There’s a song by Kathy Mattae, “Standing Knee Deep In A River.” She talks about friendships that we take for granted, and we let them slip on by.
As I grow older, I realize this is a hard truth that many of us either recognize early enough to rescue the few that may remain, or we acknowledge way too late that they’re already gone.
Friendships that are found to be easy and never have “a bump in the road,” a confrontation, or a season where questions arise if it’s really worth it to keep going, are truthfully, not those knee deep waters.
Knee deep water is when you can still jump around and splash, but one slip, and you’ll be under water fast.
Knee deep water is when you can still feel secure in your footing, but let the current get a little faster, and that footing will be tested and reevaluated.
Knee deep water is when you can choose to go a little deeper, explore a little more, or you can choose to step back in the shallow, safer waters and not take the risk.
Knee deep waters is when real friendships learn to survive.
Friendships that are made to last will be found more valuable and cherished when those waters rise.
What kind of friendships are you keeping today?
It might be one that will be a lifeline to your survival tomorrow…
A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Too many people in this world bite, ridicule and wound those closest to them who care the most.
Too many people in this world viciously attack the ones who love them the most because they’re willing to speak truth.
Too many people don’t know who their friends are and walk away from the best.
Too many people embrace the toxic, the loud, and the angry, believing because “they’re family,” that’s what they’re suppose to do.
Too many people hold onto a bloodline that kicks them around and demands they be a doormat when they should say goodbye and not look back.
Too many people keep close those whom should be released and let go of those whom should be captivated.
Look around. Evaluate. Be honest.
Don’t stay out of obligation, fear or routine.
Don’t walk away out of rage, envy or apathy.
Open your eyes to see clearly and hear with precision.
Make wise choices, and make calculated decisions.
You can do this.
And the next generation is depending on you to do it right.
They are watching and waiting.
Now when he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Saul took him that day, and would not let him go home to his father’s house anymore. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt.
Your perspective is guided, cleared and clouded by that filter.
You can choose to allow your filter to be filled with your pain or your victory.
You can choose to create your filter to be filled with good things or evil.
Th choice is yours.
Choose today for 2023.
Choose well.
Extra Note: I love coffee, but it’s not a great filter filler for my life. 😉😂
And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
It’s rare and of much value, never to be seen again.
What will you do with it?
What will you make amends?
The clock will keep on ticking.
Time will never end.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
Looking back, I search for the value of what I have done.
Is it worthy? Is it useful? Is it enough?
Every season at this time, I question my intentions.
I begin analyzing and questioning.
Were my plans well executed or were they wasted?
Were the goals fulfilled and throughly accomplished?
The questions begin to flow like a river until I almost feel overwhelmed with the gravity of the search.
But then, I remember. Then, I recollect.
It’s not a competition. It’s not a race to defeat.
Tomorrow is a new day, and today is still here for the catch.
Make the best of this moment, and make a point to create the rest even better.
It’s not about perfection. It’s not about the ideal.
It’s about integrity, sincerity and virtue.
It’s about determination, perseverance and fortitude.
Let’s make the most of right now and work towards a great time to come.
To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.
Ok, so this meme is posted to be funny, and I hope you’re laughing.
But honestly, there’s a little bit of truth here, and realistically, on both sides.
We can’t go around “locking people out” of our lives every time we dislike what they say or do.
Yet, for our own well being, there may be times that we need to lock that door.
If you’re feeling quick to agree or disagree with me, I’ll urge you to pause.
Your feelings of justification or accusation may not be accurate once you hear my thoughts…
In this culture we are living, it seems everyone can be offended, and everyone is demanding tolerance and acceptance.
In this modern society, everyone screams to “let me be me,” and if “you don’t, you hate me!”
Candidly speaking, this is a dumb statement on both ends of the spectrum.
If you are in the camp of those who are quick to gain offense and demand acceptance, in actuality, you are forcing that of me, but yet, I’m not allowed to do the same of you (because then, I’d be intolerant).
If you are in the camp who states emphatically that my disagreement proves my hatred, then in reality, you have just pointed the finger to the very thing you are doing to me (because now you are “hating on” me).
Both responses are unfair and unreasonable.
Both reactions are illogical and quite biased.
If you are truly desiring relationship, these expectations are one sided and selfish, and they only bring toxins and codependency.
If you are truly looking for companionship, these pressures are pompous and even narcissistic, and they only bring death and destruction.
If you are truly seeking connection, then you’ve got to have some give and take.
If you are truly pursuing friendship, then you’ve got to become less demanding and a little more understanding.
And this is when the decision to open the door or close it becomes essential.
Not because we need to go around locking out every controlling or domineering person we encounter,
And not because we need to become people of only rules and regulations; there must be second chances for mercy to flow.
But rather, we need to open the door wide to those who welcome, warm, refresh, strengthen and challenge the heart.
