Gift @ MindSay

For some reason, one of my coworkers and I today got into a discussion about gifts.  Specifically, gifts that you give or receive that are not particularly well-suited.  The kind that either are "re-gifted" or exchanged.  And it made me think of the Christmas of '96.

Prior to the holiday, my dad and I were at the mall, shopping.  This was probably when I was home for Thanksgiving.  We'd gone into a store that, I think, was only there for that one shopping season.  It sold all sorts of imports, mostly Asian, and mostly tacky.

On every wall in the store, in a line stretching the whole way around, above the door level, were clocks.  Not just any old clocks, though.  They were all of the same style.  (And I use that word in the broadest sense.)  The faces of these clocks were black velvet, with pearlescent dots for the numbers.  Around the edges and gathered at the bottom of the face were fake flowers.  On the second hands were... believe it or not... dried moths or butterflies.  Real ones, it sure looked like.

As if that wasn't bad enough, framing the clock itself were designs in molded plastic.  Like rampant griffins or some such thing.  And of course, they were all shiny gold painted.

As you might imagine, I gaped at these hideous monstrosities as we were in the store.  And I might have said something very vague to my father, along the lines of, "Look at those clocks!"

You can see where this is going. 

Thinking my reaction was somehow appreciative, for Christmas, he bought me one.

I opened the box and sat there with it in my lap, staring in shock.  I know I hesitated before saying anything.  Largely because I had no idea what to say.  Ultimately, I croaked out, "Oh!  I've seen these!"

Never being the type to return items, generally, and not hating anyone enough to "re-gift" it to them, I dutifully hung it on one of the walls in the townhouse I shared with masivemaple  and others.

Oddly enough, they never held it against me.

And hey...  For more than ten years, now, I've been able to tell this story!  Thanks, Dad!

I was asked by a mindsay fellow  my 'rant'  or 'witness' on this Christian life. so here it is..

 

My perspective is that all of us was given a no strings attached  Gift of life, none of us asked for the  gift of life we have, and no promises  were given to us on this gift of life that we have been given. It is ours to do with as we please. God asked nothing in return in giving us all ,this  gift of life, it was a free gift, free and clear, and its all you get,so live it as YOU would choose to live it,(as far as we are aware, the bible states that this world is run by another spirit ,that is behind all we do, if we are not Christ's,but that is another story) its pretty plain and simple isn't it? God asked for no thank you very much, or for any acknowledgement of Him nor for any gratitude  for it ,from us.His Sun shines on us all good or bad, and His earth gives of her bounty to us all, whether we are good or bad, rich or poor, it is unconditional . Some were born into much wealth, some was born into average wealth, and many born into poverty, again no promises made, it is your life , such as it is, to do as you would see fit to do with it, some have done much with what they were born with , others haven't done much, but again , it is your choice, your life, to live as you see fit. That is God's first gift to us.

 

So let me illustrate something here, bear with me, now. Lets say that we are in the game THE PRICE IS RIGHT  , we all should know this game and how it is played, so lets suppose that your life IS door number 1 such as it is, good, bad, happy or sad, its yours free and clear , but then God comes along and offers to you , whats behind door number 2,which is His life in exchange for yours, and all that He is and has is yours. The catch, you must give up your life for His, the catch is that Now in this life you will have eternal life and have this life more abundant(abundance from God's perspective and not ours),and eternal life to come, so here again  we are offered another life to live ,and you get to choose, your life, for His, with God's life, you must live manifesting Christ's Spirit to the world, which is a life of love, forgiveness, mercy, compassion, faith, in service to others, instead of serving just your self. You must hand over the reins and control of your present life to HIM,So what do you choose, door one, which you already have and know and are familiar with, its the only life you will have or ever will have, or will you choose door 2 and take the offer of the Creator of All that is seen and not seen, His offer of life eternal and live from now on, but from God's perspective.

