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“Today is Your Last Day!”

Your last day!

What if you were told that today was your last day to live?  What would become the most important things in your life?  Would you do things differently?  I think for most of us the answer would be “yes”.

I think we often get so caught up in our days that we forget how important we are to others and how important others are to us.  And when someone you know or even yourself goes through some hard times or facing death, it is a wake-up call.

An acquaintance

What has really gotten me thinking?  I have some dear friends who have a relative that I am acquainted with who has gone through a tragedy.  It was something so sudden that it was a shock.  This acquaintance could have died but after much time survived.  But still, it is going to be a long road to full recovery.

I’m sure that it has given the spouse a new perspective.  I don’t know them well so I don’t know what their family life is like.  But I do know that we all tend to get caught up in life and it is things like this that make us stop and question what are the most important things in life.

And what about the children?  How has this affected them?  When you realize that you may lose a parent your perspective of them suddenly changes.  You realize how much they mean to you and how much they have done for you.  Even if there have been mistakes made you start to realize you don’t want to lose them.

Perspective

I think tragedy suddenly makes a person’s perspective change.  What are the most important things in my life?  What can I change to make things better?  If this were my last day what would I really want to be doing?

Unfortunately, we all have to work and may not have the time with our spouse, children, parents, etc. that we really want to have.  But what can we do differently?  You can reprioritize your life.  Look at what is most important.  If you really look at your day you can probably find some time wasters.  Cut all the time wasters out.

Another thing that is so important is to take care of yourself.  You can’t be there for a parent, children, friends, etc. if you are not taking care of yourself.  Make sure you are living a B A L A N C E D life.  Bedtime, Aqua, Light, Air, Nutrition, Control, Exercise, and Dependence on God.  A lot of times we think we are only hurting ourselves when we fail to take care of us.  But that is far from the truth.  When we fail to take care of ourselves it affects all the people around us.  It may not seem like it at the time but when we become sick or even die it affects everyone we know.

Change

Just stop right now and be thankful for all those friends and loved ones you have around you. And then decide to make a change.  I would suggest you put your day before the Lord and ask Him to help you reprioritize.  Plug into place all the “must” things you have to do, like go to work, if you have a job outside the home.  And then prioritize all the rest of each day.  Make sure to include God in your decisions.

Dear Father,

Today I consecrate to You.  Help me not to calculate for the months and years ahead, I know these are not mine.  I know You have given me this day.  Focus my mind to see this day as if it was my last here on earth and to work during its hours for You.  I Lay all my plans before You to be carried out or given up as Your providence shall indicate.  Help me to accept Your plans instead of my own even though their acceptance requires the abandonment of cherished projects.  Through You, mold me more and more after Your divine example and give me the peace of God, which passeth all understanding keeping my heart and mind through Christ Jesus.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Surrender each day to God.  Give your family an extra hug today because you never know when it may be the last one.

Love you all!

What has happened in your life that has given you a wake-up call?  Share your experience below.

 

 

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“Happy Thanksgiving!”

Thanksgiving!

What is Thanksgiving?  Is it all about the food?  Filling our guts until we can’t hold anymore and sitting down in misery?  Maybe we don’t think about the misery part but when you overeat you definitely feel it and it is no fun.  But a lot of people forget and do it all over again next year.

But when I think of Thanksgiving I think about family.  I think about it being a time for the family to get together and enjoy fellowship.  And to be thanking and praising God that He has brought us through another year, taking care of us through any trial or difficulty.

When you think about the first Thanksgiving, the year had not passed without difficulties.  They had lost family members; there were major difficulties they had overcome.  But the time of Thanksgiving was to praise the Lord for what they did have and for what God had brought them through.

Memorable

I am sure you have some memorable Thanksgivings.  As I sit here and think, there is one that comes to my mind.

Our family had gone for the day to my husband’s brother’s home.  All the children were still young enough that they enjoyed going outside and playing.  One of their favorite things to play was tag in the dark.  They would try not to come in the house because they would be afraid we would be ready to leave and if they showed up we would be prompted.

One year we were visiting as adults have a great time.  Suddenly someone came in with one of my boys.  There was a definite problem.  He had been running through the dark and ran into a barbed wire fence.  The warning had been issued but there are just some children that don’t really listen or think about it.

When I saw his eye I had to praise the Lord.  Right under his eye, he had been sliced open.  If he would have hit a little higher it would have been his eye and he probably would have been blind in one eye.  We immediately took him in for stitches.  Thanksgiving day was almost over but we had the biggest praise.

Then I thought

As I have sat here thinking about this story I thought about another aspect, a spiritual one.  For those of you that know my family you would know which child this happened to.  And we can think that he just never listens or does things without thinking.  These things are very true but how many of us do the same thing.  You might be thinking, “I have never been hurt like that, maybe once in my life but not like this kid.”

I can agree physically speaking but what about spiritually.  How many times do we not listen to God and what He is trying to tell us?  Maybe we don’t even study God’s Word because we don’t want to even know.

