Cre8iveSpirit

Monday, February 27, 2012     
 ~* Life Lessons For a Rainy Day in Georgia*~

Pat, pat....pitter, pitter, pat....tweet!  Mmm, its nice wakin' up to a rainy (really rainy) Monday morning in Southern Georgia (when I don't have to go anywhere!) I wish mornings like this lasted all day long! Today I choose to just stay in my jammies and slippers 'til noon, and have my coffee by my side! Sit in my chair and read my Bible...and oh, yeah...I wanna' share with you what I have learned! (If you don't have time to read the whole lesson skip down to the 2nd to the last parragraph where I sum it all up in 3 short sentences!!!) & come back and visit when you have more time!

I home school my son, and while I have learned that I can not force him to be successful at anything, I can be a good encourager. I encourage him very strongly to get out of the bed daily, and get on school. Then I get to go to my quiet place and sit with my Bible and my coffee and read, study and learn from HOLY SPIRIT. I am so blessed. I get to meet with the MAKER OF THE UNIVERSE every day, and HE is actually waiting for me...HE is jealous of me, of my time and of what I focus my attention on... oh, how HIS LOVE is intimate and I am so sure of it.

While growing up, my father taught me that when I am not sure what to read in my Bible I should always turn to the Proverbs. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs and never more than 31 days in a month, so it is a perfect place to start each day if you have no other plan to follow. Since today is the 27th, I am reading Proverbs the 27th chapter.  I usually read from my "Life Recovery Bible" in the New Living Translation, because GOD's word is better than any 12 step program out there! I know that it is important to have accountability, and I have been through some Bible studies and counseling programs that offer me that accountability, just to make sure that I am keepin' it real!!!

So today's verse that hit me right in thinker was Proverbs 27:3 "A stone is heavy and sand is weighty, but the resentment caused by a fool is even heavier..."

I'll spare ya' the gory details of why that verse hit me so hard today, but let me suffice it to say, I am daily in the presence of foolish people. Some times the fool is me. Sometimes the fools are the ones I do life with. Honestly, I hate to think of people as foolish, but ignoring reality itself is foolish. The Bible defines a fool in a lot of ways, and Proverbs is a great place to learn those definitions. I am where I am, because of the choices I have made. While I do not feel like I am "stuck"... I have to just deal with what I've got...and let me just say this with love...(because I choose love) I married a foolish man when I myself was in a very foolish season of my young adult life. I was not obeying GOD, and I landed myself in a difficult marriage....People tried to warn me, but I would not listen...I did not heed the creepy, goofy signs that read, "TURN BACK NOW!"... 20 years later, we are still married. One thing is for certain: We do love each other, we just don't always perfom that love with perfect execution!!! We both fail, but we are committed to this marriage. Divorce is NOT an option. I am a tough minded optimist, while he is a tough minded pessimist... I know that sounds harsh, but really, it is a fact... at least for now.... he'll learn!

I am an open and blatantly honest person, for one simple reason... I hope that by sharing my life (which includes my foolish mistakes) openly and honestly I can process what I am learning. Not only for my benefit, but also for the benefit of anyone who is willing to share some of this journey with me and listen to what I have learned. I am a teacher. Not a traditional teacher, but I have learned a lot of life's lessons...some the hard way, and some were just mercifully easy. Marriage has not been easy, but it is worth it. (Honestly, somedays I don't want to admit that, though because it really is just so hard.) But it is a choice. Love is a choice. Marriage is a choice. Life is not easy, but one thing I am certain of: LOVE NEVER FAILS!

I have also learned that family, and friends are an important help in life recovery. We need people. We can not live a healthy life bricked up behind walls of resentment, brought on by a fool. Sometimes, I feel like I am carrying a back pack full of bricks, of sticks and stones that threaten to break my bones...and by the way words really can hurt me, if I let them. I remember telling people that rhyme as a child, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but your words WILL never hurt me!" Thank GOD I have learned that I can take authority over the words people have tried to hurt me with. People have tried curse me, or call me names or threaten me, and I stood there with my hand upon my hip shoutin', "I'm rubber you're glue, whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you..." I do really have the faith of a little child! Thank GOD! I have learned three little words that are life changing: "let it go."

