How long would it take you to make a summary statement of your life? How many words do you think it would take?
Robert Frost said he could sum up everything he had learned about life in three words: “It goes on.” There’s a lot of truth to what Frost said, but it’s also true that what you say can determine how far you go in life and how your life “goes on.”
Mother Teresa was more concerned with the nature of your words than she was with the number of them: “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” David, like Mother Teresa, was well aware of the power of the spoken word, and he prayed: “May my words and my thoughts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my sheltering rock and my redeemer (Psalm 19:14).”
When I think about David’s prayer, I’m left with a couple of questions:
- Are my words and thoughts acceptable to God?
- If not, what can I do to make them more acceptable?
Joshua gave the answer to these questions, when he said: “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success (Joshua 1:8).”
When you think about your words and thoughts, I encourage you to contrast them to the principles of God’s Word in general, and these words of Paul in Particular: “Don’t let even one rotten word seep out of your mouths. Instead, offer only fresh words that build others up when they need it most. That way your good words will communicate grace to those who hear them (Ephesians 4:29 ~The Voice).”
After the death of Moses, Joshua took the leadership reins of the Israelites and guided them along the path to the Promised Land. In one of his first speeches, he admonished them, saying: “Only be strong and very courageous to ensure that you obey all the instructions that my servant Moses gave you—turn neither to the right nor to the left from it—so that you may succeed wherever you go (Joshua 1:7).”
Where are you living? I don’t mean the place where you park your car or the address that your GPS takes you to when you touch the HOME button. Where do you live in your thoughts, fantasies, worries and wants? Is it Never Never Land or the Land of Never?
On a recent trip to the lake, I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’ll give them to you in reverse order: The ugly was the trash that someone had thrown into the lake; the bad was the wasp that kept buzzing my head; and, the good was the honey bee who was pollinating flowers and gathering nectar
You’ve heard it before: “If it sounds too good to be true, then it’s too good to be true.” When you read Zephaniah 3:17, you may think that it sounds too good to be true:
You da’ man! You’ve probably heard this exclamation after someone has done something great or unusual. The only reason I even mention You da man, is to help you with the pronunciation of Eudemonic (yoo-di-mon-ik).
When I was a kid, Mom made birthdays special by allowing her children to pick the menu for supper. A few days in advance, she would ask: “What do you want me to cook for your birthday?”
Thomas à Kempis was a member of a Dutch Augustinian monastery that was associated with a group known as The Brethren of the Common Life. His main task was to focus on the spiritual life of the novices. To accomplish this, he wrote four booklets between the years of 1420 and 1427. Of the four, The Imitation of Christ has been translated into over 50 languages.
This has been a tough week. It hasn’t been so bad for me personally, but life had gotten out of hand for a handful of people. It seemed that their “can do” couldn’t “do,” and their “will to do” simply wasn’t “willing to do.”
insightbyseymour 