Tag: kindness

The Kindness of Strangers

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The Kindness of Strangers

A few days ago I was visiting an old colleague at Walmart. I wasn’t going to go originally but while I was in Hawaii I got a gift for them. After walking around the store for a while we went out to the parking lot. I wasn’t in the parking lot for more then just a few minutes when a truck pulls up. The man inside grabs my attention and asks me to come over to the vehicle. He wishes me a Merry Christmas after putting up his fist. I expected a fist bump but he grabbed my wrist and turned my hand over. He extended his hand and places something in my hand. I thank him not knowing what I was handed and he drives off.

I’ve asked myself what I may have done to deserve such a gracious gift. I was wearing my Cavalry Hat with a 2nd ID pin. I had my service dog with me, and perhaps that’s why I was chosen, or perhaps as I told my associate pastor, “A nod from God, an atta boy.” You see, I have been giving money to my church for a family in need. I’ve been doing it a few months now, and it seems every time I have something amazing has happened to me within a few weeks. The saying goes “you can’t out give God.” These days that seems to be absolutely true.

The man gave me a $100 bill. It’s a generous gift and one I don’t feel I deserved or earned. One I intend on paying forward though. That is the nature of Christmas isn’t it? Good will towards your fellow man. We are the tip of the spear for the Lord. We do the Lords work. We fight the good fight against the wiles of the Devil. When we give without selfishness or unrighteous reasons, we stand up to the Devil who wants us to forsake the weak, forget the hurting, and focus on just ourselves. 2 Corinthians 9:7 “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, [so let him give]; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” We must follow the Holy Spirit within our hearts and know that we that give and be good stewards of what we’ve been given. Know that all gifts are gifts from above. Proverbs 11:24-25 “One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.” When we give as God commands we are rewarded in full. The Kindness of strangers is a nice gentle reminder that God’s still there looking out for us. Don’t forget the reason we have what we do and that’s because God loves us. God gave us his only Son to grow as one of us, and be the innocent blood spilt for our sins.

We have a duty, an obligation to Love, and to give, to spread the love to our neighbors. It’s not an easy thing to live day to day under the attack from the Devil, but when we are given the opportunity to give to strangers, when we receive gifts from strangers, keep the love alive.

Liebster Award Oct 2017

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Liebster Award Oct 2017

Hello, I’m the ArrowPreacher or AP for short. I was nominated for the Liebster award by a wonderfully sweet lady named Shalini. Though we’ve only been conversing for a short time I know a bit about her. She’s a wonderful lady, with a huge heart. As we’ve all had our specific struggles she has hers as well. She’s been a pleasant voice of reason and I am grateful to have her to talk to from time to time. Do check out her blog and her post.

Now on to this award…

Meaning of Liebster 

The word Liebster is derived from German meaning sweetest, kindest, nicest, beloved, and the like. This award is given to up and coming bloggers with less than 200 followers. I’m thankful to Shalini for giving me this opportunity to motivate fellow bloggers, to encourage them to continue the good work, irrespective of the size of their audience.

Rules

  • Thank the person who has nominated you
  • Answer the questions
  • Nominate 5-11 blogs, let them know about the nomination
  • Ask them 11 questions

Shalini, Thank you so much for the nomination. I will do my best as to not disappoint. I know you said the questions were difficult so I shall try my best to answer them and pay it forward.
Now the questions

  • Alfred Lord Tennyson says it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all – what do you believe and why? I think it takes loss to realize how important love is, and how to cherish it. For someone who’s never been through heartbreak it’s easy to break the hearts of others without knowing the pain you’d be inflicting.
  • What’s your favorite song?? Right now, I’d have to say my favorite song is Praise you in this storm by: Casting Crowns
  • Whom would you marry/or be in a relationship with: someone whom you love but he/she doesn’t love you or someone who loves you but you don’t love him/her I’m not even sure how to answer this. Right now, there is someone in my life that I feel very connected to, but sadly I don’t believe she feels the same. Right now, I’m just trying to get by, and hope one day my new partner will enter my life.
  • What is your favorite past time/hobby in the real world  (and no, blogging cannot be your answer, internet is nonexistent for this answer) Archery and Photography are major parts of my life. Sadly with my surgery I’ve been out of commission, but my camera still works just fine.
  • What’s your favorite comfort food? I’d have to say a Monster energy drink and a bag of chips is probably the top of the list for this one.
  • If you find true love outside your committed relationship, would you commit infidelity, emotional and/or physical?? Absolutely not. When I was married even when things weren’t great I didn’t look elsewhere. You’ve gotta water the grass where you live for it to grow, you can’t go poking around in someone else’s yard.
  • What’s your favorite tipple/ drink? Alcoholic / non alcoholic I’d have to go back to the Monster, but if we are talking alcoholic, Vodka Redbull is the easiest to make at home.
  • Do you say things just for the heck of saying things, or do you mean your words?? Answer honestly, as there are no judgements here. Real life is pretty tough and challenging. Absolutely not. I believe words cannot ever be taken back. The tongue is the most powerful weapon on the planet. It can bring great love, or great hate. We must always speak the truth, and when the truth is hurtful, find ways to lighten the blow. Truth is the only way.
  • Which part of the globe are you from and what is the weather like at this moment? I would like to know the temperature in Celsius/ Fahrenheit too. I am currently from the East Coast of the United States. North Carolina. Right this very moment the current temperature is 69* F.
  • What would be your favourite revenge if your partner has betrayed you or hurt you badly? You can go all out in your imagination with this. Vengeance is mine sayith the Lord. I have thought long and hard about this in the last year. I decided to love instead of hate. It’s not always easy, and wanting to take vengeance has crossed my mind more then once.
  • Long distance online relationship with one true love with no chance of meeting ever or a real physical relationship in real world but no true love – what would you prefer? And why? This ones tough. Largely I’d answer with a question. Can you truly love someone if you’ve never been face to face? Do you know your chemistry when you’re with one another? It’s hard to say though. True love is so hard to find, but long distance relationships are hard enough, throw in no chance to ever meet, I wonder how true it can be.
  • After answering all these questions honestly, would you like to be nominated by me for future awards with such well thought of questions?? This is an optional question…  Sure I don’t see why not. I don’t mind the challenge.

