GOVERNMENT CAN AND SHOULD GET OUT OF MARRIAGE

Oklahoma Considering Separation Of Marriage & State (VIDEO):     http://tiny.cc/140218d

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  How is everyone doing?  I pray that this blog finds everyone in good health and spirits.  I am currently in Winfield, KS on my way to Abilene, KS.  I just got back on the road after taking three wonderful days at home.  Monday was the anniversary of Paula and my wedding.  We have been married eight wonderful years.  It is so hard to believe that we have been married that long.  It feels like we just got married. Loving her is so fun and easy.  I love her to death.

Today, I want to talk about marriage.  I have asked people many times, "Why get married?"  "What is marriage?"  and many other questions like that and it is amazing that no one has been able to answer it.  Here is a better one, "Why should government be involved?"  I have posted on facebook, twitter, and even briefly blogged that government should be out of the marriage business.  I was so happy when last month, Oklahoma law makers started talking about getting state government out of marriage.  I back this idea 100%.  Marriage is a private and personal matter.  Who is government to grant people permission to marry anyway?  Are they some kind of moral compass when it comes to marriage?  What does it matter anyway if the government tells a couple they can't marry?  If two people wants to live as a couple, they will do it with or without the government.  So, it isn't like the government is stopping anything.  Government has hurt marriage by making it a public and legal matter.  Today, most people look at marriage as nothing more than a contract or a way to get more benefits.  Because of this, people get married for the wrong reasons and end up getting divorced.  There is absolutely no reason government needs to be involved in marriage.  People can and should get married in their own way using whatever ceremony they want and having whoever they feels has authorization to marry them.

To make my point about government making marriage nothing more than a legal matter, I heard someone making the case as to why marriage has to be regulated by government on the radio today.  I guess this issue has gained in popularity nationally.  The person said that if two people get married without government, has children, shares money, and gets a divorce, who gets the children and the money if one person is a Catholic and the other becomes Atheist?  They were both Catholic when they got married but now the other has changed to atheist.  Everyone, raise your hands if you know two people who live together, have children, and then separate.  What did they do when they separated and didn't agree on money, house, or kids?  Go to court, right?  Why can't that happen when two people get married privately?  There really isn't any difference now between a legal marriage and two people who live together as if they are married.  Those of you who are playing house and have children, if you two separate, you will have to go through the same thing as two people who divorce.  So really, we will not have to change anything when it comes to divorce if government gets out of marriage.  The only difference is that people will not have to ask for the government for permission to divorce because government will not recognize the marriage.

When it comes to benefits, government shouldn't be promoting marriage in any way shape or form.  People shouldn't be rewarded by the government for getting married.  Marriage should be personal and the reward should only be the marriage.  If a couple is only getting married for the financial or other physical rewards, they shouldn't be getting married at all.  They shouldn't even be living together because that isn't true love.  Married people shouldn't be treated differently by the government than single people either.

If you support government getting out of marriage, please contact your repressentatives in Washington and in your state. If you have any questions, feel free to comment the questions in this blog, on facebook (oktomcat), or on twitter (oktomcat).  Take care and God Bless.

