Lipstick on my collar

  The second half of my work day, I am stationed in the main lobby of the hospital across from the gift shop and coffee/snack shop. The gift shop is run by volunteers from the ladie's auxiliary, and they are all up in years and wealthy. One of those ladies, Pat, is a very skinny lady in at least her 70's; possibly 80's. She had been off work for several months due to health problems. I had seen her a month or so ago when she was here for a test and she was just getting out and around using a walker. Wednesday of last week was her first day back in the gift shop, so I walked in to say hi and see how she was doing. She gave me a hug and kissed me on the cheek, then laughed and brushed at my collar and said she hoped she didn't get any lipstick on my collar. I chatted with her and the other lady at the counter, then I went back to my post.

  I checked my shirt collar later, and there was no lipstick on it.....but so what if there had been? It would be worth the hug and kiss I got from a lady because I expressed concern about her and happiness that she was up and about again.

  This incident has been on my mind since then.  I often feel like I am not concerned enough about the people around me, nor involved enough. I have gotten better than I used to be, but there is much room for improvement,

There's the PCA who has had a lot of back pain lately, so I ask her every once in a while how she is doing.

There's the lady I work with whose grandson landed in the ICU because of severe diabetes, and I ask about him occasionally.

There's the lady who volunteers in the coffee shop whose husband has been bad health-wise, and I ask about him when I think of it.

Another lady who works in the coffee shop has had some health issues lately, and I have asked how she is doing.

  Since I  had my own health problems back in March, I have had several people ask me how I am doing, comment about my weight loss..... and on Thursday it was  birthday greetings from friends and family on Facebook and from people who work at the hospital who found out it was my birthday. These have all made me feel loved and cared about. It is amazing what an expression of caring or concern, or even a birthday greeting can do.... and if these things make me feel loved and cared about, then should I not do my best to do that for others?

  We often get in this little bubble that consists of ourselves, family, and close friends. Look around you after the next church service. A lot of us typically chat with the same people before or after church each week, and there are probably people we rarely or never speak to; not intentionally, but that is just the way it goes.

All of us, but especially we who serve God; need to show more care and concern for those around us. It may require getting our hands dirty, going out of our way, being inconvenienced, or getting  lipstick on our collar; but we need to be out there loving, caring, and helping others.  None of us may ever know while on this earth what it meant to someone. Only eternity will reveal all of that.

We All Have Our Benghazi

   When asked what how Donald Trump is any better than Hillary Clinton, the Benghazi tragedy is brought up. We may never know what really happened, but it would appear that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are both culpable for the deaths of four good men, if not directly responsible for their deaths.

  And it was a tragedy. I am not disagreeing in least about that, nor that she should be held responsible for it and not be running for president.

  But is that really justification or reason to vote for the "lesser evil"? If her responsibility for the deaths in Benghazi make her ineligible to vote for, then what about the other politicians who stand by and allow their own Benghazis to happen? What about we who vote for them and also stand by as these Benghazis happen?

 What Benghazis am I talking about?

  The butchering and murder of innocent babies.

  The death of 4 men who seemingly asked for help and received none is tragic, but how much more tragic is the murder of millions of babies in our country as politicians support and defend it, as we march to the polling booth and vote for the candidates who support and defend it, many of whom have it as part of their very political platform.

 Be honest here. Which is worse: the death of 4 great men, or the murder of millions of babies? If standing by and doing nothing as those 4 men were murdered makes one ineligible to be president of our country and too evil for you to vote for, what does standing by, defending, funding, and celebrating the murder of innocent babies make a person? If the former is so horrible to us that we want Hillary jailed and we refuse to vote for her (among other reasons), then shouldn't any candidate who supports what we call abortion also not be eligible for our vote?

 Or have we become so calloused to this horrible butchering of babies, that it is barely a blip on our radar while the deaths of 4 adult men are much more important and horrible to us?

