Jeanne H Barnett's Blog

With every thought that comes into our minds,
we have a choice . . . accept it or reject it.

Too often, we follow along with an initial thought only to find ourselves buried with other thoughts that seem to tag along with it without stopping to consider that we have a choice to make at the very beginning—when it first enters our conscious sphere—stop it at the door before it gets completely in and “filter” it.

The choice should be made first not later when we have followed a thought to its resulting anxiety, worry, anger, frustration, depression, etc., and then wonder how we got there. The choice to accept or reject is either made at the first appearance or after we have suffered the consequences of acceptance. You cannot simply allow a thought to come in; “no decision” is a decision in itself. If you do not reject it, you have accepted it—your choice!

If I tell you that Chester is a dog, you will quickly reject that thought immediately! Why? Why would you not think about that statement?

What if I told you that you were being deceived because Chester is really a dog with cat fur on him. Would you be drawn to consider this potential deception and waste time wallowing among the thoughts that come after accepting the first one? After all, he has 4 legs—dogs have 4 legs. He is an animal—dogs are animals. Maybe you should be worried that you are not protecting yourself from some devious plot intended to lead you into some harmful situation. Whoa! This could be serious . . . maybe you were too quick to accept what you think you see, maybe he’s not really what he appears to be! Sure, you’ve been happy petting Chester and interacting with him, laughing at his ways and you’ve given to him, fed him and provided him with a place to live. But, he’ll die someday and what if he bites you, what if . . .

NO! You would not follow that first thought anywhere! Why??? Because you “know” Chester is a cat. In the same way, we need to “know” capital “T” Truths of God. This does not mean to just memorize some Scripture, it means to “know” God intimately and walk by His Spirit. Our flesh is in an ongoing battle with the Spirit for control of our thoughts, because thoughts dictate our actions, and can lead us to rob ourselves of blessings God intends for us.

Only as we walk by the Spirit, hold fast the capital “T” Truths of God, fix our eyes on Jesus, and pursue God-dependency will see that God claimed that battle and subsequent victory for Himself. He will allow us to struggle in the battle until we finally realize we can’t win it because He has not made us to be robots . . . He wants us to choose Him and His Covenant (protection, provision, identity). He calls us to a conscious choice: to walk by His Spirit because we trust Him.

So, it is back to “thoughts & choices” where at times the only answer I can give is—bottom line, trust God! Whatever thought comes into my mind must pass through this filter. I make a conscious effort, an intentional choice, to ask myself if this thought will glorify God and either show that I trust God or lead me to a deeper trust in God. If the answer is “no” or “well, I don’t know,” then I reject it and pull into my conscious mind a positive thought or Scripture—if possible, I relate it to the thought as Jesus did in His temptations in the wilderness where He gave God’s capital “T” Truth in response to the fleshly yearnings brought to His consciousness as choices.

It wasn’t that He didn’t feel the pull to follow the thoughts, it was that Jesus chose to state God’s capital “T” Truth—He did not argue with the thoughts or deny any element of truth, He simply chose to state God’s Truth as a response. We get into the most trouble when we try to “rationalize” or respond within the context of the thoughts. When the thought comes that I don’t have health insurance, followed by what if I get sick or need to go to the hospital? I don’t walk that path, I simply state that my God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). When I awake in the middle of the night and can’t breathe, I no longer follow the thoughts that come to me of death and illness, I claim that by His stripes I am healed (1 Peter 2:24) no matter what my “little t” truth looks like—I’m not denying reality, simply choosing to focus on another reality—God’s Truth! My choice!

The hardest things are the simplest Truths of God—
to rest in the knowledge of His care and Love for us
without demanding that we be able to “think through” or
explain how or why,
rejecting any thought that doesn’t stand with God’s capital “T” Truth . . .
bottom line, Trust God . . . it is a choice.

Choices—”I call heaven and earth to witness against you, today,
that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.
So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,
by loving the Lord your GOD, by obeying HIS voice, and by holding
fast to HIM; for this is the your life and the length of your days that
you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers . . .”
Deuteronomy 30:19-20

Focus—Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21
“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth
what is good; and the evil {man} out of the evil {treasure} brings forth
what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”                                                   Luke 6:45

Response—When my anxious thoughts multiply within me,
Thy consolations delight my soul. Psalm 94:19
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.                         Psalm 139:23-24

Contentment is a byproduct of focus . . .
and focus follows my choice of thoughts!       Hebrews 12

Jeanne Hicks Barnett • Saturday—July 21, 2007

I was drawn into this “project” by some dear friends of ours by an invitation in a Facebook post (August 3, 21016 – Shawn Whitney with Katie Nichols Whitney) and my response was:
—LOVE PROMOTION project
sounds like such a really good idea
so I will respond to the challenge to participate . . .
my first thoughts are to put forth what I feel is
my understanding of “love”
through the prism of my life with Marcus

love requires a
willingness to make a commitment that makes it possible to work through the difficult times,
the challenges, the dark times, the tough growth experiences . . . the days when it is hard
not to walk away or when the desire to throw something or punch someone is overwhelming, to get to those really great times—
Marcus has demonstrated commitment to a degree seldom seen,
commitment you can count on
. . . all of his life!

DAY TWO: love promotion project as a teen, Marcus worked at his dad’s car lot and was responsible enough to carry the business checkbook . . . he developed a love for cars & music from the 60s and learned the rewards of hard work, –he has continued to combine a willingness to work hard and to show appreciation for what he loves— he has taught me a lot! Love is patient . . . Love is kind . . .

DAY THREE: love promotion project Marcus has always loved music and most people don’t know he plays the guitar and sings and has written songs— Coach Groover introduced us at Camp Wyldewood during a retreat when he suggested we sing together at the “talent show,” so we sang “If I Had a Hammer” and that was the beginning of our life together—I don’t remember much about the talent show, but I do remember the fun we had getting to know each other. We “snuck” off to Andy’s (where Arby’s is now) after the show & got a burger because we couldn’t eat before we sang. After we got married & moved to Austin, Texas, we sang the worship songs Marcus had written (for our church family & others)–they were such a blessing to me. Early in our marriage, my brothers & I were still fulfilling commitments to perform as the Chuck Hicks Band and Marcus always seemed to enjoy my enjoyment of singing with my family with no hint of jealousy on his part and, of course, he sometimes played along–a little over a year ago, Marcus taught himself to play the harmonica & does a great job of entertaining me each morning . . . Marcus has taught me a lot about Love! Love is not jealous . . . love does not brag and is not arrogant . . .

DAY FOUR: love promotion project How a person treats others, especially friends, tells you a lot about them because real friendship requires give AND take— SHARING special times with others, becoming family; it means food, fun and fellowship . . . but most of all it means CARING with no conditions through times of joy and laughter and tears . . . it means opening your heart and guarding the hearts of others as you share dreams and successes and challenges and gain the strength that comes from friendship . . . decades of friendships that have blessed us so much there is no way to name you all (didn’t have room for all the faces, but you know who you are)— Marcus has taught me a lot about Love and Friendship and so have YOU! Love does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered . . .

DAY FIVE: love promotion project family . . . sometimes the best times and sometimes the worst— but it is not just biology that makes a family . . . it’s relationship. Because family is family, you have to work through whatever or go through life without that person or group in your life and that always hurts – either way! Marcus lost his parents in 1977 & 1979 and an older sister in 1956, so I didn’t get the opportunity to meet them and I wish I could have sat down with them and talked about life, gained from their experiences. Marcus has a twin sister (fraternal, not identical) and my parents have “adopted” Marcus plus I have two younger brothers and a really large extended family—we have three beautiful daughters with their husbands & children . . . but, alas most of our family live far away. Marcus has taught me a lot about family . . . loyalty, devotion, “blindness,” forgiveness, perseverance, and the ultimate rewards of unconditional love! Love does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth…

DAY SIX: love promotion project marriage . . . before our first wedding, I was living in Austin, Texas (due to a job promotion), so I had to take a flight back to Searcy and on that flight I wrote a letter to myself listing all the “reasons” I loved Marcus and the areas I thought would be challenging to me. Over the years of our marriage, I had to refer to that letter to put our relationship back in context—like after the “towel-folding incident” or the “Star Trek-the Original Movie event” or the multiple “You What? expose” times or the monumental “God, You do it, I can’t” decision! The most important moment for me was when I made the commitment to allow God to make me who He wanted me to be and to allow God to do the same for Marcus (taking myself off that job). As I stood before God with each AND every “problem” that arose instead of trying to “fix” it myself, I noticed that Marcus got easier to get along with and we were having much less negative interaction—amazing! Through all of my years of “growth experiences,” Marcus stayed constant and steady—yes, surprisingly, he stayed and taught me the ultimate Truth that all relationships rooted in God meant God was the center, the first step always, the love reflected in each of us, the compassion for each other, the forgiveness and mercy, the reason . . . marriage is not an easy path, but it can work when Love bears all things . . . believes all things . . . hopes all things . . . endures all things

DAY SEVEN: love promotion project overview . . . To love someone. What does it mean?—there are as many answers to that question as there are people to answer it. My answer would be a reflection of my life. I have loved in many ways, sometimes very unsuccessfully, sometimes selfishly, and I have loved to many different levels in my heart including experiencing infatuation and superficial, but often painful emotions. I have been beaten down, I have cried in the darkness of agony so deep it could not be put into words, and I have found the light of day painful . . . but, I have also experienced the overwhelming joy of healing and the life flow of love from someone who really cared about me and that made me want to bring that to others, to share the hope of a future that makes it possible to take even just a tiny step forward into the Light of another day . . . because I have seen that through the valleys and the mountains, through the sunshine and the rain, through the failures of my human nature and the strength of my inner spirit, all of life is a victory when it opens ME to a better understanding of love and sharing all of that with others, friends, family, or spouses shows me that LOVE NEVER FAILS . . . But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the GREATEST of these IS LOVE . . .

WHEN DID GOD STOP ME IN MY TRACKS . . .
        turning me aside from whatever
                   I was focused on . . .
          forcing me to look to Him . . .
BUT I fell on my face and cried out
   “Why have You forsaken me?”
I COULDN’T SEE ANYTHING BUT ME . . .
—————————————–
How did God get Moses’ attention?
He stopped Moses in his tracks
   when Moses was headed
   on his own mission . . .
God chose a burning bush
   because it couldn’t be missed,
Moses couldn’t avoid seeing it . . .

In my life, I look back & see there were times
when I was stopped in my tracks . . .
when I was turned aside from where I thought
I was headed . . . when I was forced to either
look to God or question His faithfulness . . .
I chose to turn from the burning bush
and fall into the darkness of pain & fear . . .
how many times did I miss “My Burning Bush,”
my opportunity to meet with God and
drink from the fountain of Living Water in the midst of my desert? . . .
I’ve lost count,
BUT I choose to stop now,
I choose to stand still,
to take my sandals off &
I choose to listen for the Voice of God
coming from the midst of all those missed, past opporunities . . .
God IS faithful and HE never
gives up drawing me into His Presence
. . . My Burning Bush,
waiting to reveal Himself to me & in me . . .

Jeanne Hicks Barnett • September 23, 2014 •

Each day I am confronted with challenges . . .
• which voice do I listen to
• how do I shut out all the chaos
• what holds my focus
• who directs my steps
• when should I fight, retreat, stand still

Challenges with outside forces and challenges with inside forces that seem to have me constantly being blown about like a ship looking for that “anchor” to hold me steady or that “rudder” or a “tiller” to set my direction — daily challenges like huge waves overwhelming me and threatening to send me to the bottom of murky, deep waters.

As I feel propelled ahead mindlessly on my lifepath, I realize I must start with the end! Where do I want to end up, what is my desired destination?

SO, my first need is for an anchor – something to hold me in place while I explore the inside of me for an answer to the “where” question and I am immediately aware of the answer . . . PEACE! My anchor: find my place of PEACE.

YES! Peace comes from an awareness of provision and protection, something bigger than me and wiser and stronger . . . step inside and see where I came from, what I have come through, how did I survive times in the darkest pits, who am I now? . . . all of those questions should bring me to PEACE because I AM HERE NOW and that can only be by some power beyond my understanding. PEACE because I could not possibly have come to this point by my own “smarts” and whatever or whoever has sustained me to this point will do the same as I seek to find that source of provision and protection beyond SELF, beyond EGO . . . my anchor, my PEACE on my lifepath is the obvious unseen power that has brought me here, now.

PEACE . . . an anchor as I contemplate my path . . .

I understand and heartily applaud the motive and the heart of the individual who wrote the “slogan” on the board Sunday morning. However, I feel it necessary to point out the inherent danger reflected by its wording.

“I will do more in ‘94”

This sounds so good and it seems to be an admirable goal – but, I cannot but feel uncomfortable with anything which seems to indicate that an individual, by gathering will and mustering determination, can accomplish anything of the slightest import – nor do I think it unscriptural to point out a caution to speak in such a manner:

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord will, we shall live and also do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.” (James 4:13-16)

Would it not be far better to adopt as a slogan a statement that includes God as the source of our ability or the object of our focus.

Anytime someone says, “It is not my intention . . .”, it normally prefaces a statement which does exactly what they state is not their intention; but, it is not my intention to be nit-picking. I have been strongly convicted as of late of the emphasis within people who claim to belong to God to “cut God out” of not only the glory which is rightfully His, but also the place He occupies and the empowerment that He alone can give. Until we can begin to have some slight understanding of the flesh without God, we will not be able to begin to grasp the consistent need for us as stiff-necked and uncircumcised of heart to bow before the awesomeness of God and stop claiming the ability to function independently of our Maker.

If our words reflect our hearts, then I think it would well behoove us to begin giving God His place in our words and hope the process would infect our hearts as well.

There is a fine line between the practice of humanism and Christianity and sometimes, I think, we unconsciously vacillate between the two – I know I cross that line frequently without being aware of it.

I pray that God may so sensitize our hearts that
we will feel the “grieving of the Holy Spirit”
when we proclaim ˆour successes and
fail to give credit where credit is due –
when we forget the Source of power –
when we are puffed up
with our own intelligence and accomplishments
and cannot find the heart to humble before the Lord.

January 4, 1994

as the years add up—

transitions of life . . .
challenging steps . . .
what I can’t control and
what I can control . . .
choices . . .

To begin a new chapter on our journey can be overwhelming. All those emotions, all those deep feelings of loss and the confusion of not knowing what lies ahead can drag us into a dark pit BUT . . .
if we can choose to look at the next chapter as the next step in an exciting adventure, it will make it possible for us to go forward with anticipation!

This chapter means learning to let go of “things” and reviewing what is really important to me, prioritizing what I have accumulated over all the previous years so the “stuff” doesn’t push my important, heartfelt memories out of the way.

As the years add up, the stuff adds up until all I can see are piles of stuff and I am afraid I will lose something important – that is what I am dealing with now . . . fear that a part of me, an important memory will be discarded and I don’t even know exactly what that means or what to do about it.

SO, I am going to start at the top and work down in my thoughts:

#1 transitions of life
I KNOW! There are always changes that have to take place in life, some internal and some external—that’s just a statement of fact, so I have to accept that: there have been and always will be changes in life and I have made it through some pretty rough ones in the past so I will make it through these!

#2 challenging steps
YES! leaving a place I am familiar with and going to a new place is SCARY! It is NOT comfortable to think about being in a new place or being around others I don’t know and don’t have a relationship with in a new place—making a transition when nothing is in the place it used to be in and those around me aren’t going through it with me because they are already used to the place BUT I have had to walk through some dark, unfamiliar places before and LOOK AT ME, I made it and gained a part of me each time I came back to the light so watch out world, I am exploring more of me in this new place!

#3 what I can’t control
OKAY! There are some things I cannot have any control over – some health issues just seem to pop up without warning and I have to depend on qualified health care personnel to help me through them (praise God for some of those caring people that have helped me). So, this is one place where I refuse to let fear overcome me. I am standing up (or sitting down, ha! ha!) and saying, whatever heath issues I have will be treated as needed just like they have been in the past and I will choose to enjoy each day and each breath I take!

#4 what I can control
YEAH! I can choose to look at things that draw me to the light, things that encourage my soul and fill me with hope. I can look for ways to let my creative side out and that always lifts my spirit. A pen or pencil, a pad of paper, a picture, a song, a kitty cat, or just looking at a tree going through the seasons . . . I can choose to look at LIGHT and let it stir me to express my inner being, to spend time exploring what Life reveals me to me and maybe just snuggle into the fuzzy sweater or wrap up in that scarf that makes me feel pretty—I can control where I stand each moment in my heart and in my mind!

