HandFull

Today we had a Harvest Fest at church to bring in the neighborhood and just new people in general and to spread the message of the gospel or the good news. We had games for the kids and lots of candy for them. One of the little girls had a full bag and I was joking with her and I asked her how much she would share with me. She said she would give me a hand full! The little girl reached in and grabbed a big bag of Skittles and a Reeses and gave them to me without thinking twice. I was amazed at her generosity. I'm sure there are kids who would share their candy but they'd probably pick out stuff they don't like and give it away; that's what I'd probably have done. I  like to share but I don't like to share my favorite things but I'm working on it;-)


I definitely took something away from this encounter with this little girl. It may not sound like much but in this day in age, it is very hard to get people to share and to think of others. We are such a "me" society but not this girl. She has an open heart and a generous spirit. I pray she never losses it. 

Do it Anyway

I don't know why I feel this fear, can't name it although I'm certain of its source. It wants me to stop...

but I'm going to do it anyway.

I'm not sure of the next step, can't see past the bend in the road. Uncertainty tells me to slow down...

but I'm moving ahead anyway.

I wonder if I really have what it takes, if I'll stumble and fall. Insecurity tells me to hold back...

but I'm taking a leap of faith anyway.

F&F

I have had such a fantastic day and I thought I'd share it with everyone! Got up early, ran errands and got new shoes for work. Then I got a text from a friend saying she was thinking of me and praying I was having an amazing day. What a nice gesture and it made my day. It made me smile. So I had to forward it on to another friend=)


Later my mom text me to see if I wanted to have lunch and go to Meijer. I wasn't feeling great and I had already been out this morning and I wanted to relax before my busy night at work, so I said no. When I told her I wasn't feeling well she gave me her motherly advice and I mentioned I have had a headache since I woke this morning. I didn't have the medicine I needed for the headache I had, so mom said she would bring over some meds with the laundry she did for me (the laundry I gave her yesterday and she had it done already!). I told her I could use some lunch too, so she picked Subway up for us. By the time she left I felt much better and had more energy. 


I don't have much of an appetite these days and nothing ever sounds good so I don't eat the best (plus I DO NOT like to cook) but today I re-remembered how much a good meal can help you feel so much better. 


Friends and family sure can make your day better when it's just ho hum and I'm so thankful for both. I don't know what I would do without them. 

The Mayo Jar

When things in your life seem , almost too much to handle, 
When 24 Hours in a day is not enough, 
Remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee. 

A professor stood before his philosophy class 
And had some items in front of him. 
When the class began, wordlessly, 
He picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar 
and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. 

He then asked the students, if the jar was full. 
They agreed that it was. 

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured 
them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. 
The pebbles rolled into the open Areas between the golf balls. 

He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. 

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. 
Of course, the sand filled up everything else. 
He asked once more if the jar was full The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.' 

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively 
filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed. 

'Now,' said the professor, as the laughter subsided, 
'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. 
The golf balls are the important things - family, 
children, health, Friends, and Favorite passions - 
Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, Your life would still be full. 

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, house, and car. 

The sand is everything else --The small stuff. 

'If you put the sand into the jar first,' He continued, 
'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. 
The same goes for life. 

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, 
You will never have room for the things that are important to you. 

So... 

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness 
Play With your children. 
Take time to get medical checkups. 
Take your partner out to dinner. 

There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal 

'Take care of the golf balls first -- 
The things that really matter. 
Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.' 

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. 

The professor smiled. 
'I'm glad you asked'. 

It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, 
there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.' 

Questions to Ponder

Have you ever thought about why you're here? What's your purpose on this earth? Are you just here by accident? Or is there a reason? Is there life after death? Does it matter what you do in this life? Will it affect the afterlife or will you just be in the dirt?

Have you ever thought about who's "job" it is to help those who can't help themselves? Is it just "Too bad, so sad. That's their problem."? Are we only responsible for ourselves and everyone fends for themselves? Are we suppose to do something?

Is our money meant to be spent however we want and only on "us" if we decide so? Do we have to use our money to help someone else? Is it "I made this money and worked hard for it so I'll do as i please" or "God has entrusted me with this money to be spent wisely and responsibly"?

