The World Is Changing

These days the world is changing and it seems to happen on a daily basis. Everyone has to keep up to technology because it changing at a faster rate all the time.

Video on line started out with YouTube and then Apple now you can do it through social media. You can do it taped or live whichever way you want to. Whatever way it ends no one knows.  Actually it probably won’t end.

Do you buy the new technology of today or wait until next week or next month. I guess you have to decide what the best is for you now whether take it now or wait.

Now you not only have the blog like I write each day to encourage you or tell you what I am up to or what memories that I have or places in the area. I look forward to where I do more traveling and I can have you come along with me. Now you can view people through vlog where they have live video so you can see what they are up to right now or wait for the time where it is more convenient for you.

Cable television used to be the big thing now it is getting more obsolete though many of us still do the old fashion way.  The other options are much cheaper than cable. Now you can see your favorite programs on your cell phone or lap top or I pad. You can see the programs anytime you want. Don’t have to see them live as well.

The same goes for music how it has evolved since MTV. I am sure that listening to music will change in the future as well. Back many moons ago when people listened to eight tracks than cd’s the music will be much different to listen as well.

The news we can see in so many different ways today as well. No longer it is in the newspaper or television where it old when we hear or read it. We can see or hear it as soon as it happens in the same way that you listen to music. Now live on social media. Six months from now we likely see or hear the news different than right now.

One thing for sure is that the world is not just changing it getting closer as well. You will probably be able to see and know my home town of Gig Harbor, Washington better than now in the same as New York or Paris or London or Hong Kong.  You will feel like that you are right there without going anywhere.

It will be amazing to see where we will be at on February 6, 2018.  Whether this all for the good or not we will find out that is for sure. Most likely we will not have any privacy or we will have to find a way to hide it better. Until next time enjoy the world today tomorrow it will not be the same in so many ways.  

 

 

Longing For

We all have something that we long for even when we have a lot in our lives already.

Love is the greatest thing we long for and there are times we get into trouble for it as well.

Most are blessed because they have their parents and siblings while growing up. In some cases family life isn’t well either. Some have problems within their family and often that is the struggle they have the rest of their lives.

Those who have a good marriage are blessed in so many ways. Those who have trouble in this area usually because they were looking for someone that is like one of their parents; A woman may merry a man that is like their father and a man like his mother. The trouble may happen that they are still longing for what they never had. Dysfunction continues generation after generation.

Our true longing comes from God and we never find the longing we are looking for. We often substitute the lesser of what we want. In many cases it is because we may not think we deserve any better.

I was blessed to live in a pretty good family with great parents and siblings however I have longings that I am still waiting to achieve. I look to God and ask him to fulfill those longings. I have to say sometimes because there are times I don’t remember to do so.

So please long for those you desire in the right way and not in the wrong place. You will feel a lot better for it. If you need to go to a pastor or someone close to have counseling. The best for all of us; may your longings come to pass.  

Put on a Happy Face

I have a friend on social media that they should start something called political media for those who want to share their views about the President or whoever they are for or against.

I think that is a very wise idea. I know that I am tired of the whole thing on social media. In fact I am not going to share my opinion anymore after this day.

My idea is that we all get along. That is why I say let’s put on a happy face. Life is so short already and there are many other things for us to accomplish.

Of course getting along is what we need to accomplish the most. It is not that we have to enjoy each other all the time but we must be respectful of what each believes in. It is what I try to do with everyone I meet though I know that they are not going to agree with me on everything.

 Regardless of who they are it is important to encourage everyone we meet if possible or at the least give them a nice smile. I know that I like to be greeted by people with a smile at the very least if not saying hello too. I am sure most people feel the same way. I sometimes don’t feel good if I am not greeted by someone. I know it isn’t their fault sometimes because we don’t know what others are going through at the time or it may be their personality as well. We can’t be sure what everyone’s story is but we can do is what we want others to do for us. Remember to that putting on a happy face is our choice. God bless you all.

