REMINDERS

REMINDER: It is to put in mind of something, cause to remember, a written or spoken message that reminds someone to do something. Many of us put notes in our phones, datebooks, calendars, post it notes on the fridge to make us remember at times things we need to do or get done. I’m talking about today the reminder “to make our moments count”. So many of us lead such busy, hectic life that the minutes turn into another day, week and year. Our life has passed us by in a blink.

The moments pass us so fast, as if we are standing on the side of a race track and before we know it, the race is over and we are left scratching our heads and wonder where it all went. Time moves on and people come and go in our lives. We notice more aches and pains and we dread to look in the mirror as we see an older person of the one we used to be. Another reminder as a wake-up call that our time is limited and we need to make moments count.

None of us are perfect, we are all flawed. Things we said we would do or told people we would and we have let it be pushed off until tomorrow and sadly we all know that tomorrow never comes. We tell ourselves we will have time later and again…usually it never happens. Another day comes and passes just like the race we are watching and soon another year is gone of things we intended to take care of.

Our calm can suddenly turn into a tsunami. We feel like a large spatula has come out of the sky and flipped our lives upside down like a fried egg. What used to be the easy and normal has now been torn up and unfamiliar to us. Many of us are having to deal with some heavy situations and issues of health, cancer, death, money, jobs….etc. REMINDERS that nothing is going to stay the same….we need to make our moments count.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I need REMINDERS to appreciate my life…especially my loved ones. I might not a tomorrow and I don’t want to pass on letting them know I love them or how much they mean to me. I don’t want to wait and put off living my life either…I need the REMINDER to live and make my moments count, do all I can to encourage and lift others up when they need it. So, this is a REMINDER for those reading this….today is a good time to start to make your moments count.

“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered...how fleeting my life is.” (Psalm 39:4 NLT)

GILDED SKY

I had a word already to go this morning….but God sometimes steps in and He gave me another word to share today. Looking out my window this morning….and seeing this sunrise...WOW! The vibrant colors of a golden red. I was in awe. No two sunrises or sunsets are the same, each one I gasp in awe of our Creator. So the words of an old, old hymn came to my mind as I was in praise seeing the sunrise.

GILD is my word for today. The song says: “When morning GILDS the sky, my heart awakening cries, may Jesus Christ be praised”! This old hymn is from the mid 1800’s or earlier. It never ceases to come to my mind when I see a beautiful sunrise. Gild means when there is an added thin layer of gold to cover something. Sometimes it can mean giving off an attractive but deceptive appearance. In some dictionaries it says: to try to improve what is already beautiful or excellent.

I look at it like this….there are many out there who want to try and be gilded. They put on a thin gold layer to try to shine better than they are. They don’t understand that it’s not needed. God made each of us special in our own ways. No need to try to be deceptive when we are already beautiful the way God made us. I like honest people….those who are who they are without being afraid of having to change their personality to whomever they are hanging with. It’s sad and they live their life worried if they will be liked or accepted…so they pour even more fake gold to their lives to live in a world that doesn’t even care that much about them.

No need for us to try to live gilded. God loves each one of us as a most precious piece of real gold. He sends us a sunrise each morning, He speaks to us through the day….He bless us with so many blessing that we don’t need to add gilded colors to our lives. Each day He reminds us of how precious we are to Him and when I see a morning sky like this morning….I can’t help but praise Him. That thin layer of gold and red colors….was all I needed to start my day in knowing God is there and He loves me just the way I am.

GRAY

GRAY: My word today. Woke up as some of you did to a very gray overcast snowy morning. We’re in the between seasons of winter and spring. A shade of gray, but we know soon that spring is coming and all the colors will be bursting forth. Gray is a popular shade to mix and match with other colors for weddings, so it's a trend or an "it" color right now.

Gray is a color pigment between black and white, slate, smoky, dull….colorless. Other words to describe gray include: gloomy, dreary, and monotonous. Gray is desperate for light and color. It’s kind of like that when we say we are in a “gray mood”. We’re low, we’re down and when we are in a gray mood…we sure don’t feel like we are popular. When we’re gray we feel desperate at times for some color in our life.

There comes times in our lives when our following God turns gray. We get so used to not including Him in our lives, we tend to get dull, lose meaning and our purpose. We become monotonous in our day to day living. We see failure and feel hopeless….but God sees you beyond the gray. He sees the real color in your life. 

Just like a box of colored pencils, most of us don’t reach in and go for the gray pencil. We want the bright and vibrant colors to make our picture look like something beautiful that will catch your eye. That is what God chooses for our lives. The closer you get to Him, He will bring the color back to your life from the drab gray into something beautiful. He sees us through the rose colored glass. Let Him bring a new color back in to your life.

“You have looked deep into my heart, Lord, and you know all about me.” (Psalm 139:1 CEV)

CREATURE OF HABIT

Creatures of habit…..man is that the truth.  Many of us think we are not….but I got a big dose of habit thrown at me last night.  Rick had to install a new hard drive for our computer.  The old one was about to die on us.  So you know how it goes….get your files saved and then get a new one installed.

Now I am not computer or tech savvy….I mean at all!  This is a foreign land, language and again….I will admit, a creature of habit when it comes to the computer.  I like the familiar, I like knowing I can sit right now and send an email or get to where I want or find a file.  I can’t do that right now.  I’m and old dog having to learn a new trick and as much as I hate it….I know it will be good for me in the long run.

