Concerned Women for America

I've been off the internet for quite a long time. Lately, I've been trying to research to see what is still out there that I used to be most interested in. I recently came across a few websites that I used to visit to get the news I used to post on my web site when I had one. Some of them I posted in my favorite links section, dated August 18. Today I came across Concerned Women for America. It's nice to see these ladies haven't changed. If you are a conservative woman in America, this website will help you learn how to get involved in what is truly important.

Time Heals All Wounds

It's amazing to me how burned bridges have a way of rebuilding themselves. I have realized that even the biggest mistakes I have made in the past seem to have found a way to be corrected.

I guess part of it stems from the fact that the people involved are also in the process of bettering themselves. As we grow older and wiser, we all tend to change our views -- and sometimes we forget the past and vow to move forward. Then, when we cross paths with former obstacles, the mountains are no longer so high to climb.

I no longer have any enemies from the past. I feel vindicated, in that I am able to move forward and start anew without looking back at past hurts. I never realized that human nature allows for second chances.

I am thankful that God wipes clean bad memories.

In the process of learning to like myself, I had to come up with rules. I knew if I didn't have a clear understanding of right and wrong, life would become confusing and complicated.

The world is full of people from different cultures, with different values, who form different opinions of what right and wrong. As I was growing up, I first looked to my parents to guide me in right from wrong; but, as I grew older, I realized there were times when I didn't agree with their decisions. Their opinion of right and wrong did not coincide with what I believed. I had began looking to a higher power.

I had read the Bible and realized that, although right may not have always happened in the Bible, God's opinion of right and wrong was never in a gray area. This was attractive to my needs. I learned to pray when I was confused; and, when I couldn't find the answer in the Bible, I looked to God for guidance.

Because listenening to God requires patience that I didn't have at first, I had to come to the realization that I wasn't perfect -- and no matter how hard I would try, I was never going to be. Mistakes are a part of life. They are essential learning experiences that communicate God's opinion of right and wrong when the answers cannot be found. It is inevitable that I am going to make mistakes in life. I firmly believe God does not condemn man for making mistakes, but rather for how he handles the mistakes he makes.

I was on a Christian e-mail list once, and I responded to an email that, seemed to me, a clear issue of right and wrong. After making the response, I was attacked because of my own imperfections. Clearly, I was a sinner. I had no room to form such a rash judgment, they said. I then had to defend myself, explaining to them that, while I claim Christianity, I never claimed to be a Saint. After all, if we were all perfect, there would be no need for Jesus to have ever existed.

Some may condemn me for going to a bar to socialize and drinking a Corona, now and then. I don't believe it is a sin to consume alcoholic beverages in a social setting now and then. I do, however, believe it is a sin to overindulge in any fom, whether it means getting drunk, gorging food, staying on the internet all day, sleeping too much, or working too much.

The Road to Contentment: Learning to Like Yourself

A friend of mine once told me, in the dimly-lit setting of a smokey beer bar, that some people just never seem to find what they're looking for in life. They go through their whole lives angry, frustrated, and depressed. In their deeper selves, they are searching for that one thing that will make their lives complete. Some find it. Some never do.

As I stopped to think about how to respond, I realized he was right. All of my life has been a search for some greater purpose, or some small thing that would make me content. At 37-years-old, it seemed as if I had already lived five lifetimes of mistakes getting where I was at that moment. Now, I was sitting on a barstool with less than $25.00 to my name, and blowing it on a cold Corona -- because that is what I wanted at that moment.

I had already come to the conclusion, long ago, that life is what you make it. I never changed my thinking about that. The problem was figuring out how to make it what you want it to be.

As a teenager, when I would scream to my mother that "It isn't fair!", she would scream back how "Life isn't fair!" I remember thinking along the lines that life is what you make it. I remember wondering how anyone could go through life making it hard on everyone else just because they are bitter about their own situation. I wondered if I could inevitably make a difference.

Now, in mid-life, I am not so naive. I realize that I, alone, can't make a difference to anyone but myself. As I've come to grow with-in myself, to understand myself, and become who I am, I've realized that as long as I can like who I am and what I stand for, and believe in the greater cause and work toward that end, looking in the mirror at myself at the end of the day becomes a whole lot easier. Being able to live with myself the way I am is the first step to being content.

Being content, after all, is what we are all looking for. Whether money, or doing something meaningful, or ministering to others, or having a great career is what makes you content, it all starts somewhere. Learning to like yourself is the first step toward being content.

Things I've learned this year

1. Sometimes love just isn't enough
2. There comes a time when you just gotta "let go"
3. An asshole ain't worth spending a dime on
4. If he don't have his own place, his own vehicle, and his own phone, he ain't worth giving the time of day.
5. There is nothing a man can do for me that I can't do for myself

Welcome

This is a place to post my thoughts, my adventures, my memories and my learning experiences.