Day 324 - Making Godly Choices

"The guy I met with shared that he had been a drug addict and when he started coming to the church he was coming on the buses and getting food. He really loves The Rock for that. He now has a job and a vehicle and when he gives his tithes he knows it is going to help people and further the gospel. He told me that God jammed him up that he needed to choose either the drugs or his kids. Thankfully he made the right choice for his kids."

Too many times we hear of people who we know and love making the wrong choices. Their decisions effect their own personal lives as well as their families and friends. It is sad to see the results of wrong choices and bad decisions. 

I have shared in past blogs about how I hate seeing the effects of sin. It grieves me when people who were once on fire for the Lord turn their backs and walk away. But here in today's journal entry I see someone who was stuck in his sinful ways making a Godly decision. 

What made him different? How did he arrive at Godly decisions where others fail? 

I see some key things in his life. First was that he had an open heart to hear the word of the Lord. He had been getting help and the goodness of God lead him to repentance. He was attending church and his life was changing. We all at some point or another will be confronted with the word of God. You cannot hear the truth and not be challenged to change. The word is designed to show you where you need to change and then give you the power to change. 

The second thing I see that helped him to make a Godly choice was that he saw what was important. His children are ultimately more important than the pleasure he was receiving from his sin. Those drugs could never be as important as his children. The value he placed on them made the decision easy. It also showed him the severity of making the wrong choice. 

Finally, he add the choice based on his relationship to the Lord. He was learning from God and now was presented with a choice from the Holy Spirit. When you have a relationship with someone and you know their character then when they ask you for something it makes the choice easier. Knowing who God is and having the fellowship of the Holy Spirit will help us to make Godly decisions. 

What factors help you to make the right decisions? How can we differentiate between Godly and ungodly? 

Day 194 - Attitude is Everything

"There was a bunch of traffic so what should have taken us an hour took three to drive."

The frustrations of life can overwhelm us if we let them. With this traffic last year were all kinds of other frustrating factors; the heat, hunger, upset stomach, kids whining and tiredness from the long weekend. We had every reason to have a bad attitude. 

What is amazing is that we have a power that we often overlook. The power is in our choices. We can choose to be frustrated, angry and nasty or we can choose to put on a smile, laugh and take the lemons of life and make lemonade, or lemon meringue pie, I would opt for both. 

Don't let life be a drag. Head up, shoulders back, smile and laugh. I had a friend in a wheelchair who was disabled who had every reason to be down. Every time I would ask him how he was doing he would say "Every day above ground is a good one!" I like his attitude. As long as I have breath in my lungs I will praise God! Take it a step further that if this body is below ground then my spirit is in heaven and I have a new body that will be praising God eternally. 

With that in mind I can handle traffic, hunger, and anything else life throws at me. 

Do you find it easy or hard to choose your attitude? Do you agree with the statement that attitude is everything? 

Day 158 - New Levels

"We are going to a new level."

Life is a journey. Sometimes it is uphill and you go to a new level. Sometimes you backslide and it brings you down. There are also plateaus where you feel like nothing much is happening. 

The goal is to go onward and upward. It comes by choice. You decide your direction and destination. Don't be afraid to tell people your intent. Pray and commit it to God. Agree on it with your spouse. Involve your friends and family in it. There is accountability to what you have spoken. 

It also comes by consistency. You have to stay focused on your direction and continue in it. If you abandon your goals you won't make it there by accident. You have to keep at your course until you make it. 

A year after writing this statement I believe it has come to pass. We made the choice and stayed consistent. We are lifting our sights for the next year to come. We are going to a new level. 

Why is it hard to choose life direction sometimes? What keeps us from being consistent?

Day 132 - On Repeat

"Very few people are interested in history any more."

Today's quote from last year actually comes from my dad. He is a very wise man with a great heart. We took him and my mom to experience Disneyland with their grandchildren to celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary and Mother's Day for my mom. While we were there we went and saw Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. It is a patriotic inspiration with a godly attitude behind it. 

As we were looking around the theater we noticed how few people were in there and my dad responded that very few people are interested in history any more. I understand that we were at Disneyland where people don't want to be educated they want to be entertained. Also I recognize that there is an upsurge or history related television but really that is a lot of entertainment as well. 

The danger of writing off history is that we can miss the lessons and have to go through the same or similar things our ancestors did. Edmund Burke took it a step further when he said "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it." 

It is true. That is why there are 66 books of the Bible and millennia of history for us to learn from. God even commanded festivals and feasts for the Israelites to remember significant happenings from history. They would even set up large monuments to remember and they were instructed to teach their children the story when they would come across it. 

For us it is no different. You don't have to be a history buff to learn the lessons from the past. Especially when we have such a diversity of books, Bible translations, and modern day story tellers. Guaranteed that whatever you are facing today someone has gone before you and can help you to make it through. There is nothing new under the sun!

What is your favorite time period from history? How has knowing the past helped you with the present? 

Day 83 - Sincere Love

"They were sincere and genuine in their love and care for us."

We know fake. We have been fake. That is why we know when someone else is being fake. It is like a plastic donut. You wouldn't take a bite no matter how good it looks. 

Love was never meant to be faked. It is meant to be lived. The Bible tells us that God is love. That means that if God lives in us then we have the most powerful force in the universe at our disposal. Love as the ability to break down walls, empower the believer for service, open the door to forgiveness, cover multitudes of sins and so much more. 

The problem is that we get messed up with how we have been trained when it comes to love. The popular stories we see in movies and television and read of in books give the impression that love is not a choice. It is as if you love because the impersonal force of attraction is so strong you have no other choice or ability. Similarly, if you 'fall out of love' you no longer have the capacity to be around or rekindle the relationship that once was motivated by love. 

Real love is different. Real love is sincere. Real love overlooks offenses and forgives quickly. Real love is attractive, compelling and desirable. 

Let's make sure we are never fake. That doesn't mean hurt people because we don't feel like loving them. That means we make the choice to love. 

(1 Corinthians chapter 13 is a wonderful description of what this looks like.)

How do you stay away from being fake when it comes to love? What is a good way to express genuine love?