Warm donuts

Nov. 8 2021

Have you ever just analyzed a word for no reason other than it is “curious” or catches your interest. In my case, I was thinking about how a single word can have two basically polar opposite meanings. Patronize, can mean to support or give money to, and it can also mean the opposite, to disapprove.

Because I took Latin in elementary school, I find the root word really interesting, I know that this word comes from the Latin pater which means “father”. I wondered who decided that this word also would mean “to disapprove”.

Is it possible to approve and disapprove of at the same time? Humanly perhaps it is possible, but I thought of how God is Love, and it is our own choices that cause us to experience the opposite of love, and none of that “disapproval” is directed at us from God. Just like the story of the prodigal son, the father always wanted what was best for his son.

We also have the story of the garden of Eden, and Eve CHOSE to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and it was that choice that brought on her “knowledge” of disease, death, famine and sickness, NONE of which benefited her. Wouldn’t it have been grand if she had trusted in the “patronage” of her heavenly “father,” and listened to wise advice because she would have stayed in the garden of Eden.

I thought about “approving” and “disapproving” regarding word usage and meaning, and how a person can approve of “freedom” of speech, but would not approve necessarily of a person yelling “fire” in a crowded theater if there were no actual fire. The word freedom, it would seem, could be good or bad if we ignore the laws in place, to provide order, and consequences for breaking them. We have the responsibility to make wise decisions and when we do not choose wise decisions, we must accept the consequences.

For example, I love warm do-nuts. Sugar is Yummy, Yes! But I also know that, according to science, eating a lot of sugar “tricks” the body into thinking it is about to go into hibernation (that food will not be plentiful) so it causes the body to store fat. In a nutshell, if a person eats a lot of sugar, it could cause weight gain which is not a healthy state. (have you noticed that if you eat a lot of sugar, all you also want to do is sleep later, lol…now you know why)

BUT We have the FREEDOM to choose a balance of foods, and certainly sugar is necessary for energy, so eating a small amount of sugar before exercising can be useful. But since there is sugar basically in ALL carbs, eating plain sugar, is not recommended as a common practice.

But I like warm donuts (very occasionally), and recently I “patronized” a different do-nut store because someone else wanted me to go there. When we entered, me and the little almost four-year-old boy I was bringing with me, noticed a lady sweeping the floor. Even though she was aware of us, she did not stop sweeping for quite some time. At some point later, we were informed that all the do-nuts “had already cooled off”, which was disappointing. There were no “warm” do-nuts.

It made me think of the word patronize, because I thought of how God (our father) wants ONLY GOOD for his creation. He does not sometimes give us hot do-nuts and sometimes give us cold do-nuts. When we listen to his council, we know his desire for us is only good. I should have thought twice of going to this store simply because of it’s name, Voodoo.

It’s name means a religion that is derived from polytheism, and is about spells and hexing. As a Christian I do not believe in spells and hexing or in many gods. I believe that it is a persons “belief” in evil, that gives it the only “power” it seems to have.

But Jesus never bowed down to other “gods”. His example is to say “begone satan” when asked to bow down to another power. Jesus knew that God was the only power. And Jesus proved God could heal the sick and raise the dead and could walk on water. THAT is power for good. Why would I “give power” to evil by going into a store that promoted the opposite of what Christianity understands about GOOD. You do not see Christians sticking pins in dolls and wishing evil on them, Christians pray for GOOD.

I thought of an interesting analogy when evil tried to “use” good to achieve evil, the same way Satan tried to “use” Jesus to achieve power. In the city of New York, blacks, for many years have been “convinced” to abort their babies, so much so that they are now in negative population growth in that city according to population statistics. By telling poor people to ignore the teachings of God, and abort babies, (because it was marketed as being better for them and would save them money), Planned Parenthood has effectively used the power of the black population to hurt blacks themselves.

It was a very clever trick to be sure to convince an entire population that something bad (abortion) could suddenly mean something good, especially when the founder of planned parenthood, Margaret Sanger, believed in eugenics and thought blacks were inferior (this is documented by her own words). Her trick is not hidden any more however, and people are smarter than she gave them credit for, even though she USED black ministers by paying them to trick their congregations into using planned parenthood.

But just like the do-nuts have cooled off, I believe that the trick of “abortion”, and other devious tricks like “black lives matter” have cooled off because it is going against the very people it is marketed to supposedly be helping. I believe that God is blessing these innocent populations and opening their eyes, because God is good and God only wants good for his people which is why we have a guideline to live by if we want to have blessings in our lives.

God does not choose evil for us…OTHER PEOPLE choose evil for us, who do not believe in God, but believe in many gods or believe in power in evil. We can reject this mistake the same way we can see beyond the tricks of evil, which likes to take a word and give it a double meaning. Patronize really is about the father, and is about good for children because of the father.

Google has stopped translating Latin, but that does not mean the Latin root of words has ceased to exist. We can still know the truth and the truth really does set us free.

I learned that the cold do-nut store is based out of Portland Oregon. But unlike the city of Portland, I believe that Texas believes in God, in law and order and wants to fund police to enforce law and order. I believe that our country still believes in God and it is on our currency. Maybe too many donuts are just not a good plan these days, (are you listening law enforcement) because we all need to do better with balance, exercise and good choices.

InGODWeTRUST.com is an organization that participates in this belief so that evil cannot trick people into believing that we cannot choose God and choose good. We can still pray before our meals, including at public schools, we can still pledge allegiance to our country and its belief in ONE NATION UNDER GOD.

Evil has no power and we can choose to shut it down the way Jesus did and those who choose good are always blessed. Texas is not Oregon and the USA is not China, where freedom is not part of “the greater good” and abortions have been mandatory for many years. God sees the innocent ones and has not abandoned them. God is the only power. (by the way what the heck does it mean to say “greater good” when it is clearly either good or evil. God GAVE mankind the inalienable rights and government cannot litigate these rights into obscurity.)

I gave the cold do-nut to the four year old and since is is a rare treat, he still enjoyed it because he is innocent and pure and ignorant of the tricks of evil. Yay! But like most people these days, I will focus carefully on where my money goes, and I will only be “patronizing” a warm do-nut store from now on, or, even better, Another broken egg cafe or a waffle house where I can get eggs and grits and enjoy a better balance of foods that facilitate fitness and good health, things which we are meant to enjoy, because the kingdom of heaven, is in fact, here now, if we CHOOSE it.