TODAY THE WORDS are UP AGAINST A WALL. Life is a funny adventure. One day, we can be flying high, soaring like birds or a sailboat gliding with the wind and then; the next day we can be crawling like a snail and each step seems to take hours. Life can have us laughing until our sides hurt; life can also grab us by the seats of our pants and throw us against a wall. We can find ourselves jammed and unable to move with a situation taking precedent over the happy times. When our faces are pressed into the wall of life, our eyes cannot see anything but the hard, unyielding wall. In other words, we see the problem and not a solution. I see rock climbers and their abilities to hold on to a small jutting rock and climb to the next rock. The climbers are fixed on an immediate step and do not try to fixate on the entire wall. This brought a thought to me on how we can use this concept in our lives and is the deeper thought for today…..If a situation seems impossible to either turn away from the very thing which is keeping us from going forward; we may have to climb this obstacle wall, one rock at a time. How many times in life have we seemed to be overwhelmed by a large obstacle or situation and if we allow ourselves to be frustrated; we never overcome what is going on. If we however, make an effort to hold on to the small components which are controllable; we start the climb. Oh, we might have to change direction a time or two and we might seem to be losing our hold; we can however, climb the wall one hand grip at a time. One quick question for those who find themselves against a wall; the view facing the wall may be limited but a turn of the head can give an entirely different outlook, right? Let’s not be stubborn and keep staring at the wall and let’s see if we can see a way around the wall by a quick turn of our head. Life can be interesting; life can be frustrating; life can be fun; and life is to be fulfilled with our best efforts! Live life; love life; and live and love life to the fullest.

TODAY THE WORDS are DO IT UPSIDE DOWN. It is time to have a little humor on my blog today as I have special guests coming for the weekend so this is a playful blog message based on some fun times my only sister and my niece who was named after me, so that means some of me and Lord help us when we get together. Let me go back in time to when we worked together in a business I owned, Interiors by Arline. Juanelle was my right hand person and was my purchasing manager. Pam was my bookkeeper and both of them did an excellent job. I don’t have enough space to tell all of the stories but I do remember the “rat” saga. We had a large warehouse of accessory items for decorating the houses and we had to keep the doors open for loading and unloading the service vans we used on the trips. We were located in the industrial park which backed up to a wooded area so it wasn’t hard for a vermin to sneak in. One day we were busy working and I had walked into the office where Pam was and Juanelle was near. I had 13 young women working in the business and it seems like all of us were there when this event happened. All of us could see out of the office door and when the dark shadow ran past, I think all of us thought we might have imagined seeing it. It was a large wharf rat and the place went wild. Wanda Medders, you were there so I know you are grinning. It took a trap that looked like a bear trap, just kidding but if you have ever seen a trap this size you would understand. The biggest and the funniest part was not having a rat the size of a small opossum; it was when the trap went off. Eyes got bigger, screams got louder and our entire staff was turned “upside down”. We called in reinforcements to get our critter out. When things settled down and everyone’s nerves calmed; a snake crawled in but that is a story for another day. These were days we worked so hard; did excellent decors; but probably laughed as hard as we ever worked. I thought of this story when I was baking the cake in the photo for my sister and my niece and we hope to fill this time with laughter and fun and more importantly be able to share love. Live life; love life; live and love life to the fullest.

TODAY THE WORD is LYRICS.  Last year on July 4th, they had the usual show at the Capitol with entertainers singing special songs and I found it quite fascinating when Neil Diamond took to the stage. When he started singing America, if I couldn’t have seen his face, I still would have known it was him and would have known almost all of the lyrics to that great song. If you don’t feel the passion of America when certain songs are song, you are missing one of the great gifts we, as a nation have to offer. What sent some chills up my spine was when he offered to sing “Sweet Caroline”. This is his trade song and even when others have sung it, this song belongs to Neil. That set the mind working to how we identify ourselves in life, with lyrics of certain songs. Whatever state you live in, if someone has written a song about it; if it starts playing, a big tug at the heart. I was present at the Kentucky Derby one year and when they cranked up and everyone started singing “My Old Kentucky Home”, I was even feeling some tears as everyone else was. Being from Georgia, Ray Charles could send the tingles up the spine with “Georgia”. If you think back to different relationships (you may only have the one special relationship and that means you are indeed blessed) and remember “the song” attached to it. As for me and Greg, “You had me from hello” is our special song and no matter how far between my hearing it, it still has the same effect. I know you are hearing your “song” in your mind as you are reading this and that is the reason for this topic. As lyrics play such an important part in our personal history and true history of our country, we are affected by both the lyrics and the melody behind the words. Now for the deeper thought….We are singing our lyrics of life as we go about our daily tasks. We are writing our individual song with choices of what lyrics we insert into our lives. It can be a fast, moving song as some of us like to make things happen and we like to move. Others may choose a slower, emotional, tugging song as these are the people who are intense people and they have deeper passions but also can have more strife than those who outrun the problems and move past them. Then, there are the ones who like both rhythms, and this is the most well rounded people; full of passion but able to move past the troubles of life. When you feel the music and the lyrics of Amazing Grace; know that God moved on the heart of the writer and lyrics of Salvation came into existence of music. Sing in life; sing in joy; sing in the voice of salvation; the lyrics will charge your soul!

