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Count down... again

Seems like just yesterday when I was counting down to the beginning of my summer vacation. However, as the old saying goes all good things must come to an end... The lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer for me are just about gone. Just one more week and it will be time to go back to the reality of the classroom,*big sigh*. But until then I plan to enjoy the remainder of my holiday and finish that book I just started "Secrets to powerful Prayer."

Learning to Listen

Too many of us speak twice before we think.
Anonymous



Does this sound like you? Visit me at Laced With Grace tomorrow (Saturday) to read my thoughts.

Terrible , Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Have you ever read the children’s book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible,
No Good, Very Bad Day? It’s about a little boy Alexander who wakes up in the morning with gum in his hair and the day just goes downhill from there. Alexander’s sees the solution to all his problems in moving to Australia and leaving them all behind…

I’ve love the book from the moment I read it and read it to my class every year. Some days it really seem as if it doesn’t pay to get out of bed. On those days I am reminded of Alexander and his terrible, horrible no good, very bad day. Today feels like one of those days.

Whenever I’m having a bad day, like Alexander I always have the perfect solution. “If this would happen everything would be better.” “ If only I could…” “Why can’t…” and so forth. However, like the possibility of Alexander moving to Australia, sometimes my solutions are far fetched. But, I’m learning that even on those really, really, really bad days to find something no matter how small to give God thanks for. After all, he never promised that life would always be perfect but he did promise in Romans 8:28 that

“… all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

So today I thank Him that although life may not be going as I want it to today, He is with me and every situation He’s going to work it out for my good.



The very cute little girl in the photo is my goddaughter LaShaunna :)

Drawing me back to you

So many times I’ve wandered
So many times I’ve strayed
But you kept drawing me back to you
In your subtle loving way

Sometimes I strayed so far
I thought I’d lost my way
But you kept drawing me back to you
You would not let me get away

So lord today I thank you
That you never gave up
But you kept drawing me back to you
As any loving father would

Becoming the you, that you were meant to be

Conclusion

Part one and two

What do you think God sees when he looks at you? Do you think he sees the sulky young person your parents sometimes see or do you think he sees something greater? Do you think you can become what God wants you to be? Get a picture in your mind of how you think God sees you. Think about how much he loves you. Think about how much your parents love you. Don’t you think someone who loves you wants the best for you? Start to see a different you than you are right now. Begin to work on becoming the person God wants you to be. Ask him to help you to see yourself as he sees you.

When God looks at us he’s not seeing us as we are. He is seeing the much more we can become if we stay close to him.

Gideon allowed God’s vision of him to wipe out the vision he had of himself. At the end of the seventh chapter in Judges we no longer see the defeated Gideon we met in chapter six. By the end of chapter seven he was the mighty warrior that God had named him in chapter six. However although God saw Gideon as a mighty warrior Gideon had to step out in faith and began working towards becoming what God had already seen him as. So God spoke it, Gideon believed it and Gideon worked towards it and then he became it.

A note to parents

Parents, before your children can see themselves as God sees them they have to know how you see them. It’s hard for them to imagine this beautiful, positive image the creator has of them if their earthly parents don’t have the same image. Are you saying things to them that will cause them to see themselves in a positive light? When you say hurtful things to them that goes beyond discipline do you ever apologize?

If you want your children to have a relationship with God then they have to have a relationship with you in their home first because they will see God through the same eyes that they see you through so I ask, what image of God do they have?.



Youth's Sunday
May 15, 2005