Can You Really Teach An Old Dog New Tricks?

After retiring from one job after 30+ years of service, I am currently employed with another job.  I'm not exactly "retired" but it has been a different experience.  It always surprises me how old I am in years, but my mind doesn't think I'm the age that I am.  So, I find myself learning new things.

My current job is in an industry that is constantly changing.  Software that was "cutting edge" 3-5 years ago is now obsolete.  I always heard the saying "You can't teach an old dog new tricks", but I have a variation of that.  You CAN teach an old dog new tricks but sometimes it's a slower learning process.  Sometimes you have to UN-learn things to accept new ways.  That's where I find myself today.  I will admit that sometimes it causes me great anxiety as I fear that I can't keep up with the younger minds I work with but all I can do is put forth my best effort and trust God to take care of me.

I have also learned this through my life as a believer.  I grew up in a church that was very strict and harsh in their teaching.  One teaching that we had was wearing rings.  We were taught that wearing rings (or any jewelry) was a sign of pride and unacceptable for a "child of God" in our church denomination.  In my early adult years, I dated and was engaged to a non-church person, and I proposed to her with an engagement ring.  My parents flipped when they found out.  You would have thought I had betrayed my whole upbringing.  My thinking at the time was if my fiancé wasn't taught the same doctrine on rings that she wouldn't understand.  Many claimed that I was compromising and doomed any future in that relationship.  I eventually caved to the pressure and broke off the engagement.  

Then in the 90's the church denomination began to change their views on wedding rings.  Some still vehemently protested the move, and some even split off to form their own church denomination.  My wife at the time wanted to wear wedding rings and I was hesitant.  Personally, I never saw anything wrong with it but when I met with our pastor to tell him of our intentions wear our rings to church, he said that he was very disappointed in me.  You can imagine how that made me feel.  The pastor asked to delay wearing rings to church a week so that he could prepare for it.  Wow, looking back now I see how silly all of this fuss was.  I learned many years later that the pastor secretly met with other church members to discuss if we should be allowed to hold any positions in the church.  I'm telling you if I had known this had happened then, I would have left that church a lot sooner.

We wore the rings to church, and it was as if every eyeball was drawn to our ring fingers.  It was a challenge the first few weeks.  We even had an anonymous caller who would leave messages on our answering machine criticizing us over this.

Do you know what happened?  Eventually it was nothing.  Others started wearing their rings and the people saw that we were no different than before we put on the rings. It was much ado about nothing.  While the pastor and a few others made much of us wearing a wedding band, they were ignoring the real mission of the church.  

Even today, I still find myself looking at things differently and looking at others in a more relaxed way.  Now I will tell you that I don't understand the way people live sometimes and their lifestyles.  Some things are just not for me, but I am careful to judge or throw stones at people for the way they live.  I know people are so afraid about being TOO accepting of others and worry about "compromising" their beliefs.  The key thing that I think we should remember is that we can't force anyone to live by our standards.  Our job is to love people.  It's the job of the Holy Spirit to convict people of their sins.  I cringe when I see people with signs and yelling hateful things to people.  That's just not going to get the job done.  

I am constantly learning in this changing world.  We all have to be willing to look past our judgments and unlearn things we have thought were how we should be in dealing with others.  

The Bible says that we have ALL sinned and come short of the glory of God.  None of us are above being judged.  It is true that people don't want to believe the Bible anymore and the truths on how it helps us to serve God.  It's sad how far our world has fallen but it also shouldn't be a surprise either.  

I have come a long way since my childhood in a church denomination that taught a lot of things you wouldn't believe but I am thankful that I have been willing to learn new things and look at things with a better mindset.

    

Write Your Own Story

Aside from the books I have self-published, there are others I have started writing but at some point, have never finished them. The inspiration has either faded or I just simple lost some steam in the story. I imagine that the characters in those books I have filed await are wondering how their stories will end.

Just like those unfinished manuscripts, our lives are a lot like those stories. We wonder how our own stories will end.

My own story up to this point has a lot of plot twists, dramatic moments and filled with comedy - both intentional and unintentional. I have had moments that I like to remember and chapters of my life I wish I could edit and rewrite.

So where do we go from here?

We hold the pen in writing our story from here. It doesn’t matter what we have done before whether it be disappointments, heartaches or difficulties, we can write a different story in our next chapter.

Early in my story I didn’t think too much of myself. I was ruled by the opinion of others. I gave others my pen to write my story. I lived a miserable life because I wasn’t the person I wanted to be. It wasn’t until I decided to take my pen back and start writing my own story that I found myself. My true self. Not the one other people wanted me to be. Honestly, it shouldn’t have taken so long to do that.

People will never understand how hard it was to grow up as a preachers’ kid. My life was a fish bowl. I was forced to measure up to how everyone thought a preacher’s kid should be. It was all about rules and unreasonable expectations. I was instantly tagged by bullies and ridiculed by others. I was judged instantly without being known for who I was.

I allowed others to write my story based on how they saw me. I never wrote it from a first person perspective.

In our lives, we can write our own story. We control the ending.

I often think of people who are contemplating suicide. I want to ask them if they are curious to how things are going to turn out? Although their life might look bad at this moment in their lives but what will it be tomorrow? Next week? Next year?

Certainly, there are a lot of things that we can’t control. We have to navigate around these things and make our story OUR story.

Years ago, I locked onto a quote from a movie. It was “Isn’t it time to be who you are?”

That was a turning point in my life. That’s why I made the decisions I made to take control of my pen and write my story.

Do you know what’s even better? We don’t have to write our story alone. We have a God that is with us and cares about everything in our lives. In fact, He cares so much that He knows how many hairs we have on our head. (Luke 12:7) He will help us to write our story and is always with us even until the end of the story. (Matthew 28:20) That should encourage us. He will guide us in our story if we let Him.

The best way to write your story from here is to let go of the past. The past is in the past. Leave it there. Forgive those who hurt you and don't hold onto mistakes you have made. Chart a better course. In writing, we like to insert a page break to start a new chapter. Insert a page break in your life and write a new chapter.

The pen that writes your life story must be held in your own hand.  

Irene C. Kassorla

Cold Hard Facts About Colds

Right now I am dealing with a cold.

I hate being sick. I'm not very patient with illnesses.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter what precautions we take, somehow the cold finds us. It got me. Of course, when we get a cold or any illness now, we immediately wonder if it's COVID. Well, I have that covered as I have tested twice over the past 48 hours and have tested negative so far.

I'm one that is in denial about being sick until it becomes too much to avoid it. That's where I am now.

Like most people, I try to trace it back to how I got it. So, I go back to when I first felt a scratchiness in my throat. A few days ago I woke up with a sore throat after having the window cracked slightly to keep the room cool. I suspect that "night air" might have set this cold in motion. Later that day, I cleaned a litter box and vacuumed without a mask. After that, I was hit full force with this cold. I’m sure this cold is a combination of all of the above.

So the next question is how long will this last?

When I googled it, the average says 7-10 days. If that’s the case then I’m in day 3 so I have another week.

Most of the time this junk lingers longer than that. I can't tell you how much joy that brings me. Just to know I have to deal with this for at least another week - maybe longer.

I’m at the stage of constantly blowing my nose and cough. I am constantly blowing my nose now. How is it that one can never empty all that junk out? I have an endless supply right now. It all gets worse at night with the drainage into the throat. Gross right?

So what’s the deal with the “common” cold?

• There is no cure for the common cold. No vaccines. No quick relief.. 
• The average duration of a cold is 7-10 days although some symptoms, especially runny or stuffy nose and cough, can last for up to 10 to 14 days. Some times a nagging cough can linger for up to eight weeks. EIGHT weeks coughing?? Yep, I've done that before.
• Colds are minor infections of the nose and throat caused by more than 200 different viruses. Rhinovirus is the most common cause, accounting for 10 to 40 percent of colds. (And I bet the brilliant idea of cracking the window open with the night air had something to do with that.)
• In the United States, colds account for more visits to the doctor than any other condition.
• Adults get an average of two to four colds per year, mostly between September and May.
• Colds are highly contagious. They most often spread when droplets of fluid that contain a cold virus are transferred by touch. These droplets may also be inhaled.

My whole idea of this blog was trying to research on how to get over colds faster. Here’s what I found:

• Rest is key to getting over colds faster. 
• Medications like Tylenol (acetaminophen) like can help control fever, 
• To avoid dehydration caused by fever, drink plenty of fluids.
• Decongestants or cough suppressants can help ease cold symptoms in adults,

Basically, there is no quick fix or guaranteed hard deadlines for when a cold is over. Unfortunately I must be patient and do what I can to treat the symptoms and limit exposure to others or take extra precautions so as not to spread it to someone else.

There's no choice but to wait it out and keep blowing my nose. Fun days are ahead.