Tag: military

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All Storms End and Then There is the Son

We have had a big increase in subscribers lately! We just passed 630 subscribers! Time for a celebration! We have had 400 new people since the first of 2013.  This is wonderful for our site. I wonder if we can make it to 800 by January 1, 2014? Only 170 to go. You can make that happen. Please help us to continue to grow by also subscribing. You can do this by clicking on the icon right after the title.

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Exciting news! We have a new book on the way that I am writing with Dennis Booth, from New South Wales, Australia. It will be called, “Signs of Hope: For the Weak Days.” (Working Title.) It is a compiling of posts that Dennis and I have been doing on my blog at: www.dailysignsofhope.com. There are 0ver 50,000 followers on that site, and it is because so many people are seeking hope and it is provided there.

*Update: 11-22-13. I have about one half of my share of the book done. We still don’t have a publishing date yet, but stay tuned to see what is happening. I will try to have an update often. 

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I am finding more time to write on this site lately. It could be because God is telling me I need to spend ore time with you here.

This Site will have two functions:

  • Share with you what the latest news is on my writing, and new books that are coming out.
  • Write words of hope at the end of each of my post that you can cling to help you through those cloudy and stormy days.

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I have had a hectic time as of late. I am spinning around in my head trying to decide what my next book will be after we finish my second book called, “Signs of Hope: For the Weak Days.” My co-author on this book, Dennis Booth, came up with the word weak in the title. It symbolizes the theme of the whole book, The book will be reaching out to those who suffer from anxiety, fear, depression, addictions, rejection, self-doubt, hopelessness, and the many other usual suspects.

We are nearing the half way point in getting the book done, and I hope you keep checking here to see the progress.

I also am looking ahead to what I need to write after this book is published. Here is where you the reader comes in. I am going to list several ideas I have for books in the future, and you tell me which one you would like me to write next:

  • Signs of Hope for Seniors: The Alligators that Chase us. This book will be dedicated directly to my fellow senior citizens who are the fastest growing population in the world. It will share thoughts on aging, financial concerns, illness, ways to cope, death, rejection, anxiety, or fear. There will be other topics, but I wanted to give you a taste of the food before it is even cooked. 🙂
  • Signs of Hope for the military: This one has been burning on my heart fro several months. I keep reading about how many suicides there are in the military. It is so sad. I am a veteran, and my son is a career soldier. He is an executive officer for an general at Ft Lewis Washington. This book will share my own stories while I was in the service; not getting letters from home; being isolated from others while on duty, the self-doubt, and loneliness. There are other stories that will help the soldiers or veterans cope  in a world that doesn’t always understand the way of a soldier.
  • Signs of Hope for the caregivers: I was a caregiver for my mother for several years before she passed. I will talk about the mental strain of seeing your loved one slowly lose their desire to want to go on. There will be stories of daily things that happened while caring for her. I will address the issue of the need for the caregiver to take care of themselves, even though it may seem selfish. May more thoughts and ideas will come out in this book.
  • Other books down the road that are just in the thinking stage: Signs of Hope for: teachers, mothers, dads, teens, etc. But first I need you to comment on the top three I have mentioned above. Which one do your think is the most important one to write next? Please respond. I do need you guidance.

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Now for some thoughts for you to use to make your day go more smoothly, and give you comfort:

  • God made you in His own image. If He cares enough to do that, He will certainly care for your needs what ever they are. All you have to do is ask.
  • With God on your side, who can be against you.
  • 99% of what we worry about never happens. Turn the other 01% over to God.
  • Jesus is always there by your side. He will comfort you during your storms, and rejoice with you during your victories.
  • All storms end, and then there is the SON.

Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

 

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Life is Tough and Then You Die

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I am happy to announce that we now have a bookstore over at our blog: www.dailysignsofhope.com. It was just added a few weeks ago.

The book, “Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World,” is also there to be ordered.

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What follows is an actual excerpt from the book, “Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World.” This book reaches out to those who suffer from anxiety, fear, depression, addictions, self-doubt, and hopelessness.

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LIFE IS TOUGH AND THEN YOU DIE

 

Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. 