Is our material love of "things" more important than helping someone who is in such extreme poverty that she sleeps on a dirt floor, has no extra clothes, drinks dirty water, eats maybe every other day or one meal a day, and has AIDS?

What are our responsibilities as a human being on this earth? To love others? To make sure our family is taken care of? To just "make" it? Are you surviving or thriving?

How much "stuff" do you really need to make you happy? Is life about obtaining the most and dying with the most money? Does "stuff" make you feel fulfilled and satisfied? Are you doing what you love or just paying the bills? What would you do if you lost everything? 

What is important to you? What do you value and treasure? What is your reason for living? 

Others

-Only a life lived for others is the life worthwhile-


-What do we live for, if not to make the world a less difficult place for each other- George Eliot


-I still think that the greatest suffering is being lonely, feeling unloved, just having no one...That is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience- Mother Teresa (I didn't put this on here to depress anyone but to get everyone to be aware of this and help in some way)


-From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life-Arthur Ashe


-Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?- Martin Luther King Jr

Pumpkin

A woman was asked by a coworker,

'What is it like to be a Christian?'

The coworker replied, 'It is like being a pumpkin.' 

God picks you from the patch, brings you in,

and washes all the dirt off of you. 

Then He cuts off the top and scoops out all the yucky stuff.

He removes the seeds of doubt, hate, and greed.

Then He carves you a new smiling face and

puts His light inside of you to shine for all the world to see.'

2 Timothy

I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until the day of His return.
2 Timothy 1:12 NLT

Heavenly Father, I release to you the burdens that I have been carrying, burdens that You never intended for me to carry. I cast all my cares upon You-all my worries, all my fears.

Father, calm my restless spirit, quiet my anxious heart, still my troubling thoughts with the assurance that You are in control. I let go of my grip upon the things I have been hanging onto, with opened hands I come to You.

I thank You for Your promise to sustain me, preserve me, and guard all that I have entrusted to Your keeping. Protect my heart and mind with Your peace, the peace that passes all understanding. Father, may Your will be done in my life, in Your time, and in Your way.

Starfish

One early morning, after a fierce storm had hit the coast, I strolled to the beach for my morning walk. Horrified, I saw that tens of thousands of starfish had been washed up on the beach by the winds and waves. I was saddened by the realization that all of them would die, stranded on the shore, away from the life-giving water. Despairing that there was nothing I could do, I sat down on the sand and put my head in my hands.

But then I heard a sound, and I lifted my eyes. There, in the distance, I saw a man bending down and then standing up, bending down and standing up. Curious, I rose and walked toward him. I saw that he was picking up the starfish, one at a time, and throwing them back into the sea.

“What are you doing?” I yelled.

“Saving the starfish,” he replied.

“But don’t you see, man, that there are tens of thousands of them?”

I asked, incredulous. “Nothing you can do will make a difference.”

He did not answer me but instead bent down, picked up another starfish, and cast it back into the water. Then he smiled, looked me in the eye, and said, “It made a difference to that one!”

Tipping

I am a server at one of the local restaurants in town and last night I was the closing server for the bar section. That can be good and bad depending on how long people want to stay and drink. Well last night I had a group of people who were in NO hurry to leave and I was stuck there till they left. All my work was done except cleaning their table. The one guy paid for their drinks and gave me a twenty for his seven dollar check. I brought back his change and the woman told me to keep it. I go "All of it?!" That's twelve dollars for a seven dollar check! She said yep and the guy agreed. Ok well then I'll be a little more patient with you guys keeping me here longer, I think. 

That big tip really made my night after I had got some really lousy tips. For those of you who have never served, we run out butts off and work hard to make your experience good. Yes, not everyone but a lot do. So I encourage you to tip at least 15% but more toward 20%. We make three dollars a hour! And when you do tip big we really, really appreciate it! If you come across an exceptional server, please show her or him that by tipping well. It really makes our night. Plus who knows what is going on in that persons life. They may be having financial trouble due to a car going into the shop, sick children, or home repairs. You may be their saving grace!

