Things I don't Understand: Fear of freedom

You really wouldn't think something as innocuous as a nativity set would upset people.  It's pretty.  It's sweet.  It's a baby. 

Apparently it is upsetting to some atheists who find the one at the state capital in Austin offensive.  Now, obviously I don't understand.  It isn't hurting anyone.  Growing up, there was always a manger outside the courthouse in the small town in Indiana where I come from.   The town wasn't sponsoring a religion it was just respecting the members who believe.  

The nativity scene in Austin wasn't paid for using public funds.  A private group donated it.  The state is simply respecting a large percentage of the population of the state of Texas who chose to celebrate Christmas.  I am sure they would do the same with any religion that choses to donate something, within reason.  (I doubt something morally offensive would be displayed nor should it be).  

So what is it about a sweet little baby Jesus that is so troubling to a group of people who choose  to believe in nothing? After all, our government is full of nothing every single day. There are hundreds of branches of Christianity so the state is not sponsoring any religion.  If atheists are so sure there is no God then a few little statues of a cute baby and his momma and daddy shouldn't upset them. After all, Jesus was a historical person. Should we remove the statues of Sam Houston next? 

If you choose to not believe I respect that. Respect my right to believe.  It isn't hurting you.  If you don't want to see the manger, don't look.  Don't hide behind the 1st amendment because we all have rights including the people who donated the nativity set.  They have a right as citizens of the great state of Texas to be Christians and donate to their state a symbol of their faith.  

People have gotten off track and way too wrapped up in things that just don't matter.  If you want to protest something, protest injustice, poverty, animal abuse, spousel abuse, traffic laws for heaven sake!  Make some difference where it matters but leave God alone, and Allah, and whomever else. 

Can I get an amen? 

Three funerals and a wedding? Circle of life.

This has been such a strange year. It seems like in a year where everything is coming together for me personally, a new marriage, a new step-daughter, a new home, that I am losing friends & co-workers left and right.  Young people too.  I will have been to three funerals by the end of this week and the age of those lost range from 26-43.  

In a time when I struggle to comprehend God's plan, my husband reminds me that there is a plan and to trust in it because there is no way we would be together without Him.  In a time when I want to break down and be sad, I have the great gift of a home that has over an acre of yard that needs work and my attention and just this once, I can shovel and mow and not think.  In a time when it would be so easy to focus on the loss of death, I am reminded constantly that there is also the gift of life.  You see, in my same office where we have lost two young co-workers in two months, we have also experienced the joy of watching several co-workers become parents, most for the first time.  

Last Friday, I left work early and spent the afternoon at homecoming with my husband, step-daughter, some friends, and their brand new grand baby.  I held that precious child and reminded myself that every life is a gift and every child is a joy.  

God doesn't explain His reasons but He has them.  My father was 27 when he passed away from cancer and it took me 30 years to realize that God called him home because He loved him and daddy had suffered enough. Time, it is all we have so we make the most of it. 

Sorry for the rambling...this is just where I am this morning. 

Let Go, Stay Calm, Find God

Sometimes it feels like everything I say is wrong and nothing I do is right. Sometimes it feels like I am lost. Lately that's every day. Yesterday I was flipping radio channels and I switched on the the local Christian channel. I hadn't listened to them in a long time. I left it there. My station is still sitting on that channel and this morning I changed my office radio to that same channel. I just need grounding. I need calm. I need God's love right now to balance me. When every part of my life is spinning and I am searching for direction I can always count on Him. He never fails me. People may let me down but God never does.





Life has a way of being way too complicated sometimes. People have expectations of me that I just can't meet, sometimes. Things start to stress me out and I start worrying. "What if's" start to rule my life. What if this project doesn't get done at work? What if that project doesn't get done at home? What if Derek Holland doesn't get healthy by the All-Star break? Yes, I worry about baseball. I'm a freak!



I can't control what others expect from me and I can't control what anyone else chooses to believe or do for me. The only thing I can control is myself. The truth is that I have enough hurt inside of me for ten people and I carry it around like a bundle of wounded flesh. Whenever anyone says anything it pops out and bleeds but at the same time there are a lot of insensitive jerks in the world who don't think before they open their mouths and I need to be tougher.



That's where God comes in. I need to lean on Him when I am feeling weak. I need to pull on His strength and pray for the people who hurt me. I need to find the will to want the people who are hateful or selfish to heal too. I want to be that Christian. I want to be that strong. I do.



