It's Like That

He never took life at face value; he never looked at life thru a set of smoked filled glasses. He looked at life square in its eyes and said I’m ready, he loved life and life loved him back. He always had a kind word; a way of putting something where you would ponder his words for hours or days, and the wisdom that exuded from him was like a set of mud footprints everywhere he walked. Nothing was ever taken for granted and the senses God gave us to hear, to feel, to see, to smell, to taste is what life to him was all about! Taking advantage of your senses and this is what he did. Always taking time to really hear what someone he loved was really saying by repeating it back to them so there was no misunderstanding and the meaning was clear. He touched those he loved by reaching out and taking their hands sometimes and hugging them followed with a sincere kiss. He never rushed through life not seeing the things and people along life’s way, but sometimes in this thing called life he took time to just sit down during this journey and take a break; to be with friends and family to develop memories that will be with you for a lifetime. God has given us a gift of smelling those things that are good or not in life, but either way take time to smell those things in life that bring fond memories, create new insights, and learning from those things and people who don’t smell so good. He never missed the opportunity to taste and see for himself what this thing called life was all about. God said, “Oh, come taste and see for yourself how good I am.” Tasting does not necessarily mean with your pallet, but tasting requires you to seek out things in life that are there for the ready-- waiting for you to find and explore. So many things at your disposal and this he constantly reminded me; a new city, a new lease on life, a new way of thinking, a new way of doing things, a new beginning, just do something/anything new.

Life does not deal us the hand we hoped for like in a game of spades, where sometimes you don’t have enough books to make board. But there are other times when the hand you are dealt allows you to sweep the board. However, either way you have to work with the hand you’ve been dealt because in this life it’s no giving back the cards or saying I quit; you still gotta live regardless of how many books you can make. But you see when you sit down in this game of life you do have a partner, a brother, a friend like no other who comes along to help you go over the books you thought could be made—that would be God, Jesus Christ, who gives us the Holy Spirit. So, my friend would always say “It’s like that!” with no uncertain terms. Life is like that! Deal with it! Use what God has given you—your senses, your sanity, your spirit, and all the love you can muster to look life square in the eyes and say I’m here and I ain’t going nowhere; I will enjoy this life to the fullest. When my time comes to get up from the table of the game of spades and be called home, I pray that you and I have used every sensory at our advantage to taste and see for yourself how good this thing called life can truly be! It’s like that!!! I lost friend who lived life this way, and he would always end his sentences with “It’s like that”, always in my heart and memories Cedric Hinson.
By Tina Kay Hughes, Author of “TKay’s Inspirationals: Walking In Your Season” visit www.tinakay.net

I'm Just Saying

People love to preface a sentence with “I’m just saying”. It seems that people even have the nerve to say this at the most inopportune time! I’m just saying conotates “I told you so”, “You should have listened to me”, “Why did you do that anyway” or maybe even “That was stupid”. It is a slogan that really gets the listener on the receiving end on edge and angry. When I think of this slogan I think about Job’s ignorant friends and stupid wife! Job’s friends had the audacity to sit around for seven full days looking crazy at each other and at Job and then finally accusing him of doing something wrong. I can hear them saying “I’m just saying you must have done something to cause this wrath to come on you at this magnitude, but I’m just saying.” Job got so frustrated with all of their foolish talk and told them, “Don't talk like a fool! If we accept blessings from God, we must accept trouble as well." Despite all that happened, Job never once said anything against God, because he knew in his heart of hearts that God had his back. Job was unable to see the forest for the trees because he was having a valley experience and he recognized this. When you are in the valley you don’t know what’s going on or in the works outside of that valley. However, he was not content on pitching a tent and staying in that valley. Job placed his trust in God and only God because that was all he knew to do at that particular juncture in his life, and on that he stood; in trust, faith, hope, and believing in what he could not see with his own eyes or come to a conclusion with his own mind was not his final destiny in life.