Story Time

I'm currently reading Richard Stern's book The Hole in the Gospel. He is the President of World Vision and his book is FABULOUS and I recommend for everyone to read it. He has traveled more than a million miles to dozens of countries and has seen extreme poverty over and over again. 


I wanted to write what he wrote about one woman. "One seventeen-year-old mother, Saa Mamane, had brought her infant son, Sahabi Ibrahim, to see the doctors. He had been put in the tent with the sickest children. Feeding tubes were taped to his little nose, and a nurse desperately tried to find a vein to insert an IV. Her baby cried, but with no tears. He'd been vomiting for days and was severely dehydrated. When Renee (Richard's wife) asked his mother why she hadn't come for help sooner, she said that it was much too far to walk with a sick baby, and that until two days earlier, she didn't have the fifty cents required to come by car."


Now please put yourself in her shoes. Can you imagine not taking your sick child to the doctor? Or having to walk because you can't afford fifty cents for a car ride? She did get the money but it took her a couple days. We have no idea what that is like here in the US. 


If you find this sad and gloomy, then good because it is. But the positive and encouraging news is that WE can make a difference and we can help. So I encourage everyone please go to www.worldvisiongifts.org and purchase a gift to help someone like this woman or sponsor a child for only $35/month and make a huge impact on that child's life. 

Runaway Dogs

I was driving home from church tonight after eight, so it was dark and I see two dogs chasing each other and I immediately slowed down. I had a feeling they would run right out in front of me and don't you know it they did with a gentleman running right behind them. These dogs were on a mission and not slowing down. The poor man didn't have a chance. I kept driving slowly thinking "How could I help him?" I saw the one dog stop but the other kept running. I didn't know what to do so I kept driving. I said a prayer that the dogs would be caught without anyone getting hurt. They'd already run out in front of me, who knows who else they would do that too and if that car would stop or be paying attention. I've grown up with dogs so I felt for this man. I went home real quick to pick up the movie we had rented from Redbox and was going to go to McDonald's to return it but I just couldn't stop thinking about this poor man trying to catch these dogs. If anyone has had a dog run from him then you know what it's like to try to catch her. Then to top it off, it's dark. 


I go down the street where I saw the chase and don't see anything, man or beast. I turn down the street where the dogs had run and go down to the end and turn around and luckily I see the man on the sidewalk. I stop and ask him if he's still looking for the dogs and tell him I was the one who stopped earlier. He was, so I helped. Fortunately he had caught the bigger dog. We cut through two houses and we see that the backyard is fenced so she couldn't cross over to the next street. The yard is almost pitch black and the man yells the dogs name and her she comes from a dark corner ready to run and play. Luckily there was only one way in or out, so the owner stands there while I try to grab her but she's just having a gay ole' time "playing" with me. After I don't know, five minutes or so of this playing and the owner calling for her, she relents and goes to him. 


Skeeter had ran on me the other day when I wasn't looking and I had no idea where he went. I was freaking out! He's my baby and if anything had happened to him, I would have been devastated. So I knew how this man must have felt and I know how much I would have appreciated someone helping me. What I did tonight wasn't spectacular, it was just me thinking of another person and wanting to help. It doesn't have to be huge to make a difference. 

Has anyone....

Has anyone told you lately, how amazing you are?

It's about time you heard it again.
I hear you saying, "Who me?"
I'm saying right back, "Yep, you.

You...
the one doing your thing,
making your difference,
being a glorious mess that God can use.

You... getting back up when you fall down, trying again when it doesn't work out, doing the hard, the different, taking those steps of faith.

You... wonderfully made just like you are, and on your way to becoming all He made you to be. I see you squirming in that chair, squinting a little at that screen and thinking,"That's for others but I'm not so sure about me." Believe it, receive it, it's true. This is for YOU.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Psalm 139:14 NIV

Better to Give

Yesterday I wrote about World Vision and their 2010 Christmas Gift Catalog. I am very pro-giving and believe that is it better to give than to receive. When we take the time to think of others, rather than ourselves, it can transform us and help us be happier and more grateful people. I am inspired to make a difference this Christmas for those less fortunate and I will probably be posting quite a few blogs about it. I hope and pray that those of you reading will also be inspired to help. 


