It is time to put some boots on the ground and turn our hopes, dreams, visions into reality. To bring our tomorrow into today. The devotional I write every day is called, “Daily Walk in Tomorrow.” It is about calling our tomorrow into today, to bring about our desires which are calling us forward.
What do you really want?
What can you do today, that will bring that vision to pass tomorrow? When I say tomorrow, it might be tomorrow, but it might be six months, next year, or maybe a decade. Time is not important here. It is doing something today that will bring your future into focus, bring it closer to you.
We have talked about this already in past lessons, yet have you picked up today and called out to your tomorrow to see what it is saying to you? I don’t know where you are at. You might be a single mom, living in a rat-infested apartment trying to make ends meet. You still have dreams inside you that are calling out to you. You need to take off the focus of where you are and focus on where you are going. If you keep your eyes on today, you will never bring tomorrow into your today.
If you keep saying, I will never be able to afford to live in a nice apartment, you never will. If you keep focusing on failed relationships and failed jobs, you will stay focused on those things. But if you say, I will find a better paying job, I will find a better apartment to live in, and I will accomplish my educational goals, you will because you are hearing your future calling to you.
Have you ever watched a movie where the hero of the story is living in a dirty, cramped apartment, when something shifts in their life, and they are able to move upwards, and their dreams seem to just come to them? That can be you. You have to put yourself out there for it to happen. You have to be willing to sacrifice something for something else.
If you have a goal of moving into a better apartment, that means you need to make better money, and know how to live below your means. If you are not actively applying for other jobs, how do you expect other employers to find you? If you are only wishing to make more money, and using your credit card to buy foolishly, you are fighting against yourself.
Do you recall way back in the beginning lessons, we talked about rationing during the war. Sugar, meat, tea, coffee, fuel, were all rationed. Fabric was rationed, clothing was rationed, chocolate was rationed. Women stood in grocery lines for hours to come home with very little. For those willing to do the work necessary, having a garden could provide food for their families. Women back then were forced to work long hours in factories, come home to hungry children, feed them, and get them off to bed before she tackled the washing of clothing by hand. Are you made of that kind of grit?
Are you willing to walk to work in the pouring rain so you can feed your children and accomplish your dreams? Are you willing to work as hard as a ballerina or off-Broadway dancer? Are you willing to give up your weekends to run after your goals? I hear many people say, well, I work Monday to Friday, get home at 6 and then I am to give up my weekend too? Yes. Are you willing to sacrifice to make your tomorrow a part of your today?
Why can some families live off one paycheque?
Why can some people graduate with top honours in their field?
Why can some people achieve what no one else in their neighbourhood has ever done?
What would have happened if Abraham Lincoln would have let all the failures, he went through defeat him? What if after his nervous breakdown he quit and just faded away?
When Martin Luther King received death threats, he didn’t say, okay family, let’s move to Texas and disappear.
Isn’t that the same as you saying, I can’t. It’s too hard. I will never have it.
If you are not willing to put yourself out there, sacrifice something for achieving your goals, and doing something, you will never have it. If you just continue to roll with it, drift along the river on an inner tube, you will never reach it.
Let’s be practical and put rubber to the road.
There are as many dreams out there as people. There are as many ways to achieve your dreams as there are people. Let’s talk about some of them anyways, so they help to inspire you.
Inside of you is a dream that has been calling you all your life. What do you hear and see? Write it down.
For many women it might be to be a stay-at-home mom. Just because you are single, doesn’t mean that dream has to be dead. Thousands of mothers who are single are raising their children while they work from home. Some live on farms, some live in cities, they are hairdressers, designers, YouTubers, they have created beauty lotions, crafts, and homeschooling programs. If you immediately said to yourself how can a single mom be a stay-at-home mom? You probably would never have investigated for a solution.
Perhaps you are more like my granddaughter who wants to be a taxidermist. I can already here the ‘that’s gross’, ‘who would want that job’, ‘that’s just weird.’ When you put up boarders and fences, you cannot hear from the other side. Sure, it might not be you, but remember, what you sow, you reap. Instead, your response should be, “I am so glad, they have a career goal.” “I have to give them credit for running after their dreams. It might not be mine; however, they inspire me.”
Maybe you think making something out of coconuts or selling your handmade aprons or flipping houses is fascinating. Maybe you want to sell plants, or raise snakes to sell, or maybe you want to teach swimming lessons. We all have something very special inside of us that causes us to be willing to sacrifice something to do it. I personally don’t want anything to do with bugs, but some people are fascinated with them. I want to know how to kill the little buggers, is really all I am interested in.
