Crossroads II, October 15, 2023. Session Six; “Self awareness and Self Control”. Presented by Annette George and Melba Moore, co-leaders for this Sunday’s class. The class will be held in the Session Room. (and on Zoom)
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Annette George and Melba Moore are co-leaders for this Sunday’s class. Starting with scripture and then looking at your “written assignment,” they will help you examine how you understand the ways others have viewed you; how your role and position in others’ eyes has affected your self-image. They will also address the ways that your understanding of God has affected your understanding of yourself. Melba will take you through her faith journey, looking at how her understanding of God has gone through various stages. |
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Melba Moore was born in Kansas more than a century ago! She grew up in a very conservatively religious family. Before marriage, she studied nursing briefly but transferred to Laboratory Technician training. Marrying Gene during World War II, just before Gene went into service. Before children, she studied nursing briefly but transferred to Laboratory Technician training.
Then she was a full-time mother and later, after earning a BS in Guidance and Counseling, worked as family counselor. Melba and Gene (who passed away February 2021) moved to Ocala for retirement and have been vital members of Fort King Presbyterian Church for many years.
Annette George was born in Indiana almost ¾ century ago! She grew up in a Presbyterian family. Hearing a flutist in church began her musical journey and career. As a youth, she struggled to discern whether her call was to be a missionary or musician.
She went to U of Ga. to earn her Bachelor of Music in Music Therapy and Music Ed. Later, working happily as a music therapist in North Carolina, she attended night school for a Master’s in Special Education.
Finally,
Annette found her niche in the mission world, sent by the PC(USA) to teach music (especially woodwinds!) at a Christian university in northern Thailand (1991 until Covid trapped her in Ocala with her sister in early 2020).Annette labels herself as fully retired now, but a caregiver with light duties for her sister. She is happy to be one of Fort King’s newer members.
Please join us for coffee (and on Zoom) at 8:45 and class will begin at 9:00.
Our Church/Ourselves: Living the Life and Teachings of Jesus
Session 5: The Power of Prayer and Meditation
A devotional reflection
by Judith Bullen
In Listening to Your Life Frederick Buechner writes about being truly human as follows:
“In addition to the battle to “get ahead” there is another. The other war is the war not to conquer but to become whole and at peace inside our skins. It is a war not of conquest now but of liberation because the object of this other war is to liberate that dimension of selfhood which has somehow become lost, that dimension of selfhood that involves the capacity to forgive and to will the good not only of the self but of all other selves. This other war is the war to become a human being. This is the goal that we are really after and that God is really after. This is the goal that power, success and security are only forlorn substitutes for. This is the victory that not all our human armory of self-confidence and wisdom and personality can win for us- not simply to be treated as human but to become at last truly human.”
From the rollercoaster of life I came to see myself as caring and perceptive, often spurred to find solutions to problems. In curving mountain roads of Grenada, you sometimes see a mirror placed at a bend to reflect and warn about oncoming traffic. That image is in a poem that I wrote in Jimbilins:
My Prayer
Give me quiet paths to follow
Through the chaos of life, O Lord
Make me a mirror on dangerous turns
A mine-aware dog during war
A sweet whistling-winged dove, fleeing conflict,
A rock of perception, smashing lies,
A child in your care, always,
Amen
Now, at this un-tender age, I have learned to kayak on the Silver river. What joy to relax in that luminous universe! So also I am learning to influence less and to listen more to the stories of fellow travelers: to be in awe of their courage and foibles.
Self-control now means being kinder to my body: actually doing the exercises that my doctor recommended to relieve pain; saying “no” to tempting foods; ignoring random perceived slights; and most of all conquering fears that come in so many forms. In all these I am a work in progress!
Yet, as I ponder the beauty of nature and the complexity of life I still dare to listen for a Call. God may have something else for me to do before I face my greatest test: the moment when I let go of all control and pass breathlessly.
Judith Bullen
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Siblings
Playmates/classmates/ riends Teachers/ Employers Community/Church Region/State/Nation World Universe/galaxy How has your self- image, life and lifestyle been affected and set by the opinions of the above and by the reputation(s) that you gained along the way? Has this affected your self-control when feeling fear, anger, love or strong desires |