August Rush 2007

At first sight, you think: Wow! This movie is great. Then I started to think about why this movie is dangerous.

Again it perpetuates a myth. We're supposed to believe that when a gorgeous hunk of a guy who is in a rock band, who's from Ireland, with a cute Irish accent, meets an American beauty at an after party and they hit it off and go to bed, that they immediately fall into real love, and it is going to last for a lifetime.

I was just choking at the sight of the guy - so good looking,
thinking that if I met a guy like that, when I was younger, at a party like that, under those same circumstances, and we hit it off and we ended up sleeping together - WHAT A WHAM BAM, THANK YOU MA'AM AFFAIR THAT WOULD BE!!!

It just doesn't happen the way the movie says that it does. The guy doesn't have deep feelings of love that last for years and years. The woman doesn't cherish the life within her from that night and also love the guy with deep feelings of love, despite the fact that he is out of the picture - no matter the reason he is out of the picture. Sure, I get it. She was forced to deny the right to see the guy, so it wasn't her choice. But be real! Guys like that, under circumstances and in lifestyles like that don't treat experiences like that with deep, lasting romantic feelings.

Girls, though they want to be loved, would also not necessarily expect much out of an affair like that.

It's so unreal. But then so are other aspects of the movie.

Don't get me wrong.

It's life affirming. It's saying that it is far more valuable to have a child than to abort it and I applaud the movie for this message.

But where it departs from reality it loses me. And I blame filmmakers like this for brainwashing young minds with illusions about what makes true love.

Love isn't forged out of wild affairs on moonlit nights at parties. It isn't forged because two people happened to sleep together once, or even because someone got pregnant.

This film is similar to "Bella" in its message but fails to give the pure message of Bella, which is realistic and positive at the same time, giving hope and direction to young people and not offering false hopes.

Hosanna in the Highest

I woke this morning with this song running through my head.

Mansions of the Lord

My cousin turned me onto this. It's from a movie soundtrack from the 90's. "We Were Soldiers" by Mel Gibson. It's absolutely stunning music, and so appropriate as a funeral memorial to our fallen soldiers. Oh! I just found out, or confirmed it because I wasn't sure. Ronald Reagan's funeral. This was sung at his funeral!!!! Great funeral song!

Wisdom from a 90 year old

Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio

To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.. It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone...

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will. Stay in touch

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19.. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time...time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need..

42. The best is yet to come.

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

.

My Favorite Breeds Of Dog

The Pug

And The English Bulldog

Yesterday, I was biking around a lake, and a lady was walking an English Bulldog and a Pug. It was like a gift from God! Here were my two favorite breeds of dog walking side by side! What a treat!

What are your favorite breeds of dog?

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Casey Jones Sings Happy Birthday

This is Kingdavid's Happy Birthday to me!

God's Way For Woman

His way for women is different than for men. We are not weak, though we have been called the weaker sex.

God's way for us is to be powerful in our weakness, and we have to let Him move in the way that He designed for us so that He can be truly powerful in us.

I am learning to let God use me as a woman, and to enjoy it.

There is leadership for women. Mothers are leaders. And there are many professional women. My doctors are women. My dentist is a woman. But it is different leadership than a man's.

Sometimes women are left to take charge when men fail and have to handle horrendous things on their own.

When husbands cannot be bread winners anymore, when husbands are abusive and beyond repentance and willingness to change - a woman has to take radical steps to take care of herself and lay down the law.

But there is a lot of submission to men and the leadership role of men. It just has to be tempered with reason, because men fail miserably to live anything like the image of Christ, and women are forced to take things into their own hands.

I have discovered that Bill Gothard, though he was too extreme in some respects, and legalistic, was right about the need for a woman to be under the covering of her parents prior to marriage.

It is wonderful wisdom to discover the covering of one's parents as a single person.

Of course, not everyone has parents that they can live with. That's sad. I too could not live with my parents for so many years when it would have helped so much. But thank God for redeeming that situation.

In reading the gospels, I noticed how Jesus flew right in the face of the pharisees and saducees, telling them exactly how evil they were, inciting them to anger and hatred. Paul did the same thing again in Acts, and so did Stephen in Acts right before he was stoned to death.

I thought of how I would never do that, but then realized that it is not my place to do that, because I am a woman. A woman doing that same thing would make her ugly and unfeminine.

It is good to submit to the way God intended things to be.

Angels

Do you ever have this sense that someone divine is sitting next to you, and are perhaps watching you, in a good way - maybe to protect you or influence you in some way for good?

I have that sense during important crossroads in my life, when the pressure is on and important decisions need to be made.