What happens is we end up with “wounds” when we choose not to listen?  God is the only One that can “Stitch” up those “wounds” but the scare will always be there.  Every time we make a decision in life we need to consider the “wounds” we cause ourselves or others and whether it is worth it.  But most of the time we don’t even think we just do what seems right feels right, or just what we want to do.

Dear Father,

Help us to examine our lives to see where we really are.  We need You to stay close to us and not give up on us.  Give us the courage to study Your Word and listen to Your voice.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Remember to be thankful this year.  Surrender all to God and listen to His voice.

Love you all!

Do you have a memorable Thanksgiving?  I would love to hear your story. Share below.

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“It’s Broken?!!”

Is it really broken?

Have you ever had something quit working and you wondered if it was really broken?  You looked it all over but couldn’t see any reason why it shouldn’t be working.  Or may you drop something and you pick it up and looked it over very carefully and didn’t see any cracks or any evidence of a problem.  But the next day it falls apart in your hand.

I work at a print shop and run the big digital machine.  There are so many intricate parts and pieces, along with the fact that it is digital that many things can go wrong.  Recently, I came into work and started the process of doing all the things I need to do to prepare the machine for the day, cleaning, calibrating color, etc.  It wasn’t long into the process when the machine gave me an error code.  The error let me know that I need to change a part that is called the cleaning web.  It is a web that runs through its cycle and you have to take it out and put and new one in.

The company where we bought the machine leaves some parts there that are easy for me to change out and the webbing is one of them.  I have done it before and it is very easy to do.  I swapped out the parts but there was a problem.  When I put the new part in, the machine was not detecting it as a new part so it would not let me print.  I had to call the service department to come in and fix the problem.  Now when you call service and when you actually get someone to respond to your call it can be several hours before someone comes to fix it and that means not printing for several hours.

What else could I do?

I had another cleaning web.  It wasn’t brand new but a tech had replaced the webbing part of it so that I could reuse it.  So I decided to try it to see if it would work.  But it did not work either.

When I finally got a call from a tech guy to let me know when he could make it out, he told me that when you replace just the webbing of the part you need to make sure and wind past the blue strip before it will register.  I let him know that I did not replace the webbing part myself it was a whole brand new part, done by a tech.  Then he let me know he couldn’t come out but would try to find someone that could.  I had so much printing to do that it was hard to wait.

I went to the Bindery department and started helping them out.  The Lord gave me this idea.  We actually have two places in the machine that have this same part.  I thought that maybe if I swapped out the parts it would register.  So when I went to go try that I noticed that the cleaning web that I had used that the tech had put new webbing in was not wound past the blue line.  So I did I wound it and yay it registered with the machine and I was able to get on printing.  I still had the brand new one that wouldn’t work but I wasn’t concerned because I would have the tech figure that out when he came in.  Now I was up and running and that was all that mattered.

New Webbing

I was thinking about the cleaning web and how it relates to our relationship to God.  The brand new part reminds me of how God wants to give us a brand new heart.  Where the problem starts to happen is when we try to do things on our own.  We have come to God and given Him our heart and he has come in a given us a new heart but then we start to try to do things on our own.  And at that point, our new part is not registering with the “Machine”, the One that can keep our heart clean and keep our spiritual machine running correctly.

Then there is the side where we don’t really want God to replace our heart and give us a new one we just want to do a little cleaning.  So on our own, we try to replace the “webbing” but the problem, we have is that blue line and our lives are not registering with the “Great Machine” (God).  And the blue line is sins that we aren’t willing to give up and they are coming between God and us.  But the beauty is that if we confess the Lord will forgive and it will be just like winding the web forward, we will be able to connect with God.

What should we do?

Stay connected to God each day by prayer, the study of His Word, and putting His Word to memory.  Put your full trust in Him to do the work in your life.  He will lead you and when He shows you the path follow His leading.

The Lord is in no hurry.  A lot of times we begin to weave in our human threads to compose the pattern of the web.  But He waits until we lay down our own human inventions and will accept His way and will.  Then He can come in and do a marvelous work in us.

Dear Father,

Thank You that You will do the work in our lives if we allow You.  Lord, we need Your help in doing this.  We are so weak and feeble.

Lord, I give you permission to take my heart: for I cannot give it.  It is Your property.  Keep it pure, for I cannot keep it for You.  Save me in spite of myself my weak, unchristlike self.  Mold me, fashion me, raise me into a pure and holy atmosphere, where the rich current of Your love can flow through my soul.  Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Surrender all to Jesus today and allow Him to weave the web of your life.

What has been a help to you in your walk with the Lord?  I would love to have you share about your experience.

 

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“Oh No, I’m Bleeding!!”

Open wounds

Have you ever cut yourself and you were bleeding all over?  It seems like a ridiculous question because of course, the answer is yes.  We all have had some time in our life where we have injured ourselves.

