Just do it!

About two weeks ago,  God nudged my heart  to send a card of encouragement to someone that I knew was having a tough time.   I didn't fool with it, but He did the very same thing the next week.   This time,  I found a note card and scribbled a couple of lines on it.  Didn't think too much about it.  This past Friday, I received a phone call from that person, who was crying.  No, more like sobbing.   She told me she was having one of her worst days ever, and then she got my card.   She went on about how much she appreciated it.   How it helped her when she needed it the most.   Now, the purpose of this post is not to praise myself, but more of condemning myself.   What if I hadn't have listened and acted on what I felt like God was leading me to do?   I do it all the time.   I can't count the times I just tune it out and simply just not take the time.  I always have good intentions, but intentions are nothing if you don't act on them.   We let the busyness of life keep us from doing what He wants us to do.  As Christians, we NEED to take the time to be a blessing to others.

What did I have invested in this random act?   A .50 cent note card, a .45 cent postage stamp, and two minutes of my life.  The funny thing is, that while I was talking to this lady on the phone, she was a blessing to me as well.   I am thankful that He saw fit to use me in just a small way to be a blessing to someone in need.  

When you feel God nuding you to do something,  just do it!  

Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
Proverbs 27:17

Sugar Rush Happiness

I read this somewhere and I couldn't have said it better:

Everybody has their native sin – something that seems to be part of who they are. Add to that a culture of self-worship, sliding standards, and personal happiness as the ultimate pursuit and we have a perfect recipe for cultural deception. God gets made out to be the bad guy when he forbids things we are so sure will make us happy. They feel so natural. We are so easily deceived. Like my three-year old daughter that throws a temper tantrum when she cannot have cookies for dinner, we object to God’s righteous, eternal standards.

But everybody disagrees with God somewhere. Every person. Every family. Every culture. Every epoch.

The question is one of wisdom. Will we be wise enough to humble ourselves and agree with God? Will we be smart enough to recognize that he sees something around the eternal corner that we do not see ourselves? Will we not realize that God wants us happy even more than we do? But his long-range mind sees things we do not.

We want quick-fix, sugar-rush happiness. He sees eternal weight of glory.

The message of Scripture is this: play it out. Live to please yourself, live for your personal happiness – it’s an experiment in futility. Destined for disappointment.

Be smarter than that. Be wiser. Be more forward-thinking.

Sin is not just evil; it’s stupid.

Our idols are like middle school boyfriends: they lie to us. Sin lies. It over-promises and under-delivers. It is an expert marketer, but completely untrustworthy.

Yet I’m a sucker. I believe the hype. Everybody believes the hype – it just has to be the right hype. Wise is the man who learns what hype he falls for. We are so prone to judge people for being gullible in areas we don’t fall for. But we all fall. Moral stupidity is part of our fallen condition.

Good thing we have a wise savior.

Solomon nailed it: ”The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10)

Dear Mama

Today is your birthday and I want you to know how much I miss you!   What I wouldn't do to be able to pick up the phone and tell you that.  Just one last chance to hug you and let you know how much I love and appreciate you for all you did for me.   I want to thank you for your selfless ways - you were always thinking of others and rarely of yourself.   You did without so us four kids didn't have to.  I don't think you ever got anything new to wear except hand me downs.   And you did so without complaining.   In fact, you rarely complained about anything.     Thank you for always setting that faithful example - it is because of you that I am in church today.   Any ounce of compassion or thoughtfulness that I may have comes from you and by the example you set.   You mothered us without hollering and fussing - I wish I knew your secret on that one.   You loved us unconditionally whether we deserved it or not.   You lived your life more by example and what an example it was.   You set the bar high in the mothering department and I hate to admit it, I didn't even come close to you.   I wish you could see my two girls!  You loved them and I just know you would have enjoyed taking them shopping for just the right earrings or shoes for those special occasions in their lives.  You would be proud of them - for anything that I did right with them, I owe it ALL to you.

I love you Mama with everything in my being!  Happy birthday to the bestest Mama ever!  I am thankful that I have the reassurance of seeing you again!

With love,

Your favorite daughter

Her children arise up, and call her blessed.
Proverbs 31:28a

It's all in the attitude

 

Rex and I were blessed with the chance to take a trip out west last week.   Even though I had planned and booked the trip months ago, it sorta just snuck up on me.   I am ( or used to be ), Queen of Organization.  Emphasis on used to be.    I couldn't knock the feeling that I was forgetting something.   I made a list and checked it twice.  All packed and ready to go, we headed out.   Stopped for a nice dinner and checked into our hotel in Atlanta around 8:30 p.m.   Ready to bathe and take off my makeup, I looked for my bag.   It was nowhere to be seen.  I knew we had it, because I remember asking Rex to grab it on our way out the door.  When I asked Rex about it, he looked like he had seen a ghost and said he knew exactly where it was.   On our couch.  Two hours away.   He was so apologetic and willing to make the trip back to get it, that I couldn't be upset.   I racked my brain to determine what all was in the bag.  First and probably most important was MY toolbox.   My makeup, my blow dryer, my flat iron, my hair products.....all those tools I needed just to look presentable.  My BRAND NEW CAMERA!  It was starting to get worse.   Kelly's wedding reception and our trip was my justification in getting myself a new camera.   How could I be going to the Grand Canyon without a camera?    I remembered Rex's medicines were in there.   They would be missed, but thankfully, they are not a matter of life of death.   Phone chargers.  No biggy.   I finally persuaded him that we would make do - and believe me, that wasn't an easy task.    We would replace what we had to and deal with what we had to do without.   It's was all in our attitude.   We could have let that one  bag left at home ruin our attitudes and ruin our trip.   Thankfully, we chose to just deal with it and had a wonderful time.  I have 897 pictures to prove it.

Life is sorta like that.   Sometimes we focus so much on what we don't have rather than appreciate what we do have.  

 

Do all things without murmuring and disputings.
Phillipians 2:14