Arabic Proverb

"أولى الناس بالعفو أقدرهم على العقوبة"

Avoid doing what may require an apology.

Good things come to those who wait--

"The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit."

-- Moliere

When I saw this quote I immediately thought about how, when we're young, we lack patience. As babies we cried, and when our mothers weren't at our beck and call, we'd commence to screaming from the top of our lungs until our needs are met.  We wanted everything quicker than now. We wanted it yesterday. Patience is learned.

 Some of us, as adults are still learning; we’re still impatient.

I have a nephew, and when he was very young I couldn’t say no to him, and he knew it. As he got older I learned to say no when I needed to say no. I told him that in life, you may not get everything you want, or as soon as you want it, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t love him or that I didn’t want him to have that for which he begged. Of course, he still got upset (and threw tantrums from time to time) as he was used to getting everything immediately. He had no idea if I was planning on buying that same item for an upcoming birthday, or if the company or their competitors were soon to release a better product that he would appreciate more.

I thought about it later on. I thought about how we always ask God for an immediate resolution to what we refer to as problems or issues. Then sometimes some of us get upset ( and throw grown-up versions of tantrums) when we don’t get the answer we need when we want it. To use the analogy above, just because He doesn’t give us the answer we need ‘yesterday’, doesn’t mean He doesn’t love us or that He doesn’t want us to have that for which we begged. I know from experience that God is either waiting for a better time to bless us, or He has something better for us. We just need to be patient, and good things will come to us.

It is difficult to get the news
 from poems yet men die
miserably every day
for lack of what is found there.


--William Carlos Williams

When William Carlos Williams wrote this poem, I don't think he meant them literally-as if a poem a day could keep the doctor away. What I think he meant, was that poetry can make our daily existence (at least mine, to me) mean more to us.
It can cut through all the distractions and busyness and help us seize our lives, to be more completely in them.
But that's my opinion.

Dreams are not a bad thing

Dreams are not a bad thing.

So much depends upon labor.

Quote of the day

" A wise bird once said, always trying to find the best worm a hungry belly you will have."

--Kaonohiaweaweokala

Portuguese Quote

"Se você não tem nenhum inimigo, então a fortuna passou por você."


“If you have no enemies, then fortune has passed you by.”

"Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?"

-- Mary Oliver

"When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane."
                                                        - Larry, the cable guy

"Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children."

--Kahlil Gibran

Rainy Days Ahead

I didn't do what I said I was going to do today. I didn't go to Church. I lied in bed, alternating between waking up and going back to sleep  a few times,  until ten o'clock.
I was going to get up, go to Church, go to the gym, go downtown to Portland just to waste time until dinner, but today I just lied in bed, and got up and worked on my collection of short stories until dinner. I watched the news this  evening and I heard the meteorologist say that today was the last sunny day we would have for a while. The rain season (of Fall, Winter and part of Spring) has arrived.  I wish I had gotten up to go to Church     :(

A French Proverb

"C'est le ton qui fait la chanson."

Literal meaning: It's the melody that makes the song.

Idiomatic translation: It's not what you say but the way you say it.

Investment opportunity

"The best investment isn't in stocks, it's in people."

- Alexgeorge

Quote of the Day, on beauty

Beauty? Let me tell you something - being thought of as `a beautiful woman` has spared me nothing in life. No heartache, no trouble. Love has been difficult. Beauty is essentially meaningless and it is always transitory.   --Halle Berry

Mistake # 1

"The biggest mistake is a love that’s gone unexpressed."

-Alexgeorge

Wise words

“If you're gonna pray, then there's no sense of worrying. If you're gonna worry, then there's no sense of praying.”  Irma P. Hall’s  Mama Joe  character in the movie Soul Food

A funny protest sign

Choice

I've been feeling like this all day today.

I think it's because I chose to feel this way.

It's not always that easy,

but today it is.

Quote of the day, on bravery

"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it."


