MERCY IS GOOD MANNERS WITH A SMILE ON IT’S SOUL

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How often do you stop and consider that almost anyone you meet on the street is better than you at something; mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually (at least in one of these areas)…more of a scientific or mathematical bend, more kind, more patient, more intuitive in their dealing with people…they may have a personality so cold they could win a refrigeration contest but beneath that insecurity beats a heart that cares and may even propel them to do many unpublished good and kindly deeds.

In short, pray for each individual you meet and each individual you already know that their secret better qualities will every day be enhanced. It is not required that you ever find out what or who they really are…it is required that you pray these secret qualities will daily improve.

Whether they have pleased you or irritated you on this new day you owe it to them and yourself to think highly of them. Indeed, to be in constant critical mode is to be constantly depressed. This is just me talking but several psychological tests run recently.

And don’t claim difficulty…that is not the point…seek opportunity…even if it is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Mercy is good manners with a smile on one’s soul. It looks for a trace or an abundance of sunshine with equal vigor. It is as much a victim of criticizing as the person being criticized.

Benjamin Franklin went for the jugular vein when he said, “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.”
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Ephesians 4:29
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
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A New Series on PAIN AND PROBLEMS

began on this blog “Wyrick’s Writings” Thursday September 16,

the 2nd in series on Sept 19…

and will continue Each SUNDAY until finished.

Then a new Series on PRAYER will begin..

Each Tuesday there is a continuation of the Serialization of his Internationally distributed novel RUST ON MY SOUL.
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RUST ON MY SOUL (25th episode in series)

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If you would like to share this blog with a friend, go to the bottom and click on the ENVELOPE.
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GO BACK TO APRIL 13TH AND START THE SERIES.

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These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday
On Tuesday and Thursday a variety of other subjects are covered.
Currently each Sunday there is a series on Pain and Problems

**************************************************************

RUST ON MY SOUL (A Novel) (Published by Bridge Press in 1985 & Distributed Internationally) (A new Series that began on Tues April 13th and will continue every Tuesday thereafter until finished) (Thursday & Sunday will continue to cover a variety of subjects as in the past)
*********************************************************************
INTRODUCTION (Repeated for those new to the series)

In an old loose leaf notebook, Thomas Kettering wrote when there was a cry from his heart. He wrote when his inner longing spilled over into the reality of his days. He did not write every day, only when he felt he must. How often he wrote or when is not important. The journey is what counts, for it is a diary about all of us, to all of us. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and even a stumble is a step.
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(What matters is not what tomorrow brings but what you bring to tomorrow or as one philosopher put it, “Achievement is in the soul of man and not in his circumstances.”)
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Late night

Never have so many people been categorized in so many ways by so many. Everything has been reduced to statistics.

How else would we know how to act? Between being told what we are doing and what we should do we are no longer free. We are a land of the enslaved reaching up and out from a valley of discontent.

Madison Avenue is not new as a tyrant, just more sophisticate. It has created a nation of lamenters afraid to make up their own minds.

“The Suburban Woman” is how Nancy refers to herself, and reads another book or another magazine article, or listens to yet another talk show so she will not fall behind in the ongoing description of her role in life.

Am I any better? How often do I give in? Flow with the tide? Read the statistics? Even when I paddle my own canoe, don’t I make sure my paddle is not one of the inferior brands?

Evening

I’m a businessman and the way I see it there is a spiritual currency called salvation, a human weakness called sin, and an eternal obligation that can only be paid by this medium of exchange.
There. The cover blurb for my spiritual prospectus. Cute? Clever? Concise?

Do I mean it? It’s probably true, but to me it’s still just words.
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Wordsworth wrote “We live by admiration.”
Maybe you never thought of admiring your Lord, but think about it.
Try admiring his strength on the cross, His wisdom while He taught, His patience while He lived and His depth of character which placed Him head, soul and shoulders above all other men.
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TO BE CONTINUED NEXT TUESDAY (If You Missed the beginning on Tuesday April 13th
GO BACK AND CATCH UP

To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL
http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

*****************************************************
A New Series on PAIN AND PROBLEMS

began on this blog “Wyrick’s Writings” Thursday September 16,

the 2nd in series on Sept 19…

and will continue Each SUNDAY until finished.

