Leaving is So Easy

You don't feel the way you did at one time. Things have changed and leaving is easy. No one tells you not to go. You have a right to fulfillment. You are the one that has been injured in this relationship. Why stay? Just get on that train and go on down that track. You need to find happiness.

Come to think of it, why make a commitment in the first place? It's a lot easier to leave if nothing is expected. Marriage just complicates life. Right? That's right, isn't it? I mean, no one gets hurt if nothing is expected. It's just ....easier.

And kids... Well, they're flexible. They adjust to whatever... Yeah, they can make it. That's why only 20% of American kids have attachment disorder now days. I'm sure the percentage would be higher if children couldn't handle things like divorce and being raised by one parent. It doesn't hurt them "big-time" to be left behind... when the train goes on down the track.

Rococo
photo: home.earthlink.net/tllebron/id24.html

In Need of a Miracle

Jesus said that if we don't forgive our brother from our heart, we will not be forgiven. That just doesn't seem to be the way we operate. When someone injures us, we have a whole court system that will help us to get reparations for what we have suffered. I don't see very many examples of true forgiveness in this world of human beings. Dogs seem to be better at it than we are, and that is because their memories aren't very good!

That's just it...memory. A dog quickly forgets his ears being brutally cut off, but humans can't forget the hurt and the anger they feel. So how do we forgive from the heart? I am not sure. I can't always control my feelings. I can control my actions though. I am reminded of a story that Corrie ten Boom told about forgiving her enemy. There was a guard that had beaten her sister in a concentration camp in Germany during WWII. Her sister had died in the camp and Corrie was alone after the war. She was speaking to a group of Christians about God's grace and forgiveness in even the darkest of places. After the talk, the same guard who had ill-treated her sister in the camp, came towards her with hand outstretched, to greet her. Of course, Corrie remembered the brutal beating that her sister had suffered from this person. She prayed, "God I can't forgive. Help me!" and then stretched her hand out. As the guard took her hand, forgiveness somehow flowed through them.

Obviously, her memory of this event remained with her, but her feelings did change. She could still remember the way she felt but she did not hold on to the angry, hurt feelings. Perhaps whenever we are able to forgive, a miracle takes place.

Submit or Die

A ghostly figure stands timidly alone beside the column. Her hands say she is a woman. A shocking sight to the uninitiated.
In reading about the life of Mohammed, it seems to me as though there are similarities between the founder of Islam and the founder of Mormonism. The most obvious likeness is the way they treated women. Joseph Smith was able to manipulate women into becoming" multiple wives" with promises of obtaining heaven through their husbands. Mohammed also had revelations that served his purposes. His youngest wife was but 9 years old. The fruit of Islam has been oppression of women throughout its history. The Mormons have distanced themselves from their prophet, no longer practicing polygamy. Islam becomes violent when its prophet is even mildly criticized, calling for death to any who would oppose them.

Rococo

Evergreen

Stability in relationships is uncommon in our society. People move from person to person as often as from place to place. The definition of family and marriage is changing. Old boundaries are torn down. We have new definitions. I see our society falling apart because people have nothing in which to trust.

The changes I see happening in our culture are not attractive to me, but I do desire change of another sort. A static, even stagnant environment symbolizes hopelessness. This is why I love to take something old and ugly and make it beautiful and new. God does this very thing when he takes our ugly old sin and replaces it with the righteousness of Christ.

I am excited about the changes on our place. It is becoming something new. The ugly old Chinese elms will be gone. Then the beautiful evergreens we planted years ago will be uncovered. Perhaps this makes some people sad because they have memories of good happenings around the old things. For me though, the old things have been thorns in my flesh, like sin that is unconfessed and festering. I want it all cleared out, cleaned up, and redesigned. The evergreens which have been hidden all this time will be allowed to flourish.

Rococo