And we need to close it to those who demean, ridicule, imprison and manipulate the soul.
Learning when to lock the door and expand it takes a lifetime of wisdom, love and self-control.
Learning takes a lifetime of failing and succeeding.
It’s a hard lesson, but it is attainable.
It’s a arduous journey, but it is worth it.
Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?
Amos 3:3
Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”
1 Corinthians 15:33
Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Too many today attempt to play the nonchalant card.
They try to act as if they can do what they want, you can do what you want, and no one pays any rewards or consequences.
It’s just living life.
But oh. How wrong we can be.
If I always do me, and you always do me, all we create is two spheres full of selfishness and self centeredness.
If I’m focused only on me, and you only on you, we become consumed on our own desires, our own requests, our own demands.
And eventually, no one else matters.
Yet, it’s supposed to matter because after all, my expectations are highest priority to me.
And your expectations are highest priority to high, and then, we’re both at an impasse.
Because if it’s all about me, and it’s all absolutely you, then, you don’t matter to me, and I don’t matter to you!
What wretched and lost souls we become, and what wrecked havoc we leave for those behind us.
All kindness, and love and harmony is expected for me (and for you), but it sucks the life out of all those who are impacted because they are seeking the same.
And what about the children racing toward the edge of a knife?
What about those innocent souls who cry out to be loved, nurtured and directed?
Our self consumption depleted their hope for tomorrow because all they can see is our command for the now.
What we do in life does echo in eternity.
It is a repeating anthem across the chasms of time.
What will your reverberations be?
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’schildren, But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
Proverbs 13:22
So these nations feared the Lord, yet served their carved images; also their children and their children’schildren have continued doing as their fathers did, even to this day.
I read something recently that began, “Your calling is going to crush you.”
If I weren’t a Christian, and I’d never heard of a calling, or that statement might intimidate me.
If I weren’t called, that quote might make me wrinkle my forehead and wonder why someone would be liking to be crushed by something they chose.
But that’s where information and revelation alter your perspective.
See, when you have no revelation, you might not understand why I do the things I do.
When you have no revelation, you might not grasp the importance of my choices, if my sacrifices, of my disciplines.
Oh, but when you have a revelation, your eyes are open, your heart is refreshed, your soul longs for one more moment, one more taste of that living water you’ve found.
And you’ll do anything to maintain it.
You’ll do anything to keep it.
You’ll do anything to remain in it.
You’ll lay down desires, and expectations, demands and wishes.
Just for another moment.
It’s like finding a new love, but it’s so much more.
It’s like recognizing a new craving, but it’s beyond that.
It’s like getting a glimpse of paradise, but it’s to a greater extent.
If you’ve never experienced the moment, it will be difficult to explain it.
For it’s not a simple piece of knowledge that can be spoken or read about.
You have to fast it.
You have to feel it.
You have to experience the revelation.
Then, you’ll never be the same.
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you livingwater.”
John 4.10
As the deerpants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.
(Yeah. Somebody spelled it wrong, and my grammar self is going crazy inside!)
Some people don’t really have to be crazy.
They’ve just committed themselves to being a certain way, and their stubbornness will not relent.
Others have lived undisciplined for so long that they have convinced themselves this is a good life.
Still others, have fully embraced their crazy, and they want everyone else to embrace it as somehow normal.
If you find yourself in one of these three categories, and you’re living life believing everyone is just giving you a hard time, or they’re all just so difficult to be around , or they never give you a break to be who you are, please hear me screaming at you across the cosmic divide.
STOP!! HALT!! RELEASE!! RELENT!! END NOW!
Stop right now, in your tracks, and listen a moment to reason.
Open your ears to wisdom calling to you.
No one accidentally becomes the “crazy one.”
No one stumbles into the pools of insanity.
It is a choice. And you make it everyday.
So, make the right decisions.
Choose the correct outcomes.
Your spouse will thank you. Your children will sing your praises. And friends will begin to visit again as you walk away from the crazies and embrace life!
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.
Philippians 3:13-16
But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
My journey didn’t stop with mere time travel or writing; it led me to become one of the most sought-after empaths, a soulful psychic who reads the hidden depths of the human spirit. I’ve been blessed—or perhaps burdened—with an ability that allows me to feel the emotions of people from every corner of time.
I am a licensed psychologist based in Greece. My love for housekeeping has inspired me to create this blog about home management and family relationships. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing!
Dedicated to movie nerdom, nostalgia, and escape. In the late 90s, I worked at Blockbuster Video where they let me take home two free movies a day. I caught up on the classics and reviewed theatrical releases for Denver 'burbs newspapers and magazines. Today, while raising two young, beautiful daughters with my amazing wife, I look forward to anything rated R and not Bluey. Comments and dialogue encouraged!
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