  I don't care if it is Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Donald Trump. George W Bush, or Mickey Mouse..... if a candidate not only stands by and does nothing to fight this modern day Holocaust, and even worse defends and supports it; we should be just as outraged and horrified as we are about the 4 men who died in Benghazi.

 Hillary Clinton is very pro-abortion. Donald Trump has always been, even supporting partial birth abortion. Since his miraculous conversion to being a Republican, he claims to have changed his views on abortion, yet praises the biggest abortion provider in the country for "doing a lot of good". I bet some of the people who killed the 4 men in Benghazi have done some good in their lives too....... but they are still murderers and evil.

  I have been forgiven much, and know I am just a sinner saved by grace. I don't think I am any better than anyone else...... but that said: I promised myself long ago that I'd never vote for a candidate who was not pro-life. I had my doubts about the last couple, but they seemed to be. However, this election has 2 candidates who both are pro-abortion. And that, my friend; makes them just as much or more ineligible to be president and impossible for them to get my vote.

 And are we any better than Hillary Clinton if we keep ignoring the murder of innocent babies and vote for candidates who defend and fund the butchers?

 I don't know what we should be doing, but voting is a start. If there was a building near us where 2 year olds were taken and ripped a part or killed in some other cruel way, we'd never stand for it. We'd be for any force necessary to stop that evil practice.

  But yet since it is babies in the womb that we can't see, we have become accustomed and calloused to it to the point that we will vote for people who want to further the cause. We'd be more upset if it was puppies and kittens...... but babies? Yawn.

  May God have mercy on our country for allowing this to go on. So yes, criticize Hillary and demand justice for the deaths of those 4 men; but don't go and support and vote for anyone who has the blood of millions of innocent babies on their hands.

My birthday

  Today is my birthday, and though I don't look forward to turning another year older; it has been a great day and week.

  Monday evening, my entire family got together to celebrate my birthday and my middle niece Allie's birthday. Hers is the day after mine, so we usually do both at the same time. We had a Dairy Queen cake for her and a chocolate cake for me.......and I did eat a piece of both. My mom made fried chicken - my favorite - and we also cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill and ate outside with some side dishes. The evening ended with sitting around a fire in the chimney thing my parents have.

  Today, my actual birthday; I received several birthday greetings on Facebook and at work, which made my day as I read through them throughout the day.

  My very nice supervisor left me leave two hours early from work. I came home and changed clothes and my parents and I headed for Boardman to eat at Texas Roadhouse for my birthday. We stopped at Das Dutch House where one of my sisters and two of my nieces work so I could pick up my gift from my nieces - a bag of sugar free candy and a collectible figure from the Mario games,  I made a quick trip into Family Christian bookstore to get a couple of items with my 50% and 40% coupons I had. And then we ate.

  I think I about blew out the calorie counter on the My Fitness Pal app I use. I definitely went over the carbs and calories recommended. I had the 10 sirloin, fries, the cactus blossom - free with a coupon, and 2 rolls. I couldn't even eat all of my fries. And then the waitress brought me ice cream with chocolate syrup for my birthday. I was stuffed, and definitely off of my diet.

 But it was worth it. I cringe at the idea of being this close to 50 (3 more years) and still not having it all together and of not being where I want to be in life....... but I am blessed in friends, family, and God and His grace. I am still alive and fairly healthy..... and getting more healthy. I got some nice gifts, cards, and money in addition to all of the birthday wishes on line and at work.

 So I end this birthday thankful. Thankful for life, health, God, grace, family, friends, gifts, and the fact that my cousin Rhonda will always be 5 months older than me........ :)

My birthday stash below :)

Should a Christian boycott Target?

 I am not a big boycott guy. I have seen boycotts called for a lot of times, and often it has been something that I don't use or patronize anyway.

  And then there is Target. I have seen many Christians slamming a boycott, but for the most part they are the same Christians who have no decency or common sense to take issue with men using the women's bathrooms, fitting rooms, locker room, etc; or vice versa.

