- Not The Only One!
- . Post #105
- 23 Nov 23
- ” Cussing and Praying “
- Howdy,
- Happy Thanksgiving, well at least I hope that it is a happy one. I was wondering as to what inspires people and what makes them feel really vulnerable? There are always cheap and easy answers to those questions. I could be inspired by a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and I could be made to feel vulnerable by that very same ice cream making me feel fat☺️☺️. There are roads less traveled, but we usually do the easy thing the safe thing, the none sequential thing. How did we get here? Where is here?
- We have become a nation of cowards. We sit silent on the sidelines, while our kids are being indoctrinated into something that barely resembles anything that we knew as children ourselves. We fear terrorists attacks. We are indebt, way over our heads. We are so over medicated, and almost everyone is dealing with some level of depression and or anxiety. We don’t experience peace and joy in our lives, because we are constantly seeking some false sense of happiness that we can post on social media…yeah!!!, look at me! We have more and more people checking out of the work environment and simultaneously more and more help wanted signs are hung on doors all across the country. I keep hearing about the gig economy, which makes complete no sense to me. Why would someone want to work a bunch of part-time jobs, given the choice, over plugging into something full time and stable with some benefits. There is a whole generation out there, that we have just straight up FAILED!!! We need to simply own that, but in order to own that, we have to admit culpability and our own short comings.
- I believe that we are all born and hardwired for struggle and adversity. Life is so much more than that, but at its root, we struggle and seek to overcome adversity. Most parents want good things for their children. We want them to be successful and to do well, they don’t have to set the world on fire, but it would be great if they were a functioning part of society. We wanted our kids to have more, to do more and to be more than we were. It doesn’t matter what the measure of standard is, we just want them to be the next level. If I’m a lawyer in private practice, then I dream about my kid being a judge and why not a supreme court judge, while we are at it☺️☺️. This is a different kind of make a wish program ☺️☺️.
- Previous generations worked really hard and that was built into them and they believed in the “American Dream “. I believe and have seen, that all to many times we have removed the struggle from our kids and a lot of the adversity as well. We have made it to easy for them. We have some where along the way forgotten that those are things used to make us stronger and sharper as individuals. We are raising a generation of people who want to do Uber eats and door dash, just to make enough money to buy beer and cigarettes and don’t forget the all important pot.☺️☺️ They spend their time playing video games in the basement and for many, the American Dream is to wait for the parents to croak to own a home. When did we stop dreaming and inspiring and wishing for our kids to be strong and independent? How did we become so soft as a nation?
- I am a second generation military service family, and I know that there are many who are multi generational families of service and some have not broken that chain since the first world War. I’m one of an increasing number of people who doesn’t encourage my children to be the next generation to step up and serve. It is a privilege to serve and an honor, and I greatly appreciate those who do, but for myself, I just don’t trust our government, there I said it! I have very little faith in people who didn’t and wouldn’t serve themselves, to send our sons and daughters off to places where they have no personal place of reference. We are just broken as a nation, we are arrogant and hated by a world that we feel obligated to police. We are a laughing stock as we fight amongst ourselves about diversity, gender and who get to use what bathrooms☺️☺️. We are all about inclusion and corporations have lost their minds in what to say and do, just to make sure that their profits aren’t litigated away from their shareholders. It’s a free for all. We can watch trash TV and bury our heads in the sand about the national debt. We are so lonely and isolated. We are so starved for attention and yet so afraid to be vulnerable and to speak truth to dying and hurting people. We would much rather pretend that everything is just honky dory, when we know that it’s not.