-- Thucydides

Protection

"A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee."  Psalm 91:7

I can't remember which awards show it was, but it was about a year or two ago that Tyler Perry won an award for his tv show, Tyler Perry's House Of Payne. What he said in his acceptance speech was most memorable to me--something to the effect of:, "I may get a thousand No's from people and studios, but all I need is one Yes from God."   I like it because it tells me that despite the odds being  overwhelmingly against you at times or so it seems, if it's God's will, then  as long as you have faith and believe and press on, success will come. A thousand shall fall at my side, and ten thousand at my right hand; but it shall not come near me. That goes for backstabbers, bill collectors, coworkers, enemies, friends, employers, etc,.

This is one of the verses I meditate on, on my way to work,  in my evening prayers, and every stressful, frustrating, angry moment in between .

A Japanese quote about jealousy

"The misfortunes of others are the taste of honey."

Home of the green-eyed monster: This part of the frontal lobe lights up when you are jealous.

This is the region of the brain that controls taking delight in other people's misfortune.

http://www.banderasnews.com/0902/hb-jealousylobe.htm

Quote of the Day

Fortune and love favor the brave.
-- Ovid

Quote of the day

'The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it."

-- Niccolo  Machiavelli

Sankofa

“Return and get it.”


I have four tattoos. Each tattoo I have has been carefully and thoroughly thought out; when I arrive at the design I want, I wait for an entire year before I get it. If the year has passed and I still want it, then I’m pretty sure I’ve made the right decision because I wouldn’t want to get a tattoo today and regret it tomorrow or next week.

This symbol above is a Sankofa from Ghana. It symbolizes one taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present in order to make positive progress through the benevolent use of knowledge. It was my first tattoo. I have it on my chest. I like it because of what it represents. Basically, if we don’t know the errors of our past, we are doomed to make the same errors over and over again. We need to know our history, our past, and learn from it.



“If you don’t know or remember that fire burns, you will get burned again.” Alexgeorge

Seek and ye shall find

And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Luke 11:9 (KJV)

  I believe in self-fullfilling prophecies. The term self-fullfilling prophecy, coined by a sociologist named Robert K, Merton, is defined as a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior. I believe that if you think you’re going to fail at something you will act accordingly, thus getting your wish. You might end up saying to yourself, ‘see, I knew I would fail.” I also believe that if you think you’re going to succeed at something, you will act accordingly, like a winner, and will most likely get your wish.

About 12 years ago, a company I worked for, was bought by a larger company. We all had to re-apply for our jobs, knowing that the 25 people in my department would be applying for 15 of those jobs. Having been employed at the company for 4 years, I was one of the newest employees. My coworkers who were my mentors, had been there at least 10 or more years, and I knew they would get to keep their jobs. I was sure I would be one of the people that would be let go, but I loved the job and I banished negative thinking from my mind and I acted accordingly. And I prayed. I acted like I wanted my job, and in doing so, I came to my interviews in a suit (though we were told we could wear our business casual clothes) and I brought my briefcase which contained resumes (though we were told to bring our in-house job applications), because I wanted to show them I was serious by doing something no one else thought of doing. I not only ended up being one of the 15 employees to keep my job, but those who were mentoring me were laid off. They were surprised. And they were upset. A few months later, I felt comfortable enough to ask the Director what was it about me that stood out to her, and she told me that when I walked in the office wearing my suit, when everyone else wore loose fitting shirts and khakis, she knew I was serious and that I wanted to keep my job, and she knew she was going to let me keep it, but she had to go along with the interview process.

An example of a self-fulfilling prophecy can be found in Greek Literature. Regarding the story of Oedipis.Warned that his child would one day kill him,Lauis abandoned his newborn son Oedipus to die, but Oedipus was found and raised by others, and thus in ignorance of his true origins. When he grew up, Oedipus was warned that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Believing his foster parents were his real parents, he left his home and traveled Greece, eventually reaching the city where his biological parents lived. There, he got into a fight with a stranger, his real father, killed him and married his widow, Oedipus's real mother.

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you…” Matthew 7:7 (KJV)

Quote of the day- Diana Ross said...

"Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then."





When I saw this quote I had to blog about it, because just yesterday when I bought a 2010 calendar, I had set August 1, 2010 as a date to attain a personal goal and I decided to work backwards in preparation for that day. I’m not sure if the goal is even attainable by then but I decided to write it on the calendar because I believe in self-fulfilling prophecies.

And today I saw the above quote from Diana Ross!

