Cookie toss

Hey, I have a blog! I forgot, well sort of. I got up an hour before my alarm today because my middle daughter was throwing up. Not fun for anyone. I was trying to kill time just now and remembered I have a blog. Sorry I haven't kept up on it. The last time I posted was December so that means I have yet to write about my new venture- photography! I am very excited about taking pictures professionally. I am seeing a trend among friends getting into photography. I think it is because nice cameras are becoming more affordable but the other reason is more interesting. Our culture has shifted to a more visual culture. We want to 'see' everything now. My parents did not grow up like that. They had radio and books that required the use of an imagination, thats that concept of using your brain to think up pictures, you remember being a kid and using your imagination, right? I do. I don't know if kids still do that with TV and video games and computers etc. now days. It's kinda hard to imagine that things have changed that much since I was a kid but I guess they have. Anyway, the visualization of our culture is an interesting one. I don't know if any other culture in history has had this problem ( I call it a problem, maybe it is maybe its not). I have embraced it to a certain degree because I can profit from it so maybe I can't be objective when talking about whether it is right or wrong. I do feel that the process of making everything visual robs individuals of being able to use their imagination. I shot a wedding a couple weeks ago. I took a look at some of the pictures a couple days later and the memory of the day came right back, even some of the events I had forgotten I remembered because I saw some pictures. I think pictures from an event can have their own way of creating another reality of a day. Whether that is bad or good is up to the individual. I don't think that the visualization of our culture is necessarily bad it just depends on what you do with it. I also believe that we need to find other ways of developing our imaginations rather than having everything spoon fed to us.

Variety show!

Have you ever been to a variety show? I think our society should be divided up between those who have been and those who have not been to a variety show. I am a different person after experiencing one last night. I can't say I am a better person, my horizons have only been widened and wider is NOT always better, just take my word for it. We were given the ticket by someone that will remain nameless. The ticket was given to him by someone else. That should have been our first clue. No one wanted to go so "lets give it to someone who has never gone". There must be some club somewhere that people can join only if they have been to a variety show. They sit around and talk about their experience and make lists of people they can pawn off tickets to. It was a $35 dollar ticket. I was not about to let a $35 ticket go to waste. I mean if you can command $35 for your show you must be somewhat good, right? not necessarily! Some of you may be wondering what the show was like. I don't think I could explain it. You really have to experience it for yourself and if you give me your name and address I will put you on the list to recieve a free ticket when it is passed on to me. You might see these types of things on TV from time to time as you are flipping through the channels right between senior womens pro wrestling finals and the 'how to grow your own herb garden' show. One of the things that was more exciting than watching it on TV was that the first act was the hula hoop girl. Needless to say one of the hula hoops was launched into the audience and it was no surprise that when the plate twirling guy came out the custodian was waiting in the wings with a push broom, yeah, it was a good thing he was there. So, when someone offers you a 'variety show' ticket just say "no thanks, I have enough variety in my life" and walk away and if you don't have enough 'variety' in your life don't say I didn't warn you.
Poppy out.

I'm back...

I have not been able to post anything for a while bbbb (my "b" button is not working tonight) I have not been able to post anything for a while because we have been internetless for a while. We would never do this but a friend of mine was living next door to someone who had wireless internet. My friend was able to get on from his house and not have to get his own. Is that wrong? I think it probably is. He can't get on anymore because his neighbor moved away. Now he has to take his laptop outside in the middle of the street and hold the computer above his head and if he holds his breath and sticks a potato on his right pinky finger he can get another connection. One can only hope that the new neighbors have wireless!
We are thinking about getting a higher speed internet than the dialup that we have now. I am not really interested in paying 40 or more dollars a month for internet though. Gas is $3.03 here now. Speaking of money I heard about this family with seven kids that is debt free. That is really cool. That is one of my goals right now is to get debt free. You might think OK, the debt free family makes $100,000 and walks instead of drives a car...? Nope, they have made an average of $35,000 a year the last 20 years or so. Pretty amazing! There were several concepts that they go by. 1. Spend less than you make, kind of a no brainer there but I guess that is a real problem these days. 2. Avoid debt at all costs. You dont need a credit card. A debit card does everything a credit card does and has the same protection. 3. Learn to live frugally. this is a tough one for most of us. But I can see the beauty of freedom not being a slave to anyone is and I want that more than I want a bunch of stuff that I am either going to throw away soon or poop out later. I know I sound like I am a weirdo but I'm not as weird as I hope to be. I still buy stuff I shouldn't, I am not on a budget yet ( we are going to do that), and I am not as disciplined as I really want to be. I am making efforts in that direction of freedom. You should too.

