Where are you today? Elyse...

Making it til tomorrow. You are in NY, participating in the molding of the future, by being a major part of one little boy's present. "Stand right here for the present" PIPI Longstocking...The present is a present, haven't we found that to be the case?

Could we have participated in the dialogue of life with many young people, who are movers and shakers? We might. But when you devote your life to the little ones, who can't pay you back. God sees, if no one else does. You have accepted the vision and the calling. Many people are in the ethereals, learning to care, they think. But, can you care more than really doing the work? Doing the work has its own rewards. Making the time for a conversation and a correction and a relationship with a young cousin is a blessing and a work that has great rewards of spiritual dimensions.

Not easy, but Jesus makes it worth it. Enjoy!

Resigning or Designing Women? Let things happen or make things happen--regarding our children...

Proverbs 14:1 Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.

Proverbs 14:2 He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the LORD: but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him.

Proverbs 14:3 In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them.

Proverbs 14:4 Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.

Proverbs 14:5 A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies.

Proverbs 14:6 A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.

Proverbs 14:7Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.

Proverbs 14:8 The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit.

Proverbs 14:9 Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour.

Proverbs 14:10 The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.

Proverbs 14:11 The house of the wicked shall be overthrown: but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Proverbs 14:13 Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.

Proverbs 14:14 The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.

Proverbs 14:15 The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going.

Proverbs 14:16 A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.

Proverbs 14:17 He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly: and a man of wicked devices is hated.

Proverbs 14:18 The simple inherit folly: but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.

Proverbs 14:19 The evil bow before the good; and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

Proverbs 14:20 The poor is hated even of his own neighbour: but the rich hath many friends.

Proverbs 14:21 He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth: but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he.

Proverbs 14:22 Do they not err that devise evil? but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good.

Proverbs 14:23 In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.

Proverbs 14:24 The crown of the wise is their riches: but the foolishness of fools is folly.

Proverbs 14:25 A true witness delivereth souls: but a deceitful witness speaketh lies.

Proverbs 14:26 In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.

Proverbs 14:27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.

Proverbs 14:28 In the multitude of people is the king's honour: but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince.

Proverbs 14:29 He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.

Proverbs 14:30 A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.

Proverbs 14:31 He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.

Proverbs 14:32 The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death.

Proverbs 14:33 Wisdom resteth in the heart of him that hath understanding: but that which is in the midst of fools is made known.

Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.

Proverbs 14:35The king's favour is toward a wise servant: but his wrath is against him that causeth shame.

today, I blended celery, apple, with orange juice and made bread...

I felt enlivened by the combination of celery and apple. I don't feel like I got much done, around the house, {ie. my rugs need vacuuming and the Christmas decor is starting to get to me, and everything} My energy was better, but I am not sure if it was the veggie fruit juice or the vitamin or the cinnamon rolls, I made with the veggie/fruit juice, or the sense of accomplishment from making something completely unique. It was delicious! It was a delicious treat. I told myself that I would save some for making a gelatin version of my juice, but I couldn't save any for the jello. Maybe next time. I had a wonderful time reminiscing about the last two weeks of funerals, with my DC woman. I missed talking with my NY woman who I hear got a new haircut! I absolutely love it! What I love most, is that you needn't ask a single soul what to do with your hair. You are as free as a bird with your hair. Enjoy it, my love!

Yesterday, there was a huge moon out my back window...

Emma, used to cue me to beautiful sights such as these. She would nudge me or prod me to the window for a sight worth my immediate attention. Now, it is less providential and I must remind myself to look outside, when I go to the window or am about my inside the house activities. This morning it is very clear and the stars a twinkling beautifully and brightly outside my kitchen sliding door.

What a wondrous sight, to be allowed to enter into the natural beauty of the landscape around us. Thank God for eyes and topography that is convenient to see the beauty. It took a year for me to appreciate the unblocked horizons of the burbs of Charlotte. Buildings and Billboards were my usual attention. I guess, what you do with billboards, after a while is try to ignore them, or analyze what are they trying to get you to do. What are they imploring me into now? Like a pestering hound, they are there. So for months and months I kept designing where the billboards should be here and where the buildings should be to block the blinding sky.

