A Critical Condition and 5 Things Nice

"Somebody call 911, we need an ambulance!"
 911- "9ll, state your emergency."
Caller- "Uh yes, we need an ambulance!"
911- "Is the person breathing?"
Caller- "Oh Yes, no problem there!"
911- "Please tell me the their symptoms."
Caller- "Well, their tongue is flapping and rolling around, and their teeth are chewing and spewing, and...Oh, please! can you just hurry!
911- "Please try to remain calm ma'am, the ambulance is on it's way. Everything is going to be OK."
Caller- "Okay, I hope so, but please hurry, I don't know how much longer I can take it... uh, I mean, if they will make it, it's really bad!"

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I've had this post on my heart for a while now. I've been much convicted of a criticizing spirit of late- my own, and others as well. It exhausts me anymore to listen to it. It dampens my spirit and pollutes the atmosphere. I find myself avoiding people and places where I know I'll hear it. I'm trying to quit, and if I go "there", I am then tempted to indulge.
I've been pondering the reasons why we humans criticize one another, and I don't much like the answers to these questions, mostly because they hit a little too close to home for me. What is it that makes us prone to put-down and criticize others? To name a few:

• Inferiority Complex- criticizing gives us a false sense of superiority. (Nobody's fooled but us.)
• Superiority Complex- We really believe we are better than them and that gives us a right. (Again, false.)
• We are angry and bitter and therefore feel justified to criticize those we blame for our issues.
• We_______. (You fill in the blank.)

Whatever our reasons, it's wrong. I'm not gonna quote a bunch of scriptures here- we know what they are, and if we have to (and we will) give an account for EVERY word we say when we stand before God someday, then I think it behooves us to choose them much more carefully.

Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.

James 3:10 NIV

5 Things Nice
When my oldest sister was in Bible College, at some point, she and her peers felt the need to set this new rule to follow. Anytime someone broke the rule, someone else would say,"5 things nice!" I'm thinking it needs to be revisited. But if y'all don't need it, never-mind, I do!

The Rule:
For every time we (accidentally on purpose) speak a criticizing or negative remark about anybody (including ourselves!), we must immediately say 5 things nice about that same person (including...you guessed it, ourselves!). And it wouldn't hurt if someone else were to call us on it if we do. "5 things nice!" Oh, and that "teasing" we do when we really aren't teasing, that counts too. So...if we can't say anything nice...

"Sticks and stones may break the bones- But words can tear the heart out."

Thanks for reading!

Thank you, thank you Jesus for our FOOD? today...

and please naturalize it, sanctify it, de-checmicalize it, and let not any harm come to my body from it, amen.

I've got to STOP reading this stuff. But seriously, I just can't. It's making me crazy! Where in the living world do "food" manufacturers (now that's an oxymoron) get all these insane ideas for putting all this junk in our "food"? It sounds like the mad scientist has run amok! I can't stomach it!
Call me whacked, call me paranoid, call me a nutjob, whatever, but I'm almost scared to go to the "grocery" store anymore! Anyone for a bug-juice, maggot infested, paint chip smoothie, with a sprinkle of plastic on top? Y.U.M! Hey, why not? You can even use any leftovers to clean your carburetor, fertilize the garden (in the which you are going to start growing your own REAL food in, right?), and kill the weeds in the drive! What a deal!

(I'm rethinking that commune with the beet and chia seed songs...)

All kidding aside, this is really gross. Best thing to do tho is just eat the best you can...and maybe say the little prayer at the top of this post. Can't hurt. :-P

Happy Friday! Have a chemical free weekend y'all!

I Gotta Be Me...

Short, skinny, fat or tall, God made us perfect but that was in Eden...before the fall. ;-}

Look in the mirror and what do you see? I know there are days when I groan in agony at the sight in mine. Then I have to remind myself, God don't make no junk! There are so many things about myself that I would love to change. There are several people I would love to be like. But guess what? I can't be anybody but me. I know, bummer dude...
I can do a lot of things. I may even do some of them well. But I CAN'T do everything. Now you may have been taught that you can do anything you set your mind to. But I'm just not convinced that's entirely true. But what about the scripture: I can do ALL things through Christ, you say? I read that as saying that God will give us the strength to do what we need to do or help us get through hard places- Not that I can do absolutely anything I want to be able to do. God can enable people to do impossible things, and he has- but that's not the norm.
I can't climb mountains...I'd get vertigo and fall off. I can't ride a motorcycle like Sweet Guy can (hardly anyone can...just sayin' *wink*). I can't skydive...it would be skyDIE for me. I can't sing like Mariah Carey...but boy if I could! I can't draw or paint...I just don't have the talent. And the list goes on... There are a lot of things I can't do. BUT- there is one thing I CAN do that no one else will ever be able to do (not that they'd want to...), and that's be ME!
Sometimes I look around at the talent and abilities of others and I get discouraged. Man! If I could just do that, or if I could be that, then I could really be somebody! But the truth is: even tho I may be able to somewhat improve my talents and abilities, even master a few or learn new ones- I can never become someone else. (Duh) All I have to work with is what God gave me- and from his point of view (not necessarily mine), it's enough.

I'm not saying that we should never try to do things that are hard, or that we might never master. I play the piano. Not great- but just enough to enjoy playing for myself. I could practice and practice (and I have), but I have come to the conclusion (at no insult to myself), that I just do not have a natural ability for the piano. I could never be a Pam. G. or a Cheryl W. (They Rock!), it's just not in me. But that's OK. It does not diminish who I am or my self-worth. (And it does not prevent me from torturing the neighbors. hehe)
God gave us all talents and abilities, and it would not behoove us to make light of them by comparing ourselves to others. (Hey ME, I'm talking to YOU!) Find out what you CAN DO and do it will all your might! I've taken up jogging (Don't tell the girls in my old P.E. class! lol). I'm not too good at it yet, don't know if I ever will be, but I'm gonna do it anyways...at my speed and my ability level, not someone elses. I'm trying to be a better Sunday School teacher...will I ever be as good as some of the ones I admire for their natural talent? I don't know. But I'm trying and that's good enough--and so are YOU!

 "I may not sing like the angels. And I may not preach like Paul. But I know God has given me the greatest gift of all, a new heart."

For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. 2 Corinthians 10:12