Morning Coffee

NEED:

1. New camera lens (if I intend to prosper in photography, which I do)
2. New computer (if I intend to, again, prosper in photography, which I do)
3. New Vacume Cleaner (because, frankly, I like a clean home and my vacume now is about as useful as a blow dryer is for dusting)
4. A Nice Crock Pot (Curtis and I like to cook, and a crock pot would be very useful)
5. Nice Cutlery Knives (because my knives that I have now are about as useful as cutting with chop sticks)

WANT:

1. Tickets to a Cirque Du Soleil  ——  Official Site
2. A Trip to the Corning Glass Museum  ——  Official Site
3. A New Car
4. A Nice Couch Cover (Slip Cover)  —— OverStock.com
5. Dinnerware —— Overstock.com
6. Nice Chargers (to go with the dinnerware) ——  Target
7. New Silverware  ——  Choice #1, #2, #3 (I really like #1)
8. New Area Rug (for my living room, because my animals aren’t good with bamboo…don’t ask)

        It’s my 21st Birthday this year, but all I really would like to do is go out to a nice dinner with my boyfriend and family.  I guess a really nice birthday present would be for my mom to come in to my apartment, and help me shampoo my carpets.  They really need it.  I’ve been wanting to do it for a while now.  A also need a new area rug for my living room, because my dog destroyed the one I have now (it’s made out of bamboo-type material).

        Usually, I just treat going to the Farmhouse in the spring as my birthday “present.”  It’s relaxing there, and I love it.

        I feel as though my 21st Birthday is supposed to be special or something, but I’m really not that excited about it.  It’s just another number, just another year…

        This post was inspired by the message that my pastor gave on Sunday.  I was, and still am, quite skeptical as to the truth in what he was saying.  I guess that it’s safe to say that I’ve interpreted the Bible differently…

Romans 1:20 says:

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

Romans 1:21 continues on by saying:

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

        From this, he was teaching that everyone will, one day, be sitting before God’s throne, awaiting his judgement.  With this I agree.  He went on to say, though, that absolutely NOBODY is without excuse.  I know those words are said in the Bible passages, but it also says that “For although they knew God” they still chose to not glorifiy him.  That, to me, indicates, that men who are uneducated and have absolutely no way of knowing the story of God and his son, are not going to be in this category of people who just have no excuse. 

        As I was talking with Curtis about this, he gave a good example: What about the people who are born into a vegetable-like state, who have no concept of the world around them?  They, in my thinking, certainly cannot just be cast to Hell for not accepting the story of Christ.  They wouldn’t be able to physically comprehend the story.  So, for this, they are going to be rejected by God because of a condition they were born with that isn’t even their fault in the first place?  My biggest question is what about the tribal people?  From birth, they are taught to worship their self-created “god”.  I, in my opinion, don’t believe that they have had the chance to be educated.  Yes, they have seen God’s divinity through his creations on this planet.  However, I don’t believe we are naturally born with the knowledge of Jesus and what He did for us.  So, instead, they end up creating a god, because they have no other way of explaining it.  I don’t think it’s fair to say that even those categories of people are doomed to eternal life in Hell.  They have no way of knowing.  I believe, that in God’s eyes, they are like infants.  Many know that until a certain age, infants and young children are always brought to Heaven with Christ and his Father, because they have not had the opportunity to understand/comprehend the world around them, let alone grasp the story of Jesus. 

        God is fair and just. 

Romans 1:22-25

“22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 

24Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praise.  Amen.”

