Posted on Sunday, April 19, 2009

Use What You Got To Get What You Want…aka Side Hustlers Unite!!!

Hello World!!!

What the bizness? (Okay, that is my attempt at using the current slang…did I use that term right? I am 35 now for goodness sake.) So as of yesterday, I have a financial coach…Before I get into that, let me give you the back story…about a year ago, I started praying for financial prosperity…not the “Oh Lord, Won’t you buy me a Mercedes- Benz” type of prayer, but I realized I needed more ends. Maybe days later, the Lord blessed me with some ends, and I was like “Whoa God, You really workin’ it out fast!” And I started working longer hours at my job, but I still felt like something was missing…

It is a widely accepted stereotype that many journalists are not good with numbers…I cannot vouch for all journalists, but this one right here is not so good with numbers…(Shout out to DKW! You know of which I speak…) And I haven’t learned very much about finances over the years either. My father admitted that he wishes he knew more about finances…I personally know that he did the very best with what he knew, and it was all good…I never knew something could be turned off until I moved out on my own…I won’t tell you how I know, ha,ha…

So over the years, I would buy a finances book here or there, and I have listened to financial guru Clark Howard on the radio and even attended a financial seminar or two, but nothing clicked…I eventually realized that I would have to either work on a one-on-one basis with somebody or take a prolonged class…Both options scared me…I used to have a roommate in college that was diagnosed with “math anxiety.” For whatever reason, the subject of math scared her, and she had to take remedial math classes. My then boyfriend, who majored in statistics, didn’t have any sympathy for her. He said, “That’s just a nice way of saying she’s stupid.” Ain’t that mean? Anyway, back to me, I wasn’t raised to really go after money I guess…But last year, I admitted to myself that I wanted more of it…or at the very least I want to do better with what I have…

So fast forward to yesterday, I think my new financial coach is the answer to my prayer…I think she will help me to learn to effectively manage my money…and I like her philosophy…She is like it’s not what you make; it’s what you keep…Amen…So I, being the Jamaican that I am or the Jamerican depending on whom you are talking too, do have side hustles…I freelance write, I teach fitness classes, I do market research….But my new coach says I still need to beef up my income so I can build up my savings and fund some much needed, expensive home improvement work. She said the whole multiple streams of income strategy works for her, and she said she uses all of her God-given talents to bring in those multiple checks…I asked her what can I do to bring in more checks. She told me that I need to ask God, and I will get an answer…But it’s all so scary…And I really don’t want to get a part-time job. I just don’t think I could fit it in my already jam-packed schedule. A friend told me that to supplement her income as a teacher years ago, she delivered papers in the wee hours of the morning before she had to go to work. On another part-time job, she pretty much babysat mentally ill adults on the weekends…

So all of this talk about using your God-given talents reminds me of “The Parable of the Talents” in Matthew 25:14-30.

¹⁴The kingdom is also like what happened when a man went away and put his three servants in charge of all he owned. ¹⁵The man knew what each servant could do. So he handed five thousand coins to the first servant, two thousand to the second, and one thousand to the third. Then he left the country.

    ¹⁶As soon as the man had gone, the servant with the five thousand coins used them to earn five thousand more. ¹⁷The servant who had two thousand coins did the same with his money and earned two thousand more. ¹⁸But the servant with one thousand coins dug a hole and hid his master’s money in the ground.

    ¹⁹Some time later the master of those servants returned. He called them in and asked what they had done with his money. ²⁰The servant who had been given five thousand coins brought them in with the five thousand that he had earned. He said, “Sir, you gave me five thousand coins, and I have earned five thousand more.”

    ²¹“Wonderful!” his master replied. “You are a good and faithful servant. I left you in charge of only a little, but now I will put you in charge of much more. Come and share in my happiness!”

    ²²Next, the servant who had been given two thousand coins came in and said, “Sir, you gave me two thousand coins, and I have earned two thousand more.”

    ²³“Wonderful!” his master replied. “You are a good and faithful servant. I left you in charge of only a little, but now I will put you in charge of much more. Come and share in my happiness!”

    ²⁴The servant who had been given one thousand coins then came in and said, “Sir, I know that you are hard to get along with. You harvest what you don’t plant and gather crops where you haven’t scattered seed. ²⁵I was frightened and went out and hid your money in the ground. Here is every single coin!”

