Category: Just My Thoughts

The Color of February

by ObtainingMercy, posted in A Colorful Life, Foto Friday

 

Febcolor3

My ivy is thriving in the house in this terra cotta red planter.

Febcolor2

Any Cafe Bustelo coffee is good, but the espresso style is my fave.

Febcolor4

The smell of this hand soap makes me smile every time I use it.

Febcolor5

My Vera Bradley blanket in "pink swirls".

Febcolor

A tart way to start the day.

Febcolor6

Finger Paints "Paint Me Happy" with Orly's "MirrorBall" on my ring finger, highlighting my wedding ring.  It's been on that finger for 27 years this February.

Last but not least, my favorite red Gospel 90.3 cup.  Restorathon happens at the end of this month.

I love February's colors!!!

The Color of Sleep

by ObtainingMercy, posted in A Colorful Life

This – a full night's sleep – is a real answer to prayer for me:

100sleep

If you are struggling with sleeping, I feel your pain, and want to encourage you that you will, one day, sleep again.

The best advice I ever got about insomnia was from my sweet friend, Patricia, who told me,

"Make friends with the night."

She went on to share that if she couldn't sleep, she didn't lay in bed, angry, staring at the clock.  She read, she made a cup of tea, she worked on a project or she prayed.

We can make use of those hours, especially when they are coming night after night and we seem stuck in a cycle of insomnia.

I've also added a few practices of my own:

  • Pray through the alphabet, calling the name of everyone whose name starts with "A", then "B", etc.  If you only get to "G" one night, start on "H" the next night.
  • Recite Scripture, beginning in Genesis, go through every verse you know from memory in each book of the Bible.  You'll be surprised how many verses come to mind.
  • Listen to audio books.  I use the free site Librivox to download classics to my iPod.  I listened to different readers until I found a few whose voices I found soothing.  I rarely make it through one chapter before I doze off.

I'm wishing you sleep, my friends,

Alesha Kay

 

 

Adding Color to My Life

by ObtainingMercy, posted in A Colorful Life

I like color.  I like sparkle.  I like pretty and attractive and feminine.

Sometimes, due to weather or circumstances or illness or busy-ness, our lives can get a little drab.  So, I love to find ways to add the beauty of color back into my life.

I am not good at painting my nails.  I never did it as a child.  Having no sisters may have had something to do with that.  But my mom painted her nails every Saturday night.  So, really, I have no excuse, except that I really didn't like to sit still long enough to do it.

Since I am so inept, I've developed a theory.  I will never have that perfect salon manicure.  So I might as well have fun.  (And since my paint job is always less than spectacular, why not add a layer of sparkle to cover the defects!)

Polish1

Polish3

Polish5

PolishB

PolishD

 

I bought some new colors recently:

ColorA

And lots of sparkle to layer on top:

ColorB

I even watched a video about nail polish clean up and picked up some of the recommended products:

Tools

I feel like I'm getting better at it.  I am enjoying the process and finding that "practice makes permanent."  I know I still have a lot to learn, because some manicures last a week and others peel off in a day.  But I'm having fun learning!

Here's to adding color to our lives!

Thanks for reading.

Alesha

It’s Time For Making A Decision

by ObtainingMercy, posted in A Door of Hope, How Great is Our God, Just My Thoughts

I read these verses this morning, and thought "That could have been pulled from today's headlines!"

 

Psalm 83:2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.

3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.

4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:

Things will ever be the same for the nation of Israel, until the day that Christ returns to earth and sets things right for His people.

Before that day, however, there will be a calling away of Christians, a gathering together of all the saved to Heaven.  Then we will return with Christ on the day that He overturns the enemies of Israel.

Will YOU be ready for the rapture, for God's calling up to Heaven those who have been saved, redeemed from their sins by the precious blood of Jesus, shed on Calvary?  

If not, my friend, I hope that you can take a look around you, at the things that are happening daily around the world, and realize that your time is short.  Jesus will be calling us out of here to Heaven just any day now!

Why delay turning your life over to the Lord?  There will come a day when time for repentance will run out.  The timetable of God's rescuing Israel will be put into motion, and those who are not FOR God will be AGAINST Him.

Make your decision today to trust Him for salvation from sin and Hell, to everlasting life with Him in Heaven

The time for making that choice is quickly running out.

II Corinthians 6:2 – (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

The Main Thing

by ObtainingMercy, posted in Just My Thoughts

I get so extremely frustrated when I watch politicians speaking things that I know for a fact are 75-80% false.  Not true.  Lies.

I want to jump up and scream the truth at them.  And sometimes I do.

I want to write seething commentary on their lies, point out the truth and decry their political opinions, and get my voice out there to the population that doesn't know the facts.

Then I think~

"How will they ever recognize truth when they don't know the Person of Truth?"

 

When a man does not know God, he believes that he is the most evolved creature in the universe, and all that has been accomplished in the ages of time has been done by the hand of man.  He also believes that any progress will come from the mind of man.

These folks do not want to be changed.  They don't want the truth that clashes with their opinions, their pocketbook, their social agenda or their political aspirations.  They simply want their own way.

It requires a fundamental transformation in the heart of a person to bring about real change.  They must know Truth before they can recognize falsehood.

So, I'll hold off on my political rant. 

Instead, I will speak of Truth.  I will talk about my Saviour.  I will sing of my salvation through the blood of Jesus.  I will post Scripture.  I will remind my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that we must keep the Main Thing the main thing. 

And that Main Thing is a Person…the Person of Jesus Christ.

It's all about Him.

Psalm 25:4-5 – "Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.  Lead me in thy truth, and teach me:  for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day."

Encouragement from an Unlikely Source

by ObtainingMercy, posted in Blessings, Isaac Update, Just My Thoughts, Thoughtful Thursday

I was changing Isaac today, getting him a dry diaper and clean clothes (and if you need to know why I am helping my 14-year-old son do these things, you can read his story here).

I was saying the usual things I say to him as I go through our routine.  On most days it's a running one-sided dialogue:

 

"Alright, here we go!
"Wet pants off. Wash, wash….ooooo, it's cold.  Brrrrrr. 
"Ok.  Rolly-Olly, dry diaper on.  Rolly back.
"Don't pinch Mommy!  No!  Ouch!  Stop it, Isaac! 
"Here, this foot in.  Other foot.  Now rolly again.  Pants up.  
"Are you ready to change your shirt?  This arm out first, good job, over the head now.  Whoop!  And the other arm.  All right!"

 

And then from the living room I heard our African Gray parrot, Poppet, talking.

"Very nice.  Very niiiiiiiice.
"Good job, Isaac!  Good joooooob!
"Here we go!  Here we go!
"Verrry nice!  Good work!

It's nice to know that I've said the right things often enough that the bird has memorized them. 

I've been encouraging in the past.  I've sounded sweet and kind to Isaac many times.  I've talked him through dressing and eating and therapy many, many times.

So, on that one day when I feel like a failure, when I know *for a fact* that I'm the world's worst mom, I'm going to remember the day I was encouraged by the bird – a bird who only learned the things that it heard.

Do you have a bird who talks?  If you did, what kinds of things would it be learning to say???