Saturday, January 23, 2016

Wounded Spirits



My heart sank as I read a post on FB from a teen I know. The words she wrote were clear, poignant, and upsetting. In a few words, she exclaimed that kids at school had called her horrible names, avoided or bumped into her in the hallways or teased her unmercifully. The comments her friends posted either encouraged her feelings of despondency by agreeing that life was worthless or wrote bland statements like “sorry.”

I was outraged when I read the responses, and I immediately got in touch with her mother. The child and her family meant a lot to me. I was not going to stand by and shrug my shoulders. This could send her into a spiral of depression or worse. I dreaded the call, but as soon as I began talking the mother shut me down politely, stating she saw the email and was all over it. That’s my kind of mom.

A few days later, my granddaughter who is almost 15-years-old sent out a FB “share” on the topic of bullying. I was so proud of her and immediately shared the post, hoping people would also share it with their friends.

Two weeks later, a teen in my area committed suicide. Rumor spread that it was from incessant bullying at school and on social media. The incident left me feeling numb. If it was bullying, I kept wondering if the teen had suffered in silence or spoke and no one had listened. This line of thinking can weigh heavy on your heart.

Pacer Center writes, “One out of every 4 students report being bullied during a school year. Sixty-four percent of children who were bullied did not report it, only 36% reported the bullying.” (www.bullyingstatistics.org)

The statistics on bullying and suicide are alarming. Bully victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims, according to studies by Yale University.
Focus on the Family, a Christian based organization, has an extensive article on bullying. It is packed with information that will help you or someone you know to deal with this societal crisis. Please check it out on:

Knowledge and detection of bullying could save a child from harassment. It could save a life.
Bullying is offensive. It is an act of hatred. Bullying has created new words that cause my soul to bristle in disbelief. Bullycide (term used when someone being bullied commits suicide) and cyberbullying (FB and social media threats and condemnations) are just two. It’s wrong and has to be understood that it is a violent act and has to be stopped.



Now I have to confess the other tragedy of bullying. It doesn’t just happen to children, it happens to adults, too. Yes, adults.

I happened to share this story with a group of women I’m friends with. While the majority said people made too much of the subject and it was a child thing, two women in our group dropped their head and pulled their hands into their laps. Noticing this, I asked the more outspoken one what she thought about the subject. Taking a deep breath before speaking, she admitted she had been bullied at her workplace. She said she put up with it for 2 years before leaving the job and taking a lower paying one.

The second lady, who had been listening intently, spoke up saying she too had been bullied as an adult. This time by a sister-in-law who began spreading hurtful things about her at church. It got so stressful and upsetting that she and her husband left their home church and joined another one out of town. Neither of these ladies knew the other’s story, but as they began to talk about the effects of biting comments and tacky maneuvers, you could see them begin to heal. At the end of the meeting, we all prayed for them to lay their burden at the foot of the Cross and allow the power of Jesus Christ to heal their wounded spirits.

One thing we have to emphasize to the victim of bullying is that they are never alone. Kari Jobe has a beautiful song out called “I Am Not Alone.” What a comfort to know we have a Mighty God who is with us always. Please check out Kari’s song at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfveawSAHJA



Let me add that scripture is imperative. It wraps its tentacles of love around a child or adult who have dealt with the hurt of bullying. Saying scripture over a situation can diminish its effects.

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." Deuteronomy 31:6

Pray for the victims of bullying and the ones who bully. Both are in desperate need. Prepare yourself with knowledge, so you can give sound advice and assistance when needed. Don’t stand by and delude yourself that this is merely a child experience or that it’s not ruthless in its effect.


God bless you!

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

You've Gotta Be Kidding Me!

This pose is called savasana. I call it “thank you, Jesus” pose. I’ve been taking yoga for 3 years. Don’t get any ideas. I can barely reach my toes and pray for the end of class when I can go into my “thank you, Jesus” pose and begin praying. I can do this pose real well.

When I enter a yoga classroom, I always place my mat toward the back of the room and away from the mirror. Who wants to look at themselves in that enormous monstrosity and possibly crack an 8 x 4 foot glass? Not me. So I hide in the back and dare not look into the mirror. Does anyone remember the movie “Candy Man”? Enough said.

The beginning of class is easy. We stretch our arms skyward, desperately trying to keep our feet flat on the floor. But let me warn you in advance, don’t go too fast with this maneuver or the flab on the back of your arms will try to curl up and slap your bicep until it’s a crisp red. Trust me, it’s not a pretty site. Not at all.

