Aug 31, 2009

Comfort

Warning - this is Jessica being vulnerable.

Today I went to the girl doctor - ya know, which is normal for all us women folk. But, I went because I thought something was wrong with me (don't worry I am a perfectly healthy girl and everything is great ).

Now the devil has been trying to convince me that something was wrong with me for quite a long time - using just normal every day stuff and a little bit of ignorance regarding what is normal and not normal. Fear. That is exactly what happened. Fear. Satan used a little tiny "what if" "maybe" thought and turned it into fear that totally stressed me out. It is amazing how sneaky fear can be. There is a fine line of paying attention to things that need attention and just flat out submitting all crazy thoughts to Christ - all thoughts should be submitted anyways, but you know what I mean. Bottom line is I let a little thought and worry turn into some big crazy fear that was subconsciously stressing me out.

I went to the doctor, knowing I was probably just fine, but I needed some confirmation. As I sat there in the cold room waiting all by myself I could feel my nerves start to kick in. So, I just started to pray and I asked the Lord to just do something for me! In walks a beautiful blond nurse - not my usual Physicians Assistant. She was like an angel. She was new and has had tons and tons of experience and was simply a gift from heaven. She made me feel 100% better and answered all my questions and settled all my fears. I just sat there and cried on the table. Cried and cried and cried - and then cried some more after I got in the car. They were tears of relief and comfort that God sent somebody that I could totally relate to and could answer questions and tell me that everything is ok. Even if it was kind of silly.

Some of you may be wondering why in the world are you sharing this for everyone to see? Well, I am sharing this because satan wants us to stay in isolation so that we all feel like we are the only ones that stuff like this happens to. God wants to bring us all comfort, and sometimes we just need to ask for it. God definitely does not want us to suffer alone - even if we submit to a silly fear. Satan wants us to never tell anyone so he can make it even worse. So - I am telling you today to do something about it if satan is tying you all up in knots over something and you just need God to provide some comfort. Comfort comes in all different ways. God can work in anyway that you need him to.

All I am saying is you are NOT alone - whatever it is that you are dealing with. You have Jesus and the body of Christ - which also can just be a really good friend.

Aug 28, 2009

A post from Robin of Berkley who writes for American Thinker

Chris and I sometimes read American Thinker. Which is a fairly right of center news / discussion site. This summer we discovered "Robin of Berkley" who is a recovering liberal - meaning that she just recently "converted" over to being a conservative because of how she was treated during the Obama election. She literally was persecuted for not liking Obama and wanting to vote for Hillary. The mean and hateful spirit of the whole thing literally changed her world paradigm and caused her to "wake from her leftist stupor". I would encourage all of you - left, right, center, green or blue - to look at her archives on American Thinker and read her posts. She does not shove anything down your throat she just simply tells her story. It is a totally different perspective than we [people who read/listen/watch all other news programs] are used to....

I believe everyone has the right to their own opinion and should not be brutalized over it, so I am simply just sharing mine. If you have a different opionion than me that is wonderful. I would love for you to share it.

So - this is a post from August 27 on American Thinker.

To see the article on the website - click here

In Obama We Trust?

By Robin of Berkeley
I grew up in a home where God was MIA. I don't remember religion being mentioned except occasional references to some sort of God and a heaven. While my family was proud of their ethnicity, they didn't practice the religion. Aside from the requisite Bar Mitvahs, they never set foot in a synagogue.

My parents did worship at the altar of pleasure. They loved to party; they lived for the times they'd go out with their large, rowdy group, and dance and drink the night away.

I'm not sure why my parents were such party animals. It was probably a way to escape the past, the memories of which were permanently etched on the mournful faces of my grandparents.

The past: Atrocities in Tsarist Russia. Poverty in the U.S. Tiny, noisy tenements in New York City; ghettos of immigrants from Ireland, Italy and Eastern Europe huddled together.

My father's dad, desperate for money during the Great Depression, accepted a dollar to name my father after another man's deceased loved one.

Brazen anti Semitism; recurrent chants of "dirty Jew." WWII; the enormity of the death camps and the guilt of being safely sheltered.

