"Live long and Prosper"

Good morning friends!

Just felt the need to jot something down on here.  Not really sure what I am gonna say...but there is an undercurrent  of appreciation, anticipation, and positive thinking going on here lately--so maybe this is part of it.

I had a rather profound epiphany yesterday as T.D. Jakes preached his sermon "Save the Scraps"...and although I had listened to it a couple of times...something jumped out at me last night.  He had been talking about the breaking of the bread (5 loaves) and the (2) fish....and WHERE the message really lies in that story.  When the people were getting angry with hunger and were going to leave...Jesus approaches the young boy with the 2 fish & 5 loaves of bread (which was obviously not enough to feed 5-thousand people) and He ASKED the boy "what do you have?"  The Bishop explains that miracles always begin with the recognition of what you HAVE and explains that until you can be thankful for something that is not enough, then what you do have cannot be multiplied into what is more than enough."  He also says that the message of the miracle contained within this story is in the BREAKING of the bread.   That which refuses to be broken refuses to be blessed.  It is the breaking of life that produces the blessing of life.  Then he says "I have noticed in my life that the most blessed people I have ever met in my life have gone through something that broke them."

This so hit home with me.  As a matter of fact...just 3 nights ago at work, I had been telling someone that I went from almost losing everything to having more than I've ever had.

I've recently gone through a total attitude adjustment--where I see everything as positively as I can.  When you are down to rubbing your last 2 nickles together and you have no idea where you are going to go from there or what you are going to do...and outside circumstance seems to want to hold you there...and you are considering doing something that it really not in your heart to do just because you feel like you HAVE to do SOMETHING...and an opportunity is offered to you, you begin to see things a lot differently.   I was very, very close to being completely broken...and probably the most broken I had ever been.  I grabbed onto that opportunity and held on to it as tightly as I could and was SO appreciative and grateful for it.  I developed a fierce loyalty to that which saved me from going further under...even though I knew that it really wasn't "enough" long-term, it at least got me out of the dark and I wasn't struggling financially anymore and I no longer felt FORCED to give up what little I had left, relocate, and start all over again somewhere else...when my heart was fighting to stay right here.  Everyday, I woke up and every night before I went to bed, I did so with a smile and a "thank you."

Before I knew it and totally out of the blue, yet another opportunity came knocking at my door---and you know something?  It was EXACTLY what I needed---the hours, the location, and the revenue.  This meant that I didn't have to leave the first opportunity, but could accept them both even though it meant that my "free-time" would be severely limited and I would be working VERY long stretches without a day off.  I sat back, looked at all that I had been through...all the "free-time" I had already had and how all that "free-time" threatened to take even MORE from me and I figured...ah, hell...who CARES about free time?  I will gladly give up some of that to keep that which is way more important to me....my life, here..in my home--with my kids, and eventual grand-babies...JUST like I had envisioned and dreamed.   I will have "enough" free time...it's not like I won't have any...and it is enough to definitely work with, so....today, I am blessed.  I am TIRED, a bit stressed....but I have learned how to govern my emotions...and stop allowing them to control me.  I look at what I am gaining...not what I am losing.  I look at how it all seemed to be timed PERFECTLY and know and understand that my life is mapped out for me and that everything I go through serves a bigger and more expansive purpose to my growth.  I take NOTHING for granted anymore and just because I have everything I need right now...it comes with the realization that as it came...it can also depart, so I am very careful to do right by it.  This is the most important lesson in humility ANYONE can learn & once you have been to the depths, you can never say with confidence that your SET in anything.

We are really guaranteed nothing, but I have found that if you learn to read deeper into things, recognize nuance, and become very good at assembling puzzles (lol)...you will, instead of getting flustered that you are having trouble putting the puzzle together, concentrate on the fact that YOU DO indeed have all of the pieces..and that they all do FIT somewhere.  Work with what you have, what you know, and pat yourself on the back for getting that far.  It makes the finished product all that more admirable and precious!!

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."~Anne Bradstreet.

“Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.” (Psalm 35:27)

 “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” (Psalm 1:3)

"Genuine morality is preserved only in the school of adversity; a state of continuous prosperity may easily prove a quick sand to virtue."~Frederich von Shiller.  


 "Prosperity depends more on wanting what you have than having what you want.~Albert Geoffrey.


Signing today....

Deeply humbled and divinely blessed <3