A Tennessee Christmas

On my last Christmas at home

My Mom said to me

"This is a Christmas to make memories, Son

So that you remember Tennessee."

I left home the following spring

After graduating

To join the navy and to

See what pleasures awaited me.

The journey has had rough spots and the

Road has been sometimes long

But I've always remembered Christmas

In my Tennessee home.

 

A memory of the season,

Alma L. Stepping On Jones

To God be the glory for the things that He has done

Beginning with the things started many Christmases ago.

Need Help?

[caption id="attachment_715" align="alignnone" width="187"] My help comes from the Lord. (Psalm 121:2)[/caption]

Most people at some point in their life need help. If you need help, try prayer. Have been utilizing prayer since I was eight years old. When my mother first told me about the Lord and how prayer works, to me, an eight-year-old, it was like the magic that I read about in my fairytale books, only better. It was better than Cinderella, Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. It was real! And it was mine!

Recapture/Discover

If you can recapture the awe and wonder of a child's faith, if you have lost it, then you can find that closeness to the Lord like I, as an eight-year-old, had. If you have never known Him then when you find the Lord, you will understand what the continual chatter concerning Him is all about. He will become your best friend and confidante. You will discover that you can tell Him anything and you will not hear it whispered in the streets before it has barely left your lips. You will learn to tell Him all of your problems and to wait for Him to solve them. You will find that He will be fixing things for you while you are asleep. And He also will fix things for you before you get to a situation somewhere down in the future.

Sounds Incredulous?

I know, but now you know why I can have that "Pollyannaish" attitude that you have detected in my writing and that my friends and associates know me for. It is incredulous and mindblowing. This understanding of Him is why a woman who has lived to be a grandmother, who has been broken time and again in life can still have stars shining in her eyes. The realization that my help comes from the Lord through prayer is an awesome tool to have.

Everywhere I Go

I have taken that prayerful assurance everyplace that I have gone in life and every place that I will go. When you see me coming, I've got that prayerful assurance with me. If you make me cry, I am talking with prayerful assurance to my Lord. Whatever comes up in my life, I meet it with prayerful assurance that my Lord is already in attendance and is working things out for my good. (Romans 8:28 KJV)

In conclusion, if you need help, try my Lord. I did when I was eight years old and have been leaning on Him ever since. (Some of this is covered in my book, "Chopping My Row." It will inspire you to great lengths.) People are starting to talk about it and the way that it has helped them on their journey.

"My help comes from the Lord." (Psalm 121:2 KJV)

Sweet Peace

There is nothing so settling as peace. Being able to have peace in the midst of trouble and trials is a blessing. Trials come in various forms. One form that I will mention today is having trouble with the physical structure of your house.

Recently, we had to replace the heating unit and repair plumbing in the bathroom. Then there is the roof that needs redoing and the water heater that will allow only 1/4 of a tub of water before turning very cold. Yikes! Brr-rr that is cold. And having no additional heater in the bathroom is taxing, as well. But, taking it all in stride, I keep stepping. Do I like it? Nope, but I can adjust. I tell myself that this too shall pass.

I Don't Know

I don't know why this stuff had to crop up now, but it has and in the dead of winter. But, you know, that is just like the Christian life sometimes. One step forward and two backward, it seems. Somebody might ask, "How can you stand it?" I just lay it all before my God's throne, and I keep moving on.

There Are People

If I put everything in perspective, I realize that there are people who have no heat, food nor houses in this the dead of winter. So, why should I complain about it being chilly in the bathroom or about having 1/4 of a tub of tepid water to bathe in? The scriptures say that the Lord knows my needs before I even voice them, so I make my requests, and then I step on. (Matthew 6:8 KJV) So, too, must you, whether it is finance, health, illness of loved ones, etc. Put your trust in God, my friend, for He cares for you.

In conclusion, I just leave my trials and troubles at my God's throne and take a helping of peace as I sup beside the still waters of His mercy. Ah-h-h, sweet peace.

 

Doing What I Can, While I Can Because I Care

Alma Carr-Jones

Oh! Oh My! Uh, Uh...

"Oh! Oh my, uh, uh..." The previous phraseology is my way of expressing thankful awe. The "..." in the phrase represents the skipper in me taking a pause. Say what?

Well y'all know that I told you that as a child, I used to skip all of the time, in fact, skipped most places I went. I have since told you that owing to the passage of time, that I cannot skip the way I want to. So I skip in my mind. Sound strange to you? That's okay, that's me. That is just the way that I am wired.

