Funny Friday
healing
Music to My Ears
What would your life be like without music?
Honestly, I think any life would be dull and lifeless without music. There’s a quote that says, “Music is the words of the soul.” And I believe it’s true.
I’m not just referring to music with instruments, vocals and different genres, but I’m talking about any music. There’s a melody in the trees as the wind rustles the leaves. There’s a lullaby in the setting sun basking upon the mountains. There’s a cadence in the insects that hum and the birds that sing. There’s a crescendo in the waves crashing upon the rocks and shoreline.
In all actuality, there’s probably more music to be found in the nature around us, or in the children’s laughter that rises above the chaos, or the babies cries that surround a mother’s comforting coos than there is in the simple clanging of cymbals and piano keys.
This music brings peace to the soul and laughter to the lips. It brings strength to the mind and healing to the whole being.
So, where my life be without music: lost. Totally and utterly lost without hope. And I am eternally grateful for great melodies, regardless, of where they come from.
How about you?
One Opinion
One opinion can wreck our whole day.
One opinion can destroy our whole mood.
One opinion can demolish our whole level of success.
Why?
Why do we let one simple opinion do that?
The wise statement is so very true:
“Care about what others think, and you will always be their prisoner.” – Lao Tzu
Enough said.
Let it go and go do better.
The fear of man brings a snare,
Proverbs 29:25
But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.
Silly Saturday
Swing Away the Monday Blues
Sometimes,
a good swing session is like therapy…
And if at first, it doesn’t help,
just keep swinging…
It was truly therapy…
Silly Saturday
Grudge Not
Are you holding a grudge? About?
It’s almost funny, that the daily prompt today is asking if you’re holding a grudge, and my blog post earlier today was about forgiveness.
As they say, maybe great minds do think alike. Lol.
Do I hold a grudge? No. I’d have to say not because I’ve learned forgiveness is more important and more freeing than holding grudges that I could rightfully hold.
Yet, for some whose relationship has been effected by my distance and even my walking away, their narrative could be different. But sometimes, toxicity must be avoided at all costs. And that’s where the judgement begins.
But to hold a grudge means your intent will eventually be to bring harm. Holding a grudge has the intent of revenge. Holding a grudge has the motives of destruction.
Holding a grudge is rooted in the foundation of unforgiveness. Holding a grudge brings resentment and bitterness. Holding a grudge actually brings more harm to you than it does to those against whom the grudge is held.
That grudge will create a prison in which you’ll live if you’ll let it. That grudge will be the hot iron that you think you’re grasping in your hand, yet the longer you hold it, the more it burns your flesh and all those closest to you.
But if you’ll release that grudge, it’s like releasing the hot iron to go back into the fire from whence it came. And the release brings you more freedom than you could ever imagine.
Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Colossians 3:13
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.
Ephesians 4:31
Forgiveness Finds Freedom
Forgiving those who wounded you doesn’t free them from guilt.
Forgiveness isn’t pretending it never happened.
Forgiving the one who brought harm is never justifying their wrong.
Forgiveness only frees us from their poison overtaking our soul.
Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
Matthew 18:21-22
Know When to Speak
Dealing with trauma can be excruciating. And just as a wounded animal wants to lash out and wound anyone who would try to help, we as humans will also have a tendency to lash out and bring harm when we are hurting.
We will rear back and punch an honest bystander simply because she leans in to take a second look. We will react with violent anger because he offers a gentle hand. We will claw and bite when they surround and hover, only hoping to give a comforting word or a compassionate nod.
The pain we feel can be so deep and seem so lasting that it actually feels unfair to see a world who is unaffected by it.
The agony can be so debilitating that we feel justified in our knee-jerk reactions and spiteful words because after all, they can’t possibly understand all that we’ve endured.
But what does wounding another accomplish? It doesn’t remove the gash. It certainly never heals the scar. It only leaves those in our wake with their own needed recovery.
And the enemy of our soul celebrates the victory of our further demise. The demons that watched our first injury shout with glee as they observe our continual upheaval and destruction of another.
This is his goal. This is his ultimate objective.
Bring annihilation to all, not just one.
And bring it through the hands of the tortured who should rather be seeking to pour the healing balm.
So, recognize his tactics.
Become keenly aware of his ploys.
And vehemently reject his satisfaction.
Through the bleeding, learn to praise the One who gave you breath.
Through the brokenness, seek to pour the oil of mending on those who are the weakest.
Through the injustice, desire to be the wounded healer embracing instead of victimizing.
Work through the muck and mire to find His calm.
Extend your heart with all it’s shattered dreams to find His love.
And as you do, stretch yourself to find someone deeper in the pit than you have fallen and struggle to lift them up and pull them out.
When you do, you’ll find yourself conquering the enemy with your peace.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
2 Corinthians 1:3-6
Prison of Memories
For years, I’ve heard of the movie Good Will Hunting. I’ve tried to watch it on air flights every chance I got. But the unedited version just turned me off after the first maybe 5 mins. Forgive me. I’m weird like that, but I just don’t get into a lot of foul language and crude conversations. I’m not a big movie watcher anyway; so, I don’t care to waste my time…
But my husband had first watched it on an edited flight many years ago and had been referencing it for one situation or another all this time. I wanted to watch it so bad, I was almost tempted just to forgo my personal standards and just watch it anyway. Well, he told me the other day he’d had the tv edited version on our recordings for a while now, and he didn’t realize I’d wanted to watch it so bad. Lol.
So, we finally found time to sit down to watch it, and Wow. If you’ve not seen this. You need to. Of course, I would definitely encourage the edited version. Ha.ha. But anyway.
Without being a spoiler, let’s just say this little statement above came alive and well in the middle of the story, and I just balled my eyes out! Geez. I’m so glad I was in the privacy of my own home with only my husband to see me crying like a blubbering idiot and not on a plane where a whole bunch of strangers would wonder what in the world was my problem!
Some days the memories still knock the wind out of me.
And that’s just the honest truth of life, isn’t it?
It doesn’t really matter if it’s past pain, grief, brokenness or shame. When the memories come up, it doesn’t matter how deep you’ve stuffed them down, or how far beneath the surface you think you’ve buried them.
They’re going to slam into your heart like a tsunami.
They’re going to run through your mind like a twister seeking a place to land.
They’re going to roll over your soul like a freight train.
There’s no real stopping them.
You might as well stop the denial. And you might as well not try to run. Cuz they’ll chase you down and beat you, or they’ll just lie in wait for you at your next destination.
Memories don’t go away like a vapor in the wind.
They are like the fragrance on that wind, choosing when to come and when to go.
Claiming no responsibility and receiving no accountability.
Never giving forwarning of their arrival nor a wave to their departure.
They just are and forever will be.
It’s better to embrace, evaluate, excavate and even let them exuberate.
Otherwise, you’ll get sucked into an abyss of that depression, anger, resentment, confusion, and heartache from whence they came.
One of which you’ll never escape.
Do not remember the former things,
Isaiah 43:18-19
Nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert.