        Okay, so I suppose I should start off by informing you all that I am a Representative for a company that sells Sterling Silver Jewelry.  Recently, I decided that I would like to start making my own gift certificates that I would award my customers and hostesses for doing things such as booking shows with me.  I never thought it would be such an astronomical task just to make this certificate.  I started making something up in Word, and then Curtis looks at it and decides that he’s going to help me with it.  Before I knew it, he goes and makes a barcode to put on it that if you would actually scan it, it would read, “ilovefaye.”  We just had a good laugh about it last night, and we were both just crackin’ up over this barcode.  I actually started to imagine what it would be like if I had the scanner hooked to my computer and when someone would come up to me with their certificate, I would whip out my laptop, hook up the scanner and scan the barcode to track my certificates.  Well, Curtis made the little sound that the scanner makes when it reads a barcode, and it went a little like, “Shweemeep.”  I just started busting up laughing.  I don’t know why it was so hilarious.  Maybe I just needed a good laugh.  But, it struck me funny, and Curtis and I were just giddy over this barcode thing.  I was actually crying because I was laughing so hard. 

        Now that I think about it, this was probably a “had-to-be-there” moment.  I’m sorry if you now think lesser of me.

……but it was really funny.  =)  I love you, hunny. 

        Oh, and Curtis also made me a rockin’ Signature for at the bottom of my emails.  It’s pretty sweet.  He loves me.  =)

        Okay, so this MAY sound like a really corny story in the end, but I really do think that God had his hand in it all:

        I have been fighting a horrible cold for the past three days.  In fact, the bank where I work sent me home about a half hour after I got there Monday morning.  Thankfully, I had Tuesday as a scheduled day off and was able to take my time recovering.  Lately, I’ve been slow with my jewelry business.  Nobody seems to want to have a party.  As I was sitting at home yesterday, feeling a lot better than I had the day before, I decided to pop in the training cd’s that Tammy (my Jewelry Rep. that I am working under) gave me when I first signed up.  It was named “Booking for Success” and perhaps one of the most inspirational cd’s that I have listened to in a long time.  I had never listened to it before, because I thought it was going to be cheesy and I was “big-headed” enough to think that I couldn’t possibly be told anything that I didn’t already know about the sales business.  Boy, was I wrong.  As I listened to the cd, I started going through my old parties and customers, writing numbers down, jotting down scribbly notes everywhere I could fit something in on this little piece of paper.  My determination to get that “Yes” that I needed was what drove me to make almost 20 phone calls yesterday.  I had made about 16 phone calls and was getting, once again, depressed and so upset, because I was getting everyone’s answering machine.  I even called schools to check about fundraisers and a lot of the school were nasty to me.  I was just about ready to be done with it all.  As tears started to well up in my eyes, I literally just threw my head back on my pillow and looked up and said, “God, I really need your help.  Please, just give me something to work with.”  At that time, I regained my composure and prepared myself for one more call.  I knew this girl that I was about to call loved the jewelry and was picking up almost every piece at the show she attended and said that she wanted it, but kept putting each piece back down saying, “I can’t afford it all.”  I called her, the phone rings a couple times, and I started preparing for another answering machine.  All of a suddent the ringing stopped and I hear her answer on the other line.  As I started talking with her, she tells me that she’s really interested in having a party and wants to see if she would be able to find enough people to come to the show.  Finally, I had my “Yes.”  I felt so desperate, I needed something to keep me going.  Shortly after I got off the phone with that girl, another one of the other girls that I had called, called me back and said that she would like to have a show as well.  After I got off the phone, I got tears in my eyes yet again and all I could do was say, “Thank you” over and over and over again.  Not only had I gotten that one “Yes” that I was looking for, but He gave me two.

        Later that night, I was able to share that story with my fellow jewelry girls at a meeting that we had at one of their houses.  It felt good to be able to tell people that the calls DO work.  You call and call and call until you get that “Yes.”  I also was glad to hear that I’m not the only person who is having a hard time getting bookings right now.  It’s encouraging to know that I gave some of the other girls, who were also having troubles, get the confidence to keep on keeping on.  The sales business is tough.  I’ve definitely learned that it doesn’t just take a good personality to succeed, and that I don’t know everything there is to know about the business. 

        Hah…..who knew…..=/