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0838/is_2002_Jan-Feb/ai_100807018

"RAIN" verse

"Ask the Lord for rain in the spring,
and He will give it.
It is the Lord who makes storm clouds
that drop showers of rain
so that every field becomes a lush pasture."
Zechariah 10:1 (New Living Translation)

"RAIN" poem

"Rain" by Meghan Flood

"I sit here thinking alone in the rain,
thinking of my sorrow, misery, and pain.
I sit here listening to the thunder crashing down,
knowing my life is better when you’re around.
As I sit here watching the storm roll on,
all I think about is you, and how you are gone.
As I look at the dark clouds above,
I sit here and wonder whom you’re thinking of.
It’s like the sky is crying and I am too,
thinking of how I’m missing you.
I miss your hugs and gentle touch,
and the way you tell me you care for me so much.
I miss the way you kiss me and make me feel,
I hope when you come back your feelings are still real.
Now as I look up at the clear sky above,
I’m thinking of you, and I think I’m in love."
http://www.netpoets.com/poems/love/0183003.htm

RIDDLE

What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?


http://rinkworks.com/brainfood/riddles.shtml
[read answer right to left:
lewot a]

"FEAR" GOD

We are not supposed to have a spirit of fear but we are supposed to fear God.
How do you explain that to little kids?
What I taught my elementary church kids yesteday is that we need to honor respect obey and trust our Awesome God.
http://www.700club.com/spirituallife/CBNTeachingSheets/Fear.asp
http://www.torahbytes.org/63-17.htm

LIFE IS SHORT / MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT

"Popular Holy Cross chief anesthesiologist killed in crash"
By Josh Kleinbaum, Staff Writer
http://www.dailynews.com/search/ci_3625559
Pray for Peace, Comfort, Justice, Forgiveness, Healing
(I know the driver of the Ford Explorer)
Drive Defensively.
Drive Safely.
Please--don't drink and drive.

GRACE

What is GRACE ?

G => GOD'S
R => RICHES
A => AT
C => CHRIST'S
E => EXPENSE

Jill Bristol

I HATE WAR

Bush administration urges patience over Iraq 20/03/2006
......And two-thirds of Americans say the US is losing ground in preventing civil war in Iraq, according to a Pew Research Centre poll taken in the same period. That is up from 48 per cent in January.
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=176579778&p=y7658x484

SCIENCE + FAITH = ?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0603170333mar17,1,2655861.story?coll=chi-newslocalchicago-hed
Astronomer's quest to link science, faith wins religion award
$1.4 million prize goes to British professor
By Chris Herlinger Religion News Service Published March 17, 2006
.........."Many of the deepest and most engaging questions that we grapple with still about the nature of the universe have their origins in our purely religious quest for meaning. The concept of a lawful universe with order that can be understood and relied upon emerged largely out of religious beliefs about the nature of God."
Barrow's win continues a recent trend. While early Templeton winners were such well-known figures as Mother Teresa and evangelist Billy Graham, the prize in recent years has focused more on honoring those advancing the burgeoning field of religion, spirituality and science...........

Good Quote

"Do you know what I miss most about our country--
Not the loss of our civil rights as much as our Compassion Soul our Humility."
Boston Legal TV Progam March 14, 2006

WHAT ELSE DID GOD MAKE???

www.chinaview.cn 2006-03-14 14:09:28
BEIJING, March 14 (Xinhuanet) -- "New Zealand researchers discovered a NEW PLANET 13 times as much as Earth in a solar system 9,000 light-year away, according to the latest Astrophysical Journal Letters..........It is the first time that such a planet has been found occupying the same region of a solar system as the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn do in ours."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-03/14/content_4302663.htm

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200603/kt2006031417354568040.htm
Korean Astronomers Help Locate Distant Planet
"An international team of scientists including South Koreans has discovered a small extrasolar planet using new technology, dubbed gravitational microlensing. It brightens the prospects of detecting earth-mass planets.
The four-country team including scientists at South Korea, Israel, New Zealand and the United States Tuesday unveiled the breakthrough finding.
The planet, situated 8,000 light years away from the earth with roughly 13 times the mass of earth, is the fourth lightest one among 170-plus extrasolar planets ever identified...........
The new methodology finds planets by tracing their gravitational fields and parent stars when they act to magnify the light of a distant background star."
THE KOREA TIMES

"WHAT IS A PASTOR?"

SOURCE: http://perlaetus.blogspot.com/2006/01/i-am-not-monkey-dancing-bear-or-trick.html
Do you agree with this message?