Enjoy One Another

 It is easy sometimes not to care for our fellow man and think the worst of them. This is especially true when they are so much different than us.

This is true when they may look at us in a different way as well. What we see on the outside isn’t always what is on the inside. This is true either for good or bad.

What I like to do think the best of others which isn’t always easy.  I have talked with people that I wasn’t sure about when looking at them and they turn out to being pretty good people. It isn’t always the case however more often than not.

One thing I know for sure is that people could be thinking the same thing about me as well; however, I don’t think about that too often because I think I am a great guy.  LOL

Of course I am not perfect just like everyone else so I should give the benefit of the doubt. In the end we are all people that just look and act different than others however in other ways we are not too different as well. So treat people like you want to be treated. Life will go much easier for us all. Amen!

Groundhog’s Day

                                           
                                                                    Hello Fellas

Hello and welcome to February. I am sure everyone has their own stories and beliefs about Groundhog’s Day.

Personally I don’t take the day to seriously though I am sure there are those who do. I have never researched to see whether six more weeks of winter happens with the groundhog stays in his burrow. I am sure that it has happened on occasion. I am just kidding since it is just folklore. I am sure many people hope he comes out so spring will happen especially if it has been a very cold winter.

Anyway in our family Groundhogs Day has always been an interesting day because my dad was born on this day. So I have to say happy birthday day we do miss you and wish you were still here. He died in June 1993 while visiting relatives in France of a heart attack.

What I remember most was how exciting he was to go on the trip. He really wasn’t into traveling much before a trip he and my mother took to Germany and England three years before to visit my brother Jack, his wife and the two little children they had at the time. They now have four children. Before that trip he was just content to spend time with family and going on sailing trips in his boat but that trip opened his eyes to new adventures.

Before the trip he called his brother and two sisters to tell them how exciting he was looking forward to going to France. The last time any of them talked with him. It was unusual to because he usually never called someone on the phone. Also he told me how much he loved me to and how proud he was of me. Another thing he didn’t do too often. He did show love but did not express it in words a lot.

My brothers and I thought it was a bit crazy that he was born on Groundhogs Day. Not really sure why but as kids it was fascinating all three of us. One thing for sure I have never forgotten when his birthday is. So I salute dad and wish him a wonderful birthday where he is right now. I think of you every single day since you left us.

My mother and I have decided to go out for Chinese dinner to celebrate his birthday. We have a very nice one in Gig Harbor not far from where we live. Often we go there on either my birthday or my mother’s or both so this time we are going on dad’s birthday to think our memories of him.

Another thing I am going to look in the paper to see if the Groundhog movie with Bill Murray is playing on television. It has been a while since I have seen it. What a funny and wonderful movie to watch.

So I now end here wishing everyone a great Groundhog’s Day especially them.

The Truth Will Set You Free

I am sure most people have heard or seen in one fashion or another about the truth will set you free. Although I don’t know about many other religions besides Christianity I am sure that each one believes that they do have the truth. Unfortunately not all religions can have the truth only applies to one.  I am a Christian so I believe that my religion is the only one that has the truth. Of course you can say that is wrong how any religion can have the real truth. I said that above only applies to one. Jesus Christ said this in John 8:32 and in John 14:6 he said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to Father except through me.” When he says Father he is speaking about God. If you do believe Jesus than you know the truth and if you don’t than you are calling him a liar. I am not saying that it is what he is saying actually.

If you are seeking after truth or God himself I would seek after Jesus to see if he can be found by you. Many may say that it is too easy and you are correct. That is why so many people stumble because it is easy however it is hard to follow at the same time. It takes faith and belief to know Jesus. I let you know he is worth going after.

There will be times where it will not feel good at all because even after accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior the road is not easy to follow. There will be times where you will fall once again. I know because I have fallen many times and I will continue to do so.

I am not asking you to take my word for it I ask you to go to him to find the answer yourself. If you know someone that is a true follower of Jesus and not just going to church on Sunday as a religion occasion ask them your questions.

