Bed In A Box! Now Make Your Bed And Lie In it!

Bedtime Stories: Well, our bed and dresser are pretty old and worn out.  Time, you know...  So, someone gave me this “Bed In A Box”.  I was so very excited, though skeptical about how they maneuvered and engineered a bed to fit in a box.  Imagine my surprise when out popped a blanket and sheets and shams! What?  What a scam.  Shouldn't it be called bedding in a box?  Yes! I should think so! Anyway, so I made the old bed up with the new bedding.  Then I lay back down on the bed.  Why?  This old saying kept coming to my mind.  And, you know my mind!  “You made your bed, now lie in it”. So... I did!  PIMP LOL.  Got decisions to make today? Think out of the box.  Consult God before you make your bed and lie in it!  Smooth out the wrinkles in the sheets (pray) before you make the bed and lie in it (make any decisions).         Trace

How to Be An Example: be an "ex" at addictions and "ample" at persevering

I’ve dealt with many different kinds of addictions in my life.  I only truly overcame them by God’s power and my faith and perseverance. Never give up!  Be a day-seizer! So, when my friend needed help to quit smoking, I said, “Yes, I can help!  Been there…I was a chain smoker in more ways than one. One cig after another and in chains that were difficult to break free. So, please call me any time, day or night and I shall get to you in the nick o’ time. Or…should I say…umm…in the “nic-o-tine”? What? There’s humor and hope in anything if you look. Also, told her nicotine used to be in some bug sprays! I fgure anything you can use that to kill bugs can’t be good for us.  They used to extract it from tobacco! Anyway, I told her that I’ll be there! No ifs ands or cigarette butts! And, no smoke screens. I’ll light you up if you light up! Just kidding!  I know what it was like to smoke and quit. Sucks the life out of you to smoke and sucks the life out of you, at first, to quit, so if it’s gonna suck? How ‘bout sucking for a good reason and for a reasonable time. A little suffering makes you think twice before starting an old habit again, I know! That’s my puff of hope without being puffed up about it.  PIMP LOL TNT.  Whatever’s got you in chains?  Whether it’s smokin’ or pills or worry or lying? Take it to God.  He’s your link to breaking the chains!  One more note?  I know lots of folks that smoke.  When I was growing up, it was a “normal” thing for everyone to smoke.  It is between you and God. I only like to help others with addictions because I’ve been there. You’ll get no judgment from me. Just help.  I just didn’t want my girl to think it was okay to smoke or have to hide it, so I had to quit. Same reason I couldn’t drink or other things…   I want to live by example.  Being an “ex” at addictions and “ample” at persevering and trusting God is my way of being an “example”!  One more thing.  An afterthought, after I edited and posted this:  Maybe it would have sounded better to say, Be an Example by being an "ex" at addictions and "ample" at convictions.  Listen the Spirit of God in you.          Trace

An Apparent Bucket List For A Transparent Parent! My lamentations of my limitations!

An Apparent Bucket List For A Transparent Parent! I get teased for being so transparent. But, one thing that’s not apparent? I’m a parent…who has a tough time dealing with my handicaps. Some of you may know that I have a sort of miniature bucket inside me for a stomach because much of my insides were removed to save my life a few years back. Those that don't know?  Guess what?  You do now!  Anyway, I tell you this not as a pity thing or whining, but as an encouragement and hope. We all have “handicaps” that we pray to be rid of or fixed. I know I do. Sometimes, the fix? Is not being fixed. I know God is real because in my lamentations of my limitations? I have felt and seen His limitlessness! IF I am not afraid. Do I get fed up? Well, yes! And, no!  I can’t eat much, so I can’t get too “fed up”! But I get fed up with dealing with no stomach. Apparently, my “bucket list” as a parent may be quite different from yours. After all? Mine’s very tiny. PIMP LOL. It’s just to love God and my girl and be the best parent I can be. Hope that’s apparent in my transparency!  Be a transparent parent. Let them see your love… That’s an apparent bucket list for a transparent parent!   Yes, they need boundaries in everything, but one...love has none. Oh!  And, yes! I have bathed my girl in an antique bucket when she was a baby...many times.  But, I will not be transparent about that photo...or else, I might lose the job!  PIMP LOL.  Remember to think in the bucket AND out of the bucket.  Trust God with and in your limitations.  Because then, your lamentations will turn into humor, hope and joy.  How?  You will see His limitlessness!  And that will be apparent, transparent and as a parent.  That goes for every other role in your life.  Handicaps don't mean you can't lend a hand.  And, they can come in handy. When they are in the right hands.  He wraps around us and strenghthens us so all can see and we can feel...His limitlessness in our lamentations of our limitations!      Trace

