First Day of the Week

It's Sunday morning at 5:45, I have had my breakfast of home made chocolate chip cookies and am sipping my morning coffee from Papua, New Guinea. I have a friend that lives there and gardens for his living. As I drink this enhanced bean water (cream and sugar), I contemplate the vast differences between the life Apollos lives across the globe and the one I am living in Suwannee county, FL.

After realizing that I can not possibly know what another person's life feels like, I focus on my life -- what it is and what it is not.

I live in the comfort of a nation in which I can boldly state my belief that human beings are created in the similitude of God. Some of my friends might think me foolish for that belief, but we can agree to disagree without one of us having to be jailed. This is not so in some nations. I have another friend, (a messianic Jew) that visits his wife's family in Cuba each year. While there he preaches the words of Yeshua, but could be arrested for doing so. Although it is not my intent to preach, I could, if I wanted, and not have to fear arrest because I am a Christian or because I am a woman. That is the privilege I have because I am a citizen of the USA. I am grateful that I was born to parents that were born and raised in this country.

I have several friends that are naturalized citizens, they went through the processes necessary to make this land their permanent home. None of them take for granted the great freedoms we have and as far as I can see, they all work and appreciate the living conditions here. One friend related the amazement she felt from her first visit to a grocery store here in the US. She had never seen many of the packaged foods and was flabbergasted by the options in the produce section and how meats were portioned, wrapped, and refrigerated. Unless one has traveled to other parts of the world, it is hard to understand how much we have here. It is difficult to get young people to understand that we are not better people just because we have easier lives. Many in the US seem to confuse birthright privileges with entitlement. We, who were born here, should be happy that we have a free enterprise system. That we can, with few restrictions, conduct business to make money for ourselves and our families.

My coffee is cold and I must take my daughter to her workplace. I will jump down from my soapbox and get to the tasks I have planned for this day. I encourage you readers to consider your life and be grateful.

Until later ~ Rita