NUDGE

NUDGE: prod (someone) gently, typically with one's elbow, in order to draw their attention to something, a light touch or push. All of us have gotten a nudge at one time in our life. Might have been from a parent who wanted us to stop doing something.....like I got nudges in church from my Mom several times as a kid for not paying attention or acting out. We nudge our kids, our mate.....trying to let them know we need them to focus or look at something we have noticed. Rick will sometimes give me a nudge to see something on TV....and he can rewind it sometimes to show me a play or pass that I missed.

A nudge is just that.....it draws attention to something. Sometimes with God, I've felt a nudge and sometimes a push. Might be in the form of something I see or a saying someone has posted or a song comes on and I catch part of the lyrics. If we actually open our self up and ask God to nudge us....He will. I get tickled at the joke about a guy who wanted to be used by God and he prayed for God to just let him do something special for Him. So the guy goes about his day and he passes on buying a beggar a meal, passes on helping a lady with the door, passes on giving some money to a shelter, passes on seeing someone being bullied....and at the end of the day he gets mad and says...GOD, WHY DIDN'T YOU SHOW ME SOMETHING SPECIAL I COULD DO FOR YOU TODAY? God just slapped his head with His hand!!

Nudges....we all need to be more aware of them around us. I admit, I don't always have my antenna up either. I want to be better at it this new year. I don't want to miss the nudges God has for me. I might miss something really neat or a blessing. We don't always get a rewind button, like on the DVR to be able to not miss it. We have to have our eyes and ears open to hear and see God at work most of the time.

One of my own personal challenges for 2017 is to pay more attention to what God is having me do. Nudges are ok, and I know God will nudge me for sure. I need to aware when I feel them because it beats getting a full on smack on my head, which He's done that a few times to get my real attention.