Converses AND Me! Conversely speaking...

My photo? My pretty tapestry Converses with worn out soles. Conversely, we have me… Yeauh!  Over there to the right.   Tapestry worn a little, but my soul is pretty tough. What made me think of this? Well, what in this universe was I thinking when I put on my pretty tapestry socks and then put on my worn out, but beautiful, tapestry Converses, to sing and dance for hours? I'll tell you why!!!  I was thinking it would make me feel better! You know?  Dance-sing? When I sing? I dance. PIMP LOL!  Try it!  AND! I was thinking the Converses still had the sturdy soles and insides in them that they once had when I bought them at 18. Wrong! My ankles are now called “achles” and my feet? What feet?! All I see are big swollen fleets… Of pain! I thought I seemed a little short & felt like I was in my house slippers. What? I’m slippin’…  It is funny and humor dulls the pain. The funny part that I should have remembered before digging them out to wear? I had taken the insides out of the shoes because they were worn, but I couldn’t bear to part with them years ago. That’s why they hurt so much. I put them on so quickly that I didn’t notice they were just a shell of a shoe. And I didn’t remember this fact until the pain started. Pain has a tendency to bring memories out. And, vice-versa. I usually always wear my Roper boots, my Tracemark, but they are so worn, too.  I need to find a shoe repair that replaces soles and real soon! Glad we don’t have to replace our souls, just take care and fix up our tapestry.  And, get our souls mended when aching. I take mine to the Mender of all Souls. He heals our aches when we feel like we are just shells of what we want to be or used to be. And, do I stop dancing & singing?  No! We dance and sing IN the aches and THROUGH the aches! But, we also learn from our aches.  I sure won’t be wearing the tapestry shoes to dance again until these shell of a shoes have tough soles, too.  PIMP LOL.  Back to finding a shoe repair!!     Trace

Make Contact With Your Vision

 

I’ve just made contact…with my contacts. At least I can see far away now. Now, where are those glasses to wear over the contacts so I can see close up. Ouch! That wall corner was closer than I thought! I think the contacts should have words in them like the side-mirrors on cars, right? You know? Objects in mirror appear closer than they are. Though, mine would read: Objects in contacts appear further away than they are! I was thinking how blessed we feel sometimes when we run into someone, Well, not run into, like a wall, but like run into, umm…a beautiful sunset or a cozy quaintly decorated room…or like a soft smile. That’d be a sight for sore eyes, for sure! We should all have those people in ours lives. But, sometimes we don’t realize that the sign in our heart-eyes should read: Person in sight could be further away than they appear. They make us feel better, but they need some love back. They might have wished they could avoid contact. I know I’ve had a time or two where I see someone and wonder if I have time to hide. Well, they might feel the same. So, when owe run into others? Make contact. A soft contact. Not a hard contact like hitting a brick wall. Be a sight for sore eyes, not blinded by fear. When given the opportunity to say hi?  Say hi AND smile. They might need to run into a sunset, not a wall! Vision is a blessing to us. And having A vision? Is a blessing to others.  A sight for sore eyes.  Reach out and see… Oh!  And one more thing?  That object in the mirror? May be ourself. If we appear closer than we really are?  Time to move closer to God.  His vision sees all and His Vision?  Is to reach all.  So should ours…  Well, I've made contact with my contacts, my vision.  Now, it's time to make contact with my "Vision".  Reach out and see...   One more thought... We have contact solution to clean our vision up and restore comfort... We should be that contact solution for others, sometimes... Just like God is our solution. Gotta soak it in, too!  Well, that's my contact solution!  I'll go now so I can get on with making contact without being a spectacle! PIMP LOL TNT!  I'll leave you with this, my Optometrist's translation of  Proverbs 29:18:  Without a vision? The peepers would peerish!       Trace