Then a new Series on PRAYER will begin..

Each Tuesday there is a continuation of the Serialization of his Internationally distributed novel RUST ON MY SOUL.
******************************************************************

PAIN AND PROBLEMS (3rd in Series)(added to each Sunday)

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(The 1st in this series began Thursday Sept 16, 2nd Sept 19th, subsequent each Sunday)
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If you would like to share this blog with a friend, go to the bottom and click on the ENVELOPE.
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God is love and…
Some people in pain just don’t …just won’t believe it.

They believe in God - but they just don’t believe He is good.
They’ve seen the good die and the bad prosper.

They’ve seen the strong devour the weak.

They’ve seen too much suffering and pain and they cry out into the night, “If God is love, then why must there be so much that is unlovely?”

Well, needless to say, I’m not going to solve the paradox of problem and pain all in one Sabbath notation. But I am going to talk to the paradox and categorically state that I personally believe in a loving God.

I believe He knows what He is doing and He does nothing without reason. After all, he sees a total picture and we only a pixel or two.

I believe that what confuses me, as a child of God, is understood with infinite wisdom by my eternal heavenly Father.

I believe these things not with a blind faith that will not ask questions, but with a strong faith that admits I will never have all the answers.

Let me tell you a story.

Once a man built a weather vane. He then set it up on top of his barn in full sight of any and all who traveled the well-worn road that weaved through his farm lands.

Then underneath the weather vane, he placed a plaque that read, GOD IS LOVE.

His neighbors, and even a few strangers, stopped by to comment, “Why did you put ‘God is love’ beneath your weather vane.”

“Ah, now” the farmer would always reply, “I just wanted to emphasize that God is love no matter which way the wind blows.”

How does that scripture go? “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8)

John Greenleaf Whittier, the famous American poet, put it this way:

I see the wrong that round me lies,
I feel the guilt within;
I hear with groan and travail-cries,
The world confess its sin.

Yet in the maddening maze of things,
And tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit slings;
I know that God is good!

I know not where His islands lift
Their fronded palms in air.
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care.
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To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
***************************************************************
A New Series on PAIN AND PROBLEMS

began on this blog “Wyrick’s Writings” Thursday September 16,

the 2nd in series on Sept 19…

and will continue Each SUNDAY until finished.

Then a new Series on PRAYER will begin..

Each Tuesday there is a continuation of the Serialization of his Internationally distributed novel RUST ON MY SOUL.
*****************************************************************

WHAT IS COMMITMENT?

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These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday
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Commitment requires four definite steps; Confession, Contrition, Reparation and Amendment.

Confession says, “I have sinned.”

Contrition says, “I am sorry.”

Reparation says, “I will try to right the wrong.”

And Amendment says, “I will let yesterday’s sin teach me for a better tomorrow.”
Commitment says “What I am demands God as He is; nothing else will do.”

Alstair McLean wrote that if we could hold to God’s promises with one-fiftieth of the faith we profess, we would shout with a song of triumph, cry with the wind and march as one, shoulder to shoulder, and friend to friend.
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3rd in Series on PAIN AND PROBLEMS this Sunday September 26th
1st in Series Thursday began September 16th.
2nd in Series on Sunday September 19th.

Series will continue each Sunday until finished.

