My First VLOG!



 

I must admit it's really not very good....the camera is too far away and I need to really work on my skills, but I had a deadline and today's the day!  I hope you enjoy and I promise I will get better. The two books mentioned in the piece can be found here and here! 

 

 

 

 

If you are on a mobile devise here is the YouTube link



Perpetually Failing....

FAILING...

O God our King, by the resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ on the first day of the week, you conquered sin, put death to flight, and gave us the hope of everlasting life: Redeem all our days by this victory; forgive our sins, banish our fears, make us bold to praise you and to do your will; and steel us to wait for the consummation of your kingdom on the last great Day; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.



Something I am all to accustomed to doing over and over.  This week seems I am failing more that usual.  Do you ever do that?  You know just about the time you feel like "I have got this life thing going ON!" I am praying, I am meditating, I am getting the kids to school with breakfast AND brushed hair!  That's about the time everything starts falling apart.  Same way with the things I think I have emotionally and spiritually conquered. I have learned my lesson Lord I have got this!  Then here comes the very thing I have learned to remove from my life. strolling up like a cold ice cream cone on a summer day -- and I am all over it!  WTH?  I had this!  Am I so dumb I cannot learn one single lesson?  I am reminded of Matthew 26:41 "...the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak"  NKJV http://biblehub.com/matthew/26-41.htm  "He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

If our own Lord and Savior fought with what he must do, why should I fall apart when humanly I fail.  I began to think of that, as I tortured myself with struggling with the same old short comings.  Paul writes in Romans 7:15 "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." ESV  http://biblehub.com/romans/7-15.htm
I know that all to well.  Do you?  But as I was giving myself the customary flogging for falling short of my unatainable, superhuman bar I have set before myself,  I was reminded of the great men and women of the bible who fell short.  The disciples were the last guys you would expect to be picked and yet they were.  Poor Peter I always feel so sorry for him as we read where he proclaims Jesus is the Son of God!  How he passionately proclaims he would never deny the Lord, and yet very shortly after he does not once, not twice, but three times.  I want to weep with him as he realizes he has done the very thing he wanted not to do.  I know that place I have been there!  I have lived that aweful moment so many times.  I had this!  How did I .... I think we have all been there.  http://biblehub.com/niv/mark/14.htm He was scared...he reverts to old programing... and on Peter "the rock" I will build my church.   So I got to thinking may be I should give myself a break, God has been choosing me since the beginning.  Maybe he chooses us that fall so much because we understand falling, failing?  Because we know what it's like to be at the bottom, to feel like a total failure, and we know how to come back and try again!  Isn't that what this whole glorious week is about?  Our saviour taught us how to be down for the count, have no one believe in you, have everyone say oh she's just ________...

 

Psalm 30:5 For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. KJV http://biblehub.com/kjv/psalms/30.htm
http://youtu.be/mj-pZQ_XjyU



 

The Journey Begins!

Life is short, and we do not have too much time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us, so be quick to love and make haste to be kind. And may the blessing of the One who made us, and the One who loves us, and the One who travels with us, be with you and those you love this day and always.

AMEN. ~ Adapted from Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881)

My Grandfather - Grafton King
 (this is my favorite picture of us :)

Let me start by saying I am a sinner, plain and simple I have made a lot of mistakes, more than most.  I was told once when I was a young girl that "those that have the most to be forgiven for, love God the most"  I guess that could be said of me.  My journey begins long ago, a child of two Christian parents, raised in a church going at two or three times a week.  Our church life & community was a large part of our lives.  I was raised in rural community and church was honestly the "social" outlet, the center of the community. I was always drawn to God, maybe my parents or maybe it was sitting at the table on long summer mornings, watching my grandmother read her morning scriptures, as she let me sip on a little coffee (with lots of sugar and cream).  I remember a time when I told my grandfather pictured above that he and my grandmother MUST be the children of GOD! He chuckled, that's just who they were. Children of GOD. I have been Pentecostal, and Baptist and Methodist and non-denominational, and I have been agnostic, and almost lost all my faith.  I have searched high and low for what I believe is right.  I have questioned all the teachings of my childhood.. Were they right?  Or were they just what I knew?  Just what I have been taught?  What do I believe? Those are the questions that haunted me after entering a christian college and finding out that I was lost on the huge "stages" of mega churches.  It was there that my favorite piano professor at Samford University caused me to try something different.  Something that I found to be the place I belonged...

 

I found the Episcopal Church, and a place I could call home.  http://adventbirmingham.org/  Oh It's not perfect she has her flaws as well as any denomination, but it fit for me.  It allowed me to accept the shades of grey in a world I had thought was only black and white.  That liberty gave me back something I could believe in. <3

I have found so much joy in the journey. I found my belief was: Love One Another. That's my core belief, when I boil it all down, there is love; nothing more nothing less...just LOVE.   With that all the other trivial things no longer matter.  I am passionate about my church, my faith and convincing the people around me to just Love. 

I recently have been studying Buddhism and the Tao of Inner Peace, so similar to the faith I already know and love --I hope this will be a place I can marry those two together.  Prayer and meditation have both  been good for my soul and there is a peace that comes with studying to be happy within yourself no matter what the circumstances are around you. 

I hope you will come on this journey with me, be challenged, and be encouraged as one woman, a sinner, passionately shares her journey of faith, struggles, challenges and hope for a world of love and peace.

May The Lord Bless and keep you always - <3



“Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law.”- Buddha