Acknowledging Your Blessings

A family friend and business associate sent us a message today…a reminder that even in our lowest moments; even at our darkest hours we should not just count our blessings but also acknowledge them.

 

Say thank you!

 

I am thankful for all of the blessing – big & small – that we have been graced with and for all of my friends and family that I so gladly and humbly share these blessings with. I love you.

 

WHAT HAPPENS IN HEAVEN WHEN WE PRAY?

  I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, 'This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received. I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

 

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section. The angel then said to me, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them." I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

 

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledgment Section, my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed. "How is it that there is no work going on here?, I asked. "So sad," the angel sighed. "After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments"

 

"How does one acknowledge God's blessings?" I asked..

"Simple," the angel answered. Just say, "Thank you, Lord."

"What blessings should they acknowledge?" I asked.

"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world.

 

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy."

"If you woke up this morning with more health than illness .. You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day."

"If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation. You are ahead of 700 million people in the world."

 

"If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world."

"If your parents are still alive and still married ...you are very rare."

 

"If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique to all those in doubt and despair."

Ok, what now? How can I start? Have a good day, count your blessings

"Thank you Lord, for giving me the ability to share this message and for giving me so many wonderful people with whom to share it. I thank God for everything, especially all my family and friends!”

My Baby Maia's Baptism

This is for friends and family who were not able to make it to NY to bear witness to Maia Athena's Baptism...It was a beautiful and meaningful ceremony. Hey Maia..."You LOOK Greek." XXXXOOOOO from Aunti Lisa.

Randoms from a Greek Orthodox Baptism

- "My Baby Maia" (that's what we call Maia) was baptized on Saturday.

- My BFF Vfly (Maia's Momma) cracked me up when she produced a sheet of what to expect at a Greek Baptism so that nobody (at least on her side of the family) would be a shocked, confused, or weirded out when a couple things went down. Good thing, cause I might have broke the whole show up had I not been warned:

• During the exorcism part of the ceremony (yeah, you read right) one of the godparents makes a renunciation of Satan on behalf of the baby, turns to the West and SPITS in token of his aversion to the Devil.
• The baby is IMMERSED (I'm talking all da way - no sprinklin business) in water three times. THREE TIMES.
• Some strands of the baby's hair is cut in a ceremonial tonsure. (Yeah, I gotta look that up too)

- I immediately told Vfly that "My Baby Maia" was not gonna be happy about none of this. NOT ONE BIT.

- She wasn't.

- I am such a tourist everywhere I go and always gotta see and touch stuff...why did I get snatched back cause I was trying to go behind the alter. (There was a room back there with cool stuff in it)....Ummm...

- Women are not allowed back there...not even on the top step to that room.

- It nearly killed me not to try and just lean in or stick my toe in...OHHHHH, I wanted to so bad.

- Why am I like that?

- I thought they said "some strands." Nobody said that we had to cut off four pieces - at each station of the cross.

- If you could have seen my BFF's face on the immersion 3x & hair cutting part - PRICELESS.

- Have you ever tried to dress a baby that has been totally covered in water AND oil? Slippery sucker.

- No, I did NOT drop her. Close doh.

- I swore I was not gonna get Maia dressed before the priests ran out of prayer to sing. I was positive they would have to start at the beginning.

- Undressing & Dressing "My Baby Maia" was my only job...I barely got that straight. Maia WAS NOT HAPPY AT ALL!

- Father John is the bomb diggity priest. I really liked him...he made us all feel like family.

- For a moment there..."I felt Greek."

- Yeah, I was cute and all, but nobody told me that I would be standing for 90 minutes on cold marble in 3 in heels. If I had to stand there 5 more min...

- DIVA DOWN! DIVA DOWN!

- I love a restaurant that has those bottomless wine glasses...every time I thought I was out of wine, it miraculously filled back up. Just fabulous.

- Nanny, Nanny Boo Boo. *Sticking out my tongue*

It was a beautiful ceremony!

