So on today’s edition, I want to leave you guys with a question. As many of you know I am a Christian, I am a work in progress, and I am continually trying to get right with God. I know there are times on my blog where I come off perhaps a little snarky. I am sorry for that, but I worry about you.
I understand that we’re not always going to believe the same things and we’re not always going to react the same way. However for those of us who consider ourselves to be children of God, I would like to start a conversation with you in regards to how godly are you.
In Ephesians Paul writes a letter to the churches because there’s something going on that’s causing the church to fight against each other. You have the Jewish worshipers and the gentile Christians who are clashing. This made me think about what we’re going through today. Many of us within the United States claim to be Christians. I believe that we are in our own war today in regards to Christianity and what it really looks like.
Christianity to me, isn’t something that can be bought, isn’t something that can be mistaken upon, but it is a ever going lifestyle crown that we proudly wear. I don’t look at Christianity as a hindrance, I look at it as a gift and a duty to pass on to anyone who wants to hear it. Ephesians is full of versus that instruct Christians on how to be solid followers of Christ.
I want to look at chapter 5 vrs six today. Paul says let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Vrs7-be not ye there for partakers with them. Vrs 8-for you or sometimes darkness but now are the light in the Lord walk as children of the light.
I remember once asking my mom about moving in with this guy I was around the age of 19. My mom at the time informed me that if we moved in together we would be living in sin. At that time when the phrase living in sin came up I only thought about people who were divorced or people who are living together without being married. I didn’t really think about how we put ourselves in certain situations that caused us to live in sin based on who we follow. I guess it kind of falls into the whole idea of not being able to serve two masters.
God has given us the ultimate guide and many of us have forgotten how to use that guide. Ask yourself if we are told to have no fellowship what darkness but yet we align ourselves with darkness how are we truly walking in the light?
So I’ll leave you with chapter 6 verse 11 in Ephesians. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against The Wiles of the devil.Vrs 12 for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against power against the ruler of darkness of the world against against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Look toward the characteristics thank God wants us to have and when you follow ask yourself if the person you’re following a true follower of Christ. Have a great weekend. and always remember being a follower of Christ is so much more than going to a building once or twice a week it’s about living a life that isn’t always easy.
Our nation is standing at a fork in the road. We will either go down in history as being corrupt, or we will show how America found its hidden voice. Rather you are on the side of the Republicans or the Democrats, the next 24 hours will prove to be very important for us all.
I’ve stated time and time again on Twitter and in real life that the Republicans must call witnesses in regards to the impeachment of President Trump. It is the only way to get a clear understanding of the situation.
If it were my legacy at risk I would stop at nothing to clear my name. The only way for Trump’s presidential legacy to continue without this dark cloud of deception looming over the pages, is to commit to a fair trial. For most of us with any trial background, we understand the danger in not having witnesses testify in regards to important issues. It’s like running blindly without knowing where your next step is going to land you.
I’ve noticed the trend in regards to the word fairness. The Republicans say the Democrats didn’t call any witnesses when they went forth with the impeachment trial, so they claim to be justified in doing the same.However, we as a country deserve to understand and know the complete honest truth. What better way to prove which group is lying then by bringing forth witnesses?
For the sake of our country, we need to know exactly what we are dealing with. Are we dealing with political assassinations or justifiable concern over foreign instigations welcomed by our current leaders? If we can’t get to the bottom of the situation then 20/20 becomes a joke.
I want to know that we can trust our government no matter who is in office, I want to know that our political parties haven’t become so toxic that they’ll do anything to eliminate people who think differently than they do, and I want to make sure that we are not positioning ourselves into another 4 years foreign influence.
This foreign influence not only highlights Trump and his dealings with Russia but it also brings up questions from Biden and his dealings with Ukraine. Does he have a relationship with them and if so, how does that fit into his Foreign Policy? For once and for all, the American people need to know the truth and then maybe we can move forward without so much animosity.
Many of you know me to be impatient, opinionated, very cautious, and perhaps a little overbearing at times. These are things that I struggle with on a daily basis. They are also things and I’m currently praying about pretty much on a daily basis.
I think back to the scriptures which often point out that Jesus doesn’t expect us to be perfect. He wants to see us continually trying to overcome our worldly side and helps others on their journey. People mature into different levels of Christianity. Some of us are still drinking milk, while others are eating whole chickens by now. In my mind I am now at the stage where I’m truly trying to be the Virtuous Woman found in Proverbs chapter 31.
The Virtuous Woman is a woman that does it all. She knows how to take care of her family, how to make wise financial decisions, and how to be a pillar for her community.
