"In God We Trust"

Every once in awhile I get an email which promises a miracle will happen in my life if I send it to others. I usually like what the messages contain, but since it’s just like a chain letter, it always bothers me and I know I’m not the only one.

Below is one such email that has a very uplifting and inspirational message, but because it had that chain mail ending, I deleted that part.

Since God is a part of our exchange of money, it makes mw wonder why some people, who don’t believe in God and want Him removed from our schools and the government, are so judgmental, when I’m sure even the non-believers don’t have a problem with getting paid when they have worked hard for their “money”.

“In God We Trust”

You always hear the usual stories of pennies on the sidewalk being good luck, gifts from angels, etc. This is the first time I've ever heard this twist on the story. It will give you something to think about.

Several years ago, a friend of mine and her husband were invited to spend the weekend at the husband's employer's home. My friend, Arlene, was nervous about the weekend. The boss was very wealthy, with a fine home on the waterway, and cars costing more than her house. The first day and evening went well, and Arlene was delighted to have this rare glimpse into how the very wealthy live. The husband's employer was quite generous as a host, and took them to the finest restaurants. Arlene knew she would never have the opportunity to indulge in this kind of extravagance again, so she was enjoying herself immensely.

As the three of them were about to enter an exclusive restaurant that evening, the boss was walking slightly ahead of Arlene and her husband. He stopped suddenly, looking down on the pavement for a long, silent moment.

Arlene wondered if she was supposed to pass him. There was nothing on the ground except a single darkened penny that someone had dropped and a few cigarette butts.  Still silent, the man reached down and picked up the penny.

He held it up and smiled, then put it in his pocket as if he had found a great treasure. How absurd! What need did this man have for a single penny? Why would he even take the time to stop and pick it up?

Throughout dinner, the entire scene nagged at her. Finally, she could stand it no longer. She casually mentioned that her daughter once had a coin collection, and asked if the penny he had found had been of some value.

A smile crept across the man's face as he reached into his pocket for the penny and held it out for her to see. She had seen many pennies before! What was the point of this?

"Look at it." He said. "Read what it says."

She read the words " United States of America "

"No, not that; read further."

"One cent?"

"No, keep reading."

"In God We Trust?"

"Yes!"

"And?"

"And if I trust in God, the name of God is holy, even on a coin whenever I find a coin I see that inscription. It is written on every single United States coin, but we never seem to notice it! God drops a message right in front of me telling me to trust Him? Who am I to pass it by? When I see a coin, I pray, I stop to see if my trust is in God at that moment. I pick the coin up as a response to God; that I do trust in Him and I cherish it as if it were gold. I think it is God's way of starting a conversation with me. Lucky for me, God is patient and pennies are plentiful!

When I was out shopping today, I found a penny on the sidewalk. I stopped and picked it up, and realized that I had been worrying and fretting in my mind about things I cannot change. I read the words, "In God We Trust," and had to laugh. Yes, God, I get the message.

It seems that I have been finding an inordinate number of pennies in the last few months, but then, pennies are plentiful! And, God is patient.

Author Unknown

More thought for the day:

If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.

If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.

He sends you flowers every spring.

He sends you a sunrise every morning.

Face it, friend - God is crazy about you!

God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way..

If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it. 

Back to my personal blog…

As I was reading the above inspirational story, I remembered something I had heard throughout my life so I did a Google search using a few words and found exactly what I was looking for – an Irish prayer/blessing.

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

May God be with you and bless you:
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home
And may the hand of a friend always be near.

May green be the grass you walk on,
May blue be the skies above you,
May pure be the joys that surround you,
May true be the hearts that love you.

Mystery of the lost remote control…

If I had $1.00 for every time I lost something, I would be at least $500 richer by now. It’s not only frustrating trying to find the missing item, but I also have a really difficult time concentrating on doing other things.