Then a series on Prayer

To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
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RUST ON MY SOUL (24th episode in series)

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GO BACK TO APRIL 13TH AND START THE SERIES. on Rust on My Soul

****************************************************************
These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday
On Tuesday and Thursday a variety of other subjects are convered.
Currently each Sunday there a new series on Pain and Problems
***********************************************************************
If you would like to share this blog with a friend, go to the bottom and click on TELL A FRIEND
**************************************************************

RUST ON MY SOUL (A Novel) (Published by Bridge Press in 1985 & Distributed Internationally) (A new Series that began on Tues April 13th and will continue every Tuesday thereafter until finished) (Thursday & Sunday will continue to cover a variety of subjects as in the past)
*********************************************************************
INTRODUCTION (Repeated for those new to the series)

In an old loose leaf notebook, Thomas Kettering wrote when there was a cry from his heart. He wrote when his inner longing spilled over into the reality of his days. He did not write every day, only when he felt he must. How often he wrote or when is not important. The journey is what counts, for it is a diary about all of us, to all of us. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and even a stumble is a step.
************************************************************
(What matters is not what tomorrow brings but what you bring to tomorrow or as one philosopher put it, “Achievement is in the soul of man and not in his circumstances.”)
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Evening

I wonder how many times, when I was a boy, I squeezed between our hedge and the garage, leaped forward into the overgrown field behind, and raced for the forest. In late afternoon, pockets of deep darkness and heavy foliage would swallow up my tiny frame.

Once inside it was quiet and I would walk Indian-soft, animal sounds occasionally broke the stillness and then I could smell it, the stagnant stench of low tide, the mud all shriveled up and ready for sucking at my toes.

Tall swamp grass stretched up to the forest edge. It was labyrinth of criss-cross paths where my friends and I often prowled. It was a place of snakes, the deep-throated slurp of frogs, and sure-footed squirrels bounding from branch to branch against the sky.

It was a place for little boys to act brave and be scared all at the same time.

It’s not that much different now. Our confidence is still so easily dispelled: an extra layer of fat, a barrage of pimples, a bald spot shining in the sun, any one of those will do it. Someone says, “Good morning” and with a paranoia that surprise us we wonder all day about the tone of voice that was used. We pride ourselves on our candor and our ability to absorb candor from others until someone disagrees with us and we are shattered.

There is a little boy hiding behind each of our manly facades and that little boy is so easily hurt.

No, it’s not that different now. Sometimes business smells, too, and moral shriveling sucks at our souls, and the labyrinth of decisions crisscrosses and confuses. In this adult jungle big boys can act brave and be scared all at the same time, too.

Evening

Am I any better for writing all this down? Countless millions just live life without delving into it too deeply. What is there in me that finds some special therapy in putting tags on problems?

Has this all been a prayer, even though I did not begin these musings with a “Dear Lord” nor end them with an “Amen”? What is a prayer, anyway, but a spelling out of what God already sees? When I admit I have more than I can handle, am I halfway in a prayer?

Evening

I have just about decided that it is not how far I go in life that really counts, but in what direction. Is then my dissatisfaction not because I have not achieved all my goals, but rather that in achieving them I have grown dissatisfied with the scenery.

Am I where I planned to be but too well aware that some of the detours have worn me out? “Straight arrow” they once called me in long-ago yesteryears, but now I lie, and cheat and legally steal.

I have greased the paths with rationalization, intent on making the slide toward cynicism easier for my conscience. It’s not just the big lies but also the “exaggerations” that, piled atop each other, make it a mountain.

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TO BE CONTINUED NEXT TUESDAY (If You Missed the beginning on Tuesday April 13th
GO BACK AND CATCH UP
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To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL
http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
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PAIN AND PROBLEMS (2nd in Series)(1st on Thursday Sept 13)

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These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday
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There are only so many things you can do if the world gives you too much disgust.
You can fight and find spice in battle.

You can try to understand it and accept the fact that there are some parts of the universe you will never understand.

You can retreat; pack up your phobias, close your doors, shut out the world and act as if becoming a hermit is really a solution.

You can retreat from life and mock its architect.

You can say God made a mistake when He made this world.

You can climb in a psychological or spiritual shell and say that because there is some ugliness, nothing is lovely or worthy of love.

