Whatever is Pure - October 2011
You Can Chose to be Empty or Full
The old additive of, “Do we see the cup half full or half empty?” is hugely powerful when we learn to take the trash in our minds out and replace it with the blessings. We have been taught by society that beauty is on the outside no matter how many times we have ‘heard’ that it is on the inside. We are told from childhood that we are what we make of life but at the same time the world and unhappy people around us tell us that we will never amount to anything in the way that they sneer and look judgingly toward us.
There are so many mixed signals that we feel like we can’t even understand why we do the things we do and why we feel the things we feel. As children, we become what we are told we are, but when you become a youth and young adult, you have the choice. You can choose to make things harder by focusing on the negative or you can choose to make things brighter by focusing on the good in life.
We get way too caught up in material things and trying to get others to approve, that along the way we lose sight of the important things. Sometimes we even lose sight and recognition of the person looking back in the mirror at us. We may put ourselves in a bad situation or be hurt by someone in our past that causes us to make decisions that have lasting effects in our lives and every time we look in the mirror we regret it.
But today I want to encourage you that there is another way to look at things so that life’s choices and circumstances don’t burden you down. It takes work and it takes discipline in your mind. You have to choose to realize the good in your life. You were meant for a purpose, and that purpose is not to be defeated in all you do but to live with a joy and a passion that spills over onto those around you. What do you have in life that is good? Even if all you can think of is one thing, find that one thing. Change your focus from all that hasn’t worked for you and hasn’t made you feel loved and special and realize that the more you focus on the blessings that God has given you, then the good will be amplified and the bad will diminish.
Believe me it works. I came from abuse, self-mutilation, depression, etc. until it costs me custody of my oldest son. I cried for years and allowed all the bad thoughts of how I couldn’t do anything right and how I let everyone I was around down that I just didn’t even want to live anymore. What did I have left? I was homeless at one point, hungry every day, no one who really loved me to keep me warm at night and encourage me that I did matter and that I was special. I was mistreated in my divorced and falsely accused of child abused because even the courts didn’t understand my life.
It wasn’t until I learned to quit playing that poor-pitiful-me movie in my head and quit focusing on all the negatives in order to realize that I was special and I did matter. My mind had just warped my thinking and I became determined to gain my life and sanity back from the darkness it had been in.
Since my focus has changed things has came full circle. I’m remarried to a wonderful man. We have six really wonderful kids between us. My oldest son moved in with me full time fifteen years after my separation from my ex. Eighteen years later my ex called me and apologized for mistreating me and admitted that he knew I had never abused our son. I’m in ministry helping others to see the good in their life. So when scripture says in Luke 21-28 ESV, “Now when these things take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” I claim that in this situation, because now my heads clearer, my focus is straighter, and my purpose is definite.
So I encourage you to set your sights on the things that bring you joy. Replace those bad thoughts and know that you are special and made for a unique purpose. God in all His divine power made you to love and be joyful. Don’t let the world tell you any different. Straighten up and hold your precious head high for you are worth every bit of it.
© 2011 Tracy Lewis
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Autumn's Gold
Autumn’s gold’s no passing glory,
But is, instead a promise of God,
That where we walk beneath winter’s coming crown,
There is always over us a promise of hope,
That even on the darkest days,
New Life cannot slip away from us,
But only ever lie dormant awhile,
And lay up the stores of grace,
Awaiting simply His command,
To warm us with His light,
And burst our lives with verdant spring.
© 2011 Tim Ross
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Fall Cleaning
As I sat down to write this devotional, I had an idea in mind but I was fretting and fussing as how I was to exactly put my idea into words. Turning to the internet for inspiration, I typed in a few keywords of what I wanted to express and lo and behold, a perfect quote appeared that fit my thoughts exactly. Only one problem, it was a quip I had written in February 2007! Perhaps, you will forgive me for laughing hysterically at my discovery once you read on.
Over the past summer, I have become increasingly disturbed by the rash of reality television programs centering on the world of storage locker auctions and pickers who make their living by rummaging through people’s junk that has been stored away for decades in outbuildings, basements and attics.
I would never begrudge a person for using a storage locker for a legitimate reason such as temporary homelessness, floods or leaving the country for a period of time. However, many of the lockers up for auction are filled with collectables that have either been forgotten by their owners or are no longer of any use to their owner. When the owner defaults on their locker rent, the contents of these lockers are put up for auction, usually bringing in a fraction of the contents actual worth. Many of the units contain collectables and items held dear by seniors and put into storage when the senior moved to smaller quarters. Upon their death, their children simply don’t want to deal with the clutter and allowed the rent on the unit to go unpaid so the problem could be dealt by someone else.
I felt God saying, “So many of my people have received an abundance of blessings from me. I have poured gifts in them, I have blessed them with sound teaching and have equipped them with my weapons of warfare, yet these gifts lay dormant, my teachings are not put into practice and the weapons I gave them grow rusty from disuse.”
And so, I found myself looking for inspiration and came upon this quip I wrote four and a half years ago. I cleaned it up, dusted it off, gave it a bit of a ‘paint job’ grammatically speaking and here it is.
From the DCQ February 26, 2007
If you are feeling cluttered in your life, ask yourself, “Is there clutter in my life? Do I have a closet full of closed and sealed boxes that have been untouched in years without being used?” So it can be in our spiritual life. Do you have spiritual gifts, treasures, insights and lessons learned that you have put away into storage and are not using? Give them away! Utilize them in your life today! Clear the closet!
© 2011 Katherine Walden
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God's Paintbrush
Oh Lord you paint the sky,
Colors so beautiful to the naked eye.
You paint the colors of the trees,
Blowing ever so gently in the breeze.
You paint the smile on a child's face,
Nothing on earth could such replace.
You paint the Dawn at break of day,
Oh the majestic colors on display!
You paint a Rose on thorny stem,
The fragrance alone brings a hallowed Amen!
You paint the fields with wild flowers,
That sparkle so bright after evening showers.
You paint a Rainbow in pastel shades,
Pathways along the Everglades,
Waterfalls full of mist and steam,
As Fields of flowers in sunshine beam.
You paint the sky on a stary night,
To my wondrous eyes is pure delight!
You paint a Sunset in every shade,
Your Glory on earth again displayed!
Your paintbrush, Oh God captures every eye,
The Beauty of Earth, land, sea and sky!
There is nothing, Oh Lord you would not do,
For your Creatures on earth who Worship You!
But to see Your Face and behold Your Glory,
No artist on earth could paint such a story!
The Beauty of Christ I long to see,
Nothing on earth compares to Thee!
© 2011 Mary Ann Trott
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