Here is the problem, I am a red head, German-Hungarian-American-Indian, and there are just certain things that genetics can't change. I want to be calm and peaceful but there is no denying that there is some fire in my blood. When someone makes me angry praying isn't my first instinct. Over the years I have learned to take a walk and calm myself. This is my cooling off mechanism. This doesn't always go over well with people but it is my way of handling it and it works for me. I walk away and calm down so I don't say anything I will regret. Sometimes I even remember to pray and ask God for guidance. A lot of the time, actually I just say, 'help me, Lord,'.



It's hard to explain faith to people who have none and I don't really feel the need to defend my religion (I am a bad Catholic). However my faith in God is important to me as is my Catholicism, even though I am a little lacking lately. (Mostly do to the new-new mass but that's another blog for another time). There are things I can compromise on and things I will not and my faith I will not.











Simply,

Laura

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Enjoy the Ride!

Simply,
Laura

Taking back control plus Weekend Wrap Up!

Sometimes you just have to laugh at the people who try so hard to meddle in your business. I use to get angry when someone who should know better, an adult, would try so hard to make my life miserable. I wish I could say this was years ago but it was weeks. Suddenly I realized, after a few pep talks from my friends (thank you Sonja and Dawn!) that I was giving up my power by letting someone effect me. I took my power back. Now when someone asks questions that aren't any of their business, I laugh. See, here is the thing. Some people have decided my life is much more entertaining than it is and filled with scandal that doesn't exist.





So I gave up all of that and laugh and by God's grace I know that I can do anything! I can love someone who hates me. I can defend someone who hurt me. I can forgive someone who wants to destroy what I have.





I am not perfect and God doesn't expect me to be. He rarely called the perfect, as you can see, he just equips the rest of us. What I realized is, I can't control anyone's misconception of me. I can control how I react to their behavior. God has given me enough wisdom to pray through it and pray for the people who would bring me down.

Now on to my weekend! Just a few pictures from our Valentine's weekend camping!






































I could very easily give up everything and live here. We work hard but we sleep well, tired and somehow work doesn't seem much like work when you are outside under a beautiful sun and in nature enjoying what God created and you get to spend it with people you love.

I am so grateful to have a very special group of people I love so very much and I realized this weekend, God has given me everything I ever wanted. I am not going to waste the gifts. I am simply going to make sure they know how important they are to me, every day of the year, every chance I get. Oh, and honey if you are reading this, I am going to work on that PMS thing! XO

One final thing:







Spring Training has started and Rangers pitchers and catchers have reported!!! It's my favorite time of the year: Baseball Season!



Simply,
Laura
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Enjoy the Ride!

Simply,
Laura

What I am loving: God, Baseball, and the New York Yankees?

Time to Link up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday!!!
It's been a while since I have linked up on Wednesday.  It's been a while since I have blogged on Wednesday!  I am massively busy!!

Being busy is good but I am so busy at work that basically this is what I look like half the time. 

Which leaves me stressed and feeling like everything is out of control a lot of the time so what I am most thankful for right now are a few things that I take for granted in the normal times.

-I love my morning commutes where I have time to pray. 
It is my quiet time with God.  I can play some nice music in the background and just talk and chat and spend the first part of the day with God and that seems so important in starting my day off right.  When I have missed this time for some reason I have noticed my day does not run as smoothly.  When I have this time, my troubles are never as large.  This is part of the reason I stopped listening to Sports chat in mornings.  It was making me crazy.

-I am loving spending time with my friends.  I may not get to spend a lot of time with all of them but the moments I have gotten to spend lately with a few of them have been precious.

-I love that Ranger fans were having none of the 'Texas Yankee' fans trying to out chant them at the Ballpark last night.   We had a particulary interesting 'Texas Yankee' fan infront of us who who is the perfect example of what I mean when I say "Texas Yankee" fans.   They have no ties to New York.  They pull for the Yankees because they are front funners, they like a player or they like the jersey or hat. They tend to also be fans of the Lakers and Cowboys. I am a partial season ticket holder which means the seats I have I sit in most of the time.  A lot of the people around me are the same game after game.  This man, his wife and son are there often.  I specifically recall that one of the games earlier in the season this "Yankee" fan showed up wearing a Boston Red Sox Jersey and cheering the Sox on.  Now I have some real Yankee fan friends and I have some real Red Sox fan friend who I respect and would never begrudge their right to love and cheer for their teams and  while they may love each other they do not love each other's baseball teams or cheer for them. Not the Yankees and Sox fans  That is just not done.  Ever! 