My father, with a little money saved from working 12 hour days, reinvented himself. He changed his Yiddish sounding name to something WASP'y, and moved the family to a look alike, tract house in the ‘burbs. While the lifestyle was modest compared to middle America today, my parents were euphoric, a state that continued even into old age.

Escapees from the ghetto, no longer targets, my parents finally felt like true Americans. They were happy as clams in their perfect, sanitized life of black and white TVs, a washer and dryer, frozen vegetables, and luxuries like bottled salad dressing.

When I think about my dad, I remember how he ate. Every morsel, whether formerly boxed or canned, was exquisitely delicious, and he savored each bite, murmuring "Mmm, mmm," like a man just rescued from starvation.

My parents worked hard during the week, and then weekends traveled the cocktail party circuit, dancing the night away. They were in perpetual adolescence, recreating their lost childhood.

Meanwhile, I was a latchkey kid before the phrase was coined. With my only hobby being shopping, I occupied myself with my friends, the Addams Family, the Brady Bunch, Ed Sullivan, and Patty Duke. When I was a teen, it became mind numbing sex and drugs and rock and roll.

Weekends there was so little to do that I slept in until 1 pm. Occasionally I would tag along on a Sunday with my best friend and her family who went on outings. I was astonished that an entire family went out in the car for activities like picnics and museums.

It was a flat, colorless childhood with no strong arms to guide me. I drifted along the best I could, like a lone, unguarded leaf.

College was a blur of hook ups, hard drugs, and parties as I was speeding headfirst into disaster. Mercifully, in my early 20's, I found my way to a few decent boyfriends who had brains and I gained some myself, giving up my untamed habits along the way.

I settled down with my husband, Jon, a bookish type, who came from a family the polar opposite of mine. Jon still jokes (?) that he helped raise me.

Often Jon would drag me to talks by other brainiacs, where I would summarily nod off. But I like to think I absorbed something in between snoozes.

Eventually my life took shape: around my career as a psychotherapist and my leftist crusades to change the world. I found religion, or perhaps it found me.

I had just turned 30, an event that had given me the willies. Perusing a book by Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa in a bookstore, I was entranced by the novel idea that happiness is not the goal of existence, but the byproduct of a life well lived; that the purpose of life was truth not pleasure.

I started studying Eastern religion with a fervor, especially books by Trungpa and Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh), and even called myself a Buddhist until I shed most of my old identities a few years ago. I became more of a heavyweight, able to look at the big ticket items of life -- mortality, illness, and suffering -- because I was safely nestled in the world of the Spirit.

I remember the moment I discovered God, in my 30's, when Jon and I were on vacation. I was reading a light novel, and he, of course, was studying some heavy tome. When I perused it and saw it was a religious book, I asked him, "Do you believe in God?" (Yes I know it's bizarre that it took l0 years for the subject to come up.)

I was bowled over when Jon said, "Yes." (He was also raised secular, and had never previously mentioned the G word.) My eyes welled up with tears. I realized that I did too.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the factors in my life that lured me far Left for so long; what captivated me and held me there even with mounting evidence that the ideology was bankrupt. And why are millions still following the Pied Piper of Chicago, even though he's looking increasingly more corrupt and vacuous?

And I've come to this: the Left is filled to the brim with people like me, who grew up in homes with God in permanent exile and various adults floating in and out in hot pursuit of self fulfillment. With no way to understand life, this realm starts looking like an unmanageable House of Horrors. The result: people turn to someone like Obama to engineer a whole new world.

So we have a situation today with the Left in charge, preaching their religion which is anti-religion. Their dogmas are so harsh that they make the Torah look like a light summer read. The Left's missionaries are trying to tame the savages (stupid white people) just as the missionaries of old traveled abroad to tame the savages.

But, as survivors of Jonestown learned, a religion without a beneficent God firmly in place, is a cult, and can destroy lives. Those spiritual teachers I admired when I was young, Osho and Trungpa? They turned out to be major pervs. They slept with their students, even encouraged violence against them. Both died as a result of their depravity.

Without some type of faith, people can remain in a state of ravenous hunger, as needy and frightened as a little lost child. They're looking for something, but all the roads are blocked off. The only door leading to safety has been shut in their faces by a society that rejects the Sacred.

