Money? She's Gonna Talk About Money?!

"Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."   --- 2 Corinthians 9:7

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A controversial post, but I'm passionate about this and it's my blog, so ...  ツ

I attended 3 high schools (long story, but no expulsions were involved. heh.) and the Spanish teacher in the final one? Via a hometown Facebook group, last weekend I learned he and his wife lost their home to a fire.

They'd traveled to Oregon with their dogs to a dog show so no one was harmed, but still. How devastating to lose one's house, especially while in your 80's!

A friend of theirs started a GoFundMe page and immediately I gave an amount I believe God asked me to. Call me whatever you wish, but for years I've felt grateful for pages such as GoFundMe. 

Decades past, giving in such situations was complicated. You could leave donations at the local bank (but from 3,000 miles away?) or the bank's address was given. Or only a phone number was listed (I'm not a phone person) if you wished to contribute that way.

Often all that complication made it simple to quip the excuse, "I'd love to give, but I couldn't figure out how," and then go about one's merry, kinda-justified life.

Yet now? Color me utterly thankful that places like GoFundMe exist. They make giving simple and I've had only wonderful experiences. (And please, please don't get all, "But they charge an extra fee and I heard they ... blah, blah, blah.) 

Hey, if you don't trust certain groups, search until you find one that you do. 

Anyway. For years too often Facebook friends have posted meme's like this one--

And frankly? They make my heart hurt. 

How's that supposed to help someone whose house burned down? Or widows who can't pay for their husband's funeral? Or parents whose baby needs unexpected surgery? Or ?

The answer: it doesn't help. It only harms the already distraught feelings of those who suddenly experienced a catastrophe.

People, it is a privilege to give money to those in need! An honor. A pleasure. A God-designed opportunity to visibly spread His help on Earth.

And yes, there are other ways to help those in need! I get it. But too often I've observed folks jumping off there: they can't give money, but they can pray. Or send food. Or clean, cook, drive, phone, etc., etc.

All good, yes!

But in many cases, after a disaster, folks need money. And gift cards. They really do. And may we at least consider yanking ourselves from the I-don't-have-money-but-I-can-do-etc., auto-pilot switch (if it's ours) if we've raced to flip it decade after decade. 

What if we changed our response to be more like this?

"Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”  ---Luke 6:38

Who knows? Maybe all sorts of areas in our life would change.

Think I'm clueless? Don't know what it's like? Think again. 

God's worked on my mind for decades, prying the dollars, at first, from my scared little fingers until now I actively search for ways to give. And now? Always there's enough both to give and to save.

Freely, freely you have received.

Freely, freely give.

Go sowing all sorts of help and watch out! All sorts of help will find its way to you. After all, God promised.

"Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed."   --- Proverbs 19:17

There is no growth without change. ---copied

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Okay, only some of you will appreciate this vintage 1960 mobile home video. 

Such a time capsule! I love the floor, especially, and the kitchen and I can just picture a young woman in a dress and hostess apron along with her husband entertaining her guests with hors d'oeuvres.

Not crazy about the bathroom sink and counter, but hey.... Otherwise, if I lived there? Everyday I'd feel like I was playing homemaking games and never working. 

(Oh, and give the guy a few extra seconds to adjust the light on his camera.)  シ

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Nine Sneaky Home Hacks. (She has the best ideas!)

And oh! I watched this gal prepare no-cook, summertime meals and became exremely hungry. 

What I'm hoping is that, when I get to Heaven, Jesus won't say, "Uhm, Debra? Over your lifetime I sent you $10,000 so to help others, but you only used $2,575. Why was that?"

Yikes!

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Please remember: My posts are always about more than they appear to be. 

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 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15

Blogger and Debra Are Back

Blogger is back!

But they ate my last post. Oh well, I wasn't real thrilled with it anyway. They're welcome to it.

Oh. Our. Weather! Gorgeous, perfect all week. I reveled in the sunshine and soft air, sat beneath the umbrella at our patio table in between yard work, housework and general puttering. Ironed on the patio again and read and stared at trees. Glorious.

Tomorrow our friends from Nevada arrive! Hopefully I'll post something in the morning, but after that? No guarantees. I may not make it back here until Tuesday. We'll see.

But you know? You will be here beside me. You always are. I take all 130 (or so) of you with me wherever I go and I write posts to you inside my head, phrasing words just so, correcting, making changes. I read in a Beany Malone book ages ago that that's what real writers do--even at night in bed they tweak sentences inside their minds until they're just right. So if you do that also, be encouraged! You are a real writer.