    ²⁶The master of the servant told him, “You are lazy and good-for-nothing! You know that I harvest what I don’t plant and gather crops where I haven’t scattered seed. ²⁷You could have at least put my money in the bank, so that I could have earned interest on it.”

    ²⁸Then the master said, “Now your money will be taken away and given to the servant with ten thousand coins! ²⁹Everyone who has something will be given more, and they will have more than enough. But everything will be taken from those who don’t have anything. ³⁰You are a worthless servant, and you will be thrown out into the dark where people will cry and grit their teeth in pain.”

I don’t want to be like the third servant…I may only have one talent, but if I work hard, it will multiply…that’s what’s in the Word. And goodness, I think we all could use a little multiplication in these times…So do y’all have any ideas about appropriate side hustles for me? Or should I just walk myself up to my local mall and work at one of the stores…What do you do when you want to supplement your income? Goodness, I hope I’m not tellin’ tooo much of my bizness…

Any thoughts?

P.S. I really want to post Rick Ross’ video for “Hustlin,'” but some of y’all may be offended…wouldn’t want to do that… 🙂

Instead, I took it back to the old school…

Posted on Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Snapped!

Hello World!!!

On Saturday mornings, after I’ve completed my workout, I enjoy piddling around the house…picking up papers in my office, making myself something to eat, planning the rest of my day. As I’m multi-tasking, I often have one of my favorite shows, “Snapped,” playing in the background. Usually on Saturday morning, several reruns of the show air back to back on Oxygen. It’s my guilty pleasure you could say…From the country preacher’s wife who murdered her husband to the deaf lesbian that killed her ex-girlfriend’s friend, I find it all fascinating. Sometimes I am so mesmerized, I stop what I’m doing and plop my behind down on my living room floor to watch…

I guess part of my fascination is the show’s premise. According to the “Snapped” Web site, each year approximately16,000 murders take place around the country. Only 7 percent of the killers, however, are female. According to what I have seen on the show, women kill for different reasons than men. Women kill their husbands who have abused them. Women kill their boyfriends, husbands or partners in the heat of a fight. (Shout out to Adrienne Emily Hickson, the promising law student! I found this one particularly disturbing as she could have been a friend of mine…but maybe not.) Women kill because they want out of a boring marriage and the insurance money. A woman may kill her ex-husband if the two are embroiled in a bitter custody battle. It seems that in each case, the woman knew her victim, and the murder had to do with some sort of romantic relationship. That is one of the reasons why the story of Melissa Huckaby, the California Sunday School teacher who was recently accused of killing her daughter’s friend, is sooo disturbing. This story caught my attention for two reasons: the fact that this woman is a Sunday School teacher and the granddaughter of a pastor in other words she is supposed to be a Christian and the gruesomeness of the crime.

Huckaby apparently kidnapped the eight-year-old girl, raped her, stuffed the body in her suitcase and threw it in a pond just miles away from their homes. The child lived a few doors away from Huckaby. What made that woman commit that terrible crime – particularly when it would be safe to assume this woman knew Jesus Christ? My guess is that she is mentally ill and possibly under the influence of demonic forces….what do you think?

According to Scripture, demons can inhabit human bodies.

²⁴When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. ²⁵And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. ²⁶Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Luke 11:24-26

Demons can masquerade as various ailments according to Scripture.

¹⁴ When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. ¹⁵ “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. ¹⁶ I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” ¹⁷ “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” ¹⁸ Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment. Matthew 17: 14-18

¹¹and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, ^[a] you are set free from your infirmity.” ¹³ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. Luke 13:11-13

I think demons often attempt to make Christians look like fools to the rest of the world. I think that is one of the reasons why so many relish joking about pastors and other Christian leaders who have fallen from grace. This story is no joking matter to me – a former Sunday School teacher. I’ve never been a regular classroom teacher, but I think I understand some of the joy and frustration that regular classroom teachers experience. When I first graduated from college, I began teaching Sunday School at my church for fifth and sixth graders. One of my first students was this young boy named Alex…Goodness gracious, this boy could talk. Any time I opened my mouth to say something, he was already talking – sometimes he made sense and sometimes he didn’t…He was in my class for a while, and I grew to love his incessant chattering…I haven’t seen Alex in a few years now, but his grandmother still attends my church…He recently said to me through her, “Tell Miss Jackie I said, ‘Hello’ and that I am graduating from high school.” In fact, many of the children I taught are now in high school and college, and I have been blessed to get to know them and watch them grow up.

