Yasher Koach!

18 MARCH
Sunday is your little
Easter, your day to
abandon whatever
discipline you have
taken up for Lent. But
if you are reading this
calendar today, does
that mean you gave up
our calendar for Lent?
Wow. Let's all give up
being too literal.

(this was last nights post, but our internet went kablewy on us!!! )


I was really excited tonight's post.

See first I think it is kind of cheating to take Sundays off from Lent. If we are making a change or a sacrifice or in some people's cases, adding something better, why should we take a break? I agree Easter is a celebration. However, do these other things have to be thought of as negative when really, to repeat a friend again, Lent should be a time of spiritual cleaning, much like spring cleaning. Out with the old, in with the new. 

My plan was to talk positively and be excited about "it takes 21 days to create a new habit". Most of you have heard of this theory and no where does it say you get a break. So, if we are creating good Christ-like or spiritual habits, why should we get a break from them just because we are going to church on Sunday?

But instead of elaborating on the above, I have started to wonder if it takes 21 days to create something like a new habit, how many days does it take to tear something down like a person's spirit? 

In my experience, it is always much much quicker to tear something down, then to build something up. You drive across town, you see a wrecking ball take a couple of swings and down goes the building. How many weeks or months did it take for that building to go up? From childhood, we start building. We build with blocks, we build card houses, we even build with dominoes. We take justified great pride in these accomplishments. Then, along comes a younger child or a bully (not comparing the two) who takes two seconds to knock them down. Several times, we will have the strength of self confidence to rebuild, but after the third or fourth time, frustration hits, self confidence fails, and our creativity and building is gone. Not to mention the many tears that flow, not by the bully, but by the builder.

This is a very simple example of what bullying will do. It will take even a self confident, self assured adult and bring them to tears. A person, whether adult or child, can only take so much beating to their ego. We start building that self confidence and ego at birth, and a single bully, in a matter of weeks, can destroy it. Can we even begin to understand how long it takes to rebuild the rubble of what was once self confidence. 

I took literary license with today's challenge/topic because I feel this is something we can never speak too much of and never allow ourselves to become numb to. I'm a 42 year old well educated, well loved adult, and my self confidence has been shaken to the core by a single bully. I have loved ones, good friends, and amazing face book friends to help rebuild my self confidence with many hugs, sweet words, and awesome comments. However, contact with this bully again can shake it right back down. 

If a bully can do this to me as a strong woman that understands psychologically where a bully is coming from, how can we begin to imagine what this does to a child or adolescent? So again, the question is, how and who do we educate? While I believe it is very important to give the one being bullied tools to deal with the abuse, I don't beli\]
ve we want to remove their sensitivity. While surviving bullying as a child and now as an adult, I still cherish my sensitivity. Yet how do we educate the bully without giving them the "reward" of special attention? 

“When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh

“If you're horrible to me, I'm going to write a song about it, and you won't like it. That's how I operate.”
― Taylor Swift 

The Hebrew greeting Yasher Koach! means "May your strength be firm”


יִישַׁר כּוֹחַ

This is my prayer/blessing for each of you tonight.

Yes this song has the F word in it and I have shared it a few times before. BUT the song reminds me that I am just fine the way I am!!!!

We  made the video when we were just learning,  many of the people in it are life savers and some were at the time, but the friendships have moved on...but regardless.....

 p.s. new friends I hope to get a cord for my other computer to keep making videos again...who wants to be in them????

 20 MARCH
Today is the Spring
Equinox, when we
hang perfectly balanced
between light
and dark, day and
night. The word Lent
comes from the lengthening
of the daylight
hours. Pray that your
life will tip toward
the light.