Love,
The Oklahoma Tomcat

FROM FREEDOM TO BONDAGE

Amy grew up with good parents who cared for her and taught her good morals and respect. She was a straight A student and stayed out of trouble.  When she graduated high school, she left home and went off to college where she continued to do very good.  While in college, she met a handsome and charming young man named Bill.  He was polite, funny, and always complemented Amy.  Oh the complements.  Bill poured out complements to Amy all the time.  He told her that he looked up to her and told her that she is a very smart woman.  He put her on a pedestal and treated her like a princess.  It didn't take long before Bill and Amy was a couple.  They spent all their free time together and Amy knew she had found her dream man.  She loved him with all her heart.  After graduation they both got good jobs, got married, and bought a place together.  Bill didn't want Amy to have to worry about anything so he took care of all the bills and finances.  He even got a very good job and told Amy that she didn't have to work outside the house.  He took care of everything for her.  She was living a dream.  Shortly after having their first child, Bill told Amy that he wanted to move to a different state and away from their friends and family.  Amy didn't feel comfortable about moving to a place where they would have to start over and were they wouldn't know anyone.  She also didn't like that he would be leaving his job.  But she loved Bill and trusted him, so they moved.  Amy was busy with the child and things in the new house so she never had time to meet new people.  She felt that she had no support or help.  Shortly after moving, Bill was pointing out every mistake she made and started making her feel bad.  Slowly, she started feeling worthless, like she couldn't do anything without him.  He was even criticizing her and undermining her in front of their child. If she told the child to do something, he would tell the child not to do it and that his mom was stupid. One day Bill got home and Amy didn't have dinner ready.  He got bad and slapped her. This was the first time he hit her.  She was shocked and started to cry. He apologized and told her that he had a bad day and he will not hit her again.  It wasn’t long though before he got mad at her because he found a dirty plate and threw the plate at her.  The hitting and yelling started becoming a regular thing.  Hope came to Amy though.  She found out that she was pregnant and she began to think that the baby will change Bill.  That didn’t happen though.  With the new child, Bill became more controlling and abusive. Amy now felt that this life was all she had.  She felt that she couldn’t leave because she needed Bill to take care of her. She feels that she can’t do anything without her husband.

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  How is everyone doing?  I pray that y’all find this blog in good health and spirits. I am currently at Alco in Pawhuska, OK.  I have to deliver here tomorrow morning and have two more deliveries after I am done here.  After I have made all of my deliveries, I get to go home for a 4 day weekend.  YAY!!!

I have been wanting to do this blog for a very long time.  Recently, a few things happened that finally pushed me to write it.  One thing was when my wife called me and suggested that I write a blog along this topic.  It shocked me because I never told my wife about my plan to write the blog. That was a sign to me that I need to write this blog.

The story I told above is based on stories I have been told by some of women I knew who were abused.  I made the names up and I generalized the story, but the steps that led to the young women becoming abused are the same in every case I have heard.  When people hear that volunteered as a child advocate and have worked with abused women, they often ask why anyone would remain in an abusive relationship. Some have even said that there is something wrong with a person who willingly remains with a spouse who is abusive.  It is easy to question why someone would stay in an abusive relationship when we either have never been in one or don’t think we are in an abusive relationship.  That is correct, I said “if we don’t think we are in an abusive relationship.”  It is possible to think you are not in an abusive relationship and yet be in one.  To tell you the truth, the majority of us are vulnerable to abuse.  We just don’t want to think we are.

Those that want to control others and “own” them are actually extremely smart.  The method of control I describe in the story above is actually the most common methods used.  Controlling people will not just go up to someone and say, “I am going to control and abuse you.  If you don’t let me, I will use force to make you.”   It is a process that requires patients and knowledge of human nature but the victim will become a willing slave and won’t fight it. Most victims never even report it or try to leave the relationship. 

This form of control and abuse is not new.  It has been used for many years and around the globe.  It is so effective because we all have a huge flaw.  That flaw is human nature.  It is human nature to want to be loved, taken care of, and to have no responsibilities.  We are willing to give up freedom for security.  It is this part of human nature that some people take advantage of.  First, make the person feel special and gain your trust.  Make them believe that you care about them and that you are looking out for them.  Once trust is established, take away their ability to do things on their own by providing for them.  Give them the things they need to survive, like food, shelter, and clothes so that they don’t have to provide for themselves.  Next, make the person feel that they are worthless and that they can’t survive without you.  Attacking their self-esteem is very important because it is what will make them dependent on you and will lock them into the relationship.  Once this is done, you can do anything you want to them.

