Daily Word: Moms Mabley; Proverbs 11:18

Advice to children crossing the street: damn the lights. Watch the cars. The lights ain’t never killed nobody. Moms Mabley

The wicked man earns deceptive wages, but he who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward. Proverbs 11:18

Daily Word: Antonio Porchia; Luke 18:27

If you do not raise your eyes you will think that you are the highest point. Antonio Porchia

Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” Luke 18:27

Monday Motivation: Love the outcasts

Ah, it’s not always easy to love or show love to people. Even the ones closest to us press that one button and you be like “I’m gonna get you, sucka!” or something.

But, there’s one particular group of people I want you to focus on: The outcasts.

You might have noticed them. They might be quiet and never wanting to hang out. Maybe they’ve had a negative past that people know about and so they stay away. Shoot, maybe her breath stinks. And we tend to stay away from this person. This could be for a couple of reasons.

For one, it impacts our social status. If we’re seen hanging out with “him”, we could look just as bad as him. For instance, and I talked about this in my book, I have three nipples. It’s not a secret. What if I became a social outcast because of that? That would suck. People may not want to be seen with a triple nipple freak at the beach.

For another, we may personally stay away from people simply because we don’t want anything to do with them. Ouch.

But here’s the point of why you should give the benefit of the clear doubt: You don’t know their story. You don’t know what they’re going through, or what they’ve been through. You simply don’t know why they lash out to you and others. We may never understand the social pariahs. And we don’t have to.

Just keep showing them love. Show them love and pray for them.

I was watching this disturbing movie that was centered around three teens with different backgrounds who ended up being linked to each other in a special way. They treated each other and other people in what was considered a harsh way. But, as with all movies, you see both sides.

And I think that’s a good way of looking at people…at our enemies. We only see one part of the story. But, we’re missing the behind the scenes stuff. We’re missing the struggle this person has with himself. If we…in a way…imagine this situation like it’s a movie, we may be able to improve how we treat the outcasts of our lives.

Am I saying this because I was an outcast? No. I choose to be anti-social and to sit in the corner by myself. I’m talking for the ones who have tried, but have been shunned for one reason or another.

It can be hard when we’re in our click. When we’re in our circle, it’s not easy to let others in. I’m not saying expand the circle. I am saying make sure you reach out every once in a while just because you care on some level. Not to say not extending a hand makes you a bad person.

But, you never know if this person is on the verge of suicide. You may not know it, but a simple smile or hello could save a freaking life.

Alright, I’ll chill. Motivations aren’t suppose to be long. I might continue this train of thought on another day.

-DALANEL

Daily Word: Ralph Waldo Emerson; 1 Peter 1:8-9

1 peter 1 8-9

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8-9

Shutting it down for a little bit

Yeah, I’m taking DALANEL down as well as the rest of my network. It probably won’t go offline, as the theme and pages and archives and stuff like that won’t be altered. But, my network does need to be a little more organized and so I’ll be spending this weekend handling that.

When it’s all over, June 2nd will be when I come back. Now, my blog Dante’s Funny World will probably see the most changes. Dante Ball is a blog that seriously relies on outside events in order to strive, and there’s never really anything consistent I can do. But, DFW and DALANEL can do stuff on their own.

Will DALANEL get a new feature? I’ve been experimenting with a couple of things for months now. While they are good ideas on paper, I can’t find enough material to be able to make it a daily or weekly post consistently, so they have to sit down for a moment. But, the motivations, words, and news seem to be a good enough lineup that I can stick with. Each send the DALANEL message in its own special way.

Team DALANEL is still around. Dallas and Nia are students who both have notified me that part of the reason they couldn’t post was because of that. Understood. With school out for Dallas and close to being out for Nia, I’m going to see if I can get a push for a few posts from them.

If you followed this blog in July last year, you already know it’s gonna go down. I plan on doing it even bigger. God help me. But, it would be more of a network-wide event, which makes things even cooler.

Anyway, those are some early thoughts on the Summer for the network and this blog in particular. Stay tuned.

-DALANEL

Daily Word: Georges-Louis Leclerc, Malachi 3:10

Never think that God’s delays are God’s denials. Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius. Georges-Louis Leclerc

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” Malachi 3:10