Good Read of the Month

An American Odyssey

At Ballou Senior High, a crime-infested school in Washington, D.C., honor students have learned to keep their heads down. Like most inner-city kids, they know that any special attention in a place this dangerous can make you a target of violence. But Cedric Jennings will not swallow his pride, and with unwavering support from his mother, he studies and strives as if his life depends on it--and it does. The summer after his junior year, at a program for minorities at MIT, he gets a fleeting glimpse of life outside, a glimpse that turns into a face-on challenge one year later: acceptance into Brown University, an Ivy League school.

At Brown, finding himself far behind most of the other freshmen, Cedric must manage a bewildering array of intellectual and social challenges. Cedric had hoped that at college he would finally find a place to fit in, but he discovers he has little in common with either the white students, many of whom come from privileged backgrounds, or the middle-class blacks. Having traveled too far to turn back, Cedric is left to rely on his faith, his intelligence, and his determination to keep alive his hope in the unseen--a future of acceptance and reward that he struggles, each day, to envision.

Tuesday Tidbit

God Made Moms To Teach Their Children...That Everyone Has Responsibilities

Recently while having a conversation with one of my boys, the comment was made that it was not his responsibility. I responded, everyone in this family has to be responsible and we all have responsibilities when it comes to each other. I explained to him that if we didn't provide him shelter, him food, him clothes, and all his other living expenses and/or desires, whose responsibility would it be? Would it be his alone? Who would step in to take care of him, if we didn't. His answer was that is what parents are suppose to do. So I replied kids are suppose to do what their parents tell them to do especially when they are the ones taking care of them. Never bite the hands that feed you I said. I also told him, there are many parents who do not take responsibly for their children, just like there are kids who do not want to take on responsibilities for themselves but if you want to continue to be provided for, you have to take on some responsibilities of your own. I told him someday he would understand and appreciate being responsible. Ladies, my son was complaining about having to help his younger brother pick up after himself but the point I was trying to make to him was that we all have responsibilities as family.

Be blessed and encouraged today, it's your choice. ~ Delphine


“You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.” ~~Bishop Desmond Tutu


“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.” ~~ Richard Bach

“In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.” ~~ Eva Burrows


" Every wise woman {a} buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands. " Proverbs 14:1

Tuesday Tidbit

God Made Moms To Teach Their Children...To Listen to Wisdom

Good Read of the Month

This is a book I'm reading with a book club I'm in and I thought it would be a good Good Read of The Month. I just started reading but the beginning of it reads like a keeper. Enjoy the read. Also I am proud to say, I read a total of four books last month. How many did you read?

The Alchemist presents a simple fable, based on simple truths and places it in a highly unique situation. And though we may sniff a bestselling formula, it is certainly not a new one: even the ancient tribal storytellers knew that this is the most successful method of entertaining an audience while slipping in a lesson or two. Brazilian storyteller Paulo Coehlo introduces Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he's off: leaving Spain to literally follow his dream.
Along the way he meets many spiritual messengers, who come in unassuming forms such as a camel driver and a well-read Englishman. In one of the Englishman's books, Santiago first learns about the alchemists--men who believed that if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the "Soul of the World." Of course he does eventually meet an alchemist, and the ensuing student-teacher relationship clarifies much of the boy's misguided agenda, while also emboldening him to stay true to his dreams. "My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night.

"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself," the alchemist replies. "And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity."

Tuesday Tidbit

God Made Moms To Teach Their kids....Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.(NIV)

This is hard to do at times as an adult but if you are taught it while your young, it becomes second nature.

Be blessed and encouraged today, it's a choice. ~ Delphine