ClydeStyle

Psalms 90:12 says that we should “number our days” and the reason had to do with applying our hearts to gain wisdom. Simply put, God did not want us to waste time. He wanted us to see the day as a gift and utilize our free will to glorify him for giving us the day. Our days should have a healthy mix of learning, helping, growing, bonding, loving, sleeping, forgiving, with a side of fun in them.

The truth of the matter is days are constantly wasted. Some have used the gift of a day to plot another’s demise, character assassinations, fraud, hurtful speech, wild aggression, coveteousness, anger with a side of hate poured on them.

Where do we get the notion that the day is actually ours?

In the midst of our days we eventually get a free day. This is a day where work is caught up, there are no worries, you are in a sweet spot in life and you can literally choose to stay in bed all day if you wanted. If you’re doing something right in your life then you shouldn’t be a stranger to such days. We need these days to reset. It’s our respite from life. These free days can pop up anywhere: a random Saturday, in the middle of a vacation, around a holiday or in between projects. Sometimes you can see them coming, but they can also sneak up on you.

I recently had a day like that and I chose to count my blessings on that day. I did not do anything but that. You may wonder how can you spend the day doing that? Well, as I discovered I have had a lot of blessings!

I thought about my health and the rollercoaster it was on over the last 25 years. I really should have been dead from obesity but I am still here — 170 pounds lighter and the greatest testimonial regarding discipline. My finances have been a tremendous blessing having to replace lost income I thought would be difficult — it only took 5 months and I landed in a far better place than before. Can you imagine having all your bills paid and coming up on another pay week where the previous check remains untouched? And you’re expecting an income tax refund shortly…now that’s living your best life!

There have been some smaller but still significant things as well: I am full of enlightenment having read 4 books so far this year (I’m averaging 2 books per month), I am working in a field that allows me to be a gamechanger for someone regularly (I see breakthroughs and victories often). I have at least two hearty laughs per day; I no longer listen to mainstream news, I have a happy home; I recently bought a new casual wardrobe because of last years weight loss; and I absolutely love the person I have become.

Free days are meant to allow you to reaffirm the path you have chosen in your life and if you don’t like where you’re going you can change. But if you are waiting for someone else to do something, you have already spoiled your day. Find your happy place so you can stop and smell the roses. Do it soon before you end up in your last days.

Forrest Gump was stupid. He had become accustom to the word because of the people who observed his behavior constantly gave him this label. Hollywood made an entire movie about being stupid.

But they didn’t stop there. What gave the movie its brilliance was the fact that things seemed to workout just fine for Gump as if a greater power had the “fix” in for him. They made the story very relatable, by putting it smack dab in the middle of one of the most prolific times in American history. They gave scenarios that could have been any of us. We can all relate to a time where inspite of our foolishness things worked out like they did for Forrest. And we would like to believe that if someone’s heart is right and pure, things would workout for them eventually as well.

To live your life in the hope that this is true would be — well, stupid yet we see so many examples of folks doing exactly that.

Nobody plans to mess up their life but sometimes that’s exactly what it looks like. We become stupid to impress the opposite sex, to take a non existing shortcut to success, to avoid hard work, and to avoid looking stupid.

Stupid is defined as having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense. So our prisons are full of people who are stupid. The court system hears and sees a lot of stupid people. And social media has become a huge platform for stupid people — just make a comment about religion or politics and the stupid parade begins.

The word stupid did not exist until late in the 16th century so that explains why the word is not in the original King James bible, but the concept is there. The word consistently used for stupid is dull. The word appears 29 times in the sacred text and that’s within 13 different translations. The idea of something becoming dull is the idea of stupid. It’s not sharp and pristine, its dull and unappealing. But the original definition is that something happened to make you dull — you didn’t just start off that way. As the evolution of the word continued, today you can be stupid, or dull without any help.

In Gen. 29:17, one translation describes Leah’s eyes as weak and dull looking, but it says Rachel’s are beautiful and attractive. There has always been this comparison of these two sisters and for lack of a better term Leah here is described as stupid.

Gen. 49:12 gives the cause and effect idea saying, “His eyes are dull from wine and his teeth white from milk.”

So if stupid is as stupid does — which is to say that an intelligent person who does stupid things, is still stupid — this was obviously Forrest’s way of admitting he was stupid and letting you know that you can be stupid too.

Let’s hope we all spend more time “with” stupid than we do being stupid.

We live in a country that thrives in the unknown. Not only is it not fashionable to truly be in the know, but ignorance is celebrated.

We vote with very little knowledge. We make purchases with limited Intel and we date and get close to people we just met.

We are far too trusting and then will be the first to cry foul when something happens. For example, when someone you never met contacts you and says they are your grandchild and they are in trouble and need you to send money. Then they tell you not to tell their parents. This is the latest scam on seniors. Or my favorite, there is a prince in a foreign country that promises you millions to help them out with thousands — this only works in the land of the greedy.

Then we have the protests.

How do you protest the rights of giraffes being hunted and killed, but say nothing when an unarmed black man is killed by police?

How do you protect animal rights but care less about how cows, pigs and chickens are doped up and slaughtered in America?

How do you protest pedophilia here in the states but ignore the fact that our military is helping foreign governments who allow the prosecution of kids? (i.e. 10 year old boys in Afghanistan called Bacha Bazi).

We are extremely naive with many things. Our latest craze is DNA kits. When this science became affordable to the masses I imagined our government using it to reassure if those accused of rape really did it. We could now be far more sure than ever before with DNA testing but instead we are marketing it to people with apparently too much time on their hands. All of these people who have a heritage are interested now in knowing more about their heritage. But never was it important to them to make sure accurate records were kept on slaves or that blacks could be reattached to their heritage because slavery was so brutal. I mean if our heritage is that important wouldn’t we want everyone to know about their own?

Whatever you feel about President Donald J Trump, history teaches us that he is not even in the top 10 of the worst presidents. But what is worse is that most Americans cannot name the worst 5 presidents we have had. Then of course it depends on your preference.

The end of slavery was promised after the revolutionary war. The first man to die for the flag was a black man (Crispus Attucks). The first 10 presidents had no lobbyists to fight with and were of the most educated in the land but none of them thought to make good on that promise.

Bank CEOs crash our market and destroy our economy and they get a bailout in return — thanks Obama! The exact same thing happens in Iceland and all the CEOs involved go to jail! Our country has fought to ensure slaves do get reparations for the crimes America has carried out against them, but holocaust survivors get reparations right now along with the Native Americans.

This sad commentary should make us think about the things we protest. It should make us examine ourselves before we join a protest of a double standard. Or will we just allow ignorance to be bliss?