Monthly Archives: July 2018

Morning Musings

The Friendship Book.

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  Some people are great fun to be with. They can be the life and soul of the party, and always seem to be on top of things. When we first meet them, they are so outgoing that we feel as though we’ve always known them. But on the other hand, these same people can suffer great lows.

King David in the Bible seemed to be this sort of person. He had moments of great joy and times when he could praise the Lord with great enthusiasm… Shout out praises to the LORD, all the earth!  he wrote, Worship the LORD with joy! Enter his presence with joyful singing! Acknowledge that the LORD is God! He made us and we belong to him; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give him thanks! Praise his name! For the LORD is good. His loyal love endures, and he is faithful through all generations.

Then on the other hand, he got very depressed when things went wrong, and wrote this….. In my distress I cried out to the LORD and he answered me. I said, “O LORD, rescue me from those who lie with their lips and those who deceive with their tongue. How will he severely punish you, you deceptive talker? How miserable I am!

Other people we meet may be much more reserved and harder to get to know. But persevere with your efforts to be friendly….these ones make good friends in the end. Remember that those who want friends, must show themselves to be friendly!

Friendship is like a BOOK: it takes years to write, but a careless word or action can burn it in a flash. So take care how you treat your friendships, and never take them for granted.

Random Devotional Thoughts

A Bend in the Road.

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     “All things in life are temporary. If going well, enjoy it, they will not last forever. If going wrong, don’t worry, they can’t last long either. Often when we lose hope and think this is the end, GOD smiles from above and says, “Relax My friend, it’s just a bend…. not the end!” 
I came across the above saying the other day, and thought how true it all is. We aren’t thankful enough when things are going smoothly for us, in fact we take it as our right! I thought of our family babies when they were all born, and thankfully they were all born perfect as far as their limbs and minds are concerned.
Then I thought of one acquaintance who has a son in his thirties who is definitely not quite right. What a burden for that mother who has to keep an eye on him constantly! She can never leave him without wondering what he is getting up to while she is away. She must have wondered “Why me?” many times, and yet she still carries on cheerfully.
Another family member has two in his family with the dread disease of cancer. Both of them seem to have passed the point of no return, although we can never discount the possibility of a miracle. Again, what a burden to carry! But they both have the hope ahead of being with the Lord….it is just the thought of leaving loved ones behind to cope on their own.
For all of us, it is a bend in the road of life, a road where there is no turning around. We cannot go back, we have to go ahead. When we have our hope and trust in the Lord, we know that He is with us regardless. We are not to pray for deliverance, but for strength to carry on, and He will give it.
So for whatever you may be going through at this moment, just remember we can call upon God, not necessarily for deliverance, but for the strength to bear what lies ahead, until we come out the other side.
A couple of years ago, I wrote about a young girl of twenty-two who lost her husband to a brain tumor. As you can imagine, she was devastated, but she pushed on with the plans she and her husband had shared when everything seemed to be going on smoothly. Then he was taken and all their plans came crashing down around her.
Now she is studying at a Bible College and has met another young man who shares her plans and thoughts. At last, there is coming light at the end of the tunnel for her. There is life still ahead. Just where and what will eventuate, is still in the future.
But what a fulfilment of the saying at the beginning of this post!
Let us each one take heart and go forward around the bend in the road that is facing us

Morning Musings

Ants!

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As I was sweeping out the front porch this morning, I noticed a long narrow line of ants scuttling back and forth. Even though I don’t like ants around the house, I couldn’t help but marvel at how these little creatures kept even rank, each one seeming to know exactly where it was going and what it was about. They are such an amazing little creature, that they are held up as an example to lazy human beings in the Bible……”Go to the ant you sluggard! Learn her ways and be wise!” we are told in Proverbs 6:6-9. These verses tell us to be like the ant and not to be lazy but to get up and get going off to our own work.
Whenever there is a bit of food on the ground, those ants seem to find it! They all hurry to the spot, and do their best to get as much of it as they can. I wonder if we are like this with God’s Word? We are told that it is more necessary than our daily food, and yet how many of us bother to even look into its pages! How much time do we take to read it during the week? Or do we just open it on Sundays while waiting for people to arrive at church?
Let’s take these things to heart and to make time for the things that matter most!

Random Devotional Thoughts

Foggy Morning.

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When I went for my morning walk this morning, as I turned the corner the road ahead was swathed in fog and nothing was clear. I couldn’t help remembering times in the past when we had been boating and were caught in the fog. Nothing could be seen, and we had to edge very carefully along to make sure we were away from the shoreline. More than once, we found that we had been going in a huge circle and were back at where we had started from!
We are often like this in life and when things are dim and unclear, we find ourselves groping around and very often end up where we started from. We’ve made no progress at all!
But all is not lost! There is no need for us to grope around at these times, if we wait patiently, the fog will lift eventually and we will see our way clearly once more.
Another thing about the fog, is that as it begins to lift, it swathes itself around the highest points leaving the lower areas still in its mantle. This often makes for very interesting photos. So it is in life. As we come out of these foggy experiences, the things we have learned are to our benefit, and we can see what God was trying to teach us as we groped our way through these tough times. Let’s make sure that we don’t stay in the fog, but keep looking up until it lifts and we are once more in the clear sunlight of seeing all God’s blessings that He has given us!