Limit

 Happy Sabbath

Such a beautiful day thus far.  This week was an interesting week and I made some decisions I didn't plan to make and learned some new things.  We have to make sure we are getting right with God.  There are things I never considered and if I had taken this road or even that road, I'd surely be worse off than I have been.  I watched testimonies from people and actually, I don't know how I came upon this collection of testimonies.  I think I was watching one person I had heard before and turned away from because she was apart of the 2 percenter new age crowd.  She came to the truth about the Sabbath and perhaps after looking at hers, thats where the playlist repopulated and presented people's experiences of coming out of new age spiritualism and into Christianity.  So much we see in day to day as normal we don't realize how strong the ties are to spiritualism.  We need to be vigilant and guard ourselves against it.  I think of the time, about 5 or 6 years ago I took one of my clients to a place that offered free massages.  This was offered to people who have intellectual disabilities or other disabilities and when I met the lady, she said she was a practitioner in different techniques including reiki.  We were offered three options of service for 15-30 minutes at this center and since I was bringing him who qualified, as staff I could mooch and freebies.  He goes to movies, I get in free. He goes to a concert that cost more than $25, I get in free, that sort of thing.  

So at this place, we went and he was having a lot of pain. He had tardive dyskinesia and stiffness that went beyond his limbs but affected his neck so severely his neurologist prescribed botox shots as a last resort.  I had thought that perhaps a massage for his neck would help or he would enjoy one of the auto-massage chairs they had.  I forgot what he got but when she presented the options, I chose a different one, not the reiki.  Something about reiki didn't sound right to me.  She did a facial massage with argan oil and talked to me about having a lot of stress.  The massage did nothing for my stress but I had a nice talk with her, kept her information and in my later career as a social worker, I have connected with her to get funding for other things my clients needed.  I don't know the damage that was done with even the massage she did on me.  Looking back, I wish I never allowed her to put her hands on me.  It's almost like when I went to support a guy I met on the street. He and some youth were out fundraising for their church and me being a new believer and happy to talk to anyone who simply believed in Jesus, was almost immediate in my agreement to come to their church.  I even think I had him come and pick me up.  I've mentioned this before but when I went to that church even on the way there, he spoke enthusiastically about a man, a prophet who would tell me everything I needed to know.  I heard him but I didn't care about no prophet.  I cared to worship the Lord and if something great comes along, awesome, if not, I was thrilled to know God loved me and it was absolutely enough if nothing else happened.  I walked into a demonic space.  People were all there to hear what this "prophet" had to say.  First there was singing which I was okay with.  I then noticed a man come in and he had this darkness about him.  I didn't know about this type of evil so I just observed as he came in and told this person she would come into money and that one that they would be healed.  He came to me and told me I would be able to go to school.  I'm looking and am like whatever.  I was not thinking about going back to school and the words were not relevant to me.  Then he started laying his hands on people and they were falling down and acting like they were being covered by the Holy Spirit whcn in fact it was the opposite.  He approached me and pushed his hand on my forehead suddenly.  I looked at him like, "what did you do that for?"  I then realized that it was expected of me to fall on the floor so not to embarrass the person who brought me or the others around who I didn't even know, I decided to lay down on the ground when he pushed my forehead again.  One lady took my glasses off.  I lay on the floor thinking to myself, this is stupid.  Why am I at this place?  I need to get home.  I lay there for a minute or two and decided to get up and the lady gave me glasses.  People were shouting words of praise and happy about this dude who again, had this dark presence about him, was not smiling or speaking any words of truth.  The person who invited me asked me if I had a good time and found out what I needed to know and I thought again to myself, I didn't come to the church to get an answer.  I came to praise and worship the Lord and to support this person's church.  I never talked to that guy again after I was dropped off.  

Another time I met someone when I was working at a university.  He was a middle aged guy who I believe said he was the pastor or elder of a non-denominational church.  I went to his church to see what it was about and the day I went, I had laryngitis.  I wanted badly to sing along with everyone but my voice came out in hoarse croaks that I just had to be there silent pretty much.  That guy was really inviting me because he was looking for a boo-thang and of course I wasn't having that.  I wanted Christ and Christ alone, I was not searching for a husband or even thinking about dating.  People keep playing with spiritualism and have the wrong idea about the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth.  The Holy Spirit will not make us confused, have people running around screaming jibberish, convulsing, or focusing on earthly fleshly things.  

I put a title up above, Limit and I'm kind of getting away from it.  So, yes, I saw some testimonies and learned some things.  I'm glad I didn't go forward with what I was doing, go further because wow, you are really messing yourself up going there.  I am thankful for the dreams I had that pretty much were real warnings and scared me away from the path I was going.  

I have to set limits in my life and really keep them.  Last week I was stressed and tired.  I would take a nap and if it was under a few hours, if I woke up I would feel as if a truck hit me I was so tired.  I was becoming afraid of even taking naps as badly as I need them.  I was hired for a third job on 7/31 to do some work that would be very flexible but still demanding and draining. I didn't expect it but as I got through certain parts of training, more training was expected and I would have to get on a call for several hours.  They wanted me on a conference call and announced it last minute.  That conference call would be 3.5 hours but I have two other jobs.  I can't do last minute scheduling like this.  I told them twice what my availability was and they saw my messages but chose to ignore what I said, then sending me a message saying they "thought" I was going to be on and wondered what happened to me.  I didn't like how things were unorganized from the start and how they were not comprehending clear communications from me.  I was not going to take pto with my main job again to meet up for unexpected work meetings with them that they did not announce or if they did, announced the day or two days before.  I thought about it for 2 days before deciding to give it up.  When I sent that text of resignation, there was no confusion about that, they came and picked up the items I was given and had no questions about why or what I was saying in my statement.  

After doing so, a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.  I hope to still be paid for the training that I did but if I don't, oh well, good riddance.  I still am trying to think of a third side hustle that would work and after listening to one of my fave channels (One Big Happy Life  with Tasha), I decided to give an online business idea a try again.  I have to get my product together. I already created an email and set up an etsy account for the business.  The domain is not owned yet for the name I have so when I get my product together, I hope to get the site and go like how I did with godaddy before for former ventures I made. Working from home for these 5-6 months, I don't want to change this.  I hope my company continues to permit this even after COVID is no longer an issue.  I am able to zoom call, google duo, gotomeetings, and whatsapp my clients.  I can see in their homes and into their lives without putting them or myself at risk and I find I am connecting with people more with these platforms than what I did prior.  I want to continue with my current two jobs but I need a third hustle and who knows, that third hustle could become the main hustle and handle most of my concerns.  I am limiting who has access to me, to my time.  I am limiting the work I have to do as too much is running me into the ground and giving me the greys I am not ready for.  I am setting up healthier boundaries at work, home, with family, with church.  And things are getting better by me doing so.  

So this week I am thankful to have made it to today. I am thankful that I could take a step back and make the right decision, the decision to give up a job that threatened my work life balance.  I am thankful for the videos, the testimonies I watched, reminders of why I need to stay on this path and what I need to be vigilant of and keep out to remain healthy and happy in Christ.  This was a good week, a productive week, a busy week and important one for me.  I hope there are things you can pull out of this week for your lives and give God the thanks and praise for.  

God is good :)