At any rate, back to the point that I was trying to make. The phrase that I uttered at the beginning of this blog means that I am almost beginning to be astounded. In a little bit, I will be lost for words for a second or so. I am astounded enough that the skipper in my mind has had to pause and ponder some things.

Why Beginning to Be Astounded?

Well, as I told you on Monday, I was wowed by my seeing the way people had received my book and some of the comments that they made about it. Now I see the hand of GOD further in the way that people are receiving my book, "Chopping My Row." And you know what I say? I say, "Thank YOU, GOD, for your moving mountains out of my way, leveling out valleys and raising the mountain on which I stand."

A Heartfelt Prayer

Thank YOU, GOD

I do not have the words to express

The joy within nor the extent of my happiness

But before the world, to YOU, I want to confess

My love for YOU and my joy at beholding

My writing career's growing success.

I am humbled and thankful, y'all. That is all I can say right now. Me, at a loss for words? Well, yeah...

Determination

To have determination means to have the drive to accomplish something at all costs.

Stepping On

Stepping on

Until I'm stepping gone

Stepping on

Until I'm stepping done

Stepping on

Till I've stepped home.

Step, by definition, means a movement made by lifting the foot and setting it down again in a new position, accompanied by a shifting of the weight of the body in the direction of the new position, as in walking, running, ...

It means not being stationary.

Life, as we know it, is not stationary either because time is ever moving on. We are being moved toward some ultimate end.

I use the words, "stepping on," in the poem above because I want to denote an active player in this game of life. It means that since I know that things do not stay the same even if I am hurt, rich, popular, etc. I still must stay focused and keep moving toward the goal that I have set for my life of having an eternal home with the Lord. Pain, riches, popularity, etc. are all temporal and have no place in the home to which I am going.

So

A set determination is the key, folks. Don't let anything deter you from your goal of making it home to be with the Lord.

Be determined and keep stepping on  in

Your quest to spend eternity in bliss

And not in the place across the abyss.

The Best

Most of us want the best things in life, the best car, the best house, the best children, the best job, etc. Even when we settle, we tend to still aim for the best.

When God gave us Jesus

He gave us His best

And by this Gift from our Father

We can be eternally blessed.

 

However, sometimes I get tired of running

And I'm sure that you do, too

But I think back to the gift of His only Son

And I keep doing all that I can do.

********

Holiday Hope

Peace and joy to you all

This holiday season

And never forget that love

Is the ultimate reason

That God sent His only begotten Son

In a demonstration of how

To do things with a hope of getting

To live in that eternal city above.

So

He has already given us the best there is in this world.

Blown Away

[caption id="attachment_929" align="alignnone" width="185"] Did I just read what I thought I did about my book? Huh?[/caption]

"I was blown away by that..." We have heard that phrase used with regards to several things in life. And we know that the use of that phrase means that someone was really touched and impressed by whatever they are speaking of. Right?

Uhm hmm-m, well I had that phrase used about something that God had allowed me to do. That something was writing and publishing my book, Chopping My Row. I must say that using the gifts that God has given me, I have managed to make people's mouths gape open a time or two in my life. But, it was usually in reference to an oration that I was doing. If you cannot tell, I am starting to be wowed, now.

See What God Has Done

He has taken me up on my word and has allowed me to rise to a higher mountain. What do I mean by that? Well, read on, and I will tell you. Back in 2011, I told the Lord that I loved Him so much that I would stand on top of the tallest mountain in the world and tell of His love for mankind and my love for Him. Then, I told Him that since I could not get to K2, Mount Everest, or one of the other disputed tallest mountains, I would shout my love from the tallest mountain in my world, instead. So, I started writing my blog, hmm, about two to three times a month. It soon escalated to two times a week to finally culminate in my blogging daily.

But He Didn't Stop There

He allowed me to author five books, of which Chopping My Row, is the most recent. Yesterday, a lady asked me what the name of my next book was going to be. Yes, I was shocked, but over the years I have learned not to show that I have been shocked. I told her the name of the book. Then she asked me how I came to choose that particular title for my next book. I explained my choice of title just as I am doing for you. (Later that night and today it hit me that this lady had been thinking about my book that she had just finished. That was why she asked me the questions that she did. Wow, y'all!)

The title, by the way, will be "The Tallest Mountain in My World." Yes, you can surmise how I came up with that title if you look back at paragraph three. I see the hand of God all over this new book as I do in my life. And you can tell that I acknowledge Him by the title that I gave my second book of inspirational verse, "DEI sub Numine Viget," which is Latin for "Under God's Spirit She Flourishes." That is another way of saying I do what I do, not by my power, but by the power of God.