After trying to find the remote control for our camcorder for over three weeks, I finally gave up, I searched the internet and discovered that it was available at eBay. Since my brother, Russ has bid and purchased everything from two vehicles, a snow blower and the saxophone for Abby, I asked him to go ahead and “Buy it now!!!” for me and I would reimburse him later.

I really wanted the remote control again, because it not only makes filming easier since you can zoom in and out with it, but setting up the camcorder with the menu settings is done by using the remote.

We haven’t used the camcorder for at least a year, but I thought the remote was in the house some where. On the other hand, we took it to a family reunion, so it may have been left behind. Then I figured, it was a “lost cause” to try and find it if it may not even be in the house.

Two days after Russ bought the remote control, I was lying in bed doing my morning bed exercises when I thought maybe it was in a box that was in the back utility room. Eureka, I was right! How it got there is a story all in itself.

In August 2008 when I had the first foot surgery, I stayed at the nursing home to have therapy and when I was ready to leave, they gave me some really nice boxes to pack my things in. When I got home, I was non-weight bearing for about five more months so my three wonderful brothers moved my office desk and chair into my bedroom and my bed was moved into my office so I could use my computer, watch TV and look out the window while I continued to recuperate.

I also purchased an over-the-bed hospital table so some of the small items that were originally on my desk, such as note pads, pens, books, mail and yes, remote controls, could set on the table. After I was able to walk again in January 2009 and the room furnishings were switched back, all of the small items that were on the hospital table were packed away in one of the nursing home storage boxes. I’m actually surprised that I even thought about the box, but like I said, when I lose something, I can’t stop thinking about it until I have found it and this time I had to rewind my memory back to a year ago. That’s actually pretty amazing for me to recall something that far back considering most of the time I can’t remember what I had for lunch and dinner the day before!!!

Trying to remember someone’s name is also frustrating, because I’m in the same predicament when I lose something; having a tough time focusing on other things.

For instance, one night several years ago before going to bed, I was trying to remember the names of my cousin, Nancy’s kids.  At the time Nancy and her husband Steve only had five kids, but now they have seven – so it’s surprising that I would even remember the incident, but it’s always stuck out in my mind. I got the first four kids right; Frank, Samantha, Chad, Maria and then I went blank. For about an hour, as I lay in bed, I went through the alphabet at least ten times, trying to remember her son's name by saying each letter. I finally gave up and the next morning I looked up his name in a family history book and believe it not, but his name started with an A. It was Adam.

Does your memory fail you at times and do you use tricks like going through the alphabet to try and remember things? If you do, then welcome to the club!

To be continued… the story of my life!

The Abby Show...

On December 31st, during Christmas vacation, my 10-year-old niece, Abby, came over and did a little performance in our living room. She wanted to do something for awhile, but with school and other family activities, this was the first chance we could find time to do it.

Abby created the ideas all on her own, and if I do say so myself, she did a really good job. The entire show was over 16 minutes, so I broke it down into three smaller shows for faster uploading. We used a Canon camcorder and I edited it with iMovie on my eMac.

The song for the opening credits includes one of Abby's favorites, Fireflies sung by Owl City. You can watch the music video here at Yahoo Music. You may want to pause the play button for about 30 seconds in order to give the video a chance to buffer and then click on play again.

The sponsors for Abby show were gifts which she received for Christmas and she wanted to share them with everyone. They include the Philips GoGear 4GB Vibe Mp3 Video Player, Project Runway Projector and the book, Diary of A Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney.

I hope you enjoy watching Abby's show as much as Abby, Rick and I enjoyed being a part of producing it.

Listen to your favorite songs for free...

I really enjoy music and over the past few years, country music has been one of my favorites. The two prerequisites that I have for a song is that it has an inspirational message or an upbeat tempo, and sometimes, if I'm lucky, it has both.

There's a website called Free Napster where you can listen to songs for free. Just click on the links below and go down the list to find the song that I have chosen. Or if you'd like to hear your own personal favorites, type the artists name in the search box, which is located at the upper left top of the page, and then click Go.