So the masses flock to Obama because he offers them meaning and a way to organize a chaotic universe. People believe he's some kind of Messiah because they're frantic for a Prophet to create a heaven on earth.

I saw a blog where a young person posts, "I have pictures of Obama on my wall. He gives me a reason to get out of bed in the morning." There are no rational arguments about bailouts and taxes that will counteract this desperation for purpose.

Our culture offers youth nothing of substance to carve out a dignified life. In the place of spiritual and intellectual richness, we pump them up with noxious television shows and films, texting and sexting, addiction to Facebook, and lots of drugs. We may have created a Generation N, for Nihilism.

And it's not just the young. Baby boomers are being dragged kicking and screaming into old age, without any spiritual guideposts and within a culture that fears and despises anything old. In ancient times, elders were revered as the cultural wellspring of wisdom and tradition.

But in most of the First World, older people are as disposable as yesterday's trash. How unacceptable to grow old in a culture that finds no grace, only disgrace, in wrinkles, and wants to hustle you out the door as soon as possible.

Baby boomers are also dancing to Obama's beat, enveloped in feelings of hope and change, holding on for dear life to their long lost youth. But it's not the real 60's with its hard drugs, violence, and exploitation of women, but a fantasy, frozen in time, of peace and flower power.

I understand the draw of Obama and liberalism and changing the world because I know what it is like when life has no other meaning. I understand how unbearable it is when not only one's parents but God is MIA and school is a forbidding place, and drugs only temporarily blunt the pain.

And I know the feeling of being so depressed that you grab onto anything -- whether it's a bottle or a relationship or a guru -- anything that eases the despair, and you won't let go, even when the consequences keep mounting. You won't let go until you find your way to the truth.

And I know what it's like to wake up from the fog, to shake off the dread, and to find that I'm strong enough to walk on my own two feet and that a Higher Power lifts and carries me when I'm too weak to stand.

If we as a culture don't find our way back to those young and old who are lost in space, adrift and unanchored, they will embrace false idols. For as long as Obama is the only game in town, the only way people can feel alive and hopeful, they'll ignore every red flag and defend Obama until their last dying breath. They must believe in him. The alternative is just too unbearable.

A frequent AT contributor, Robin is a recovering liberal and a psychotherapist in Berkeley.

Aug 26, 2009

Updated - Reader's Choice

Dear Blog World,

Ok, so here's the deal, I'm going to post all the related blogs to this here.  Keep suggestions coming!  This is fun for us, and we hope it is for you too! - Mr. Hill

I thought I would try something a little different and give you the opportunity to give either Chris or me a topic that you think would be interesting for one, or both, of us to blog about.

Granted the topic must be reasonable and appropriate enough to share with the entire blog community

SO - my dear readers out there - I truly don't know if we have very many - but you get the chance to share with us your thoughts on some topics you would like to see blogged about!



Much love to you all - happy Wednesday!

Aug 21, 2009

Something Funny

So, yes I am blogging twice in one day - it is possible that I am bored at work.

For some reason today I thought about the first time I got sick since Chris and I got married. In reality it is the only time I have gotten sick since I have gotten married - thankfully!

I got this icky tummy virus that kept me lying perfectly still on the couch for 3 days. No throwing up or anything just some really intense pain. On the third day of me laying on the couch suffering with none of my Mimi's chicken soup and no Mommy - Chris just up and decided that he had had enough. So, he just wrapped me up in a blanket and tucked me into his truck and drove me to my parents house. When we got there he carried me inside and laid me on the couch and had this attitude of relief like I am no longer responsible for my sick wife please fix her. It was so funny. I never said I wanted to get some caring and loving nurturing from my parents, Chris just decided that was exactly what needed to be done. Sure enough I was better by evening.

Just thought I would share that with ya'll.

:)

Purely Chic - SHFP

So this is my first "Shameless Hill Family Promotion"

But my bestie Shaina (who was also my maid of honor in my wedding and also lives in Colorado Springs with her hubby Bobby) is starting a new event planning business. Shaina was my informal event planner for my wedding, and truly during my wedding week she took over and it saved me and my Mom. Seriously - Shaina made my wedding stress free for my family!