When the instructor says to get into warrior pose, I almost cringe. Have you seen a warrior pose? Forget that idea. Let me just say that no one in the class looks like Russell Crowe from the movie “Gladiator”. No one. At our age, there are no bare chested men or women with tight fitted, sleeveless tops. All of us don shirts down past our buttocks.  We show nothing. So get this image in your head, if possible. A warrior pose must be unique to the individual because the only one who does it the same way each week is the instructor. Show off! The rest of us take the whole pose-time trying to get into the proper formation. Squaring off our bodies, we try to spread our legs wide without toppling over, and once our shaking legs settle down, we spread our arms wide as if we’re about to fly. Everyone’s face looks pained. Breathing comes as a commodity. No one wants to breathe deep as prescribed and end up teetering to the floor. You don’t move, for goodness sake. All of us fear broken hips and crushed tailbones. I think the instructor understands. We watch as she scans the room, declaring we need to carefully pull out of the pose, take a few deep breaths and stand in mountain pose. That just means to stand still and don’t fall over.

Today, I must have thought I was a yoga-guru because I went to a new class with a new instructor. When you see 5 students in a yoga class, with sleeveless shirts, and already doing poses on their own, you better think twice about staying. Yoga fool that I must be, I went right to the back of the class, since the 5 were up front, and adjusted my mat. That’s when I overheard a conversation from 2 of the women. Seems they had run off a couple of students who made disgusting noises. Panic hit! These were the hardcore senior-die-hards everyone was talking about.

The class started out slow with methodical breathing, slow deliberate moves, and a heightened awareness of body limitations. Then the new instructor got bold. We were in a plank posture (what I call a push-up) when she said to keep your right hand on the floor, twist your body 180 degrees to the left, lift your left arm skyward, and hold the pose. You gotta be kidding me!

I watched all those smarty pants swing right into position. Well, some of it wasn’t perfect, but they managed to look somewhat like the gal up front showing off. So I twisted and tried to lift my left hand. Immediately my right wrist collapsed, and I would have fallen, but I quickly rotated back to plank pose, and used my left hand to stabilize my shaking limbs. Then I decided to do the posture in the opposite way. I twisted toward the right and managed to begin lifting my right hand when I lost control and fell. It was loud with several grunts as my right hip plunged to the floor.

There are no loud noises in yoga in case you didn’t know and was thinking of joining a class. You are only supposed to inhale and exhale loudly, but not disrupt the class, fall, and grunt. At this point, I looked up at the clock and realized we still had 35 minutes of class time and I’m sweating. My husband can tell you, I don’t sweat.

The next you-gotta-be-kidding-me move was to sit Indian style, fold your torso over your tucked legs, and stretch your arms as far as possible in front of you. Sounds easy? Well, for you braggarts that think this is easy, get a life! Both of my hips locked up on me just as my stomach pooch laid over my thighs, making it impossible to even touch the floor. As I was straining to lift up my body, I took a peek under my armpit and witnessed my neighbor fold over her sweet little crossed legs in a fluid motion, stretching her arms wide across the floor.

Trying not to grunt or sigh, I pushed up, struggled to a seated position, pulled my stomach back in place, and took a strained deep breath. I looked up at the clock and realized all this had only taken 2 minutes. Thirty-three minutes to go!

There were several more you-gotta-be-kidding-me moments, but I managed to twist into something that looked like my 3-year-old granddaughter doing a cartwheel and never getting out of a 90 degree bend – kinda like a quick hop from point A to point B with a weight tied around your waist. She thinks she’s doing it perfect because we clap. Maybe we should work with her more, but she’s sure cute when she smiles.

To be honest, I probably won’t go back to the elite yoga class, but I will go back to my old one where there are about 20 of us hiding all the sagging body parts and grunts are allowed. In this class when I press into a move that feels like I’m choking off part of my body, Jesus and I get real close. I internally talk to Him the whole class. Yoga has become my confessional time. More rubbish comes up from the deep, and I expunge it from my body. Me and Jesus on the mat, figuring out life, it’s grand. I’m praying the whole time, and the heavenly choir’s singing, “Hallelujah!” Like our claps for my granddaughter, I think they’re saying “good job”. And I smile.

After yoga class I limp to the car, thanking God that we got through another session. I’m not sure if it could be compared to Paul’s race to the finish line, but I am persevering. Yoga is a lesson in and of itself. It’s also another time I use to thank Jesus for all He’s given me, even the sagging parts, shaking limbs, and weak wrist.