But…what does Jesus teach?

It certainly isn’t escapism.

He says, “Yes, there is darkness…so go be a light.”

“Yes, there are the spiritually depraved, now YOU…go out and hunger and thirst for righteousness.”

Just because things are bad is no excuse for you to go and make them worse.

The Apostle Paul, searching for an answer wrote, “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God…which is in Christ Jesus.”

Emerson said it, “All that I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all that I have not seen.”

A great writer, thinker, philosopher John Oxeham wrote:
“Not for one single day
Can I discern my way.
But this I surely know…
Who gives the day,
Will show the way,
So I securely go.”
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To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
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FOR EVERY AILMENT UNDER THE SUN

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An old Mother Goose rhyme speaks to pain, problem and the anxiety it causes.
“For every ailment under the sun, there is a remedy or there is none; if there be one, try to find it; if there be none, never mind it.”

The great French philosopher, Montaigne, speaking to both the ryhme and life wrote "My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened.”

The Apostle Paul who was no stranger to troubles wrote, “Forget those things which are behind you and press forward to those things which are before.”

In short, there is nothing more foolish than to go through life dragging our fears behind us. Not learning from them but rather being paralyzed by them.

We either make yesterday a teacher or it becomes a tyrant.

Somewhere between the bum who never things about tomorrow and the ulcer-ridden executive who does nothing else is a balance.

Everyone of us has sought and are still seeking a better way to live and a braver way to die. Some do a better job than others but nevertheless a stumble is better than no step at all.

What to do to make things better? Well, in the weeks that follow i will have one theme that continues to arise...and that is...while we cannot always control what happens we can control how we handle the happenings.

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To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
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RUST ON MY SOUL (23rd episode in series)

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On Tuesday and Thursday a variety of other subjects are convered.
************************************************************
If you would like to share this blog with a friend, go to the bottom and click on TELL A FRIEND
***************************************************************************
GO BACK TO APRIL 13TH AND START THE SERIES.
***************************************************************************
These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday
If you would like to share this blog with a friend, go to the bottom and click on TELL A FRIEND
***************************************************************
RUST ON MY SOUL (A Novel) (Published by Bridge Press in 1985 & Distributed Internationally) (A new Series that began on Tues April 13th and will continue every Tuesday thereafter until finished) (Thursday & Sunday will continue to cover a variety of subjects as in the past)
***********************************************************************************
INTRODUCTION (Repeated for those new to the series)

In an old loose leaf notebook, Thomas Kettering wrote when there was a cry from his heart. He wrote when his inner longing spilled over into the reality of his days. He did not write every day, only when he felt he must. How often he wrote or when is not important. The journey is what counts, for it is a diary about all of us, to all of us. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and even a stumble is a step.

Midmorning

Margaret, my secretary, acts this morning as if someone left her psyche out in the rain overnight. But then, my disposition hasn’t been anything to brag about recently, either.

What’s wrong with us?

Why for all these years have we mushed along toward civilized madness? If creature comforts were all that we needed having them should make us happy all the time.

Nancy and I have developed a talent for complaint. The more we have the less we’re satisfied. I can’t believe that’s a mathematical law. Does misery love wealth and poverty with equal vigor?

Evening

It’s a night for writing. A storm rages outside the rain beats against the windows and the wind blows in restless gusts, bending low the trees on our hill. It is as if they are in prayer to ease their turmoil. A strange word picture for a man who seldom prays. Is it my soul questing or mere coincidence?

The electricity has been off for half an hour. I hope it will come back on soon. Too much darkness for too long causes more than frustration; it becomes frightening. When did I first start the slow but steady darkening of my soul? And why have I now reached a point where I cry out for light to find my way home? To see beyond an external home. I mean, if I am not careful I’ll be singing hymns.

Why do I rebel when I start to get religious? Even here in this diary, where no one else would know? Is there a difference between religion and finding God?