Singer Sewing Machines AND Singer Sowing Machine

Today’s joke brought to you by a singer.  No!  Not the sewing machine, although it is a sewing machine joke.  My home-made humor.  Said the sewing machine to the seamstress, “Together, we have sewn quite a wonderful relationship! You always keep me in stitches! Sometimes pins and needles but, mostly? Stitches.”  When it seams like we are going against the grain in the fabric of our lives or living life on the edge, even biased, hanging by a thread, zig-zagging, hemmed in, or coming apart at the seams, we keep bobbin’ along. Even when our threads wear thin, we patch things up! Why? Because we are sowing, in love, for the Designer Himself.  We are sowing machines who use sewing machines?  PIMP LOL.                 Trace

Do You Value A Person's Purse Or Pulse?

Ever had to walk away from someone whispering gossip? They seem to get away with that kinda talk cuz money talks...even louder to alot of us & drowns out even the whisper of truth. You just never know why someone might be having hard times. Now, I’ve lived in times of plenty & times of plenty tough. Both times spoke to me loud and clear. What did I hear? Gossip whispers, money talks, poor cries, and our love for God & others sings! But, valuing someone who has more money or not valuing someone because they have less? Screams! Yes, having money makes things easier. That makes sense, right? Having cents and sense? Does help. You CAN have sense without having cents, but if you have cents without sense?  It loses it’s value. And, so do you. Value someone’s pulse, not their purse! PIMP LOL.             Trace

Be A Good Egg And Laugh!

Who woulda thought going to the grocery store could crack us up. On the way we passed a guy on a bicycle who could have used my invention of Joxers or Below Riders. He certainly cracked us up! If you get my drift? I mean…umm…draft? I know he got a draft! Then, we drove past a huge puddle, noticing it a lil’ too late & we splashed this guy with a grocery cart sitting along the road. Guess what he ...yelled out at us? “You lousy bum!” What? You’re kiddin’, right? Oh, no, he didn’t just bum us out. Cracked us up so bad. Honestly! We are not bums. Then while putting groceries away? We dropped the eggs & cracked 6 of them which cracked 3 of us up! Hope your weekend? Cracks you up instead of bumming you out. Laughter is medicine! If you stop for any length of time? You may experience withdrawals, crack up or be bummed out! PIMP LOL.  Now, be a good egg and have a lovely weekend.  Laugh!  If God says it's good medicine?  Who can argue?   Try it!  You'll keep from cracking up?  What?  Our very “egg”istence should crack us up once in a while...to keep us from getting fried. Or cracking under pressure... We all need "shell"ter from the heat or when life gets scrambled… PIMP LOL   Trace

Spyders & Spinders

You know that saying “a fly on the wall”? I think it should be spider. I noticed this year has been way more cobwebs and spiders than ever before. Even in a lightbulb! That gave me an idea! PIMP LOL. What? The lightbulb went on in my head! Thought about privacy and gossip. You know? If the walls could talk? A fly on the wall? I was thinking more…”if the spiders and walls could talk…”what a web of words ...they could weave” and the “speak they could spin”! They would be called Spy-ders instead or even Spinders! We all need safe places and safe people to talk with. Above all? We have a God who listens and is still merciful and loving. Who doesn’t spin our speak or share our prayer. You know? Both the “rants & raves” AND the “chants & praises”! He hears our ♥’s & still loves us! Don’t get tangled up today in spinning speak. Keep your word. And His!   Stop by some of my others short articles.  You'll like 'em.  You have my word!  Trace