a charge to keep

By barbara w green

"a charge to keep" is a collection of short stories--fiction and nonfiction--with messages on facing personal fears, celebrating relationships, accepting the victories and hardships of life, and reflecting on the simple moments when we all have answered a charge God has asked us to keep. Laugh out loud. Sniffle. Celebrate. Reflect whil

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jozef Syndicate
• Release date: Oct 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9781944155155

barbara w green

barbara w. green is a licensed professional counselor, marriage and family therapist, ordained minister, motivational speaker, and author of "The Parent Anointing" and "The Great One". www.barbaragreenministries.com

Book preview

cover-image, a charge to keep

a charge to keep

by barbara w. green

Other books by

barbara w. green

The Parent Anointing

The Great One

a charge to keep © 2018 by barbara w green. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-944155-11-7

ISBN e-book 978-1-944155-15-5

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2018941173

Visit www.barbaragreenministries.com

Published by the Jozef Syndicate. An Imprint of Jozef PA of Louisiana LLC. Cover concept, layout, and editing by Candace J. Semien. [phone] www.jozefsyndicate.com. No portion of this book can be used without written consent from the author. Send request to P.O. Box 318013, Baton Rouge, LA 70831.

Acknowledgments

I acknowledge God, Jesus the Christ, my Lord and Savior, and the Holy Spirit, The Helper, who wrote this book through me. My husband and cover, Henry J. Green. Candace J Semien, the one who got it done, my editor, organizer, and the creative instrument who helped me get the projects (every one of them) to completion.

Contents

I Know Som’un ‘bout Birthin’  Babies—An Introduction

A Charge to Keep

Beneath the Tree

A Cat Story

It Takes Two

The Other Side

A Positive Interruption

Reflections

Shine On

The Teacher

Mr. Obama

The Car

I Know Som’un ‘bout Birthin’  Babies—An Introduction

This baby has been on the inside of me for quite a while. I have told myself that I did not have the stuff that would interest readers. After having published two other books, I believe I told myself a lie and it’s time to keep birthing.

My main characters are on the inside of me waiting to be birthed. So many more of my babies are waiting to be born. But I told myself that they would never make it to the printed page.

After many what ifs, I finally said to myself, maybe.

Langston Hughes wrote a poem that began with the words, What happens to a dream deferred? My answer is that it dies. But, if the deferral refuses to become everlasting there is still hope for the dream, and the hope becomes a reality.

Unless we breathe the breath of life into our purpose, we will never find out whether it is to be named. Purpose is a good name for a baby. At first, our purpose is a dream that is nurtured in the darkness of the womb of our resolve. We help it grow by thinking about its possibilities and outcome; then, it continues to become sized in the analysis of what if thinking. Once it starts to move in the belly of our conversation, its existence potential becomes alive in the next stage. That stage is vision.

We start to see it within the confines of the womb of growing possibilities. We start furnishing the environment in which it is to be birthed. The vision will come forth in a room filled with light and the wallpaper will have the words I can written all over it. The vision will change to what if to what is. It shall conquer new horizons of what is to be.

The world shall be waiting for the new arrival of your baby, your purpose. The atmosphere is quaking, making ready for its eminent bursting forth. We are convinced that it can be done. We have studied the obstacles and have come up with strategies that will defeat the vision killer. This vision will live and not die. It will shoot forth couched in high expectations, validations, and positive feedback. It will take a life form of its own, refusing to be denied, and refusing to die. We, as its parent, will be the principal assist in its entrance into this world.

The afterbirth of doubt and negativity will disappear in light of the reality of the birth.

We will slap it gently and tell it to wake up. We will be the first to hold it and look at