All that has happened in a power outage and I’m starting to prach a sermon to this congregation of one.

I’m no atheist; I never have been. I’ve never the inclination to completely reject God. I’m more of a religious drifter, content with handouts. I look at the riches of heaven from afar, but I’m afraid of the responsibilities that go with them.

Afternoon

The turbulence came from the west and moved on to the east; this morning the sun shimmered on a wet dawn and the air was clear. A storm and a new bright dawn are never far away from each other. Is this me?

A storm always looking for a bright new dawn?

I got a promotion this morning. Another human being gave me a prize and the praise was pure joy. For awhile I didn’t think of my troubles, or my pains, or my weariness. They didn’t change, but for a short time I did.

When I am overcome by a storm of fear do I more easily cast off pretense? When the sky is blue, and there is money in my bank account, and at least more has been right in my day than wrong, do I let a little too much arrogance filter through?

When I have “the world by the tail” am I less likely to concern myself with its Omnipotent Architect?

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TO BE CONTINUED NEXT TUESDAY (If You Missed the beginning on Tuesday April 13th
GO BACK AND CATCH UP
************************************************************************
To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL
http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
**********************************************************************
This novel can be purchased on amazon.com
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WHAT IS YOUR CREED?

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These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday
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Everyone has a creed or creeds and all of them are not so very good. They are secret creeds and they are not shouted from the mountain top but they nevertheless are the creeds thousands live by.

Creeds such as…
I believe in a God who sent me the pleasure of back-biting and gossip.
I believe in a God who sent me the joy of nagging my husband or wife or child.
I believe in a God who sent me the feeling of superiority so I can lord it over those who are not as good as me.

And these creeds put a smile on the face of arrogance and bring a chuckle alive from the mouth of ego and the world shrivels a little and dies a little and weeps a great deal when it happens.
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To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
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LEISURE, WHAT TO DO WITH IT…WHAT IT DOES TO US

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These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday
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If you would like to share this blog with a friend, go to the bottom and click on TELL A FRIEND

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I watched a child playing the other day and he was so busy and his sister equally so. All that energy expended in the sheer joy of living and I thought how idleness is only good when it takes place after a host of doing.

It is why when someone says to me that they are about to retire I first congratulate them and then ask the question, “What are you retiring to?”

What purpose indeed? What goal that enlivens the waking up process. As beautiful as a sunrise or a sunset is it is not enough unless some of the time in between is filled with doing.

They put together a psychological test recently and took two groups of people. One group volunteered to carry a package a goodly distance and a second group was told they had to carry the package the same distance.

Where it was voluntary or by demand…the group that got up and got going was happier and more content afterwards than the group that sat idly by.

The mood of idleness is negative.

The great psychologist William James put it well when he wrote, “Neither the nature nor the amount of our work is accountable for the frequency and severity of our breakdowns. But their cause lies, rather in that absurd feeling of hurry and having no time, in breathlessness and tension and anxiety.”

In short, sometimes we need to let our clocks run down.

Sometimes we need to get so engrossed in a game we are playing, a book we are reading, or a job we are completing we don’t care what time it is.

Again, retire to what!

It’s using time like we appreciate and admire it.

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To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
*****************************************************************

RUST ON MY SOUL (22nd episode in series)

***************************************************************************
GO BACK TO APRIL 13TH AND START THE SERIES.
***************************************************************************
These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday
If you would like to share this blog with a friend, go to the bottom and click on TELL A FRIEND
***************************************************************
RUST ON MY SOUL (A Novel) (Published by Bridge Press in 1985 & Distributed Internationally) (A new Series that began on Tues April 13th and will continue every Tuesday thereafter until finished) (Thursday & Sunday will continue to cover a variety of subjects as in the past)
***********************************************************************************
INTRODUCTION (Repeated for those new to the series)

In an old loose leaf notebook, Thomas Kettering wrote when there was a cry from his heart. He wrote when his inner longing spilled over into the reality of his days. He did not write every day, only when he felt he must. How often he wrote or when is not important. The journey is what counts, for it is a diary about all of us, to all of us. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and even a stumble is a step.
Evening

I survive in a perpetual traffic jam. I endure the cacophony of noise that assaults me from the city streets. I grimace and growl at pedestrians as they grimace and growl back at me.

In early pioneer days if a man missed a stagecoach he just settled back and waited a couple of days for the next one. Today a man gets upset if he misses one section of a revolving door.

I fight a losing battle with panic. It surges up and tightens every muscle in my body. It makes me wide eyed at two A.M. I lie in bed with a frantic prayer and a rapidly beating heart. Will it step its churning of my life blood before I learn how to live?

Morning

“Get off my back!” It wasn’t an original comment neither was Billy’s red face nor the door slammed hard and loud. I had watched the same scene on television more than once. Bu then people are never original when it comes to problems. There are only so many ways to foul up a life.

“You knew he was smoking pot!” Nancy shouted.

“You didn’t have to sit there in shocked silence and finally come out with the inane statement, “You know you’re ruining your health.” There were tears in her eyes as she turned to stare out the window.

She was right. I have suspected Billy’s sullen silence was more than inability to talk about his sister’s departure. But what am I supposed to say? What words can make a difference to him?

A daughter, already run away, gone for almost a month. Now a son unruly in revolt. Why will not our children be parented? We read the books on child psychology. We protected their egos. We tried to let them know we cared by letter them be free and unrestrained.

It hasn’t been a paradise around here, but neither is it an Eden out there. Connie’s seventeen going on twenty-seven and her self-image is a picture painted by bravado. R-rated movies and too much of the unearned “good life.”

She was never sweet sixteen. Indeed, from the first time as a baby she threw a tantrum and got her way, it’s been all downhill.

Connie, will you ever come back? And if you do, what will our conversation be like?
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TO BE CONTINUED NEXT TUESDAY (If You Missed the beginning on Tuesday April 13th
GO BACK AND CATCH UP
************************************************************************
To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

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SOME THOUGHTS ON VANITY

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These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday
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They had given up wealth, position, time, community ties.

They had sacrificed and now they had become pompous in their sacrifice

Thinking, that at the very least they deserved some reward, they asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

And then they waited.

Each one hopeful that Jesus would say, “You are the greatest, Peter your fire and enthusiasm has endeared you above all others.’

Matthew waiting to hear Him say, “You are the greatest, your logical mind has placed you head and shoulders above this rough-hewn lot.”

Thomas waited to hear, “You are the greatest, for your searching questions have shown your honest desire to understand.”

Each of the twelve waited to hear Jesus say, “You are the greatest. I love you the most. I care what happens to you above all the rest. I cannot thank you enough.”

But Christ, as often Christ did, answered that question in a way that would teach a lesson.
He called a little child unto Him.

A comely, dark-eyed youngster still with a heart pure and clear.
A creature from the miracle of creation.

A being not yet old enough to be marred by petty jealousies hurts and imagined wrongs.
And cradling that little child in His arms, He said, “Verily I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Vanity puts a chip on the shoulder a hole in the head and a thorn in the side.

Vanity will neither accept criticism or learn from it.

The truly vain when they pray remind God of their credentials.

It is unlikely they will say it in a prayer but the thought does sometimes still reside in their thoughts, “Look closely Lord and I am sure you will find my name written in gold on the pages of heaven.”
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Job 15:31 - Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompense.
To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
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THE WHITE BRIGHT LIGHT OF HOPE

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Hope is faith in perpetual motion.
It is a man preparing to play a song on a violin with only one string.
Hope is an antidote for fear.

Hope is blind to the imperfections of a moment but hope is what makes rainbows out of storms.

Hope is in love with shine rather than shadow.
Hope has a love affair going with gratitude.
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"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer" (ROM 12:12).
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To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
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