"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition , with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Phil.4:4-7 (NIV)
I know this is a familiar bible passage to us and sometimes we over-look things that are familiar or we kind of tune them out because we have heard the passage so often....BUT...sometimes we need to re-visit things.
Just what does it mean to rejoice in the Lord always? As we go about our daily life...getting kids ready for school, grocery shopping, tasks at work, doing the laundry, preparing dinner....just how are we to rejoice in the Lord? Life is so routine at times that we forget to have an attitude of rejoicing. Rejoice: to be glad or take delight. So, as we go about our daily routine it is important to remember that in all things to keep our focus on Jesus and we will be glad.
When we continue to rejoice in all things, we will have a gentleness that will be evident to all. When someone speaks harsh words to us or about someone else, since our mind has already been in a "glad" thought process it will be easier to remember to respond with gentleness. As we deal with husbands, our kids, or co-workers gentleness is an important quality to have. We need to be so in tune with the gentleness of Jesus that it exudes...becomes in a sense our "aura" if I may use that term. People desire to be near a gentle person. A gentle person is also one who is not anxious. Worries and cares of the world and of their present situation just seem not to be a bother. I desire to be like the Proverbs 31 lady. In Proverbs 31 it says she "laughs at the days to come"; which means she does not worry and is not anxious. She has a peace. Being in her presence is peaceful.
This peaceful lady is our example. The way to be gentle and worry-free is to continue to offer our petitions and requests to Jesus in our prayers. As we go about our daily living, simply talking to Jesus almost as in our breathing. We can communicate with Him always by talking with Him quietly in our hearts and minds. He will keep us gentle, at peace, and worry-free because we are allowing Him to guard our hearts by sharing with Him constantly.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
Vision Problems
Night driving had become visually difficult for me as headlights of on-coming traffic would "glare" and I would have to focus on the white line on the side of the road in order to drive safely. This problem didn't happen all at once and it gradually worsened without me really knowing it.
I had to begin taking Jesse 10 miles out of town to his bus stop early on school day mornings so that he would only ride the bus for half an hour as opposed to an hour and a half. At the beginning of the school year, it was fine as the sun was shining. As winter approached, the sun was not up during our early morning trek. Once again, I had to deal with on-coming headlights glaring. I began to wear those yellow shaded glasses that are polarized. That helped. The road trip was a familiar one so I never focused on road signs as I knew where to turn off for our stop.
During a recent eye exam, I was explaining this to the eye doctor. He said, "you need glasses for night driving," and smiled. WHAT? The yellow glasses worked fine...or so I thought. I picked up my new glasses and decided to try them out that night. On-coming headlights no longer bothered my vision. I decided to see if I could read road signs easier. I COULD! Yellow glasses did not help me read the signs but now that my sight was corrected for night vision, I could see. I also noticed that I could see more clearly when I sitting at the computer during the early morning (dark) hours.
Isn't it amazing how much more clearly we can see things with corrected vision? Here I had been driving along and coping with poor vision..adjusting to the "bad" changes (astigmatism) in my eyes. It made me think of the little things that creep into our lives that we just slowly "adjust" to. Things that are not proper for Christian living. I could give numerous examples of slowly adjusting to things that aren't pleasing to God and should not be part of the life of a Christian. Many of us allow ourselves to become "softened" to jokes, shows, gossip, slander, impure thoughts, etc. until they are part of every day life. When confronted with the Word of God and reminded that living according to the teachings of Scripture, suddenly our spiritual vision is clear. Our spiritual "eyes" realize that the correction WAS necessary and that we now can see clearly as Jesus would want us to about certain issues. Changes were made and need to continue as we make sure our spiritual "eyesight" is always checked and "seeing" things as our Savior, Jesus Christ.
I had to begin taking Jesse 10 miles out of town to his bus stop early on school day mornings so that he would only ride the bus for half an hour as opposed to an hour and a half. At the beginning of the school year, it was fine as the sun was shining. As winter approached, the sun was not up during our early morning trek. Once again, I had to deal with on-coming headlights glaring. I began to wear those yellow shaded glasses that are polarized. That helped. The road trip was a familiar one so I never focused on road signs as I knew where to turn off for our stop.
During a recent eye exam, I was explaining this to the eye doctor. He said, "you need glasses for night driving," and smiled. WHAT? The yellow glasses worked fine...or so I thought. I picked up my new glasses and decided to try them out that night. On-coming headlights no longer bothered my vision. I decided to see if I could read road signs easier. I COULD! Yellow glasses did not help me read the signs but now that my sight was corrected for night vision, I could see. I also noticed that I could see more clearly when I sitting at the computer during the early morning (dark) hours.
Isn't it amazing how much more clearly we can see things with corrected vision? Here I had been driving along and coping with poor vision..adjusting to the "bad" changes (astigmatism) in my eyes. It made me think of the little things that creep into our lives that we just slowly "adjust" to. Things that are not proper for Christian living. I could give numerous examples of slowly adjusting to things that aren't pleasing to God and should not be part of the life of a Christian. Many of us allow ourselves to become "softened" to jokes, shows, gossip, slander, impure thoughts, etc. until they are part of every day life. When confronted with the Word of God and reminded that living according to the teachings of Scripture, suddenly our spiritual vision is clear. Our spiritual "eyes" realize that the correction WAS necessary and that we now can see clearly as Jesus would want us to about certain issues. Changes were made and need to continue as we make sure our spiritual "eyesight" is always checked and "seeing" things as our Savior, Jesus Christ.
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