Month: June 2011

Cell Phone Etiquette

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Just because a cell phone seems like a tether to 24/7 access doesn’t mean that manners went away. Here are a two very important things to remember when using a cell phone:

  • Use the 9-9 rule. If this is a personal cell phone you are calling, please do not call before 9 am nor after 9 pm unless it’s an emergency. A REAL emergency, like someone has been rushed to the hospital, not like you ran out of milk for your cereal. Instead, if it’s important, send a text, if the person is available they’ll call you. If not, you’ve not disturbed them.
  • Do not hang up and call over and over again. If the person didn’t answer the first time, leave a message. Sometimes, if I’m in a meeting and you call, I can’t answer. If you hang up and call right back, I’m still in a meeting and still can’t answer. If you hang up and call a third time, you’re just being annoying and it gets irritating. LEAVE A MESSAGE.

Do not expect that because it’s a cell phone the person has the phone on all the time. There are times when I’m home and downstairs cooking dinner, doing laundry or whatever and my phone is upstairs. There are times when I’m on a date with my husband and want to focus on him. There are times when I (gasp) take a shower or take the dog for a walk, or am sitting on my front porch reading a book. It’s not personal, we have lives away from our cell phones.

For me, I found that I had become addicted to the phone and others had become addicted to being able to call me all the time. It hit home one day, when at family dinner, we all had our cell phones next to our plate. I determined to simplify my life this year. To get back to basics. To not fall into a trap of having to answer while I’m trying to eat. So my phone gets turned off sometimes on purpose. It gets left behind sometimes on purpose. It doesn’t mean I don’t love you, it just means I am not always available.

The Fawn and His Mother

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an Aeosop Fable:

A young fawn once said to his Mother, “You are larger than a dog, and swifter, and more used to running, and you have your horns as a defense; why, then, O Mother! do the hounds frighten you so? ” She smiled, and said: “I know full well, my son, that all you say is true. I have the advantages you mention, but when I hear even the bark of a single dog I feel ready to faint, and fly away as fast as I can.”

No arguments will give courage to the coward.

Life Happenings In Bullets

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  • These days I am reflective.
  • I haven’t been blogging much because I’ve been introspective.
  • Assessing some mistakes made in the past, that affect my today.
  • Don’t you wish you got a do-over on some aspects of your life, all while keeping the things you love?
  • Yeah me too!
  • Then there are the fantastic things that have happened that I am forever grateful for.
  • Love is complicated. Loving everyone is even more complicated, yet we’re commanded to do so. Yikes!
  • Nope this love revelation has nothing to do with my marriage.
  • Car issues are affecting my life these days.
  • I want a Chevy Camaro.
  • My husband thinks this is nothing but a mid-life crisis.
  • He wants a crossover.
  • When did all the people in People Magazine become unknown to me?
  • I am simplifying my life. It’s complicated.
  • My sense of humor is back.
  • I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not but I love the show An Idiot Abroad.
  • ‘Nuff said about that.
  • Or not, maybe I was supposed to be born British?
  • Either my compassion is increasing or my hormones are out of balance.
  • Can’t quite figure it out.
  • I am forevermore more in love with Jesus more than before.
  • I am resolved to take action on issues affecting women.
  • I am in love with the TLC group.
  • I see their progress and I want to scream, “THANK YOU GOD!”
  • I see their sadness and I want to hug them and tell them it will be okay.
  • Somehow though, I’ve realized God’s okay and our okay are not necessarily the same concept.
  • I’m loving the Life Connections class.
  • Leah’s lemon bars, well let’s face it, all of her concoctions are to die for.
  • I wonder if she knows I skip dinner on class night in hopes she brings a dessert?
  • Lauren graduated from high school and signed up for community college.
  • She also hit her first car about two weeks into driving on her own.
  • We celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary last week.
  • Our kids are going to work with us this summer.

Inviting The Pastor To Dinner

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Someone asked recently what the etiquette was for inviting the Pastor over for dinner. It’s the same as with anyone else. Some tips to remember:

  • Pastors are normal people so discuss normal things. Theological discussions aren’t off-limits nor are they they only thing a pastor can talk about.
  • Discussions about church are not off-limits but questions about other people are.
  • They don’t get many invitations. Mainly because people don’t know what to expect. So keep it real but respectful.
  • Don’t invite the Pastor over with a hidden agenda of counseling or complaints. Invite him over because you’d like to break bread with him and have a relaxing time.
  • Please feel free to pray for the meal. A Pastor is not put out if he gives the blessing or not.
  • Be authentic. The Pastor isn’t looking trying to make you feel uncomfortable.

How Much Are You Worth?

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le store

If you’re not being treated with the love & respect you deserve, check Your “Price Tag”. Perhaps you have marked YOURSELF down. It is YOU who tells people YOUR worth by what you ACCEPT. Get off the “Clearance Rack” and get behind the glass case where they keep the Valuables. Bottom line – VALUE YOURSELF MORE.

