Faith Club

Met with my "outside the church" book club today. The book for this month was The Faith Club by Ranya Idibly, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner. It was written after September 11 by 3 mothers who got together for the purpose of writing a book for children about the connections between Judaism, Christianity, and Judaism. I hadn't finished reading the book because I kept going back and re-reading parts because I would get confused about who was writing, so I don't know if the Children's book was ever written. I just checked on Amazon and didn't see one mentioned.

What was fascinating was the discussion at our table regarding the different rules of different religions, even the different rules within Christian religions - and the logic behind the differences and the rules. There was a lot of pain regarding rules that separated families from their church affiliation. All of us were Christian. And being a person who listens to other table conversations, I wondered if other people were listening to us.

I enjoy being around smart women, especially smart women who read books of all kinds and can discuss them openly. What became even more evident in our discussion is how religion divides people. Religion brings people together in big and important ways, but our beliefs carry a passion that can be difficult to open up and discuss. After all - who is the authority?

As always, I choose to err on the side of love and understanding. The more we can talk to each other, the more we understand.

I am thankful for my faith background. Our next couple of books will not be on religion. Probably a good thing.

"How to Grow Your Business - What You Need to Know and What You Need to Do"

Went to a Houston Coaches meeting last night and hear Karen McCullough speak on the topic in the title of this blog. I have been buying and reading so many books to help with Directive Coaching with the Texas Conference that I have neglected my individual coaching. Time to renew my determination to blog, post, tweet, and web crawl. Here is Karen's amazing website:
http://karenmccullough.com/
She is a high energy, highly motivating speaker.


Today I am preparing to give a talk for the United Methodist Women at the church I attend on the book "How Is It With You Soul?" (on Wednesday, March 11). My soul seems to be on hyperspeed with social media requirements in this new day and age. The titles of the sections of this study are Pray, Learn, Mentor, and Transform. I have spent a lot of time "learning". Now it is time to "pray"!

Shopping with Joel



This is my grandson on a shopping trip. It looks to me like he is checking out the basket and wondering "What's in the basket for me?" (Actually I think he is just grinding his new teeth and wondering if he will be able to chew on what's in the basket!)

The interesting thing about traveling with a baby is it is almost impossible to travel "light". We are planning to go to Florida to meet up with Joel and his parents and I have been struggling with what to take for him to play with and what I need to just send to their home in Virginia for Christmas. I am sure his mom and dad don't need anything extra to carry home. Maybe I will just take it on the trip and then take it back home and send it.

I also have a hard time deciding which books to take with me on the trip. What are you reading that you would recommend?

Traveling Light is now a CD!

I haven't posted in almost a whole year, so I decided to look up Traveling Light and found it is a fairly common name used by other people for other things. Not unique. Bummer. However - I also found to my joy - that Sara Groves and another guy have created a CD called Traveling Light that is about the 23rd Psalm. I am ordering it today! It may be old, but I found one song on YouTube. Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hgnsMg4z2I
I am working on a retreat for a women's ministry in Kerrville and using the book "Wasting Time With God" by Claus Kissler. Friendship is the section I am reading now. I value my friends. Keep in touch.

Belief

I am reading a very interesting book that has wonderful ideas about love. The author quotes from the Bible. I have heard the author speak from a CD and she is very engaging. However, I am concerned about words like "higher consciousness" and "enlightenment".

I checked out the church the author attends. The website has the belief statement and the articles of faith for the church.

The church is located in Sedona, AZ. which I know is considered a "spiritual" place, but not necessarily Christian.

I wonder if how I am feeling about this church and the book I am reading is like Nicodemus felt when he met Jesus.

The book is supposedly about the conversations the author actually had with Jesus while she painted his portrait. I like the portrait. It is simple and Jesus looks strong and caring. I like what Jesus says to the author:
"True creativity is the presence of God within..."
"There are three enduring certainties around which all positive belief develops. The first is your connection to God. The second is an honest knowing of yourself. The third is that you shall receive as you have been given."
"When you seek and pursue that which is not truly yours, you will develop a kind of hunger that cannot be appeased, and a deep sense of "neediness", which distorts your life and creates dis-ease"."
I have underlined and underlined so much that makes sense. What do you think?
The Book is "The Keys of Jeshua". The church is called Spiritis Church. Seems new age-ish to me, but I think Jesus was new age-ish for Nicodemus.

Unconditional Love

Just finished "Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers. Great book that follows the idea behind the book of Hosea in the Old Testament of the Bible. It is fiction. And - there are wonderful discussion questions at the end of the book that would be interesting to talk through with a group. The concept of unconditional love is difficult when someone completely turns their back on kindness.
I find most people don't understand the concept of love. I taught a 4th and 5th grade Sunday school class about the love between Jonathan and David (in the Bible). I thought one of the young men in the class was going to get sick when I told him that loving his neighbor meant loving the people in his Sunday school class. "Oh that is so gross" was his comment. The sad thing is that many never get past the 4th and 5th grade level of emotional maturity. Sometimes I find that I regress to that level!
I frequently think, "What would love do in this situation?" I don't want to enable someone to take advantage of anyone (especially if that someone is me). There is such a fine line between letting something go and then settling the situation at a later time. I can let things go, but I am not good about bringing it up later so it can be discussed. I don't like reopening a "can of worms" if it is going to blow up. Sometimes that means there are lots of "worms" crawling around just waiting for the right moment to escape and make a big mess.
How about you? When love is difficult, how do you keep loving?
In the meantime - I still love you!

Dog on Bed

Hank the beagle got in trouble at our "pet friendly" hotel, so we are both being confined to the room. It seems although the hotel is pet friendly, some of the guests are not. Of course that could be because the pup was not happy being left in the room while his room mates went to breakfast, so he raised quite a rucus with his barking. Beagle barking can be quite irritating, so I don't blame the guests. I must say I was surprised the guests were mad at me. I had no idea the dog would go ballistic - and I didn't leave the room until 7:45, so it wasn't that early. Oh well.

Fortunately I have my Nook with me and I had downloaded "Water for Elephants". Very good book. Then, just for fun, went to look up "The Help" and read the two chapter preview.

Now I would like to go for a walk, but it is way too hot outside. So nice to have time to read just for fun.