Month: January 2022

Writers are often encouraged to write about what they know.  So here is something that I know…

Last week I was sick.  So sick that I couldn’t even write my blog.  I spent a week in bed, being just about as miserable as I have ever been.   Being sick is never a good thing.  It’s hard on the ones who are sick, and it’s hard on the people who are trying to take care of them.  Being sick prevents us from doing the things that we need to do as well as the things that we want to do.  Being sick interferes with our lives.  It stomps on our plans, it ruins our days, it is a burden.   All of this I know quite well from my recent experience.  But I also learned some things – or perhaps re-learned some things…

The present-day state of the world has complicated many factors in our lives, not the least of which is our health.  If someone gets sick now-a-days, often panic ensues.  And because of society’s constant rhetoric, the most negative conclusions might be drawn.  The climate of fear that is so prevalent today can permeate people’s minds with such thoughts of uncertainty, that they end up expecting the worst.    However, God is the healer of all manner of sickness regardless of the label that we put on it.  It is only in our finite minds that we qualify sicknesses by our perception of their curability.  To Almighty God, there is no difference.  It doesn’t matter to Him if we are a little sick or a lot sick, the principles of healing still apply, and we can get better.  We must not lose sight of this truth because many times, it is our saving grace. 

As Christians well acquainted with the power of prayer and of the promises of God, we must not allow doubt to creep in and rob us of God’s healing.  But it isn’t always easy to stay positive when we are hurting.  When I am sick, I can find myself thinking more about how bad I feel than remembering the goodness of God.  Even on healthy days, we battle to keep our minds stayed on God.  Add to that the distraction of being sick, and our thoughts can easily drift into a less than positive attitude. 

But that is where the family of God comes in.  When our family hears that we are sick, a marvelous thing happens.  They begin to pray.  Their care for us is roused and they begin to believe with us for healing.   I may be in the throngs of feeling sorry for myself and wondering if I’m ever going to get better, but knowing that someone is praying for me, brings me comfort.  I may fail miserably at helping myself, but the family is there to pick up the slack.  And this shouldn’t surprise us because the Bible says that God set us in the body of Christ as it has pleased Him.  God is well aware of our limitations.  He knows that being sick can not only ravage our bodies but can also discourage us and make us afraid.  So He put us in a family that can be strong for us when we need it.  A family whose care for us flourishes when we are at our weakest. 

Having recently been on the receiving end of that kind of prayer, I know that I want to be on the giving end more and more.   I want to give back to the family who so generously gave to me.  I want to be the one who says, “Here am I, Lord.  Send me.”  When we are sick, our thoughts are of necessity mostly on ourselves.  I want my thoughts to be on helping others.  I want to be the first in line to rejoice with someone at their victory. 

To conclude, I know that being sick stinks!  I know that God is able and willing to heal us no matter what our ailment.  I know that I’m thankful to be in the family of God surrounded by wonderfully caring individuals who pray and believe.  I know that feeling good after being sick is one of the best feelings in the world.  And I know that I love you.

Note to my readers:  You are very important to me.   I am thankful to have you in my life.  Thanks for reading! 

Time is the strangest thing.  It can move at a snail’s pace or at the speed of light.  Something that happened last month can feel like it occurred eons ago.  And memories of our childhood may seem like only yesterday.  I know that God set up the law of time and that it is an unchangeable constant, but our perception of time is another story. 

For instance…  When I’m making dinner, and in a hurry, why does the pasta water take forever to boil?  But when I want to have a leisurely cup of tea, the water boils instantly.  What about the time it takes for me to run back into the house for something I forgot before we leave?  It’s only a moment for me, but it’s an hour delay for my husband.  And the years, what of them?  How could it be 2022? I’m still catching up 2020, let alone 2021! I often say that for any given month, it starts on the 1^st and the next day is the 30^th.  What happens to all the days in between?  I have no idea.  They just seem to disappear.

Time can be our enemy or our friend depending on how we look at it.

Especially for women, time is often viewed like an unwanted houseguest.  Time translates into aging, and aging into wrinkles.  How often do we look in the mirror and only see those wrinkles?  Why can’t we view them as gauges of the wisdom that we’ve gained over the years? We are older yes, but we’re also wiser!  We may have wrinkles on our faces, and our bodies may not be as firm as they used to be.  We may have aches and pains that we didn’t have before.  But we can still celebrate our longevity!  We can appreciate the passage of time for all the opportunities it has afforded us to grow and flourish.  Have you ever said, “I wish I knew then what I know now”?  Time afforded you the opportunity to know what you know now. 

