Role Models

When did Americans decide someone who plays a game is a role model?

 It's true that an athlete puts in long hours and great effort to perfect their game. So do criminals. Keep yer panties on straight, I am not saying athletes are criminals, well, not all of them. I'm saying just putting a lot of effort into something does not a role model make.

 I have NEVER in my life heard a game player say he or she became an athlete to become a role model, that I believed. 

(I actually was impressed with Hulk Hogan when he said he never wanted to be a role model for kids. He just wanted to do what he did best.)

A role model is someone who has not only expertise, but vision.
Who are you perfecting your talent for? What is the end game? Why are you even doing this?

Athletes are just people. They play games and a lot of them get paid to do it. Until they can't, or don't make the money holders satisfied.

 How is that a role model? After the applause and the rah-rah is gone, what is there?

The guy they call Magic Johnson could throw a ball in a netted hoop really good. He was, and still is, a role model for thousands of boys nation wide. Why? He has the morals of a stray dog in season. He's a poster child for living with HIV. He seems immune to the fact that he spread a deadly virus to MANY foolish women. Then Pres.Bush praised him for speaking up and being a hero. He is not a hero. 

In 2018, a year only four days old, there has already been a soldier killed in duty. He had expertise. And a vision, a purpose. 
What is his name? 

What is the name of the "men" kneeling on the sideline of a game field? I'll bet most of you know.

 In 2016, more than 90,000 people, worldwide, were murdered because they professed the name of Jesus. Some of them were pastors, teachers, missionaries, but most of them were just people trying to make it through the day.

 I don't know if any of them could throw a ball. Or swing a golf club.
 But, I know they had a purpose; and a vision.
 And I don't know their names, or their faces. 

They didn't follow Christ for the money, or the thrill or even the fame. 

They did it because they discovered He was so much more than they had ever known. 

They knew they were going to be role models and took it seriously, to the point of death. 

Not from a disease for having sex with every girl that came at them, or from getting injured playing a game, or from running faster that a dozen other folk, but from knowing their decision for Jesus was illegal. And right.

Who is your role model?

 Is it really God, or are you wrapped up in the world still?

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"A Very Happy Un-Mother's Day to You!!!"

It's Mother's Day, and I love it! 

I wallow in being a mommy, mum, mother, ma, whatever I get called.

I have something to say though.

Not all mothers are moms.

I have a mess of friends who have never had a child, but I see them for the Moms they are.

So many women who have loved an nurtured other's children.

Foster moms.
Aunties.
Cousins.
Friends.

  Women who never spend their days driving kids to school, or practice, or to a friends house.

Women who never have sat up all night nursing a sick baby.

   Women who have never sat up all night sewing a last minute costume because "Hey Mom, I forgot. Tomorrow...".

Women who never had to give up a pedicure to buy milk and peanut butter.

                                                        These are the women I mean.

         

   The same women who went to classes with a single mom so she wouldn't feel abandoned.

 The same women who didn't think twice when they answered the frantic call from a friend at work with "Can you pick them up? I have a meeting!".

The same women who sat beside you in the hospital and held your hand, brought you drinks and made you eat. And made the phone calls.

The same women who told a crying mom. "I know just the guy to call! Don't worry. We've got this!!"

       The same women who gave up their free time with that interesting new guy to go to another       niece/nephew/little friend play/game'recital/concert/backyard circus.

The same women who took the special needs/wild as hares/crybaby children for the weekend so Mom and Dad could have some time together.

                                   The same women who unsefishly love your kids, and you.

Happy Mother's Day, to all my wonderful women.

A Momma's Heart is always appreciated.

Last Year's Thoughts

I wrote this a year ago. Nothing in it has changed, but I think many Christians have. Circumstances have forced us to "Put up, or shut up" when it comes to following the Lord.

April 16, 2016

Fortune cookie says "If you keep trying to learn the tricks of the trade, you may never learn the trade itself." 

Wise words.

I have been concerned in recent years of the amount of classes, training courses and 'how-to' studies soaking into the church culture.

I hear people talking about going deeper into a ministry area, pouring all their time and efforts into a specific gift or calling, yet never living it out fully.

I have done that myself; pouring my heart and soul into a ministry, learning all the rules and regulations set up by the leadership, investing in "close friendship" with everyone else involved, and finally, standing to the side wondering what happened because nothing changed!

                                                                                                                                               

   

 Everyone involved with hearts desiring a stronger witness, yet losing the path to truth. 

The point is; you can't go deeper, or wider, or stronger, or closer, without doing it God's way.         

Jesus said to go into the whole world, preach and make disciples. 

In other words (like the ones we call the scriptures) spend every day of your life talking to God, claiming the perfect, holy life of Jesus Christ as God on earth, doing what He did, saying what He said, in the power of the Holy Spirit who spends all of His time wrapping Himself around us.

For one month I challenge you.

1. Stop using a quarterly or daily devotion book for your 'quiet time' or whatever you call it. Ask Him what HE wants to show you each day.

                                          

                                          

2. Spend at least one hour a day in conversation with Him. I mean, talk to Him while you're doing your daily stuff like to any other friend. 

3. Share something of your day with Him with someone else.

4. And if He tells you to do something, for crying out loud, do it.

P.S. Don't, even once, consider what someone else thinks of the way your acting. Let Jesus bless you for being honest.

shalom