I've included a couple stories from the World Vision website of people who decided to help.

**"When our triplets had their first birthday party and our living room was filled from top to bottom with gifts from their friends, we decided that we needed to do something different.

[Now] every year they select a charity or cause to support.

This year for their 8th birthday party they asked their friends to donate money to purchase gifts from your gift catalog instead of receiving presents from their friends. (They did receive gifts from their family.) At the party, guests were asked to vote for which items they would like to purchase.

In the end they selected a goat, a fish pond, a pig, safe water, educational support for a child, and immunizations. Together the girls raised $593. The girls and all their friends learned a valuable lesson about giving to those less fortunate."

**The students of North Heights Christian Academy in Roseville, MN, brought “change to the world” in more than one sense. By filling a 6-foot plastic tube with change, they raised $3,200 to purchase 15 goats, 30 fruit trees, 10 shares of a well, five shares of a health clinic, and several other Gift Catalog items to change the lives of families in need.

**At the [beginning] of 2007, our family of 8 sat down together to share our New Year's goals, as is our tradition. When it was Brianna's turn [she's 13], she informed us ... she had a new goal to raise $1000 to donate towards Gift Catalog purchases.

She had no idea how God would help her do it ... I must admit, even I doubted she would be able to reach this goal. But I now believe God Himself inspired my Brianna ...

First, Brianna shared her vision with her two best friends ... [then] the girls discussed the idea with Pastor Pat, who encouraged them and supported the idea of a church-sponsored bake sale to begin their fundraising.

The girls made a presentation of their vision to the church one Sunday, and created posters and baked sweets all day the following Saturday. After a long day of cooking brownies, cookies, cupcakes, and cake, we sat down and prayed together and asked for God's favor.

The next afternoon, everyone was amazed at the results. After another brief presentation of World Vision's mission, we encouraged people to be generous and enjoy our baked goods. God moved upon the hearts of the people of our small church. In total we raised $1,238!"

**Eric Drivdahl, an employee of Curtis Gelotte Architects, was flipping through the Gift Catalog at home one evening when the Mongolian ger (a traditional Mongolian dwelling) caught his eye.

Eric thought to himself that providing a ger would be a very appropriate Christmas project for an office of architects whose business was providing people with homes. He wrote a proposal to his employer, who not only felt it was a great idea but pledged to personally match whatever was given by the rest of the staff.

Eric presented the idea to his co-workers and was amazed at the response. With the match, the CGA staff gave a total of $7,486 — enough to provide gers for four families.

"Not only was this a passion project for Eric," stated one of his co-workers, "every staff member was deeply moved and it truly became an office bonding experience."

World Vision

When I was about 24 I decided I wanted to volunteer because I knew how fortunate and blessed I was to have two loving parents, a college education, a job and sooo much more. I wanted to give back what I was blessed with you could say. One of the things I decided to do was sponsor a child through World Vision. For those of you who aren't familiar with them,  World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. World Vision serves close to 100 million people in nearly 100 countries around the world. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.


For me personally, my heart breaks when I hear of the stories of people suffering from lack of clean water and nutritious food, ragged clothes, loss of parents from AIDS, children forced into child labor and sex trafficking, and families without adequate housing. We are so blessed to live in the United States and have so much at our fingertips. 


This blog is meant to bring inspiration and encouragement and right now it may sound a little depressing BUT the thing is, it can be positive. ME-YOU-WE-US, can do something to help and make a difference. One of the first things you can do is sponsor a child. It's only $35/month and it will bring so much hope and happiness to a child and their family (if they have one!). Thirty-five is not much. It's what a dinner out. We can sacrifice a dinner out to help someone who is far less fortunate. If that's not your style though, World Vision has a gifts website where you can go online and purchase a "gift." This gift could be a farm animal, clothing, clean water, care for a orphan, art and music, bibles, soccer balls and so much more. One gift can make such a difference for one person or an entire community. What a fun family activity to do with your children. Go through the catalog and have the children pick something out. 