—Psalm 30:5

 

GOD DIDN’T PROMISE us a rose garden—besides, there are thorns in a rose garden. He allows us to go through the storms. He wants us to learn from them and grow.

We question if God is still there for us when we have a crisis. Things pile up and we wonder, 

Where are You, God? He allows things to happen that are very hard to understand. Why would He let bad things happen to us? 

The psalmist wondered the same thing. In the psalms, crying and wailing come out with a vengeance. Psalms can be also joyful and uplifting, but some of them are not joyful, and they teach us that it is OK to question God. It is OK to voice your true feelings to Him. He knows how to handle your feelings—even your anger. 

Despair and anger are combined in Psalm 89:46–47: 

How long, O LORD? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire? …For what futility you have created all men! 

In our world today there is much despair and anger. There are gang wars, school shootings, sex abuse, battered wives, seniors getting scammed, racists and terrorists. All of these could cause even the strongest Christian to act on that anger. You have choices. You could seek justice like a vigilante. You could forget it and let it build up inside you, or you could turn it over to God, who is the only Supreme Court Justice in heaven. 

He will judge those who have wronged others. 

We should never stop being angry or sad about what happens in the world, but we need to turn it over to God, and let Him bring peace in our life. 

Too many people have decided that acceptance of wrong is much easier than trying to fight it. Some live in their own little world and go on as if nothing were happening around them. 

I saw this in action when I was in the military. Uncle Sam had me stationed in Korea, and we were traveling through Seoul, Korea. I saw an old woman sitting and leaning against a wall. She was begging for help because she was ill and starving. No one stopped. They just kept on walking by. 

All military personnel had been instructed that under no circumstances were we to get out of our vehicles—just keep going. This was because if you tried to help someone they could claim you were the one that caused the problem and then get a big settlement from the government. There were rumors of Korean parents throwing their children in front of army trucks to collect a settlement. We retraced our route on the way back to camp. By then, the woman had fallen over and was dead. 

I was very angry. I felt helpless. I wasn’t allowed to help the woman, and she died because of that. 

I didn’t know if I could make any difference in life. Could one person out of the billions of people on this earth make a difference? 

My mother once remarked that she didn’t know why she should get out of bed anymore. She has macular degeneration (partial blindness) and has to use a walker. Her two main loves (besides my brother and me, of course!) were reading and working in the garden. Now she cannot do either of them. I could understand completely what she meant, but it hurt me deeply that she felt that way. I again felt that same helplessness because I wasn’t able to help her. 

Why keep going on? The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The weak fall by the wayside. You spend your whole life trying to have a good retirement, and the cost of living eats up all of your income. Evil seems to win—and good seems far away. 

The prisoners in the holocaust had all the reasons to be depressed and to commit suicide. They didn’t do that because they kept clinging to their faith in God. 

Is that the secret? By just turning our hurts, frustrations and failures over to God, we can have peace? Of course we can. God is the key. If there is no God, anything goes, but everything is meaningless. 

If you stay the course, and always let God hold your hand, everything will have meaning, things will come into focus, and everything will fall into place. 

As of this writing, my mother is still alive. She is 94 and lives in an assisted living home. She has trouble understanding why she has to be the way she is as far as her health. The world is coming to the stage where 100-year-old people are more common than ever. But many of them are clinging to life assisted by a machine, or they do not have a quality of life that they prefer. 

We have developed many new drugs to help people live longer, but we haven’t invented ways to make them happy. We spend millions to help the poor in our country and other countries, but the number of starving children in Oregon alone is growing at an alarming rate.

Its got to the point that there is an AIDS epidemic. School drop-out rates are at an all-time high. Pornography can be found for free on the internet. We thought that we sent racism away in the 70s, but it is still staining our society today. 

It is no wonder that we feel depression, despair and apathy. This world is not a rose garden anymore. The thorns are tearing at our skin, and leaving scars that won’t go away. 

Let me make something very clear: God will take the world as you see it today and make it into the world He wants. I’ve read the end of the book—and we win. The end is all set, and it is up to us to believe it. 

So—can you make an impact on the world? You are just one grain of sand on the beach. Can you make a difference? God thinks you can. He made you with a purpose in mind. Yes, I said you.

As you read this book, God has a plan for you. God just needs you to ask Him what it is. You can make a difference for others in this tough world. 

