Positive

Last week as I was walking into Walmart, I stuck my keys into my purse and found my purse was full of a slimy substance. I quickly discovered that a new bottle of hand sanitizer I had bought had opened into my purse and spilled half of its contents. It was on everything! So gross! I grabbed the couple of things that I needed and headed back to school. I very disgustedly told my friend what had happened. She just laughed, shrugged and said, "It could have been worse. Look at it this way, it smells good, and your purse is very clean now."

Looking to the positive. I have to say that this is definitely an area I can work on. I have a former colleague and close friend who we always called "Polly" (Are you reading, Polly?) No matter what was thrown our way at school she seemed to take it in stride, and look on the bright side of things.

Since God has blessed me with a job that I can have a do-over every 9 months, I have tried my best to start out this year being positive. Ok, I have failed miserably a couple of days already, but I am aware and trying to correct myself. What if I griped about my job all the time, and God said, "Ok, you are not enjoying the job I blessed you with so let's just take that burden away from you." Wow...

I love the verse in Philippians 4:8
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable. Think about these things that are excellent and worthy of praise."

I like to say not only to "think on these things" but speak of these things as well. I love the part that uses the word "admirable". How many times have you heard someone say, "Man, I really admire them. They are always so negative." Hmmmm...

God in your strength help me to see the bright side. Help me to use positive words throughout my day so I may thank you and praise you for what you have given to me. Amen.

Fire

I heard a sermon a while back that talked about going through trials in your life. The preacher said that you are either, coming out of a fire, in one, or going into one. That is pretty scary when you think about it. This made me think of firefighters. Right before we moved to NWA, Adam was a volunteer firefighter for about a year. He had to go through many weekends of training before, during, and after. He did not have his initial training and then just call it good. He continued to train even though he was not invovled in many fires. There were the occcasional trash fires that got a little out of control, or small grass fire, but he never had to "fight a big one". It wasn't until July 4 he was able to put all of his training to work. We were happily watching the fireworks of the fourth from a grocery store parking lot. They were going pretty well, but suddenly something went wrong and the entire hill which we were gazing upon was quickly becoming engulfed in flames. Adam quickly drove us home out of danger, put on his gear, and headed back to fight this quickly spreading fire. He was gone for several hours, but they finally managed with the help of several near by fire departments to contain the threat. All of Adam's training prepared him for this night.

Even when we are not in a fire we need to train for the day. Read the Bible to know what it says to do during a fire. Pray and ask God to strengthen us for the day of trials. Speak to others about how God has protected you through so many previous fires.

Acts 14:22
"Strenthening the disciples by encouraging them to continue in the faith and by telling them, "It is necessary to pass through many troubles on our way into the kingdom of God."


One more thing I have heard said before about going through fires that has really stuck with me throughout the years. In the book of Daniel the Bible talks about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego coming out of the fire and not even smelling like smoke. How many times does God bring us through a trial, but we still smell of smoke? We do not praise him, but we talk about how bad our fire was. Do not get me wrong, I do think we should share with people the fires of life we go through. In fact, I believe we go through things to be able to help others that are hurting. I am talking about when after a fire we still focus on the fire and not our God. I love it when I tell my first marriage story to someone and they say, "I had no idea! You seem so strong and together now." This gives me the perfect opportunity to share the love of God.

Matthew 5:16
"In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven."