Think

I was not going to make this a blog post, but someone thought I should. It is good to have questions put to us once in a while to cause us to stop and take a look at our life. Our life is but a vapor and what we deem important really is but a small insignificant thing in the light of eternity.

So many times we live our life around a person or thing; we make it the most important thing without really thinking about what it will do for us in eternity. I’m not saying we shouldn’t take care of what has been bestowed upon us, for we are to be responsible stewards, but we are not to make idols out of those things or people in our life. All that God gives to us is to help us grow in Him, to help us along in this life. All that we have here is going to soon pass away. When we get to the other side the things we held dear to our hearts won’t mean anything; the loved ones here won’t have the same place over there.

So I now put to you, dear reader, a few questions on which to ponder. And it is my prayer that you might put the things you hold so dear to your heart in their proper place and put the Lord Jesus Christ above them all. If you are putting someone or something first, ahead of God it is only because you are blind to Who gave them to you in the first place and second, because you lack gratitude for what God has given you.

Why do you choose the creature over the Creator? How long will you continue to choose the creature over the One who gave you all you have? Try thinking about your relationships in the light of eternity. Will it really be worth it to have put the creature first in your life when on the other side it won’t matter?

True happiness comes from putting God first, if you do that He will bless you and bless what you have. Give it a try, I’m quite sure you won’t be disappointed.

Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Remember this: Only what is done for Christ will last throughout eternity.

Love

We are to love at all times, and we should do it unconditionally. Now I know in the world we live in today that unconditional love is nearly impossible to find and even the best person may fall short once in a while.

Why is it we have so many conditions when it comes to love, even on the ones that are closest to us? Are we so blind that we cannot see our own imperfections? Do we like people putting conditions on us?

Perhaps the next time we don’t have the love that we should have coming forth, we should step back for a moment and see what is wrong with us instead of trying to blame it on the other person.
Maybe we are only thinking of our self at the time and that person being there just didn’t fit with "ME" at the time so I didn’t act so kindly to them. Or perhaps I had a bad day and so I treat the other person in a not so nice way because of "ME".

You see LOVE is a verb. A verb is an action word. It should not be based on feeling. Why is it that so much of the time we base our love on how we are feeling at the time? If our love is real then we should be able to choose to love outside of our feelings, or whether we are “too busy”, or whatever our feeble excuse is. I mean, haven’t you ever heard of Sacrificial Love?

We live in a world that is severely lacking in “action love”. We throw around words of love but they are not backed by anything. This world has grown very cold, hard and selfish; each man for himself, even if it means walking on or over someone.
I think it’s high time we went back to our Bible and took a lesson from our Lord. And if we really loved God and we really loved ourselves we would have no trouble loving and showing love to others in our lives.

LOVE is not a feeling; it’s an act of your will; which implies CHOICE.
Love based solely on feeling does not last, look at the divorce rate. But love based on choice goes on and on and has far reaching affects, not only on ourselves but on others; you cannot be selfish and self absorbed and love at the same time.

How are you living up in the area of LOVE today? What motivates you to love or not love? Are you loving in your actions just as much as in your words, or are your words of love empty and without substance?
We all need to be loved, what kind of love touches you? Shouldn’t we show forth the same kind of love towards others that we like to receive our self? Don’t we like to be loved even when at times we are not so loveable. Haven’t you have ever been shown love when you were not being so loveable yourself, didn’t it sort of take the sting out of you? It has me.

Just one last thought:

A cat has claws that can retract. A dog has claws but does not have the ability to retract them. The cat scratches because it chooses to scratch, the dog scratches but does not have a choice, it just happens. It’s a funny thing though, we love our cat despite how it acts with it claws, by choice, and we love our dog despite how it acts with its claws by no choice. This is really something to think about in relation to people.