  People on the other side of these issues have no problem boycotting to get their agenda through, but should Christians?

  I believe we should in some cases. Our country is getting more and more wicked and morally bankrupt - one has to only look at the two frontrunners for president to see that. This is just the latest thing Christians have failed at as they throw their support behind the worse candidate to ever run as a Republican, and the most morally bankrupt candidate since Bill Clinton.

  I could be wrong, but I feel if Christians had taken a stand all along, we would not be in the mess we are in. But instead of taking a stand, we just stepped aside, or worse...we went along with whatever came along. It seems we Christians have gotten so used to just going along with everything, that now many of us feel we can't take any stand. It is a sad day when Christians take more of a stand against other Christians than they do against what is wrong and insane. If you dare take the sensible approach to the bathroom issue, other Christian side with the world and liberals and attack you. If you dare even say homosexuality is a sin, much less take on the cake issue; other Christians stand against you and call you names.

  Back to Target. They don't have a good record when it comes to policy:

1) They do not allow the Salvation Army to have bell ringers at their stores so their shoppers can have a "distraction free shopping experience"... ironic they don't care about the distractions of men in the women's fitting rooms and bathrooms.

2) More recently, Target did away with identifying toys by gender. There are no longer boys and girls toys in the toy department.... the toy department is gender-less.

  And now their official policy is "gender-less bathrooms". Men and women can use whichever bathrooms and fitting rooms that they want. The feelings of .3% of the population matters more than the safety and feelings of a majority. There has already been one incident at a Target in Missouri where a 23 year old man was taking pictures of women in the fitting room. There was also an incident in another Target where a man was just leaning on the wall in the women's bathroom, and management refused to do anything about it and said he was allowed in there,

  So I personally feel that it is time to boycott Target. It is not a Christian issue, it is a common sense and decency issue. It isn't even an LGBT issue. The problems so far have come from men that are not transgender. But by bowing to the wishes of the LGBT movement, they are opening the doors for any man or boy to walk in.

  I do believe we should be careful how we boycott. Don't be like the woman who went in a Target this week waving her Bible and screaming about Target being evil and that everyone should stop shopping. Sign a pledge, call and politely tell them you are not going to shop there anymore and why. Don't scream, don't have a rotten attitude, but be polite and firm.

   And yes, I am aware that more stores may follow, that the government may force this insane agenda and policy on all of us...... Obama is for it, Hillary and Trump are for it....and we may have to shop at stores eventually with this insane and dangerous policy.

  But we aren't there yet, and if Target got hurt enough by it, it might cause other stores to take caution in this area.

  So I am boycotting away and have already signed a pledge and made a polite phone call. No more Target for this guy. It is time we Christians stopped going along with the immorality and insanity in our country, and take a stand.

More May random musings

  Random musings happen when I am in the mood to blog, but can't come up with anything. A random list is just a bunch of mostly unrelated subjects that have been floating around in my mind lately, but ususally aren't enough to do a whole blog post about.

  Welcome to Mark's May Musings Random list..... and there may be some repeats from the previous post, especially the first...... but I am really looking forward to it.....

Vacation

 In two weeks from yesterday (Saturday);  I,  my parents, my oldest sister and her husband, and my 3 nieces will be departing Ohio for a week in the Outer Banks. I am very much looking forward to it, and can't wait. We will be staying at the Misty Lady in Avon...... and it can't come soon enough.

Raise $$

  After 2 years and 11 months at the same job, I finally got a raise...48 cents. I work for a company that is outsourced by the hospital, and it was in the contract no raise for 3 years. May marks 3 years.


Beautiful males

   They say the male is often the most beautiful in animal species. i.e.: peacock, lion cardinal, etc.... does the need for women to wear make up to look better, and not men mean the same is true in humans? :)

Tattoos

 Nothing says trashy like a woman covered in tattoos. Men don't look any better, but it seems worse on a woman.