See you soon.




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Look closely at the above photo. You'll see my ironing board and iron out there on our patio. I add music from that French radio station and ironing becomes a lovely experience. :)
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Of Rereading Blogs and Diaries

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—-or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” ... Luke 10:41, 42

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Do you have a blog? Do you have a drawer or shelf filled with diaries you've kept for years?

Well, I have both and lately I've been rereading this blog and uh-oh! The verse which kept coming to me is the one at the top of this post.

I have too often been a Martha when of course, I fancied myself a 24/7 Mary.

Heh. Facing ones true self and looking right into her blue eyes is such a Good Thing. Knowing oneself is priceless and it's also a big shove toward humility.

Let me tell ya.

Well, the good news is that all along I've wanted to be a Mary, so there's that. That counts for something, I'm certain. After all, whole decades ago I aimed at being a 24/7 Martha because, well, the world seemed to call for that. I didn't understand Mary, didn't get her, really. Yet since around 1994 I've understood her and wanted to act like her, that is, from a new, remade heart. And there's been much of that.

Yet there's been much Martha-ing, too, going on around my house and my blog--I see that now. What a wake-up! How sad to read how often I've worried about things which never came to pass. And how tiresome to, these past six years, find such patterns in my blog. Every January and February I complain about the snow. Every July and August you read my complaints about the heat and humidity (you poor dear Readers!). Every December I'm complaining about Christmas, every October I'm burned-out with yard sales.

And yet two of my main goals in Life? To not complain or worry. Period.

Sigh.

So what's a girl to do? Condemn herself, hang her head, feel all guilty, pathetic and hopeless and just go off in defeat and do her own thing?

Nah, this girl needs to go deeper, deeper into humility and God and acceptance and pliable-ness. She needs more quiet time, she needs more Mary-ing in her hours.

And personally? That sounds like a lovely challenge. I'll take it.




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Oh! And while rereading my blog I discovered that some of you have been leaving encouraging comments here for lots of years--and I do thank you. Much.

Of Spinach Posts And The People Who Read Them

Very occasionally I've received emails sounding rather like this:

"Hey Debra, you might not remember me but I used to read your blog all the time and I left you a few comments. But then I stopped reading your blog because, well, I hated you. And hated what you wrote. Of course, that was because I knew your words were right, but I just didn't want to hear them anymore because I wanted to do what I wanted to do. But that hasn't worked out too well so now I'm back. Just wanted you to know."

Honestly? I love those emails. They bless my socks off and make me laugh.

Why? Because I serve up a whole lot of spinach around here. Liver, peas and carrots, too. You know, grow-up-and-stop-complaining stuff. Stuff which God has to drill into my head and heart, like, a zillion times, until I finally get it, accept it.

And for those of you who have stayed with me all these years (or gone and then returned again) I want to thank-you and sayif you've hung around this place very long, well, you must be wanting to die to self and grow to deeper places in God, too. For as I said, I serve lots of spinach and liver in between my cake and pie posts. And trust me, not everybody likes those spinach posts, but I'm always blessed when they--when you--read and ponder them anyway, year after year.


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"Deep calleth unto deep... " ... Psalm 42:7


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Sadly, today I had to choose to no longer read a certain Christian country-living blog. 

It wasn't a blog I read daily, but whenever I did, (it seemed), the author described how the old days are better than these. And how most people today don't know how to live or care for their children or do anything 'right'.

Once she saw young people shopping for 'green products' and she stated they only did so because it was a fad, not because of any personal convictions about the environment. 

Oh my goodness. She wrote that months ago and it still horrifies me.

To judge motives of strangers like that! And well, too many posts were like that one. I've felt for months I should let that blog go, but I kept giving her blog one more try, then one more because I do like the way she writes (just often not the what).

I don't care to read blogs, even Christian ones, where the author concentrates on what is going wrong in our world. Don't we already know what is wrong? Isn't that what the nightly news preaches evening? 

Don't we get plenty bad news from the newspaper, from online and from just living Life?

I need blogs which point out the creative ways God still moves upon hearts and in neighborhoods. He's still alive, He still touches us with His compassion and hope and He still spreads peace through us to others who so need it.

I want to be reminded of how good God is, not of how bad His children can sometimes be. And for those of you still there on my blog list, I thank you for reminding me of just that.



