Another Prayer Answered

Happy Sabbath

I am doing well today and have gotten back in the swing of things at my full time job.  I really enjoyed that vacation.  I need another one.

I came back to hear that two of my clients came down with COVID but they are doing okay so far. The older one (she is I believe in her late 60's if not early 70's) I am really concerned for her.  She told me she had tuberculosis years ago and was in the hospital for it about two years.  She has a number of health issues now and when I called her, she told me all she was experiencing was some GI disturbance, a dry cough, and had a fever the other day.  I believe my other client, her housemate spread it to her after one of her many smoke breaks.  I was glad to hear her voice and she didn't have much complaint, I pray this does not get worse for her because for so many, it has. 

A beloved staff member of another client I have died from COVID and we had a team meeting to discuss how to go about telling him.  He has taken no precautions against it and he thinks he is not going to catch it. He is in his early twenties, running around trying to get weed and living as recklessly as he can.  Maybe when he hears about this it will set him straight.  Maybe he already has it. Maybe we all have it. I'm not going to get into how my parents were feeling weeks ago or even myself.  This type of stuff makes people paranoid and I don't want to live like that.  I'd rather go with God.

Let me change the subject and get to the topic of this post. So I have been going to my part time and in a previous post I revealed that I exchanged my number with that guy who is at that job after he pestered and pestered me since the start of the month.  That night I took his number and texted him back and said, "So there, you have my number." and  expected him to start talking with me.  He sent me two texts and after that I didn't get anything else.  He told me the area he was from in my state and he told me he was working at our place of employment for about as long as I was but then he said he didn't like texts and would rather talk.  I waited and nothing came through and texted him, telling him he could call me if he wanted. 

After that, I heard nothing else.  I would barely see him in passing and if I did, he didn't come over to greet me.  I was puzzled and didn't know what happened.  I couldn't help but wonder why he did all of that to end up not even talking to me. What had happened, did I say something wrong? 

All these thoughts but I didn't think about the prayer I had prayed to God for just this very thing. 

I prayed that if it was not God's will that he would lose interest in me and that this would go no where.  I felt embarrassed that I let my guard down and allowed my self to get to this place.  I have not talked to, let alone given anyone my number in over eight years.  I see people, I'm curious, but I don't say yes. I always shut the door because they don't match up with my list. For this, I guess it was Corona and this new response from him is for the best.  There is nothing he could ever offer me and I'm on a leveling up journey. If I ever decide to open that door again, the very best has to walk through or nothing at all. 

So I am thankful for another prayer answered.  God gives me what I need and I need not go looking anywhere else, or else I'll end up in trouble.

I chatted with my friend yesterday and she told me that although the doctors removed cancer, they missed some and it had spread to another area. She has breast cancer.  She is waiting for the doctors to tell her what they plan to do next.  She is not allowing this news to get her down and I know God has a plan for her and a testimony will come out of this.  Please keep my friend in prayer, she is such a lovely person and her daughter is so smart and amazing.  There is another sister who has cancer along with her (a different type) and she is far away at an Adventist natural treatment center getting help.  Everyone who is deciding to stand up and put their hand to do God's business is getting hit with something.  Don't let that make you afraid to do it.  May God be with you and stay encouraged. Don't lose focus (because of the stresses of COVID, job loss, random people coming up seeking your affections that are not right for you, etc...) and don't give up. 

Keep praying until you make it to the finish line.

In Good Health

Good afternoon and Happy Sabbath

Another beautiful week and blessed Sabbath day.  I have enjoyed this week off from work and spent a lot of time working on my health, trying to get more sleep, and get away from any other unnecessary things (necessary but not for this week for me). 

I had a dream early this morning and I'm not exactly sure what it all means.  In my dream, I was dressed in a graduation gown and hat (black). For some reason, I had returned to my old high school and asked to walk to the band room as I had not been there in so long.  The front door attendant permitted me and it seemed there was possibly a ceremony that was occurring on the property, but I don't know exactly where.  Inside the school, people were going about activity as usual. I went down the hall and entered the band room to see a teen preparing to lead out a seated band of 50-75 students in a practice.  When he saw me, he became nervous and messed up.  For some reason, I launched into a Ted talk with them and went from just checking out the room to giving the most inspiring speech I could ever give.  High school was a difficult time for me because I made poor choices with the people I chose to let in my life.  I gave them my Ted talk and told the young man to restart the practice.  They then confidently went on to play It Feels So Good by Chuck Mangione and I was crying with joy to hear the perfect rendition being played by these youths even as I was half awake. 

That is the quality I remember from back when I was in school.  I couldn't believe that my peers, these teen bots were making music on such a scale, but I saw it, I heard it, and I made the same music with them.  I love music and I love that song.  I returned to the school to inspire those children but maybe the dream was to inspire me?  I don't know.  God knows though. 