Blaming others on the road

  If motorcyclists and truck drivers spent as much time and effort at driving safely as they do ranting against car drivers, they'd be a lot better off.

Being a martyr 

  I am reading a book about persecuted and martyred Christians down through the ages. As I have read with some horror of how Christians were tortured and killed...often by the Catholic Church for daring to have a Bible in English or challenging the baptism doctrine.... I have found myself wondering how I'd stand up to it. Christianity is losing popularity in this country, and even other Christians are taking a stand against we who dare to take a stand on anything that the liberals/world/media, etc wants.

   I worry that we American Christians are so weak, shallow, and self -centered that most of us will not be able to stand true persecution.

Walking

 According to my fitbit bracelet data, I have walked 266 miles since I started using it on March 23. I average 4 miles a day on most days. I am still hanging around 26 pounds lost, and am hoping I get past this plateau I have hit.

Sundays

   I was raised that Sundays are different. It is a day to rest and relax, go to church, and worship God. I don't get why so many people don't appreciate that. A day God says NOT to work and to rest....who in their right mind wouldn't take advantage of that? :)

Birthday

   This week I will turn another year older. I can't believe I am as old as I am, and find myself wondering where the years have gone.

Politics

  This election cycle has shown that Republican voters are no different or better than Democratic voters. They are electing a man that should never have gotten one vote, and it is sad how many Christians not only have no problem with what kind of man and candidate Donald Trump is, but many defend his lack of character and his immoral actions. I am seriously considering un-registering as a Republican.......this party sickens me.

Clothing

  I never got rid of the clothes that I grew out of, and am getting into a lot of what hasn't fit me for a few years..... and I now have too many clothes to fit in my closet.....which is a good thing

Christian Trump supporters...... remember that time you took an unpopular stand?

   If you are a Christian Trump supporter who is trying to get myself and other Christians to vote for your guy, or if you are one of those Christians who didn't vote for Trump but feel we must do so in the main election and are pressuring myself and others to join in, do a small exercise - no, not THAT kind of exercise, but a mental one:

 Think back over the years that you have been a Christian..... way back for some of you...... Now if you have truly served God and put Him first, there are probably a few times - or more than a few - that as a Christian you had to take a stand that was not popular. It may have been at work. It may have been with family. You most likely took a stand or more in your life that cost something...a stand that angered people, disappointed people......possibly even other Christians..... but because you are a Christian, you felt you had to take that stand.

  Now keeping that in mind, and remembering what it is like to not have your stand understood or appreciated, think on this:

  Is it too much to expect from you and other Christians who support Trump, that you  would understand and respect my and others' decision to not vote for Donald Trump if he does become the nominee?

I truly feel it would be wrong of me to vote for him on more than one level and for many reasons.

I also feel that it would be hypocritical of me to vote for him after all of my warnings about him, my blog and Facebook posts, and my insistence that a Christian should not vote for him. I am angry and frustrated with Trump voters, and especially Christian ones for supporting this sleazeball who is faking being a Republican..... why would I do the same thing after being so angry with them? Would I not be a hypocrite?

  Yeah, I get it, Hillary will be a disaster for our country and our freedoms. I don't want her as president, and believe our country will be worse off after a Hillary presidency.

  But if it was wrong for me to vote for Trump in the primaries, isn't it still wrong for me to vote for him in the general election? And you are not the one to decide if it is right or wrong for me......I have prayed and thought about it, and I cannot in good conscience or self respect vote for the man. Wrong doesn't become right just because there is a tough choice or because everyone else is doing it.

  Let me be blunt: I feel anyone supporting Donald Trump has thrown principles, morals, and common sense out the window and are ignoring the vast amount of reasons he is a terrible candidate and one Christians and conservatives should not support.... and a candidate that will surely lose to Hillary. You really aren't any better than Obama's voters who chose to ignore his past and policies, and voted for an inexperienced liberal narcissist.