Just like the dog having something he cannot do anything about we don’t get mad at him or treat him bad because his claws may have gotten in the way, no we love him because we know he can’t do anything about those. Well, there are people that have things wrong with them, perhaps they were born with a problem or developed something later in life; If we know and understand the reason the person is like the way they are then we just keep loving them, knowing and understanding that they cannot do anything about the problem, and maybe we should stop and think that if they had a choice about the matter things might be different. We love them in spite of the problem. We love them for WHO they are not their condition.
And so it is with REAL LOVE, we love the person, NOT the condition or frame of mind they are in. Jesus loves you no matter what your actions are. Shouldn’t we do the same?

Love can calm a raging sea, and LOVE brings happiness to you and me.

Do you know what is on your money?

Have you ever looked closely at a coin and really thought about the words, "IN GOD WE TRUST"? We carry coins around with us all the time and if you don’t carry coins our paper money says it too. So with that in mind, how much do we really trust in God?

When times are bad, hard, not going the way we like, do we trust in God? How about when things are at their best and going well, do we trust in God? Do we trust in Him to do what He says? Do we trust His timing? Do we trust Him when we cannot see or understand just knowing that He is who He is and that He has complete power and control and will take care of us IF we just trust in Him?
We carry money around only thinking of what it will get us; maybe we should stop and take a look at ourselves and see if we are living up to what is on that money.

We live in a country where God is being removed from things and we wonder why everything is getting so bad. This nation has become a greedy nation that has left God and no longer trusts in Him. Oh, we allow prayer in schools after someone has gone through and murdered a bunch of students but if we had been praying in schools before the fact maybe that would not have happened in the first place. We seem to only want His protection after we have been violated.

How long will we continue to be so blind to our need for God in this country? It will not be long before we don’t have the money to remind us that we should be putting our trust in God. Shouldn’t we take heed now before it’s too late? Maybe next time you go to spend money at the store, try taking that same amount you are spending on something for yourself and take that amount in time to spend with the LORD.


In closing let me ask you this; "IN GOD WE TRUST", trust God for what? We need to finish that little statement in our own life.
Whether you have one cent or one hundred dollars, a little or a lot, we should TRUST IN GOD. Trust Him with a little or a lot because He is God!

Don’t be angry with God for the condition of this country; man is the one who decided to make the decisions and run the country. Man made the choice to trust his own thoughts and plans above God’s. So it is in our own life; don’t be angry with God for your condition, look to see where you trusted yourself instead of TRUSTING IN GOD.

A Thought about Understanding

I was taught many years ago that understanding is half the battle. This is so true, and so I want to share some thoughts I have on this subject of Understanding. To understand someone is to know them. You cannot truly know someone if you don’t understand them.

We wonder why people in our lives are so hard on us and seem to have little or no mercy; even people in our own family. This quite possibly is the reason why, lack of understanding. I am finding it easier to deal with this in my own life because just knowing that a person does not really understand me, know me, helps me understand why they say and do the things they do towards me. So many times we think that they are being mean to us when in reality they aren’t even aware that they are hurting us or making things difficult for us; so by understanding that about them our reaction will not be of anger but we will be able to have mercy on their ignorance and pray for them.

Remember: It is the Lord that opens the eyes of our understanding, so let us pray and ask the Lord to help us understand the ones He puts in our lives so that we may love them as He loves us and has mercy on us.

I hope this helps someone out there somewhere. It has and is helping me. If we will seek to understand people then it will help us to love them; and isn’t that what we all really want, is just to be loved?

Still Here

I just want everyone to know that I am still here. So much has been happening and there has just not been time to blog.
My son bought a house and it is just so wonderful to be out of the apartment and into a place that has lots of space!
We live on 1.67 acres and it is just gorgeous. I love looking out my window seeing the beauty out there rather than a brick wall.
I am so blessed. We have a dog named Snow and he is very sweet and loving. He is a very good watch dog but I'm sure if you went up and said hello to him, he'd let you right in.
Our neighbors are very nice and these days you just can't put a price on good neighbors.

I could go on and on about this place but this entry is mainly to let you know that I am still here and hope to get to blogging again soon.