Martina McBride - Anyway

Shania Twain - From This Moment On

Billy Currington - That Changes Everything

Josh Turner - Long Black Train

Jimmy Wayne - I Love You This Much

Rascal Flatts - My Wish

The way I look at it, or I should say, hear it, music is a special gift that soothes the soul when life can get too hectic and we need to unwind and relax.

So listen to the music that you enjoy the most at Free Napster.

The Interview with God...

A friend sent me an email with a website link to watch the following video.

The Interview With GOD

The video has beautiful, soothing music playing in the background, amazing pictures of nature in all it's glory and powerful words that really makes you think about God's infinite wisdom.

I've watched it three times trying to absorb the messages, but since the video doesn't allow you to rewind and review what was just shown on the screen, I decided to type the transcript. I would encourage you to watch the video, because it's a wonderful production, but if you would also like to read the words at your own pace, they are as follows. When it comes right down to it, knowing that God loves us and is always there for us, is all that really matters in life.

THE INTERVIEW WITH GOD

I dreamed I had an INTERVIEW WITH GOD.

“So you would like to interview me?” GOD asked.

“If you have the time,” I said.

God smiled. “My time is eternity… what questions do you have in mind for me?”

“What surprises you most about humankind?”

God answered…

“That they get bored with childhood, they rush to grow up, and then long to be children again.”

“That they lose their health to make money… and then lose their money to restore their health.”

“That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live in neither the present nor the future.“

“That they live as if they will never die and die as though they had never lived.”

GOD’S hand took mine and we were silent for awhile.

And then I asked, “As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons you want your children to learn?”

“To learn they cannot make anyone love them. All they can do is let themselves me loved.”

“To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others.”

“To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.”

“To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in those they love, and it can take many years to heal them.”

“To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most, but is one who needs the least.”

“To learn that there are people who love them dearly, but simply do not yet know how to express or show their feelings.”

‘To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it differently.”

“To learn that it is not enough that they forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves.”

“Thank you for your time,” I said humbly. “Is there anything else you’d like your children to know?”

GOD smiled and said…

“Just know that I am here.”

“Always.”

Happy New Year!!!

If you're like me, you have no idea where 2009 went. I didn't get as much accomplished as I wanted - hopefully 2010 will be more productive. I seriously hope I can stick to the following resolutions longer than a week.

Here's my resolutions for 2010!

1. Be more optimistic and take one day at a time instead of always worrying about what the future might hold.
2. Stop procrastinating and make to-do-lists to help me get more things accomplished.
3. Do bed exercises every morning and try to stay in shape with walking throughout the day.
4. Gain some weight - hopefully 11 pounds by mid-March so I weigh at least 120 prior to having the right foot surgery.
5. Try to eat and maintain my weight after having the foot surgery.
6. Eat the foods I like, but still try to eat as much organic as possible. Since eating grains hasn't caused any arthritis flare-ups the past few months, I now know I can tolerate them. I still want to eat healthy snacks, but I'm not going to deny myself from eating them, even if they contain gluten grains. It's about time I relax and enjoy foods again. I'm tired of the Phase 1 diet, alkaline diet and food combining diet. I just want to enjoy food again as it was meant to be!!!
7. Thank God every day for giving me a terrific life and thank my family, especially my mom, for being so incredibly generous with their time and efforts with helping me every day. They have been so encouraging and supportive and I'm really fortunate to have them in my life!!!
8. I also really appreciate my friends, who have been my second family, also giving me the encouragement and support I needed when I was struggling to keep walking when I didn't think I could.
   

I'm sure there are more resolutions I could make, but for now, those are the basics so I'll stop and leave it at that.

A friend sent me an email with the following New Year's website to click on. It's really cute and will definitely bring a smile to your face so I hope you like it as much as I did. Happy New Year!!!

Teddy Bear wishes you a Happy New Year!!!