Individual relationships isn't the only place where this method of control and abuse is used.  Cults use this method all of the time.  Think about it, a cult depends on people JOINING so they never use force to get their victims.  The only difference is that they are doing it on a larger scale and need to make sure that everyone is convinced that they are looking out for the groups’ best interest. Another place where this method of control and abuse takes place may shock y’all.  It is in governments.  That is correct; dictators use this method to gain power.  Take a look at history.  While some dictators have used wars to take control, most have come into power without the use of weapons.  They get into government and then convince the people that they are looking out for their personal interest.  Many of these dictators are even voted into power by the people and even re-elected time and time again. See why I say that the majority of people are vulnerable to abuse?  This is why I don’t look to humans to take care of me, I look to God.  Take care and God Bless.

Love,

The Oklahoma Tomcat.

www.twitter.com/oktomcat

Everyone Can Afford To Homeschool Their child

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I pray that this blog finds everyone in good health and spirits.  Things are going pretty good for my family and I.  I am currently in Salina, KS.  I was unable to get home this weekend because I got stuck in an ice storm in Minnesota and now need to make up for lost time.

Today, I want to show everyone who wants to homeschool their children, how they can afford it.  There are several costs that need to be considered when deciding to homeschool.  The one huge one is loss of income if both parents are currently working.  To effectively homeschool, one parent must stay at home.  Yes, you could schedule the homeschooling around your job. But if you work full time, will you have the energy and be able to focus on your child's schooling?  If you can't afford to be a stay at home parent now, I recommend that you take a look at your finances so that you can see where you can cut back on your expenses.  Of course, be sure to talk to your spouse before making any changes.  You may not be able to quite your job and homeschool now, but you can work on cutting your expenses so that you can stay home and homeschool a year or two from now.

For those of you who can afford to stay home, the rest is easy.  I scheduled the timing of this blog for the beginning of the year because I recommend using your Child Tax Credit for buying the books and material your child needs.  The Child Tax Credit is about $1,000 per qualifying child under 17 years old.  The amount depends on the household income.  The cost of homeschooling varies greatly depending on how much your willing to do, your knowledge, and what your child needs.  It is reported that the average homeschooling family spends $900 per child per year.  I can tell you that you can get a real good curriculum that has everything (teacher guide, work books, text books, ect) for subject for that price.  You will be outfitted with everything your child needs except pencils, paper, and crayons (which you can stock up on throughout the year).  You can get a complete curriculum for as little as $300 or you can get a list of what your child needs to learn for the year and go to a book store (like Mardels) and get the books yourself.  You can also get used curriculum or utilize your library.  Buying the individual books (new or used) or going to a library is much cheaper, but it requires more research on your part.  Make sure you find out what your child needs to learn for the grade that they are in. Another advantage to using a curriculum to consider is that if you stick with the same curriculum every year, the price isn't always the same.  You may pay $300 - $900 one year, but may only have to pay $191 the next.  This is because some of them have multi-level material that can be used for more than one grade level.  But as you can see, even if you buy a curriculum for $900, you still haven't spent all of your Child Tax Credit. Finding curriculum for less than $900 is very easy too.

I can hear it now.  "But I need that money for other things?"  What do you need it for?  How important is your child's education?  First, that Child Tax Credit is being given to you for your child.  It isn't even really yours.  You didn't earn it and it isn't a right.  So, whatever you need it for, I hope it is for your child's need, not yours.  I personally can't see any greater need than my child's education.  My wife and I agree that our children's education is the top of our priority list.  It is very important that our children grow up with all the tools to be independent and successful.  Raising a child is 100% the parent's responsibility.  It isn't our neighbor's responsibility, it isn't the community's responsibility, it isn't the government's responsibility, it isn't even the school's responsibility.  It is our responsibility.  Part of raising a child is educating the child.  Life is going to be hard for our child as it is.  Our children are going to have to make lots of decisions that can lead to success or failure .  There will also be lots of obstacles in their way.  We want to make sure that one of those obstacles will not be our failure to raise them correctly.  That is why we are willing to use that $1000 on our child. It is also why we make sure we live in a way that allows one of us to stay home while the other goes out and works.