 

My turn to ask questions:

  1. Reading my blog, what is your favorite post?
  2. With the holidays quickly approaching, what is your favorite and why?
  3. Would you rather spend time with your family, or go on a quiet getaway for two?
  4. If you were trapt on a deserted forested island what two items (non communications) would you want?
  5. If you had only 1 option to spend 4 days at any place in the world, where would you choose and why?
  6. Halloween is coming up, and you can have any choice in costume you want, money isn’t an option, what do you choose?
  7. How far would you go to stop a bully?
  8. As the world grows more hateful every year, what do you do to avoid being sucked into the political theater?
  9. With 2017 coming to an end what’s something you are looking forward to in 2018?
  10. If you had one superhuman super power, what would that be and why?
  11. And to set the record straight, who would win in a match, Batman, or Superman?

 

My nominations (the toughest part)

 

https://thebeautyandbrainsblog.wordpress.com/contact/

 

https://beautybeyondbones.com

 

https://myfirst771.wordpress.com

 

https://grieftolife.com

 

I would like to thank everyone for playing along. Those who’ve been nominated I wish you the very best. Thanks again to Shalini for the nomination. And “May the Odds be Ever in your Favor”

Mercy in Time of War

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Mercy in time of War

“ It was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life.” (Gandolf LOTR)

Something’s been on my mind lately. As the last 11 months has taught me anything it’s life is made up of good and bad situations, and some of the worst of situations may seem like a battlefield. It’s in our deepest darkest moments a choice must be made. How do we react to the enemy firing warning shots across our bow, or doing strafing runs to get us rowdy? The enemy wants us to get angry, the enemy wants us to retaliate with force. The enemy wants for us to yell, and scream, and we are expected to be fowl, and angry, allow our hate to flow through us and let that hate consume us. In the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins had a choice when he had Gollum within striking distance while cloaked. Gollum would end up playing a major role years later that allowed Frodo to get the One Ring to Mordor. As Christians we are told not to be the judge, to leave that for God, but as man we aren’t perfect and sometimes we struggle with this.

The hardest thing we may ever do is to provide kindness, to be merciful to our enemies and show love and compassion even when we are being treated horribly by someone or someone’s. How we respond when we are attacked verbally, or physically will show a lot about who we are, our maturity, and our walk with God.

Matthew 5:38-44 “38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: 39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. 41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. 42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. 43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”

So much is said in this verse. When struck by your enemy, instead of returning fire, instead offer the other cheek, not to turn the other cheek but literally offer the next. When someone goes after you in a suit, to offer more then they are asking. It’s so hard for us to understand the concept, but in every negative action towards us, we are to return in kind more to them in kindness then we have received in wickedness. No matter how hard we try we may never change the hearts and mind of another person. All we can do is pray for them, live by an example, show the world what it means to walk Christ like but making sure our testimony our witness is a strong solid foundation. Being human we are going to sin, we are going to fall, we are going to fail people, but being true stewards of God’s word we can hope and pray to live the best we can, to make the best choices possible in every situation as humanly possible for being a sin natured creature.

Sometimes someone can say something that just hurts. It’s often the people we care for the most that do the most damage. How much can we take? How deep can that knife go before we just can’t take the pain anymore? When those in our lives destroy everything we build, when the whole of the world around us topples around us, and the enemy is pounding down upon that gate, and all we want to do is throw up our hands and give up. The shadows that rise up against us and beat us down, the Devil that pounds us to the ground, and doesn’t want us to get back up.

When the Devil takes the hearts of those we care about and turns them against us, and the wolves try to run us down, all we can do is turn, and stand our ground. Get back up off that mat, fight back, and do it with Love, with Kindness, with Compassion. You can’t change the world but God can. You can’t change others, but your actions can show others how a Godly man or woman is. We never know the hurt going on below the surface or why someone does what they do.

