Love is a verb???

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Love is a verb and a feeling: 5 questions to ask yourself when your amygdala has hijacked your brain

I thought this was an interesting article about the amygdala, the part of the brain that which manages and controls our emotions and effect our cognitive functions. It does this when a person feels fear, stress, threatened, or hurt in some way.

Now I get it. That's why I tend to get numb and non-emotional when those kinds of things happen. But I just hide it the best I can and "put on a happy face", as the commercial song goes.

But why does my wonderful family genuinely continue praising God and being joyful , always seeing the bright side when those kinds of things happen to them?

I asked my wife that question, and she simply said, "I just choose to." In other words, she has chooses not to let fear, pain, and threats control the ways she feels. And my two precious kids do the same thing. (Probably learned it from Mom).

The concept seems to be true. At times when I feel threatened or hurt, I close down my emotions and focus only on my own needs and feelings, thus, shutting out everyone else, which causes me to shut out and not make an effort to fully relate to my wife and kids (or anyone else) the way I should. Of course, I put on a happy face and attempt to join in the rejoicing, because I don't want to "rain on their parade and put out their joy, because they really have a gift when it comes to overcoming problems and adversity. The worse it gets for them, the stronger their joy.


So as I continue to ask God to change me somehow to be more like them. I worry about things that don't matter and get stressed out over little things that do matter, but I can't do anything about.  So, God, in Jesus name, I ask for your help in this area.  Then maybe I can at least almost keep up with the rest of the family and not spoil their grand illusion of life that they are so good at living.

Faith and a Role of Duct Tape

It's been a while since I blogged on my site.  Life really gets busy when you have two school age children to deal with and a wife to please. Of course, I'm sure most of you already know this. 

No matter how bad things get here the family is still full of joy and the perspective that God must really be working on something really good for us.

We were on a short road trip recently, when a large truck time came out of nowhere and my wife ran over it, tearing off the plastic splash guard underneath the van. I had already started calling for a tow truck, when my wife stopped me.  "We have duct tape", she exclaimed. "what do we need a tow truck for?" 

The wife and kids are always looking for a challenge or some sort, and this was another perfect opportunity. 

As I accessed the damage, I informed them that mere duct tape was not going to fix the problem, but they insisted, so I stepped back and let them do their thing. 

While I watched them work, I wondered in my mind, how many miles would we get before the whole thing came off and whether we would be in an area where we could call for help the next time. 

Well, six hundred miles later, the duct tape was still holding up and I was embarrassed of my lack of faith, again.

My families faith and joy are always at their peak, while mine is always in the gutter.  Time after time again, I see what I would call miracles that seemed to be related to their faith and belief in God to take care of us.  Maybe it's time for me to examine my beliefs a little deeper and then maybe my joy would increase a lot more.

Try To Love One Another Right Now:

So, I’m going around read blog’s and I'm starting to wonder just how hard everybody's having it in life right now. The more I read these blog’s, the more it seems that most people are just flat out miserable.

Am I perceiving this right, or am I just being the pessimist that I am? It seems like everyone is fighting and disagreeing with each other not matter what the issue is. And it seems like some people are bent on converting the other person over to their way of thinking or just blowing them off.

Why can't people just love each other for who they are and respect them if they have different views about things?

Try and think about how it could be:

"Love is but a song we sing,
  and fear's the way we die.

You can make the mountains ring,
  or make the angels cry.

Though the bird is on the wing,
  and you may not know why.

Come on people now. Smile on your brother.
Everybody get together.
Try to love one another right now.

Some will come and some will go,
  and we shall surely pass.

When the one that left us here,
  Returns for us at last.

We are but a moment's sunlight,
  fading in the grass.

Come on people now, Smile on your brother.
Everybody get together.
Try to love one another right now.

If you hear the song we sing,
  you will understand.

You hold the key to love and fear,
  in your trembling hand.

Just one key unlocks them both.
  It's there at your command.

Come on people now, Smile on your brother.
Everybody get together,
Try to love one another right now".

Love and  Peace

Jim

The Family Road Trip

I just returned home from a road trip with my family of optimists, and it was a nightmare for me (the pessimist). But for them, every problem and trial was a chance for adventure and excitement.

It started in Houston Texas, went through Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, and then round trip back through those same states.

We camped out in tents in some places, and just slept in the van in others. Then my wife and kids decided that camping out was too easy, and they decided to play “man vs wild” and just use whatever they could find in the wilderness to live on. I almost didn’t make it on those days, but they were in heaven.

At on place I finally found some people I could relate to. They put up a tent, cut out a place in the side of it, and then with duct tape installed a window type air conditioner. Then they used a gas generator to power it. Yeah, those are my kind of people. I visited them often.

Somehow my wife found her way to a park where you can dig and hunt for diamonds and keep whatever you find. Then she found a dinosaur park, a hot springs park, and some other kind of places to camp out that I couldn’t even find on the map.

In Branson, Missouri, at least, we stayed in a cabin on some property we had a timeshare on for 6 days.

Branson had all kind of Broadway type shows, malls, music entertainment, amusement parks, ect., but my family decided they would rather go fishing instead. Fishing!?? We could have done that at home.