A French Proverb

“God visits us, but most of the time we are not at home.”

Irony again

"Now don't you understand man universal law

What you throw out comes back to you, star
Never underestimate those who you scar
Cause karma, karma, karma comes back to you hard."

                                           The Lost Ones, Lauryn Hill

If you plant tulip bulbs, tulips will grow. If you plant poison ivy seeds, poison ivy will grow. If you want something good to grow, don’t plant anything bad. If you want something bad to grow, don’t plant anything good…. Make sure that what you want to grow is what you planted.

-Alexgeorge

Yes, I’m gloating, because of something that happened today. My mother always says “you reap what so sow,” but most of the time the distance between the two are far apart. Today I saw some sowing that was so shameless it made me so angry that I had to speak up about it. My words fell on deaf ears, however, the reaping shortly thereafter, for me, and everyone to see.

I had the taken the Max from Beaverton to meet a friend in Portland for happy hour. The local train system, called TriMet's MAX Light Rail system connects Portland, Gresham, Beaverton, Hillsboro and the Portland Airport. For the most part, it works on the honor system. TRIMET doesn’t enforce people to pay to take the Max Light Rail. They expect everyone to pay to use it, and the penalty for being caught on the Max-line at $115-$250 is pretty steep, and not worth being too cheap to pay the fare (an adult two hour fare is $2.30 and an all-day pass is $4.75). Because of a sticker on my company ID, my use of the Max Light Rail is free all day, everyday. I just have to make sure I have my company ID on my person in the rare event that their transportation security is on board to check to see that everyone has paid to use the Max Light Rail. I’ve been here almost 2 years and use the Max light most every weekend and have only been asked twice to show my id as my free fare.

In each compartment on the Max Light Rail, there is seating closest the doors, that are designated for the elderly and the handicapped. Anyone can sit there, however in the presence of the elderly and the handicapped, one needs to get up to make the space available.

Today, an elderly woman entered my compartment of the Max Light Rail in a wheel chair. Her lower limbs were cut off at the knee. She had no calves, no feet. Our compartment was fairly empty, and in the elderly and handicapped seat sat a man who was 57 yrs old. I knew his age because he used it as his excuse for not moving when asked to do so. This able-bodied man got on at the Beaverton Central stop with his gym bag. This was the stop I normally get off and on at as my gym, 24 hr fitness, is about 40 yards away. I’ve seen him on the treadmill regularly.

“Sir, can you please let me move my wheel chair where you are?” she said to him as the trains door closed behind her.

The man ignored her, and she was heard saying, “sir, sir?” I turned around to her wheelchair in the aisle, and she was facing the man who was obviously ignoring her.

Then he looked up at her and, pointing to the sign on the window where he was seated, said, “this sign says designated for the elderly and the handicapped. I’m 57 and that makes me elderly.”

“But I’m in a wheelchair,” she said.

“So. I’m 57, and I’m elderly. I have as much a right to sit here as you do, “ he responded.

“But as you can see, I’m not able to sit just anywhere on the train, and you can,” she said.

“Look woman, I don’t care about you being in that wheel chair. I didn’t put you in there. I’m 57 years old, did you hear me?” he said. Just before using the race card, he added, “you white people act like you’re entitled to shit. You don’t deserve to sit here just because you’re white! I’m gonna be preaching about you at church on Sunday.”

“Preaching about me?” she asked.

“I’m a minister.”

And then she said the obvious; “but sir, I have no legs, I can’t sit just anywhere,” to which he replied, “what’s that supposed to mean to me? That I need to let you sit here because you have no legs? That aint my fault. I’ve been in the military. I fought for this country. I’m gonna sit any damn where I please!”

I have a special place in my heart for children, women, the elderly, handicapped and pets. Not that anyone one should be harmed anyway, but I get really upset and even take it personally when those mentioned above have been mistreated, disrespected or abused. I’m not confrontational at all but I couldn’t, with a clear conscience, sit there and pretend I didn’t hear what I had just heard, so I asked the man to please sit a few rows back and let the woman move her wheelchair there, when he informed me that I “was selling out for taking the white woman’s side, and that we niggers gotta stick together.”

