Mama Always ~ L.A. Brown, Author

"Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.' " That quote is from Matthew 25:37-40. This last week has presented me, and quite a few other Brothers and Sisters in Christ the opportunity to be who we have been called to do.  A family in Christ has fallen on an extremely difficult situation, in fact it can be considered a crisis situation. Up until last night, I have been in continuous prayer for them and the situation. About ten hours ago, a gofundme account was set up for this family and as of this writing we have collected a small amount, which is an awesome achievement considering the time it went active....

Trust me, I didn't disappoint myself! I mean, seriously...when one has eight cats, four, sometimes five dogs, two toddlers/preschoolers and the Mouse in the house at one time, well, life isn't dull. Case in point. Sunday. A bit of background first. My house is over forty years old. Its wiring has little to be desired. There has been more than one occasion that I've had issues with the outlets, not to mention sometimes the kitchen light. That, however is for another blog and another day. Needless to say, I've begun to think this house has a mind of its own and doesn't like me. That brings me to Sunday. I turn off my ringer for church. Always. Which means that anytime someone calls I usually don't get it until after church ends. Well, I've begun to take my Kindle to church because there's an app that allows me to make notes with the sermon. If you haven't seen this app, check it out, its called YouVersion and has the option to find a live sermo...

As I was getting ready to begin my day with my Granddaughters today, I was doing my morning prayers. Multitasking...something that I'm pretty adept at. Anyway, I reminded myself of an acronym for prayer, mostly because I felt that my morning prayers were getting pretty stale. If they felt stale and boring to me, I can't imagine how they must be for God. Anyway. As I said, I was reminded of an acronym; JOY. Jesus first; Others second; Yourself last. I didn't get much past the "y" because the thoughts that started to overwhelm me on the "J" took over. We celebrate Christmas to remember Jesus' birth, although we are not sure of what day He was born. We celebrate the coming of the Messiah, the One who will save the world, on Christmas, but very few of us think past that day until Easter time and the end result of Christ's ministry. As I was praying, or in my case, actually talking to  Jesus, it hit me. I couldn't have done what He did, kno...

Okay, so its been looking like Christmas since October, who are we kidding? But that hasn't stopped me from being over the top excited about two days from now. Let me explain. No, wait, let me start from the beginning of the year. To say that this year has been a strange one is an understatement. The world seems to have lost its collective mind in one way or another and all of us, whether we want to admit it or not, have been affected be it. From the shock of seeing one our own citizens beheaded by ISIS on the local news (the actual act, of course, not shown), to the deaths of two very different men in different circumstances by the hands of Law Enforcement. From the execution of our men in blue; to North Korea having temper tantrums of one degree or another; to losing one of the most beloved actors of our time taking his own life because of depression, the news has been fraught with stories that tug our heartstrings and stir anger, angst and outrage. There has been good in...

Lol! I looked at that title and had to laugh out loud. No, its not about zombies, although with the season of the (pretend) zombies coming upon us, I might keep that in mind.  No, this is about a relative who has separated themselves from those who love them the most, their families. It occurred to me this morning in the shower (I do my best thinking in there! Who doesn't?), that Christ touched on this very subject. In Luke 14:25-27 Jesus says, "Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." " That passage has always interested me, mostly because of the word hate . That's such a strong word and yet the meaning in this passage is not the common meaning of the word. In this passage, Christ is setting th...

New Texas The clock struck six. It had to be done. The old woman turned and smiled at the nurse who was scheduled to keep tabs on the residents that had gathered for the bi-weekly game night. It would probably be a quiet night, so the nurse had brought something to read to pass the time. There were probably fifty residents in the room at the time, no one would notice if one was gone, at least not right away. Mary Ellen had had enough of this place with the strict schedules for everything. She was tired of having to eat at a certain time, watch television at a certain time, heck, if they had their way, she would poop at a certain time. As for visitors, they were welcome, within the time frame, of course, but hers only came once a year on the anniversary of her coming to this ridiculous excuse for a living center. She had planned for quite a long time to leave this place, but finding the opportunity when she would not be missed straight away seemed to elude her on more...

The trending word since Robin William's passing is: Depression. There, I said it, and you know, I probably can say with some certainty that a good portion of the world population either has it or has dealt with it on some sort of level. Actually, according to the CDC, over 121 million  people worldwide suffer from some form of depression. That's some substantial numbers. Someone once said that the funny people of the world have so many masks that they forget who they are, they get lost in the "funny" because that is what distracts them from the depression. When there is no longer a response to the antics, the jokes or the anecdotes, reality hits. Depression hits with all its got. That is not to say that all funny people have depression. That is to say that this is one example. Depression rears its ugly head in many forms. PTSD. Post-Partum Depression. Bi-Polarism. SAD. Psychotic Depression. Neurons that don't fire properly. A wronged spouse. A child of divorce...