I just received the logo that she will be using for her new company and I wanted to show it to you:


Isn't that awesome? I love it and I love Shaina! If you need an event planner for your wedding give me a call or comment and I will hook you up with the Shaina Bear.

Aug 20, 2009

Fathers and General Motors

My dad's dad, Papa, instituted that the Jordan family would always drive GM cars.

Except for the time my immediate family spent in Scotland - we have always driven GM cars. Now there is an exception to this that was made some time back when, and that was that women could drive German made cars if needed. Which is how I got my first little car which was not a GM.

I even married a man who drove a GMC Yukon when I met him, and had bought a new GMC truck (under the care and supervision of my father) right before he proposed to me.

When I was in high school my Dad would tell the boys at church that I was not allowed to date boys who drove Ford pick up trucks. He was kidding - kind of!

My Papa was car king. Every car had to be approved by him. He was the guiding force behind every car bought. I want you to know this was all done in love and in favor of tradition - no weird controlling stuff. Anyways, my Papa passed away a few years ago and then my Mimi's Father passed away last fall leaving Mimi and her mother Granny Ima with no man in the house. These two wonderful and amazing ladies have never picked out or bought a car for themselves IN THEIR ENTIRE LIFE - at least until yesterday! My Mimi married my Papa when she was 17 and until the day he died every couple of years Papa would pull up in the drive way with a new car for her. She never ever picked out her own car. Before Papa died Mimi had told him that she wanted a Lincoln Towncar for her next car and never had told anyone else.

This week it became apparent that Mimi needed to buy a new car. This has been something the family has been mulling over for quite awhile and has had Mimi at a stand still because she had never picked out a car with out Papa. So - while at the dealership yesterday Mimi told the guy what she wanted in a car - never mentioning a Lincoln Towncar - and the guy goes well let me go pull up something for you - and he drives up in a brand new Lincoln Towncar. My Dad was with Mimi when this happened - and it was like a little message from God that Papa was still helping out in the car buying process.

God used that situation to help heal my Dad's heart in regard to his Dad and taking on responsibility. I just thought was cool. Jesus just wants us to be little kids so He can take care of things for us without us shouldering the burden - even the little things like what kind of car to buy!

So just for fun I am going to list to you the GM cars in the family:

Dad - GMC Yukon XL
Mom- GM Hummer (Hummer was recently sold to some chinese company - which is devestating)
Chris - GMC Sierra
Jess - GMC Envoy
Luke - GMC 2500 HD
Evan - GMC 2500 HD
Jeremy - still 15 ( but will probably get Mom's hummer)

We are a GM family. A family left with a little hole in our heart when the government decided to buy it and own it. We are left thinking what are we to do? Ford is the only great American car company left ....

I personally (along with Mom) am going to opt for BMW's - they are importing the diesel engines from Europe this year :) --- meaning amazing gas mileage and crazy Jordan women on the road - watch out!

Aug 18, 2009

Fried Chicken Brings the World Together

I am not a big fried chicken fan, but my husband on the other hand considers fried chicken to be its own food group.

Anyways, today I was sent to Popeys to pick up lunch because the whole family was eating lunch with Mimi.

While in Popeys I noticed that all people of every shape and color eat fried chicken. When I walked in a very nicely dressed African American man was ordering, a white country bumpkin woman was standing behind him, then I ordered (what would I be considered?), then after me an Asian woman dressed head to toe in Coach apparel, and finally a Hispanic family. As I was waiting for the food I kept thinking about how cajun fried chicken had brought so many different types of people together. For some reason I just found that to be surprising!

That is my thought for today :) ---- go eat some fried chicken and meet some people that you would not normally come across!

Aug 17, 2009

Jason and Lauren are MARRIED

This past weekend Chris and I flew up to Lubbock to marry off Jason and Lauren.

Chris went to high school with both of them, and I immediately fell in love with both of them once I started dating Chris. That is of course after Lauren decided not to hate me and that I was in fact good enough to date Chris, but thankfully that did not take too long!

Weddings always remind me:
1. They are completely exhausting
2. Cost way too much - but who is ever going to change that :) ?
3. How creative and awesome God is, and how incredible marriage is underneath his covering and in his covenant!

