Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Hello everyone!  

I hope you haven't been holding your breath waiting for my next blog entry.  If so I apologize and will see you in the great by and by!! I know, I know it's time already! I have not written in months, since last year! Yes, I have aged and do have more gray hair...by the way, has anyone noticed how the texture of the gray changes as it grows out? I will admit to hiding mine, my brilliant hair dresser has the formula that does the trick.  And some people are fooled about my age, but as you know, "you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." Boy, does this ever hold true with kids!!  A few weeks ago my Granddaughter Ava and I were sitting out back on my patio and I had in hand a catalogue of swimsuits. I don't dare name the store that the catalogue comes from, but just imagine, itsy bitsy teeny weeny!  Anyway I was perusing this magazine and my granddaughter was peeking over to see, how pretty a few of the bikinis were.  I stated, "Well your Mom might could pull these off, but I don't think I can".  After a few moments of silence with the most sincere, caring little voice she could muster, she came back with "Well, Grandby, you just need to find a magazine for 'old ladies'."!  She was just trying to comfort me, but as I laughed myself to tears telling her Mom about it, I realized, she's right.  Maybe we're raising a generation of kids who aren't afraid to see through all the unrealistic facades, fixes, and expectations of life and just see it like it is.  And, as a matter of fact I do have a catalogue with swimsuits for women "my age". Lol. Along these lines I write to you today.  

Fortunately, my life has begun to settle down a bit in my new hometown of Spring Hill, TN, and I feel a freedom to write again.  I have to first thank God because He has led my every step up to this place.  Those of you who have prayed for us, thank you, your reward will be great.  I say that not because you prayed for me, as though I think I'm someone special.  I have to tell you that you won't be rewarded just because you prayed for me. The reward is yours because God loves you...and it's just that simple, He loves you! I know that might over simplify things but it's true...love holds the universe together, why not give love the credit its due? Why must we analyze and hypothesize, and exegete every single word in the bible?  Why must each of us think we have the "answer", or the "revelation" concerning God's standards and how to apply them.  I'm not trying to be indelicate, just honest!! Just about every time I open up Face book or my email, someone else has sent a notice that they are writing a book or doing a blog.  Don't misunderstand me, I like reading other blogs, and I write this blog.  However, I make it clear, and if I haven't I'm now making it clear, that everything I write is subject to personal opinion and not objective most of the time.  That's the reason I write, to share something of my life with others and to encourage them, and if no one reads it, at least I have written it for myself and chronicled it. 

Many of my friends and family have very applicable and insightful blogs for inspirational purposes, and God knows we all need men and women with wisdom. But here's the thing, when I was coming up, if something was in print, it had to be true!! I'm sure everyone knows by now that this is no longer the case.  I won't name them but the "tell all" magazines at the check out counter in the grocery store show the untruths that will be published just to sell a magazine. But when people are in need or trustful, their eyes and hearts go searching for anything that might give them hope or justify the way they are feeling, or even make them feel better about themselves because "at least I'm not like them". And, this is just my opinion now, there is a plethora of irrelevant and, or misinformation out there, written under the guise of "religion" and I would venture to say that Christianity holds a corner on the market of publishing men's opinion. I'm not saying there's nothing good written about religion...but I'm just sayin..., so now I'll add my written opinion to the pile!! :)   

In one of my former lives, no, I don't believe in reincarnation...referring to when I was in my 20's, Wes and I were members of, and often attended the Christian Booksellers Association annual conferences.  Now, if you don't know, this is where every Christian publisher goes to introduce their new publications and try to sell them to bookstores, vendors and churches.  At the time, Wes had started "Kingdom Publishers" and had published a few books. We went to sell books and did sell many books, some authored by my Dad, some by others, but everyone wanted to get their point of view "out there".  There were aisles and aisles of booths filled with biographies, auto-biographies, how tos, expository studies on every book of the bible and on anything and everything, Sunday School curriculum, every subject you can think of.  There were books on how to have church, how not to have church, on what Jesus meant and what He didn't mean.  There were books on when Jesus will return and what it was really like in Bethlehem when He was born, how to heal, how to make miracles happen...go into any Christian bookstore and look around and multiply that a thousand times and you would be seeing an image of the CBA in your mind's eye. 

I'll never forget the year we took my Dad's book entitled "Sex is God's Idea" into the CBA arena.  Now remember, this is the 80's... and the organization was then, a predominantly Southern Baptist organization.  And I love my Southern Baptist friends, but you can imagine the surprised looks on customer's faces when they rounded the corner to see a huge duratran rendering of the cover of that book...which was a big shiny apple...with the title "SEX is Gods idea"...and of course it had lights behind it so it glowed into the aisle.  Many people were drawn in to see what it was all about, but many people would walk all the way around the aisle, even to infringing on the booth across from us, just to escape our clutches! We sure sold a lot of books for the booth opposite us, and I think they published books about how to make Sunday School puppets!! Lol My Dad's book was a good book, simply written about relationships and how to relate to God and others, but the provocative title made it so controversial.  We were the talk of the convention, and simply because the word "sex" was used in the book title.  I would say, "well, did or did not God make us to be intimate and have sex with our mates?  Just read the book and see if you don't agree, and if it offends you or your buyers we'll reimburse you."  And some replied, "well I know God made everything but this subject just isn't appropriate in this arena"!  Really?!! REALLY?!!  I get it, and I'm sure you do...there is a time and place for everything, but in today's culture, that's just it...you can get a book on anything...read it on line, on Kindle, on ibooks, and in plain old book form, which I prefer, simply because I enjoy the paper, anyone with me?  

So to the point of my story, I read very few "Christian" books simply because I usuallly find  the view of God to be so limiting.  Jesus is my Lord, and He is my God and I believe myself to be Christ mindful...but I don't need a book on what to believe about everything. And your story better be pretty heart pounding and interesting for me to read how you came to know Christ.  Boy, I must seem angry today, but I'm not.  In fact, I am writing a book myself, not to share what I know, but how the things I don't know have helped me find myself.  There's nothing wrong with writing, and there's nothing wrong with making our writings public, but once we do, we take on a great responsibility for our words and words hold weight.  And that's just my opinion! 

So, Yes I am writing again...the break I took was so that when I came back I might have some clarity as to what I think, which evolves daily. I'm afraid when I do finish the book, I will have to write far too many sequels because I'm always changing.  And I guess that's exactly what we are suppose to be doing, growing closer daily into the image of Christ.  That's why it is taking me years to write this book. So I hope this will answer the question that some of you have asked "when is the book coming?".  I don't know, some days it's slow and some days I'm in hyper drive!  It just depends on life. But it will be written!!! And kudos to those of you who dare to share any honest experience to help someone else in any form, be it book, song, testimony, or simply sharing.  After all, we are all different for a reason, we are the counterbalance for another's strengths and weaknesses, that's what life is all about.  So, for now, I hope you will read me, and give me a chance to share life's little lessons, not from a standpoint of being above them, but under them, around them, and how I think they may look from the outside in. Let me remind you how God is always love and love is always "the Source" and if I can help anyone by sharing my pains and joys in discovering that, then I have just begun to accomplished my task in life. To encourage you!

And that's just my opinion:)
Roma Beth    

2 comments:

  1. Love it,,,Especially your granddaughters wisdom...

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  2. This is a really nice and honest article. Time is a riddle and the absolute truths in our lives never change, but we sure change....... I have learned that there are just a few absolute truths about myself, that I will change many times and in many ways is just one of them.

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