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Thankful, Grateful, Blessed (A Timeless Truths blog post)

 

tulips

Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? Perhaps you didn’t want to get up at all … with all the stress going on in your life right now. It may have seemed much more appealing to just bury yourself underneath the covers and hide from the world … forever. Then, whether you liked it or not, your bladder had other plans … and you were forced to face the day … ready or not. Having taken care of business, you start wandering around the house with a million thoughts in your head … all of them vying for attention … all at the same time. Realizing it would be best to at least try to focus on one thing at a time, you remember some flowers you had seen just beginning to come up on the other side of the house … so you go to look to see what progress had been made. It was then that you saw how the buds had developed into beautiful yellow tulips. It was then that your spirits were lifted … and it was then that you realized you had a choice. You could choose to be thankful. You could choose to be grateful … and, in so doing, you could choose to appreciate the fact that you, in reality, really were blessed (and not just by the appearance of flowers). That one, seemingly inconsequential act of choosing to look for the good in the development of flowers became the start – became the inspiration you needed – to choose to look for the good in other areas of your life. Let’s be honest, it doesn’t take much effort to see all the obviously bad things all around us in our lives. To actually see the good takes effort … to see the good takes practice … to see the good takes an intentional choice on our part to actually look for it … to actually search for it … even when it may appear (on the surface) to be nowhere around. Philippians 4:8,9 The Message (MSG) tells us, “Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.” So, the timeless truth for today is to LOOK. Look for the good. Look for the beautiful. Look for every opportunity (even in the small things) to see and comprehend all the ways God shows his love towards you … and that (in and of itself) will yield the positive results of you actually becoming genuinely thankful, grateful, and blessed.

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Distractions (a Timeless Truths blog post)

distractions

Have you ever gone into a room, intending to get something only to forget what you were in there for? Perhaps it had only taken a few seconds, but from the time you had thought of the thing you wanted to get to the time you were in the area to get it, the object seemed to have slipped your mind. What happened? Most likely, you got distracted. On your way – going from here to there – something inadvertently entered your mind that you unknowingly chose to focus on instead, and in the process, you forgot what was originally so important. Frustrated, you probably left the area to go do something else, hoping that whatever it was that had been so important for you to get would come back to your memory so you could remember it because, at the time, you knew it really was something important, something of significance. In our Christian walk, we can get distracted as well. We may be “on our way” to go do something special for the Lord … and, before we know it, that special thing inadvertently slips our mind. We know it was something important, we really do, but for the life of us we can’t remember what it was. Our lives can get so busy … with so many distractions … we oftentimes forget what is really important … what really matters in the long run. The things we see on the surface can distract us to the “unseen” realities of what’s going on behind the scenes in someone’s heart. Only when we make a concentrated effort to be aware and pay attention can we overcome the distractions that would otherwise sideline us from fulfilling our intended purpose. Did you know that distractions are one of Satan’s schemes? He may know that he can’t openly drag you away from whatever it is God has put on your heart to do … that would be too obvious … you would surely notice that and put up a defense. However, if he can distract you … if he can waylay you … if he can get your mind focused on something else … something seemingly more important on the surface … he will surely do whatever he can so that your intended purpose does not get fulfilled. 2 Corinthians 2:11 (NIV) says, “in order that Satan might not outwit us.  For we are not unaware of his schemes.”  So, today, the timeless truth is that we need to be aware … aware of Satan’s schemes … so that we don’t get waylayed by all the seemingly important distractions he throws into our paths.  Only when we are aware and pay attention can we overcome and have the victory in fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives!

 

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