Ode To Zaan

No matter how many times you experience death of a loved one, you feel like this big heavy foot just landed in the middle of your chest and crushed your heart.  My little Zaan, although he was over 6ft tall, has transitioned to the other side.  It's always a little weird when the ones younger than you beat you to the other side.

Yep!  Granny is photobombing in the back...lol

What I remember of him most is his infectious dry humor.  He always found a way to make you laugh and he's just standing there with a straight face as if nothing happened.  Zaan was brilliant, unselfish, patient yet stern.  He enjoyed being with family and was always looking out for his baby sister Zaria.

Although he's no longer with us on this side, it feels good to no he's on the other side still looking out for his grandmother, mother, baby sister, and fiancé.

Zaan, I know this post is the shortest of my fondest memories, but I feel I would do you no justice if I said more.  Your exemplary life of how most women desire their son or man to be, you still are in Granny's memory.

Love you baby cousin ~ forever
And to all family members, love you too.

Much love,
Granny

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Proactive Eye http://proactiveeye.com
Time With Granny http://timewithgranny.com

Life

By my judging stick, my life has been hard, but it's been good.  It has afforded me the opportunities of loving with my whole heart, the ability to stand up on my own two feet, and a determination to continue making myself and assisting others to become the best we all can possibly be.

Loving with my whole heart gives the opportunity to show others how God loves them through me.  Being able to stand on my own two feet was the result of not having things handed to me.  I had to learn either from others or from trial and error how to get things done.  This put me at an advantage to not give up in adverse situations.  A determination to continue making myself and assisting others to become the best we can possibly be goes back to loving with my whole heart.  When you love yourself, you want the best for yourself.  When you love others, you want the best for them.

My life has been so good I can't tell it all.  There is a synopsis of my life on the Bio tab above.

Much love,
Granny

What events in your life has caused you to be thankful regardless the situation?  Share in comment section below.

Acceptance

It takes some people time to learn who they are.  At times, they don't like who they are and venture out being something/someone else they're not.  By the time they get through making things harder for themselves and everyone else by doing so, they come full circle realizing they have to accept who they are, where they come from, and who they are becoming.

Who you are begins in your genetic makeup.  There are some things that are just inevitable.  For instance, my parents enjoyed cooking and feeding people.  I do also.  Unlike them, I do not care how much everyone enjoys my cooking, I do not plan to start a catering business or open a restaurant.  My love for cooking stems from both parents.  My two sisters and I were always around food.  No microwave nor instant food for us.  Just home cooked meals.  I want good cooking and good conversation for everyone just like my parents did.  Although I don't have the heart for starting a business cooking like my parents and one of my sisters, I accept the fact that I will not make plenty of money cooking for people, but I can make something out of writing a cook book with our recipes.  I accept that I am different in a lot of ways.  I am a writer.  Always have been.  Always will be.  My other sister just rather serve the food and converse with the people.  My sisters and I are all different in relation to cooking and serving.

It's OK to be different.  Learn how to accept and appreciate what separates you from others.  It will make a difference in your happiness.  It has with us.

Much love,
Granny

My Daily Breath of Life

Growing up, we use to have testimony service during our night services in church.  This was time for people to stand and be a witness of how good God is.  My testimony today, is how I was blessed to encounter a new friend by the name April D. Byrd through the blogosphere.

April D. Byrd, Author of Breath Of Life Daily

April is the creatress and author of Breath Of Life Daily (BOLD) blog.  It is through her posts, people are able to gain strength from the word of God not only from the bible, but through life in general via her life or through the lives of others.  Every Tuesday, April chooses to share testimonies from others to be shared with the world.  At the end of this post, I will leave the address to contact April for you to submit your testimony to her to be shared with the world.

While reading Ezekiel 37, I immediately felt a connection with this scripture and BOLD blog.  In this chapter, God took the Prophet Ezekiel in the Spirit and set him in the middle of a valley full of bones that were very dry.  God told Ezekiel to speak to the bones and command them to hear the word of the Lord. Ezekiel spoke to the bones and said, "Behold I will cause breath (Ruach - breath of God) to enter you that you may come to life."  As he spoke to the bones, the bones began to make a noise and come together.  The sinews (nerves) and flesh began to grow and cover the bones.  But there was no breath in them.  God told Ezekiel to speak again and say to the breath, "Breathe on them."  When he did, life came into them and they stood to their feet as a great army.

Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you that God is using Breath Of Life Daily blog to speak into our lives to bring back life into us.  Purpose being, you have to live in order to receive what God has with your name on it.  Later in the scripture verses 12-16, Ezekiel was commanded to speak again and declare that God will open their graves and they would come out; and God would bring them into a place that has their name on it.
What has held you down, can hold you down no longer.  What has held the very thing(s) you need God to supply, will no longer be kept from you.  There are things on this earth with your name on it.  God specifically chose April to speak and call the four winds through the blogosphere to speak into our lives to bring forth life, mobility, and the authority to claim what God has for us.  These things are not just so we can go on with our lives for ourselves, but to testify to others how good and great God is.  It is also to bring us together as one, unifying us to speak life into others around us.  Our responsibility in all this, is to hear God.  Only when we hear Him, Ruach - His breath - will come into our lives and cause things that were dead to rise up and live again. His breath will enable us to claim what is ours, becoming one, speaking into the lives of others so they may live according to the plan of God as well.  

Becoming affiliated with Breath Of Life Daily has been an empowering experience.  Since my beginning of reading BOLD, my life has been enriched with every post.  April, thank you so much for allowing God to use you to speak into our lives.  It is an awesome responsibility.  You were chosen because you were ready to serve, willing to listen, and able to do it.  May God continue to bless you and Breath Of Life Daily blog.

You may reach April by Clicking Breath Of Life Daily link here, or under her photograph, and going to the testimonies tab on the blog.  To share a testimony you would like April to share with the world, you may reach her at boldbloginfo@gmail.com

Much love,
Granny

It's Not About You - Part 2

Bishop Motley Davis
Pastor of Higher Heights Cathedral of Deliverance

Yesterday, I read a status on Facebook that said, "Will you please stop doubting God?????....You are insulting Him when you doubt Him.....Trust and never doubt.....He will surely bring you out.....Just take your burdens to the Lord and leave them there."  - Bishop Motley Davis

                                                                                                  

Granny's testimony:
In 2003, I was laid off from work, for the third time.  The same year, my legs decided they did not want to work anymore.  The Doctors tried to discover what the problem was, but to no avail.  They decided I should not try to work until they found what was going on with me.  Me, on the other hand, decided I needed to be busy.  Everyday, a friend of mine, who was laid off with me, went job hunting.  While she was able to walk at a normal or quick pace, I was going at a very slow pace, shuffling in very slow motion, hardly bending my knees.  At the end of each day, we would retire at her apartment to relax and work on a game plan for the next day.  One day, her roommate, who happened to be home with some of her friends, decided to ask, "How are you going to get hired with your legs not working right?"  My reply was, "I'm going to get a job."  One of the roommate's friends said, "No one is going to hire you looking like that."  We were all looking for jobs.  My reply to this lady was, "I'm going to get a job.  As a matter of fact, I will have one before you."  By the end of the following week, I had a job working in a retail store in the mall which required me to use my legs a lot.  Being of a competitive nature, I took the challenge on deciding I was going to be the best Sales Associate that store had seen in a while.  As usual, we went back to my friend's apartment, same doubting females still there, haven't looked for a job that day while I came in exclaiming I had one.  One said, "How are you going to do that job when it requires you to move around a lot with your legs like that?"  I answered, "I asked God for a job that will assist me in strengthening my legs and He did. You'll see."
As time went on, I reported to work faithfully.  Did what was asked of me faithfully.  Never complained, never looking for an easy way out of doing my share of the work load.  My legs became stronger.  Before anyone knew it, I was pretty much running half the time - I was hired during the Christmas season. A lot of people were rushing in and I was responsible for refilling stock on the floor.
By the end of the season, my legs were back to functioning properly.  The medicine the Physicians had given me, continued to sit at the bedside table without me taking any.  I figured why take them for something if they could not tell me why my legs weren't functioning properly in the first place.

When life dealt me a bad hand, I played the best hand I had.  I chose to believe God.  I never knew God to lie so I depended on Him to get me through this and He did.  I knew that sitting around at home on temporary disability and taking medicine was not going to work.  I knew within myself, that more mobility on my part was the answer.  My act of faith is what caused God to move on my behalf.
Months later, the same ladies that were doubting still did not have a job.  I was enjoying my strength, my new job, and mobility.  There were others, who knew my testimony and believed God according to what they saw Him do in my life and received great results.
Time has passed since this event.  The last few years, I ran into some of these ladies again.  Everyone is doing well now.

So what does all this have to do with the title?  There is always someone needing to hear your testimony of how you overcame a bad hand dealt to you in life.  It gives them a sense of hope and helps them to hold on a little longer because they have something to identify with.  Had I not believed God, the people who received results because of the actions they took according to the testimony they witnessed in my life, they would most likely still be in the position of a defeated mind set.  And God would not have gotten the glory out of my testimony. 

When life dealt you a bad hand, what was your reaction?

For part one click here
To view another testimony click here
For a worship experience with Bishop at Higher Heights Cathedral of Deliverance, click link here or picture above. 

Much love,
Granny