TODAY THE WORDS are WHERE IS MY SEWING KIT? I chuckled when I found my sewing kit in our master bedroom closet tucked away on a shelf while doing my Spring cleaning. Oh, there it is was my reaction when I discovered the “new” kit which apparently I have not thought of using it. It would have taken me longer to look for it than to decide to wear something different and that is why it remained in its little hiding place all of this time. This made me go back in time to days when we had no choice but to mend a rip, repair a hem, sew a button back on a blouse, shirt or pants. I began to think about how times have changed for many of us and I wonder if it is a good change or one who has robbed us of valuing possessions as we should. Have we become a disposable society? I think we may have done exactly this….A disposable society. Diapers are all disposable; food is now packed in disposable containers; plastic bottles have replaced the glass containers, plastic trash bags have taken over so we don’t save the paper bags from the grocery store (oh wait, the bags are mostly plastic except for the few conservative folks who use the reusable shopping bags). Let me think, who do I know who mends their clothes? I have a feeling some people still do this as a necessity and I understand; but I am referring more to the majority of us. How has this action or lack of action affected our society?  “Are you nuts, Arline?” you may be thinking.  I feel it may have been a conversion of our society where we devalue items and in a snowball effect; people are devalued. I will try to break down my deeper thought…..If I start to consider a blouse is no longer useful or usable because of a lost button or tear; it may start me thinking less of someone who has fallen on hard times. In other words, I devalue the person because they are not “flawless”. If I throw away things the easiest way possible as in the example of using trash bags without a thought of consequences; we may think people, relationships, or jobs are disposable and can be tossed aside without any thought. I hope you are seeing this adverse effect as I did when I saw my unused sewing kit. I am making a conscious effort to get it out and mend something! God has always seen value in the torn and tattered and so should we! Take a few minutes and look around and see if you can find a tattered soul. If you find someone who could use from some mending; get out God’s sewing kit, His word and help them thread their needle with prayer and testimony sharing.

TODAY THE WORDS are WHY DO WE PRAY?” The majority of the world prays in some form or other. Many are devout believers in different faiths and honor the tradition of regular and/or daily prayers. Many pray when they are in need of divine intervention; others pray prayers of deliverance. Whatever the tradition, ritual, custom, or practice; most people pray. I bring to the discussion table of thought for today’s subject….WHY DO WE PRAY? Throughout my life, even in times of being outside a Christian lifestyle; I prayed. I have heard from some people say, “Do you think God hears sinners’ prayers?” so what are our thoughts of this. My feelings are simply, “If God had not heard my sinner’s prayer, I would have been lost forever. It is how we pray and not if we pray. Life deals out blow after blow; we become weary of its toil and we feel defeated. At some point in time most of us will fall to our knees and ask for divine help from God to save us from ourselves. Now, here is where I feel a need to share a thought. Once we have found salvation and redemption; why is there a need to pray? We are starting to wade in the waters of life with this thought. Some cynics would say; if you have been saved, why is it necessary to pray? As you have heard me say, I speak from an ordinary person’s position and not one of the spiritual leaders and pastoral stand and I am not anybody and my thoughts are my own from my experiences.May I say why I pray? I pray because I want to thank God, praise God, ask for forgiveness for any wrongs, willingly or unwillingly, and all of these reasons are great reasons but this is not the most important reason I pray. I pray because I want God to know how much I have learned to love God. I love the peace I get from praying. I love the assurance I am and have never been alone. I love God’s patience in teaching me patience. I love the love I feel without asking for it; God gives it to me freely. I love to ask for others who are in need as I know how many times God has helped me and how God loves all of us and is willing to help if asked. Maybe my reasons aren’t your reasons and that is the best part of praying. Each person can pray prayers written by others; prayers can be either long or short; and there are no grammar checks as God listens with the ability to interpret what we mean when we speak to Him. Please remember, it is not a science and there is no specific way to pray; Prayer is an emotional talk with Our Maker.

(c) copyright 2014 Arline Lott Miller. The material here copyrighted, use only by permission.

