Blessings From Trees

Imagine, if you can, living in a world without trees. How desolate such a place would be. But trees are not just a thing of beauty. They have a very strategic role to play in our world. They convert light into energy and "breathe" the carbon dioxide exhaled by man and animals. They use this gas to help manufacture food and in its place give off oxygen which man again breathes. They help clean the air of dust particles, stop erosion and restore deserts. They provide food, drink, lumber, and innumerable other products. Just how they lift enormous amounts of water to their highest branches and manufacture food is still a mystery.

As the poet so eloquently put it:

    I think that I shall never see
      a poem lovely as a tree.
    A tree whose thirsty mouth is pressed
      against the earth's sweet flowering breast;
    A tree that looks at God all day,
      and lifts her leafy arms to pray;
    A tree that may in summer wear
      a nest of robins in her hair;
    Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
      who intimately lives with rain.
    Poems are made by fools like me,
      but only God can make a tree.
                                       – Joyce Kilmer

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Thank you God

for all the beauty

and functionality

you have created

in nature.

May these

ever remind us

of your majesty,

your awesome power,

and your everlasting love.

 

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz

"Keeper of the Stars"

Many ask the question, does God choose our life partner or is it up to us to make our own choice?

My answer is "yes" and "no" in that God will give us wisdom and guidance if we seek it, but we are responsible for choosing the one we marry.

There are a few country and western songs that I really like, one of which is by Tracy Byrd. It's "The Keeper of the Stars."

In his song Tracy says:

    It was no accident me finding you
    Someone had a hand in it
    Long before we ever knew
    Now I just can't believe you're in my life
    Heaven's smilin' down on me
    As I look at you tonight.

    I tip my hat to the keeper of the stars
    He sure knew what he was doin'
    When he joined these two hearts
    I hold everything
    When I hold you in my arms
    I've got all I'll ever need
    Thanks to the keeper of the stars.

    It was no accident me finding you
    Someone had a hand in it
    Long before we ever knew.2

The someone Tracy is referring to, in his words, is the "Keeper of the stars."

This is how I feel. I also feel like "heaven's smilin' down on me."

Some would argue that finding a wife or husband for them has not been a good experience. In fact, it's been the opposite. What few fail to realize, however, is that no matter what kind of person we married, there were reasons in us why we were attracted to that person in the first place. And if we will take a long hard honest look at what we contributed to the failure of our marriage, God will use this to help us grow and become a much healthier person. And that's a good thing. The fact is that only emotionally healthy happy people find healthy happy partners, and have healthy happy marriages.

Boundaries vs Walls

In relationships we all need healthy boundaries (not barriers, which are the same as walls) to shut the bad out and let the good in. That is, we need boundaries to protect ourselves from hurtful people and to stop people using and taking advantage of us—and to stop our rescuing irresponsible people. We also need boundaries to keep our own bad in—in order to stop us controlling, hurting, and/ or misusing others.

If someone is abusing or hurting me, I need to let him/ her firmly but lovingly know that I will not accept their behavior. And, if they continue acting in a hurtful way, I will need to distance myself from them. However, at any point should they desire to meet in a kind and loving way, my door will always be open to them.

Boundaries are thus to strengthen our "no" muscle. People who can't say "no" to others have either weak or no boundaries. And people who won't take "no" for an answer are boundary busters. These people remind me of a country-western song where the lady being pursued is having a problem with a would-be suitor in whom she has no interest. She asks, "What part of 'no' don't you understand … I'd be glad to explain…."

On the other hand, walls put up insurmountable barriers and shut everybody out. People who build walls around their heart have been hurt in the past and, being afraid of getting hurt again, shut out everybody. You simply can't get close to this type of person. Consequently they have no close relationships and suffer from an inner loneliness and love deprivation. This is a very unhealthy way to live. 

Satan: Alive and Well

"In a National Geographic article about the Portia spider, author Robert Jackson detailed the various ways it deceives its prey. Sitting still, the spider looks like a piece of dried leaf or foliage until a meal walks by. It also will crawl onto another spider's web and tap the threads, mimicking the actions of a trapped insect. When the host spider appears, the Portia devours it. Deception is the Portia's primary tool.

"Satan is like the Portia spider in that deception is his weapon of choice. He does whatever he can to counterfeit the words of God—to make the unwary

"The more you get to know the truth—and the One who is Truth—the easier it will be to spot deception when it appears."