We are all not free in some fashion or another however you can be freed today. Just ask him into your heart today. May his blessings be on you.  

A Voice Calling From the Wilderness

 I am sure that most everyone knows the story of John the Baptist in the Bible. He was Jesus Christ cousin and that he baptized those who wanted to repent. It was before Christ was recognized as the Messiah. In fact Christ went to him to be baptized himself.

Why I am mentioning this that the world needs to hear more people who are coming out of the wilderness. I know that most of us don’t live in the wilderness however I am talking about those who may feel spiritually that they have been there. In fact I would say that most people who have become Christians or have seek after God have been wondering in the wilderness at some point. It is in the wilderness that we find a lot of answers. It is the longing to find truth and meaning in our lives. We have been in a battle and we have become weary so we go out to a place to rest. Others need to hear our stories. Everyone needs to hear that they have not been the only one being in the wilderness and those that are there right now need to hear it.

I have spent a long time going in and out of the wilderness. This was especially true when I was young and a teenager. I didn’t know the truth at the time. All I knew that I was miserable and depressed and that I wanted to get out of that place. It was a dark place for me however now I recognize the light. I know to that I can learn more whenever I go back into the wilderness. We can all learn something from it even if we don’t realize it at the time.

So shout out loud and let people know that they can be free by the power of God. Amen!

Be Bold

I started the year that we should press on toward the goal. What that means depends on each one of us since we have different purposes and destiny.

Part of pressing on I feel is that we need to be bold. I know that it doesn’t work for everyone however something we should aim for. Most of us are passionate about something for example a sport. When you are watching your favorite team while at the game at some point you will be yelling or you could be doing that the whole game. If your team isn’t doing well you may even throw something.  That may happen more often when watching on television but I am sure you got the point. So my point we should do the same thing for our purpose in life. I don’t mean that you have to yell however being bold speaking your mind when appropriate. Actually could be times where you could do it when it isn’t so appropriate.

We have seen a lot of people around the country and the world protesting. It is possible you may be one of them. I haven’t because I don’t agree with most of the protests. In fact the one this weekend over immigration surprised me. I thought most people would not want immigrants coming into the USA from the Middle East but they decided to protest over it. It is possible that most Americans still don’t want immigrants it is the minority that are speaking out. Another point if you feel that your part of the majority you should speak out. Another thing with that I wonder those who are protesting because President Trump made the order and they will protest whatever he does. In fact this week he is supposed to name his nomination for the Supreme Court. Won’t surprise me in the least if we see a lot of protestors after he names his nomination; some people could be quite busy the next four years.

So these people are being bold in their own way whether speaking loud or holding a sign. So you see being bold should be part of job description for our purpose. I am not saying it will be easy because it will not be however it is necessary. You don’t have put out signs or yell unless you want to but we do need to make a difference.

Growing up for me my teachers kept telling me to be quiet for talking too much. You see I didn’t start talking until I was five years old. I have to clarify that I didn’t speak English until I was five years old. I spoke my own language that my older brother Dick really understood. I had a problem with hearing that was cleared up when I was four years old. So you see when I started speaking English and could be understood well as understanding others I wanted to talk a lot. It was like getting your favorite gift however I was disappointed because teachers and other adults wanted me to stay quiet. So I have had to fight the urge to be bold. In high school taking speech class I was like the majority where I didn’t want to speak in from of a group and I wasn’t very good at it either. In fact some of my classmates in that class went on to be lawyers. It tells you something there doesn’t it.

Several years later I decided to try out for a play at my church. I didn’t expect to be any good at it however I thought why not try out the worst can happen is sorry you are not good at it. I found out that I was actually good at acting so I participated in several more plays at the church. When I went back to college to get an associated degree and get more skills to help in getting another job I took speech. The acting experienced allowed me do well in that class and other classes where we were required to do a presentation.

I have to say that I still need to work on being bold however it is a lot easier for me than what it was years ago. I am not saying that we have to be bold right off the bat it could take you a lot of baby steps to do so. Whatever the case be more bold today than yesterday and more tomorrow than day and etc..  I hope we all make it across the finish line of boldness.