Once when I was in crisis, I was staying in a motel out in the country, and a man came who had some connection to the police department, only he was in plain clothes. He asked me if I was from a certain town, and he said that he knew of me, and said that they have been watching me for years, and that I have great wisdom in how I do things.

In retrospect I realized that he was not a policeman. I could think he was linked to some kind of super surveilance system, and that "they" are watching me all the time, because I am so important. But I know that is not true.

I know, however, that God's angels, certain angels that He has assigned to me are indeed watching me all the time, because to Him I am so important. And I know that they manifest at times physically.

An angel will appear at times just as a person with a divine nature who stands by to protect me, or influence me for good. Once when I was camping in Montana, there was a young man who was camping alone in the spot next to me. He could have just been a person with a divine nature who God influenced to be there at that time, to camp next to me so I felt safe. Sometimes good people will act as angels in our lives, even though they aren't actual angels.

Today I took out an old bike, because a newer bike was in the shop. I started up the hill and went a ways from my home, but the tube burst inside when I tried to add air to it. On the long walk back home, a man in a pickup stopped and asked if I wanted a ride.

It's as if he knows me. He's like an angel, even if he's just a man. He was driving with two kids. It would be impossible to know if he's just a good man or an angel. But he knows immediately he can trust me, and knows I will trust him.

Usually for me, an angel is a man.

Are you aware of angels in your life?

Meet a black person

I posted this on my Wordpress blog, and am moving it over here. Go to video here. This is in Aspen where there are apparently few black people. A guy with a sense of humor set up a booth so you could meet a black guy.

Trouble With Pictures

At one point I discovered that when someone sent me an email that had pictures in it, all I had to do was copy it and paste it into a post. Then I discovered that the pictures would disappear and reappear, back and forth.

So, they each have to be uploaded, and it's a painstaking, time consuming process. I just did that to each of the posts - most of them, that I had originally pasted in without taking the time to upload the pictures.

The following posts have been updated: The Scientific Death of Jesus, The Devil and The Duck, How To Stay Young, and The Atheist Barber.

I have decided to do the painstaking process of uploading pictures from now on. Each post is worth it.

Validation

See video here.

The Atheist Barber

Bravo to Jeff B. for this!

Why God allows pain and suffering...


A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed.
As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: 'I don't believe that God exists.'


'Why do you say that?' asked the customer. 'Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children?


If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain.
I can't imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things.'
The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop.

Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: 'You know what? Barbers do not exist.'
'How can you say that?' asked the surprised barber.
'I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!'
'No!' the customer exclaimed. 'Barbers don't exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.'

'Ah, but barbers DO exist! That's what happens when people do not come to me.'
'Exactly!' affirmed the customer. 'That's the point! God, too, DOES exist!
That's what happens when people do not go to Him and don't look to Him for help.
That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world.'

If you think God exists, send this to other people---
If you think God does not exist, ignore it!

BE BLESSED & BE A BLESSING TO OTHERS !!!!!!!

It's My Birthday today!

This is God's birthday gift to me this year: a tangible miraculous healing!!!!

I was on Lithium years ago and it was depressing my thyroid so I had low thyroid. Now your thyroid, according to my cousin, affects every part of your body - your hair, your nails, and your weight! (Girls, don't you love that one!)

The doctors took me off Lithium because of it and I assumed that my thyroid would just naturally adjust itself. I didn't realize that it hadn't.

During a routine physical that I just got, they found I still had low thyroid and prescribed Synthroid.

I wrote my doctor and told her I would not be taking Synthroid and that Jesus Christ still heals today.

In the meantime, I went to the healing rooms in a suburb here and they anointed me with oil and prayed for healing.

I also spoke to my thyroid glands in the name of Jesus of Nazareth and said to be restored. I also read scriptures on healing out loud, and prayed for God to heal me.

My doctor ordered another reading, perhaps thinking I was actually taking Synthroid.

I just got the test back yesterday. When your thyroid is low your TSH level goes up. Mine had gone up to 7.45 and the normal range is 0.20-4.50. The test showed my TSH had gone down to 5.58!!!!!

Nothing but nothing would make it go down except a miracle of God!!!!!

Now my doctor didn't even say anything about Synthroid. She just said, (about my TSH) "it's still a little elevated."

I expect my TSH to go all the way to the normal level. I am so excited!

I have had other healings in this past year. My acid reflux went away (heartburn) after being anointed with oil and prayed for. I had pain in my knees and it went away after getting hands laid on and prayer.
One of our biggest challenges is physical problems as we get older, but with Jesus' healing power, I am not afraid.

Another big challenge is dealing with bitterness. It is a challenge to avoid bitterness.

I also realized today I have pride.

Please, as a birthday present to me, pray for my pride - that God would wash it away.

Another gift from God on my birthday is good weather. It has been just beautiful!