Oh Heavenly Father, I want to start every day showing my gratitude for Your blessings. I know from Your Word that You love to bless us, and love to hear our thankful prayers. Open the storehouses of heaven for each person seeking You today Father, and give us ever more grateful hearts!
As we open Your Word today, let us be glad at what we find. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Today we will continue filling up our spirits and reducing stress. I love knowing much of what I see as stressful is actually under my own control. If that is the case, and it is, then I can do something about it!
Think about it - if everything is outside of our influence, what helpless, hopeless lives we would lead. And that's just not the case.
If you want to change your perspective on the situation you are in, try thinking about its effect on you - less. Get your mind off yourself for a while. We spend far too much time thinking about me, me, me and not enough about what someone else is going through.
Read Matthew 22:36-40
Love others as yourself. Spend some time giving others what you give yourself - time, energy, thoughts and prayers.
You've heard the saying that there is always someone worse off than you? How about the fact that you feel bad about your own problems until you listen to someone else's? Give it a try. Call two or three people today and ask them how they are doing. Just listen and before long you will discover that everyone is going through something.
Sometimes our problems really are catastrophic, but most of the time there is nothing going on that is going to prevent the sun from coming up tomorrow, if you know what I mean.
I say every day I don't bury a child is a good day, because that's the worst thing I've been through. I could just as easily say every day that we don't lose our house and business due to a major shift in the economy is a good day, too. Guess what, no matter what I've experienced in life, the sun keeps coming up and a new day of possibilities arrives, even when I've felt it a major insult for having done so.
Even during that time of wondering and waiting to see if our child would live or die, I couldn't sit around and weep all day. I didn't want to stay wrapped in that pain and sorrow every moment. I couldn't do anything more than pray, or anything more powerful than pray, so I chose to keep living each day during the uncertainty.
I found focusing on my other children's needs to be a real blessing. I appreciated even more their health and presence because of the loss of their brother. And I realized that as terrible as my situation was, there were mothers out there that lost all of their children at once, in a tragic car accident, in a fire, or in a war.
Read Matthew 20:26-27
In a way, this verse is saying "get over yourself." The best way to be great (and I add to feel great) is to focus off of your own situation for a while and go bless someone else. Especially if you can't do one thing about your situation - then stop thinking about it for a while! Find someone that you can help and you will discover by helping them, you helped yourself.
You know, our lives really do feel less awful when we consider our problems in comparison to those of others. Just turn on the international news sometime and get a real eye-opener to the way much of the world lives. You know what I've found? No matter how bad it is, once I'm past the worst of it, things can only get better from then on.
Look, I'm not suggesting you think less of yourself, just think of yourself - less.
Some of the most sinful and destructive behaviors in our human condition stem from thinking too much about how we are not getting what we want, when we want it. It's a sign of our times: the "Me Generation."
Listen to our music, look at what's celebrated on t.v. The most popular shows are on reality t.v. which often just highlights people being as sinful and attention-seeking as possible, so the rest of us will watch.
Read 2 Timothy 3:1-7
What will people be like in the last days? List all the things we will love instead of God:
____________
____________
____________
Sound like anyone you know? Sound like . . . you?
Lovers of themselves, money and pleasure. Focusing on what we want and how to get it. Having just a form of Godliness, but denying the real power of God in our lives. Always learning and never able to to come to the knowledge of Truth.
The Word tells us to turn away from people like this. Turn away then from ourselves because I don't know anyone, including myself, who doesn't think far too much about themselves, money, and their own pleasure.
Let's pray:
Lord, I am sorry for thinking so much about myself and not enough about the needs of hurting people. I've got pain, and I know you care about what I'm going through. I'm going to start trusting Your good plan for my life and spend more time being a part of Your solution for someone else's problem. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, including getting my mind off of myself. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Love, Karen
Photo by John Keith, courtesy of http://www.photoxpress.com/
Hi Karen,
ReplyDeleteI sort of stumbled onto your blog while looking for bible study ideas for church. Thank you so much for sharing! What you've written is very convicting to me. I thought it'd be a good lesson idea for the teenagers I teach, but it really hit home for me too.
I pray that God blesses you and your family--thank you so much for writing!