Tricia's Principles for Living

During this Christmas season I am publishing a blog named, "A New Take on the Advent Story" If you are interested in reading please go to Christmasad2016.blogspot.com I've taken stories about the Advent and ran them through my imagination. Hopefully you will take a look. I plan to resume Tricia's Principles for Living after the Holidays. .

I am beginning to wonder are we in the U.S. addicted to drama? I grew up during the reign of the soap operas. These fictional stories preceded the reality series of today.  Friday’s episode was always a cliff hanger so the audience would come back on Monday. I doubt if two paragraphs of dialogue between characters would happen in five days. This genre of story telling was filled with people scheming against each other and hidden secrets waiting to be exposed.  I've been thinking of the stress inducing drama  I’ve lived  through:The build up to the eruption of Mt. St Helen; Y2K in 1999; A possible asteroid hit in 2015; On going of the big one San Andreas fault-always on the back burner if there is a slow news day; The coming economic meltdown every few years; Food scares( i.e. don’t give your child apple juice) or E.coli;  Ebola or Zika is coming; Weather scares on and on.  I can add many others, for instance our recent election cycle, the longest running political soap opera I

As the cashier was ringing up my order at Costco he noticed that one of the eggs in the clear plastic container was cracked. “Do you want me to get another package or do you want to forget them,” he asked?      “I need them, and I have time to wait,” I responded. While I waited for the runner to go get a replacement package I reviewed my receipt. “What’s this 14.95,” I asked myself?  The tape showed it was for a package of organic chicken sausages. However I hadn’t bought any sausages for 14.95.  The price should have rung up at 7 dollars. I distinctly remembered looking at the sell price and thinking this was a real bargain. I knew that every once in a while when trying to move product Costco reduced prices on items. I got the attention of one of the managers who was walking by and told him of the discrepancy between what I saw on the sign and what was on the receipt. We both went back to the refrigeration unit. Indeed the sell price sign said only 7 dollars not 14.95. By the tim

"Spray him down with olive oil," shouted  the fire captain in charge of the rescue squad over the sounds of the crashing waves. I can just imagine the surprise of the store clerk as the fireman rushed into the store breathlessly asking for all the olive oil they had in the store. As the firetruck rushed back to the beach the firemen quickly poured the olive oil into the empty spray canister. Accidentally the man dropped his phone between the rocks on the jetty. He'd bent down putting his head between the rocks as he tried to reach down to get his phone. When he tried to get back up he found that he was wedged from his chest to his head between the rocks.* One of his friends called 911.The firemen came and assessed the situation.  For two and a half hours they thought  and tried  various ways to get him out of this predicament.  If they moved  the rocks in the wrong direction the man's head might get crushed. If they didn't get him out he would surely drown when

Have you ever cried salty tears? You know those tears that cascade into pools around your chin. I remember those kinds of tears from my childhood when I got in trouble over some major youthful indiscretion. This morning I started to think about salt and decided to do a little reading about it. We can easily pick up a salt shaker, therefore I think we have  forgotten its great value. I read how salt helped to shape human history. Great wars have been fought over salt. The Romans used to pay their soldiers in salt, which was as valuable as gold.  As I read I learned that the first cities, such as Yuncheng in China,  were built near places which had salt mines or were near areas where they could trade for salt. I’ve been to Salzburg, Austria, which is located on the Salzach River. This morning I learned that “Salzach literally means "salt river" and Salzburg "salt castle", both taking their names from the German word Salz meaning salt..” 1  I thought about when

"Let's talk to Moses about leadership" said Miriam to her brother Aaron. " After, all I'm a prophetess too, and Moses just isn't sharing  leadership like he should," Miriam explained to Aaron and the other elders. Miriam and Aaron may have deceived the Hebrews into thinking they were only trying to have a discussion with Moses on distributive leadership. However, they couldn’t fool God. Miriam merely cloaked her racism in a discussion on leadership.  Instead God went right to the heart of the matter. Numbers 12 verse one states, “And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman” God didn’t let Miriam and Aaron get away with their racist attitudes.  They attempted to turn a nation against Moses for marrying an African woman. This next verse is the cover for their racist attitude. Numbers 12:2  “And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not s

Did your parent ever tell you, “No,” or told you to, “Wait,” when you sincerely asked for something? Did your teacher or coach ever turn down your earnest request? Did you angrily stop talking to that person for the rest of your life and refuse to interact with that person because you didn’t get the answer you wanted?   Is that the reason you will not speak to God?  Maybe God didn’t give you the answer you wanted or felt you deserved at the moment you wanted it. Last night one of my granddaughters and I were looking at " King of Dreams," the Disney movie about Joseph. His jealous, vindictive brothers betrayed him by selling him for twenty pieces of silver(About $350). As he was being shackled and being dragged off Joseph cried out to his brothers to not do it. I turned to my granddaughter and said, “Does that look like the will of God?” I am pretty certain that Joseph couldn’t see God in his brothers selling him off. Of course their actions weren’t kind, right or humane?

