#109
So this is kind of funny. While logging onto facebook sunday night I noticed I had all these notifications I hadn’t looked at. (I’ve been trying to limit my Facebook time) but since it was my Mom’s Birthday I wanted to give her a special shout out . Instead I found myself reading one of my blogs I shared on that day a year ago . Which was kind of funny because It was my Mom’s Birthday on sunday and year ago from that day when I wrote this particular blog my Mom wasn’t on the cover of the Blog like I expected , but my Brothers were instead . Which was even funnier to me because when I wrote it I was kind of aggravated with my Brothers. I had just found out they were at a Tears for Fears concert together and because I didn’t get invited I kind of felt bad . The more I think about it though , it wasn’t that I felt bad that they didn’t invite me , my Brothers do all kinds of things together, their brothers . They have more things in common with each other then I do with each of them. I mean , they don’t like Hobby Lobby and going to craft shows and I don’t like craft beer and sports . But what I think got to me wasn’t that they were together , it’s where they were together at. They weren’t just at any concert but that they were at a Tears for Fears concert. I had such great memories attached to the songs of Tears for Fears with a cousin of mine growing up that I think I was more jealous of the fact my brothers had eachother and were doing things like this together even as adults and I didn’t feel like I had anyone to do things like this with . That I let the Devil in through the doorway of my jealousy and envy. Because I never had any Sisters and Mark and Bobby had eachother. Because I remember that night when I was venting to my husband that if I had a Sister I wouldn’t be feeling so sour at my Brothers . Because I’d be at that concert with my Sister If I had one but thanks to my folks for stopping with me , my Brothers have each other and I have no one . When my Husband reminded me of all the Cousins I do have and how close I am to all of them and that I wouldn’t have gone to the concert anyhow because it was in Indy. I remember feeling even more sour . Because I remember thinking to myself , how the h*** does he know I wouldn’t have gone ? I remember giving myself such a pity party that night that I changed my own supper menu from frozen pizza and ramen noodles to tacos just to cheer myself up . Lol And it worked because who dont get cheered up by tacos? If you don’t , then you got more issues then me. Because I remember feeling a little better and finding myself looking on the bright side and like any other bratty Sister , the brightside for me was making fun of my Brothers . That I texted my cousin Joc ,( the Sister my parents didn’t give me lol ) just to tell her where my Brothers were and to make fun of the picture they posted on Facebook that night when I called them Los Lobos. 🤣🤣.
It’s still funny 🤣🤣 Am I Right ? Lol What’s even funnier is through the whole blog I’m writing about this connection I had with the group Tears for Fears and their music with my Cousin Joc based on the fact we both grew up listening to them and grew up swearing we’d never become the Mothers our own Mother’s were and music was one way we escaped the pressures that came from growing up thinking our life was so dysfunctional compared to the lives of the rest of the world around us . Yet it was our own Mother’s who gave us the love for music.
My very first concert was with my Cousin Joc , her Mom (my Aunt Mindy) and my Cousin April . I was 11or 12 maybe younger and my Cousin Joc would have been around 7 or 8 and our very first concert was Foreigner and Joe Walsh. Seems functional to me . Lol Which is funny because my Mom was supposed to be there that night because she actually got the tickets for us. But because my Dad was flying in from a business trip and needed a ride home from the airport and since my Brothers were at the same concert ( I know Bobby for sure , because I remember my Aunt telling me and my Cousins to wave , there was my Brother Bobby and his Friends and a few other Cousins who stood out from the many others standing in the center floor of the Fort Wayne Coliseum . That they all looked like little ants from where we were sitting . ) But since my Mom couldn’t be there, she gave her ticket to my Cousin April instead . My mom didn’t just give her ticket to her niece , she gave her niece , her Daughter and her other niece Jocelyn one of the best , most memorable, functional nights that we still talk about to this day. Music is like that I guess. It’s no wonder music is found in Church. I think God uses music to open up our ears to get our attention just so he can talk to our hearts. Music has always been such a huge part of my family that it’s hard to not hear a song on the radio and not think of someone I love . Up until this year I would hear a Tears for Fears song and think of my cousin Joc and the way we were raised and shake my head knowing she’d be thinking of me when she would hear a Tears for Fears song and be thinking the same thing . What was our Mother’s thinking when they raised us? What were our Dad’s thinking when they married Our Mom’s ? and What did Our Dad’s do to get so lucky ? Because now that me and my Cousin Joc are married and have children of our own , we feel the pressures and stress of what life throws at us, not only as adults but as Mothers , Wives , Daughters and Daughter in laws . Because we now have children of our own looking up at us with the same looks we once gave our own Mom’s . Knowing now what I didn’t know then gives me the strength to get over and ignore the nonsense the Devil throws at me daily that God allows and the strength to jump higher and get over all the hurdles that life throws at me daily that God helps me get through .
