Frustration...

As I get older I find myself getting frustrated much more easily. I do not like this new trait of mine and wonder if soon I will be chasing children out of my yard and calling everyone under the age of 30 a whippersnapper. I know part of my frustration is caused by my 15 year struggle with migraines. I have a hard time relaxing when I'm in pain so much.

With this post I am reaching out for help. Please pray for me that God will heal me and also please share ways you have learned to take things in stride. I deal with a lot of stressful situations and have been doing so for the almost 30 years of my public safety career. In doing my job I have learned to cope with difficult situations. Those situations are not a problem for me, it's the day to day pressures that are a part of living in an imperfect world that tend to get me irritated.

Thank you...

What did you do with my Mother?

We were at church and my Mother started feeling bad. I was 5 years old and I remember this day as if it were yesterday. My dad took my mom to the hospital. My brother (7 years old), my sister (9 years old) and I went with my aunt. Later we arrived the hospital and were greeted by our pastor. He said she is gone. I thought about what he said. We drove away and saw my dad crying on the hospital steps. My next recollection is in the funeral home. My dad and I went into the viewing room. There was a casket. We approached it and inside was a female with blonde hair (my mom had dark, almost black hair). I asked why did they dye her hair? Later... where did they take my mom? She was gone...

Life is short. My Mother was there one moment and then gone the next. She was 27 years old. I use to think I would die before I turned 27. I thought it would happen, but it didn't. Even though God is not finished with me yet, there is no guarantee for tomorrow. We should live our lives as if today is our last. If we knew that we would die tomorrow, what would we do differently today? I bet we would at the very least make sure we are right with the Lord and we would spend the last hours with our family. Money would not be important to us, nor would be our "stuff".

I think we need to re-evaluate what is important to us. God and our family should be number 1. As a wise person once said... "there are many tomorrows but only one today". But, what if there was no tomorrow... did you waste today?

I'm sorry I failed you...

It was a typical day at the fire station. The claxton sounded and I boarded the fire engine and off we went, lights flashing and sirens blasting. On arrival we found a two story apartment building with smoke bellowing from it. My mission was, go to the second floor and complete a search for people. With a charged (filled with water) hose line my fire company started up the stairs. I was either in front or second as we approached the second floor. A baby crib was at the top of the stairs. Then it happened, something that firefighters never want to happen, the hose went limp. We lost our supply of water. The smoke was thick but I could see the crib on the stair landing, I grabbed it and told my men to go back down the stairs (later realized the crib was empty). You never want to go into a burning structure without your lifeline (a charged hose). As my head cleared the level of the second floor and I was half-way down the stairs the roof collapsed and blocked the second floor landing. When we got back outside, the fire engine pump operator was noticeably upset and started apologizing to me for losing water. I said, hey don't apologize, if you had not lost water causing our fire hose to go limp we would have not backed out and would have more than likely been killed when the roof collapsed.

He felt like he had failed us but God used him to save us.

Remember God is in control. We will never know how many times he has saved us from harmsway. Trust him, he has not and will not ever fail you!

Saint Patrick's Day...

As one of the earliest Christian missionaries traveling abroad to spread the Christian faith, Saint Patrick is important because he serves as a testament to the overall missionary legacy of the Church. His example afforded later Christian missionaries the opportunity to assess the best methods to employ when confronting pagan groups abroad. Perhaps the most significant aspect of Saint Patrick’s missionary efforts in Ireland was that he transcended the boundary between Church hierarchy and prominent Church Fathers in terms of the viability of missionary pursuits. Saint Patrick proved that any Christian could live out the Scriptural commandment to spread the word of God while “exalting and confessing his wonders before all the nations that are under the heavens." Patrick’s example would inspire later missionaries to undertake great missions to evangelize abroad in later years. (Wikipedia)

March 17, 2009 is Saint Patrick's Day. What does this day mean to you? Is it a day to celebrate a mans life or is it just an opportunity to party and wear green? There is nothing wrong with in my case remembering my heritage or wearing my favorite color green. But, I think so many times we celebrate holidays with fun being our primary focus.

Christmas = Gifts
Easter = Candy and the bunny
Saint Patrick's Day = Drinking and the color green

I guess I'm saying this to tell you something you should already know. Before you party take time to reflect on the true meaning of each holiday. As Christians, Christ should always be our main focus.