   So really, is it too much to expect that these same Christians who surely have taken a stand for something in their life against what others are OK with, would understand our position? So why can't they stop throwing stones at us and realize that is what we are doing: taking a stand and refusing to do something that many of us feel will compromise our values, principles, morals, and Christianity?

  Or are they special in the fact that what they take a stand for takes precedence over what I take a stand for?

   Or is it that they  are they so blind and so dedicated to Donald Trump, that the idea is foreign to them that any Christian could possibly and honestly have good reason to not vote for the man? Is that where we are at, that politics and stopping the Democrat candidate from winning is more important than doing the right thing and abstaining from what we feel is wrong? Are they so bent on ignoring everything about Donald Trump, that they want to pressure us to ignore the same things and vote for the candidate they were too blind to see the truth about?

   Quite honestly, I can't see Donald Trump will be  much better than Hillary Clinton. They held the same views for years and have supported the same politicians, and he has been friends with the Clintons. She may be more extreme on some issues than he is, but it is obvious to anyone paying attention that he hasn't changed his views on much, if on anything.

   And yet, other Christians want me to set aside this determination and conviction I have to not vote for him on the slight chance he will put conservative judges on the Supreme Court..... the same man who said his pro-abortion liberal sister would make a great Supreme Court justice.

  I don't know. Maybe it is asking too much and expecting too much to think that other Christians could possibly understand our position and respect it. These are the same people who have been supporting this vulgar and vile man, and who have staunchly defended him no matter what he says or does. It is kind of like expecting the gay person claiming to be a Christian to understand our view that we can't condone that lifestyle... it probably won't happen.

  Is stopping the person running on the Democratic ticket so important that we must lower our standards and toss out what is important and right just to attempt to stop that person? And is it that important that Trump supporters who are Christians must badger others to also toss out principles and morals to join them?

  If not, the day may come when these Christian Trump apologists take a stand and have other Christians giving them a hard time for not going along with what they want....and maybe they will look back and remember this and finally understand why we didn't fall in and do what they wanted us to do.

 I promised I'd never vote for a pro-abortion candidate. Trump has proven he is not pro-life and has even supported partial birth abortion. I don't care what ticket a candidate runs on, if they do not oppose abortion, I am not voting for them. Period, exclamation point.

 In closing, I can't predict the future, but I do follow politics and can think; and I am convinced Donald Trump cannot beat Hillary. The last two elections, conservatives and Christians have stayed home because the choices were so bad......do you really think those same people will go out and vote for a man even worse? I can't see it, and it is driving people who have voted - like me - to not vote for the GOP candidate.

  I shall do what I believe is the right thing as a Christian, and that is do a write in. I cannot and will not lower myself and toss out everything I need to toss out and vote for a liberal sleazeball....even if the other choice is as bad or a little worse.

  If you, as a Christian cannot understand and respect my decision and that of others like me, then you are in a sense being hypocritical if you have ever taken a stand as a Christian that was unpopular, and are acting towards us like others acted towards you.

 We are not of this world. Our citizenship is in Heaven, and this world is going to get steadily worse. Politics and even our freedoms aren't above God or as important as doing the right thing.

Disclaimer:

**I do not think I am better than Trump supporters, but I do believe I am more awake and have more common sense than a lot of them presently.

God made them male and female

   We are in a severe moral decline in this country. What used to be whispered about and done in secret is now paraded in the streets and forced on the whole country. If you dare believe in  waiting to have sex until marriage, that homosexuality is wrong, that transgender is  mental illness and is wrong, and that people should use the bathroom for the gender they are....you are mocked, called a bigot, and made an example of.

  There are more words to describe a person's gender and sexual identity than anyone would have ever dreamed possible years ago: gay, lesbian, transgender, transsexual, pan-sexual....... and the list goes on and on.