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A huge special thanks to Laura for giving me the gift of a link to the perfect blog, the sort of blog I search for nearly every weekend.

Some of you, too, will love the 16-year-old Everly Pleasant. She and her sisters have this sort of Alcott sisters thing going on (perhaps without even trying) and Everly writes 1800's style with a 21st century twist. Hers is an old soul, my favorite type of soul, and I am beyond enchanted with her blog. Some of you will be, too--I could even name you by name...

(I read Everly's blog and poof! I am 16 once again, full of future dreams and ethereal thoughts and plans to read every lovely book ever written.)

Her little sister, Fairlight Crumb, has a dreamy photo blog and oh the peeks we get into their life and home and yard! Be sure to see her old-fashioned photos, especially.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy... And come away inspired to make your own blog a dreamier place to be.

Since the death of my friend some days ago, I've learned something important.

See, I was finding it odd and sad that after over 200 people read my post about losing her, only 6 left their condolences and just two online friends sent me an email sharing their concern.

Maybe I didn't say clearly enough how devastated I was. 

I'm not always good at sharing how I really feel about things, though I try to be transparent. But this time I needed to know people cared that I was hurting over the loss of my friend-- and that my world has changed forever. I can never write to her again or hear from her. She's gone and though I have other friends, no one else is her.

Yet here's what I'm thinking, too. Maybe I'm reaping what I have sown, for I want to say that I leave bereavement comments at blog posts at least three-fourths of the time, but maybe it's closer to half the time. It feels like more, but I'm trying to be honest today. In fact, I'll apologize to you now if you've written a bereavement post which I read, yet did not comment upon. I mean it--I'm sorry.

But this is what I know for certain--from now on, 100% of the time, I will leave a note when I read any post where someone has lost a relative, a friend or a pet. 100% of the time. 

And here is a secret. If you are worried about not knowing what to say, well, stop worrying. Because it doesn't even matter what you say. All I wanted to hear? I just wanted to hear, "I'm so sorry you lost your friend." Or, "I'll be praying you get through this." Or, "I'm sorry you are hurting right now."

That's all. 

I just wanted to know that people cared that I was aching inside. And too? That as somewhat of a teacher in this blog, I'd taught my readers to speak their kindnesses. 

And for those of you who took that time, I am more grateful than you will ever, ever know. Your simple words were like apples of gold in pitchers of silver and they were like a balm upon my wounded heart.

God put verses like those in the Bible for more reasons than we know.


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"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13

Well, at least the sun is shining. Our high today is supposed to be only 9 degrees. And tomorrow? They've downgraded the high to -1. Minus 1 for a high!

But hey. Tom is home and will be until Friday evening so we'll hang out and stay warm here in our old farmhouse. Sort of the "and since there's no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow" thing, except without the falling snow. We're still surrounded by the white stuff on the ground, of course.

Two movies will arrive today via Netflix, so one we'll watch this afternoon, the other, tomorrow. What are they, you ask? Prince Caspian and Eagle Eye.

I used to dread these long cold winters here in Buffalo, but you know? Since going online in 2000, winter has never seemed quite so long nor so cold. All those websites just waiting to teach me more about homemaking or history or gardening or decorating or anything! Weeks and months of potential lessons right within my home--no risky trek to the city library needed.

But mostly? Mostly it's the communication with all you kindred spirits which makes the difference. How I can send you an email and you can send me one minutes or hours later and we have communicated. We've reached across miles and fellowshipped, shared and grown closer, all while sitting inside a house, in front of a computer, surrounded by 3 frigid degrees outside. And well, that's downright incredible.

And eegads! How in the world did the Ingalls survive their long winter?



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I think we forget how amazing this Internet and Blogland world truly is. How easily we can find kindred spirits here! 

Man, I remember whole decades when it seemed any kindred spirits I may have had all tripped and fell off the Earth into some cosmic Never Never Land. Awfully hard to find, they were.

But now? Wow, kindred spirits appear everywhere! And may I never lose my gratitude for this phenomenon.

Anyway, I discovered yesterday from one of those kindred spirits that she'd decided to let her blog die because of a nasty blog stalker.

Of course, right away I tried talking her out of it.

Why? Because throughout the thousands of years of history, always there have been people who believe their duty is to discourage mankind. They tell inventors that their inventions won't work and writers that their stories aren't worth being told. They tell builders their buildings will crumble, encourage optimists to be miserable and dreamers to quit dreaming.