By using the Child Tax Credit to buy either the curriculum or the books needed to homeschool, you will ensure that you always have the finances needed to homeschool your children up to the age of 17.  While your children are young, save money for you child's Junior and Senior years (or more if you will be funding collage).  Be sure to keep your eyes open for sales or deals throughout the year for the small things like paper, pencils, pens, crayons, art supplies, ect.

Well, I will go ahead and end this blog and get it posted.  I pray that this blog was helpful.  Take care and God bless.

Love,
The Oklahoma Tomcat
http://twitter.com/oktomcat

references:
http://www.hslda.org/default.aspx
http://store.hslda.org/what-your-child-needs-to-know-when-p69.aspx

Proverbs 22:6

Deuteronomy 6:7

Psalm 127: 3-5

http://www.hslda.org/earlyyears/Costs.asp

Merry Christmas

A wife was tired of her marriage and didn't feel loved anymore.  So, one day while her husband was at work, she decided to pack her stuff, leave a note, and leave.  When her husband got home and saw the note, he was crushed.  He called around to try to find out where his wife was.  He finally found out that she is staying at a hotel in another city many miles away.  He called her every day to try to get her to come back but she kept refusing.  That weekend, the husband packed his things and went out to the hotel she was staying.  He just had to try to convince her to return to him.  When he got to the hotel, he went to her room and knocked.  When she answered the door, he begged for her to return to him and told her how much he loved and missed her.  At that moment, she felt his love and returned to him.

A few days later, the husband was wondering why his wife returned to him when he went to the hotel to get her, but not when he called her.  He didn't say anything different.  His wife told him that it was because he came to get her.  When he showed up, she felt how much he really did love her.

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  How is everyone doing?  Things are going good out here.  It looks like I will be getting home tomorrow at around noon and will be home until Sunday.  Even though it will hurt our pay, the extra time off will be nice.  I have a lot of things to do at the house.  I will also be home when Micah goes for his therapy.  That will be nice because I miss most of his therapies cause I am on the road.

God is truly amazing.  Tomorrow, Christians around the world will be celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.  But it is more than just a birthday.  It is the day that Jesus came to us and said, "I love you."  Of course God's people already knew that He loved them.  They had it in writing and they heard it through the prophets.  But, they didn't feel it.  God knew this.  In fact, God had this day planned even before Adam and Eve sinned.  God knew He would have to show His people just how much He loved us and He knew exactly how to do it.  By physically coming to us and asking us to return to Him and letting us know that He loves us so very much.

I want to wish y'all a Merry Christmas.  May your day be filled with joy and blessings.  Take care and God Bless.

Love,
The Oklahoma Tomcat
http://twitter.com/oktomcat

CREATING VICTIMS

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Dayna Morales made national headlines and received an outpouring of public support and at least $3,000 in donations after she claimed a family stiffed her and left her a note on the receipt reading, "Sorry, I cannot tip because I do not agree with your lifestyle and the way you live your life."

But after an unidentified couple came forward days later with a customer receipt and bank statement to prove that they had in fact left Morales an $18 tip on top of the $93.55 check, former friends of Morales also came forward claiming she was a compulsive liar.   http://is.gd/13343H

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I don’t know why people got mad at Dayna.  What she did is exactly what many in society does, including many of our elected leaders.

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  How is everyone doing?  I pray that everyone is staying safe and warm.  Things are going good with my family and I.  We got hit with some snow and ice but the cold temperatures was the worst part of the storm for us.  I am currently in Hebbronville, TX and did have to go through the areas of Texas that got hit with the storm.  Lots of vehicles were off the road and the travel was very slow.  I just have one thing to say.  People, if you have to be out in bad weather, go slow.  Especially if you live in a state that only has five snow plows in the whole state.  Well, I don’t know how many snow plows Texas has, but it can’t be very many.

