Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Are our faces and hearts saying the same thing?



I was starting to plan for the teaching of Song of Solomom by Toni Morrison, and I ran across this excerpt in my files. After a quick search, I realized that I got this from Oprah's website. It sure touches my heart everytime that I read it. (Toni Morrison is deep.)

Here it is:

"One of Oprah's favorite lessons comes from Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison and the question she asked of all parents: When your child walks in the room, does your face light up?

"When my children used to walk in the room, when they were little, I looked at them to see if they had buckled their trousers or if their hair was combed or if their socks were up," she told Oprah in 2000. "You think your affection and your deep love is on display because you're caring for them. It's not. When they see you, they see the critical face. But if you let your face speak what's in your heart...because when they walked in the room, I was glad to see them. It's just as small as that, you see."

Toni's comment has become one of The Oprah Show's most profound lessons and has touched the hearts of many viewers—including Gennece, who says that hearing Toni's lesson changed her. "My daughter ended up dying of cancer," she says. "And the last two years [of her life], every time she would come home—whether it was from chemo or a party or the grocery store—I would always say, 'Niecy's home! Niecy's home!' And she would get so excited. ... That made a difference in my life. And now when children are in my space, it's authentic that my eyes light up, because my heart lights up."

Do our faces show what our hearts are feeling?

I love that Toni Morrison!!!!

Friday, September 14, 2012

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

LOVE really?

Really???

So, I have been reading the One Year Bible, and for some reason or the other, I got behind on my readings. However, with the One Year Bible, getting behind is not always a bad thing, because some of the stories are better when they are read in one sitting like the story of Esther. Which is what I read tonight.

Last week when I was having one of those days, I thought a lot about people who appear to desire not to be loved. They may be grumpy, don't respond to calls or text, will say some really crazy things, and God really wants us to love those people? You know the student with the smart mouth, the one who storms out of the room while blurting out "Bitch," and I am suppose to love that student? I mean, God really must know something about us that we do not know about ourselves.

Along with reading about Esther tonight, I read about love. (Oh, Lord, here He goes again!!)
1 Corinthians 13:1-7
New Living Translation (NLT)
Love Is the Greatest
13 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Now, I have read this passage before, but for some reason, I'm sure that God will reveal it to me later, this passage really caused me to think tonight! What resonated is the idea that we can have faith, be very diverse in the things that we may know, give, but we are nothing if we do not love others. I started to ask myself, what does this kind of love look like, and the word answered for itself: "patient, kind, not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way........."

The part that made me want to do a hallelujah dance is "love never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." (Deep Right?)

Love is very, very high on God's priority list so I guess we better use everyday to practice loving so that we may get closer and closer to perfection and please God!

Not sure why I wrote this post, but here it is....





Tuesday, September 11, 2012

I Get It From My Momma!!!!

Momma in her exercise class "gettin it!'

If you read this blog often, you know that I get my exercise on.

Guess where I get this ritual, habit, routine from? My momma of course!!!!

My 77 year old momma goes to exercise, come hell or high waters, EVERY Monday, Wednesday, and Friday!!

Sooooooo, I just can't help myself; I get it from my momma.

Hey, find something that you love to do and do it like your life depends upon it.

Ritual, Routine, Training..... All of that WORKS!


US!

Monday, September 10, 2012

"Trust the Training"

Robert Griffin III

I have never been a football person. I have been to lots of fooball games, but never really watched the games. However, if you live in the DC area, you must start to love football, or you will be bored on Sundays and Mondays and will have limited conversations with most people, because almost everybody is excited about the Redskins. So, to that end, I watch football on most Sundays, especially if the Redskins are playing.

The Redskins have not been a stellar team for awhile. But this year, they recruited the Heisman trophy winner, RG3, and this place has been on fire. There are such high expectations for this guy to turn this team around, and yesterday, RG3 sure made the Redskins and their fans proud. He was incredible, and he led the Redskins to victory over the Saints.

