Thursday, February 23, 2012

Hacking Cough & New Age Beliefs

For two, maybe three days now, I have had this hacking cough. I'm not sick, but there is this crazy tickling in my throat that won't go away! I'm pretty sure it sounds like I have TB, but rest assured that I do not...in fact I was recently tested...not because I thought I had it but because it was required for my master's program, which is totally strange because all of those courses are online! So anyway I have spent my days hacking at iinappropriate times: late at night when hubby is or was sound asleep, during step aerobics class and now everyone probably thinks I am a smoker, and the most inappropriate time was at church last night. Not only was I at church , but I was at the prayer meeting before the class actually began. It's hard to focus during times of prayer anyway even when the room is silent so I know I was a huge distraction and annoying. Coughing is annoying, and last night I was annoying.

 I felt the tickle and held my breathe, drank water, and even chewed on gum, but the tickle persisted. My face was turning bright  red from straining to keep in the cough and my eyes were even watering...in the end my hacking escaped my mouth sounding like a honking goose being tortured. I'm pretty sure they added me to the prayer list. I tried to be cordial and escaped as quietly as possible out the side door into the foyer area where I continued to my hacking episode and only when it ended did I notice that the front foyer doors leading into the sanctuary where prayer group was in session. Seriously embarrassing! What's even more embarrassing was that I was one of the youngest ones in there...everyone else was like 70 and older! They should have been the ones hacking , not me!

So, our class was on Eastern Religions...I didn't hear much of it because I had to dart towards the restroom to hack way too often...but what I did learn was interesting. The New Age Movement is just an American version of Eastern Religions...I did not know this. Truth is relative, and right is wrong is relative...you can be your own God...these are common beliefs in the New Age Movement and quite frankly they seem to be beliefs that have been adopted by our society. So...if right and wrong is relative then hurting someone could be justified because to someone else, hurting others is not wrong. Where is the justice?Who creates standards to live by?  It seems to me these new age beliefs are selfish, self-seeking and include no consideration for others, which is no way to live. Jesus gave us two good rules to live by, love God and love others...those standards are solid, stable, worth living for...anyone living for themselves is in for a disappointment.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Biting Off More Than I can Chew Hurts More Than My Teeth

I totally bit off more than I could chew for awhile....I fell off the bandwagon with reading the entire bible in  year, but now I'm back with having to make a few adjustments to my schedule. My Master's classes started back and that kind of threw me for a loop learning how to juggle staying home with Willa Zilla, do the class work, get to the gym, be a Wellness Coach, clean the house, keep up with the bills and checkbook, get dinner on the table, grocery shop, be a hottie wife, amazing mom, and find time to shower and shave my legs....BTW you know you need to shave BAD when Harry Big Foot mistakes you for his own kind, totally joking on that part. Wink.

ANYWAY...I was just having a hard time finding time to blog after I read my Bible and got so stressed over not having time to blog that I just stopped reading because it reminded me that I didn't have time to broadcast my "shpeels."  Since this past weekend I have come to the realization that it's okay if I don't have time to blog about what I have been reading as long as I continue to keep hanging out with God and spending time in his Word. Why hadn't I thought of that before? Well, because I was too busy freaking out over my schedule that I totally forgot to ask God what He thought I should do...when I finally broke down and asked, I got an answer and it feels freeing....AND as this morning I was blessed with extra time to blog!! (Yay for the kids not waking up early! A big shout out for God for making that happen! Holla!)

So...while I won't be recapping everything I read, I will when I can. SOOO, I have just a few more minutes and I wanna talk about what i just read....I read in Genesis about how sin came into the world. I would dare to say we all know this story...The serpent tricked Eve, she ate  from the tree she had been forbidden to eat from, then Adam ate too because Eve made the suggestion. Ok...here's the thing that stuck with me...for their disobedience, God punished each of them and evidence of that punishment is still in existence today and is all around us.

Examples, you ask? First thing...look at all the Old People around us. I love old people...I will be an old person one day...but the older we all get we know death is coming. Aging past the point of fully developing is  kind of like evidence of "the curse" issued in the garden in which we die. Don't tell an Old Person that...or if you do, say it nicely...you know...just don't say it at all. Another piece of evidence...the ground was cursed...so the earth doesn't work the way it was intended...so earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes are evidence of the curse. Another thing that I found interesting was the whole part about how a woman's desire will be for her husband but he will dominate her. I could spend FOREVER on this but won't. However, isn't it true that even today women make less on the dollar than a man does...even after women's rights, equal opportunity guidelines this is still very true. Could this be evidence of the curse as well??

Ok...Willa Zilla woke up! By guys!