We all have a deep need for love, intimacy and security. Even though I am married, my spouse does not fill the deepest needs I have for love, intimacy and security. GOD does. If I expected my husband to fill those empty places, I would be left extremely disappointed. We may have taken the long road to a happy marriage, but we're "gettin' there".  We are recovering from an unhealthy relationship with each other, by the Grace of GOD. Anything is possible with GOD, but NOTHING AND NO ONE CAN REPLACE GOD. If we do not fill our needs with GOD's love, intimacy and security, then what we choose to fill ourselves with instead are a drug. "As time passes we will need more and more of our "drugs" of choice to make us feel good, and we will gradually become enslaved to our impulses." (Life Recovery Bible, page 816 notes from Proverbs 27:20)

I tried a lot of illegal drugs about 20 years ago. Some how I thought that drugs, alchohol and unhealthy relationships could be a part of my life and I could manage to still make life work.  Of course it could not work, it goes against GOD's plan! When problems naturally came with that lifestyle...broken relationships, pain and suffering, trouble with the law in the form of speeding tickets...I really got off easy when it came to not getting what I deserved. I never got caught in the worst of my sins, I got by with so much... that was the danger... but I did not have to pay the price for my sins, thank GOD.

It was not until after I was married and pregnant with my first child that I realized that somewhere, I took a wrong turn. At the time I was in "party mode" I felt like the party life was really living, but it only left me always wanting more and never feeling satisfied. Now that desire for more, more, more happens when I go after GOD too, but unlike Mick Jagger...
...I can get some satisfaction! Being satisfied in GOD is such a blessing when it happens that it is way better than any illegal drug high I have ever been on... and then of course I want more, more, more of HIM!!! With God, instead of feeling empty of love and peace but full of shame and guilt I am the opposite. I am enjoying peace and love... and in HIM there is no shame, guilt or condemnation. Filling those 3 needs for love, intimacy and security with anything but GOD were a mistake. It didn't work! I hope someone out there can relate to what I am saying here, and turn around before it is too late. Living La Vida Loca is dangerous, and some people never make it out. Living on the edge of a slippery slope is not wise. Eventually you fall in the pit, but often you do not even realize it before you are already so deep in it that it is really, really hard to get back out. Why is is that curious people usually do not heed the creepy signs that read,  "TURN BACK NOW"? Is it because they seem so goofy? Is it because they don't think the rules apply to them? Or maybe they think they can handle whatever jumps out at them? Or they like the thrill of the anxious feelings of rebellion? What~Ever!!! A slippery slope is a slippery slope, and people who fall in are just being stupid! I was.

I was raised in a loving home, and this year my parents will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Their love is healthy. Their marriage is healthy because they BOTH put GOD first. While they can not imagine life with out the other, they are not sinfully addicted to one another, like many relationships today are. They enjoy each other's company and they are best friends. They are a perfect example of a great marriage, and I honor them for their committed love for one another. They have disagreements, but they have learned to work through them in love. I am so blessed to be a product of love! But in reality, EVERYONE is a product of love, no matter what environment you were raised in or what ennvironment you currently find yourself in...GOD produced you, HE created you and you are so loved by HIM. HE wants more than anything for you to know and experience HIS love, intimacy and security... it begins with your faith, and it grows as you spend time with HIM and in HIS word daily. You would die if you did not eat food. GOD's Word is likened to food, it is often called "Daily Bread".  Ooh, I love bread and HIS Daily Bread is carb. free!!! So you can fill up on it with no worries. What it will do for you is make you strong emotionally and spiritually. The health benefits are miraculous!

So, if you skipped to this point, I have learned to FORGIVE! Let it go! I choose to let go of the "resentment caused by a fool" beacuse it is too heavy for me to carry!

I need to get on with my day now...go do something creative and make sure that my little boy is doing his schoolwork. Have a blessed day, and check back here again soon at www.cre8ivespirit.blogspot.com  for another helping of daily Bread! If you want to subscribe you can do that somewhere on a sidebar of this page to get this blog sent directly to your inbox daily... (or whenever I get the chance to do a new post!) My intention is to post several times a week, at least! If I can do this daily I will...taking one day off for rest of course! Which reminds me...have you thanked GOD for the commandment to rest one day per week?  What a blessing that Sabbath day of rest is !!! Woo hoo, Yay, GOD!