I think one of my biggest obstacles, in my opinion, is figuring out how she was able to organize everything. If you look at scripture The Virtuous Woman was organized in order to do all the things that she did throughout the day, throughout the week, and even with preparations for future events. I lack organization. In many ways I feel like the lack of organization creates chaos pockets within my household, and that’s one of the things I want to try to work on.
Of course I know I still need to work on my patience, judging, and my temper. Yet, part of me wonders if better organizational skills might help to eliminate the chance for impatient and temper flares. I’m talking about scheduling a healthy sleep schedule, dinner time, cleaning time and family bonding time. Currently we go to sleep anywhere from midnight to 2 a.m. and we eat dinner after 7 on most nights.
Simply put, I think we are all dealing with some sort of sleep deprivation. Even after we fall to sleep we awaken a couple hours later which kills us the morning after. It makes maneuvering through the rest of the day extremely difficult. So, planning is on the menu today. I think a better plan will give birth to a better us.
Today my husband got yet another diagnosis due to his injuries from being in the Army. My husband is 43 and is currently 90 percent disabled by VA standards. He can’t sit-up without something supporting his back due to an injury he got while training for Iraq. Not only is sitting an issue, but standing is an issue, walking is an issue and today we found out that sleeping is also an issue.
Medical Events Cause Stress
He had a sleep study test that showed he stopped breathing several times within 6 hours. My husband suffers from migraines which are more than likely caused by his back issues, sleep apnea, or glacoma. Back in October the VA sent him to an examiner, they sent him to someone who knew nothing about migraines. The doctor took a look at my husband and guessed a reason he had migraines and sent him on the way.
Currently there are millions more like my husband. The VA contracts out bad physicians to do inadequate exams so they can cheat Vets out of their ratings. Currently, we are still waiting on increases, yes plural, that were granted by the BVA in August. We have yet to see a rating change or a real appointment. In November they made an appointment which was contested by another office stating there was no reason for his appointment to be placed in their location due to locations near us.
Instead of getting him a new appointment, they relied on an opinion of someone without ever talking to my husband. These are the shameful things that our VA continues to do to our soldiers. They are relying on bad examinations to cheat troops out of billions.
I issue this warning to the military. I know you love our country and some of you might even be like my husband. After he was injured he went on to do time in Iraq and even completed Green Platoon. After tours in Afghanistan, Colombia, and other regions of the world his body could no longer take it. He left the military after 14 years. Lesson learned is don’t ignore your body’s message because after all those wonderful things you complete for the military, VA will make you jump through hoops just to get the rating you deserve.
My family and I have been studying the Bible together for over four months now. We study with our children because we both believe religion is important.
Our Youngest Holding Her New Bible!!
We both were taught in church that Bibles were very important, but it was something we didn’t pay close attention to until a few weeks ago. We were reading one of the books of the Bible together and we noticed that our readings were a bit off.
Confused About The Matter!
We decided it was time to get the girls the same Bibles we were reading in order to cut down on confusion. I am sure everyone can identify to things they need to work on. If you are like my family, you have a bucket full of things. We are trying to work on faith, patience, temper and accountability.
After going over our Bible study I found that we missed a clear chance to talk about patience which was something we really needed. I am posting our studies to show that Christians aren’t prefect and that we all struggle with raising our children from time to time. In this clip, everything is going fine until My daughters find out about Lot’s daughters. I wanted to edit my daughter’s response out, but then I also wanted to be real. If God wanted us perfect, he wouldn’t have sent his only son to save us.
President Trump made a move today which will go down in history as his Cuban Missile Crisis moment. He was able to separate his ego and put the needs of the country first. Often it has been wondered if President Trump would be able to place the country before the man. After today statements, we can now breathe a tad bit easier. Although, we are not out of the woods yet.
President Trump’s American Hero
President Trump will be remembered as one of the most interesting presidents in American history. The difference between President Trump and former presidents like President Reagan is the layers surrounding their beliefs. If you ask anyone about Reagan, Obama, Clinton, and even Carter you will find a set of beliefs that they seemed to occupy. Those beliefs were often embedded in their administration which produced their intended outcome most of the time.
Obama for the most part was very friendly with the press.
Perhaps this is where the majority of President Trump’s problems stemmed from, in the beginning of his presidency, he often shunned the press. We are a country that gets the bulk of our information via internet and news channels. Trump pretty much isolated himself from certain news outlets out of fear of misrepresentation. That isolation fed a mob of angry news agencies that continued to slander and twist certain articles of Truth-so he would call it. This is how the term fake news took root in his White House.