God bless you!

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Journal to Remember












Christmas is over. The squeals of little girls and a grandson is a faint memory. So I begin to clean so as not to be lonesome. On day three of washing, vacuuming, and dusting, I ran across my journals. I dusted them and stopped, dropped the duster, and opened the first page of each. The impact of the words caused me to stop. I hope you will indulge me as I share some words from each.

January 2011

Dear Father,
Another year,
A new journey,
Now unforeseen,
Only speculated,
Filled with wonder
New chances,
Beginnings.
Excitement,
And marvel
Wonderful!

January 2012
As I close down another year, I want to thank you, God, for your faithfulness, promises met, and prayers answered and unanswered. Your blessings are countless, and I am sure I missed thousands. Thank you for them all! Every day I wake with your name on my lips, praising You. Did You see me twirling on the deck this morning, raising my hands in worship? Yep, I knew it! And I bet you were twirling, too.

January 2013
Precious Father, here I stand in a new year. Last year still feels pinned to my shoulders. Am I dragging it into a new year? All the stuff that failed and didn’t go right? If you would just reach down and clip that mess from my back, I would be grateful. But then again, if you clip it off I won’t be whole, will I? There are things I need to resolve, and here You are offering me another chance, a new year to get things right. Lord, you always amaze me. I feel Your comfort and encouragement. Yes, I know You’ve got my back. Have I told you lately that I love You?

January 2014
Here we are again. You and me, Lord. I feel like I’m standing at the “start” line of a race without having trained. All around me are runners eager, excited, and ready to go. I’m a little nervous. I’m also excited and eager. Does that make sense? You’ve brought me through so much. You forced me to face tough issues and wiped my tears when I finally got it right. You’ve loved me through the fire and more. What am I whining about? You’re right here beside me. Okay. I’m ready. Let’s go!!!! 2014 is going to be the best run ever!!

January 2015
Thank you for a new year! A year stretching out before me – a surprise ready to unfold, and I’m so thrilled. I pray I don’t miss a thing. Lord, this is the year that I want You to stretch and use me. There are many who need love and care. Lead me where You would have me serve your people. Let’s make this year a great year for the Kingdom!

As I read these posts, I realized every year offers new beginnings and new challenges. My 2016 journal is brand new and completely empty. I’ve let 5 days go by without thanking God for 2015 and it was a great year!!! So that’s where I’m headed – going to my desk and pour my heart out to my precious Jesus in thanksgiving and gratitude for all He has done for me.

There is a whole year ahead of me. A new road to travel. Beyond the bends, mountains, valleys, and hills are many blessings, challenges, disappointments, gifts, love, surprises, losses, and gains. I’m going to meet new people who will touch my life in ways I cannot imagine. There’s a good chance I will have to say goodbye to a friend or loved one. But in all the questions and trepidations, I can sit back and rest. I know the Creator of the Universe, and He knows me. Couldn’t be a better combination to fight a battle or rejoice in a blessing!

Do you journal? It’s one of the most gratifying thing I’ve ever done. Would you think about starting one today? It’s never too late to begin.

God bless you!




Friday, January 1, 2016

Happy New Year: 2016!


As I close out 2015, I’d like to share Dr. David Jeremiah’s commentary on reflection and hope.

“As we stand on the cusp of a new year, we have the
opportunity to pause and reflect on the past year.
Although loved ones sometimes sugarcoat their
feedback, we can find clarity in seeking God’s
perspective. He measures the waters on the earth and
knows every crevice of your soul. He sees and speaks truth.

If we don’t take time to do this, our years blur together
and we miss the story God is weaving in our lives. As
we review our year, seeking His clarity, we find growth
to celebrate and missed opportunities to mourn.
Reflecting on the past can strengthen us for the future
as we seek God’s vision and direction for the upcoming
year. Allow Him to lovingly lead you forward.”
                                                                  (Turning Points, December 31, 2015)

“All day long have I toiled and striven; but now in the stillness of heart and in the clear light of Thine eternity, I would ponder the pattern my life has been weaving.” John Baillie

As we slip into 2016, reflect on 2015 and all its joys and disappointments. All were woven into your life – threads of growth and blessings.

Happy New Year! I’m going into it singing a new song. And as I close out 2015 in remembrance, I press onward in joy in 2016! I can’t wait to see what God has in store for me.

Blessings to you all!