When he said that, the train stopped at that next stop and two women wearing transportation security jackets got onboard, as some passengers suddenly ran out at other entrances to avoid getting a ticket. When one of them asked to see my ticket, I showed her the sticker on the back of my company ID and she moved on to the wheel-chair bound lady seated in the walkway. When they told her she had to move to the seating designated for the handicapped, she informed them that “this gentleman won’t move.” She pointed at him.

When they approached the man, they scolded him for his actions, and they asked for his proof of ticket purchase. After telling him the sign doesn’t just ‘handicapped, but that it also says the elderly’, they ignored him and asked him again for proof of ticket purchase. He searched in each pocket the way one would when they can’t find something for which they were looking, and a clear plastic bag fell out of is pants pocket. The woman said, “you don’t have your ticket, but you brought marijuana onboard?”

He had nothing to say. At the next stop, they wrote him a violation and removed him from the train. Since the train departed shortly thereafter, I couldn’t see what happened next, but I’m pretty sure he had wished he was kinder to the wheel chair-bound woman. He would’ve still gotten a violation (if not able to escape the train like the other people did) though.

Listening to...Aaliyah

EXTRA SMOOTH

A Russian proverb on conscience

A horse may run quickly but it cannot escape its tail.

A Liberian Proverb

Don't look where you fall, but where you slipped.

Like an eagle

"But they that wait upon the LORD
shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as EAGLES
they shall run, and not be weary;
and they shall walk, and not faint."....Isaiah 40:31


Did you know that an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it breaks? The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come.
When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages, below the eagle is soaring above it. The eagle does not escape the storm, it simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rises on the winds that bring the storm.

When the storms of life come upon us ... and all of us will experience them ... we can rise above them by setting our minds and our belief toward God.

The storms do not have to overcome us, we can allow God's power to lift us above them. God enables us to ride the winds of the storm that bring sickness, tragedy, failure, and disappointment into our lives. We can soar above the storm.

Remember, it is not the burdens of life that weigh us down, it is how we handle them.


~ Author Unknown ~


I can't take credit for this. I found it, online. I can't even remember what I was looking for. You know like, how, when you do a Google search, and everything pops up except what you're looking for? This was how I came across this. I'm sure I was meant to read this at this exact time in my life. Thanks for Divine Intervention! Always at the right time!

What trait do you value the most?

Did you see the Michael Jackson Tribute

MTV Shows

Prayers for 9/11 and Everyday

http://elev8.com/prayer-support/scripture-of-the-day/50-good-prayers-for-911-and-everyday/

Word

Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak   -Larry the Cable Guy

Seven Ways To Improve Your Life In Seven Days

Seven Ways To Improve Your Life In Seven Days

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" ~Martin Luther King, Jr.


 
I was looking for a quote by Edmond Burke about people who see evil and do nothing, and I found this one by  Dr Martin Luther King  Jr.

Mis-Guidance

i remember
          when I was young
       i wanted to build
               buildings that scraped
the sky.
                                    though I had more
qualifications
than was
necessary ,
I was convinced
by  my guidance
counselor
who I thought would
know better than i
that i
would be better off
cleaning the bathrooms of
those buildings
instead.
i didn’t know
Luke 12:7
back then.
the words:
it was her words
like a hand on the
back of the head
(filled with dreams)
pressed
firmly;
my head
tilted
in the downward
 position
in her attempt for me
 to perform the role
of the servant.
the subservient little black boy
/ ;
my back used for my white
counterparts to stand on
to become what I dreamed
 of being.
to keep a people
oppressed
then to shake
the head
at those oppressed
 people
wondering why they are
how they are.
lazy
from dreaming
but I now beg
 for the return
of my youth.
the biggest weapon being the
reinforcement of doubt;
the implantation of the seed
in the mind
growing
becoming my own enemy.
i stare at sky scrapers
immaculately
designed buildings
I see foundations
 on buildings with signatures
 other than my own
written in stone;
there are buildings
I have built for my mother
in my head
and on graph paper
i wonder what my
 signature would have
 been in concrete
wood steel clay
glass on the hearts
of the owners of those
buildings that would have been designed by me (but were not)

by Alexgeorge

Your passion

Ready Or Not ?

