Author: timelliott49gmailcom

A few months ago my eyesight was poor. My eye doctor sent me to a specialist. The specialist told me that I had scar tissue on my eyes and cataracts as well as the beginnings of glaucoma.

I’m 73 years old. I mention that because we are trained to believe we must accept physical deterioration when we get older. Many do without a fight. There may be diminished capacity but we must not give up health and strength without a struggle.

Being a Christian person of faith I believe God’s best for us is health and strength. Although at an emotional level, I was tempted just to accept poor and then no eyesight as inevitable, I responded to the positivity of my faith and my doctors. Thank God for positive doctors!

I underwent surgery to remove the scar tissue and cataracts. I am currently taking medication to keep glaucoma at bay. I can see better than I ever have. To me, it is like a miracle.

I’m so glad I did what I could to fight the loss of sight. I’m so glad I had positive and skillful doctors. And above all, I’m glad God blessed me and the doctors as they worked.

If you are a greybeard like me, know this. You shouldn’t immediately settle for the first negative report that comes your way.

Please go to Tim’s Blessing Blog For today’s post. www.timsblessingblog.com

People look for others to make a better world. They look to their spouse, their friends, and their families. They look to politicians. If the other folks could just be constrained, shut up, or canceled the world would be a better place.

They look outward for help making the world better. As Leo Tolstoy said, “Everyone thinks about changing the world. No one thinks about changing themselves.” We should do that. We should strive to be better. Let us start to improve the world by improving ourselves.

First things first!

We often think that we have little influence or that we are unable to change things for the better. For things to change the leaders or people in charge must do it. So we put faith in government, “experts”, or the wealthy not realizing that we have the power to change lives thereby changing society.

It does not take a social or political movement, or something BIG to make an impact. Have you ever tossed a stone into a pool of water and watched as the ripples expand and expand having effect on water a distance from where the stone entered the water? Our positive words and deeds can be like that.

I remember stopping a young man from being badly beaten, perhaps killed. (For the attackers surely had it in mind.) I got him out of the situation and sent him on his way. I did not see him again for several years. One day a fellow stopped me on the street and introduced himself as that man and thanked me again for my intervention. I assured him that that was quite all right and then asked what he had been doing He told me that after that night he’d changed his lifestyle and had just finished helping as a volunteer care worker overseas. I told him I was proud of him and obviously helping him in his time of trouble was a good thing.

I helped him. He went on to help others.You may not relate to that story of violence. How about this?

Once a friend and I were visiting. We’d just left the army. In our conversation I mentioned that we really should be taking our faith and or lives more seriously. It was just part of a larger conversation. He moved out of state shortly after that. One day, years later I received a letter from him mentioning that part of the conversation and thanking me. It turns out that had made an impact on him. He let me know that he had gotten more serious about his faith and life, found a fine wife and had several children and was teaching them to take the important things seriously and to be good human beings.

I spoke a little truth that we both needed to hear. He took it and it helped change his life…his future.

These examples are not about me. They are examples of how a good act or a good word can change things, change lives.

There is a classic Christmas film called “It’s a Wonderful Life” in which the main character is so distraught in a time of crisis he says that it would be better if he’d never been born. So he was shown what his world would be without him. At the end he realizes that really he had a wonderful life and had accomplished a lot of good.

We often don’t know the effects of our good actions or words. That does NOT mean that we did not change our worlds. Know it or not the water ripples as we toss in our pebbles. Do good. Speak good. Change the world.

Just a short post today

In our daily lives we get so busy, so focused on work, finances, etc. that we need to back off, take a deep breath and maybe step outside and appreciate some things.

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Sometimes we live in our heads and our electronic toys so much that we need a break to appreciate.

My title today seems to many like an oxymoron. Politics seem to be negative right now. And some of them are. This a challenge to rethink politics. Right now the greatest threat to Americans may be those educational, financial, and political forces trying to take away our God-given liberties.

Perhaps we need less political bias, tribalism and more concern about our freedoms. Of course, if you are among those who look down on the working men and women of this country, considering them unable to govern themselves without a ruling class telling them how to think or how to vote; disregard this article. You are on the wrong side of morality and on the wrong side of history.

I am an Independent. I try to vote for those who protect our constitutional rights; those who care about our liberties. I believe we should pay less attention to labels than policy. Over the years I have seen a lot of shifts politically. Right now the Republican party seems to be the major party that is more often than not coming down on the side of freedom. Not all Republicans do . That is why we must not just look at a label but see what those people have done. If the Republicans running for office turn their backs on our liberties they will not get my vote.

I am not about negative politics. I am about positive politics. I put aside political loyalty…except loyalty to the constitution and the politics of liberty. There is little more positive political than liberty.

Today I celebrate all of you wonderful people who evaluate and accept people on an individual basis. You are a positive blessing in my life. You do not have boxes labeled Black, White, Male, Female, Rich, Poor, etc. and judge people by group.