Pastors need to be all about Jesus and the practices of Jesus.
Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.The sinful, broken, the lost should find great love and joy in being around you. The Pharisees should feel uncomfortable. Jesus ate at both kinds of peoples homes, but he had an annoying habit of exposing Pharisees hypocrisy every time he sat down with them. Translate that to the church: If the "righteous" are getting worried about our commitment to the "absolute Truth" because some gay people are coming to the church and being ministered to, then you're probably doing something right.
Pastors lead without apology.
I am not here to merely be "a face" that represents the sum of everyone's desires for church direction, methodology, programs, etc. and then synthesize them into some Frankenstein of ministry to "keep all the cliques happy". I will seek out counselors, but those that I trust do not have agendas, want my best and believe in me.
Pastors are here to give you what you need, not what you want.
Most people don't know the difference, and it's a big one, hence God's gift of a shepherd.
Pastors are not the filler of a void that is solely yours.
We aren't here to be the vicarious Christian testimony you can't seem to create or sustain yourself. Our relationship with God is not a substitute for yours. Our families being "successful" (code for: outwardly perfect) is not a free pass for you to neglect your own. We aren't here to make you feel better about your failings by preserving some sick facade of "perfection" that satisfy your personal political and cultural values that nobody is really living up to in the first place.
Pastors don't have to do things methodologically your way.
Barring clear cut evidence of doctrinal/moral transgression,(i.e. chapter and verse proof, contravention of Creedal affirmations or statement of faith, etc.), I put in the time, I get to do things my way.Just cuz it's not the way you would do it, doesn't mean I don't love Jesus or am not able to be respected because you didn't get your way. Stop whining.
Pastors speak for themselves.
I interpret me, you don't interpret me. Clear cut evidence of doctrinal/moral transgression is not based in your perception that such transgression has taken place. Grow up and just come ask where I am headed with something or what I think about something--don't presume to speak for me or understand me on first hearing.
Pastors are to be respected.
In the world, you might need to earn respect, but in the church "earning respect" is a foil to keep leaders off balance. Biblically, respect is bestowed by virtue of position and the affirmation of the spiritual authority of the elders. Heb. 13 has a command to follow the leadership of the church and to not make their work a burden (by virtue of your unteachableness and resistance). If you can't follow clear cut commands like that or Matt. 18, then don't come lecturing me about my perceived contraventions of Scripture that you concluded must be happening because of a gossip session you reveled in. If you can't get it together on this one, then please find a church where you can, go there and stop talking about me.
Pastors do not have to walk on eggshells.
We need to carefully define what is evil and worthy of being reproached: ACTUAL SIN. (That doesn't include areas of disagreement that are not clearly defined in Scripture and if you are going to make me choose between how you read Paul and the clear witness of the Gospels about Jesus--I'm going with Jesus. Even if you're right, 9 times out of 10 people bring that stuff up to control and maintain their own sense of "rightness" and that's a sin that you need to let go of. I'm here to help you do that by not allowing you to manipulate and control.)Being above reproach is not a call to be inauthentic in hopes of avoiding "offending" grey area convictions of more conservative members of the congregation. Avoiding the appearance of evil is a perspective for the outside of the community of faith, not a club for pharisees to beat their leaders into submission.Both those commands are about public witness to the world, not the perceptions of "image" by fellow believers with less freedom on non-essential matters.Those commands were written when Christians were accused of having secret sex orgies with the dead, being atheists, cannibals and longing for the destruction of public order.When you are being thrown to the lions for those kinds of lies, you need to watch your step.Those commands were never intended to be used as a tool for manipulation.
Pastors are to be busy doing works of love and service, not being glorified managers.
Our concerns are to be primarily spiritual. So yes, praying is part of my job, my personal devotional life is part of my job, taking time to be with people over coffee and food is part of my job. Being chained to a desk in an office guarantees less real ministry is happening.
Pastors need friends.
Just the other day, 2 friends went to dinner with me and we had a fantastic talk about a lot of things, we touched on concerns of being "above reproach", we sought out understanding and I knew that they did it because they loved me, respected me and wanted my best. Those are the kinds of people I can trust where they are coming from, and they are the kind of people that I want to surround me with the wisdom of the abundance of counselors.

