When You Don’t Know What to Do…

When you don’t know what to do I always say pray. Pray for guidance and the release of those that want to be just outright stumbling blocks in your life. Well, if it’s about me, I say pray after I cuss, biatchandmoan, and generally want to run down the street screaming more obscenities than my cussing vocabulary contains. Then I say pray. However, if it is about someone else, I listen and then I say pray. Why? Because the truth is simply that prayer works.

I am not of simple mind or character and I realize that telling someone to pray can seem like fluff or a way to pretend empathy because you really don’t care what they are going through. But no matter how someone means it when they say it to you, just know that it is sound advice. It is the kind of advice we should take even when we don’t want to.

Admittedly praying may seem like wasted time – at times, but to me it is a way of getting into a space where you humble yourself and pour out your heart to God. I know when I haven’t truly prayed about an issue because I will still harbor resentment and the least little thing can set me off. But when I feel peace from within my center then I know I have rendered unto God my issues for I know He can take care of it.

Now, since I am not of simple mind, I must tell you that I do not believe that God always answers our prayers by dropping a boulder on someone or pushing them into ongoing traffic just to remove them from our lives. I believe while He sometimes removes the obstacles out of our path, He also gives us a new attitude toward a certain situation allowing us to see the issues through a different vision.
What I have learned about prayer over the years isn’t an awful lot but it is quite enlightening. First, I never ever pray for patience. That prayer has brought forth so many lessons and while learning is great, a lesson in patience should not have to be repeated too often. Second, I have learned to be very cognizant of what I pray for. Sometimes I ask for stuff and don’t need it so I don’t always recognize it when I get it. Or, it isn’t what I really wanted so I want God to take it back and allow me a “do-over”.

Third and close to last, I don’t pray for harm to come to others. It is easier to ask God to release them to their own good. For if you know like I know, when you mess up it comes back to you. The Bible does say you reap what you sow (Galatians 6:7; 2 Corinthians 9:6; and, Hosea 10:13 – all say it in some form or fashion). So don’t go wishing bad things on other people. Wish them well and do it from your prayerful heart and not that pissed off heart that makes you want to scream or run down the street buttanaked.

When you don’t know what to do, pray. When you don’t know where to go, pray. And when you don’t know where to turn…PRAY. – That’s it, that’s all.

What’s  Really Going On?????? – Part 1

I recently sat through a somewhat, to me, excruciating viewing of Iyanla and Oprah doing a Life Class on “The Terrible Things Women Do to Each Other”.  It was very interesting – and let me say that the reason I found it excruciating is because Iyanla can sometimes grate my left nerve with her in your face attitude. No matter the situation, I believe in respecting folk and sometimes it seems she forgets that. But that’s my rant – back to my point…

 Iyanla says that women are programmed to believe that there isn’t enough of whatever to go around so we have to keep it all for ourselves. Basically, the gist of what they were saying is that we act this way because we are/have been oppressed and that men don’t often exhibit the same behavior because they are programmed to do well and expect others to do the same. Personally I know some men who act this way and if we break it down to race – well…. But anyway.

 Just the other day I had a conversation with the group of girls I work with on etiquette and life skills. An incident had occurred and they had gotten into trouble at school. Not one of them stood firm in defending one another. All of them lied, denied and passed blame on another.  To me this was unconscionable. WTF?

 

Is this where we begin to learn the bad behavior of tearing one another down? Well, with more than just my best effort, I am going to work on helping stop this behavior with this group. And you know what they say –“each one teach one”. Hopefully they will take something away from our sessions and teach it to someone else.

As for us women...I must stand up and raise my hand to having been guilty of all the behaviors O and I talked about in their life class: BETRAYING CONFIDENCES:  I have told my best friend things that I was supposed to never tell a soul. But I have never betrayed her confidences.  GOSSIP: I have said things about someone that I got third party even though I wasn’t sure of the source or the info  - which is the same as gossiping. LIEING: I have lied out of fear; as a means of protecting myself and/or others; and I have lied when I have felt threatened. C0MPETING: I have competed for jobs, men, attention, etc…with the utmost justification. But I know you, dear blog reader, are not guilty of such wanton disregard for your fellow woman. Yeah right.

 The most important thing I got out of this life class was something I already knew – WHAT YOU GIVE IS WHAT YOU GET! And you know I’m right. The Bible says we reap what we sow.  Each of us can think of some things we have done that were not really correct. In other words we have been triple O (Out Of Order) in our relationships with other women. But here’s a tip: Handle up on your own stuff and you will find little time to be dipping into someone else’s. And you can take that to your “I'm a do better” bank.

 
Ladies WTF is going on?  Let me charge you with this little tidbit: Be responsible for the energy in your own life that you inevitably share with the world… In other words watch your actions and if you don’t want what you do to others to be done to you – STOP DOING IT!!!
 

Now let me go work on Part 2. Oh, and please post your comments. All you have to do is click on the “No Comments” and choose Anonymous or another identifier. A screen will open for you to key in what you would like to say and really want to read what say you on how we treat one another.

As always, be blessed and be wonderful!