Thursday, March 22, 2018

Make Me Like The Moon


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 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matt 5:14-16

I have always had a fascination with the moon (and stars).  The huge bright ball in the midnight sky and the brilliant light that illuminates the earth will always keep me spell bound.  To be honest I never took the time to consider the source of the "moonlight".  Without pondering its true source, I only enjoyed the view and serenity that it brought.  The astrological explanation states that the sun shines on the moon as it rotates around the earth.  The moon has no atmosphere or gravity so the light cannot be contained.  Like a mirror the moon reflects the light to earth.  All by itself the moon is merely a cold rock caught in the earth’s gravitation orbit that could never be seen with the naked eye. The moon orbits the earth as the earth orbits the sun.  That little dusty rock has an opportunity to shine for everybody everywhere in all phases during its 29-and-a-half-day journey around earth.  You have an opportunity to reflect God’s blessing wherever you go. 

Make yourself like the moon.

I may "shine brightly but not on my own. I want to serve humbly and am willing to be used. Just a piece of dust and stone reflecting the sunlight, God's light.  Let me reflect the light of who you are and your light alone. If I shine let them see You... Nothing of myself.  Make me like the moon, only reflecting you." 

Make yourself like the moon.

When I see the moon shining so bright and vivid, my mind is riveted on the source of light that allows me to shine.  It allows me to tell of the new grace and new mercy that is available to all... daily. 


Sunday, March 18, 2018

A Part of Me

I watched her pull away from the garage.  My arms were satisfied that they had hugged her with enough care and tenderness to help them remember.  My ears could still hear her speaking to God asking Him to cover me while we were away from each other.  My lips still felt the softness of hers as she promised to see me later.  My mind was immediately missing her physical presence, but my heart smiled at the thought of when I would be with her again. My mind gets locked in logical algorithms that confound my emotions into misunderstanding her absence.  My heart understands and councils me. My gift from God is always with me because she is a part of me and I am apart of her.  In my heart and soul we are one. I love you sweetheart.

When Two Become One
"Long ago in evolutionary history, two cells formed a symbiotic team that, over millions of years, evolved into a single organism. The result of this union was the first eukaryotic cell — the type of cell that makes up the human body."

Glad the tomb is empty...


Monday, March 5, 2018

Extended Family



I wrote this a few years ago when my children were small.  But it has so much relevance to the world today. It is a spin off from an African proverb that I am sure you have heard many times.

IT TAKES A WHOLE VILLAGE (AN EXTENDED FAMILY) TO RAISE A CHILD     African Proverb

The extended family has always been the strength of the African tribe, the new world slaves, the post slavery coloreds, and the Negroes fighting for civil rights. The village elders (griots) told the children fables with a moral conclusion. The old slave taught the African just off the boat how to deal with the master and his overseer. The sharecroppers of the south helped one another get the crop in if someone was too ill to work. Those who chose to migrate to the north had rent parties to help neighbors pay their rent. During the civil rights movement in Montgomery, Al., people offered their cars to support the bus boycott. All these examples extended to their children's personal welfare and created an "extended family."

This family served the purpose of not just babysitting, but teachers, protectors, philosophers, listeners, and friends. This family was the eyes and ears of mom and dad. As a child I always felt safe in the neighborhood, because I knew everybody in the neighborhood cared whether I made it home or not, even Speedy.

Speedy was the old dude who drank too much. He would interrupt his storytelling and bottle passing to yell from his milk crate across the street, "the street lights are on and you know yo-momma is looking for you." This was my queue to turn that slow dragging, rock kicking stroll into a full gallop, because everybody in the hood knows Mrs. Peeler's baby boy had a lights on curfew... even Speedy. There was Mr. Sykes who made sure we had something to do on those hot summer days, by supervising our street football games or alley softball games. He supervised with what seemed like little effort, because he hardly left his porch, but we knew he was watching. There was Mrs. Westbrook who started a Cubs Scout and Boys Scout troop one winter when she got tired of twelve boys tearing up her house. Then there was Mrs. Grant.  She could hear an angel in heaven flap his wings, so you better watch your language when you walked or played by her house.

I could go from door to door and mention an adult that helped mold me in one way, shape, form or fashion. My parents may not have fellowshipped or ate dinner with these people. They may not have even liked some of them, but they knew their neighbors had their children's well-being and safety in mind. The children respected these "extended family members," because their parents embraced the help in rearing a child that "family" can give. I didn't grow up in a small town where everybody knew everybody. I grew up in Chicago, where we had more people on one block, on one side of the street, then they have in some small towns.

Unfortunately, the prosperity of the 80's, and 90’s "freed" us from the "need" of the extended family, but we were freed from a circumstance that we never really gave merit. I personally didn't realize the existence of this "extended family" and their purpose until I became an adult with children of my own.

I try to teach my children to respect their elder’s and mind their manners. Speak to grown folks with old school respect and not new school dialect! I welcome information, good or bad, because I can't be with my children all the time, and like most parents. I wouldn't want to be with them all the time.  I recognize the need for feedback on my children, because it is when your children are away from you, that you learn the most about the job you are doing as a parent.  

Today people seem less willing or unable to develop an "extended family." I believe that is what the church and community once was able do and should continue to do. Children that don't mind their manners or respect their elders, frighten adults, young and old, men and women. Parents don't want to be told or don't believe the exploits of their child as told to them by other parents.  “Not my little Johnny.  He wouldn’t do that!”

Children can benefit from the many experiences that the "extended family" can bring.  Elders can enrich their lives like no history book ever could.  Speedy could spin a web, drunk or sober…  Mr. Sykes showed me how to look a ball into my hands and a baseball into my mitt.  Mrs. Westbrook taught me to respect other folks stuff.  And Mrs. Grant taught me to always be aware of who my audience might be. You never know who might be listening.

For a child to know that many "family" members care about his welfare and safety will cause that child to in turn care and respect others. Things have changed, the world has changed, but children and their requirements have not changed. Parents have dismissed all the tools that have made child rearing the most important part of our existence, short of serving and worshipping God.  The children we let society dictate how we raise today, will commit to society tomorrow. Let the "extended family" help you preserve our heritage. 

It Takes A Whole Village to Raise A Child….