"Bee" Slow to Anger

The other day, while driving my daughter to school; she began with her questioning. As most 6 year olds her age, she will pick one subject and ask question after question until explanations are beyond my knowledge in which I respond “it is just the way God made it.” (WHAT? He did!)

Today she choose Bees. “Why do they sting, Mommy?” “Where is their stinger?” “What happens after they sting?” She absorbs all my answers within a 7 minute drive.

Then I spend the rest of the day, becoming inspired by the simple questions she ask and how they relate to life. How does one become inspired by Bees? Well, they allow their anger to kill them, literally.

Think about it, God commands us to be “slow to anger”, not because we would automatically have patience, but because we would be likely to do the opposite. And while you may not hit or throw things in frustration – how often do you allow it to ruin your day, as well as the day of others.

So my question to myself and to you is: Are you allowing your anger kill you? Don’t give your life over to anger – save yourself the frustration and give it God. After all “it is just the way He made it!”

"See Reverse for Care"

I was sitting in church one day and the tag on an elderly woman's shawl caught my attention, it said "see reverse for care." A common statement printed on most, if not all garments these days. 

Though many of us disregard the statement and end up with bright pink socks that were once white or a miniature felted sweater that was once comfortably loose. 

The thought came to mind - what if we all had tags like this, what would they say? 

            6-8 hours of solid sleep

            3 healthy meals a day

            Minimum of 4 hugs daily

            and plenty of water. 

Then I wondered what would my 'care label' say? 

What should it say?  

What does God say I need for proper care; to be at my best and to live a long and useful life? 

1.) Prayer. 

2.) Treat others as we want to be treated and put others first. To love, care, respect, forgive, non-judgmental . . . . (a dear friend always would remind me that their is always someone better and worse that you are).

3.) Be humble.

4.) Celebrate and encourage others in the use of their God given gifts. Lifting each other up in prayer.

5.) To be constantly in God's word.  

6.) To look not at this world but to the next for our just reward.  

7.) Love as Jesus loved - looking at the heart.

8.) Use your gifts and blessings for God's plan and purpose. 

The list could go on and on.  . .

I encourage you to take some time today and play a little game of picturing people you know and what their 'care tags' would say - it might give you a fresh perspective of what God really wants and requires of us to truly care for and love each other.

Rainbows and Promises

In the past week I have witnessed more than six rainbows in a variety of places from the Florida Keys to the Mountains of North Carolina. And it got me thinking about God’s promises . . .

What is a promise? My five year old, will make me ‘pinky promise’ and she knows then what I say is true. Wikipedia defines it as “A promise is a commitment by someone to do or not do something.” But as human beings often times our promises are broken, which is somewhat understandable as we do have control over things, such as the weather (and simply cannot count on the weather man being 100% accurate).

But God’s promises cannot and will not be broken because he is God! The everlasting and almighty. He can control even the weather – remember when Jesus calmed the storm by simply saying “be still”?

I did a google search on the promises of God and found a page that listed 10 scriptures about God’s promises. The first verse listed is 2 Peter 1:4. (I prefer the KJV below):

¹Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:

 ²Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

 ³According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

 ⁴Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Notice the words ‘exceeding great’ and ‘precious promises’. And secondly look at what these promises relate to: we get to be “partakers of the divine nature” and have “escaped the corruption this is in the world”.

No, God’s promises are not to be confused with our imperfect and sometimes menial promises of ice cream or a day at the park. God has put great thought into his promises and when he says he will do something consider it DONE.

I have more to ponder on this subject and will add more as we go along, but I want to leave you with this thought: Why do we stress out about the things of this world, when God already has our place ready for us in heaven? He has overcome the world, shouldn’t we strive to do the same and to truly trust Him?  

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  2 Corinthians 5:17

Yesterday, I watched “Tangled”; Disney’s latest version of “Rapunzel”, which by the way was one of my favorite books growing up.  I found myself jealous of the character who was able to express such joy and dance in the streets without fear of what someone might think. It was if she was experiencing life for the first time – wait, she WAS! (Just in case you don’t remember, she was locked up in a tower for most of her childhood life by an evil witch.)

Which lead me to thinking, Christ has given me new life – why is it then that I do not go about dancing and spreading sunshine everywhere? I once was locked in my own tower and He set me free. I danced for a while, but then began to take it for granted, began to take Him for granted. . .

How do I take someone who laid down His life for mine for granted?

How do I not spend every hour of every day consumed with thanksgiving?

Knowing it was He who has set me free.

I am thankful for God’s little reminders. For I need them daily, so that my life can be put into perspective. So that I will not be swayed by the things of this world, but know that God overcomes ALL and He has made me a NEW creature . . . and ALL things are NEW!

My goal is to wake up each day thankful and live like it truly is a blessing – given by Christ. AMEN.