So, if you live in the DC area, you can't help but see this guy, day after day, on the news; it's quite entertaining. Last week, the news reporters were badgering him about the game on Sunday, and he calmly stated "I have to trust my training."

Being a words person, this statement sent me down a road of deep thinking: "I have to trust my training."

If we take our training seriously, we will more than likely perform when it's time to perform. Yea, there might be some mistakes, but the type of training that we do is a great indicator of the outcome. So, RG3 must be taking the training seriously, because yesterday, the man performed.

Let's talk about going to college, trade school or any other type of training that we may go through. If we take the training seriously, then we should feel a little less anxiety when it's time to perform. (I hope that you are following me.)

For instance, I run every Saturday, even during the winter. I treat every practice run as if it's a race: I go to bed early the night before, I make sure that I eat before I run, and I get to the starting point a little early to allow myself a little time to relax and get my mind right just like I do on race days. Because of taking the training seriously, I am not too anxious on race days, and I normally finish strong.

With whatever we are are trying to do, we must take the training seriously and training must be ongoing.....As a teacher, or with whatever you do, we can't just get into our careers or anything else and stop training, we must continue to train to keep up with all of the new and exciting things that are taking place, or we become irrelavant...

I am sure that after that great game yesterday, RG3 is still training. If he believes, even for a little while, that he had a good game and does not need to take the training seriously anymore, we will definitely see the decline of RG3.

Since RG3 seems to have this training concept down..... I'm expecting great things from him....

Take the training seriously people!








Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Can I get an AMEN!!!!





Can I get an AMEN for the awesome speech, her workouts, her arms, her hair, for doing a public confession of how much she LOVES her husband, for family, for being strong, outspoken, for being the girl next door......???

Owwwwww Girl!!!!!!

Let the People say AMEN!!!!!!


Tuesday, September 4, 2012

One of Those Days........


I had an awesome weekend spending time with my niece and her family, and I really enjoyed the Rock and Roll half marathon in VA Beach, but I was very disappointed with my time......

Not sure if it was the disappointment with my time or yesterday being my Daddy's birthday or if it was something else that sent me into a really crazy place.

Yesterday, I had every negative emotion that a person can have: indecisiveness, doubt, grief, restlessness, sadness, anxiety and the list goes on and on.

My dryer was not working, and I wash everyday. (Oh MY!) So, I still washed, and I went to the laundromat to dry my clothes. Thank God that the laundromat is very close to my house, it was empty, and it took my things about 15 minutes to dry. (It was painless!) I called a friend to meet me in DC, and then I called him back to say that I changed my mind. (Indecisiveness!) I drove to Georgetown, and then decided that I wanted to go back home. (Restlessness!) I thougth of my Daddy on his birthday and went into the ugly cry. (Grief and sadness!) At least I was pleased with my dinner yesterday: butternut squash, kale pesto, and cottage cheese for a treat.

I was thinking that I am too much on a routine, I want to run faster, I need to try new restaurants and bars, I need to bike more, I need a running group for speed training, I hope that my dryer can be fixed, I want my light fixed in my kitchen, why don't I have dishwasher detergent, I'm not a good teacher, I need to infuse technology into my classroom, I am clueless when it comes to dating, I wonder why God places such priority on loving EVERYBODY, and on and on and on......

Finally, I really needed to be pulled out, and I called my friend Cliff, and he did pull me out. I met Cliff when we were both pursing degrees from George Washington University, and he and I spent a lot of time convincing each other that we could make it through GW, and we did. Since then, we have served each other by being there when we need to hear "The Truth" and to be "pulled out."

So, Cliff talked to me for about two hours while I cleaned the kitchen, made up my bed, ironed my clothes, packed my lunch etc....

AND, he pulled me out. I hung up feeling empowered and ready for the next day.

I have more good days than bad days, but yesterday was "One of those days."
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