What excites you? What do you love to do? What are you passionate about?
ARE YOU READY TO LEARN TO SACRIFICE?
Because we have already talked about it and you have tasted a word or two in these lessons, we are going to learn about sacrificing from our past, from history and we are GOING TO PRACTICE it. You won’t learn how, until you put pressure on it and pick it up, examine it, and study it.
World War Two started on September 1, 1939. Britain declared war with the Commonwealth Countries following within days. The United States joined the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. In today’s world, there is much talk about World War Three, coming as soon as April 2024, with many predicting the start coming in the fall 2024. It would be a different kind of war, with so many terrorist groups already in Britain, Canada, and the United States.
All last year, our theme was, “Be in Season, out of SEASON,” and this year, “Remove the fear, and be prepared.”
When Germany started the war on a lie, no one was prepared. Immediately, the World ran for cover as bombs fell from the sky, in both Britain and Germany. The same rationing system that came from the first world war, came around again. Young men left their wives and mothers and joined the ranks in their homeland to put evil down. Women, sadly many of them kissed their husband’s and sons for the very last time, as they left for war.
Gas, tires, clothing, sugar, coffee, meat, and butter were only a few of the items that were rationed. I pray against another war starting, as well as a recession or a depression; however, even when the shift comes in November 2024, something drastic is going to have to happen to get out of the mess we are in. Canada and the United States are trillions of dollars in debt, unemployment and interest rates are sky high. Both countries have been invaded with not only women and children, but men of fighting age, and many from foreign countries who are willing to die to bring about ‘their’ religious cause.
If you look at some of the things that were rationed during the war it gives you a good idea of some of the things that could immediately become scarce if once again, we are subjected to rationing, whether we are aware of it or not. The world’s ‘elite’ wanted to cull 200,000 cows in Europe, but the farmers stood up to them. They want the world to eat bugs. The world’s ‘elite’ have been forcing all kinds of rationing since 2020, whether through embargoes or chemicals.
“Rationing began on 8th January 1940 when bacon, butter and sugar were rationed. By 1942 many other foodstuffs, including meat, milk, cheese, eggs, and cooking fat were also ‘on the ration’.
This is a typical weekly food ration for an adult:
- Bacon & Ham 4 oz
- Other meat value of 1 shilling and 2 pence (equivalent to 2 chops)
- Butter 2 oz
- Cheese 2 oz
- Margarine 4 oz
- Cooking fat 4 oz
- Milk 3 pints
- Sugar 8 oz
- Preserves 1 lb every 2 months
- Tea 2 oz
- Eggs 1 fresh egg (plus allowance of dried egg)
- Sweets 12 oz every 4 weeks”
Rationing in Britain didn’t end until 1958. You could still buy canned foods, but they too were limited for purchase through the system of rationing using coupons. Although fresh vegetables and fruits were not rationed, they were hard to come by in grocery stores. Thus, the victory garden was not a luxury, it was a necessity.
When you presented your ration booklet to a butcher, you were not given steaks and roasts, but ox hearts, pigs feet and cow tongues. The best was sent to our soldiers fighting the war, and even then, they too lived off spam.
The worst hit for rationing was Britain, but here in Canada and the United States, we had to sacrifice as well. “Restaurants instituted meatless menus on certain days to help conserve the nation’s meat supply, and advertisers offered up recipes for meatless dinners like walnut cheese patties and creamed eggs over pancakes. Macaroni and cheese became a nationwide sensation because it was cheap, filling, and required very few ration points. Kraft sold some 50 million boxes of its macaroni and cheese product during the war.” https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/rationing-during-wwii#:~:text=Tires%20were%20the%20first%20product,the%20attack%20on%20Pearl%20Harbor. In Canada, “By 1944, 209,200 victory gardens produced 57000 tons of vegetables. 82% at home, 15% in nearby vacant lots, and 3% in community allotments; more middle than low-income activity. The impact may have been more symbolic than real.” https://foodpolicyforcanada.info.yorku.ca/goals/goal-2/demand-supply-coordination/wwii/
I am not telling you to implement this harsh reality of World War Two in your home, although this seems to be a growing trend in recent years. In the next couple of lessons, we are going to discover how the women of the war era helped the war effort at home and how they managed to survive without their sons and husbands at home, to feed their families and remain hopeful in a time of chaos.
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