How could this woman kill a precious child especially when she has a daughter of her own? I’m inclined to believe the adversary and his agents had a hand in this horrific crime…

Any thoughts?

P.S. I don’t plan to post on this, but have y’all heard of Mel Gibson’s divorce from his wife of 28 years. She could get half of his billion. Wowee!!! I imagine that he made lot of money from Christians who saw, “The Passion Of The Christ,” an excellent film that was co-written, co-produced and directed by Gibson. Any thoughts on that?

Posted on Sunday, March 15, 2009

I’m such a hater aka I sometimes break The Ten Commandments…

Hello World!!!

It has been said that confession is good for the soul. And so in deference to that adage, I confess that I frequently covet…

My earliest remembrance of this destructive behavior in my life goes back to when I was about six years old. A single mother who worked nights lived next door to my family and me. In neighborly kindness, I guess, the single mother’s daughter, who shall go nameless, was allowed to stay over at our apartment each night. In the morning, her mother would come and get her. The girl was about a year younger than me and so we became fast friends.

But I quickly noticed that this girl had things that I didn’t have. She wore name name brand clothing for instance and had jewelry even. In my six-year-old mind, I deduced that the reason my parents didn’t lavish name brand clothing and jewelry on me was that there was three of us and they couldn’t afford to spend their money on such frivolties. And I also deduced that my friend’s mama only had to cover two people, and that’ s why her mama could spend that way. But I was still jealous…I would try to comfort myself by saying to myself, I bet she wishes she had a daddy and brothers like I do…And that sentiment would work for a while, but then I would find myself thinking of what she had and what I didn’t have again. It got so bad that sometimes I would be up at night worrying about it all…Can you believe it? I was just six years old! That is sooo terrible…My friend slept in my room with me and that made it worse. Sometimes I would get up in the middle of the night and quietly open the door so the hallway light shone in the room and I would peer at a ring on her finger. I don’t even remember what it looked like exactly, but I do remember it was sparkly and reminded me of one of my favorite fairytales – Cinderella.

Fast forward nearly 30 years and I still find myself dealing with this insidious habit. I remember when I was in 20s and I was making $10 a paycheck at my first journalism job. All of my friends were going on trips, getting fabulous apartments and starting investment clubs…With my meager earnings, I had to live at home, and the only trip I could afford was the trip to work and back. As far as investments were concerned, I tried to comfort myself with the knowledge that I was investing in my future by taking a job in my field and getting experience. But I was still seething on the inside…and sometimes the vitriol spilled out…My father gave me countless pep talks during this time…He assured me that “my time” was coming…And he reminded that I chose a field that often doesn’t yield large earnings- at least at the beginning of your career, and I had to accept that or go into a different field. And he also told me that God had a purpose for my life and as long as I was in His will, I was where I needed to be.

Lately I have found myself hating on other people’s blogs or their careers. Here is what I think sometimes – Why her blog got all those comments? I’m a good writer too. Or why did she get a book deal when her topic is hackneyed at best? I could write that story with one hand tied behind my back…Yes, it’s gets really ugly in my mind sometimes…A friend wisely told me maybe one of the reasons why my blog doesn’t get as many comments as others is because I am talking about religious topics and religion will never be as popular. That may be true, but one of my favorite blogs, a religious blog, gets scads of comments…how come my blog doesn’t? I swear I’m still six years old….

So by this time, I should be wrapping up now and telling you how I’ve overcome my haterism…I haven’t…but sometimes, I have moments of clarity after I have bitched and moaned about it to anyone that will listen…One particularly spiritual friend frequently states that I shouldn’t compare my insides to someone else’s outsides. What that means is that what someone has doesn’t necessarily equate to happiness. Over the years I have learned that is true. Sometimes I’ve been told to pray for the person that I resent. I’ve found that if I pray for the person to get everything I want in my life, I often find that I don’t feel as bad…And I recently discovered that some people want what I have. That makes me feel really good…I swear, I’m terrible, huh? And sometimes hate can be a good thing actually. Sometimes, it has propelled me to do things I wouldn’t ordinarily do…For instance, I can be smart about my money too…And sometimes the answer is to stop thinking about myself and think of how I can help others…Self obsession is a trap for sure…prayer is a good tool too…

Anyway, I don’t have all of the answers for sure, but I am REALLY interested in what you have to say. PLEASE post comments…or else…or else…I will talk about you to my friends, ha, ha (Y’all pray for me.)

Any thoughts?

P.S. Check out Canton Jones’ “Hater Day.”