Because of your goodness and lack of bias you have given me friendship, appreciation, and love from all over the world. How blessed I am to have had friends from Argentina, Mexico, Samoa, Australia, India, Norway, Nigeria, Liberia, Cameroon, South Africa, Lebanon, and more. Because of the goodness of people here in the U.S. I have black friends, white friends, native friends (from several nations). Mexican American friends, Cajun friends and more.

But this would not have been possible if those people judged me by my riches or lack of them and decided against becoming my friends. Color, gender, education, ethnicity are categories used to exclude people from positive consideration by people who categorize first and get to know persons second. Thankfully my friends and loved ones were better than that. Those others who judge by category miss out on so much.

You will hear them say things like these. He’s got a lot of soul for a white man. He sure is articulate for a black man. She sure has a lot of emotional self control for a woman. He is very sensitive for a man. When we hear things like this we know that in somebody’s mind there was a box with a label with a lot of preconceived ideas, in which the assigned person did not fit.

As a wise old man said about it, “People only belong in boxes after they are dead.” I am so rich because I was taught to evaluate individuals by character not ethnic group or color. I am so blessed!

YOU MIGHT WANT TO BREAK UP THOSE BOXES.

Many times we live inside our heads, our emotions we get so wrapped up in out thoughts, worries, or fears that we forget the larger world around us. We focus so much on our challenges we fail to realize all the good and faithful people around us.

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We can get so focused on the four walls of our homes or workplaces we forget the beauty that surrounds us and is often just a few steps away. We sometimes need to take a physical, mental, or emotional break and become refreshed with those things we sometimes forget.

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Give yourself a break. Don’t forget the good.

We Americans claim to be free and defenders of freedom. Are you? Am I? Do I think for myself or do I depend on government and so called experts to think for me? How do we live our lives? Is our defense of liberty just talk?

We can not open a business or build a home without government permission, fees, and rules. We are told what to speak and what is unacceptable. By what criteria do we call ourselves free? In some states it is nearly impossible to own a gun leaving you and your family at risk to the criminals who will have guns. Not even free to protect yourself or your family?

The greatest fight right now is between those who believe in individual liberty and those who don’t. Live your life freely. Stand for freedom. Don’t be like the politician who slaps veterans on their backs, thanks them for defending freedom, then goes to Washington to pass more laws to restrict their freedoms.

I promote freedom, love, brotherhood and respect for veterans in my life, in my blogs, in my designs(as you can see below). I have three storefronts online. Teespring sells my designs. Below are the storefront addresses. Just click a link if you are curious. DEFEND LIBERTY.

Addresses www.teespring.com/stores/pro-freedom-movement www.teespring.com/stores/anti-hate-campaign-2 www.teespring.com/stores/veterans-4-veterans

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I heard a relative say MAGA is stupid. When was America ever great? This relative is not stupid about most things. About this we will have to disagree. Lack of knowledge must be the problem. I hear others question if America was great; why the homelessness?; why the poor educational standing among western nations?.

This is NOT a treatise on the greatness of the U.S.A. and certainly not one on its perfection. To have perfect nations everyone in them must be perfect. Good luck with that. In a free country you will see a wide spectrum of human character and activity.

The U.S. is a one of a kind experiment in freedom. It has and will be as imperfect as its people. But to say America is totally evil or that it has never been great is foolishness. It comes from cherry picking only certain things in our history and defining us with this incomplete data. It is like going to a buffet that has a great selection of meats, vegetables, salads, desserts, etc. At that buffet you get salad and crackers and complain that there is no meat. Only because it is not on your plate.

If all you focus on are America’s imperfections you will be blind the its greatness. EVERY country is imperfect but the U.S. was founded out of a dream and a promises of freedom and opportunity. Its tragectory over history continues towards those goals.

Some say the greatness in America is in its military, and it is great. Some believe the politicians, generals, and the ultra rich made America great. Some helped. Some had the opposite effect. The blessing of God and the numbers of great “regular” people have been the prime movers for American greatness.

sLet us look at just some of those people. And just for fun lets look at a variety of people. First, our war heroes are a diverse group. From the hills of Tennessee came Alvin York. From a poverty ridden part of Texas came Audie Murphy. From a rough childhood because of his Yaqui/Mexican heritage came Roy Benavidez. From the internment camps came the Japanese American heroes of the 442nd combat group of World War Two. Let us not forget the Tuskegee airmen fighting for freedoms not yet seen.

There are so many more. (If those names mean nothing to you. LOOK THEM UP.) But the regular folks from all over the world came here for opportunity and freedom. They still do. I truly believe the regular people with their faith in God and faith in themselves are the heroes of America.

Outside forces have not been able to destroy us. If we are destroyed it will be because our people wish it so. What do you want? What do you think?