“I’m sure there’s a good reason why your wardrobe consists of nothing but black dresses with sheer black veils for each. No one has seen you in anything else for the past month.. Why did you throw everything else away in your closet?” Val asked her grandfather.


“I’m in mourning,” he said as he ironed a black tshirt that was to be worn underneath the dress. He coughed hard, a few times. It was the kind of cough that made one think a lung was being coughed up. Then suddenly he was alright; he went back to ironing.

“Mourning for what?” Val asked. “No one’s dead or dying. Grandma died five years ago. You’re as healthy and as strong as an ox. I should know; I’m your doctor’s assistant. So, why the black dresses and the veil?”

He pulled a short-sleeved dress out of the closet and lied it on the bed, and a long-sleeved black laced dress and lied it on the bed next to the other dress.

“Which dress fits today’s occasion? Pick one,” he said, facing Val but looking at the dresses.

She looked at both the dresses. Pointing at the long-sleeved dress, her mouth opened, she looked as she had seen a ghost.

“Granddad, that dress looks very familiar.”

He smiled.

“Yeah, that’s the dress we all wanted your grandmother to wear when she died, but she wanted to wear my black tuxedo instead.”

In Black History News Today

The actress Halle Berry portrayed, for which she earned a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award....Dorothy Dandridge, died 9/8/65 at age 41.

Which way to go?

In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:6

Summer's Last Hurrah

I'm not ready for summer to end, and with this being Labor Day weekend, it's inevitable. When I do think of summer, I think of Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Those were fun times.  Now it's time for one last hurrah, but I have no plans. Oh well, there's always next summer ( Fall and Winter and Spring here in Oregon is rain and clouds and more rain and more clouds)

For the occasion, I chose to add Ella Fitzgerald singing Gershwins "Summertime" at a concert in Berlin/Germany:

Compliment of the day

                     During lunch today, I wrote a story called "Whatever Happened to Lindsey?" and I asked a friend to read the rough draft. The main character was crazy. 

"you do crazy well."

  That was the best compliment I received today!     I'll post the story once I edit it

Everything I need to know,

I learned from Noah's Ark.

1: Don't miss the boat.

2: Remember that we are all in the same boat.

3: Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.

4: Stay fit. When you're 60 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.

5: Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.

6: Build your future on high ground.

7: For safety's sake, travel in pairs.

8: Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.

9: When you're stressed, float awhile.

10: Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.

This was on the wall of a coworker. I loved it and had to include it in my blog

11: No matter the storm, when you are with God, there's always a rainbow waiting.

Fools look to tomorrow; wise men use tonight."

-- Scottish Proverb

“When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.” George Washington Carver

DUH

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/late-night-eating-linked-to-weight-gain/

10 things I’ve learned about myself that no one will read

1 I live to eat
2 I love my job
3 I love to eat
4 I love to sleep
5 I live to eat
6 I’m a homebody
7 I love to eat
8 I intimidate easily
9 I live to eat
10 I’m easily intimidated by beautiful people
11 I love to eat
12 I live to eat
13 I love to eat
14 I live to eat
15 I love to eat

SELF AWARENESS

"What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself."

Abraham Maslow

The Same Love That Made Me Laugh

When I got home from the gym early this evening, I took a nap, and for some reason, I woke up and found myself singing the above song. I'm thinking, perhaps I had dreamed of Diana Ross singing that song, which is one of my favorite songs on her Cd Baby It's Me. It's a Bill Wither's song. I do like his version better

25 Random things no one will ever read

1.I met met my wife when: Haven’t met her yet.

2. I hate: that I love sweets

3. My favorite thing in the world is: dessert!

4. I'm scared of: bats, rats, and dying alone

5. I have my doll from: non applicable.

6. I never had: pork chops and applesauce out of a garbage can.

7. My first job was: paperboy

8. I have a sister: that was born the week before I turned 3

9. My dream car: a black self-cleaning jaguar

10. I remember my accident : I was sleepy

11. When I retire: I will write until I can’t write anymore, and it’ll be in beautiful house in Negril Jamaica .

12. I've never been: beaten up.

13. I can't sleep: if I haven’t showered

14. I think Algebra is: light years more enjoyable than Geometry or Calculus. Wait...I know there's a theorem proving it somewhere....

