Remembering Mama on her birthday in 2024

Hello (again?) dear Reader, and welcome to my obscure American blog in the small, dark hours before Dawn on Saturday, December 28th, 2024.

Mama

My late (adopted) mother would have been 74 years old today, had she survived to see it. The world is a colder, darker place without her life and love in it. I'll not feel sorry for myself and the others she left behind, but, rather, choose to be grateful that we got to have her for as long as we did; what a blessing. 💖 Thank You, Lord. 

For my children, dad, and all others dealing with the grief of loss, Lord, will You please provide Your strength and grace where it is most needed today, please, and we give You thanks for it, in Jesus' Name, amen.

Here is today's Proverb from the Book of Wisdom:

Proverbs 28 ESV

And in audio format as well (which, I like to both see the words and hear them at the same time, but you do you of course):

And this praise song popped into my head, so here it is:

I don't know about you, but I love today's Proverb, which starts out in verse one with a real banger! Several of the Proverbs are focused on loose women and adultery and aren't as interesting to me for that reason. I mean, I get it: don't have loose morals, don't hang out with people who have loose morals. Ok. Next. Right? There must be a real reason the Word harps on it so much, though, but that reason is at this point at least, partially lost on me. Oh well; so I just read it anyway as it couldn't hurt, right? There must be more to the Words than what we're able to perceive here on the surface, so I just go with there being substance beyond what we can see.
(TLDR = read it - the Bible - anyway). 

I have coffee but haven't made breakfast yet. 

Yesterday, someone that we were watching on YouTube made some real sense about those of us who have some kind of faith (in God) versus those who do not (have faith/ believe in Him) and what he said really resonated with me. I wish I knew who to credit for this, but he was saying that those of us who know that we need God are the ones who typically make that leap and have faith in Him, and the people who are not aware of their own lacking/imperfections et cetera, the most independent and those who are thoroughly comfortable with their own morality being 'good enough' are those who tend to shirk that belief. 
I can't speak for anyone but myself, but that resonates as very true for me; I've been aware of severe moral and behavioral deficits (in myself) since childhood, man, and remain abundantly aware of so many shortcomings - even, evil tendencies - to this very day. So yes, I have faith in the Only possible Source of true redemption and that is God in the Person of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. This just passed through my Facebook feed so I stole it to share it with you here:

I pray this remains my number one goal and, when I stray, that He will bring me back to the foundation of Christ and Him crucified.

Today in this moment, I am struggling with the commandment that I am required to pray for my enemies.
I do not want to pray for them, I want God to "get" them! But here the rubber meets the road: IS He worthy, in my heart and mind? That is, IS He truly worth the laying down of my wants in preference of the commandment? 
And, here, no matter what my feelings say, the true and correct answer is and always WILL BE "Yes, HE IS worthy". He is the Only One Worthy of ALL - I lay it down at His feet by faith and trust Him to show me what He will ask next. 

Be blessed now and always, in Jesus' Name, amen.

☦