Christmas is going to be here before we know it and my wish is that anyone reading this will either 1)go online and either sponsor a child or purchase a gift or 2)donate to my fundraising to purchase multiple gifts for many people this Christmas. For anyone interested you can contact me on here or on facebook, email or cell. 


Website is www.worldvision.org and www.worldvisiongifts.org

Bookmark

The other day I heard this excellent idea on the radio. I pray everyday and I pray for many things. I don't always remember what I pray for though. So how do I know God is answering them if I don't remember? The lady on the radio said that she has a bookmark with all her prayers on it and she keeps it in her bible. That way she can always look at it and see how God is answering her prayers. Not a bad idea at all. Through this bookmark you can see how God is moving in your life and helping you. A similar idea is a pray journal. I haven't tried this yet but I hope to soon. 

Beauty

I love this picture! The fall colors and the small town by the water. I like the idea of a small town, where you're out of the rat race and going at a slower pace and everyone knows everyone ( I know that can be good and bad). 


~Taken separately, the experiences of life can work harm and not good. Taken together, they make a pattern of blessing and strength the likes of which the world does not know~ 
V Raymond Edman

Unique

Bless every humble soul who, in these days of stress and strain, preaches sermons w/out words.......Peter Marshall


You have a unique message to deliver, a unique song to sing, a unique act of love to bestow. This message, this song, and this act of love have been entrusted exclusively to the one and only you......John Powell


No one can arrive from being talented alone. God gives talent; work transforms talent into genius......Anna Pavlova


We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.....Marian Wright Edelman

Chilean Miners FREE!

What is so sensational about today? Five Words.....All-33-Chilean-Miners-Rescued! They were half a mile underground for 69 days. No one has ever been trapped for so long and lived. What a miracle. Today is definitely a day to rejoice and celebrate!

Comfort in Prayers

This morning I get a text from my sister's boyfriend, Sian, saying that my nephew is really sick and they're taking him to the doctor. I received this text at 6:44 am so for some reason when Sian said doctor I assumed the E.R. because it was too early to go to a doctor. So right away I start worrying which leads me to prayer. In the middle of me praying multiple times (I'm too worried to just pray once, you know in case God didn't hear me the first time-LoL) I start thinking about what if there wasn't a God to pray to and you were on your own. What would you do? How could you have any hope? I started thinking that I would feel totally helpless. Have you ever thought about this? Think about a difficult time in your life like a sick family member or friend, or being in debt, or needing to find a job asap. Did you pray in those difficult times? Did it comfort you to know that God was there listening and would help you? 


I didn't realize until this morning what a comfort it is to pray to God and how much hope it gave me. I can't imagine not being able to turn to God for help and guidance. Can you imagine a world that is just here for no reason at all. No one cares about it, there's no life after you die. It's such a sad and depressing thought. Luckily though we do have eternal life after we die if we believe in Christ Jesus and we do have a God that cares about this Earth and the people on it. That gives me hope along with prayer. 

Orphans from Liberia

While at the Extraordinary Women’s Conference I went to in Fort Wayne, one of the speakers, Lysa, spoke of her two adopted sons from Liberia.

Her sons were orphans and had to walk miles to get to school and because it was a war-torn nation they would sometimes have to step over dead bodies in the road. At lunch the kids that had families had a packed lunch and sat in the middle of the playground eating but the orphans didn’t have lunch so they sat on the outside of the playground watching the other kids eat their lunch. After school the children would have to walk back to the orphanage, past the dead bodies and then would get their one meal of the day.

The orphans had to go to church services at the orphanage and were obligated to say something they were thankful for. They would be called on and if they couldn’t think of something to be grateful for they would get hit. Then one day Lysa’s son was looking down and praying not to be called on but he was. He stood up and for a minute couldn’t think of anything. But then he started singing Give Thanks to the Lord, for His love endures forever. The next day another boy was called on and he sang the same thing and Lysa’s son joined in. The next day another kid did the same thing and it continued day after day until the whole group was singing. These orphan children became a choir and traveled to the U.S. to sing and don’t you know it, Lysa was going to watch them. While she was there the Lord pressed upon her heart to adopt two of them. All of the choir children were adopted and so far 45 orphans from Liberia have been adopted and given a good home.