I believe that we may never know or understand why some people go to great lengths to hurt you. But in our trying times, in the midst’s of the battles we fight, all we can do is believe. Believe in the Holy Spirit, believe in the God, and believe in the Mercy that God, that Jesus Christ has given to us, was also for us to share to the rest of the world. The Mercy we share upon others, the Mercy and love that was blessed to us we have a duty an obligation to share that with the world. The Gospel was given to us and in that new commandments would tell us to love on another, spread the gospel to those without. We have our commandments, and it’s up to us to follow them. It’s not always easy, but nothing worth having is.

 

Behind The Eyes

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Behind The Eyes

The eyes as they say are the windows to the soul. We tell others our favorite things are peoples eyes, the beauty in the differences, the unique, the colors, the softness, or hardness as they are shaped by the chapters we face and overcome albeit good or bad. Do we ever look deep enough to see the pain hidden deep down in someone’s soul? Do we ever learn to look beyond our own pain and suffering to see it in others? The cold suffering hidden behind the eyes, one of fear, one of hopelessness, do we see it and ignore it? Behind the eyes is the doorway to discover someone’s joy, someone’s fears, or the sorrow. I recently had someone tell me I looked so happy in a photo I took. I was surprised to say the least. I took the photo because that’s what I do, I send selfies to the people I’m talking to. It makes the conversation a little less faceless. In the photo however I felt horrible. I felt miserable, and I had to force the smile from the stiff upper lip I’ve been supporting for months. The pain didn’t show through, or did it, and the untrained eye didn’t see it in my eyes?

Matthew 6:22-23 “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” In my own photo I realized it was the untrained eye that didn’t see it, or didn’t want to see it. We move along in our lives and we have either gotten so good at hiding how we feel, the pain were going through, or we’ve gotten so skilled at only focusing on ourselves we just can’t get beyond our own self. God sees all the pain in the entire world. Imagine that for a moment that you can see, you can feel all the suffering of the world. If you had even a hint of empathy could you imagine your heart breaking?

We couldn’t imagine the burdens people are carrying. We can’t ever fathom the pain raging deep inside someone’s heart. The only truth is those burdens for many are nearly more then they can carry alone. When we truly learn to see those in danger should we not reach down and find the empathy that we has as a society lost, yes, yes we should. Jesus never turned someone away who was in need, no one who was suffering. He provided hope and love, and empathy for those in need. We need to learn to open our eyes and our hearts to see the world, to see that we can touch a single soul by our kindness and generosity of love.

Give Me Your Eyes, Brandon Heath

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see,
Everything that I keep missing,
Give your love for humanity.
Give me your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten.
Give me Your eyes so I can see.

Save My Life, Sidewalk Prophets

If you looked me right in the eye
Would see the pain deep inside
Would you take the time to

Tell me what I need to hear
Tell me that I’m not forgotten
Show me there’s a God
Who can be more than all I’ve ever wanted
‘Cause right now I need a little hope
I need to know that I’m not alone
Maybe God is calling you tonight
To tell me something
That might save my life

 We can never know how important we are to someone else. Every encounter even small can have a lasting impression. The song Save My Life by the Sidewalk Prophets touches on this. Would we take just a little longer to talk to someone at the store, or at our job, or even in our own church? If you knew that those fleeting moments could be the difference between life and death for someone, would that change your perspective? Just about everyone I think would say they would spend a little more time if they, or had they known. I’m a firm believer that suicide just doesn’t happen in a split second. The person in pain has been in pain for a while and perhaps had very few people to lean on or trust with their pain. Look deep inside someone and embrace every chance we get with people. You never know, you might just save a life and not even know it.

We all need Christ in our lives. We unfortunately don’t have Christ physically with us, but if we need hope, if we need the love we have something powerful, we have the Holy Spirit. Christ told the disciples to go forth and baptize all the nations. If we are walking in the shadow of Christ we have the power to make that change. We can save a life by just showing a little love. We can save a life by just extending a hand in friendship. If we spread the love of Christ to the world we can touch millions. If Christians actually wept for those in need, if Christians actually saw and felt for those in pain and tried to help heal the pain as Christ had, how many lives could we affect change to, the implications would be more then any of us could fathom. “I want a second glace, so give me a second chance, to see the way you see the people all alone.” We only get one chance sometimes to make a difference. If we look at every opportunity as a chance to change the world we can because we have the Holy Spirit with us. The world is in such chaos and turmoil we can bring a little hope back to it. God has blessed us with boundless love and hope. Why we don’t spread that love to others is beyond me. Is it uncomfortable sure, but Jesus was well versed in making people uncomfortable. Jesus led his people his friends, his disciples into Samaria and then once there sent them out on their own. God uses the weak and the broken as his warriors. They say that when you are hurting you can heal if you pour yourself into helping others who are hurting just like you. Everyone’s a sinner just like you and me, everyone’s going through something and God put you in their life for a reason. If we consider every life we encounter isn’t an accident, but by design, how we act towards them could be life altering. Open your heart to see the good you can do.

Lord give me the sight to see the pain behind others eyes.

Lord give me the strength to get beyond my own pain.

Lord give me what I need to touch the lives of those around me.

Lord give me the courage to step out of the boat and out of my comfort zone.

Lord give me the eyes to see. Give me the love you’ve held onto me.