Let It Begin With Me

I can repeat myself about what is going on in the world and what I read on the social media. There are complaints about the new President and his administration that just began. I am sure those complaints people do really think strongly about. They may even feel valid but how true? The news media can put a spin of their own of what is happening too.

One thing I do know that the country needs change to happen. We can’t have national debt continue going higher and higher. I am sure it will take time for the debt to go down however something has to happen for it to so. The key is how we lower the debt without causing problems with necessary programs. For example, health insurance needs to stay on board because we know that if anyone of us has to spend any amount of time in the hospital we can’t afford to pay unless you are among the wealthy and I know that they don’t want to pay any more than the rest of us. Most of us could not pay a cost of a high medical bill. We may be able to pay the interest of the bill but debt still will be on the books so that is one important thing that can’t be reduced. In fact likely the costs will go up. I am sure there are other areas that are similar to health insurance however the government will have to figure how to lower the debt in other areas. I am sure those areas will not be easy either however necessary. At some point there will be those who will have to bite the bullet.  

So it all goes back to us where each one has to make a decision what to sacrifice and what to up for. Most of all recognizing what our purpose is and to act. If you don’t like the new administration don’t complain work the system to be changed. In the end it comes up for being ourselves. Not only knowing who we are but going out and discover more about ourselves; who knows one person could change the world.

My Reflection

I look in the mirror at my reflection. I don’t look the same as years before. Fortunately no one really does unless they are really lucky that is. I look older now though not as much some other’s my age. Whether I look young for my age or for that matter around my age at least I am thankful for now that I don’t look older than my age.

I know that there are those around my age consider themselves old. Although I am close to being a senior citizen I don’t consider myself old. Probably the reason foremost is that my mother is ninety-six years old so that is old even though she is good for her age. The other thing is a feel good most of the time though a few aches and pains do happen time to time.

Although my reflection shows different I don’t consider myself close to my age. I am sure most of us think that way sometimes. We think of ourselves as though we may be in our twenties, thirties, or forties. Again we look in the mirror at that reflection wondering where the time has passed. For many my age they have grandchildren while I don’t have children at all. In the back on my mind not only has gone by fast what have I accomplished. I won’t go into details about that because I know my purpose and destiny is right on schedule I feel that I have a lot more to accomplish. Truly that is the most difficult part looking at my reflection that I do have more to do in this life and we all do no matter our age.

What makes this bring trouble to my mind is hearing and reading about other’s my age dying the last several years. I guess we could say that death doesn’t have respect for any of us regardless our age. So this shows for us to look into the mirror of our reflection each morning and speak out loud this is another day to accomplish a lot. Maybe I don’t look like I did ten or twenty or more years ago however I am more mature and I can accomplish the things that I probably should have done back then. Time to splash water on my face and say let’s go for it this is a day to do much for the world. Things will be good especially if the reflection doesn’t speak back. If so than I have something else to deal with. LOL. 

Life is a change each day however it is one to look straight on in the reflection to say yes.

Enjoying Good People

I know that it is easy to focus on writing about the same things over and over again in maybe a different manner. My purpose here is to give encouragement for everyone to discover and walking in their purpose. Also I continue planning to write about places around the area I live in along with memories of growing up and other things that are positive. It is good though to get off the subjects as well.

This weekend I am at conference or you may call a workshop at my church. It is called Living Free. If it ever comes to where you live I recommend taking it. Also involved in men’s ministry at my church as well; since it is too be private I won’t get into any details however both Living Free and the men’s ministry is looking at our minds where we have to decide to change it. We so much allow things to get into our minds that clutter what we are doing and we live as victims and we can’t live in victory along with doing our purpose because we are focused on the wrong things.

So now I come to the title of this post in enjoying good people. I believe whatever our purpose is and what we can do it is important to be around and enjoy good people too. If you are a Christian you know that none of us are truly good except the change Christ has done in our lives. We are good because he is good.