For my health, I have been watching a lot of health and self improvement materials on youtube and reading online and came across something talking about alternate day fasting and the benefits it has on the body. Another person presenting as a physician also talked about intermittent fasting and what hormones are activated and what exactly happens when you go through these phases. When I was my leanest, I was intermittent fasting but not really planning so much about it. I went about my life and watched my weight.  I kept my weight between 150 and 160lbs.  I decided that I was going to give this a serious try again and this time start with a 2 day water fast which ultimately became a nearly four day water fast (I was to end it at 5pm yesterday but after baking my son delicious smelling pretzels I made from scratch I had to end that at 11:30am).  I broke my fast with a soft pretzel and a hot bowl of my coconut curry black dal that I hooked up on a crock pot earlier that morning.  The dal was calling to me, it was sooooo good. 

So good. 

This was the first time in years I was able to fast for so long.  How can Jesus and others fast for forty days?  It's hard enough to go for a day without food let alone nearly four days but the results were almost immediate.

I could wear that faux leather jacket I bought back in 2015.  My tummy was almost gone! My pants fit so much better, I had more clarity and feel the best I've felt in years.  The only difference is now I don't look at the scale.  I look at how my clothes fit me and how I feel.  My limbs, my knees don't hurt.  So I am going into the alternate day fasts next week.  I am going to transform my body and get back to good health. In the past I did it for spiritual and health reasons.  I need to do this again because I really was in the best health state of my life when I regularly fasted.

Now on to the challenges.

I am still in a tough spot at my part time.  I had prayed that guy I was talking about would not work there the days I work or not come into my area when I am working.  That I would see some sign telling me to not deal with him in any way like deer or something running across the road.  I didn't see any of that.  I came to work and of course when you are trying not to run into someone, you run right into them.  I came in to clock in and he greeted me.  Then I was in my aisle setting up to do my work and he took that moment to come around and approach me again when most everyone else was not around.  I took his number and texted him back to ask he talk about himself. 

Face palm

If this person is going to be around me at work, I want to do the right thing.  God must come first. My son, my family is second and I am third. Everything else is everything else and that is not priority to me really on any level.  Maybe it's the Corona effect that has me even considering talking to this person.  Or it could be that God can use me to speak a word to him to get him on the right track and that this will either be a platonic friendship or opportunity for advice in passing and nothing more.  I am not seeking a husband.  God has me set up pretty good right now and I don't want to do anything to mess this up.  Please pray for me on that note.

Happy Sabbath

Happy Resurrection Weekend and Sabbath!!

Happy Sabbath

It is a lovely Sabbath day and I am enjoying it; the sunshine, the temperatures, the slow cooker experiment I cooked up on low over night, the service and fellowship online and even Sabbath school.  It is a beautiful and special day and I am thankful that I can be here to experience it.

God is good and my week has been good because of Him.  I had a shorter work week and one day this week I tried encouraging one of my clients in the Lord, she has been going through so much and I know that God has the answer for her but it is up to her to search around and look for her answer.  They don’t want people to talk about God. They want to go to science or some other man made process that still ends with questions and not answers.  I am thankful I could share part of my testimony with her and that I could encourage her. She says she believes in God and she prefers to go to people who are Christians and want them to pray for her.  I hope she continues not only to do this but to learn to pray for herself, believe and wait on the Lord. 

I know that this plague is wreaking havoc over the world right now but I am thankful that it is causing us to be still, forcing us to be home and for many of us to look at our condition and see our need.  I am thankful that I can be in my home and really enjoy my home. I spend a great deal of time in my home office/activity room where I am now.  I am able to look outside and see sunshine fill rooms, hear the birds in the afternoon, watch my plants in my plant gallery grow and even my outdoor garden beds are showing up something. Cabbage, sugar snap peas, zucchini, onions and more are coming up.  Flowers are coming up in the triangular garden I have in the front of my home.  My lawn is lush and green and I hear the calls of the peacocks across the way in somebody’s back yard.  It’s spring time, a beautiful time and I get to actually be home and awake to see it, smell it and hear it.  Buds are growing on my grape vine.  Prior to Corona, I was constantly coming and going, rushing to sleep and not getting much rest. 

I am thankful that I am on vacation for next week and was off Good Friday.  I still have to work my part time but I have less stress and can enjoy more time at home.

I will bring up something that I didn’t expect and is a bit of a challenge for me that I need prayer on.  At my main gig, I am constantly on the go and don’t stay in any place too long.  Everything is professional and business and that’s how I like it.  At my part time, some men are bothered that I, a woman am working in an aisle that most feel is best suited for a man.  I keep at it and like the solitude, keep to myself and get er done as some say.  This job is a blessing as it is helping me to pay those other bills I was coming up short on and it is my gym membership.  I am guaranteed to get my 10k step count with weight training three nights a week and I am looking forward to transforming my body and getting back into shape. 