- Back in the nineties, during the Clinton area, there was something known as wag the dog, and yes I know that it went back much earlier than that, but it was a time when it was just so obvious. I wish that I could say that it was an isolated period in time, but it was not and it is what we see rapidly consuming our culture today. The few, the proud, the brave, and I’m not talking about Marines here, have become the megaphone for our country, while the majority of our country just sits quietly and let the nation just slowly slip beneath the water just like the Titanic. There was a time when truth was in fashion and not just in fashion, but it was spoken from the top. We had moral leadership in our government, in our universities and in our churches, but no more! Everyone has their own self serving truth and if it accidentally ends up in some presidential speech, it either ended up there by someone who knew no better or it was opportunistic to make a point.
- I will go back to my beginning here and talk about being vulnerable and understanding that we are not always right, and whether we are right or wrong, we don’t have the right to stuff it down someone’s else’s throat. See, this is where we are now, there is no discord, it’s agree with me or shut the hell up. When did we become so rude, that we couldn’t even listen to another person’s opinion?. If we are screaming at the top of our lungs, how are we going to hear them trying to warn us that the bridge is out just a head? We are battered, and we are vanquished by media, by government and the culture of telling us that right is wrong and that perversity rules the day. I can see a civil war coming again for us, but it’s not going to be the left against the right, it’s not even going to be about conservativism against liberalism. It won’t be about the political correct against the none political correct, or any other of these things that deeply divide us, as in pro choice and the pro lifers, no!, it’s going to be about something so much more fundamental and that is about truth! We will have to take a step back and see and say what is really true. I know it sounds crazy, but can a man be pregnant?, really? I think that the vast majority of people know the answer to that, yet somehow there is still a debate about that….ok, but I can think of better ways to waste my time and brain cells, after all it’s getting to be bowl season ☺️☺️. I’m not going to pick that scab, but it’s just one of many, and yet we entertain the stupidity of the idea. I have said before that certain things are just indefensible, so whether it’s the latest stupid thing out of Trump’s mouth, or men birthing babies, what’s the point. I know that we all enjoy the occasional low hanging fruit, but come on now!!
- Today is a day set aside for giving thanks, which for me is a little bit of a oxymoron, because each day that you wake up and draw breath, should be a day of Thanksgiving. It’s a kin to that day in May, set aside to recognize mothers, and we know that should be everyday as well ☺️☺️. There is a connection between Truth and Thanksgiving, and that is to whom and for what are we giving thanks? Perhaps you are someone who is dealing with some health crisis and weren’t sure that you would make it to this part of the year and you are deeply thankful for that. We all know of people who were here last year, but this year is just an empty chair. I believe that we are all thankful for something or at least should have something to be thankful for, even if it was a ridiculously hard year. It may have been hard, but you are still here, maybe not as strong, and maybe not even standing, but you are here. I’m always talking about and reflecting on perspectives and a lot can be determined about our health and mental well-being, by how we perceive things. There was just a story about a tree that fell on a house up In Plymouth, Massachusetts, on Wednesday and the caption read “something not to be thankful for”, but be thankful for all of the other things such as no injuries or any real damage to the house, so it really is about perspective.
- I’m not really a country bumkin, but I’m a city slicker who moved to the country life style and just found it much more agreeable. I like to think of country people as simple people, not less in their intelligence, but in their pretenses, just basic and to the point, and often without the fluff which many of us are accustomed to and it just makes us feel more comfortable to beat around the bush about , than to just come right out with it. If it helps any, just think of it as rubber meeting the road☺️☺️. So, here we go, to whom and for what are you thankful for this year ? I’m not going to go into a long list of new baby, new jobs, new homes and all that I like to call the circumstantial. When you close your eyes and take a deep breath, where do you go and who do you meet with? What secrets do you whisper to God, that you may not share with another single soul? What ounce of strength are you grateful for, that you just didn’t know was within you? And how many things did you worry about , which never came to fruition? In my country bumkin way, I’m asking, are you only recognizing the authority of God on this one set apart day? If God is God , and all that He says about Himself, not what others say about Him, He can speak for Himself, and if that is true, again, back to truth☺️, what place does He hold and operates in your life? If God is God ,and we are not, doesn’t He command that kind of awe and reverence? The cliche is , is God in the pilot seat or is He the co pilot, and if He is the co pilot, never take off your seat belt, because the ride may be bumper than need be☺️☺️.
