Wednesday, March 9, 2011

MARDIS-GRAS-STYLED HODGEPODGE

JOINING
1. Lent begins March 9th...do you participate and if so, in what way?  ASH WEDNESDAY services at our church are very solemn and soul-searching. 
 
Evading that service for some reason?  Please change your mind and go listen to the message because walking 40 days toward the cross is powerful.  The imposition of ashes, like similar external practices are hypocritical though unless there is a corresponding inner repentance and change of behavior. 
Isaiah 58:5-7 shared what God told him when he wrote:"Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"
2. Traditionally pancakes are eaten on the day known as Shrove Tuesday/Fat Tuesday (the last day before Lent).   So....What's your pleasure when it comes to eating pancakes?  Asking for my favorite topping or side fruit with pancakes is like asking me for my favorite flavor of chocolate...why any of it, of course! 
Different syrups and different fruits ALWAYS make me happy with pancakes, so I don't balk at any of them...as long as I have a wet wipe to keep my hands from being sticky.  Now, that's where I draw my line.  l can't stand having sticky fingers or a sticky fork while I eat pancakes or waffles.  hahahah!  Yes, we did have pancakes (w/ molasses-glazed plantains, jambalaya and collards.

3. Spring is coming. (It is coming, right?) What's your favorite springtime flower and do you suffer from seasonal allergies?  From my particular yard scene, my favorite is my 'blooming' butterfly bush in its vibrant purple...and it lasts quite a while.
I would have chosen my tulips, gerberas, azaleas and amaryllis but they just DON'T last long enough before they are gone again. 
Usually while they are all blooming I am suffering with the 'sniffles' but now that my good doc has me prescried with a specific nose spray, life is much better in the Spring.

4. "Our opinion of people depends less upon what we see in them than upon what they make us see in ourselves." Author unknown.         Why do you Agree or Disagree with this statement?   Sometimes Agree, Sometimes Disagree

5. Since it's "March" ...Mardi Gras just occurred.  Have you ever been in a parade? What's the best parade you've seen?  I've been in several parades (as a trumpet player and drum major in high school)...and the most fun one I was ever in was the DISNEY parade over the 4th of July in 1976.  Wow, that was a long time ago, you know? 

Watching a parade  is an entirely different thing to me because I want to be in all of them...much more fun.  I get irritated with parades and all their commercials just like I do football/baseball games and all their 'money pumping'...and don't even bring up the fact that you NEVER get to watch college halftime shows anymore...ya think it's a sore spot with me?  I'd say so.

6. You would jump up and down, shout for joy right now if someone told you "tomorrow morning you will wake up with the 29-yo body like the day you were married!  Yes, I would go to bed right after supper eager to meet the morning.

7. How clean is your car on the outside? Inside?  Is there junk in your trunk?  CLEAN is in the eye of the beholder. I have a few things in the rear of the suv that I must use in my study group, but it has been vacuumed...and the outside was washed last week, so I'm relatively beholding a 'keeper'.

8. Insert your own random thought here.  Yesterday I drove on some roads I was unsure of...and I left my 'helper tomtom' at home (a lot of good that does).  After thinking I was going in the right directions at two different times, I finally stopped driving gathered my bearings with the sun, looked at the compass in the car dashboard, and headed East.  Eventually I got to a road I knew and made it home 45 minutes later than expected. 

Thank you, Daddy, for teaching me how to 'NOT depend on maps' and use common sense.

Blessings,