Isn’t it amazing, God’s love for His people and how that little boy started something astounding? Singing in the midst of his difficulties, that helped him travel to the U.S. where he would find a loving home plus all the other children in the choir and even more back in the orphanage in Liberia. When we stay faithful and trusting and still praise God in the midst of our adversities, you never know where God will take you.

(I did write this story from memory. There may be minor errors but nothing that changes the miracle of this story)

Merely Living?

I’m going to take a little break for a moment from sin and finding our identities. We got a free book from the conference we went to this weekend in Fort Wayne. It’s called Extraordinary Women: Discovering the Dream God Created for You by Julie Clinton.

Are you going to merely live? Or are you going to live your dreams? It’s easy to fall into the pattern of merely living. Get up, get the kids ready for school, go to work, cook dinner, watch tv, go to bed and repeat the next day. I know I’ve gotten caught in a similar pattern. That’s certainly not my dreams! Is it yours? I really hope not because in my opinion that’s no life.

Merely living includes behaviors like-

-Going through the motions without much thought or concern for the future

-Getting through the day without carefully noticing how you spend your precious time (I’m very guilty of this!)

-Trudging through each week and month without any joy or peace

-Ignoring the areas of your life that cause pain

-Assuming you don’t really have the power to change your life—or your response to it

Living your dream includes much more intentional actions-

-Taking the time to identify what God wants you to do and then making plans to do it

-Allocating your time in a way that helps you meet your needs as well as the needs of those around you

-Embracing the joy and peace that a relationship with Christ offers

-Acknowledging and addressing the issues that cause you pain

-Learning how to let the Holy Spirit work in you and through you so you can live more abundantly

Living your dream isn’t as easy as merely living. It takes a conscience decision and actions. You can’t just sit by and think about it. But it is so worth it. What will you decide?

No One More Important

Yesterday I talked about finding your identity in something else other than God. This identity could be found in your work, your role as a spouse or parent or being an athlete or celebrity. The problem with this is, is that when you’re not up to the standard you want to be at or something goes wrong like you lose your job or your spouse cheats or your child is wayward you lose your identity and then where are you at? How are you feeling then? Maybe like a failure or a fool? Would you get depressed or discouraged?

From The Reason for God; Every person must find some way to “justify their existence,” and to stave off the universal fear that they’re “a bum.” In more traditional cultures, the sense of worth and identity comes from fulfilling duties to family and giving service to society. In our contemporary individualistic culture, we tend to look to our achievements, our social status, our talents, or our love relationships. There are an infinite variety of identity-bases. Some get their sense of “self” from gaining and wielding power, others from human approval, others from self-discipline and control. But everyone is building their identity on something.

I was talking to a woman the other night and she was telling me that her granddaughter was everything to her and if she couldn’t ever see her again she would kill herself. She is having conflict with her daughter and for her to see her granddaughter she has to go through her daughter’s ex-husband. She is putting her granddaughter above anything else and look how it is threatening her life. I don’t have children so obviously I don’t have grandchildren so I don’t totally feel what she is going through. I am sympathetic and feel horrible for her. But God’s first commandment is not to have any other God’s. She is making her granddaughter a God and look at how it is affecting her life. We are to love God above anyone and anything. There is no one more important.

Identity

Yesterday I wrote the definition of Sin from the words of a Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard. If you weren’t quite sure what he was saying, it wasn’t that sin alone is breaking the “divine rules.” It’s not having a close relationship with God and finding an identity apart from him. We all get our identity from something or someone and our identity is our sense of being distinct and valuable. Some of our identities come from our job, being a mom or dad, or being an athlete or a new love relationship. However Kierkegaard asserts that human beings were made not only to believe in God in some general way, but to love him supremely, center their lives on him above anything else, and build their very identities on him. Anything other than this is sin.