I started out this blog by posting information about a story that has made national news.  A waitress named Dayna who worked at Gallop Asian Bistro told people via Facebook that a Christian couple didn’t leave her a tip cause she is a lesbian.  The couple came out and showed the media and restaurant that they did tip her.  It appears (we don’t really know) that she not only lied but also conned people out of lots of money via donations.   What I want to focus on though is not so much Dayna, but how society does exactly what she seems to have done. 

What Dayna did was work on people’s emotions by creating a victim and create a bad guy.  In this case, the victim was her (as a homosexual) and the bad guy was a couple (Christians).  This was a perfect situation because the government and media has already worked on people emotions by making homosexuals look like poor innocent victims and Christians are evil hateful people.   So this situation is already an emotionally charged one.  She then posted it on a social network group and works on people’s emotions.  She did this in order to profit from it.  This really didn’t take much for her to figure out.  Take a look at our elected leaders, the media, and the people around you.  Society creates victims all of the time to benefit our agenda.  Lets take a look at a few incidents.  Do y’all remember the Duke lacrosse team that was accused of raping a woman?  A bunch of civil rights advocates saw a huge story that they can profit from.  The duke lacrosse team were white boys and the woman was a poor black prostitute.  The made the woman out to be a victim and the rich white boys to be the bad guys.  They then used the media to work on people’s emotions and the civil rights advocates profited from it.  How about the minimum wage fight.  People are using the fast food workers as the victims and the restaurants as the bad guys.  Use the media to get people’s emotions worked up by telling stories about how grown adults with children are starving.  Who profits?  Elected leaders do through votes.  The problem is that when we create victims, we create slaves.  We make people out to be helpless and unable to do anything on their own.  They are literally dependent on others.  Also it eliminates any responsibility that the “victim” may have had that caused them to get to where they are.  By eliminating personal responsibility, we eliminate any chance for the person to change, grow, and improve themselves.  They are now victims for life.  This is why the government loves victims.  They know that the “victims” will always vote for them if they act like they care.  Don’t believe me?  Just pay close attention to the election campaigns and see who the candidates go for and how they work on the people’s emotions.  Another problem is that people get hurt.  The “bad guys” turn out to be the true victims.  The Duke lacrosse boys turned out to be victims to those who hate rich white people.  The couple who got accused of not tipping fell victim to those who hate Christians.  The restaurant owners (and all those who work hard and become successful) fall victim to those who hate success.  In order for this to work, you always need hate.  The people who profit from this must feed on peoples hate.  The people who create victims are no better than this waitress.  Take a look at yourself.  Do you create victims?  Do you look at those who choose their lifestyle or their path in life as victims?  Do you look at those that made bad choices as victims?  We all make our own choices and we all have the ability to improve our lives when we mess up.  We have all messed up at one time or another and some of those mess ups affect us the rest of our lives.  But only one person can make things better, that is the person who messed up.  Rather than creating victims, lets encourage people to take a look at what they did wrong and to fix it so they can improve their life.  Lets stop encouraging hate and lets stop hurting people by making them slaves.

Thank you for reading my blog.  Take care and God Bless.

Love,

The Oklahoma Tomcat

The destruction of morals in America.

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."  - Benjamin Franklin

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  How is everyone doing?  I pray that this blog finds everyone in good health and spirits.  Things are going good at the Jones household.  I got home early Friday mornings and left back out on Saturday.  It was a very productive day at the house though.  I worked to get things set up so that my family was able to stay warm while I am on the road.  I sure can't wait to get a local driving job though so that I can get things done with the house.  The house is in need of some major work and I just don't have the time to do it all.  It really kills me.  The good news is that I may have a job with a company that has an extremely flexible work schedule.  It is a temp company that hires truck drivers and they pay real good.  The person I am talking to at the company really wants to hire me.  I filled out the application and now waiting on her to contact me.