#109
When the Devil tells you your doing everything wrong as a parent and he tries to get you to compare your life and your family to other families ,don’t listen . The truth of the matter is that every family has hurdles they have to jump over and problems they have to face . Some families really are better at hiding them and sweeping them under the rug then others but it doesn’t make them families any better or any worse then your own. It doesn’t matter how you raise your children , it only matters how you love them and whose love you choose to raise them with . God is love and if you raise your children with him and to know him and to know how he raised his own child , you can’t go wrong because your doing it right . The best way to truly love your children and raise them in the best way possiable is to open your own heart and let Jesus in and let God become your Own Father and let him raise you and he’ll help you raise your own children in the one true way only he knows how . Every child is different and every child has different needs, only God knows what they are and can truly meet each and every one . Because only God knows how to meet each and every one of your own needs . With God as your Father and Jesus as your Brother, Friend and Savior , all is invited and all are welcome into the family and Body of Christ . It’s a family where your children will never stray from you , because God won’t let you stray from his Child and he’ll help your children not stray from him either. Jesus never strays from us and is always there to help all who seek him and honor him by helping them obey the Ten Commandments his Father gave . God knows we can’t do it without his Son and that’s why He gave us his Son in the first place . Jesus helps me honor my own Father and Mother, he’s the same Jesus who helps my children honor me . Jesus helps me raise my children because I let My Father and Jesus raise me. They raised me through my own parents when my parents showed me love and taught me what love was when they guided me to the Cross. Jesus is my Savior and Lord and because he’s the same Savior and Lord Jesus Christ ,that my Parents seeked , I now seek . Because the blood he shed for me , for my parents , for my children and for you , is still the same blood he shed for everyone 2000 years ago . That Blood is an open invite to the greatest concert of all where the music will never end . That invite from God through his Son Jesus Christ , is our invite into the family of eternal life . So when the Devil tries telling me I’m doing everything wrong as a Mom , I know in my heart I’m a child of God and because of Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and the blood that I now accept as my own. I know my ticket is waiting for me at the will call window , bought and paid for signed in Blood . I’m reminded of that blood immediately when the Devil comes accusing , that God is now my Father and through his Son I now get to remind the Devil that I’m doing everything right , as a Mom raising God’s children , a Child being raised by God and a Believer whose gonna be raised by the one who defeated him .
Me and my Cousin Joc wouldn’t change our childhood for anything in the world , and that goes for Our Moms and the music we listened too. That music helped God help us jump the hurdles that he set before us just so he could get our attention and open up our ears to get our hearts to hear him and Our Moms were the perfect ones he used to help us do it. Now when me and my Cousin Joc hear a Tears for Fears song on the radio we don’t think of eachother and the childhood we once thought was so dysfunctional it was a bad one . We think of my Brothers and the picture of them together the night of the Tears for Fears concert when I called them Los Lobos and we laughed so hard we cried. Because that’s what little Sisters do . They laugh at their Brothers and choose happy tears not bitter ones. And they laugh at the dysfunction in their own childhood and embrace all the dysfunction in their own lives because that’s what families do for eachother . They let God help them function in a world where they feel their the only dysfunctional ones left in the world. They love eachother with a love that only God can teach and they see a love in something that only God has seen all along . Sometimes it’s a childhood that’s not perfect but sometimes it’s a childhood that is . It’s the dysfunctional childhoods that bring with it the best memories because it’s in those childhoods that bring out the most laughter . Laughter IS the best medicine next to music and music IS the best medicine next to tacos lol but the best medicine of all is the medicine that comes with a cure . It’s a cure for jealousy , envy , resentment and yes imperfect childhoods . It’s Jesus in your heart . With him in your heart he really does help you look at the bright side of everything and not because everything in this world is bright but because everything in this world is dark except for him . Because Jesus is the light of the World and he shines brightest on the darkest days when he helps you look at things in a different way . Because it’s his eyes and his ears your seeing with and hearing with . He’s the only one who can take away every TEAR and every FEAR and help you SOW THE SEEDS of LOVE 🎶🎶 while you SHOUT , SHOUT and LET IT ALL OUT. 🎶🎶 These are the things the Devil can do without and he Doesn’t want you to know that when he’s talking to you , those are the same things he tries to talk you out of and get you to do without. Don’t listen to him . No one’s life is perfect , no ones childhood is perfect and no ones family is either but when you lean on Jesus Christ as your Savior and your crutch he comes to you in so many forms . Sometimes it’s through music , sometimes it’s in the memories and sometimes if your as lucky as I was growing up , it’s in the form of tacos and the beauty of not having any Sisters but knowing your whole life you have had many . When God leaves a space in your life where it appears the spot has been left vacant he always sends Himself , His Son , and His Spirit to fill the position in a different way . That’s why God allows the hurdles he does because sometimes those hurdles hurt so bad they don’t give you the desire for more children . But what those hurts do give you when you look to the bright ONE for help on looking on the bright side is that he gets you over every hurdle and gives God the desire to Bless and give you more. My Parents didn’t give me a Sister it’s true but what God gave me through my parents was so much more . It was a chance to have more Brothers and many Sisters . When God gave us his Son and I accepted him in my heart . I began to see why God gave me many Cousins . It was a chance for him to give me a bigger family and a better life . I don’t know where I’d be without all my Cousins. I was never given a Sister to love and because of that God gave me many Sisters in the form of many Cousins who loved me. Because of the Devil I know the loneliness of what it feels like to have no Sisters but because of Christ’s love and the invite God sent to us when he sent his Son, I also know what it feels like to never be lonely again. The Devil Doesn’t want you to know just how important an invite really is . Especially when the invite comes from God . Because If you don’t accept his invitation to his Son’s show down here you wont be sitting on the right side of his Son along with him up there and the Devil Doesn’t want you to know that .
365 Things The Devil Doesnt Want You To Know 