I Remember

Being questioned about my next book made me remember back when I was a little girl, and some of my friends would ask me when I was going to finish a certain story or write another one.  I did not know then, that the hand of God was upon me and that He was preparing me for what I would do much later in my life. Yes, preparing me to write inspirational books for Him! Now, I, am blown away! Told you back in the second paragraph that I was beginning to be wowed, well, it is now full-blown!

So, I Invite You

You, dear friend, are invited to go along with me for the inspirational journey that God has planned for me. In conclusion, it promises to be exciting and fulfilling, I think. Wow!

To GOD be the glory

Forever, as I write my books

And tell my story.

Stop Thief! (concl.)

[caption id="attachment_471" align="alignnone" width="159"] That's Mine! You Bring that Right Back![/caption]

Let me finish my story that I started on yesterday. At any rate, we had been invited to dinner at a local eating establishment by one of the members and his wife. We went, had an enjoyable meal and fellowship together and left the restaurant replete. When we got to the car I went to look in the black bag for my iPad so I could play a quick game of one of my favorite free downloads. I could not find it, so I looked a little harder. Then I realized that it just was not there! My husband, noticing my frantic searching, said to me, “You must have left it in the seat in the building.” (I let him get away with that statement, although I knew that I had not left it anywhere. He was the one that picked up my stuff and my iPad from the seat.)

Where Is It?

So there we went, heading back to the building. Because I was so concerned about getting to my iPad, it seemed to me that that man drove 20 mph all the way to the building! I know that he did not, that's just how it seemed to me. I told him at one point that maybe he ought to let me drive. He just looked at me as if I had two heads and kept on driving. My stomach was in knots by this time.

Well, we got to the building, he got out of the car and went inside to retrieve my iPad. He stayed so long that the first frisson of alarm started to creep up my spine. I unbuckled my seatbelt and was getting out of the car when he exited the building. He had a puzzled and funny look on his face and was shaking his head from side to side.

Jumped out of the car and went into the building, my body starting to become cold and methodically calm. I tend to do that when the situation has become dire, only to go to pieces when the crisis is over. (I have been told that that is the beginning of shock; I wouldn't know, as I'm not a medical professional.) But, we looked the building over, high and low, the restrooms, the basement, etc.… No iPad! I kept thinking, “Where is my iPad? It has to be here. It can't have just up and walked off!”

Drat and Double Drat!

By my being a poetess/writer, to say that I was devastated by the loss of my iPad, does not even begin to cover the situation. The first emotion I experienced was disbelief, then shock, followed by hurt/pain and lastly anger. I, who pride myself on being flexible and leveled-headed, wanted that person "caught and caught right now!"

Calmed down and then started the notification process that you have to go through when something is lost or stolen. Thankfully, I had engaged a numeric code for my iPad, so that gave me some measure of satisfaction, but not much. Not much at all, I tell you.

Proof Is in the Pudding

I had been telling someone the day before the theft, that one of my favorite scriptures is, Romans 8:28. I didn't know just how soon I was going to be thrust into a situation to show just how much I believed that scripture. Well, that Scripture got a workout that week because I kept repeating it to myself. I kept telling myself that, “All things work together for good for those that love the Lord.” So to keep from acting like I felt like acting, I started praying and here is the prayer I uttered:

Now LORD, I don't know how YOU are going to work this out, but I give over to YOUR will for my life Lord. I ask YOU to help me through this day and all subsequent days and make me be able to graciously accept and work through the adverse things that may happen. Please make my faith grow by leaps and bounds as I learn to depend on YOU. Prosper my way so that I may use all situations to your glory. In your name I pray. Amen.

That is the prayer that I prayed. I also added a prayer for forgiveness for what I thought about the thief. (Nope, can't tell you that. That is between the Lord and me. Besides, I have gotten forgiveness for that thought.) Then I stepped on.

Here's What I Learned

If you pray a similar prayer during  your adverse times, you will find that HE gradually works things out. And things won't bother you the way they used to. You will be able to find that joy, that the adversary tried to steal from you. People will start to come up to you and say things like, "How do you stay so calm in situations like this?" etc.

My Positive Reactions

Then, my friend, you will realize what it feels like to have other people watching you and have their faith grow by judging your reaction to things! You might think, “What! Don't watch me! I'm just trying to make it myself!” No, dear friend, you have become a person to emulate.  Yes, that is an awesome responsibility, isn't it? Uhm-hu-m-m, but you will get joy and added strength in knowing that your troubles and botherations have, not only helped you in your relationship with the Lord, but have helped someone else, as well.