We will look back at some of the things President Trump has accomplished his first term in office. Soon after his inauguration President Trump started signing different laws into motion. One of the items on the list would be the revamping Veteran’s Affairs. Under Trump’s leadership Veteran’s Affairs would see cost of living allowance raised, a new appeal system, and a speedier way to navigate through the claims process.
They fought for you!
Trump would also go on to revamp the criminal justice system. He would oversee the handling of bills aiming towards reducing sentences for people who had committed nonviolent offenses. Many of the people who were serving time for crimes like simple possession of marijuana could now look to see their sentences reduced. President Trump also did something that not many former presidents can claim. He created another division of service. We now have the Space Force which if I understand it correctly is a branch of service related to the Air Force. These are ideas that I think are specifically tailored toward Trump.
So here comes the policies and events that cause confusion. We will tackle the issue of immigration first. If you haven’t been following immigration for a while, you might not be aware that the immigration issue started well before Obama. If you remember back to President Bush Jr. and Mexican President Vicente Fox, you should recall the immigration issue at it’s finest hour. Vicente Fox and President Bush both had a agreement of some sort which allowed Mexican workers to come to the United States. Here is just one of many articles showing how immigration grew in the U.S under a Republican president. https://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Postmark
Similar practices soon started to balloon inside the United States and before you knew it Fox was justifying the practice by saying the people from Mexico were taking jobs that black or white person weren’t willing to take. http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/14/fox.jackson/ .
This practice went on for quite a while and it was one of the practices which Obama really hit on during his first election. He went on to revamp the immigration system so that more disenfranchised citizens would be allowed to enter the work force. In many ways prior to President Obama you were looking at in America that was very similar to pre Civil War America minus having slaves. The new slave labor was cheap labor with immigrants.
In walks president Trump, he takes the immigration battle even further. Trump is able to see that there were still a lot of people left out of the job market due to some of the same problems that took place before Obama took office. He cracks down on immigration , but the root has already taken place. Perhaps this is where many people start to dislike Trump. Trump understood how the immigration problem grew and established a plan to take back America. He went a little too far. This is perhaps the start of a very problematic stance. Some of the things that occurred during the take-back process were somewhat cruel. Yet, he felt it needed to be done to ensure future generations of Americans would never be jobless again.
For many people immigration would remain a big issue. Trump took away the safety net for people of protected status which soon started to split how Americans felt about immigration under the Trump administration.
Then walks in the continual inappropriate communication between Russia and lately Ukraine. The communication which often seems to be aimed at hindering our elections by way of interference led to his impeachment. This created a big problem for President Trump and some of the people who voted for him. I have often wondered if Trump has trust issues with his own base. Does he not trust his base enough to do things the right way? He moves like a person who feels like he is up against the ropes, but in reality he has a secure base.
His latest lapse in judgement would be the killing of the Iranian General. The assassination nearly tipped our country into another Middle Eastern conflict. In my opinion, we are living in a very dangerous time. We have both the Republican and Democratic party at odds with each other constantly, and trust is at an all-time low. Due to the strained relations between the Democrats and the Republicans President Trump decided to only talk to a few people about attacking the Iranian General. Without a formal meeting with his Congress he decided to take matters into his own hands which proved to be a Pandora’s box in the making.
If there were one piece of advice that I could give to our president today, it would be the trust your government meaning your Congress. Understand that you might not agree on all subjects but at the end of the day, you all have something in common. You want what’s best for America.
It is now almost 11 p.m. on Tuesday night. By now, we have all unleased our anger over the bombings of Al- Asad and Erbil bases in Iraq. I will be the first to say I flipped out. Seeing the missiles going towards our base infused me with hurt, anger and a feeling of despair.
This isn’t the way you end a 20 year war.
Iran has stated that at this point they pretty much consider it even Steven in not those exact words. If America stands down they will not persue the matter any further. Meanwhile, questions are coming forward. People are wondering how America manages to leave the situation without damaging it’s reputation as a strong force to be reckoned with.
We are and always have been do or die.
I wouldn’t want to be in President Trump’s shoes for even a split second tonight. He has to make a decision on how his country will continue. If he caves, what will it mean for the rest of the international community? At this point we know how we got here, but the meat of this story is where do we go from here. Do we retaliate and go full blown into a world war? Or will we see something different from Trump this time around? Will he take the time out to talk to all members of Congress and hammer out a reasonable plan.
Up to this point, Trump has done Trump. Meaning he has done what he wants when he wants, but now he has to come to terms with a new reality. People will live and die by the choice he makes in the next few days. I cannot even begin to say what I would do in THIS situation, but the one thing I know I wouldn’t do is exclude seasoned minds on either sides of the table. He will need to trust like never before if he wants to save our great country !
