The walk

God designed us to move.  We are made to make progress.  This process starts when our cells first split, then split again, and again, and again.  It continues when we take our first breath, make our first sound, and take our first step.  We were designed by God to move.

Journeys have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Adventures have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Movies have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Books have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Careers have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

In each of those, if it doesn't end well, what was the value in it?  If movies and books always had no real ending (good or bad), we'd just be left dangling wouldn't we?  To top it off, the books nor the movies wouldn't sell well, they wouldn't be successes.

Life itself has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

To remember that God designed us to move, leads us to think of our life as a journey...a walk, if you will.  We can easily anticipate the time of the ending for journeys, adventures, movies, and books, can't we?  Can any of us anticipate the time of the ending of our life's journey, our walk?  That's impossible isn't it? 

What's to learn from the above obvious example?  Just as we want to finish journeys well, adventures well, careers well,  we should strive to finish our lives well also, even in light of the fact that we don't know when that will be.  Just as God made us to move, He also made us to finish our walk well and He gave us the option of choice.  We can finish it well, or we can choose not to.  He provides us a reward for whichever choice we make.  I'd rather choose option A, where the reward is heaven.

6 words

It's been said that life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we deal with those things.  If we're paying attention to those around us (or even ourselves for that matter) we will experience folks who just seem to sweat doom and gloom, and we will see folks who we might think have Teflon skin because bad stuff just seems to roll off of them like water from a duck.  What's one of the key differences between those folks?  In a nutshell, attitude!

Most of us would probably agree with the meaning and the importance of the saying which consists of just 6 little words:

"We become what we think about."

What we think about plays a huge role in our overall attitude about life, towards other people, ourselves, our relationships, our jobs, and, yes, most importantly, our spiritual lives.  What we think about, and what we dwell upon, drives how we react to situations both good and bad.  If our thoughts are generally negative, then even the good things that happen to us are shaded and jaded by our overall negative outlooks.

In no way does God expect us to be happy little campers 24/7/365.  Let's remind ourselves of that often, because if we were our reliance on His ways and His plans for our lives would fly right out the window.  He knows we will face adversities and unpleasantness.  And He knows that there will be times when we have absolutely no control over it.  But, He also knows full well that He gave us the matter of choice, and in doing so expects us to use it.  We can choose to look toward the happy side, even as we experience unhappiness, or we can choose to dwell on that unhappiness.  Again.....6 little words:

"We become what we think about."

The wrecking ball

A building being demolished by a wrecking ball.

Wrecking balls inflict serious damage, albeit intended damage.  They demolish some very strong buildings.  The constant pounding of the wrecking ball at the end of a cable being swung by a crane is brutal in nature, and the end result is an unrepairable mess.

All of us, yes all of us, because we are broken to one degree or another, have wrecking balls that we can (and do) use on demand.  It is these wrecking balls that, little by little, can demolish our relationships.  Each time our personal wrecking ball swings, more damage is inflicted, and if the relationship isn't destroyed it at least can become toxic and unhealthy.  What are some of the personal wrecking balls?

• our tongues, and the words we say or fail to say
• our attitudes, about ourselves and toward others
• how we handle such things as money and sex
• our fears and insecurities
• our own wants, when they take precedence over our others
• our lack of forgiveness toward others
• our sin, both overt and covert
• our unwillingness to change

The key to a healthier relationship is understanding and owning the fact that we do have, and use, our wrecking balls...perhaps more often than we should.  When we swing the wrecking ball, if we own up to the fact that we just did it, apologize and ask forgiveness, that's a step in the right direction toward parking the crane and turning off the key.

Sweet spots

Golfers, most of whom are decidedly not like the pros, get ecstatic when they hit the sweet spot on the club when striking the ball.  The result is an awesome non-errant shot.  Too the average golfer it is not a regular thing to hit the sweet spot.  Their normal shots are the result of their golfing weaknesses.

Professional baseball players always strive to hit the sweet spot when they are up to bat.  If they do so, the result is a well placed good hit which will result in their getting to first base more often than not. 

In both cases, the sweet spot is not always easy to hit, but that doesn't deter either the batter or the golfer from becoming discouraged or giving up.  Rather, the knowledge that they can, and do, hit the sweet spot is encouraging to them and they keep on trying.

Way too often in our daily lives we focus on our weak spots instead of our sweet spots.  We allow ourselves to get down over our failures, missteps, and mistakes.  It often becomes easy to not hang on to the sweet spots in our lives to get us through our weaker times. 

We can turn our weak spots into sweet spots by becoming more dependent on God, and less dependent on ourselves.  Once we recognize that our sweet spots are a result of God's hand in our lives we will want to focus more on those sweet spots, and in doing so will have less of those weak spots.

It's a hard life

So, your life isn't going the way you thought it should?

Are you thinking life just isn't fair?

Do you feel as if you are going one step forward and two back?

Are there too many days when you just don't feel like getting up?

and the list goes on...

and on....

and on.

Hey cupcake.....wake up!  You think you have it rough?

Maybe you've forgotten what this guy went through so you could have life.

Do you want to try to tell him how bad you got it?  Maybe a little thanks would go a long way.

Little things.....like making your bed

So often our focus is on the big things, the big deals, the things we think are really, really important.  That's not necessarily wrong.....especially if we never lose sight of the fact that it is the little things in life that truly make our lives.  Little things like making your bed.  We learn a lot from the big things, and often they build character...sometimes good, sometimes bad.  The little things do the same, except more often than not the character built is good....like humility, positive and healthy pride, and satisfaction with ones self.  HERE'S a great example of a little thing as a cornerstone of one's character.

Enough said.

Satan, and certainly some people, won't agree:

Is it dusty?

If your bible looks like this.........

you are, according to yesterday's post, probably not snacking enough....and you may be eating way too much junk food.

How you read your bible isn't as important as the fact that you are, indeed, reading it.  Let's face it, reading is hard for some people.  And (gasp) many find the bible to be not only a difficult read, but a confusing one as well.  So, they don't read it.  Yes, there are tons of study guides out there, and reading plans galore.  The bottom line is that reading the word is that time where you are reading it so that you can learn God's ways and get closer to Him through the scripture.  There is a wide variety of ways folks read the bible:

• Some folks read a chapter a day
• some folks read just a few verses
• some read out loud, others are silent readers
• some write it out as they are reading
• some try to memorize what they are reading
• some find it overwhelming and really struggle to read regularly
• some trust that, whatever they are reading, the Spirit will provide what they need to hear that day

The point is.....it's your bible, it's you who needs to snack on the life food that comes from it, and it's you that has to figure out the best and most fulfilling way for you to read it.  If it's a verse a day, isn't that better than no verses a day?

Just read it so you don't have to write in the dust.