I occasionally receive email from the author of Mental Doodles, his name is George Reynault. Interesting fellow, I came to know about him from my Weekender days. He was one of the original founders of that now gone company. Mind you I do not hold him responsible for this loss, it's just one of those events which happen in life. It is a real shame it is gone. I believe trying to become too trendy had a lot to do with that loss..........

Water under the bridge. The good news are his Mental Doodles. They give me great pause to ponder my life and current way of viewing life. The challenge comes at a really opportune moment.

Change is something one must experience to improve or as in the opposite, to become worse.  I for one am into the improving, not becoming worse.  How individuals approach me about improving is really key in how I will buy into their ideas.  And I believe, George, you have hit the nail right on the head with this one. 

 

I won't bore you all with why this Doodle seems to be so profound, but let's just put it this way, when someone is always pointing out how a particular action is how they do it, just doesn't always mean it will work for you. 

 

Recently at work, an individual who normally uses the "how they do it"  tactic, finally figured out with a given individual how to encourage change in this individual's tidiness habits in their office.  Getting into the trench of organizing and removing the unnecessary from this person's office had far more effect than the months of lecturing and pointing out how their chosen method has always worked for them and it will for you point of view.  By getting into the trench with the staff person, amazing how the staff person came out of that experience reflecting far more willingness to co-operate in this process of change and I believe they will continue in a more positive nature about changing their habits.

 

Anyway, check George's Mental Doodles© out, you might learn something new for yourself and if you choose you can sign up for his Mental Doodle emails.  Be brave try a change!

 

http://mentaldoodle.com/2008/10/13-changing-change/

The difficult times I have faced have been some of the hardest to get thru.  If it had not been for my relationship with God I would have not made it!  Without the friends I have thru my church to pray for me as well and to encourage me when it all seems more than I can bear I would not be here today to share with you.  I would have been in some room alone, probably staring at a tv for hours on end, drinking some wine perhaps or maybe even passed out on the couch.  Who knows.......   I just know I am so glad to have the strength and sense of peace that prayer and study of God's holy word has given me that I can get thru and carry on the relationship with Jesus Christ and friends and family and be able to share the love of Christ with others. 

I so sincerely wish that all my children could come to hold all of this wonderful comfort in their hearts so that they too could endure difficult times.  For all of them have had hard times.  2 lost husbands at entirely too young of an age to have to face life alone.  One was raped by someone she knew and then he threatened her with harm if she said anything to anyone.  No one would have ever known had this one incident not created a child.  Even though 18, she was still a child herself in many ways.  So much so, she didn't even realize what was going on with her body.  She had never dated prior to that point so it certainly was not something I was suspicious about.  It wasn't until our youth director began to question.  When we tested and it came back positive she was already 7 months along!  Long story short she gave the child up for adoption.  He is now a healthy, active, adorable 10 year old in a very good home.  Happy ending for the adoptive parents.  A very sad ending for us.  He was my first biological grandchild, don't think that didn't hurt.  I grieved that loss for years.  

There were many other events in our lives that were painful but as long as I kept looking up, I knew it would be ok.  When I started looking within, it was never ok!  It was going thru all of that brief 3 month period that I learned to sustain myself thru Christ.  That I truly recognized what being a Christian is all about. 

Gal 5:22-26 states "But the fruit of the Spirit  is love,  joy,  peace, patience,  kindness,  goodness, faith,  gentleness, self-control.  Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit. We must not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another." 

Now I have to somehow be able to exhibit this to yet another adult child as she goes thru an ugly murder trial of her spouse, the loss of the business he had built because of the media circus that seems so prevalent these days, the loss of his income, the potential loss of his 2 sons, whom she adores and they adore her as well.  The many decisions that need to be made in order to afford housing for her and the 3 boys that are his, the youngest being hers and absolutely no positive, constructive support from her inlaws, or her spouse who is sitting in jail.  

We all believe in his innocence.  What a jury will think is yet another topic for another time, after the trial later in the year.  It has been a long 5 years since he was charged and she is really tired of dealing with it.  It is in times like these that I must cling to

Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen."

Yes these are the ways I get thru difficult times, what are your ways? 

Well here I am with my first step out in the Blog world. I had lunch today with a very dear friend and she is the one that actually kind of led me into this and I stopped to show her the new pinecones. I told her how much I loved seeing these and they reminded me so much of my childhood and my home in Minnesota. We, my parents and I, moved there in 1957, I was 10, now you know how old I really am! We moved there in March and there was still snow on the ground. It was like a whole new world to me as I had been born and raised in KS up until that point. My parents had purchased a summer resort on a beautiful lake in northern Minnesota. The reasons why this happened I will pursue at another time. At any rate we quickly learned those beautiful perfectly shaped green cones were a small form of gold. Meaning that when they fall off the trees, they could be harvested and sold to the US Forest service for planting purposes. Pretty cool huh?! Anyway to me in retrospect this story and the photos remind me of happy memories, new beginnings and hopefully wonderful new memories to be gained.