someone should say something

I dont want to write just to fill up space but right now I feel like that is what I am doing. So if you have better things to do maybe you should go do them. If you leave right now and it will bother you the rest of the day wondering what comes next maybe you should read on.
Did you hear what is going on in the world right now? I just read that the U.S. has imposed sanctions on Iran. I told S. that within 7 days from right now things are going to get interesting. Now I dont know exactly what that means but with the kurds and the Turks fighting again and now for all intents and purposes the U.S. just declared war on Iran, things could get interesting REAL fast.
This next point is debatable but I have heard and would tend to agree with people that say America is not mentioned in the end times according to the Bible. How is it that basically, not being self centered here but, the world revolves around America. How is it that the Bible doesn't have anything to say about America as it relates to the end times? Is it that most of America will be raptured before the end times events get rolling? Some would say yes but I am not entirely sure. I am not the judge of peoples hearts but we USED to be a Christian nation, are we now? I don't think so. If we are a post-Christian nation how many Christians are there here? The other possibility short of the rapture is that something will happen to the U.S. and it's standing as the superpower will fall. There have been several prophecies about America losing electricity. I think that computer hackers could get into the national grid, (have you ever seen the movie sneakers when they tap into all of the high level sites?) anyway If that happened there could be a lot of damage done. Lets stop and not entertain fear but think about what your life would be like without electricity.... we would be watching TV in the dark!!!! How much of your life is dependant, even influenced by electricity? Do you have an emergency bag packed? end of American civilization or not its good to have one especially in the winter. Something to think about.
I certainly don't want to scare anyone. Worry is a waste of time. God will ALWAYS take care of us. GOD IS ALWAYS GOOD. These are exciting times and I am super glad to be living right now.
Be blessed and fear not!!
Poppy the electrician

Hashbrowns, oatmeal, and the best tasting bacon in a long time.

Monday mornings are our team meetings for work. We meet at the breakfast club and it is a meal that I look forward to every week. I know I shouldn't like it too much but sometimes that ol' mouth gets a-waterin' and I can't help it.

Yesterday I was talking about some of the choices or "roads" that are set before us throughout our life. Thank you for your comments. These tidbits are not meant to be a one way communication but more of a conversation starter. My uncle sent me a response to the last post and had some good things to say. One of them was that when we look at the choices set before us we need to understand that not all of them are set before us by God. The enemy likes to tempt us with tantelizing options. There are times too that we need to understand, God will put two options or "roads" in front of us and give us the choice to take one or the other. It won't be that one option is good and the other is bad. It will be that one is good and the other is God. What I mean by that is one road will be a perfectly good road. There will be good fruit that comes from it but the other road is the one that God REALLY wants us to take. This road is usually harder or at least looks that way, But the rewards far outweigh any of the other road's rewards. Look at David and Saul. There were plenty of times when David could have taken Saul's life AND BEEN JUSTIFIED in that decision. But David chose to take the high road and go God's BEST way. Well, how will we know what way is God's and what way is just good? That is where a close walk with God comes in. A daily walking with God to know what He is saying.

I cant take credit for these insights. I listened to a message from Kris Vallaton at ibethel.org. Check it out, really good stuff from him and Bill Johnson.
OUT!

I'll take the high road...

Here is a thought, correct me if I am wrong...
Today I was thinking and praying about what God wants us to do with our lives, as a family, and came to a conclusion. I don't know if it is true or not. I was thinking about the life choices that are set in front of us at any given time. Some of the "roads" are high and some are low. By that I mean some roads take a lot of faith, sacrifice, money, etc. and some roads are very easy, they don't require much sacrifice at all. I think that God gives us these choices to see what we will do with our lives. When we come to a cross road we get to choose what we are going to do. This is the realization I came to: When we choose what road we are going to take God gives us everything we need for that journey. If we take a road that takes 80 units of faith (whatever that is) and 20 units of money, then God will supply that exact amount when it is needed. But if we decide to take a road that requires 1000 units of faith and 10,000 units of money and we set ourselves to take that road then God provides THAT exact amount of resources when it is needed. The thing is that we have to decide what road we are going to take BEFORE God provides. He gives the provisions nessesary depending on the road chosen. One of the problems with this idea is that once we have chosen a road, maybe one that doesn't take a whole lot of effort on our part we see the exact provision of God in that particular situation and we can say " Ha, see, God only provided that amount so now I am justified in my decision." There is the possibility of saying "the resources didn't show up so that 'high road' wasn't the Lord's will for my life."
So if there is a fork in the road for you where you need to decide what road you are going to take look back and ask yourself what promises God has given you. Do any of those promises lead you to a particular road? Don't just go with the gut feeling of "this is what I want to do" God does give us the desires of our heart but really examine what the end result of each road would mean for you, as much as you can, and don't worry so much about what it will cost. God will take care of that! If the decision will cost you something you don't have God will give it to you. If it costs you something that you do have already God will give you the grace to give it up if you have commited yourself to take that particular road.
Investing in the spiritual realm is like investing in the temporal world. If I decide to invest in a money market account it is a safe investment. My return will be small but my risk is small. If I decide to invest in stocks my risk is high but the potential for gain is higher as well. In the spiritual realm if I am willing to risk high I will gain high. If I am not willing to risk very much my gain will be small.
Poppy, out!

quota

Hey, trying to get my blog quota in for the week, whatever that is. I was possed a question last week about my faith in God. " what paradigms do I have in my mind about Christianity?" In other words, what ideas do I have about Christianity that really are from the Bible and what other ideas do I have about Christianity because my culture gave them to me. Who says we have to go to church for two hours from 10-12 every Sunday morning? Where is that in the Bible? Who says we have to pray and read the Bible everyday? Is that in the Bible? What ideas do you have about Christianity? Are they Biblical? I think maybe we Christians need to stop sometimes and examine our own lives and determine if what we are doing is really from the Bible or is it something that our Christian culture tells us we are suppose to do. Just something to think about.
peace!