Marriage Thoughts...

Sometimes I wonder why marriage has to be so hard. Isn't it supposed to be fun? Uplifting? A meeting of compatible minds and hearts that support and accept each other, no matter what? Does anyone think it just comes easy?

I personally believe that marriage, and even love, is a CHOICE. Each day, you make a conscious decision to be a wife or a husband... to love the person you vowed to love and cherish. Anyone who believes that 1. marriage makes everything easier, or 2. you can change your spouse to make him/her more of what you want, is an idiot. If you chose someone who is somewhat moody, then don't expect that person to be any different 10 years down the road-- unless he/she sees those personality traits as flaws and wants to change for himself/herself. And PLEASE, by all means, don't think adding children to the mix is going to make easier an uncomfortable, unhappy or volatile marriage.

I envy those couples who have an easy manner to their relationship. Each of them seems to be happy in their own skins, happy with their environments, happy with those around them... and this is the way it is ALL THE TIME. How can that be? Is it reality, or do they just put on a facade for all of the world to see and covet? I'm sure all relationships have some sort of issue or another at least occasionally... right?

God says that marriage is holy covenant before HIM between a man and a woman. Marriage should not be entered into lightly. Also, once you're there, every effort should be made-- on a daily basis-- to keep that marriage happy and fulfilling to both people.

I have a good friend whose marriage everyone else looks down on... she basically has had every responsibility of family and home thrust upon her shoulders. People tell her constantly that she should 'boot him out.' Well, she loves her husband... she took vows... to love and cherish, for better or for worse... in sickness and in health... She doesn't take those vows lightly... they are nothing to be thrown out simply because of hardship or inconvenience... If more people took these vows seriously, the divorce rate wouldn't be so high...

My advice to myself and to others... put and keep God in your marriage. Pray daily for the patience and understanding that it takes to put "self" on hold sometimes and think about yourself as part of a single unit. It's hard, but everything in life that's fulfilling IS.

Life Turns on a Dime...

I was thinking today how life turns on a dime... With the two car accidents that happened this weekend-- where TWO people I know were affected-- I realized that there IS no promise of tomorrow. Who would have ever thought that a 17-year-old girl could be gone in an instant? That her life would be snuffed out so quickly... Who would have thought that a family man, a newlywed, a man who had recently found love again could be wiped out in a crazy vehicle accident... where a tree fell in the road because of a storm. Freak accident. My preacher said that life is sometimes stranger than fiction. How true... I guess the moral of this lame attempt in writing is to urge everyone-- myself included-- to tell your people how much you love them... to never take for granted life and years. We have no guarantee of tomorrow.

Responsibility

Today...
Parent comes in and wants her son's results from the middle grades writing test. She is informed by me through the counselor clerk (who called my room while I was teaching) that I already gave those scores to the students on 3-24 and had the students sign for them. The students, by signing, agreed to take the scores home to their parents.
This parent wanted me to stop my class, go to the copy machine and make her a new copy. She was told by me via phone that I had already given the scores out, but if her son reminded me in the morning to make a new copy, I certainly would. She had a coniption fit! She told the counselor clerk that I needed to remind myself. She was completely nasty and rude.
Now, I did what I was supposed to do. Why is this parent not holding her SON accountable for not bringing home those scores? It's asinine!
The WORST thing in our society at this moment??? A lack of personal responsibility and the parents' inexcusable neglect of teaching personal responsibility to their kids!!! It makes me sick.

My Church!

Really. Most churches in this county should be named "1st Church of We'reBetterThanYou." I attended a premier baptist church all of my childhood, and the snobbery and hypocrisy drove me away from organized religion all through my teens and early adulthood. NOW, however, I attend Crossroads Baptist, which meets at the Savannah Baptist Assembly, on Old Louisville Road in Guyton. WOW! What a refreshing, spirit-lifting place to serve God. Seriously, wear what you are comfortable in. It's not just something that's said there. You really CAN go in jeans and t-shirts and be completely accepted. (Most people do!) Go with your tattoos and multiple piercings-- no one cares. (Besides, Jesus was pierced, too!) You truly will find acceptance at Crossroads. Won't you join us?

Ms. Kat's Field Peas... and other Southern stuff...

Ya'll ever had a good pot of field peas with snaps? I go to church with a lady that I call Ms. Kat who delivers this manna from Heaven at every church dinner... I suwanee, if I could jar these things and sell them, I'd be richer than that there Microsoft man! What a blessed day it was when she gave me the pot of leftover peas as I was walkin' out the church door, and she said, "Hunney, just take the rest of 'em home with ya!" Feasting on 'em right now, and they're what inspired this blog! Next, remember the song that came out a few years ago by some band who I can't remember... the song proclaimed that on the "eighth day, God made sweet tea..." I bet people in the other parts of this good old U S of A were completely clueless as to why someone would sing about a drink. We all know that the other parts of the country are clueless to the divine greatness of sweet tea! Of course, our own Billy Currington writes about his ma-- Ms. Belle-- and her "sweet tea." I wonder how many other non-alcoholic drinks have had songs written about them... Also on the list of simply Southern delights... boiled peanuts. Now, most people in this area pronounce them, "bald peanuts." (It's that southern twang!) I do say "boy-uld"... you know... almost with 2 syllables. Either way, though, anyone who was raised down here knows that, on some days, nothing takes the place of some good boiled peanuts! We even have a festival about them... up the road a piece, in Brooklet. Of course they have it every year in August-- hottest month of the summer season! They'd probably get a lot more people in attendance if they'd hold it in April or October. Just a suggestion... Of course, they ain't callin' me askin' me for my input! Finally, of all Southern things to write about... the MOST southern is... Well, what do YOU think? Respond and let me know what simply Southern thing you can't live without!

What happened to music?

As an avid American Idol fan, I am amazed-- no, horrified, actually-- about what passes for good music nowadays. Now, I don't want to sound like our parents did when we listened to KISS or the Rolling Stones... but come on, I watched Kesha and Usher and P. Diddy on AI recently, and I was astounded at the lack of soul, of depth, of intensity of the "music" of these artists. I'm not saying the bands of the 70s were the purveyors of truth and justice, but seems like music had more meaning. Music of the past was either ground-breaking or experimental or meaningful. It just seems like there is no more ground to break in the music industry. Even Lady Gaga, who claims to be innovative, is just a pop singer using sex to sell mundanity to the masses who think she's cutting-edge.
I just find myself listening to radio stations that play old music. I am a child of the 70s and 80s, and maybe I just don't "get" the crap the music industry is putting out today... Call me a relic, call me what you will, say I'm old-fashioned, say I'm over the hill. Today's music ain't got the same soul... Yup, Bob Seger said it best...