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What is your best feature?
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May 18, 2009 11:21 am
165 Views
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We women have a habit of putting down our bodies. I remember when speaker Donna Cole talked about finding in the Song of Solomon confirmation that her Jewish nose was beautiful.
In fact, a great deal of the Song of Solomon is dedicated to finding someone attractive.
So...what do you see as your best physical feature? (I'm sure you'll be clean.  )
Mine are my eyebrows. I rarely pluck.
(Update: Am taking down the hot flash photo. Yes, I DOOOOO have some self respect!! :LOL: )
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14
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Cheeky Monkey
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May 14, 2009 3:13 pm
126 Views
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Yeah, as said in Steel Magnolias, "everything's getting entirely too serious"!!
I was so sick of having my picture taken during a fundraiser (what..12 years ago already).
Needless to say..I didn't have to sit still for another!!!!
Maybe I'll post some of my cousin's wild life work here in Wisconsin. She's an incredible photographer.
P.S. The men who've hotlisted me keeps shrinking!  
It was going up for a while and now keeps going down!! :LOL: Love you guys!!
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3
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Questions
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May 12, 2009 8:22 pm
117 Views
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I’m a fan of thrift stores. When I pick up and hold items, I sometimes wonder about the previous owner. Who was he/she? What was her/his life like in that era?
So, too, my imagination gets going with the undercurrents of the lives of those mentioned in the Bible. Here’s one that I ponder often.
Hosea 1:2
2 When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, "Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD."
3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
God leads an upright man in a public ministry to marry a known prostitute with children born out of wedlock. ..A woman that is so far outwardly from what we consider His ideal for a mate.
“For my ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts…"
My questions are many.
Did Hosea fall in love with his wife? One of the worst arranged marriages of all times..did he fall in love with her anyway?
“..So I bought her with 15 shekels of silver…”
Not much left to the imagination on the state of Gomer’s life and livelihood. He was her husband. Would he have given her everything she needed anyway? Why did she feel the need to stay in prostitution when she had a spouse?
Why did she get into that life? Was there no other way for her to support herself?
…Most of all, what did she think of this strange man who married her anyway, despite every shameful thing he knew about her?
Did her life begin to blossom under Hosea? What happened while she listened to his prophetic words? Did he discuss his “sermons” with her at night when the two were lying in bed together?
Did she sneak views of his profile when she thought he wasn’t looking? Did she find herself thinking about him with a small smile on her face, while cooking, going to the market?
Was God calling Hosea to see himself in those trapped in sin? Every time he called his sons’ and daughter’s names, did Hosea also begin to feel not only a sense of God’s compassion for His children, but also compassion for his fellow Israelites?
Not only a message for Israel, but did God want to transform Gomer..and Hosea as well?
That's the thing about "ministries" or callings. If done right, they have a tendency to change us as well.
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2
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What is Safety?
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May 12, 2009 2:00 pm
128 Views
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There's a story about a famous naturalist, (James Audubon?) who, exhilarated by the lightening and thunder happening above him, climbed to the top of a pine tree to watch the storm up close.
It comes to mind when I think about my times in Christian leadership. My place was Christian broadcasting. 
Working in that type of community leadership altered me for life in how I perceive (and pursue) a sense of safety in the church.
Most of all, my fear of others was overcome in so many ways.
I remember my first Christian radio shift in a rural area. Before I went on the air, I sat on a chair outside trying not to throw up.
I had been told by secular consultants all throughout my broadcasting career that "women don't want to hear women on the air". For months at work, I used to dread the sound of the phone ringing as it could be a complaint...and when people complained..holy cats!!
I was emotionally roasted alive on one occasion because I mentioned the state lottery as a news story. (Yeah...I realize it was poor judgment on my part.) The caller questioned whether I was a "real" Christian or not. (Oh, we all probably heard that line a lot.) On top of that, she was a major financial supporter of the station. Holy cats!! I cried for several hours that shift.
Although not the best and a sign of how much emotional pain she was in, God used her to help me see the worst others could do wasn't so bad. Figuratively I could climb up even closer to the storm. If He had called me to take that risk, He would preserve whatever it was I was afraid of losing.
One of my longings was to put the positive attention I received onto the very "lowest" and "least" in the church. I wanted to share the honor I felt.
The more I opened up, the more people seemed to feel comfortable sharing their pain with me. Not a few were married and struggling with a spouse's homosexuality in deeply personal ways. Another called in so much pain after discovering her husband was back into pornography. That meant so much to me each time.
Regarding those in the church who struggled with SSA, Mordecai's words were often in my head about "rescue coming from another place.." I would be safe if I kept silent, but would I be missing out on a chance to sit in the front row on God's plan?
I've taken some risks that HAVE gotten me hurt. For various reasons, I've since left Christian broadcast ministry.
As well, on a pastor's behest, I spoke in church about wanting to minister to others in homosexuality. Outwardly, it may not have turned out to be a good idea. I left that church because a few women were so nervous, and the pastor related to me that people complained to him that they didn't want "a ministry like that" in their church, despite my trying my hardest to be low key.
Maybe I was foolish in climbing to the top of one of the biggest issues facing the church right now. Most of what I tried to do was burnt up. However, it's been a wonderful adventure. For that I'm grateful.
The rest I'll trust to God.
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6
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...Children of a lesser God?
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May 10, 2009 1:11 pm
Mood: content,
186 Views
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When Sheila Walsh invited those in homosexuality to accept Christ because he died for them, she also urged them to find a church home. Several months later, she received this story in return.
Through listening to Sheila, a young man who had lived in homosexuality for many years had accepted Christ. He went to a church and talked with the pastor. The pastor turned him away.
As tough as this will be to share in a Christian forum, I will do it. The need is more urgent than my desire to stay silent.
I have struggled with same sex attraction in the past. I have at times had attractions to women who were attracted to me. I don't remember crushes on women that weren't expressing homosexual feelings.
I also have strong sexual feelings for men.
In exploring *why*, I've come to the conclusion that my feelings for women come from a lot of fears of rejection. I don't want to give those reasons up to public consumption and debate. In a nutshell, SSA feelings are less frightening and overwhelming (for me).
One of my favorite speakers is Sy Rogers. He has so many beautiful stories of his process of leaving his homosexual identity behind; Christian men that loved him unconditionally, others that allowed him to have crushes on them, and most of all, the loving fellowship & insight he received.
What a beautiful, exceptional thing that pastor missed out on!
Stories like Sy's point me towards how exciting it must have been in the week of God's creation of the Earth. We receive a front row seat to the creative healing power of God in those that are "transformed by the renewing of (their) mind".
Sy has a message page in where he talks to Christians that are struggling with their weaknesses. What he says is applicable to us all, no matter our issues.
Here are a few quotes he noted.
It is the nature of each of us to be rather base, proud, ambitious, full of a great deal of appetite, judgments, rationalizations and opinions. If something does not come into our lives to humiliate us, then surely all these things will undo us.
The Lord, by means of our small failures, lets us know that it is His majesty which frees us from great faults. These are the ways He keeps us humble and vigilant.
Michael Molinos, 1675
Thank you, Jesus, for unmerited favor. Psalm 34:15 leaves me chuckling in wonder sometimes, "..the Eyes of the Lord are on the Righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry."
..Because even our righteousness is a free gift from God.
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To link to this blog (JustMe506) use [blog JustMe506] in your messages.
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