Whatever profession you have decided to take there are always risks.  When you are learning anything in life there is a time when more accidents happen.  And hopefully, you learn something in the process so that the next time you’ll remember what you don’t want to do.  But even if you are seasoned in your profession you never know everything.  You are always learning.  If you come to the place that you think you know everything there is to know in your profession, you really are not a blessing to anyone.  Know it all’s are not learners.  And just because your seasoned doesn’t mean you still don’t have accidents.

I have a young friend who is learning construction.  As my friend has been learning, he has had several accidents that have resulted in blood.  And some of his accidents could have been really bad.  There are other times where there could have been a serious accident but he was spared by the hand of God.  I think he may have two guardian angels.

It made me think

It made me start to think about how this is a good example of our spiritual lives.  When you become a real Christian, it is a process.  You may be wondering what I mean by a real Christian.  Well, you may have grown up in and around Christians but that does not make you a Christian.  What makes you a Christian is your own connection with God.  We cannot have a connection vicariously through our parents or anyone else, it has to become our own.  How would that work in your profession?  It would not!  You have to learn yourself with the help of the master teacher.

Spiritually speaking God should be our teacher.  He is that Master and can truly teach us how to be a Christian.  Can we learn from others?  Yes!  But ultimately we need to be learning from the Master.  When you get a job there may be others that know things within your profession that you can learn from but you better be sure it lines up with the master teacher (your boss) or later on there will be some repercussions.

I have followed what others said and it turned out to be wrong.  Or I have even given wrong advice that turned out to be wrong.  The one that gets the most reprimanded is the one that did it wrong, not the advice giver.  Why is that?  Because the master teacher (boss) says you should not rely on what others have told you but go to the one that knows, your boss, supervisor, etc.

So how does that look when it comes to our walk as a Christian?  We can learn from others but we always need to be sure that it lines up with the Master Teacher.  In the end, when we follow the advice of others and do not follow through with checking it out with the Master Teacher, we will receive the repercussions of our decisions.  We are responsible for our own decisions.

Growth takes time

Just like when your learning a profession it takes time, so does growing as a Christian.  In any profession, there are those times that we may choose to do something that we know isn’t the best thing but we know that we can get it done more quickly.  It may not be bad in and of itself but our master teacher (boss) has said he wants it done a certain way.  And most of the time, in the end, we may have made a mistake that could have caused us harm or someone else.  It is the same in the Christian walk.  Sometimes we choose deliberately to do something that we know is not pleasing to the Master Teacher (God) but we think we know best but in the end, we discover God always knows best.

Then there are those times that we are going along at work and after the fact, we realize we have made a wrong move.  Sometimes the consequences are minor but sometimes more severe.  In our Christian walk when we are walking along there are going to be times that we make a mistake that we did not even realize until after the fact.  It could be that we are still in the growth process and the Lord has not revealed it to us yet or it could be we did something without thinking.

In whatever case we find ourselves, I am so thankful for a God that is forgiving.  We can come to Him with a contrite heart and He will forgive.  And just like God is so merciful to us we should be merciful to others.

One of the faults that can break down the camaraderie in the workplace is to have a superior feeling.  If others around you feel like they can’t ever do anything right and that you feel superior to them it breaks down any relationship.  This happens within the Christian walk as well.  We have to be careful not to be pointing our fingers at others and thinking ourselves superior because we are following this rule and that rule.  The fact is we can be lost just because we have an attitude of superiority.  In the workplace, you can end up losing your job.  In the Christian walk, you can end up losing your salvation.

We need to allow everyone to grow as God leads them.  And God leads everyone on a different path because everyone’s journey is different.  The best thing we can do for someone is to love him or her and pray for them.

Growing

So how do we keep growing?  When we start in a profession there is definitely a learning curve and the same is in our Christian walk.  So do I eventually learn it all and don’t have to keep learning?  The answer is no.  This applies to the workplace as well as the Christian walk.  When we stop learning we become stagnate.  No matter what profession you have chosen there are always changes that take place due to new technology.  And if you don’t keep learning you’re going to fall behind and eventually probably lose your job.  The same is true in our Christian walk if we don’t keep learning we stop growing in our knowledge of the truth.

Some may say it isn’t really the same because our profession changes because of new technology but God’s truth has always been the same.  My question would be, has the technology always been there but we are just learning about it?  I would say the affirmative yes.  It has just taken someone to come along and discover the technology.  We all have the opportunity to discover the “technology” of truth from God’s Word but we all discover it differently because that is how God works.  We should not rely on people to discover the truths of the Bible and then tell us, we should be discovering it ourselves.  Because even if someone has discovered a truth in the Bible we are supposed to study for ourselves and see if those things are so.

Dear Father,

I am so grateful for Your saving grace.  As I cling to You and stay in Your Word You will lead me into all truth.  Keep us faithful to You.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Stay connected to God each day.

Love you all.

What accidents have you had in life that you can draw a lesson from?  I would love to hear your story.  Share below in the comments.