Tag: Mother

EVERYONE WAITS

Everyone waits
Some wait to die
Others wait out their fate
Still others wait until it’s too late

Children hate to wait
Some are born on time
Some are born past their due date
They don’t know we were born to wait

Then there are those who rush in
They hate to wait
So they rush in
And they get there at the wrong date

Everyone waits
She waits for the bus
He waits for his bride
She waits at the altar
As he dies in the war
She waits for the phone call
That will make her heart fall
The baby waits in utero
9 months in seclusion
Life began from day one
A child hopes to see the sun.

A man waits to die
He quit on life
When life got hard
He forsook the truth
And swallowed the lie
He waits to die
He stews in self hate
He thinks it’s too late
Life passes him by
And all he wants to do is die
Then there’s a woman who waits
For her lost love
She waits like she waited
When she was a school girl
For that phone call from him
That would rock her world
But it never came
Because he was too scared
To go after her
Who would rock his world
And the woman grew tired of the wait
And one day he showed up at her door
And then he came a day too late

Everyone waits…

-Eva Santiago copyright 2013

I Owe My Mother

I Owe My Mother
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1.. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE .
“If you’re going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning.”

2.. My mother taught me RELIGION.
“You better pray that will come out of the carpet.”

3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL..
“If you don’t straighten up, I’m going to knock you into the middle of next week!”

4. My mother taught me LOGIC.
“Because I said so, that’s why.” ;

5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC .
“If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you’re not going to the store with me.”

6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
“Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you’re in an accident…”

7. My mother taught me IRONY.
“Keep crying, and I’ll give you something to cry about.”

8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS ..
“Shut your mouth and eat your supper.”

9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISTS.
“Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!”

10. My mother taught me about STAMINA .
“You’ll sit there until all that spinach is gone.”

11. My mother taught me about WEATHER..
“This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it.”

12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
“If I told you once, I’ve told you a million times. Don’t exaggerate!”

13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.
“I brought you into this world, and I can take you out.”

14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION .
“Stop acting like your father!”

15. My mother taught me about ENVY.
“There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don’t have wonderful parents like you do.”

16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.
“Just wait until we get home..”

17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING .
“You are going to get it when you get home!”

18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE….
“If you don’t stop crossing your eyes, they are going to get stuck that way.”

19. My mother taught me ESP.
“Put your sweater on; don’t you think I know when you are cold?”

20. My mother taught me HUMOR.
“When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don’t come running to me…”

21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT .
“If you don’t eat your vegetables, you’ll never grow up.”

22. My mother taught me GENETICS.
“You’re just like your father..”

23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.
“Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?”

24. My mother taught me WISDOM.
“When you get to be my age, you’ll understand.”

And my favorite:
25. My mother taught me about JUSTICE …
“One day you’ll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you!!

BEWARE: Apparently Love Offends

This world has grown completely insane. A person tries to spread a little love around only to get slapped in the face. A while ago, my oldest daughter tried to be nice to a younger girl who was in line to buy some candy at The Dollar Store. The girl didn’t have enough for her purchase, so my girl gave her a dollar. The other girl was just about to take it when her mom stepped in and scolded her daughter for taking it. My daughter gave me a puzzled look and the girl’s mom gave us both dirty looks as if to say,” We aren’t charity cases, so keep your money ‘cuz we don’t need it.”

Then there was a time when I was at the grocery store and the young woman in front of me was short of money for her groceries; I had a few single bills and I offered them to her and with her snooty nose stuck way up high in the air she said in a chilly tone of voice,” No thanks but I got it.” Yeah right! She had to put some of her items back.

The whole world is upside down crazy. I was  kind to a kid, one of my kid’s friends. Her mother went ballistic on me and she had her kid cut off all ties with my family. WTH?  Love offends now probably just as worse or maybe worse than in the days when Yeshua walked with us. He told His followers that others would know they are His followers because of their LOVE. It seems like in these days people would rather that you cuss ’em out than you lift a hand to bless them.

Are these the days that try men’s souls?  It seems so to me. What do you think?

 

Label Pickle Jars NOT People!

Braille wine label on a bottle of Lazarus wine... Image via Wikipedia

I hate labels. There, that says it all.  I have but only one name I answer to and that is the name my daddy gave me at birth. To show how much I despise labels when I first met my husband he and I were arguing while on our way home. We were at a red light and he crossed the line by calling me a female dog; I went berserk for a minute and I just raised my foot and put it right through the windshield of his car. He never labeled me like that again!

From the time I lost my parents I was labeled an orphan, and might I add that happened to me at a very young age. Then later on the other labels came and it made me boil inside because all I wanted to do was be myself; and that’s hard to achieve when you are being constantly categorized, stereo typed and labeled. The only things that have to have labels are food products, medicines and anything else that is not a breathing, walking living soul with a heart.