So to say all that is that we need to spend time around people that are good for us. Those who will encourage us and love us no matter what we have done or may do. These people can make us feel the way we truly want to be and how God designed us from the beginning.

It is not that we can’t be around those that are not so good for us but we must remember who we are in God. It is like if we are a recovering alcoholic we can’ spend time around other alcoholics unless they are trying to become clean like we are.

There are times we can’t avoid those that are not good for us. For example, at work it is hard to avoid those who we would not spend time with outside of work. If we are in a project with them we must work the project out however important not to spend too much time with them unless it is to encourage them into changing. We must know that not everyone wants to change either. It is easy want to help change others but not easy to fulfill.

So spend as much time as possible with those around you that can be considered good people. Encourage them as they encourage you. Lift each other up in prayer as well. Times get tough and it is easy to fall away. God bless and have a wonderful weekend.

Going to the Movies

I have to say over the years that I haven’t gone to a lot of movies in the theatre. Primarily I don’t want to go by myself. I am sure most everyone would agree with me on that one. It doesn’t really matter who I go with as long as someone especially if they enjoy the movie as well.

I would say that I average less than one movie a year that I see. So I would not be much of a movie critic though most of the movies have been pretty good. I don’t always know much about the movie I go to however the movie is one that is highly recommended.

Wednesday I went with my mother to the local theatre right here in Gig Harbor. What is nice it is one of the new theatre’s around. Gig Harbor has had a theatre for a while however new seating was put in a couple years ago. It is where you can relax and you can have your legs raised up along with your head going back. You know it is a good movie if you don’t fall asleep in the middle of it.

I took my mother to see the movie because her friends said that it would be a wonderful movie and that I would like it too. She doesn’t go to a lot of movies herself. In fact growing up neither her or my father took us to movies. My brothers and I had to rely on our older sister. We had to go into nearby Tacoma because Gig Harbor didn’t have a theatre at the time. In those days most of the movies we saw were musicals like Hello Dolly and the Sound of Music.

Anyway mother and I took in the first show just after 1 pm. There wasn’t a big crowd but you don’t expect that early afternoon. The movie we saw was the Hidden Figures. What a wonderful movie indeed. It is about three black women who worked for NASA in the early sixties. I don’t want to spoil the show however it is very delightful for sure. It was based on a true story and it was funny along with being emotional at times. I laughed a lot and cried as well. Sometimes I did both at the same time. Nothing better than seeing a movie that is based on a true story and loving it at the same time. Whether you truly like these kinds of movies or not I still ask you to go see it. It is a good way to spend a little over two hours along with a friend or family.

This means to that I have to look forward to seeing the next movie whatever that may be. Hopefully I won’t wait another year to do so. Now I will say good bye and happy time enjoying the movies.

Will Take More Grace

What has been going on lately in the world with the way people are acting we who are willing need to give grace and love to others.

I posted about grace not too long ago and we need to do a lot of it. I have decided that I am going to be the better person by giving others grace and love no matter how different they are from me or how they look at things.

Like I have mentioned before as well the world is going way down and won’t get any better. As a person who knows what his purpose and destiny is my job is to act on it. Whatever I do will be is to encourage others with the best of my ability.  

I may not change others opinions about their beliefs however with grace and love they may become more gentle in the process and in some cases they may change their minds.

I see so much hate or at least apathy on social media. I truly want to say something to my friends who are doing it but what is the point. I have in the past but they obviously aren’t listening so what is the point. They already know how I feel and I certainly know how they feel to say the least. Even my friends who say that they are leaving social media because of the hate haven’t changed anything at this point.

I know that in some cases if not many these friends of mine are going through tough times so they are posting their beliefs to make life easier instead they are aggravating people so I just decided not to say anything and either hid their post or move along.

I am not here to change other people’s minds about how they think or feel just be gracious to your so-called friends and give a lot of latitude with grace. Until next time many blessing to you.