I was working one night when they put too much work in my area and not only that, the delivery truck didn’t show up for dairy so they put a few guys over in my aisle to help me out.  I’m working and going about what I need to do when this Hispanic guy stated they wanted to work with me.  I later realized why and I’m out of my element knowing how to deal with such things.  Please pray for me that I deal with people the right way.  He is attractive but aside from visual, I have nothing in common in him.  Can’t easily dip out of this (gotta stay the full 9 hours at the site), but I want to be cordial and polite to the guy.  It’s also kinda nice to have that type of attention but I know it will not lead to any where good especially with the list of No’s I have marked down for him.  Please pray for me.

Other than that, no complaints.  Life is good and God is good.  May you have a wonderful and blessed day and new week.

Give It to God

Good afternoon and Happy Sabbath,

It has been a good week and I am enjoying this Sabbath day.  I was coming down with something…I hope not what the world is talking about. Please keep my family and I in prayer.  I did something stupid on Tuesday morning when I was at the store at work.  I typically wear disposable gloves when working but was not really able to find them in the store since the ones for employees people have been hiding from those not in janitor roles.  There was an announcement that the store would make gloves and masks available to protect us but leaving work Thursday morning, I saw no such thing.  Anyway, back to Tuesday morning. I was preparing to pass two coworkers fussing among themselves when one started to cough out in the air.  At that moment I was wearing my old purple work gloves (garden gloves) I got from the dollar store and instinctively put the gloves up to my face to cover and protect myself from the cough that she was going through.  It wasn’t until I passed them that I realized the dumb thing I did.  I couldn’t remember if I folded my lips inward when I did it.  All I knew was I needed to wash my face.  I did wash my face but what ever germs were on those gloves were on my face, likely in my mouth, up my nose and at immediate war with my immune system.

I left worried and still don’t know this week.  The next day I felt like my chest was burning and my ears.  Now I did dunk my head under the water when I took a bath I believe on Sunday.  I had my hair in two strand twists and wanted to get my hair wet and in doing so, water went in my ears so I could have an ear infection, but my chest, I don’t know.  Friday I felt like I had a fever which came and went about twice if it was even that.  I don’t have a cough, I do have a sense of taste and smell, but I had a headache yesterday on top of being extremely tired and going on 1.5 hours sleep. 

I don’t suffer from allergies. So my hope is I don’t have this COVID mess and if so, I hope it does not negatively affect those who I have been around.  My parents especially.  I received a call from a work associate Thursday and was thinking that she was going to stay on topic and discuss our client but instead she spent about an hour talking about how she was mass producing masks and the science behind why her method was better than what other were doing and saying. I called to check on someone else and they shared people were out here wearing masks but had their noses completely out and exposed.  She works at an ivy league institution and has friends and family who too are scientists and seem to know it all.  Everyone has something and anything to say all the while, I felt, I feel like it’s too late for me. All because I put that purple glove to my face. 

I also saw an article from a blog I follow from time to time and was disappointed to read from one contributing writer that they think God is not an option. During Sabbath school, someone said that those who are not obedient, in many words would come down with Corona and God’s people are protected.

People are runnig around saying all sorts of stuff.  People are afraid. 

I’m choosing to walk out here and not panic.  People end up with conditions, some beyond their control and sometimes, it happens for God to show His power.  People end up with cancer, car accidents, they lose loved ones. Difficult things happen and we should not be so quick to accuse people of living wickedly as the reason for them having misfortune.  Look at Job.  Look at all the mess David went through, being chased from Saul on every side.  Look at Paul.  Wasn’t he arrested and beaten?  I don’t know if I shared a testimony someone else had mentioned. She said she tried to talk to her brother about guns and told him he shouldn’t have one because they were not raised that way. He felt like people kill people and she said guns kill people.  One day she and her brother and other friends or family were riding back to some place in her car and his gun went off. She didn’t know he had the gun in the car until they all heard the blast go off and the bullet went through the back of the drivers seat into her body.  She was in the hospital for weeks, months, respirator, in a coma, and as she was going through that experience, God spoke to her and told her that she would get through this and that this experience was not for her but for her brother to learn a lesson.  She had to learn to walk all over again. She had to go through so much and her brother watched on, took responsibility for it and realized, guns can kill people and that he had no good purpose having one. 

Many people will get sick with Corona. Some may die but we have to look at the bigger picture. And if we don’t know what that picture is, we need to talk to the Lord about it and our place in it.  God has a purpose for everything and a plan for every person. With every problem, He can and does make a way of escape for us and for what He wants to continue, He will give us what we need to endure the fire we all must cross through until we gleam like silver and pure gold.

Give your anxieties over to Jesus.  Give your cough, your fever, your aches, your debt, your uncertainty for the future over to Jesus.  If you do anything, make sure you are praising Him and trying to live for Him because nothing else matters in the end.  Give God the glory and have a blessed Sabbath and new week to come as the Lord sees fit for us.