August 2012 Archives - Oh So Shabby by Debbie

From Saudi Arabia to Oh So Shabby By Debbie Reynolds~

Yesterday I received a message from our lady in Saudi Arabia that has written me several times over the past year asking for prayer from a dark country. I had not heard from her in a couple of months, and did not dare write her as she had previously explained to me that her husband was totally against her corresponding with anyone from the USA.

And as to remain anonymous, and I have honored that ~ I have wondered many times when we chatted briefly how I might handle the life she lives as a woman in a country oppressed from most things we here take for granted. I know, you are saying well, that’s their culture, it’s what they sow. But, when they see the freedom of women all over the world today, one can not help but imagine life without the freedoms we enjoy here in America. As hard a times are with the job rate down, no trade in American factories in so long, businesses going under, people losing their homes, and on and on.

Still, let’s decide that with our freedom we enjoy the right to speak our minds, get on our computer if we want or need too, in a country that is struggling financially .. Or, live in a country where we as women are literally to be seen and not heard. They have no voice in a country dominantly run by men. Yes, I get that some of it is due to their beliefs, religion, etc. but so many woman dream to enjoy the freedoms of the men in that country or at the very least some liberties of freedom. As I read the words she writes to me, I am so thankful to be in a country where as a woman, and child of Christ I am free to do so many things that women in many countries are not . I feel that much of the time we forget about those women, and whine about silly things at times ~ be blessed with what you have here, and be thankful. Let us pray for the ones that do not have the freedom we still have today in America.

And as to remain anonymous, and I have honored that ~ I have wondered many times when we chatted briefly how I might handle the life she lives as a woman in a country oppressed from most things we here take for granted. I know, you are saying well, that’s their culture, it’s what they sew. But, when they see the freedom of women all over the world today, one can not help but imagine life without the freedoms we enjoy here in America. As hard a times are with the job rate down, no trade in American factories in so long, businesses going under, people losing their homes, and on and on.

Filed Under: General

Whos’ hearing your voice~

Painting by Carloyn Blish ~

The phone rings. It’s Emily. “Mom, Drew wants to know why I cut off the ends of a banana before I peel them?”

“Emily, I don’t like eating the ends of a banana so I always cut them off for you and Brandon. So now you do the same thing.” “Ok Mom, thanks!” Our children inherit our likes, our dislikes, our quirks and our words. It’s funny how sometimes the things that you find your children doing without them questioning why. It’s just the way they were raised. Then they marry someone and they realize that not everyone does it. There is something else that was brought to my attention this week by a simple facebook post. “The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice”.

A quote by Peggy O’Mara. If a child is constantly spoken to with harsh words, those words creep deep into their innermost being. They hear them over and over. The words are branded on the part of them that struggles to take risks and succeed. They then try to protect themselves by thinking “why try, I will just fail. I will never be good enough. I don’t want to prove I can’t do it.” So they “sit out” in life. They become one who just sits on the bench, afraid to participate, afraid to take challenges. They never become all that they could have been.

Something inside them struggles to do more…be more…yet sadly, they never do. Then there are those who hear the praise and the applause from their parents which reaches into the part of them that pushes their “on your mark, get set, GO” button. AND off they go! Sure they stumble and fall and may get called OUT a few times but still they learn to brush off the scrapes and scuffs and disappointments. They let nothing or no one discourage them. Why? Because that small inner voice is louder than a crowd of nay sayers. The truth is that it’s not just parents but teachers, coaches and mentors that come alongside a child and give them encouragement. They succeed not on their own but by the verbal applause of others.

We watch the Olympics. We hold our breath. We see them land on a four inch beam. How? Because someone told them over and over that they could do it! Falling isn’t failing. Try again and again and again. Just keep getting back up there. One person may be on that podium being handed a gold, silver or bronze medal but they were refined by many a silversmith with wise words. So my question is “who’s hearing your words and what are they saying?”

Writen by: Janet Baker

Filed Under: General