I hear lots of people that complain about the children and young people today and that complain about the government not being honest, making deals with corporations, and doing things that are not moral like the many sex scandals that we hear about.  I remember years ago while sitting at a truck stop, a female truck driving and I was talking about the young people today.  People start getting defensive when I start talking about this topic because guess who I blame for the lack of morals in America today?  Us.  People start out disagreeing with me until I explain why it is all of us that created this mess.

It seems that after we hit a certain age, we forget how we all were born and how we acted at young children.  I am sorry if I destroy anyone's fantasy, but none of us was born with love or morals.  That is correct, we were all born greedy.  It is shocking that anyone who had children wouldn't know this.  No one has to teach a child how to have a tantrum when they don't get their way.  People will talk about a young child giving a hug or a kiss but do they do that because it makes you feel good or because it feels good to them?  I believe it is more because it feels good to them.  Now, this isn't to say that children are terrible.  I do look at my children as angles.  But it is very important to understand human nature and that we are all born with it.  We must understand this in order to understand what it takes to have a moral society.  The good news is that we are all born ABLE to love.  But love has to be taught because we are not born with it.  In fact, we don't even know what love truly is.  We have to be taught what it is.  Don't believe me, go around and ask people what love is.  Of course, you have to know what love it yourself.  Same thing with morals.  How many children under 3 years old knows morals without being taught what morals are?  Honestly.  A funny word to me is the word "Common Courtesy."  Is courtesy common?  Are we born knowing how to be courtesy?  So, how can we show love, be moral, or show courtesy to others or society if we are not taught it?  If we don't remember that we were taught these things, than we don't realize that we must teach our children these things.  Now, most of the responsibility does fall onto parents but we as society are teaching people that children are born loving and to let "children be children."  We are telling government (who is immoral) to take over the raising of children.  We are even using psychology to tell us how to raise our children instead of using knowledge of human nature and our own childhood.  So, we are indeed all to blame.

We are also telling people that it is OK to be greedy.  If you don't have something and you want it, use the federal government to take money from someone else and give it to you.  Yes, I am talking about socialism and communism.  This creates two problems.  It promotes laziness and it also makes it easier for us not to show love to our neighbor.  Without socialism and communism, people would help one another.  Remember, love isn't just a feeling, it is an action.  If you truly love someone, you don't look to someone else to help them, you help them yourself.  Socialism and Communism gets rid of this love.  It is human nature to be selfish and take the easiest way out.  It is much easier to say that you care and let someone else actually do the work to help those in need.  But, being forced to give money to the poor isn't love at all.

Another thing that we accept, is to end human life for our own selfish greed.  Yep, abortion, the morning after pill, and birth control pills.  We justify this by saying, "Well, if a woman doesn't want a baby, she shouldn't have to have it."  Did we forget how babies are made?  We want the gratification of unprotected sex and are willing to end life to have it.  We don't hold guys responsible at all for preventing the female pregnant.  He can have all the sex he wants and doesn't have to worry if she gets pregnant.  Society has left it up to her to either be on birth control pills, take the morning after pill, get an abortion, or raise the child by herself at the expense of the tax payer.  No morals, no responsibility.  Are you wondering why our children and government are the way they are?

It is real simple to me.  Our children learn from us and our elected leaders come from society.  We elect the people who are in office into office and they are going to be an example of what society is.  We can blame TV, Clothes, the Internet all we want but the real problem is us.  There is no way around it my friends.  If we want to change our children or our government, we must change ourselves first.  If we don't, our country will just be another memory in the history of once great countries.

Take care and God Bless.

Love,
The Oklahoma Tomcat

Being Thankful In All Circumstances

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  How are you doing?  Things are going good at the Jones household.  I am currently in Dublin, GA heading to Kansas.  I am currently showing that I will be in Kansas Thursday morning.  I am low on my 70 hour clock so I can’t drive too many hours.  After lots of delays, Micah finally got his leg braces and will be getting his wheel chair. We have also found good therapists to help him with communications and with his fine motor skills. It has taken us a long time but we are very blessed.  God has given Paula lots of knowledge to help Micah while we were without any help.  We have found out during this time that while there is lots of information and help for children with Asperger's , there is almost nothing for those who have classic Autism.  We are asking God to help us help others that are having this same problem.  I am seeing that God is doing some amazing things through Paula.  She has been writing a book on our experience and it is really turning out great.