Dear God, May I have a life of devotion, not just a time of devotion. May my life be consecrated, not just a time of consecration May I have a Sabbath heart ,   not just a Sabbath Day. May all my resources be at your disposal, not just a tithe. May all my time be sacred, not just a time for God. May I have a worshipping heart, not just a time of worship. May I walk in the light of Your love consistently, not just in my dark times . Help me to endure my dry spells ,   for I do not have a dry life. Remind me that you are always in control no matter what may rage around me during this enduring walk of faith.

That dreamy orange creamcicle drink with the full head of whipped cream looked and tasted scrumptious. Even as I was ordering it along with the other drinks for my grandchildren I knew I shouldn’t have it. But oh my, on that sweltering hot day with the temperature over 90 degrees I went against my better judgement.  Afterall it wasn’t go to kill me, or send me into anaphylatic shock like shrimp would do. However, I knew , because I am lactose intolerant, that I was most likely going to feel sick to my stomach if I yielded to this temptation.  I ordered it anyway. Sure enough, less than fifteen minutes after drinking about twenty five percent of the frothy concocotion  the awful symptoms started. I felt  wretched and nauseous. As I sat in my car feeling the effects of this malady I asked myself ”Really, was it worth it?”  I could have cooled off with a glass of cold water and been just fine. However I got what I desired and now I was suffering. As I was driving home with a que

Expectancy filled the air at the Renton Farmers' Market .The M.C. said that we were going to see a performance rarely seen outside of Mainland China called Changing Faces. Every chair under the small canopy seating  fifty people was filled.  A middle aisle divided  the chairs into two sections. The rest us were crowded around the  canopy under the blazing sun happily anticipating the upcoming act.   Everything was going well and we could all see. Abruptly a woman got up from her chair and came and stood among the chairs in front of everyone. I thought, "Well, that was certainly rude."  The elderly disabled women who were seated  couldn’t see and couldn’t move. I walked up to the offending person and politely asked, “ Could you please move because you are blocking the view” , while I  pointed to the seated women. What happened next shocked me. The woman turned around angrily and snarled like a rabid dog growling, “It’s a public place, I’ll stand where I want.” Stunned fa

A long time ago I heard this illustration. A man described how he and his family loved to play that capitalistic game Monopoly. He described how the emotions ran high around that table as buildings were bought and placed on the various properties. It really annoyed him when he landed on a space and had to pay the “Owner” of the given property or railroad line. He was extremely frustrated when he didn’t amass as much wealth or exceed the wealth of the other players. Still agitated at the end of the game he glumly put away the pieces of the game when it dawned on him,  “This is just like real life.”  Some people amass great amounts of wealth while others make do with very little. However at the end of one's life it all goes back into the box. It’s true. Tomorrow I will go to  a respected man’s funeral in Yakima.  There will be no U-Haul attached to the hearse to accompany the coffin to the grave. The same way we came into the world is the way we leave it, with empty hands. Thi

This morning I was reflecting on the life of Moses. It became clear to me that  if used incorrectly our great strength can be our biggest problem. Moses great strength was compassion. Moses was outraged when he came upon an unjust situation. His sense of injustice moved him to kill an abusive Egyptian who was beating one of Moses' own race. His compassion caused him to use his power in the wrong way. When  Pharaoh  heard what, the Adopted Jewish Prince,  Moses had done to a “Real” Egyptian citizen he was furious. Pharaoh sought to kill Moses. To save his life Moses fled to the desert.    A few days or hours later in the desert Moses’ compassion was once again activated.    Moses saw some male shepherds bullying a group of women, Jethro’s daughters, who were trying to water their sheep. Moses jumped in and helped them. After Moses’ intervention the men left the women alone and they were able to complete their work early. Moses’ compassion was genuine. It was a part of his chara