The first commandment is to “have no other Gods before me.” According to the bible then, the primary way to define sin is not just the doing of bad things, but the making of good things into ultimate things. It is seeking to establish a sense of self by making something else more central to your significance, purpose, and happiness than your relationship to God.

I’m getting all this from Timothy Keller’s book The Reason for God. The whole chapter is amazing and you see sin in a different light and what it is and why it is bad. There’s a lot of interesting info so I’m just going to write a little at a time. As I’ve said in other posts, I’m a Christian and I believe in God. He is my strength and He helps me get through the days and the trials I face. . So this is encouraging for me. I hope it is for you as well.

Tomorrow I will show an example of what happens when you build your “identity” on anything less than God.

Sin

From the book The Reason For God by Timothy Keller

-Chaper 10 The Problem of Sin-

“The famous Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote a fascinating little book called The Sickness Unto Death in 1849. In it he defined “sin” in a way that is rooted in the Bible but also is accessible to contemporary people. “Sin is: in despair not wanting to be oneself before God….Faith is: that the self in being itself and wanting to be itself is grounded transparently in God.” Sin is the despairing refusal to find your deepest identity in your relationship and service to God. Sin is seeking to become oneself, to get an identity, apart from him.”

Answered Prayers

I am going to Indiana this weekend for a Women's Conference so I'm missing a Friday and Saturday of work. This is a big deal when you work in restaurants. I also only work three days this week. I did put up a note though that said I could pick up some afternoon shifts. I was trying to make up for the money I was losing.

I was very nervous about the money I was losing so I prayed that everything would work out and I could pay my bills. On Monday night I made GREAT tips! I mean like 20% which is rare. I usually make between 12%-18%. The last couple Mondays we were slow and I only left with maybe $30. This past Monday I made over a $100! Then Tuesday night I got a big party (around 16-20 people) and they spent some money. I made over 20% and their bill was over $750. You do the math=) Last Tuesday I made $22!

This is not ordinary for me. This is amazing and this is God answering my prayers. For those of you who don't believe, this is proof that there is a God that listens and answers your prayers. For those who do believe, I hope this ignites your faith and gives you hope. There is more to those two nights but I won't bore you with the details but I promise you, God had His hand in this.

The duck and the devil

There was a little boy visiting his grandparents on their farm .He was given a slingshot to play with out in the woods.
He practiced in the woods; but he could never hit the target. Getting a little discouraged, he headed back for dinner.

As he was walking back he saw Grandma's pet duck.
Just out of impulse, he let the slingshot fly, hit the duck square in the head and killed it. He was shocked and grieved!

In a panic, he hid the dead duck in the wood pile; only to see his Sister watching! Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing.

After lunch the next day Grandma said, 'Sally, let's wash the dishes'
But Sally said, 'Grandma, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen..'
Then she whispered to him, "Remember the duck?'
So Johnny did the dishes.

Later that day, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing and Grandma said, 'I'm sorry but I need Sally to help make supper.'
Sally just smiled and said, 'well that's all right because Johnny told me he wanted to help?
She whispered again, 'Remember the duck?' So Sally went fishing and Johnny stayed to help.

After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally's; he finally couldn't stand it any longer..
He came to Grandma and confessed that he had killed the duck.

Grandma knelt down, gave him a hug and said, 'Sweetheart, I know. You see, I was standing at the window and I saw the whole thing, but because I love you, I forgave you. I was just wondering how long you would let Sally make a slave of you.'

Thought for the day and every day thereafter:

Whatever is in your past, whatever you have done... And the devil keeps throwing it up in your face (lying, cheating, debt, fear, bad habits, hatred, anger, bitterness, etc.)...whatever it is....You need to know that:
God was standing at the window and He saw the whole thing.

He has seen your whole life... He wants you to know that He loves you and that you are forgiven. He's just wondering how long you will let the devil make a slave of you.
The great thing about God is that when you ask for forgiveness; He not only forgives you, but He forgets.

It is by God's grace and mercy that we are saved.
Go ahead and make the difference in someone's life today.
Share this with a friend and always remember:
God is at the window!
When Jesus died on the cross; he was thinking of you