My legs are cramping this morning when I turn a certain way. Need to grab some juice or tonic water when I come out of my room. Cramping calves are annoying, let alone painful, to say the least! Those of you who have to deal with it from time to time understand exactly what I am saying! I'm thinking pickle juice this morning.... good way to start the day, right?
Well, I've had my coffee already, will need to drink water to clear the coffee taste out, but yeah, pickle juice is beginning to sound real good. I'm glad my son told me about ordering it from Amazon. Still on my first gallon, after all this time... don't drink much at a time. Perhaps I need to change things up and just drink a small glass every morning. Hmmm.... gotta love dill pickles.
Stayed up until nearly 10PM last night, finishing up a book I had started. It was pretty good. Of course you would have to like the books I read in order to understand that comment. Now I do like romance books.... I just don't read them much anymore. Jennifer Lynn Cary, my close friend, has written several Christian romance novellas now. I've read several of them, but not all. Some she has in series; some stand alone. Because she is from Indiana, many of her books are based on the town of Kokomo. Tales of the Hob Nob Annex Cafe is a great one and one of her earlier books. I really got caught up in it as she mentioned many things I remember about that time frame. I've enjoyed reading several of her books, but because I get so 'caught up' in them, I get nothing else done. I haven't read any for awhile although she has written a few books since the last one I read.
I wish I had more time to read - and perhaps someday I shall. I often think I'd like to put all 'my' books in author order and then start reading them all over again; keeping things together would make it easier to track what I've read and what I have missed. But alas, hubby and time prevent that for now. I keep telling myself, Lord willing, someday I will get to live. My older brother and I were chatting along those lines last night. I had checked in with all my siblings as my brother-in-law had written about tornados and bad storms south of where they live in Speedway. My little brother and sister said they were fine. My big brother said a big ash tree behind his fence had been blown down. He was going to hire someone to cut it up as he doesn't have that type of equipment to handle such a large tree.
My brother's wife has officially retired from 34 years at Eli Lilly & Company as of April 1, 2023. This means I am STILL the only one working (am I still complaining?) of all my siblings! What's up with that? They have a couple cruises planned and some other things in the future. He sent me a photo of several vegetable plants they have been growing on their back porch, ready to put in the ground. I'm jealous. I would love to have a garden; I would even help keep it weeded! I have my little garden 'box' I bought last year, but haven't gone to get plants to put in it yet. It's harder starting from seeds when it is outside. I probably should have done like my brother did and set up small pots to get them started inside the house - and move out when the weather is right. It does give me thought for next year - but I have to write it down or I'll forget!! We have a 'community' back yard so no garden there. Sigh. I don't want a big one; just one that I can get away with my thoughts and weed out; and gather the produce and enjoy good, organic food with a lot more flavor than one gets from produce at the store! Speaking of which, I do need to go get more vegetables.
I'm trying to find recipes and just buy what I need for those recipes. So many times I have bought vegetables only for us not to eat them and they get thrown away. Hubby actually got after me the other night about throwing something away untouched. He grumbled about the waste of money (as if he paid for any of it - he didn't). I just looked at him and said "it's been in the refrigerator for three weeks - if you wanted it, you should have eaten it". His comment? "I didn't know if you planned to use it in a recipe". All he had to do was ask.... just saying.
Luke 6:31 (NKJV): "And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise."
That verse is also what we call 'the Golden Rule". Only we usually word it 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Then there are those who would say... 'do unto others before they do it to you'!
All in all, we are called to help others as we would want to be helped. To care for others as we would want to be cared for. To speak to others as we would want to be spoken to. To take care of others as we would like to be taken care of. You get what it says, right?
It's not about you. It's not about me. It's about how we are to treat others - whether we like them or not. There have been some people that for some reason they just irritate the 'heck' out of me. I am sure you have people in your life like that as well. Some you can't avoid. Even when we don't like them, don't care for their behavior, we are called to love them and to treat them as we would want them to treat us. There are some people in my life - and I'm sure in yours - that stirs you up whenever you even hear their name. Those are the ones we need to pray for. Those are the ones we need to overlook their faults - just as we want them to overlook ours. And Lord knows, I have plenty of faults! Some good, some bad, for sure. Some days I totally withdraw.... because I don't want to deal with it... and other days I speak my mind and then feel guilty I let loose.
Isaiah 6:1-7 (NKJV): "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!" And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seek the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged."
I remember a friend who had gone away on a retreat and she told me, when she returned, that she had had a boil come up next to her lips. As she read the above scripture, she began to pray that the Lord would take the coal and touch her lips, that she would be cleansed..... and all of a sudden, the boil popped open and started running down her face. She hadn't touched it. To continue on with that scripture....
Isaiah 6:8 (NKJV): "Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."
The Lord has plans for each one of us when we submit to His authority, His rule. It isn't hard to follow Jesus, and the benefits far out weigh anything you can imagine. It's more than just 'doing good things for others'. It's being in beautiful communion with the Lord. People who are Christians also struggle at times.... but when one keeps their eyes on the Lord, He makes all things good.
"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Will you answer, "Here am I! Send me."?
Blessings!
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