Mama Always ~ L.A. Brown, Author

  Today I was reading my devotional and part of it was Mark chapter 10, verses 46-52. It is about a man named Bartimaeus.  The story is that Bartimaeus had been blind from birth. In those days, people believed that the parents had sinned, or that the person born with the infirmity committed a sin prior to birth. Kind of extreme on the prior to birth part, if you ask me. However, we have to remember that scientific advances were not as they are now, although the Greeks were pretty knowledgeable about a great deal, but figuring out why a person was blind was not among their skills. Generally, when a person was disabled, or had a disease such as leprosy, they would be found in the market places, temples, or on the side of the roads begging for food or money. I know, we still see that a lot on our street corners, but usually they are not blind or have leprosy. When Jesus began His ministry, he came across many who were maimed, disabled, or had diseases, and He healed them. Bartima...

 As I was getting ready for Church this morning, God gave me a nudge. Nothing earth shattering, nothing profound, although some might say it was. No, just three words...take a picture. I went, "hmph," and continued fussing under my breath at the fourth shirt I pulled from my closet that doesn't fit as I'm losing some weight. On purpose. During the holidays. Smh. Then, when I was in the service today, our Pastor asked what we were grateful for. See, 2020 has done a number on all of us, and yet, for all the stink it's managed to dish out, there are still things that we can be grateful for. Our homes, our families, just to name a few. Which brings me to the pictures. For quite a few years I didn't like my picture taken, and it had to be a certain shot, heavily filtered, or it got deleted or destroyed.  I don't remember getting rid of a lot of them, but some definitely met the fire. Why? Because I'd gained an enormous amount of weight, and I hated it. I ha...

  This year is something else, I'll tell you. I could go over the list, but I think most of you have the gist of the reality that is this year.  So, I'm going to bring a little more little black rain cloud to you. Sorry. I have a friend, actually a few of them, who are sooo excited about the "new administration" that they are willing to alienate folks they know, they work with, they live with or are related to. They are excited about the socialized medicine, the everyone is equal thing, and so on and so forth. But there's a problem with this participation trophy type of thinking.  With socialism comes a lot of problems. For example. In 1934, some men in Germany were "rounded up". No, they weren't Jewish, or another of the targeted populations, nope. They were a group of men who were autistic, had Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy or otherwise mentally retarded. These men were shipped to an asylum for a short amount of time, then determining they were a d...

 Let's put it right out there...2020 has sucked. Yeah, I said it, and I'm not apologising or taking it back. If there was ever a danger zone for depression, this is it.  I have blogged a lot on depression. As you may know, I suffer from a mild form of it, and my best friend of over 45 years had a severe form of it. Because of that, she took her own life a year ago, and because this is such an insidious affliction, I will make mention of it in my blogs often.  This disorder has taken so much from so many. Look at Robin Williams. The face of comedy, wonderfully funny, and yet it was a mask for the world to see. You see, a lot of us put on that mask so that no one will worry, and we keep wearing it until we can't anymore. That's when things happen. Either we seek help and hope it helps to manage this demon, or we give up. That's what he and my best friend did. It took me a lot of reading, praying, crying and going through my own struggles to realize that it really wasn...

 I was talking to a neighbor tonight who is very frustrated over the last two days. I have to tell you, I've voted every year of my adult life, and even with Carter, and the hanging chads with Bush, I've never seen anything to rival this. But, this is what I know. GOD IS STILL ON HIS THRONE . I will admit, I am beyond frustrated. The MSM isn't doing any of us a huge amount of favors, especially when they break away from the President speaking to accuse him of telling lies...mid-sentence. You know, maybe he is, maybe he isn't, but that was a majorly juvenile thing to do, in my opinion. I don't know who will emerge the victor, whoever it is is going to have a pretty tough go of it probably. But, again, this I know...God is still on His Throne. He sets 'em up, and He takes 'em down. The Bible is clear on that. Anyway, getting back to our neighbor. I told him the story of King Saul, how the Israelites whined and moaned and groaned about having a King. "Why ...