Just think of all the biographical books or movies of Great People you've ever read or watched. Remember all the naysayers who tried to pull them back down to mediocrity? Recall the recurring theme? How, usually, the Great People almost always caved-in, but then found new strength and continued--and succeeded?

Well, if you have a blog, then you, too, are a Great Person. 

No, really. I can't tell you the eons of times I've visited blogs which have encouraged me and improved the whole rest of my day. And I don't only mean the blogs whose author's purpose is to encourage folks, either. No, I'm also speaking of blogs like homemaking ones where women write about the pie they baked that day. Oh, how powerfully that affects me--how often just reading about your baking has gotten me out of this computer chair and back to the cooking/housework I've been procrastinating! 

That happens all the time.

Your blogs about your families remind me to treat my own family nicer, decorating blogs get me back up on ladders with a paintbrush in my hand, spiritual blogs get my head--and heart-- back where they should be.

So what am I saying? Unless God specifically tells you to cease blogging (for a season or forever), please do not allow any person or any fear to stop you. 

Always there will be people who feed on making us insecure or turning us into the quitters they have become. And yet? Only the non-quitting faithful will win the prize. 

Only they will be there with the perfect words, photos or advice when the rest of us are faltering.



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Does It Matter What We Blog?

I've read a few blog posts written by Christians which say we should be able to write anything in our blogs.

Whatever rattles around in our heads, good, bad, angry. That, after all, it's our blog, it's like a diary and in a diary, one lets it all hang out.

Well, uh, no. Not for me, anyway.

For me, that does not ring true on many levels. For one, your diary hidden under your mattress is your diary hidden under your mattress. But a publicly-shared blog is a publicly-shared blog. People are involved, souls are.

Words. The Bible has tons to say about the power of our words.

Remember how in driver's ed. we were taught that a car is a weapon? Well, so are our words. They can be used to change the world or make is sicker, what with 'the power of life and death being in our tongues'.


"Do you see a man who speaks in haste?
There is more hope for a fool than for him." Proverbs 29:20

Speaking in haste, to me, can mean sharing my words before putting them through any kind of a filter for those who are listening to (or reading) my words.

A filter like this:

"But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble and sin [that is, who entices him or hinders him in right conduct or thought], it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be sunk in the depth of the sea." Matthew 18:6

That is one filter which causes me to ask myself: Will my words create doubt in a new Christian's mind? Will my depressing words remove hope from someone who needs it desperately? Will this gossip poison someone's mind? Will my complaining cause others to be dissatisfied with their own lives?

And more.

Never will I tell you, "Say whatever you're feeling in your blog." Not in a million years. That would be like telling people that God thinks it's just fine and dandy to say out loud anything that pops into our heads.

And I cannot believe--or do-- that with a clear conscience. Never.


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"For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." ... Matthew 12:37


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Out-Of-Season Plans

Years ago over at Oprah's website I kept an online gratitude journal. 

Oh, I had big plans, big dreams! I was gonna save the world with that gratitude journal. People from everywhere would read what I had written--I wouldn't just stick to gratitude kinds of things--I'd write about God and stuff. It would be great.

Well, it wasn't.

Writing in that journal was one long, painful struggle. I'd sit in front of the computer screen and yawn, stare and squeeze my brain so hard, that I think part of it dribbled out my ears. 

Writing in that online diary was torture.

That journal, for me, was a case of writing out-of-season. It wasn't God's timing for me to attempt such a thing. That was purely my own timing and my own idea. Or perhaps it was more a matter of taking a God idea and running ahead with it before it had learned to walk--or had even been born.

And I had more to learn before God could trust me with writing online. Like not saying any old words I felt like. To be the directed, not the director. And so much else which would bore you.

Jesus prepared thirty years for a three-year ministry. Most of us are so antsy, that we can't stand the thought of preparing even three years for a thirty-year ministry.

(Hmmm... Did I hear a few "amens"?)

Finally, last July, the right time came along for me to begin this blog. My friend--
 
That's how it started. Things have evolved since then to where this blog is nothing like I thought it would be. Maybe that's because I don't see myself sitting in the Director's Chair. I see Someone else there and I never know ahead of time where He's going--with anything.

I can see why He's big on this faith stuff. It makes life much more exciting.


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"There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven..." ... Ecclesiastes 3:1