Distracted Heart

     My heart has wandered.  It has become full of distractions, lists, helpings, and busyness.  It has become disentangled from the One I love.  This, unfortunately, is not the first time it's happened and when I come to the realization that it's happened it's easy to get mad and ask Him "Why? You're the head of this relationship, why can't You just keep us together?"  I feel Him smile lovingly at me and whisper to my heart "Because this relationship is not a prison.  I want you here because you want to be here.". Psalm 32:9

     I hear stories of people that have become so busy doing for Him that they forget to be with Him.  And when you spend time with Him and are so full of Him and the joy and happiness that He brings to your relationship, you think "I don't see how that could ever happen to me.".  But thieves steal over the wall, foxes spoil the garden and it all happens so gradually so slowly over a long period of time that you don't even realize it's happening and before you know it you look around for the One you're so full of and see that you're no longer full of Him and He's been pushed into the background.
     It's not always the world that gets in the way, your sin or selfish desires, sometimes you get busy helping people or doing things you think are for Him and you forget... You forget that the most important thing in this relationship is... Him.  Not the things you do or even the people around you, nothing but Him.
     When you're full of Him, when He is in you and you are in Him then the doing, the helping, the serving comes out of a full heart, an overflow of the love you are wrapped up in and joy of the One you're with.  Like the perfect explanation of a baby born from the love of two people so your works, service, and deeds are born of the excessive love of being in Him.

If only I could remember that all the time...

The Supremacy of Christ- Symphonic Sermon Jam Video

Blank

I read Lexy's blog and it has inspired me to write again.  Shout out to Lexy: girl, you are way talented, I mean I knew you were good but that was fascinating.  Most of the time I think we must be soul mates.

I want to talk on "paper" to write out things that I think and feel, to put out there the mess that seems to be floating around in my head.  But I think about something I want to say, then I go to write about it and either I wind up with a blank or I way overthink and I'm not sure how to put it into words or even if it makes sense to anyone but me.

How can you express in words, truly, what goes on in the deepest recesses of your mind, the place where you know yourself, you believe in and understand yourself but you're not sure how to convey that to others.  Is it right?  Is it necessary?  Is it even needed?  But then you know no matter whether it is or not, it's something that you have to get off your chest, boring or not, necessary or trivial, you must express, you must put into words (or at least try to put into words) those things that you contemplate and mull over.

Maybe it's in the hopes that someone feels as you do, that someone out there knows what you're going through and has felt the same way.  It's a refreshing thought but then when writing it out you began to think, they may take it the wrong way.  Are you expressing it in the right context?  Using the proper words to help them understand what's truly there?

No man is an island.  We were not meant to be alone and struggle with this on our own.  God is there to help us through but He gave us humanity for the connection and solidarity that we so need and long for and desire.  So there it is, my reaching out to the world, whether I'm thought dumb or smart, whether I can articulately express myself or sound like an uneducated idiot, this is my mind.

Clothing Label

Clothing label...

Clothing label by a small US clothing company.

This shipment was headed for France.
Small business is alive and well in America!

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

If you want to tax the privileged class, you should tax THE privileged class.

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. Term Limits.

12 years only, one of the possible options below..

A. Two Six-year Senate terms

B. Six Two-year House terms

C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

2. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.  

The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves .

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

Stars

Someone made an interesting comment the other day about the people we admire and put on a pedestal and it got me thinking.  In this day and age the popular people, people we look up to, admire and use as role models are a lot different than they were 1,000 + years ago.  It seems today we like people who have money, power, or fame.  We like actors, we have baseball trading cards, we create dream teams of our favorite football players and the more money you have the more power you can get.  But it wasn't always that way (except maybe the money = power part).  In the times of the Greeks, Romans, Spartans, etc, the people you admired and built statues of were warriors, philosophers, and poets.  Actors were people just struggling to get by, there for entertainment of the rich and games were played by servants.  I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with liking actors, admiring a good movie, or getting lost in a close game; I like many of those things myself, I have my list of favorite actors, movies that I like and sports teams that fascinate me.  But maybe some of our time would be better spent if we focused a little of that energy and admiration on people who really made a difference in our lives, people who do things that go unnoticed.  Such as the men and women that serve our country and protect our freedom, that more often get ridiculed rather than praised and admired.  Or doctors that work hard to keep us healthy or get us well, that in this day and age are more likely to find themselves at the end of a lawsuit.  Just a thought from someone who herself spends way too much admiration on fluffy things.

Books

I love books.  I love to read.  When you dive into a book you are transported to another world, you become a different person who does amazing things.  You can travel on a spaceship as the padawan of a Sith who has been seduced by the dark side or you can learn that you are actually a princess in the midst being thrown into a heroic situation that you never had any wish to be in or you can discover that you "bloom" once a year and are not a human as you thought you were but a plant that humans call faeries.  You can go through all these wonderful, strange, harrowing adventures in the safety and comfort of your own home.  You can travel to thousands of places and experience different and exotic characters for the simple price of a book.  The imaginations that books come from are a fabulous creation that human will ever be able to duplicate.