I see that the habit of New York is to ignore the promptings of external forces, buildings and billboards and store lights, until an appointed day. We deliberately reign in our passions for shopping day. Then with abandon, we shop til we drop. We take the billboards that have prompted us for weeks and go out and do exactly what they told us to do. I was unaware of this external force that had affected me to aggression and to passivity, because of my own poverty not allowing me to shop to abandon, like others. So I was resigned to simply reign myself in and was never seeing outside of my limitations. You are not a person, if you can't shop and accumulate as others do.

North Carolina freed me from this bondage. What does the billboard of the moon provoke me to do? Praise God! Am I poor in this currency? All have the same currency of facility to praise the Lord. I am not too poor to do so.

My dear Pastor Loran reminded me, as I have been recently analyzing the motivations to praise God and limiting my speech. Why? Habit of a real New Yorker and over scrutiny of self. Spend it! Say it! Give Him the praise. Will we not be judged by our facility and our ability and whether we have spent ourselves in praise as much as we have spent ourselves in money?

God's goodness is prepared for those that love Him!

Eye hast not seen ,even in 2019, the things that God has prepared for them that love him.

Bathing Decisions in Prayer!

Take it to Jesus.

Often my mind and yours are filled with concerns about what to do and how to accomplish the things we visualize. We know that God has the world in his hands. We know that God is in control, still we fume about how this or that thing will get accomplished. You know what I am talking about.

I have met some prayer warriors in my life, who have kept me focused on the reality of the warfare of our prayers and our consistency to the truth of God's purposes in our lives. So many people and principalities try to prove their reality through our compromises. We live in confession and repentance and the devil holds these inconsistencies over our heads. I told you God is not true, he whispers in our ears.

Let God be true and every man a liar!

Get some energy, by having gone to 6am prayer. Get up and don't give up on God's purposes in your life. Hold on to the promises of Christ for your life and don't let little things make you let go of a great thing!

Love looks good on you!

I have seen you in a lot of beautiful clothes and seasons. I remember the first grade graduation dress from Aunt Dottie. But, I declare that I haven't seen you look more beautiful, than when you are in love. I had to put it as my screen saver on my tablet. You have that wonderful glow of real and true love. Whether or not this pans out to become the calling on your life, this season will be remembered in my life as the most beautiful that I've seen on you. I had to play Olivia Newton John's song, after I got off the phone with you."I, Honestly Love You" You know that it doesn't matter if this is a lifelong love or just a season that God is using to season you for the real thing. Enjoy the process of making a life long lover out of a pragmatic and principled Theologian and woman of God! I love you for letting me into your growth in principles and conviction. I title this chapter "The Conviction to Love!"

All Men Are Created Equal: George HW Bush helped that truth along in his life and in his term as President-God Bless America as we mourn.

Defense of the Gospel

Defense of the family

Defense of the Church

Defense of the Peace

Letters from a Kinder, Gentler Republic:

In Honor of the Legacy of George HW Bush:

We hold these truths to be self evident…

I honor the respect that George HW Bush paid to that extreme truth, He seemed to really embrace the reality that his personal bias that he had embraced from his youth was his to restore. I hold this to be self evident in his short and single term. He, at first seemed a political patsy and a figurehead. I, personally couldn’t get my head around the term “kinder, gentler”. we are at war, man! was my continual argument. Where is the bite? Where is the outrage that these dear little ones are destroyed every day?

That was my perspective and I was reared in a militant household and had embraced the violent tactics of that upbringing. He had as well and I love him for teaching me that coming to center isn’t enough, even in violent times. He was a child and an adult in the days of Martin Luther King and had been touched by that faith system intensely, but he seemed to know that his embracing of these tactics had to be expressed in the language of the “GOBC”. He did just that! He didn’t talk about it much, but Kinder and Gentler were a war cry for the group who couldn’t articulate their newfound repentance and faith in peace and peaceful unification of the country.