I once went to a counselor to try to figure out somethings in my past. After I told her what I’d been through she never labeled me; she did me a huge favor and reminded me I was anything but a victim because I had over come so much with God‘s help. THAT was great news to hear and it set me free. This same counselor though, did my husband a disservice. After several sessions with him she labeled him co-dependant. Why was that a disservice to him? Because he began to cling to that label and it made him remain the same.  I have observed for several years now how labeling someone serves to cripple them and they stay bound by the words spoken over them.

Life and death are in the tongue. Our words can break  the shackles that bind us or they can serve to further imprison us. Label a child stupid and he will believe that he is stupid all of his life. Tell a child that she is brilliant and she will aspire to much. People are not jars of pickles so top labeling them!

2 years ago we met with a family counselor because we all had issues. After our first session Bruce, the counselor told my husband and I that our children are a cut above the rest of any kids he had ever met. Last night we hear something entirely different. We spoke with a well meaning person who after a couple of hours of listening to our family air out some very strong feelings in a counseling setting, said that my kids are victims. WTH? Things didn’t change so much in our home from the last time we saw a family counselor to now.  Be careful what you let some well meaning counselor speak over yourself or your children.

After this encounter, my kids came up to me right away and told me, ” Mom, how can that man call us victims when our last family counselor told us we are a cut above the rest? Mom, sure we’ve been hurt by stuff but that’s life! And, mom, victims are people who get hurt but they never get up, they stay there, wounded.”  My 15 year old daughter put it so eloquently, ” I just reign from my place of pain.” My kids let me know they didn’t appreciate what was spoken over them, they didn’t receive one bit of it. So my husband and I prayed over them and broke the power of those words.

God, I pray that you help all of us stop labeling one another. Give us eyes to see people they way you see us. You are such an awesome God because you never label us, you just call us your children. Help us do likewise.


Kids Say The Darndest Things

Kids Say The Darndest Things

Just the other night I heard my ten year old say the funniest line and as I pondered it, I saw how deep this girl can be at times. Raquel, ” Mom, why do people say they want to be on fire for God? That’s so stupid, don’t they get God wants them to be ALIVE?”

My daughter had heard a man say that  one day  a while ago when we used to take them ice skating. We met a man who had 3 kids and he claimed,” My kids are all on fire for God! Bless God!!”  One by one my kids came to me and told me that when they had spent time with the ” On Fire For God Kids,” they were amazed by all of the filthy things that came out of their mouths when their dad was out of sight.

Today my 13 year old son made another keen observation,” Mom, I notice that people who act like they’re devoted to God, really aren’t. But the ones who don’t act like it, they’re the ones who really are close to Him.” I love the way children just call it like it is.  Kids can smell out a phony from miles and miles away. We need to take great care with what types of behavior we model for our kids; they are ALWAYS watching us!

Don’t let love be a mere outward show. (Romans 12:9)

Just Believe:Part7

Just Believe:Part7

I have been living with kidney failure since I was diagnosed with it when I was 14 years old. As I look back , this has put a strain on some of my relationships, especially the ones with my siblings. Being sick all the time has forced my parents to always be focusing on me and I know this made Tony, Amanda and Daniel feel less loved by them and more resentful towards me. At times this has put our love to the ultimate test.

When you’re a kid you don’t see life from the perspective that an adult has. You think you are the center of the universe and everything revolves around you. I have to be honest, at times I did use my illness as a way to get out of doing chores around the house that were my responsibility. I knew my siblings were onto me every time I got by with it and now I hate that I put them through that.

I know now that my parents never favored me; I’m quite sure that if it had been Tony, Amanda or Daniel who was sick instead of me,  they would have done the same for them as they’ve done for me. When I was younger, at first the extra attention was great, but now I’ve grown to despise it because I know everything can’t be about me and when you’re sick, everyone doting on you and constantly worrying gets old at times.

                                                                           

Sometimes I wish I could roll back the clock hands and go back to before all this started. I look at my family and I see that they are as tired of this as me. I’m a pretty basic guy and all I ask for at times is to have a single day when none of us are anxious about any of this and we can all kick back and live one normal day without worries about what lays ahead for me tomorrow.

We’re all grown up now; I moved out of my mom’s house and I live with Daniel in an apartment we share. He still looks out for me just like when we were back home. My sister Amanda always stops in to check on me too. Life is not cured; you learn to manage it or it’ll manage you. I believe I can speak for all of us that we’ve learned, by God‘s grace to manage my living with kidney failure and still find time to love, laugh and live.