HAPPY NEW YEAR---JANUS 2016


      According to Roman mythology, JANUS, the name of one of the multitudinous Roman deities, is  from where the word for January derives.  The god Janus is depicted with a double head; one looking back, and one looking forward. It is a good depiction because the month of January, being the beginning of the new year, is the time when those in business take inventory, to track the business progress for the year just completed, and take stock and make plans for the coming year.  This is also a good time for individuals to take stake and examine themselves and see how they measured up during the previous year and and to plan for amendments and resolutions to make their lives better in the coming year.

GOD's Word, the Bible, has something to say about this examination process when we look back at the failures and the successes that we might have had in the year just completed.

      "...but this one thing I do:  forgetting those things which I are behind; and reaching forth unto those things which are before; I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus"  Philipians 3:13b


As we look back over the previous year we might see failures and places where we did not measure up to our expectations. We should not be discouraged or distressed in any way.  We need to use these failures as springboards and motivation to spur us on to improve and do better in the coming year.  We might, on the other hand find Successes and great victories that we achieved during 2015.  We can't
allow ourselves to get too puffed up and big headed about any successes we might have had.  Improvements can always be made.  No matter how great the successes, we must always strive to do better. 

According to the above scripture, whether successes or failures, we must forget those things. They are in the Past.  We must press to set our goals higher and strive to meet them.  And for the Christian, our highest goal is the Prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus!!


                           HAPPY NEW YEAR

SIMPLICITY IS BEST OR...KEEP IT SIMPLE-STUPID

    During my last post, I said that I would share some ways that  we could best take advantage of the New Year which God has given us.
    Many times at the beginning of a new year, we want to make resolutions.  We are tempted to look at the big things in our lives that need changing, and we attempt to work on these big items.  Because we have a tendency, at times to bite off more than we can chew, and certainly many times more than we swallow we fail, and go down in flames.  We are discouraged, and frightened away from ever again trying to change our lives for the better.
   Instead of focusing on the big issues, maybe it would be better to work on the little things in our everyday lives that we can do something about.  The magic is that when we begin to beautify the little, or simple areas of our lives that our Heavenly Father will see to it that the big areas are changing too!

EVERY DAY:

• Wake up being thankful that God has given you another day of life
• Every day say some nice and loving to a child
• Determine that you will reach out to others and encourage them
• Work harder today than you did yesterday

• Play harder today than you did yesterday

Simplicity is really the best way!

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

        This is my first post of 2015.  God has given us a brand new page to write on.  It doesn't matter whether or not 2014 was a good year for us.  That is past history, and like my mother used to say to me in growing up..."Don't cry over spilt milk"  What is important is the year that is ahead of us, that we make the best of it.  Over the new few days, I will be sharing with you thoughts on the mindset and focus that we need to have in order to take full advantage of the clean slate that God has given us in the year 2015. 

We can make this the best year of our lives!

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE!

    This upcoming April 02, it will be 2 years since I broke the bone in the heal of my left foot.  This is a bone that the doctors call the 'Calcaneous'.    I was walking to my job in Downtown Detroit that particular morning.  I was about half way there, when I saw straight ahead of me, one of those annoying Waste Management trucks; the kind that have the garbage dumpster attached.  They pick up the full dumpster, and leave the empty dumpster.  I knew where the truck was headed.  It was going to leave it's dumpster right by the path by which I would be walking.  I could have been patient, and waited for the truck to finish its job.  Or I could have crossed the street and keep walking.  What did I do?  In my haste to get to work, and it comes to me now, a bit of insanity, I decided to step off a curb, after the truck picked up the old dumpster, and has backed up.  What I didn't consider was this curb was part of a loading dock depression.  The step off at that point was nearly 10 inches.  I waited until the truck backed up, and stepped off the curb.  I lost my balance, and fell flat on my face.  As I struggled to get back to my feet, I realized that I could not put any weight at all on my left heel.  I ended up that morning calling an Emergency Medical vehicle and going to the Emergency room of a major Trauma hospital, Detroit Receiving, to get an x-ray of my heel.  That is when I discovered that my heel bone was broken.  I went through a series of casts.  For the first time in my life, I used crutches.  I used a walker.  
    I am now walking without any assistance.  But my ankle is sensitive.  And from time to time I find my self limping.  What happened is when I came down on my foot that morning, the force collapsed my arch nearly 50%.  When I stand that leg is shorter because of the collapsed arch.  That, in turn causes added stress on my left heel when I walk.  The ankle is still quite sensitive at times.  People that I talk to confirm to my that these injuries sometimes take years to heal.  Now, I quite understand what the great English playwright, William Shakespeare said in 'Othello', Act 2, Scene 3:

      "How poor are they that have not Patience.  What wound did ever heal but by degrees?"