This is one of those blogs that you could be totally vulnerable, gushy, honest, humble, romantic, and all that stuff. But, sometimes I think that somethings just need to be said without all the fluff and emotion in order for them to be received most effectively. Today I am probably going to talk to the women about being married, but all boys should read because it always helps to know the other side of the story.

Suggestion #1:

It is so important to realize that your man cannot satisfy you emotionally all the time. It is important to realize that all of your joy cannot be summed up in one person. It is important to realize that your stability and sanity cannot rely on just one person. It is important to realize the God must first satisfy all of these things first, and then your hubby (or wifey if you are a guy) can come in and just be the overflow of what God has already done for you. This solves the problem of what I call the black hole of need where you are constantly sucking the life out of your partner in order to be stable, happy, and fulfilled. I can promise you your husband or wife CANNOT fulfill you and is absolutely not supposed to. God is supposed to and is the only one who knows how to love you in the exact way you need.

When you are dependent on God for everything you are then able to operate as a fully functioning human being that actually can contribute to a marriage, a family, and society. Now - this is not easy and takes work, but it is absolutely necessary to be successful.

Secret # 1:

When you serve your spouse according to THEIR needs it will actually enable them to love you the way you need to be loved. It is one of those bible principles that is everlasting and surprisingly more simple than the world wants us to believe. It goes along with one of the golden rules: do unto others as you would have done unto you. So - that does not mean serve and love as YOU want to be served, but serve and love in the way that YOU know speaks most deeply to your spouse. I promise that once you two start this serving one another, or even trying to out serve one another the both of you will be so blessed you will not even know what to do. Once this is in play it makes sacrificing for each other a lot easier and even completely joyful!

Suggestion # 2:

This is really for the women - nagging your man is not the way to get things done or change him to be the man you know he is supposed to be. Only God can change people, so if there are things in your man that you know need to be changed then praying that God would either change him or you is absolutely the only way to change your man. As a woman God has given you a gift. That gift is the vision of who your man is supposed to be. You have two choices pertaining to the is gift: you can either nag him to death because he does not look like what you feel he is supposed to look like, or you can encourage him to be that man that God has shown you that he is supposed to be. Build him up - use your words wisely - let him know you think he is the king of the universe. Prayer and encouragement are the two keys to having the most incredibly loving and successful husband in the world. Nagging and tearing down are the two keys to castrating your husband in front of the whole world.


So that is my two cents for today - Chris and I are always learning together - so we always have something new to talk about - but that does not mean we are ever perfect!

Much LOVE to you all!

Aug 3, 2009

Grocery Shopping!

Grocery shopping is a very serious activity.

The grocery store could totally over take you and spit you out its front doors if you do not have a strategic plan to navigate its deadly isles!

How to succeed in grocery shopping 101:

1. Plan your meals - eating in and out (1st side of a piece of paper)
2. Survey the fridge and pantry to see if what you still have in there applies to your meal plan
3. Look for coupons ( I look, I clip, I rarely use) - I am too brand loyal
4. List out everything you need in the order that it appears in the grocery ( on back side of the piece meal planning piece of paper) --- ex: fruit, vegetables, meats, some dairy, bread .... (depending on your grocery store of choice)
5. Stick to what is on your list while in the grocery story (note: this is not possible if your husband lovingly goes shopping with you)
6. As you place the items in your basket arrange them carefully so that nothing gets smashed - all cold things together, all meat together, cans, boxes of stuff and so on ....
7. Make friends with the deli ladies
8. Smile at all old women
9. Avoid eye contact of everyone else
10. When checking out carefully put everything on the conveyor belt: this happens in a very specific order which cannot be changed. As one cannot always trust the bagging boy to not smash all your items .... All heavy stuff first: cans, boxes, drinks ... cheeses, dairy, meats, frozen, fruit, veggies, then chips bread and eggs ....

Plan. Divide. Conquer.

Chris and I went grocery shopping together on Saturday. He thinks I am scary when I am in the grocery store because I am so focused, but how else can you defeat the grocery store monster if you are not on top of your game!

It is a very serious activity :)