Be Applicable to The Golden Rule

The one day I actually look forward to going to a hearing with one of our associates as her assistant and it's the day I get profiled!...by my own people! smdh! I really don't understand why Poly's look down on their own kind! He literally made me show identification and all, even questioned me where I was born, after the fact one of our attorneys told him I was with them. I gave him my ID, he glanced at it and asked why do I have a Maryland State ID. Golly-poo! I told him I lived in Maryland for over 7 years! He asked me why? I told him I went to school out there. Asked me what school, I said, Home of the Mighty Terrapins, UMCP! Then he asks me where I was born, I told him California, (he rolls his eyes) and then he has the nerves to ask me what am I doing here?! (At this moment, the Leimaxx inside of me really wanted to come out and punch him in the face!) But, I kept my posture and walked away! Later on, court in session, a Polynesian lady walks up to the stand and our associate looks at me and nods if I can translate for her (I couldn’t, because I don’t know a lick of the language she spoke!), but I nod back. I walk up to the aunty and I tell her I’ll do my best to translate for her (basically offering my help) and she tells me the sheriff is her relative. I look up to the sheriff and low and behold, it’s Mr.99 Questions! His eyes were literally larger than life when he saw me helping the aunty. Ugh! Afterwards, as we walked out the court room, I am once again greeted by the same sheriff, except this time on a total different approach and I’m “sistah” now! (literally wanted to paa’I him!) He later apologizes for what happened earlier and asks if he can get me coffee sometime, I tell him “sure, but can my husband come with?”. Mahaki atu he kata (Laughing hysterically at each other) and I tell him, I’ll see him again.  Anyhow, my point here is, please don’t judge the book by the cover folks! Especially Poly’s! We should be helping each other out and not throwing one another under the bus! Come on! We live in a day and age where people take advantage of their own advances! Instead of looking down and putting down your kind, why not lend the hand? I pondered on whether or not I should post for a while since I got back from the hearing. But here’s the true fact, racism, stereotypes, and profiling is very much alive and well today! If you’re just gonna add wood to the fire, do me a favor put your hands in too! Be the real change. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!

#WhatAday #JustAnotherDayAtPMKC #IsThereKumonForTheSamoanLanguage #iNeedToLearnSamoan #AllInAll #InTheMidstOfTheStrife #iGiveGodGlory #GivePraiseInAllCircumstances #BeTheChangeYouWantToBe #iShotTheSherrif #ButiDidntShootTheDeputy #LoveMyPolyPeople #BrownSkin #GoldenRule #AppliesToALL 

Lenten 2017

I reflected this morning on the writings from The Upper Room Devotional. In this time of Lent, this peice really hit home for me. It is already the second day of Lent, and I've finally decided what I wan to give as my offering and sacrifice. Time.

I've always observed Lent by sacrificing something to help me remember Christ's holy sacrifice for me. But over the years some of my passion for this practice dimmed, and I began to question my motives for observing this spiritual discipline. Does Christ really find pleasure in my "suffering"? I had to acknowledge that the answer was a resounding No! After all, Christ loves me! I feel it in the times that I spend with Him in prayer and petition, sometimes even venting to Him.

Divided between the desire to make a heartfelt offering to God and the ambivalence I felt, I struggled. I yearned to give God what I considered most precious - and with some reluctance, I realized that what is most precious to me is my TIME. Most days I feel I don't have a second to spare. Some days, I have all the time in the world, except, I am not using it wisely.

Committing to give God an hour daily is a genuine sacrifice - but like everything I've given in the past, my time already belongs to God. Those 60 minutes - bowing in prayer, reading the Bible, volunteering, even just being still to hear that still small voice - leaves me stronger and happier. I now share a more intimate relationship with Christ than I've enjoyed in years. During my college years, I encountered this feeling, the intimacy and bond I had with my Lord, and I fell in love with Him, as He did for me. I felt the true love of God for me. The love John spoke of in his gospel. The love that gave us His only begotten Son. That love which saved me of my sins. These past years since I got married and having a child, I feel that I've drifted from that closeness I had with my Savior. I've come to realize, the hour, the minutes, the seconds even the days of what you put your precious TIME in to, grows you to be what/who you ought to be. I guess in the end, I haven't really given up anything after all, because TIME is in God's hands. I've discovered the riches of time well spent in the presence of God. I am reminded of one of my favorite hymns,

Sisu Ke ke ma'u ma'au
'Eku ngaahi me'a kotoa
Taleniti ngaahi ta'u
Fanau, fale moe koloa

*translations* (In my own words of course)
Jesus, take and have it all
Everything that I own
Talents and all my years
My offspring's, household and treasures.

Today and always, the greatest gifts I can give to God is my time. Like the kids Sunday School song, "A little talk with Jesus make it right!"

Wishing you all a blessed day!

All my love,
ATL

The LORD watches over you — the LORD is your shade at your right hand.

- Psalm 121:5 (NIV)

Prayer for a Broken Relationship

This is literally what I'm going through right now, especially with turmoils and anxiety in the relationship I have with my boyfriend. My heart is really praying exactly these words! I hope to those feeling the same in terms of relationships, feel the power in this prayer and know how much God is much more in control of our lives than we ourselves. -Anne

When a Relationship Breaks Down

I’ve tried everything, Lord Jesus.

I’ve tried reaching out. I’ve tried drawing back.

I’ve tried talking. I’ve tried silence.

I’ve cried, pleaded, yelled, and whispered.

I’ve prayed.

I can’t think of anything else to do.

So I give this relationship to you. I ask for nothing—no special favors, no divine interventions, no sudden revelations. I simply place the relationship in your hands. 

And in giving it to you, I feel great relief. It is done. I have finally given up and accepted this ending. I know that from this moment on, my life will be different, and I accept this beginning as well.

Give me the strength to let all else go. Keep me from returning to my strivings to maintain this relationship. Remind me that I have given it to you.

Lead me to the higher ground, dear Jesus, where I can leave behind any bitterness, accusations, anger, sorrow, and pain. Fill me instead with your peace and the knowledge that you are with me.

Be in this space between the ending and the beginning. It is a scary place for me as I begin to work through my life without this relationship in it. Be between what was—the memories, the dreams, and the hopes—and what is to come.

Draw me closer to you in this time between the ending and the beginning. Let me see the place ahead not as a place to be feared but as a place you have prepared for me. In Jesus' name, Amen!

- Patricia Wilson

Quiet Spaces

Kauai - The Lost World - Canon 5D Mark II - Glidecam HD 4000

I MISS HOME! KAUA'i NO KA 'Oi!!

Oh My Goodness!

So, over the summer, this song has been stuck in my head for a very long time...Maybe because of a certain someone...I loves it!! :)

When Faith is at it's best

The measure of conscious effort in our faith is the measure of our faith’s weakness. When faith has become a spontaneity of our character, when it turns to God instinctively, when it does its work with the involuntariness of habit, then it has become strong. Faith does more than hold our hand in darkness; it leads us into the light. It is the secret of coherence and harmony. It does not make experience merely bearable; it makes it luminous and instructive. It takes the separate or the tangled strands of human experience and weaves them into one strong cable of help and hope