15. I miss: R&B radio stations, listening to Tavis Smiley and Steve Harvey on the radio as I get ready for work or listening to Gospel on the radio on my way to church on Sundays (when I lived in Milwaukee Wisconsin) and black people to the left, the right in front, and back of me everywhere, outside of church ( I live in Oregon)

16. I have had dreams about: Halle Berry, Janet Jackson, Rachel Smith, Sallie Toussaint, & Dorothy Dandridge fighting over me.

17. I used to go to lunch: with a different group of friends on different days each week.

18. I love shopping for: clothes, bakeware, music, and books

19. Drama: I avoid it, unless it’s on tv.

20. It bothers me when: people get in my lane ahead of me without signaling.

21. I wish I had: 70 lbs off my body frame

22. I like being close to: Los Angeles

23. I am not: a rock & roll fan. I tolerate it since all my friends here like it exclusively and the majority rules when we hang out.

24. I don't always: talk to people in the morning. I don't engage in a full-scale personal conversation until about 10 am; I am not a morning person!

25. This list was: satisfactory

Irony

Funny thing happened on my way to the gym yesterday evening. Not funny haha, actually, but ironic. When it would usually anger me, this time it made me laugh.

I was driving home, and there was a woman in the car behind me, on my tail. I’m driving the speed limit, and besides, there is a car in front of me going the speed limit as well and I can only drive as fast as the car in front of me will allow, before I hit them. When the one-lane became two, the woman behind me raced from behind me to the second lane, while flipping me off in the process! I did get heated for a minute, until I saw, on her bumper, not one, not two, but three Pro- Christian bumper stickers, a Peace Is The Answer sticker, and a Make Love Not War sticker. And I had to laugh a little. You might ask, if she raced past me, how did I see the bumper stickers so clearly…?


She was pulled over 2 blocks later by the cops for speeding.

the small things

From as early as I can remember, I was a Christian, raised Baptist and eventually Pentecostal. My sister and I were dragged to church every Sunday until I came to know Jesus Christ for myself, then I wanted to go.

As a child I worried a lot.

Why was I worried? I had friends who were Jews, Catholics and Seventh Day Adventists. I even had a friend, my first best friend, whose family converted to Islam almost the second after his grandmother died, with whom mother had forced me to cut off all contact, when I was about 10. She was afraid his family would try to convert me as well. I remembered early on in the Pentecostal church, a woman, standing up in the testimony portion of the service, announcing that her son, who was in a gang and heavily in the drug scene (though being raised in a Christian church) “ had turned his life to God, but church, I need you to pray for him because he was now a Baptist.” There were groans of disappointment, which I thought was odd because I thought Baptists were just like us Pentecostals except not as strict. I understand from others that Baptists were going to go so hell, like everyone else who was not Pentecostal.
I was worried because, as I thought or believed Pentecostal was the correct religion, I wondered, what if we were wrong? My Catholic friends believed Catholicism was the correct religion. My Jewish friends believed the Messiah hadn’t even arrived yet, and the students at the Seventh Day Adventist school that my sister and I attended thought my family was hell-bound since we were not of their religion. What if they were right?
I was about 11 at the time. I didn’t realize that religion was basically a grouping of people who comfortable with each other, who shares certain similar views of God and the roles each of us should play or should play. I thought, “we’re (the Christians) all reading out of the same Bible. We can’t all be right? Someone has to be wrong, right?”
Why so many interpretations of the same words?
It’s like being in court. There are defenders and prosecutors, and then there’s the law. Each defense attorney and prosecuting attorney of each case interprets the same piece of law to fit their beliefs, which amazed me. It amazed me because we could read the same thing and get different views on what was read.
I decided that yes, I am and will always be a Christian, and for me my comfort level is in a Bible-based, Pentecostal-leaning church, with the loud choirs and tambourines, organs and pianos, and shouts of Amen peppered throughout the sermon and the dancing in the spirit and the speaking in tongues....and the bottom line is, what I believe is most important is how well I treat myself, how well I treat others, how well I treat the Earth, that I believe in and honor The Trinity, and that I show compassion & dignity for all.