Carmille Akande

Over the last couple of days this song has been in my head…all day.  I’m sure I heard it as a child through my mother or at my elementary school; however, when I went on the Civil Rights Bus Tour a few years ago, a local Civil Rights demonstrator testified about singing this song:  Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around Turn me around, turn me around Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around I'm gonna keep on a-walkin', keep on a-talkin' Marchin' down to freedom land Now, this song was sung during the Civil Rights Movement, but I think it can apply in other areas of our lives.  Many times when we face challenges, we want to turn around and quit.  We want to give up with the going gets tough.  In fact, some people may even push your buttons in order to get you to give up.  You should not allow anyone or anything keep you from fulfilling your dreams and/or God’s plan for your life.   Keep moving forward…there is greatness inside of you!...

We are inundated with negativity everyday of our lives.  We see it on television, we hear it on the radio, we sense it on our jobs and we endure it in our families.  I am participating in a spiritual retreat in a few weeks behind the walls of a prison.  One of my assignments is to focus on the Prayer of St. Francis.  It reads: Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen I’m still in the preliminary stages of my study, but I have some preliminary...