TODAY THE WORDS are PAUSE BUTTON. When the electronic devices came out with the ability to pause, they intrigued me. For some reason I found it a wonderful feature to pause some movie or audio in midstream and when I wanted to resume or restart it; I could. Now it is commonplace and I am sure the younger generation never give it a second’s thought as they were introduced to this technology as the normal process to pause a video, leave to do something. and come back to it without losing one’s place or miss some action. As I usually do when a thought comes to me; I take it to our everyday life and think about how this feature can or cannot not apply to our everyday life. So let’s see how a pause button could work in day to day living. Okay, we could have paused the tax deadline, but if we paused that day; we couldn’t do the other necessary tasks either. We would have to hit resume without any possible changes and we would be at the same place with the same problems or issues as before we hit pause. Let’s think about other things we could think about pausing….School, work, housework, marriage, children, or even death? These parts of our life can be stressful if we allow it and it may be enticing to think “If only we could pause this until I catch my breath”;  and maybe I could make more money, settle down, grow stronger in my faith, etc. I had a deeper thought on this……Life has no pause button and this can be a good thing for us. Instead of thinking about pausing life; let’s decide to click the resume button in our brains and get back into life with vigor and stamina. We see the “fast moving” make it happen people who are moving at a great pace and accomplishing so much in a small amount of time. There is no thought of pausing and definitely not stopping on their minds. So many people apparently have pushed a mental “pause” button and have technically put their lives on hold. They use statements like I hurt so badly; I don’t feel like going; I don’t have the money to do anything; I don’t like my life; yadda, yadda, yadda. If everyone who has been successful had used these excuses; nothing would have happened. Life is for the living so what are we doing by hitting the pause button in our minds! Remember Life doesn’t have a pause button and if you are clicking it in your mind; Life will pass you by! Live life; love life; and love life to the fullest!

TODAY THE WORDS are THE SMALLER THE BIGGER. We have been told throughout our lives, “Big things come in small packages” which symbolized small things count. I received a “small” message which had a big meaning to me after I had recalled a sweet story about my Mother and the small but big message read, “you make the smallest thing seem important.” This brings me to today’s message. I took a look at Facebook wall last night before going to bed and this message really hit home with me. I saw the pictures of the “small” ones, the little children who hold such a big place in all of our hearts. I saw pictures of small groups of families and realized the big loss of the loved ones who were missing in the pictures. So many large meals were lovingly made by the cooks who by doing so many little tasks assembled feasts for all to enjoy.

I saw a picture of a friend taking a nap with his little grandchild and thought what seemed so small will become such a big memory as life goes on and the little baby grows up to be an adult. I saw a picture of a lifelong friend spending time with her Mother who is having some struggles as people do as they get older and it was a small picture of such a big moment. Each small hug, each small I love you, each touch will become a large part of what we remember when we can no longer do those small, seemingly simple gestures. I had several “large memories” during this Holiday season since I have a large amount of missing my parents on the special days I would always try to spend time with them. I came across some small items which gave me large tugs at my heart. Now for my deeper thought…..We never know when a small word or a short conversation with someone may have a big effect on their lives or even ours. One of the pitfalls of life is when we don’t take a small second before we open our “big” mouths. It may be a little word or sentence which can give a lost person direction; an insecure person the gift of compassion and give them courage; a small touch which allows someone who has suffered a big loss or sickness a big sigh of relief; or a small testimony of a “huge” outpouring of how God’s love saved a big sinner to gain an eternal life of peace. It is the small things which make us realize how big God is and even the smallest gesture of kindness can move large mountains. It takes a small amount of time to do something big and wonderful.

TODAY THE WORDS are A SUNRISE LIKE NO OTHER. Throughout our lives, we have witnessed may sunrises, some more outstanding than others. Some of us may have, as on this special occasion attended sunrise ceremonies, to see how miraculous each sunrise is and how unique the sun can alter its magnificent appearance. We take photographs of the first peek of the sun rising above the land, lake, mountain or ocean and expressions of excitement or a quite, reverent sigh comes out of our mouths. I have been known to hug when it bursts from the bottom and starts its powerful climb into the sky. Sunrises are awesome but this morning as so many Easter mornings, my heart goes to the sunrise like no other which I want to believe had to occur when Jesus rose from the tomb. As humbly as Jesus lived, even His resurrection and appearance to Mary Madeline was quiet and demure. However, I believe God was beyond happy, beyond excited, and beyond control of being quiet and was bursting with pride as a Father would be and had to “show out” with the most brilliant, most illustrious sunrise. The clouds from the gloomy Good Friday were pushed back and the skies had to be that blue which only God can produce and allow God’s creative sunrise to shine through. It makes me think this special sunrise almost would hurt the viewer’s eyes but it had to be so incredible, the viewer could also not turn away. I would think people who were awake might even give the other person with them a hug. Something special about this day would be on their minds, but for my deeper thought….Were they aware of how special and how their lives would be forever changed by this sunrise and the events which had taken place? Do we, as people realize that no matter how people who try to change the truth of the real meaning of Easter, fail in the final attempt? As each sunrise occurs, the same glory God felt on that first Easter is present today and what changed with that sunrise that was like no other is present today. When you have seen a beautiful sunrise, and your heart feels it is like no other; I think it may be God reminding us of His Son’s Resurrection and pathway for our salvation. Enjoy Easter; enjoy each sunrise and sunset; and recognize God’s beauty in all of these things.