I think of my career.  I worked for 19 years at my last job from which I retired.  I liked my job, and I was good at it.  I made good friends.  I learned A LOT!  I had many wonderful experiences – and some very difficult ones.  Do you know why all those things were possible?  TIME.  I sought to do my job to the best of my ability.  I labored to master the skills required of me.  But no matter how hard I worked, and no matter how meticulously I performed, I could not have accomplished everything I did without the passage of time. 

I’m proud of my career.  I didn’t make any life-changing advances for mankind, but I did all my jobs with honesty and integrity, and for that I was respected.  Time gave me experience and that experience gave me worth.  Anyone can do a good job for one day.  But someone who does a good job for an extended period of time is a valuable asset.  So, I guess I can say that “time was on my side”.

Think about this…  I love, love, love my children and grandchildren.  Did you ever consider that time is a factor for having children?  Beyond the obligatory 9 months of pregnancy, time was necessary for me to become old enough to have children.  Then there was time involved for my children to become old enough to have their children.  Without that time, there would be no children or grandchildren.

And the passage of time influences our relationships with our children and grandchildren.  I loved having babies that I could hold and cuddle.  But in time, those babies grew-up and my relationship with them changed.  It’s pretty hard to hold and cuddle my teenage grandchildren. And I’m not sure that I want any of them to sit on my lap. Even the youngest ones are too big to pick up now!   But their being older gives me a chance to have wonderful conversations with them and to have fun playing games with them.  As for my children – they are adults now with lives of their own.  How wonderful it is to communicate with them as fellow adults!  TIME made these things available. 

But time does have a dark side.  When we are hurting, time seems to stand still.  When our heart is broken or we’re in pain, a moment seems like a day and a day seems like a year.  In those situations, time appears to be our enemy.  But I was taught that, “time heals all wounds”.  Often, the passage of time is what’s needed to facilitate our recovery. 

I had a torn rotator cuff several years ago.  It was a painful and debilitating condition.   And the residual pain from the corrective surgery was intense.  Recovery took TIME.  Enduring the pain was difficult, but I reminded myself that it would pass in time.  And indeed, it did.  I couldn’t make the time go faster, but I could patiently pursue a positive outcome.  And at the times of discouragement or set-backs, I could regroup by reminding myself that someday I’d look back on this time as a distant memory. 

When we are faced with hardships, we can remember that time can change things.  “Time marches on” and because of that, change is inevitable.  Of course, I’m not saying that time itself is the healer, but time is often necessary for the healing process. 

As I mentioned at the beginning, God set up the law of time.  That law makes it impossible to go backward in time, and we can only move forward as time allows.  Therefore, it behooves us to make the best of our time right now.  We can’t relive the past, but we can learn from it.   We can’t jump into the future, but we can prepare for it.    

Why not make TIME our friend?  Consider the past as a constructive contribution to who we are in the present.  Do away with ideas like regret or guilt.  The past cannot be changed, so those ideas are merely a waste of time.  Make peace with the mistakes of the past.  (We all have them!)  Hold on to the learning that you gained from them.  Keep the past in the past.

Consider the future to be “as bright as the promises of God”.   Regardless of what is going on in our lives right now, the future is going to happen because “time waits for no man”.  And for Christians, our future is guaranteed.  As my teacher used to say, “We’re going to heaven and all hell can’t stop us from going!”

Time may elude us or weigh us down.  It might seem like there is never enough of it, or like we’re stuck in endless tedium.  We may wish we could have a do-over or yearn for future events.  But that’s all in our perception.  Time is a constant.  When we strip away all the trappings, we have only this very moment in time to live.  Let’s do our best to make this moment count! 

Note to my readers:  Thank you for sharing your time with me.  Thanks for reading! 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines pessimism as: “an inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities or to expect the worst possible outcome”.  My friend, ‘Merriam’ also says that pessimism is a doctrine; “the doctrine that reality is essentially evil”, and “the doctrine that evil overbalances happiness in life”.  Although I find those doctrines rather appalling, they show me that some people have such an inclination to expect the worst, that it can become their way of life.  However, I understand the process because I was taught that practicing error long enough eventually becomes doctrine. 

Perhaps you know someone who always sees the glass half-empty.  Someone who takes a negative view of every situation, who can put a cynical spin even on good news.  These folks are pessimistic and generally unhappy.  Why?  The short answer is that they choose to be so.  But we know that there is usually more to the story than short answers. 