Perspective and Persistence

Speaking to Thomas Edison, before Edison discovered how to make an electric light bulb work, a young journalist asked, "How come you keep trying to make an electric light when you have failed so many times. Don't you know that gas lights are with us to stay?"

"Young man," Edison said, "I have not failed but successfully discovered 6,000 ways that won't work!"

Great perspective. Great persistence. Great attitude. makes all the difference!

You and I have the same Great God and can have the same great attitude in everything that we are doing for God and for his glory.

What's Your Purpose in Life ?

"Josh McDowell tells about an executive 'headhunter' who recruits corporate executives for large firms. This headhunter once told McDowell that when he interviews an executive, he likes to disarm him. 'I offer him a drink,' said the headhunter, 'take off my coat, undo my tie, throw up my feet and talk about baseball, football, family, whatever, until he's all relaxed. Then, when I think I've got him relaxed, I lean over, look him square in the eye and say, "What's your purpose in life?" 

It's amazing how top executives fall apart at that question.'

"Then he told about interviewing one fellow recently. He had him all disarmed, had his feet up on his desk, talking about football. Then the headhunter leaned over and said, 'What's your purpose in life, Bob?' And the executive said, without blinking an eye, 'To go to heaven and take as many people with me as I can.'

"'For the first time in my career,' said the headhunter, 'I was speechless.'"

I've asked this same question to scores of people over the years. Just about everybody believes God has a God-given life purpose for them, but when I ask them what it is, very few have the slightest idea what it might be. They have never carefully thought through it and written it down. 

If we want to die well, we need to live well, and if we are to live well, it is imperative that we know what our God-given life purpose is and with God's help give it our best shot. 

Failure Turned Inside Out

You sit with your head in your hands thinking you're a total failure. "I've blown it again," you mutter to yourself in despair.

Hold it right there!

Did you know that Walt Disney went broke seven times and had a nervous breakdown before he became successful?

And that Enrico Caruso failed so many times with his singing that his teacher advised him to quit. He didn't. His mother saw to that. And he became one of the world's greatest tenors.

And Thomas Edison was called a dunce at school. Later, he failed more than six thousand times before perfecting the first electric light bulb.

God wants to turn your and my life around too when we fail. So, if you feel like giving up, don't. Remember failure is an event, not a person. Now is the time to give God a chance. It starts with being honest with yourself, with a trusted friend, and with God—admitting how and where you've failed and asking God to forgive you and to help you.

Dear God
please be merciful
to me
a sinner
I confess
all my sins
to you
Have mercy
on me
and forgive me

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz

A Few Good Men

Three military recruiters accepted an invitation to address the senior class of a local high school ... Graduation was only a few months away, and the principal wanted his two hundred young men to hear the options available in the military. The assembly was to be forty-five minutes in length. It was agreed that each recruiter would have fifteen minutes to make his pitch and then have another twenty minutes in the cafeteria to meet with interested boys. The Army recruiter went first and got so excited about his speech that he went over twenty minutes. The Navy recruiter, not to be outdone, stood up and also spoke for twenty minutes. 

"The Marine Corps recruiter, realizing that his fifteen-minute speech had been cut to two, walked up to the podium and spent the first sixty seconds in silence. Wordlessly, he gazed over the group of high school seniors. They knew he was sizing them up. After what seemed to be an eternity, the recruiter said, 'I doubt whether there are two or three of you in this room who could cut it as marines. I want to see those three men as soon as this assembly is dismissed.' He was mobbed by a herd of young men when he arrived in the cafeteria."

The military needs and is always looking for good men and women. So is God. And He is calling you and me to play a part in what He is doing in the world today. When we do this, we do make a difference—for both time and eternity.

Living With Purpose

It was Emily Dickinson who spoke so eloquently when she said,

    "If I can stop one heart from breaking,

    I shall not live in vain;

    If I can ease one life from aching,

    Or cool one pain,

    Or help one fainting robin

    Unto his voice again,

    I shall not live in vain."

I have had the privilege of publishing messages/ mails since 1999 … starting in an extremely small way. I never cease to be amazed at what God will do with a life that is committed to serving him. And my prayer today is that God will use me to achieve more in the next moments of my life than I have in the past.