It is Thanksgiving week.  Lots of people are busy either traveling to family’s house or getting things ready for a huge meal.  Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.  I love the traditional Thanksgiving meal and relaxing with family.  It is also an annual reminder that we should be thankful.  It is a time for us to reflect on all that we have been blessed with and to give thanks for those blessings.  I see a number of my friends on Facebook list things that they are thankful for during the month of November and I love reading them.   But I notice something.  They only list the things that are good to them.  It is easy to be thankful for the things that we like but how about the trials?  How about those days when nothing goes as we like, are you thankful for those days?  Should we be thankful when we lose our jobs?  How about when we miss the bus or when someone does us wrong?  Should we be thankful for these things?  I know, “That is easier said than done.”  I can’t agree with you more.  But I also know that when God tells us that we should do something, it means it isn't impossible for us to do.  It means that we need to lean on Him to be able to do it.  There are lots of verses that tell us that we must be thankful IN ALL THINGS.   This means both good and bad.  The reason is because God is in control of all things.  He is Sovereign and He loves us.  He tells us that ALL things are for good and we must have faith that He is telling us the truth.  Do you believe that God is Sovereign?  Do you believe that God loves you?  Do you really believe it?  One of the problems we have as humans is that we THINK we know what is good for us.  We also forget that God uses us to help others and sometimes that requires us to sacrifice our self for the good of others.  A very popular example is patience.  Did you know that God requires us to have patience?  This is a very hard thing for many of us and we need God to help us get patience.  Guess what that means?  We must go through trials to help us get patience and those trials will not feel good to us.  How about if a neighbor needs his or her self-esteem to be boosted?  God may allow you to go through some real tough times and lead someone to you who can help you.  This can actually accomplish two things because God may also see that you need to be humbled.  Many times people will be blessed with lots of good things and then end up running into lots of hard times.  This is because when things are going good, we tend to forget God and we start boasting about OUR achievements.  We need to be humbled every once in a while. Most trials we run into though is caused by us.  Should we be thankful for these trials?  I say yes.  God could have stopped the trials but He chose not to and for good reason.  The best way to learn a lesson is to suffer the consequences for our actions.  The worst thing you can do to a child is to eliminate the consequences when they do something wrong.  God loves us, so He lets us suffer the consequences when we do wrong.  Of course, He is with us and helps us through the trial, but He doesn't take the trial away.  If our mind is in the right place and we are not blaming others for what we are going through, we will come out of the trial saying, “Wow! That didn't work out.  I won’t do that again.”  Sadly, this is the hardest trial for us because human nature gets in the way and we refuse to admit or see that the trial was our own doing.  This causes us to repeat the thing we did wrong.

Every trial we go through is for good and we should be thankful for them.  This Thanksgiving, think of the trials you have gone through and thank God for them.  Then, make a promise that from now on, you will thank God every time you go through a trial and that you will take a good, honest look at the trial and see the blessing that came out of it.  Take care and God Bless.

Love,

The Oklahoma Tomcat

References:  1 Thessalonians 5:18, Psalm 107:1, Ephesians 5:20, Colossians 3:15-17, James 1:17, Philippians 4:6, 2 Corinthians 9:15, Psalm 106:1, Psalm 105:1, Colossians 4:2, Psalm 118:1-18, Psalm 20:4, Psalm 30:12, Romans 1:21, Psalm 100:1-5, Psalm 23:1-6, Isaiah 12:4-5, Philemon 1:4, Psalm 9:1-2, Psalm 95:2, John 14:1, 1 Chronicles 29:13