We must be mindful of the people we bring into our circle, our space, and lives because they love to share and actually invite themselves to be apart of your life when things are well, but when things start making a turn for the worst there they stand with these words, “I’m just saying”. Sometimes we need to take that “I’m just saying” that is coming out of the mouths of other people into your life and rebuke it! Remove yourself from their presence, and tell them to get to stepping. This is what Job told his shallow wife and friends to do.

I’m just saying gets tired and old real fast when you are experiencing these valleys in our life. We must take note of the situation, pray, wait on God to move, and be patient that He has already worked out the kinks in this thing called life. You see a test is between you and God, while a trial is for everyone to see how you will react and respond in these valley experiences. When you are in the valley, don’t be still and set up a tent to stay there! These valley experiences test us, try us, give us more faith, and teach us to believe in God and not man. So, I’m just saying when you are in that valley take heed and note because you are being tested as you go through the trials in this life. You can remain there with those ignorant, unfaithful, unbelieving folks if you want—and you will be there for a long while. The other option is to never give up hope or faith and believe God always has your best interested at heart because He has called you His Beloved, and even engraved your name in the palm of his hand to remind Him of how much He loves you. So, remove yourself from those in your life who speak doom and gloom, just like Job’s close friends and family just like those who are doing the same in your life. God can provide you with new friends, new experiences, and a new life as you come out of the valley to the other side to see all He has always had in store for you, even before the beginning of time. He was just waiting on you to stop with the “I’m just saying” and allow God to say “I am saying”.
By Tina Kay Hughes Author of “TKay’s Inspirationals: Walking In Your Season” www.tinakay.net

Liberation

Sometimes do you want to just go to the airport and buy a plane ticket to the next destination to anywhere, somewhere, but not here….maybe sometimes you wish you could travel in time….or even just jump in the car and ride and ride and ride with no destination in mind….The worries of this world, the disappointments, the heart aches and breaks can send you to a point of wanting to just fly away, get away, and find a place to feel free….

Some days I feel as if I am this butterfly in the cocoon fully developed but there is duct tape all over the outside of the cocoon so I can’t push my way out…the evolution of the butterfly is when it gets to a point of being fully developed (just like a baby) it is time to come out into the world…come out of a place of development….the butterfly has to push itself (breaking through) the cocoon without any help…the break through that it must experience maybe painful and it may be a struggle but the butterfly has to crack that cocoon open with no help, if help is provided the butterfly will die….this is the way God has set this thing called life up, with the butterfly experiencing a difficult situation to be free….when the butterfly pushes through it squeezes all of the excess fluid inside it’s body out and if someone helps it, death is the consequence (because the fluid remains in the body of the butterfly not allowing it to live).

Same holds true in this life thing…we must experience a development period (or a period of preparation to get us ready for another level in life); during this period, it’s not pretty, it does not feel good, and it may be you all alone. But when that breakthrough time comes and you can begin to see the light and taste the air that’s when you discover you are almost to a place of freedom…when that butterfly breaks through, oh my goodness liberation is so sweet.

But I’m not like your typical butterfly there is duct tape all over my cocoon! With the duct tape representing me holding myself back, not believing, afraid, uneasy of what out there looks like, or not believing and having faith. I want freedom, maybe that’s why I want to just get away and fly away from here, but first I have to remove all these limitations I’ve placed on myself that prevent me from coming out of my cocoon. How do I begin to remove this duct tape, which represents self inflicted obstacles? I want liberation, freedom, to be able to fly away, to be a free spirit; but I’m still in this cocoon as I work on slowly removing my own confinement, my own blockades, my own restrictions, and boundaries.

One of these days I will be free just like that butterfly, a free spirit—liberated. Oh! Liberation is so good, it is peace, it is happiness, it is being in your right mind, it is trusting, it is believing in something bigger than you and I. Liberation is deliverance, emancipation, and exoneration. Oh Liberation I gotta have you!
By Tina Hughes, author of “TKay’s Inspirational: Walking In Your Season” www.tinakay.net