- Earlier I talked about being vulnerable and that’s a huge umbrella for catching a bunch of different things. Most of us have some kind of shame and some little secret sin, that is just our very own and we don’t really want God to meddle with it, be it over eating, gossiping , porn, or being dismissive to our spouse. You know what it is and you can name it. We hide insecurities of feeling that we are just not enough. We aren’t enough at work, or at home, I’m insufficient at meeting the needs of my husband, or am I a good dad, I work to much . I’m not a great child because I don’t spend more time with my aging parents, knowing that they won’t always be around and I have no idea as to how much I’m going to miss them once they are gone. I don’t know about you but just struggling with priorities. Do I go to support the grandchildren who are playing sports on a Sunday morning, or do I go worship God . There shouldn’t be a dilemma here, but we feel the pressure of being in the middle. We want our kids to get it, but they have forged a path of their own and we can’t but wonder if we failed them somehow. I mean if we are going to really talk about being vulnerable, then we have to talk about whether or not that we even believe that God hears our prayers and wants to answer them. Am I the only one who desperately wants to hear God’s voice, but just can’t sit still long enough in the quiet to hear Him speak? I may not know what You are going through, but we are all going through something, and that even goes for the people whom seem to have it all together, because they don’t, purely window dressing ☺️☺️. I could be arrogant this Thanksgiving and turn it on its head, and show my true Pharisee genes and talk about my relationship with God, but I’m not that proud and in my heart of hearts, my heart breaks for those who do not have the peace of knowing God. If you only think about and talk to God when things are not going well or some crisis, or heaven forbid, just on some random holiday such as today, or Christmas or Passover, then, you should be spiritually starved, and even the worse news maybe that you are on life support and completely unaware of it.
- I’m not the grim reaper, nor do I want to be the barer of bad news. I started this off with some pretty unsettling things to say the least. And the world is crazy and it gets just a little bit more crazier by the second, not by the day, but every second, there is something more ridiculous than the last thing☺️☺️. I really don’t have a problem with people wanting to believe and do stupid things, just don’t expect for me to keep up with your latest pronoun confusion, and don’t expect for me to throw truth out of the window so that you can feel better about yourself, I’m sorry if your parents didn’t love you enough or in the right way . I’m sorry if that sounds harsh , but truth is not always soft, warm and fuzzy, actually often it can be very messy, to speak it and acknowledge it in just a sea of Irrelevance, dysfunctional information and in a culture that is a free for all. It’s like Woodstock lives on☺️☺️, if it feels good, then just do it and no one has the right to oppose or say anything against it. We can continue down this road, and the only thing we will be able to be thankful for is God’s patience and long suffering with a crooked and perverted people. . The battle is coming and it will absolutely be over what is true and what is not. It scares me to think about a world that doesn’t not believe in absolutes or in truth, and as I have said before, I can disbelieve in the law of gravity, but I’m still subject to it…just a thought that’s all. If you are always told about how frail and sensitive that you are, that is who you will become. People give up because they are told that they are some how less than, don’t believe that, and don’t let that become you.
- Today enjoy the festivities and family, the food, the deserts, and of course the football, but don’t loose sight of living in the most free and once upon a time the greatest nation there ever was, not so sure about that one any more. In all of the turmoil of life, it seems that we are either Cussing or praying, sometimes at one another, and sometimes we are cursing God in our praying ☺️☺️. Give God thanks for all that You have in your life, and remember that even in the really, really hard and painful things that God is still working, so even though you may not see it , feel it or even believe it , He is working all things, not somethings, but all things for your good and for His glory .
- HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
- Till Next Time ✌️ Peace!
- Sandy The Southerner
- Reply
- ,
- Reply All
- or
- Forward
Send