In Conclusion

Learn the lesson that I have learned regarding spiritual thievery, which is, "Though the adversary and adverse times might try periodically to steal your joy,  choose to not allow it to happen."  Take consolation from Romans 8:31 and Romans 8:28. Maintain your joy, and solidify your example to others, through your faith in God. And you my brother and my sister, step on. Remember, even when you don't see how or understand why, you have a Father Who loves you and works all things out for your good.

Doing What I Can, While I Can Because I Care,

Alma L. Carr-Jones

Stop Thief!

Let me tell you a little story. But first let me say that you never know what a day will bring, you just never know. That is why I always say BYDWP (Begin your day with prayer.)

I got up coming to worship one Sunday morning and the morning proceeded pretty much as usual, you know morning hygiene ritual, breakfast and the usual 40-minute drive to worship, with me chatting with my husbnd and playing games on my iPad, etc. We had a good worship service and after it was over I had to attend the ladies room. Well, my husband, in the meantime, picked up my stuff off of the seat where I had left it and took it to the car, trusting soul that he is...

 

Yes, you guessed it; he left the car door unlocked and came on back into the building. I exited the ladies room and started toward the exit since I had noticed that the lights had been turned off in the sanctuary. I took two steps toward the exit and remembered, “Oops, my things still upfront on the seat where I left them.” and I turned around to go get them. When I got to where I usually sat, yes I'm guilty of having a favorite seat, like most of you, (tee hee) I saw that the seat was empty, so I surmised that my husband had taken my things to the car for me. When I got to the car the front door was ajar. That surprised me, but I found my purse and my black bag that I usually keep my iPad in, thus no problem, right? Wrong! But I did not know that at the time...  Taken from page 132 of "W.O.W. created w.o.w."

Grab a copy of the book if you want to know the ending of my little story before tomorrow. At any rate, join me tomorrow for the conclusion and the inspirational life application that I learned from it.

For Pondering

Have you ever been the victim of theft? How did it make you feel? Uhm hmm...

Doing What I Can, While I Can Because I Care,

Alma Carr-Jones

I Know the Lord Will Make a Way

[caption id="attachment_903" align="alignnone" width="186"] Has your world turned upside down?[/caption]

Do you ever think about the times that you have been between a rock and a hard place? If you are like me, you don't even think about the actual number that you have been there, but you do think about how you got out of certain given situations. Do you not?

Folk, I Have Learned

I have learned that whatever is going to be is going to be anyway if it is the Lord's will. Learned that no amount of worrying will change any given situation but prayer will. Have turned so many "impossible" situations over to the Lord over the years that I am not amazed that He works them out. But, I am amazed at the fact that He always works things out with such finesse. He chooses solutions that go beyond my wildest dreams. But He said that "His thoughts are not our thoughts, and neither are our ways His ways."

So

I don't fret much, anymore. Am resigned to do whatever His will is and, as I said on yesterday,  I know that He will find a way for me to get it done no matter what hindrances crop up. I wanted to say that to you today that if your life seems to have been turned upside down and you do not know what to do next, or if everything that you thought was nailed down has come loose, don't despair. Don't give up. I know what I am talking about because I have been thrown into the fire and have come out a battle-hardened and stronger soldier for God.

I remember the training that I received from my mother, from Sis. M. Manley and from Sis. SE Hampton that said, "God will fix it, it will work out, and I declare, it will be alright!" Those ladies are all gone now, but the training that they gave me lingers on, and my way of saying what all of them taught me is, "I know the Lord will make a way!"

In Conclusion

Be blessed fellowman. And if you have been trying to figure out how to get out of a particularly squirrely situation, stop figuring. Start praying and wait on God. And while you are waiting and praying, learn whatever lessons present themselves to you through this given situation. Likely, you will be called upon to use what you have learned to help somebody else. So, pay attention and learn your lesson well, after all, you don't want the lesson to continue or to be repeated, do you? Don't be like Jonah, but be like Job, instead. Okay?

Doing What I Can, While I Can Because I Care,

Alma Carr-Jones

Take It with You

Contrary to what the adversary would have you believe, He did not bring you this far to abandon you, now.

I Don't "Wanna"

That is a cry that we often hear from a small child when told to pick up toys, etc. Still, that is part of the process of training them.

Freedom

When childhood and the training phase have been left behind, then comes what you would think would be "your voice, your choice" time. No more being told to pick up toys, to take out the trash, to go to bed, etc. If you didn't wanna do it, you didn't have to. Remember when you got the first taste of being on your own and being able to do what you wanted to do? Nothing like that first taste of freedom, is it? Yeah, I know, been there and done that.