I don’t agree with taking the issue of abortion captive to that ideal, but I understand his sentiments, in retrospect. I love him all the more for the embrace of the peaceful tactics of the civil rights movement. Still, I think his sentiments were true, yet misguided when it comes to the issue of abortion. God doesn’t call us to draw unity at the death of the unborn. We can’t be gentle about the violent ripping of the children from the wombs. And moreover, we cannot use the Church to barter for the unity of the nation. That is wrong! whatever your political persuasion.

Kinder and Gentler Nation refers to race relations in America. I see that now. At the time, I said, "what are you talking about, man! Where is the kindness in what you are doing to the church? where is the gentleness in what you are doing to the people of God in America?" That was a deception of the enemy. We are called to defend the faith. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, not breeding death and not something that we can see. I am learning in my old age that they are not even in debate and discussion. Those techniques are just as carnal and physical as guns and knives, sometimes.

This is about the Legacy of George HW Bush,

who I voted for, inspite of his ambiguity of speech concerning the things that I regard as important in our current political climate, “the life of the unborn”. If we are Christians we are not fighting the civil rights movement for any other group but the unborn, until they aren’t hunted anymore.

I sometimes forget that the earlier generation had an axe to grind about Black and White issues and that is what George HW made clear he was dealing with. He planted another African American on the Bench instead of Thurgood Marshall. He used his term to make a statement about the fact that there are conservative African Americans in this country who have a right to be represented on the bench as well as the liberal ones. Why? that was quite a battle for the 1960’s and 70’s hippified Americans. Liberality in those days meant Blacks opened the door for the other "everybody’s", except the unborn, ie. Homosexuals, etc. If we don’t take it that way, we are missing what the “Revolution” was supposed to be about. NO! Other people groups need representation, But that wasn't what George HW Bush was sent to the Presidency to rectify. He took his task in hand and did that one thing and got accomplished what he was sent to do. We will always have disagreements on policy about things of policy and cooperation, but we can't get tangled in the muck of putting everything in one pot and pulling out whatever comes as the most important topic. We have to address what is before us. I think He showed me that.

Sin is not being a Liberal. Liberal doesn’t mean accepting sinful behaviors and creating a "kinder, gentler" world doesn’t include a blanket statement on who we will reconcile with next. Killing babies and the elderly is still a violence that we must stand against.

The whites who called in the cavalry at every insurrection of the Black man in the 50’s and 60’s had to give some on those issues and Bush was the tool in the shed to make that issue clear to the world. It is a new day for conservatism. Perhaps he went too far and opened the door to compromise on the issues of life and faith. If so, it is our job to close that door, here and now. Read my lips, the Church is not for sale at any price! The Unity of God's church is more important than what people think I am. {my reputation} He really showed us that.

George HW Bush was faithful to the task that was given to him. He didn't compromise his racial bias and embraced a man who was not the same color as he was for Supreme Court. People ridiculed his choice and his Texan style, but he represented the silent and true faith in a God who is growing us all from Faith to faith.

100 years since the clouds of war started clearing?

We lost so very much in WWI and we know that our preservation of life was worth it. It was certain that the protection of peace and safety was worth the cost of war 100 years ago. Now the sense of safety and peace are not so simply expressed or determined. Can the world around us tell us not to be nationalistic? Can another country tell us when we feel invaded and unsafe?

I'm afraid they cannot. The polls and the people tell us that we need to regroup and find equilibrium. We need a sense of internal balance that comes from our country being and knowing nationalism. Why don't we defend our president's right to express our independence from globalism to the rest of the world. Is it against the creeds of universalism that they have forged and were going to make us drink as they did Roe v. Wade? I think it was.

Dear Lord, help us find peace and safety in the love of our country learning and being what it is and was supposed to represent: One Nation, Under God...

May those who oppose our nationalism also deny their own nationalisms, as well.

We must care for the weak and frail country that is left this few 100 years after the armistice! God give us grace to do so. Amen.

The God We serve will make His presence known!