PATHETIC

pathetic = "Arousing or capable of arousing scornful pity. "
I was EXTREMELY disappointed that a song about a pimp
won an oscar for best original song!
I thought the 3/5 performance was downright rude.
I just read that they did not even perform
the original lyrics since they were too offensive.
Come on. Who really voted for this song to win?!?
"We changed the lyrics up completely. I had to because my mom was watching. I didn't want to say any cuss words," said Jordan "Juicy J" Houston, who co-wrote the theme for the art-house pimp film "Hustle & Flow" with Paul "DJ Paul" Beauregard and Cedric "Frayser Boy" Coleman
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/music/article.adp?id=20060306014009990005&cid=525

Good Words For Parents

[I wanted to pass on some good words of advice I heard from
Pastor Alex Montoya on the radio. These really struck true to me,
a busy mom, wife, hospital worker, and church volunteer.
I stopped driving and took notes! Hope you find this helpful.]
Parents, are you getting enough sleep every night?
You need to average 6 -7 hours of sleep every night.
You need balance in your life.
I encourage you to EAT A MEAL TOGETHER.
Really cook. Turn off the TV.
Make your family a priority. Make this meaningful.
Take 2 hours to share with each other.
I encourage you to PRAY TOGETHER.
We are so involved with the work of God we don’t
have time to pray with our family! Find a verse for the day.
Find a thought for the day. It can be short.Families need Christ
at home. Make this a priority.
I encourage you to WORSHIP TOGETHER.
Some families only come to church every 5 weeks.
I encourage you to be consistent. Don’t let things keep
you from church. It is not by accident God chose
one day to be holy. We need to keep ourselves out of stress.
Rest and Grow. Give God your Sunday
and make it your day of rest and your day of worship.
Make this a priority.
I encourage you to LEARN TO PLAY TOGETHER.
Play games. Don’t be “too tired” or “too busy” to play
with your kids as you sit there and watch TV. Laugh together.
If someone drove by your house, what would they hear?
Sex is okay as part of marriage. Couples should go
on a date once a week. Allow your husband to romance you.
Date according to your budget. Share babysitting with
another couple, or ask family to baby-sit, or pay a church
or high school kid. Make it work.
I encourage you to WORK TOGETHER.
Job share. Share the house work.
A happy family honors God in your home.
We want Christ Centered Hearts and Lives.
Husbands take responsibility and Leadership.
Affirm and thank your church. Model Christ.
If you honor God, God will honor you.
Apply the truth of Christ’s heart to the life of your family.

PRETENTIOUSNESS = Oscars

For Years I've wished just one "star" would walk on the red carpet wearing a T, Jeans, and Sneakers.
Would they be kicked out???
Years ago my unpublished talented songwriter husband wrote:
"CLOTHES DON'T MAKE THE MAN."
http://www.bradelias.com/

Stations of the Cross

http://www.cptryon.org/prayer/child/stations/index.html
by Lucille Perrotta Castro
Introduction: "Stations are places where people wait while they are going from one place to another. A school-bus stop is like a station. People wait at train stations or bus stations or airports. Think of some stations where you have been.
Stations are also places where people take time to think about Jesus as he went to die on a cross. They are "Stations of the Cross." They show us how much Jesus loved us.
You do not have to think of all of the Stations of the Cross on one day. You may want to stay at one Station with Jesus for a few days before you move to another Station. Whatever you decide, Jesus is with you and he loves you."

HEART PRAYERS

http://www.cptryon.org/prayer/child/lent/index.html
Heart Prayers for Lent for children and their families

Introduction: "When we pray, we "connect" with God; we become aware of God's presence within us. One spiritual writer comments that we can think of our own heart as God's "family room within us". What a beautiful image of a place where we can just relax with God!"

Oscar-Nominated Original Song from CRASH

"In the Deep" From Crash

Music by Kathleen "Bird" York and Michael Becker

lyrics by Kathleen "Bird" York

Thought you had

all the answers
to rest your heart upon
but something happens
don't see it coming

now you can't stop yourself
now you're out there swimming
in the deep
Life keeps tumbling
your heart in circles
till you let go
till you shed your pride
and you climb to heaven
and you throw yourself off
now you're out there spinning
in the deep

THANKS KTLA

I just signed up for my own ktla weather page.
Thanks Mark.
http://ktla.trb.com/extras/ktla/myweather/ktla-myweather-default.html?track=nav

L E N T

I usually take Lent seriously, just don't give up things for it.
Maybe because I feel like I am not in control any more.
Maybe because I don't want to take the chance of failing.
Today I was talking to a friend and he suggested giving up worrying for Lent.
Excellent advice. I will be working on this.

ASH WEDNESDAY

I was blessed at work today.
As the chaplain placed ashes on my forehead
in the shape of a cross
he said "Christina, turn from sin, embrace the gospel, God bless you."

http://www.kencollins.com/question-02.htm
What's the reason for ashes?