I'm Grown Now

Then comes the realization, sooner than later for some, that those rules that were made for you while you were a child had purpose.  If you did not get enough sleep, you suffered for it the next day. When you did not take out the trash, you lived in a pigsty. The place where you lived was your domicile, and no one else is going to come over and clean it up for you. So, you learned.

Uhm hmm

Just like that child that said, "I don't wanna," as Christians, we sometimes do the same thing. We may not whine at first; we just don't do it. But when life spanks our hands, so to speak, we may whine to ourselves. Uhm hmm, Biblical Jonah didn't want to do what he was told to do either. He flat out was not going to do it, or so he thought. But, when God's whale got through with him, he was running to do as he was told.

Hand Spanking or Whale Time

Several of us had to learn that when you were born to do a thing, that thing you will do. You can go willingly, or you can have a hand spanking or some time in the whale. But, when the spanking is over or the whale time is done, you are ready to do whatever. We have come to realize that this life is not about us and what we want.

Picked with a Purpose

If the Lord has determined that you are a vessel chosen for a given task, be reassured that you will carry out that task. I used to think that because I had been chosen for a particular task, that I would not have to be bothered with naysayers and enemies. Ha Ha, I laugh at my naivety now. I realize that my reasoning was faulty, now, but this is the way that I looked at it. Here I was doing something that I did not even want to do in the first place and having to contend with folks trying to stop me, too! I thought that that was a bit much. But, I tell you one thing. Ha, ha, I didn't want any more whale time, so I continued on with my task.

One Thing I Knew

I had learned from reading my Bible and from other situations in my life that I just needed to continue with my task. I knew what others would soon learn. When a person is on a mission appointed to him by the Lord, leave that person alone. Well, whatever you do, don't make that person's job hard to do. Because if you do, you may find yourself with some "whale time" or something worse.

Just Some Heartfelt Reflections this Morning as I Do What I Can, While I Can Because I Care,

Alma Carr-Jones

Poetic Thought for Today

When you show that you have learned a lesson

Shorten your "whale time" by a heartfelt confession.

Inner Stuff

I am just a nobody, and I am content to be me

Because I know Who has orchestrated

The life you know of as me.

 

If you do not understand, that's okay

But there are some that do, for

They walk a similar journey

But I will tell you a little bit in

Order to make you see

What I mean when I say

"The life you know of as me."

Once upon a time, maybe several years or so ago

When all that I knew was gone and

I was shoved down a new path

I went grudgingly with feet dug in all the way

But, alas, another voice was heard to say

"Stop fighting, I know what I am about, you

Just hold on to Me like you always have and

We will give your enemies something to

Try and figure out."

"I have never left one of My own  alone

And I do not plan to start with you

You will be better than fine when my

Plans for you are through.

You remember my servant Job, from Biblical days

How he became a byword for the folk to talk about

But he trusted in My care of him enough

To hold on to his faith and to wait and see

How things would turn out."

"He trusted me with all he had and was, and

Knew within his inner self that laughing, jealous

Scorners were a part of his life because

For me, he was so zealous.

So, don't give up on me, my little vessel of clay

I am the God of Hezekiah and I will

Shepherd you on your way and you will

Have a victorious laugh at the end of the day.

 

Now, I walk resolutely on knowing

Who shepherds my way

And when I falter with doubt my "inner stuff"

(The stuff that I carry within that makes me

Seem a giant among men) will say

"Remember Hezekiah, little vessel, you have

Not lost your way, you have been redirected

To where I want you to be, according to plans

Made before you were even a progeny."

 

Oh, the stuff that I carry within? That is simply what God placed there because He knew that I would one day, for the faith, have to contend.

Doing What I Can, While I Can Because I Care,

Alma Carr-Jones

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow

What lies around the corner of tomorrow

I can tell you that I do not know

And I am not worried about it now

Because dealing with the things of today

Are enough for this one brain anyhow.

********

Cyber Ghost

I had one of my greatest poems

Typed and ready to post

When I decided that I needed to add a picture

And don't you know that before I could get done

That poem got eaten by the cyber ghost.

 

To say that I was livid

Does not begin to cover how I felt

But the memory of that wonderful poem is not very vivid

Yet, I could labor through it and come up with

A version close enough to it

But I decided that since it vanished away

I'd leave the cyber ghost to it.

Thought for Today

Sometimes you just have to let overthinking be

And busy your hands with today while telling your

Inner self to wait for tomorrow, just to wait and see.

 

 

Telling My Story,

Alma Carr-Jones