While we were in Branson, MO, my wife was so impressed that she called her relatives back in Houston and some how convinced them to drive down to stay a week with us.

Finally, my wife’s relatives arrived and so we went to see some shows and do some things they wanted to do. My family almost got us thrown out of one show for smiling with flashing colored lights that fit into their mouths. The security people said it was distracting and blinding some of the performers on stage and causing them problems.

We took the scenic route on the way back home and I got car sick from riding up and down all the hills and mountains on the tiny roads we traveled on, but for the wife and kids it was just a free roller coaster ride and another adventure.

Somehow my wife figured out how to brew coffee on the road and campsites. That was the only thing that kept me going.

No food. No problem. They just stopped at the river on the side of the road and threw in some lines with their rods and reels and fished for trout. I think the locals there thought we we were a homeless family living out of our van, because they kept giving us the fish they caught and telling us they would pray for us. Well, we were in the middle of the bible belt, you know.

And going to the bathroom on a road trip. I won’t even go there.

Anyways, it’s good to be home.

Always Marry Your Best Friend:

After dating people of all different religions, atheist, different cultures, races, and in betweens, I had pretty much decided not to marry or commit to anyone. I was content just being single.

The guys in my church singles group used to go out and play pool all the time and we always entered nine ball tournaments together so that one of us would always win and then we used the prize money to go out and eat.

But one week a little Asian girl showed up at the tournament, and none of us could beat her. I asked her to teach me she always won so easily all the time and she stunned me by saying, ?I just pray to Jesus before every tournament, and I just always win if I do.? Then I found out she was using the prize money to buy food and other things for homeless people.

I started hanging out with her and we eventually became best buds, doing everything together (which was usually volunteering to help homeless people, helping abused women and orphans, usually things that she was already doing anyway.

If you ask her what religion she is she will tell you Buddhist, but she prays to Jesus (I don?t try and figure it out anymore, it just works for her).

Anyways, to try and make a long story short, I ended up marrying my best friend.

I don?t think there is anyone else on the planet earth that I could ever live with. And I don?t think there?s anyone else on earth who could live with and put up with me, so it works.

Moral of this long boring story. Maybe there is someone made just right for everyone. I don?t know for sure. A lot of people I know that have been married several or more times say they don?t think so.

Living with Angels

It always amazes me how much optimism my wife and kids have when “bad” things happen.

Like for instance, it was close to 100 degree’s today in Houston TX, and the electricity goes off. The first thing I say is “Man, were all going to die from heat exposure today.” But she says, “Yippee, lets have a barbecue and set up the tent outside.

The same thing happened when the hurricane hit us and took off part of our roof, one of the walls of the kids bedroom, and flooded the bottom floor of our house. Then, we hear the report that our water and electricity may be down for months. She and the kids were ecstatic with joy. She’s excited because she has been wanting to try out the new camping equipment we had bought and wanted the opportunity to teach the kids survival skills.

When the local airport reported they were building a new runway that would cause planes to be taking off and landing directly over our neighborhood, I whined about the noise it would cause. But she was jumping with joy and said, “Yea, now we don’t have to drive out to the airport gates to watch the planes takeoff and land. We can watch them from our back yard.”

No matter how bad things can get, she and the kids always find a ray of light out of it.

It’s good to live with angels. They always keep my spirits high and always keep me laughing.

Our First Church Experience:

After a couple of years into our marriage, and two kids along, we decided to take our family to a church here in Houston TX. My wife was nervous about it because she had never attended a Christian church service.

I picked one of the best known churches in Houston that was nationally known for their acceptance and compassion to others so she would feel extra welcome.

I told her how loving and wonderful these Christians were and that she could expect nothing but love and hugs.

She still was a little unsure, so we decided that she and the kids would go to the Family Life Center on the church campus and play games, shoot pool, and relax, while I went to the first bible study service to check it out before bringing them in with me to the main service.

After I dropped them off at the Family Life Center, I started walking down the side walk to the church building where the bible study held.

Now I didn’t see this part, but my wife and kids were watching from a window at the FLC building and this is what they saw A church security truck was making its rounds. When he saw me, my wife said he stopped his truck on a dime, jumped out of the truck and started running towards me (from behind).

He then tackled me from behind, picked me up and put me on a brick wall and began yelling loudly, “What is your business here?” “What are you doing here?” “How did you get in here?”

My wife and kids ran out to try and help me and see what was going on and when he saw them he started shouting the same things at them.

Finally, when I saw he wasn’t going to listen to any of us, I pulled rank on him and back him down, and he began calming down. But it was too late. The damage had been done. So much for my talk about Christian love and acceptance, huh?

But my wife’s reaction was, “Those people need help!” “We need to go back there and show them love and compassion.” And my kids agreed with her.

So the next Sunday there we were. Right back in the lion’s mouth. And she has served these people, given all her energy and love to them in ways you would never believe. But I think she has really helped a lot of damaged people who had been twisted by religion and legalism. She has worked miracles there.

The funny think is, I’m sure they all think she is a Christian just like them. If they only knew this person who has loved them and changed their lives around is Buddhist. What would they think?