I’ll have to get out of my routine, my rut and learn something new and different.  I might fight it some but it’s one of those “just have to pull up the pants” and learn it all over again.  As a matter of fact, I had to search and find the program I could even write my thoughts out.  It’s even different, but I found it and for this old gal…that’s something.

As much as I hate to admit that I am a creature of habit, it’s the truth and no getting around it folks.  We all are.  Stop and think about your routine, the TV shows we watch, the meals we eat, which way we drive to work and back, how we do laundry, the list goes on and on.  We all in this life are creatures of liking the familiar, the road we know is smooth and less bumpy.

Change….it comes, even if we don’t want it to.  Nothing stays the same.  We either go with the flow or we drown at times.  I started to get upset a bit when Rick couldn’t get the addresses back into our address file….they are saved but hard to get to right now.  He will get it corrected….I have faith in him as he loves this computer stuff.  I know I will get the hang of it.  I’ll learn more and more as the days go….and I will soon be able to see that I once again am a comfortable “creature of habit” with the new computer.

PUZZLE PIECES

My little Grand-daughter is in to puzzles. Not just the little easy wooden ones....she's starting to like a bit more challenge. She's at the age she sees the shapes, colors and edges and begins to fit the pieces together. When she does, we will clap, say "good job" and you can see her smile and her little spirit gets like....I DID IT!

Often times we wish we could step back at this puzzle called life. Our lives seem like we will never get the pieces to fit and just about the time we think it does....we're missing a piece or someone comes along and messes up the pieces or they just don't fit right. We try and try....needing some help because it isn't coming together.

Life's puzzle doesn't always fit how we think it should. Stuff is going to happen. We get frustrated, we can't make it work at times. Just like a child, we have to ask for help. When I have those days....I ask God. He will show me how to make the pieces fit in my life. Just like my Grand-daughter....when I do ask God for help, I can see how it's working out and where this and that fits better in this puzzle called life. I too then can sigh and hear God say...."GOOD JOB, you're getting it."


"I asked the Lord for help, and he answered me. He saved me from all that I feared." (Psalm 34:4 NCV)

THE KEY

For many of us....we live day in and day out. A sub-standard life....we go with the flow, we stay in line, we just make ends meet, we don't veer off to the left or right very often....we just go on in the mundane way we always have for years. Call it a rut, call it being comfortable with less change....call it what you want....but I want more in my life. I want to live!!!

Now I'm not a crazy person by many standards (OK, some will beg to differ)....but I have been known to be a bit daring or crazy at times in my life and try something new or hang over the top of a tall cliff....just to see the view. I'm a big nature freak, as we used to call it back in the day. I love life.
"So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains And we never even know we have the key." These are some of the lyrics from the Eagles song....Already Gone. I like this part of that song....as it reminds me that so many are loosing out on being chained....could be your past, could be many things that seem to keep us locked up and heavy with living.

I know the key to happiness. I know the key to living well. I know the key to finding the path I need to be on. I know the key to encouraging others. I know the key to being who I am and why I am here. I know the key to being just me and liking who I am. I have the key. I am lucky, or rather blessed to have understanding that I have that key that unlocks the chains we can so easily put ourselves in. I learned it a long time ago and have used that key to the fullest. God is my KEY. He has unlocked so many things in my chained up life in the past. Will I still get locked up in the future?? I don't know....but this I do know. It doesn't matter when the chains of life try to wrap around me or hook me to the wall.....God is my KEY....and I have no fears of being chained and my peace is all I need. I have the key!

Comfort Food

Comfort food. We all know what that means and to each one of us it holds a special memory, thought, taste. No matter what your favorite comfort food might be.....it's special to each of us in only the way it can be. Similar to a certain song that comes on the radio and when we hear it, we are transported back to a certain time and we can relive it for a few minutes. Same with comfort food. Some of us have several tasty food items we could share but it might not have the same taste to someone else as it does to you....that's what makes it so neat, unique and special to you.

One of mine is just a plain old can biscuit with butter on it....hot of course. It takes me right into my Mom's kitchen and I can see her there....and I'm taking another biscuit and getting under the kitchen table to just have a special place of my own....and enjoy the dripping of the butter. That is a taste I can have anytime I make some canned biscuits and I close my eyes and there is my Mom. There are a few others too, but that one really sends the nostalgic wave over me.

For many of us though.....there are some comfort foods we will no longer have in our lives. I miss my Mom's meatloaf, her chicken and dumplings, her fried chicken. Try as I might....it just doesn't have the same taste as the way my Mom made it. My Dad's kettle beef is another one I miss....now I can go down to Ste. Gen at the Old Brick on Sundays....and it's pretty spot on for the taste. Those old French/German cooks down in the area, still fix it the same as when the settlers settled in that part of Missouri. I'll pass on the liver dumplings though!

Sometimes we can have a handed down recipe and it still doesn't quite have that taste as Mom, Grandma, Dad or someone made. We know we can't taste it the same again. I know one day or hope one day that my kids will miss something I always cooked that they liked. When they come home I try to fix foods that I know they had growing up and will enjoy.....because I know how important it is to have those memories of food you loved....and one day we no longer get to have it anymore and the taste will never be there again.

Comfort....that word that brings peace to our hearts....joy and fond memories and makes us feel good. I get that too when I read certain Bible verses. After all....God's Word is the Bread of Life. Each time I read a verse, it brings me the memories and thoughts of knowing I have a loving God who cares about me and makes sure His word lifts me up and corrects me when needed. I know one thing....comfort food may leave us but God's comfort never will and that is a real COMFORT to me. Here's a good morsel to start with:

" Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand." Isaiah 41:10 (NLT)