Taming The Flaming

The Bible has a lot to say
About my little tongue,
It's a fire that want's it's way
And hurts friends one by one.

Lord help me always remember
You're looking straight at me,

And help me guard my mouth gate
Very thoroughly!

Our Children... Our Siblings... Our Selves

         "Alas, if our children lose the crown of life, it will be but a small consolation that they have won the laurels of literature or art. Many who ought to know better think themselves superlatively blessed in their children if they become rich, if they marry well, if they strike out into profitable enterprises in trade, or if they attain eminence in the profession which they have espoused. Their parents will go to their beds rejoicing, and awake perfectly satisfied, though their boys are hastening down to hell, if they are also making money by the bushel. They have no greater joy than that their children are having their portion in this life, and laying up treasure where rust corrupts it. Though neither their sons nor daughters show my signs of the new birth, give no evidence of being rich towards God, manifest no traces of electing love or redeeming grace, or the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, yet there are parents who are content with their condition." 
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Parent's and Pastor's Joy," delivered December 21, 1873.


            Spurgeon talks about what it is worth from a parents perspective if their children gain all in this world yet forget to prepare for the next. But what of us who are not mothers or fathers? Is there not a lesson in this for us as well?
            I am an older sister 8 times over, and each of my younger brothers ands sisters are such blessings, I love to sit on their beds and read them stories or laugh as they tell me about their wild rabbit hunts. Because we are educated at home I get to help my sisters with their science experiments, and work through multiplication problems with my brothers. Yet when everything is boiled down, how much of what I do is to help them succeed in this world, and how much points them to their Creator? This bring a new question, do those around me see Christ in me? 
Can they tell I am a Christian by the books I read, the movies I watch or the music I listen to?
           To apply this a little further, do the thoughts that I feed my mind through books, movies, music, etc. draw me nearer to my Lord or do they push me backwards? Will they count for eternity or will they burn like dirty rags?

"Alas, if our children lose the crown of life, it will be but a small consolation that they have won the laurels of literature or art."


 "... the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know what makes them stumble...  Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life... Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; Remove your foot from evil. " Proverbs 4: 18-27

TIME

Time
is a choice to be made
Every moment of every day, 

A choice of what to do with it.  

What we do with our time
determines who and what we are.
What we do in our spare moments  

shows what matters most to us.
What are you doing with yours?

"This is the day the Lord hath made, I will rejoice and be glad in it."
Psalm 118:24

"As if you could kill time without injuring eternity."
Henry Daivd Thoreau

The first hour of the morning is the rudder of the day.
Henry Ward Beecher
"Time is free, but priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back."
Harvey MacKay

Take care in your minutes, and the hours will take care of themselves.
Lord Chesterfield

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time, which every day produces, and which most men throw away, but which nevertheless will make at the end of it no small deduction for the life of man.
Charles Caleb Colton

"Time is the scarcest resource of the manager; If it is not managed, nothing else can be managed.One cannot buy, rent or hire more time. The supply of time is totally inelastic. No matter how high the demand, the supply will not go up. There is no price for it. Time is totally perishable and cannot be stored. Yesterday's time is gone forever, and will never come back. Time is always in short supply. There is no substitute for time. Everything requires time. All work takes place in, and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable and necessary resource." Peter F. Druker

 "

"One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day might be his last."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

What do you want to get done? In what order of importance? Over what period of time? What is the time available? What is the best strategy for application of time to projects for the most effective results?
Ted W. Engstrom

If time is precious, no book that will not improve by repeated reading deserves to be read at all.
Thomas Carlyle


 

"The great dividing line between success and failure can be expressed in five words: I DID NOT HAVE TIME."
Franklin Field

Good, Better, Best,  

Never let it rest,
Until your GOOD is BETTER,
And your Better BEST.

I am reviewing and re-(re)writing my priority list today.
Want to join me?

Turn Around

I was wondering what I could post today, since I haven't posted in a good week, and my eye rested on a poem I wrote to myself years ago and taped in the front of my Bible. It has stood like a guard rail to keep me on track when I loose joy and have to choose to keep seeking the Lord.

Watch out, beware! Use caution, have care!
Have you neglected God's word today?
Have you been going your own way?
Have you pleaded for His help today?
Watch out. Beware.

Stop running, quit doing! Halt now, while you can!
Do you think that you can run this race alone?
Without the Word in you Spirit sown?
And daily "what Jesus would do" to you shown?
Halt now while you can.

Run aground, turn around! Be heavenbound!
Fix your eyes on Jesus to finish the race,
Each day read His Word, in prayer seek His face,
Think His thoughts, sing His joy, spread His grace.
Turn around.