    So work to develop patience during your life time.  It will pay big dividends. 

IT'S ALREADY MID-JANUARY!

    Here in Michigan, we are entering what is known as the mid-winter period.  It lasts until approximately February 15th.  This period has the potential for being the coldest part of the winter.  Although it is hard for me to see it getting any colder then it already has this winter.  Last week, as you probably are aware, most of the nation was gripped by a phonomenom that they called the 'polar vortex'.    Here in the Detroit Area which is in the Southeastern part of Michigan, we had actual temperature readings of -15 degrees fahrenheit, with wind chill readings of 30 degrees below zero.  And to top it oo we had a foot of snow to go with extremely bitter temperatures.  We've already had quite a bit of winter.

    The Month of January is named for the Roman deity 'Janus'.  He is pictured as the head of a man with two faces: one face looking ahead to the new year, and the other face looking behind at the old year just completed.  At the beginning of each year we need to meditate on the joys, and disappointments; victories, and failures of the past year.  We also need to look forward at the new year ahead with optimism, and positive enthusiasm knowing that this brand new year promises to be the best year of our lives.


REMEMBER-"Meditation is the price of REALITY" REVEREND MARY-LOU BROWN

KNOW THYSELF!

                            HAPPY NEW YEAR-2014

    In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Polonius said, in:  Act 1; Scene 3,  "To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man".  It is important as we go into this new year that we realize again how vital it is that we know ourselves.  It is sad to realize that most people live in fantasy about themselves, maybe their entire lives and never discover who they really are.  That is the reason, I'm sure, why we are told that up to 50% of marriages end in divorce.  How can a person learn to live with, and become one with another human being,  if they have never learned to live with, and to know themselves.

    Know your Strengths;  also know your Weaknesses, because failures are the materials that Victories and Successes are made of.  It is good to confess one faults and failures.  The Bible says in the book of James:  "Confess your faults one to another that ye may be healed."  When we hear, with our own ears, ours confessing a fault or a failure to another, it helps us to face it ourselves, and it galvanizes us so that we can change that failure to a glorious success.

   Speaking of Confessing failures.  I failed miserably on at least two accounts last year.  I write about them in this blog post because last year, I pledged myself in two areas of my life that I absolutely dropped the ball on.  I wrote about them in several blogposts at the beginning of 2013.

      I promised to write a post every day in 2013, excluding Sundays.  What the reality was, I didn't write a post after the first week of June.  I think the problem was I pledged myself into a box.  What I will promise for this year, is I will be more consistent in my posting in 2014.

   Another area that I posted in this blog in January 2013, and failed to accomplish was the matter of recording the checks I write, and my other financial transactions, as well as balancing my checkbook each month.  I need, desperately, to start doing this as that now I am retired, and living on a pension income, I need to be able to track my finances, and know where I stand at any point in time during the month.  Without a doubt, this is one area that I will be working on in 2014.  

     I will report my progress in these matters in a blog post.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamsha106104.html#8bIUMVmWS0ymwqHO.99

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamsha106104.html#8bIUMVmWS0ymwqHO.99

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamsha106104.html#8bIUMVmWS0ymwqHO.99

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamsha106104.html#8bIUMVmWS0ymwqHO.99

THE MOST DANGEROUS THING ABOUT SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

     It seems to be appropriate to talk about this today seeing that the United States Supreme Court had a ruling today on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and the California (Prop 8) issue.  Yesterday the Michigan Legislature started working on a bill that would attempt to overturn the amendment to the Michigan Constitution that prohibits same sex marriage.

     What is the most dangerous thing regarding same-sex marriage?   It isn't the fact that same sex 'partner's can't procreate. And that violates God's first command to be fruitful and multiply.  And it isn't the fact that a nuclear family with a father and a mother is the foundational building block of human society.  And it is, but it is not the most dangerous thing