It is likely that these people may have suffered hardships and disappointments in their lives, maybe multiple times.  Their experiences have fostered an attitude of pessimism.  It has become easier for them to expect bad things rather than hope for good things and be disappointed.  This kind of thinking often starts with an attitude of self-preservation.  People feel that they can’t endure any more disappointments, so they build a wall of pessimism around themselves. But unfortunately, that reaps pessimistic results, so they are discouraged and the cycle repeats. 

Another cause may be wrong teaching.  Someone’s parents or a trusted teacher might have a pessimistic attitude and that influences them.  Even some churches teach that adverse happenings in one’s life are necessary for building humility.  These ideas can permeate people’s thinking and lead them down a negative path. 

Now, let’s look at optimism.  The MW dictionary defines optimism as: “an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome” and “a doctrine that this world is the best possible world”.  Interestingly, optimism is also a doctrine, which means that people can practice it long enough that it becomes their way of life, their doctrine. 

Do you know anyone who is optimistic?  Are you optimistic?  Do you see the glass half-full?  Do you have a positive attitude toward life despite its disappointments?  Do you expect a favorable outcome in adverse situations?  Why?  Again, the short answer – because you choose to do so. 

Optimistic people experience hardships and disappointments just like pessimistic people but choose a different path to deal with them.  They refute the negatives rather than accept them.  They expect a positive outcome in spite of discouragement.  Their positive expectations produce positive results.  And for the most part, they are happy people. 

Pessimism and optimism are direct opposites.  They oppose each other.  Their effects are at opposite ends of the spectrum.  Even their definitions contrast one another. 

The world is full of opposites – light and dark, good and bad, up and down, yes and no, day and night, the list goes on.  I should note that in practice, some of these opposites may mingle.  For example, an optimistic person may be pessimistic in a particular situation.  A ‘yes’ answer may carry a ‘no’ stipulation in it.  Even day and night meet at dusk.  

Sometimes opposites fluctuate.  We can be up one day and down the next.  We can feel good, or we can feel bad.  These are not constants.  But there are two opposites in life that never mingle and are always constant – the one true God and the devil.  God is all light, and the devil is all darkness – they never mix – ever!  Light always dispels darkness – always!  Even a lit match in a dark room can be easily seen.  Think of how tiny fireflies’ lights are.  Yet those tiny specks of light dazzle us on warm summer nights.

We Christians live such an interesting dynamic in this day and time.  The devil is called the god of this world because he essentially stole that authority from Adam.  We are in this world, but we are not of this world and therefore we are not subject to the devil’s rules.  Pessimism is one of his rules.  We don’t need to be subject to it, but we may be bothered by it.  We may find ourselves with pessimistic thoughts from time to time.  But the marvelous thing is that we can choose to change those thoughts. With a knowledge of God and His Word, we have the ability to put new and unique thoughts in our minds.  Thoughts that are contrary to worldly rules and can override them.  Thoughts of what God says.

Now the devil may have the authority to run the place, but God still owns the earth, so there is still inherent goodness in the world. (I Corinthians 10:26). Nature, love, laughter, and music are some examples.  Therefore, optimism is present, even for those who don’t know God.  People can be optimistic and receive the benefits of their optimism, but the world dissuades it.  Have you ever heard the term Pollyanna? It comes from a 1913 novel of the same name by Eleanor H. Porter.  The world’s depiction of Pollyanna is “someone who is blindly optimistic about every situation, sometimes to the point of foolishness. The term is typically used in a negative way, to describe someone who cannot think about the more serious ramifications of various situations.”  That viewpoint appears to be designed to discourage people from being optimistic.   Personally, I don’t know how anyone can be optimistic without being able to cling to the positives of God’s Word, but I guess some are. 

Not only is the Bible light and truth, but it is full of edification, exhortation, and comfort.  God is aware that we are surrounded by negative worldly influences.  He knows that we must battle those influences in our minds every day.  So, He calls out to us with words of loving support.  He builds us up.  He strengthens us with encouragement.  He has equipped us with everything we need to win the battle. 

As we face all the opposites in the world around us, let’s do our best to choose the positive ones.  Let’s seek the goodness of God and refuse to be intimidated by the world’s opposition.  in fact, let’s be the opposite of the world. Let’s be totally light and shine in the darkness for all to see.

Note to my readers:  Ignore the world and stay optimistic!  Thanks for reading! 

P.S.  I call the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “my friend” because we visit almost every day!  We have a close working relationship!  😊