Have a Blessed Resurrection Day!

The Pope has lost his mind...

I usually don't discuss this kind of stuff here but the latest "decree" from the Pope smacks of crackerish tendencies...like he needs to come off the pipe with this latest assertion that the Catholic church is the "only true church" and only "true religion." Sounds pretty close the what the the Antichrist would say prior to the beginning of Armageddon - you know - one world religion and what not.

Instead of drolling on and on, quoting scriptures and what not on how if he just actually READ the New Testament he might get a CLUE, I give you this commentary from CNN that I totally agree with....
Commentary: Pope's comments irrelevant to non-Catholics
By Roland S. Martin, CNN Contributor

(CNN) -- Non-Catholics who are up in arms of the proclamation by Pope Benedict XVI that the only true church in the world is that of Catholicism shouldn't even bother getting upset. Just chalk it up to an old man trying to get a little attention.

For him to even suggest that only the Catholic Church can provide true salvation to believers in Christ shows that he is wholly ignorant of the Scriptures that I have known all my life.
Sorry, let me take that back. I've really only known the Bible for the last 13 of my 38 years. That's because those first 25 years were spent as a die-hard Catholic. That's right, I was born and raised in the Catholic Church. One of the first meetings to build the church I was raised in -- Our Lady Star of the Sea in Houston -- took place in my grandparents' living room. Many of my Saturdays and Sundays were spent serving as an altar boy, Catholic Youth Organization leader, dedicated student of Catechism, and constantly reciting the Holy Rosary. And the reality is that we were never really encouraged to study the Scriptures. The standard practice was for all of us to read the same pamphlets passed out by the church, recite the readings from the New and Old Testaments, listen to the Scripture chosen for us in the Gospel and hear a normally bland homily.

That isn't always the case at some Catholic churches. If you visit St. Sabina in Chicago, Father Michael Pfleger will surely have your soul jumping with his strong sermons and willingness to engage the community to get involved in direct action. Yet as I reflect on my years as a Catholic, it pretty much was a wasted experience, as there was more identification with the church, and not with Christ.

And that's why Pope Benedict XVI is meaningless, along with his decision to re-state the primacy of the Catholic Church. This week, the pope released a document correcting interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, which some say modernized the church. But for hardliners like Pope Benedict XVI, the liberals went too far in some of their declarations.

But what ticked folks off was his assertion in the 16-page document by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that the only denominations that can call themselves true churches are ones that can trace their roots back to Jesus Christ's original apostles. He even suggested they suffer from defects. This is nothing but a naked attempt by Pope Benedict XVI to "own" Jesus by virtue of the Catholic Church considering the apostle Peter as its leader. He refuses to acknowledge the reality that Jesus didn't consider a church to be most important.

What was? The Great Commission.

The Bible records in Matthew 28:16 that Jesus called his 11 disciples (the other, Judas, hanged himself after betraying Jesus) to Mount Galilee and decreed, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (New International Version).

It doesn't matter what Pope Benedict XVI has to say, or for that matter, any other religious leader. A Christian believes in Jesus Christ and what He had to say, not what a man of God has to say. This is not an attempt to completely dismiss religious leaders, but is further evidence of what happens when ego is more important than the work of Christ.

John 14:6 says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Nowhere does it say that Peter, Pope Benedict XVI or anyone else can supplant Jesus as the leader of the church.

It is these kinds of missives by Pope Benedict XVI that do nothing to support or build the community of faith. All it does is divide.

Protestant leaders: Don't buy into the foolishness. Let Pope Benedict XVI keep running off at the mouth and making pointless declarations. If you keep bringing good news to the poor, setting the captives free and assisting those who seek to know Jesus, then you'll make more headway in doing the work of Jesus than any 16-page document will.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the writer. This is part of an occasional series of commentaries on CNN.com that offers a broad range of perspectives, thoughts and points of view