The Decision

Smile when the sun shines,

Smile when it rains.

How we choose to see the world

Changes everything!

By Martha L Shaw – ©  1-17-2015

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Quote of the Day – Kindness

Someone referred to me as kind the other day and my initial reaction was “wow, I thought he loved me.”  Amazing how this world’s misuse of words and acts can change things (he does love me) . . . but this quote says it so well:

Genuine kindness is no ordinary act,

but a gift of rare beauty. 

– Sylvia Rosetti –

 

 

Change The World? It’s Simple . . .

Our priest told a great sermon today.  God wants to give us the best.  We need empty hands and we don’t always leap eagerly to relinquishing our hold on our stuff in order for Him to be able to give us what more and better He has.  “It’s simple.”  God will help us . . . we can turn to Him with our fears . . . change . . . it is  scary sometimes, but oh, when we let Him work through us and fill us with His grace . . . we can.  Favorite quote from the sermon?  “Even an acorn can find a way to roll down the street.”  As I read the following quote, the changes God can help us with . . .  the “yes, but what can I do” and the “my small effort . . . will it really matter?”  Those thoughts all came together with a resounding Yes I can make a difference!

I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go. – Rachel Joy Scott –

Let’s do this, shall we?  Not just for ourselves. . . let’s do it for the children!

Choose To Empower and Bless!

Did you ever see a movie and later hear some folks talking about how dreadful it was and quietly think “but, I loved that movie!”  I have.  The Lord’s grace and blessings are all around us and His generous outpouring on us is constant.  We have only to be open to receive. The bad things in life are still near, but He is nearer!  So, which story do you choose to tell?  Which story do you choose to see?  Which story do you choose to live?  Your choice is life changing, for those around you and for you!  Be the positive and empowering “changer for the Lord” in this world, won’t you?

Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize.    – Chimamanda Adichie –

Is Kindness Fashionable? A Tuesday Quote

Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your modus operandi and change your world.  – Annie Lennox –

When I read this quote I made a face . . . wrinkled up nose, raised eye brows . . .  you get the picture.  Thought “oh, yuck . . . greeting card sentiment.”  Then I got that very familiar nudge to reevaluate.  I did so.

Seems, Jesus made kindness and acceptance His modus operandi and he changed the world.  Why not me?  I can’t really tell you if it by trying to be kind whether I felt it or not changed anyone’s day, but it did change my own.  There just might be something to this .. . .

 

*yes, the greeting card and envelope shown are my own design, original photography, etc.*

What The Love Of Christ Can Do – A Tuesday Quote

When we give ourselves to Christ and invite Him to live in us and through us, we are changed in ways we alone never could imagine.  Not only that but together we can participate in changing the world for and with Him:

When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.   – Paulo Cohelo –

With Great Love – Remembering Daddy

Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love   – Mother Teresa –

 

Think about our lives on a typical day.  We don’t change the world.  We don’t solve the economic crisis or find a way to world peace, or to cure the common cold.  Yet, some do small things with great love as the quote suggests.  My late father was one of them.  Daddy died a few years back on 9-26 and tomorrow marks the anniversary once more.  Daddy never finished school, yet he learned more than most of us by caring to do small things well.  He was my hero and not just mine but the hero of most whom he ever met. 

Daddy called everyone “Pal” and truly felt everyone was his friend.  If anyone was in trouble he’d offer a hand or a word of encouragement.  I can recall his going outside and Mom wondering where he’d gone off to.  Sometimes, he’d go into the woods and find something to transplant to make the yard look good when Mom looked out the window.  Other times he’d hear someone working on a car and grab a few tools and go see if he could help get it started.  He was good at that.  Didn’t go to fancy schools to learn, but simply bought old cars and learned how they worked and with little money for fancy things or high-priced shops to fix things, he just learned how to do it.  He shared what he learned. 

He could fix a leaky roof or kitchen sink.  He could put a doll’s leg back on when it broke off.  He could make a cut on my knee better and dry my tears.  He knew just when to pat my shoulder or give a sudden hug.  He didn’t know fancy words.  He didn’t need them.  Not long before his final illness, he and Mom had a “big” anniversary and I made them tee shirts with pictures on them from their wedding day all those decades before.  I took them out to dinner at a favorite local place.  You know the sort, where everyone knows everyone else?  He got up and walked all over the place even into the kitchen so he could show everyone “the shirt my daughter made me.” He pointed to the picture on the front, too.  He had Parkinson’s and didn’t move about easily as a rule, but that night he managed.  Everyone shared his joy. 

At the end he was bed ridden and in the days before he passed, he couldn’t really talk.  He couldn’t really do anything anymore.  He could barely move at all, yet as Mom and I stood at his bedside, he saw us and did his best to make he weak facial muscles, stiff from the disease, form a smile.  I saw Mom’s hand on the side of his bed and noticed him focus on her hand.  I saw a look on his face and watched him with great effort slowly nudge that right hand a fraction of an inch at a time and it took quite some time for him to move his hand a few small inches to where her hand lay.  He finally made it across the distance and clasped her hand.  Twenty minutes to move 3 or 4 inches.   ” . . .  small things with great love.”

I love you Daddy!