Tend To Grow

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container herb gardening

I am not a gardener. I don’t even pretend to begin to fake that I like it one bit. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love the end result. I love how a garden looks. I love any kind of garden. Fresh vegetable gardens, as if duh there were any other kind, herb gardens, flower gardens, they are all beautiful and they show the handiwork of a hard worker who has gotten on their knees, tilled the ground, dug a hole, planted a seed, watered and watched, pulled the weeds that tried to overtake the life that was planted.

I imagine that suddenly one day, the gardener’s seedlings begin to sprout and they are rewarded for their hard work by color, fragrance, the fruit of their labor and love, and the care they took to plant. I bet going out to your garden to get fresh vegetables, herbs and flowers gives you greatest satisfaction on earth. I would like to have a garden. I really would. Oh, and a gardener while I’m at it.

As a Christian I am supposed to be a gardener of souls. Now that interests me. However, the work is enormous and somehow, it makes me think that gardening plants would be the easier plan, should I get a choice.

When I think of the steps of a gardener I imagine his first step is to go into a nursery filled with plants. He walks through the rows of plants determining which ones he’ll choose. Then again, maybe I get ahead of myself, perhaps the first thing he does is get a book about gardening or google gardening. I mean, I would think there are seasons in which some plants grow and others don’t. There are regional areas in which we live in which some plants thrive and others don’t. Well, it seems to be a complicated process. Then there are mulches and vitamins and things which have to be mixed in with the dirt that has been tilled. Does the plant like total sunlight or partial shade? How does a gardener keep the bugs off?

I suppose harvesting souls would be much the same way. Grab a bible and figure out what environment it takes to grow a soul. Do you have the proper additive to mix in the soil, when planting a seed? Do you understand timing, season, environment? Do you think all souls grow the same way? Do you over water or neglect? Do you rejoice when you see the seedling hatch, for use of a better word,what is the word anyway? Do pluck it out of the ground to show it off before it’s well-rooted? What’s your strategy for pulling weeds that are trying to suck the life out your newly planted seed? What do we do to keep the bugs off?

Simple questions I am asking myself these days. Praying for simple answers. Praying for revelation and above all else, praying for more desire than ever before and the ability to tend my seed until it grows!

Shout Bravo!

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creationswap

1 Chronicles 16:8 Thank God! Call out his Name! Tell the whole world who he is and what he’s done! 9 Sing to him! Play songs for him! Broadcast all his wonders! 10 Revel in his holy Name, God-seekers, be jubilant! 11 Study God and his strength, seek his presence day and night; 12 Remember all the wonders he performed, the miracles and judgments that came out of his mouth. 13 Seed of Israel his servant! Children of Jacob, his first choice! 14 He is God, our God; wherever you go you come on his judgments and decisions. 15 He keeps his commitments across thousands of generations, the covenant he commanded, 16 The same one he made with Abraham, the very one he swore to Isaac; 17 He posted it in big block letters to Jacob, this eternal covenant with Israel: 18 “I give you the land of Canaan, this is your inheritance; 19 Even though you’re not much to look at, a few straggling strangers.” 20 They wandered from country to country, camped out in one kingdom after another; 21 But he didn’t let anyone push them around, he stood up for them against bully-kings: 22 “Don’t you dare touch my anointed ones, don’t lay a hand on my prophets.” 23 Sing to God, everyone and everything! Get out his salvation news every day! 24 Publish his glory among the godless nations, his wonders to all races and religions. 25 And why? Because God is great – well worth praising! No god or goddess comes close in honor. 26 All the popular gods are stuff and nonsense, but God made the cosmos! 27 Splendor and majesty flow out of him, strength and joy fill his place. 28 Shout Bravo! to God, families of the peoples, in awe of the Glory, in awe of the Strength: Bravo! 29 Shout Bravo! to his famous Name, lift high an offering and enter his presence! Stand resplendent in his robes of holiness! 30 God is serious business, take him seriously; he’s put the earth in place and it’s not moving. 31 So let heaven rejoice, let earth be jubilant, and pass the word among the nations, “God reigns!” 32 Let Ocean, all teeming with life, bellow, let Field and all its creatures shake the rafters; 33 Then the trees in the forest will add their applause to all who are pleased and present before God – he’s on his way to set things right! 34 Give thanks to God – he is good and his love never quits. 35 Say, “Save us, Savior God, round us up and get us out of these godless places, So we can give thanks to your holy Name, and bask in your life of praise.” 36 Blessed be God, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Then everybody said, “Yes! Amen!” and “Praise God!” ` “The Message”

Kindness and The Ungrateful

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scully's blog spot

I’ve been rereading Aesop’s Fables. How true they are.

The Farmer and The Snake

One winter a Farmer found a snake stiff and frozen with cold. He had compassion on it, and taking it up, placed it in his bosom. The snake was quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural instinct, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound. “Oh,” cried the Farmer with his last breath, “I am rightly served for pitying a scoundrel.”

The greatest kindness will not bind the ungrateful.