#5 choices
NO! “No” is not always the right choice and I do have choices to make. Like the two-year-old, I most often want to say “no” to others I feel are trying to make me go or do certain things BUT it is always true that life needs me to say “yes” so I can move ahead on the path of life and explore the next chapter. Fear, sure I feel some fear but that can help me be cautious as I take the next steps. Anxiety, you betcha, because there is much I cannot see from here and it feels like there is so much I cannot control but that can mean I need to learn to trust my ultimate Guide to provide those along the way to help me move forward. Overwhelmed, the word that comes to mind when I look around and try to figure out HOW to move forward but that can help me see the need to take “baby steps” in each part of the process and to let others help me.

Perhaps the main choice I need to see is that the Universal Love has been leading me on a path that would ultimately show me the choice to release myself to Love that trusts others are part of the plan in place from the beginning, a Love that flows to and from others so that what has been placed within me unites with the One, a Love that never fails, never dies, and always binds us all together on a journey that never ends!

Transitions of Life mean relaxing into the Flow of Love . . .

IN THE 1960s, many of us saw the materialistic lifestyle being lived by our parents and knew it was bad – there was a common theme of “keeping the outside of the cup clean” so that everyone thought you and your family were perfect . . . and we knew that was not possible, it was fake, it was hypocrisy!

We wanted to change that world – we wanted to tear down that fake image and live as “real” people and we knew that the only way to do that was with love, unconditional love for everybody.

We MADE A MISTAKE . . . we thought we had to destroy everything so we could build our world as it should be, you know, throw the baby out with the dirty water.

Without getting into the deeper problems with human nature, the government introduced LSD into protestor groups to see if it would work as a truth drug, and the walk toward a “better world” was derailed and many were pulled away from their original mission by drugs and the lifestyle choices that naturally follow.

SO INSTEAD OF BUILDING, we destroyed much of the undergirding of society, the rules governing behavior, and traded unconditional love for “free” love which meant physical expression with no commitment, lust without relationship, and without investment, we cheapened the foundation of family and set ourselves up for self-centered indulgence “justified” because we were being “real” and not fake like our parents.

In my opinion, our destroying of standards is evidenced in movies like “Grease” where a female comes to a high school as a “goody-two shoes” and is deemed successful when she accepts and becomes like the rebellious teens around her. The message is pretty clear . . . but mixed in reality. Accepting those around her that were different from her was good, but adopting their disregard for rules and their irresponsible lifestyle choices as her own just so she could be accepted as a part of the group was not good—peer pressure made “bad” good.

Our CORE VALUES are no longer clear, they are mixed and our human nature is used against us to destroy our world as we are “sold” a world that will cater to us (or so we are told) and all the “unfairness” in our lives will be “made right”! WE will get everything WE want . . . “victims unite” and throw out everything that supports the past we see as treating us wrong and redefines anything that makes a profit as “good business,” even if it is unethical or harms others!

WE MUST HEED THE CALL
• to higher standards, shared values
• to do unto others as we would have them do unto us,
• to hold to the strength that comes from working together,
• to a focus on building, fixing flaws, and not on tearing down or destroying,
• to valuing all human life,
• to protecting our world, not just our money,
• to helping each other when a storm hits and threatens any of us,
• to sharing what we have so we can all survive
                    SELF vs COMMON GOOD
               choose:  every man for himself OR . . .

I BELIEVE I should be governed by
the golden rule:
“do unto others as you would
have them do unto you”

HOW CAN I interact with friends and family who:
blindly follow leaders who are NOT governed by the golden rule and
who chastise me when I point out flaws in reasoning
or lack of valid information and
basically make me out to be the “bad guy”

HOW DID we get to the point:
that supermarket tabloids who have lost lawsuits because they were guilty of manipulating either photos and/or making up headlines are now touted as valid news sources

WHY AM I considered so gullible:
that I am supposed to repeat what I am told without really
examining the obvious marketing slogans motivated by
“loyalty” to a man only – no need to use the brain?

WHY IS BLINDNESS a requirement:
for membership in “what’s acceptable” in our world today and loyalty
is described as blindly following and
strongly coming against any who do not agree

WHEN DID HARSH WORDS become:
the right way to deal with dissent with anyone who
disagrees including friends, family, and strangers