I used the Psalms as an example of despair and anger. Now let the psalmist soothe you and let you know God is there for you and will carry your burdens for you. 

Trouble and distress have come upon me, but your commands are my delight. 

—Psalm 119:143 

Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you. He will never let the righteous fall. 

—Psalm 55:22 

Look to my right and see; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. I cry to you, O LORD; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need: rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me.” 

Psalm 142:4–6

(Think of the Korean woman dying on the street.) 

When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your love, O LORD, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul. 

Psalm 94:18–19 

(This should be our prayer any time we are depressed or sad. We can read it to God and let Him comfort us.) 

Further Adventures 

There are times when you feel so low that you are not sure you can make it through the day. Use this time to pray. Sit quietly with God and share your deepest feelings. Do not hide anything. (God knows even your inner thoughts.) Let Him know that you need to lean on Him completely right now, and He will pick you up and carry you the rest of the way. 

Something to Ponder 

Isn’t it funny that God knows our every move, but we go on like He is not watching us?

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NEVER, EVER, GIVE UP!

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This was an actual excerpt from the book, “Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World.” You can order the complete book, by clicking on the “Bookstore,” tab at the top of this page. There is a special sale going on right now. In the Retail stores the price is $19.99, but on this site it is only $15.99. The shipping has been cut in half as well. A total savings of over $6.00.

 

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When you Give Away Something, you get Much More in Return

 Before you read tonight’s post I want to share some exciting news. I signed a contract this last week with Winepress Publishers. The book: Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World, will be coming out at the end of August or the first part of September. What follows is an actual excerpt from that book.

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It Is Better to Give than Receive

 

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you,

so you must love one another.

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

John 13:34-35

 

Imagine what a heavy schedule of appointments President Abraham Lincoln had to keep day after day. Yet when an elderly woman with no official business in mind asked to see him, he graciously consented.

As she entered Lincoln’s office, he rose to greet her and asked how he might be of service. She replied that she had not come to ask a favor. She had heard that the president liked a certain kind of cookie, so she had baked some for him and brought them to his office.

With tears in his eyes, Lincoln responded, “You are the very first person who has ever come into my office asking not, expecting not, but rather bringing me a gift. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

My personal dictionary calls this elderly lady a silent hero—someone who does many things for others and never expect anything in return. My Aunt Dollie was the same kind of person. Her goal in life was to make sure her family was well cared for. And she wanted to be sure she had something to leave her children when she passed on. She did just that. She gave a lot of love to her children and many others, and when she passed on she left her family financially secure. But, more importantly, she left them with memories of a woman who stood out as a person who led by example, relied on tough love to mold her family and became a silent hero to many that knew her.

This type of person is high on the Lord’s priority list of how His followers should act. This type of unselfish love is the cornerstone of what the Bible teaches about love.

My brother Dave is a silent hero to me. I didn’t know for over 50 years that he had done something for me that changed my life because he wasn’t out to impress anyone with his love for his family.

When my brother was a senior in high school he told our mother he wasn’t going to go to college because our family couldn’t afford two people going to college at once. He said he would support me and help me make it through so that one of the members of the family could get a degree. Well, it took a long time because of the military and three children, but I got that degree and went into teaching.

I didn’t know about his sacrifice until over 40 years later when my mother told me. That, my friends, is a true silent hero! My brother gave up his chance for a college degree so I could get mine. I will never be able to thank him enough for what he did, but he knows now that my love for him has grown deeper than seems possible between two brothers. I also have become a silent hero in his back pocket to make sure that he knows how much I appreciate what he did for me.

John 13:34-35 says that we should love one another as He loves us. We can always think of what the Lord would do to help them and use that as a model for the help we give. Remember His unconditional love, and how He would do anything He could to comfort them and help them through any crisis or stressful situation. That is what silent heroes do.

 

The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled,

and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Matthew 23:11-12

 

“Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out”

—Frank A. Clark

 

Further adventures

Look around you and list those you feel are your silent heroes. You don’t need to share your findings with them. Just know that they are there, and be happy knowing that they will always be there for you.

 

Something to ponder

Isn’t it funny how he who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses?

* Excerpt from : Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World.