TODAY THE WORDS are THE TIME IN BETWEEN.  We have obligations, appointments, meetings, scheduled events, etc. which have specific times set aside throughout our days, weeks, and months. We write them down and plan to be on time and sometimes we schedule several places to be on the same day to make the most of our time. While doing this, we have some unavoidable down time or some time in between. We find ourselves with a half hour, an hour or sometimes two with nothing to do. What do we do with our time in between two events? Some of us bring our Ipads, books, puzzles, etc. and fill our time either wisely or just idling with very little productivity. This made me have a deeper thought about this Easter holiday. When the events occurred on Good Friday and with the promise from Jesus to His followers He would rise on the third day; how did they fill the time in between? Did they sit around and mourn Jesus’s death as we do today when one of our loved ones die? The tomb was sealed so they could only visit the outside. Did they stay watchful or did they have the confidence to wait the days out? How did the conversation go between all of the disciples? Did they fear their safety knowing others had seen the Lord’s strength during his torturous death? Did they reminisce about His miracles Jesus had performed? How did they fill the time in between? All of us may know what happened on Easter Sunday with all of the celebration and miraculous resurrection; but my mind has been directed to the time in between and here is what I feel. Our lives are actually time in between. We are born into this world and then we die. All of our life is this time between birth and death and what we do is important to prepare for our resurrection into Eternity. How do we fill our time in between or in other words, what do we do with our lives? Do we fill our time with productivity and good works or do we idly fill our time with nonsense and useless activities? Do we learn, earn, live, and love? Do we reach out to help others find their way?  We are taught about Good Friday and Easter, but I think we need to spend some of our time understanding how important the time in between was. Life is here for us and while we show reverence and love for Jesus’s sacrifice for us; let us use our time in between wisely. Happy Easter to all and a Happy In Between Time to fill with goodness.

TODAY THE WORDS are MY FAREWELL TO FACEBOOK. Please allow me to explain my reasons. I think Facebook has served so many good reasons why people can benefit from being on this social media. I have, myself, connected to so many classmates I had lost touch; I have made a lot of new friends, some of whom I will remain friends with for life. It has provided me an outlet to share this blog and they have shared it with others and allowed the blog to grow. I have shown so many of my friends the photos of my daughter,  her dog, our dogs, our sons, and our grandsons. The old photos of the 60’s and 70’s and okay maybe some of the 80’s hair styles brought a lot of laughs and funny comments. I too, have watched so many videos; some of which were heart warming or funny. Why then, as so many of my friends have asked, am I saying farewell to Facebook? With all good things come some things which can be damaging if we allow them to be. I have been observing, researching, and praying about what I call the “de-values” of Facebook. I realized Facebook has taken the place of the old beauty salon in small town USA. Instead of spending money to get a new hair style and get the “scoop” on our neighbors; we are going to Facebook. Mom always said and you have heard me quote this, “If you keep the door step clean around your own door; you will not have time to sweep around other people’s door steps.” I think this must have stuck in my mind as I am not interested in other’s “business” and I am not a drama person at all. It pains me when I see people get heated on a social media and sometimes I have caught myself starting to get heated up. I see a lot of us spending so much time expressing our feelings about our country’s dilemma, but do all of us vote or go to town meetings and voice our feelings where it could really count? Oh, now I am not judging; I am asking. This brings up a good point from a good friend who stated she is so shy about expressing one personal feeling or thought on Facebook since a couple of years ago, one simple observation caused such a stir and this was her statement, “I see everyone telling how they feel; I made one comment and I thought the world was coming to an end from their comments.” I made not have quoted her exactly but you get my drift. As much as I love the pictures, the inspiration I have received from others, and the notes that maybe I had inspired others too; I am closing my windows, shutting some doors, and plan on actually spending some one on one time with people I love. I love a lot of friends on Facebook but shouldn’t we try to see them in person if possible. If you cannot do this; I agree for you to stay on the social media you like. I have chosen to say farewell; I will probably have a withdrawal from being so used to checking it over and over. If, however, I pick up the phone; go over to see a friend I haven’t seen in a while; do something good for someone else; or spend time reading and studying God’s word; I will more than likely be okay. May God bless all of you and I will continue writing the blog and posting it here on the site.