Elias Sports Bureau via ESPN.COM

-I love Joe Nathan and Leyons Martin and the reaction to the terrible home plate umpire calls last night during and after the game.  Bad calls are a part of baseball and sometimes they go your way and sometimes they don't but the fire and passion they showed make me confident that they may have lost he game but this team has fight and fire so I am not so worried about the war.

-I love that I have made it 3 days through of this smoothie metabolism restart diet and only have 2 more days to go before I get to add in a real meal.  I know this sounds crazy but I miss real food.  I have been drinking my meals for 3 days now and I miss chewing.  I want a dry chicken breast and plain broccoli like you would not believe.  :)

Lately I am constantly reminding myself two things.  The first is that God is bigger than my problems.  This brings peace.  Nothing is too big.  There are no limits.  God can make anything happen.

 The second is to be here now.  I can't fix the past and I can't control the future I can only live for today because that is all I have.   Since I started to focus on now, I have found that I am happy.  Happy is a good place to be. 


Simply,
Laura
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Never, Ever, Ever: Oh, say can you see those bombs bursting in air?

Linking up with Neely
Stephanie and
Shelley for Never, Ever, Ever week 5!

Never, Ever, Ever:

*Have I never been so glad to see a month gone as I was June!  It was a beast.  I feel like I lived a lifetime in June.  I learned a lot about myself last month.   I am glad it is over.  I grew a lot.  I am glad that is over too but I found out how strong I really am.  I am kind of shocked actually. I thought I was going to crumble. I didn't. I found my fight and God help anyone who gets in my way again.

*Will I never try to work through anything without God again. What WAS I thinking?

*I never will be sad for a 4 day weekend.

*I won't ever apologize for being a history geek.  

*Never will I understand the love for Whataburger Ketchup.  Sorry Texas.

*I will never get tired of spending the 4th of July at the Ballpark.

* I won't ever complain about 90 degree weather in Texas in July.  I feel like we have hit the weather jackpot!

*I won't ever give up on my dreams again.  No matter how unattainable they seem and how impossible the future seems.  I have a new plan of action from now on.  Pop some Matthew West on, grab some water,  take the dogs for a walk, and let God do His thing.  It will all work out without the tears.

*You will never see me walk away from a glass of lemonade.  Since I started back on my migraine medicine I can't drink carbonated drinks and because I am now paranoid about water and I save all my bad drinks for coffee.  (I have only had a half an alcoholic beverage in an entire month.  Who have I become?) Crystal Light Lemonade is my go-to water based drink! 

*I may not always agree with the politics of the right and left. I may not always agree with the way people pick to go about arguing  points again and again especially when the arguements don't make sense.  I may ignore them on Twitter and Facebook most all of the time but I will always believe that even when I think the points are wrong and stupid, they have a right to be wrong and stupid.

*I will always love fireworks, the Star Spangled Banner, my Uncle Sam,  and the United States of America.

Always

If for some reason I get too wrapped up in baseball and biking to write anything until after the 4th everyone have a beautiful and happy holiday and eat lots of yummies and drink lots of yummies and STAY SAFE....and hydrated....you didn't think I was going to leave that out now did you?

XOXO


Simply,
Laura

I love you....and I can't live without you!

I actually get to work this weekend but I still adore Friday! Mostly because I have fun plans and they all start today!!





I'm blog stuck right now so I thought I would try a Friday Five


So without giving this too much actual thought I chose 5 things I love and can't live without.

*Hummus!



I am totally addicted to this stuff! On veggies, on pita chips, on sandwiches, and in Hummus flavored chips. Ah, the magic of Chickpeas and tahini!



I don't know what happened. One night I came home and nothing was on but old episodes of Charmed and suddenly I have a DVR full of Charmed! Judge me if you must!




Rose quartz. If you know me at all, you know pink is not my color. I don't wear it and I don't surround myself with it. The exception is Rose Quartz. Since I started wearing it, I have felt so much better about love and loving me. I am sure all the prayers have helped a lot too. Rose quartz is supposed to help you heal a broken heart, invite love into your life, and love, including loving yourself. I don't know about all of that but I do know that I have found myself....and I finally like what I see so my rose quartz is staying.




Maple anything although I rarely eat donuts or pancakes. I am slightly obsessed with maple!




Beeritas. This has become my drink of choice! Love them plus it's like getting the best of all worlds!





Alright this was all stuff I really love but seriously what I can't live without: my family, my friends, my baseball team, my bike, and the most important, my faith in God.



Coffee helps too! TGIF!



Simply,
Laura
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