Choices, choices choices..........I choose door number 2

 

My witness, I was born to a middle lower class parents, non religious, but typical American parents, not abusive non addictive..just average. At age 5 I developed Legg Perthes Disease in my left hip and had to wear a brace for 3 years. After the brace came off I was able to do things, but not real great at it for I still had some pain and weakness in that leg and it was now over an inch shorter and shoe size smaller. We are living in LA Calif. at this time, My dad gets Rheumatoid Arthritis real bad in his 20's and so now goes on disability so we pack all our bags and move to the sticks in Missouri. We get a 10 acres place, and a real old farm house and proceed to try to live on his  one disability check with 6 in the house hold,at that time over 40 years ago, it was not much of a check,so we raise everything we ate more or less, milked a few cows, had some chickens, and pigs, and have plenty to eat, but growing up a teen ager with no money for any nice clothes, we bought ours from dollar store, so lets say I was not the best dressed kid on the block.So after I leave home I go to college  a few years and tried to major in sin wild parties, sex, booze and drugs, almost got a degree in that :).Left school, got pregnant, married a year later, had 2 kids, and have been married 31  years to same man. Not much time for God in our lives , I would try now and again but church and the Christian religion really sucked, and TV evangelists were my only real evidence of this so called Christianity that everyone talks about.Not too impressed with that, and my husband even now, has no tolerance for  although he gave his life to Jesus as a teen and was baptised ,The Christian religion  or Christ centered Christianity in his life because of their witness.We studied alternative religions and pagan  and Wiccan lifestyle and we liked that.

My life now is living daily with pain from arthritis, and fibromyalgia, and a few pinched nerves thrown in there, we are maybe upper lower class income, not much going on in or around my life right now, and at times when I hurt all over non stop, I would have to say life sucks. Did I have a dream of God? Nope, Did I have a visitation from God or an angel? nope.Did I receive healing from God?Nope, still hopeful though. Did I get witnessed to from some  fantastic Christ centered Christian? Nope,Did I  read a good Christian book or two? Yes there has been a few of them, and a few good websites. So how did I come back to Christ? I became a  Christian as a teen but at the time, life was more interesting , fun and exciting outside of church than in it. It has been a very slow process of the Spirit of God working in my life, and a slow awakening in my thinking,  and in my spirit that Christ was more than a great person in history , but actually a very real and living presence that will not intrude in ones life if not asked, I asked, for Him to intrude, because my life sucked and I was hoping He had better ideas than I was having,and I am finding that what He has said and is, truly is the true and living way, and as God's Spirit opens my eyes and understanding daily, I continue to know in my spirit that it is the truth. My life is not all that changed, but my perceptions and perspectives have. Nothing flashy or exciting here, just a knowing that it is so.I would of loved to have had an angel or lightning flashes, or a great big voice from heaven, but nothing So there you go , such as it is .....

Blessings in Christ,

ANN

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so i finally submitted my primary application for medical school.  on what i'm pretty sure is the last possible day to get it processed in time for my committee letter to be written.  whew!

originally, i was going to apply to 10, maybe 15 schools.  much less than the average (which i think is around 20).  i ended up applying to 20.  $730!!  ah well, such is the sacrifice we make for our dreams, eh?  actually my dad ended up paying for most of it.  he does have a lot more money than i do...

at some point i'll find out which schools liked my primary application enough to send me a secondary application.  hopefully that will be soon.  first, the application service has to verify all my information, grades, test scores, etc.  then i get to request my committee letter/recommendation letters.  those get sent to the application service and then the entire application is sent to my schools.  who send me another application.  fingers crossed.

i don't know if that process made sense the way i said it.

anyways, to celebrate, i'm going spend money at the apple store (.com).  my dad gave me a $500 apple gift card (yeeha!) for my birthday.  it's from grant money, so it's less of a deal than it he'd paid for it out of pocket.  i went to the apple store, but there wasn't anything these that i needed or wanted.  i thought about getting an iphone, but i'm sure those will get even cheaper in the future and i already have a cell phone.  on verizon ;)  i was also thinking about a camera, but i have one of those also.  not as good as some in the store, but i'm not much of a photographer, so it's not a big deal.  i wanted speakers, but the ones in the store were ugly.  or for ipods.  which i don't have.  so to the online store i went.  here's what i've found so far:

coolio messenger bag/backpack hybrid that's supposed to be pretty comfortable
pretty speakers, small but works well for its size (i don't need huge ones anyway)
microphone, because the one in my macbook stinks and this one's pretty :)

i haven't made these my final purchases yet, i'll look around for a bit longer.