...must focus on pretty things...

...must focus on pretty things... 
It's like the ticking of my internal clock. 
Too much loud, 
I tune it out or turn it off. 
Too much hateful, 
I tune it out or turn it off. 
Too many foolish lies 
being given credence as truth, 

same. 

But when I walk away, 
if it lingers 
(the negative, the hateful, the ugly) 
or if it's touching those I love,

I pray. 

I just read that 
"optimism can be the undoing of some" 
There must be a survival manual for hard stuff, 
we just can't live in denial 
(because it's not going away). 

I'm refreshed and renewed by the Lord, 
by reading the Bible, 
by talking and listening to him. 
But for sure, 

limiting my exposure to ugliness 
(in it's varied forms) 
is survival 101.

I eat hot dogs sometimes.

I eat hot dogs sometimes.
I splurge on Diet Coke once in a while.
On occasion
I eat frosting out of the container with a spoon.

When I eat too many sweets,
I restrain myself
by not eating real food.

These are not the worst of my faults.

Sometimes I get mad.
When I do,
sometimes I swear.
When I don't
I swear in my mind.

Injustice
makes me mad.
Lack of kindness
will most of the time make me mad.

Usually I end mad,
by being very very sad.
I'm sad because I remember my faults,
and the One who suffered injustice,
for my sins,
to forgive me and set me free.

I repent for judging others,
I forgive them too.

I can forgive those who hurt me,
and those who are callous to others.
Sometimes when I see cold hearted folks,
I just wish they could come to that place,
of repentance
and forgiveness.

The end of the anger, then sadness, then prayer
is me praying a blessing on those who hurt others.
Because it's God's kindness that leads to repentance.
Not judgment.
That happens soon enough.
But it starts with those who know Him.

We have no place to judge.
(as forgiven ones)
we owe that same grace we have received,
to others.

In the end weather it's my dietary sins,
or the sins of a bad attitude,
I can see the weaknesses I have are a gift to me.

Just think about that for a minute.
It's a cure for self-loathing.

I'm not saying it's good that I do
what I wish I did not do.

I'm saying, it's a gift to me that I'm so prone to it.
So that I will stay humble,
because when I view others
with that humility,
I am more kind in my view of them.
I love more.
I am more long suffering.
More forgiving
and graceful toward them.

God bless you richly
as you ponder your own shortcomings,
and allow the Lord to adjust,
and heal,
and grow you in your love
for God
then for self
and others.