   When God created man, He created Adam; 100% male. He then decided Adam needed a help mate and created woman. Period. There is a statement that the The pro-gay crowd and even many Christians who deal with same-sex attractions hate: "God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve." As cliche' and as hated as it is, that is the truth. God created male and female, two heterosexual beings.... He did not create homosexual beings, He did not create man for man or women for women, nor something in between. He created man and created woman for man.

  There is a verse in the Old Testament that largely gets ignored today. Deuteronomy 22:5:
"A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God."

    People interpret that verse differently, or just toss it in the bin of things we don't have to do since it is Old Testament. A friend of mine said that it is just one verse back in the Old Testament... yet how many times does God have to say something for it to matter?  And look at the word used there: abomination. The dictionary definition is something that causes hatred or disgust.... so God hates and is disgusted by men and women wearing clothes that are like the other gender's..... or as one translation puts it, "men pretending to be women and women pretending to be women." (wow, that sounds like a description of transgenders). And God doesn't change His mind on an abomination.

  Some people interpret this that women should wear skirts and dresses since pants were invented for men. I have heard all of the arguments and have my own beliefs on that,,,, and I'd rather see a woman in a dress or skirt any day than pants anyway, but I am not getting into that here. What should be obvious is that God created male and female to be different, and He used the same word to describe sex between the same gender as a man or woman dressing like the opposite sex: abomination.

  On to hair: 1 Corinthians 11:14-15 says: Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? 15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering."

    I have heard all of the arguments on the hair too. "Jesus had long hair"....uh, how do you know? "All of the pictures show Him in long hair".....and how many of those artists saw what Jesus looked like? "That was just for that culture", and on and on... The Bible was inspired by God, and His Word plainly indicates that men should not have short hair and that woman should have long hair.

    If you throw all of this in a blender and blend it up good, this is the conclusion:  God created male and female for each other and for reproduction, that men and women should not dress alike, that men and women should have different hair lengths, that men are to be the head of the house, and that sex between the same gender is sin....... I believe one can rightly conclude that the differences in gender are a pretty big thing to God. He created men and women to be different and created them for each other.

  Could we have started this whole mess when we started going along with the world on dress and hair? Everything is "unisex"nowadays. Even before the transgender thing became so common and accepted, it hasn't been unusual to look at a person and have no clue if it is a man or woman because of the way they are dressed and have their hair.....so how does one know whether to be attracted to a person like that? Conspiracy theory alert: what if that is all part of an agenda?

   This whole gay/transgender, gender-less bathrooms, and all of that seems to reek of going against God's design. I read a lot and have been paying a lot of attention and I have a theory. I could be wrong, but here it is:

  Liberals hate the Bible and Christianity, and I believe they are doing their best to do away with all morality and anything decent. It seems to me - and I have read some statements that support this - they want to do completely away with gender and sex. No male or female, no gay or straight.....just everyone being gender-less and having sex with whoever and whatever they want.

  This whole push for people to use whichever bathroom, locker room, or fitting room isn't by accident. It is part of an agenda. I may be wrong on some of my theory, but Obama and his minions have a reason for pushing this, to try to force it on schools and everyone else..... and it isn't because they care about the .3% of the population that identify as transgender. There is more to it than that. It may not be what I am thinking... it could just be another attempt to draw attention away from something else he wants to do...... who knows?

  We can go too far with the ideas of what men and women shouldn't do. Culture dictates that men should love sports, drink beer, hunt, fish, drive pickups, have sex with as many women as possible, etc. Women should cook, clean the house, watch chick flicks, and sew. As a guy who hates sports and has never fit in with men who are into all of that, I have come to realize that culture cannot dictate what is a man and what is not, yet the Bible clearly shows that God intended man and women to be different and have different roles in the home and outside of the home.

  Male and female created He them (KJV). The evidence is there that He wants the two genders to be different in dress, looks, and roles. Who are we to say differently? And who are politicians to try to away with God's design for sexuality and gender? Our interpretation on some of the verses I used may differ, but one cannot ignore them and say they don't matter. They wouldn't be in there if they didn't matter.