The ABCs of Planning Ahead

Remember back in elementary school when you discovered geography? You probably picked out a favorite place that appealed to you far more than all the other parts of the world, a place of daydreams, one perfect place you dreamed of visiting. As you grew, you read all you could find about it and yearned to someday go there.

And the more you read about it, the stronger your desire grew. Maybe it was the African jungle filled with mighty elephants and dangerous carnivores, or tiny Holland, carved out of land stolen from its surrounding sea and planted with tulips of many colors, riding a camel to see the great pyramids or the Holy Land where Jesus once walked. How thrilling if you should happen to be there to greet Him on the very day of His return?

Once your destination is decided, it will take planning and preparation, of course, to make the most of your travels. Perhaps you already have lists of sites you want to see, marked them on maps, studied tourist brochures and learned it takes lots of dollars to travel! If your trip of a lifetime will someday happen, you must start early and work for years to save funds for the trip.

A summer job  when school is out will cut back on days at the pool with friends. Some weeks  temptation will win and savings will suffer. It is depressing to see savings grow so slowly; it takes determination; to go to work while friends enjoy their holidays.

Diligence pays off! Now reservations are made, ticket purchased, passport in hand you finally set off in your car for the airport. After a couple of wrong turns and a detour or two, you're hopelessly lost. If only you had checked a roadmap--You go home disappointed, rebook your flight, Set your alarm to be sure you have ample time in case you hit a delay; all is well--except the flight is overbooked and someone  isn't flying today! This time you've done everything right, so far as you know,  but will it be enough? Random disasters happen ;;all the time through no one's fault.

Have you noticed your plans being diverted like this in other areas of your life? Reaching your ultimate desired destination demands discipline, careful, constant effort or you may be deceived by the devil who daily builds roadblocks in your path. Developing discipline will direct you to your divine domicile. Consult your Official  Tour Guide--your Bible--regularly to avoid being doomed to a deadly destination.  That would be devastating.  
                                                       And that's no joke!

Don't be a Birdbrain

                                            

A bird awakens one spring morning and is led to collect twigs and leaves and discarded downy bits of feathers and weave them into a nest. Soft, it must be, with high sides to keep her little ones safe. And soon her babes are cuddled together in their little shells, waiting for their time in the warmth of summer sun. Early every morning she flies out to find her breakfast. She will need her strength for her hatchlings, who will soon fill the air with their hungry cries. She knows her days will be spent bringing food to her tiny ones. They will need nourishment to grow strong little wings when their time to fly arrives.

One day she saw a larger bird circling the tree where her little ones slept, waiting for their day to leave their shells. Perhaps she cried out, warning the strange bird to stay away as she left. While she was searching for her breakfast, the strange bird approached the nest and saw it was a fine nest, and decided it would do nicely for her own family.  But her babes would be larger than those who now slept here. There was not enough room for both little families. So one by one, she rolled the tiny eggs to the rim of the nest, up and over the side, to fall to the ground, smashed. Then she deposited her larger eggs in the nest and flew away for her own breakfast, leaving her babes to be cared for by the smaller bird, who perhaps wondered why her hatchlings were larger, hungrier, and more demanding than those she had raised last year.

This may explain the saying, “You can’t stop a bird from flying overhead, but you don’t have to let him nest in your hair.”

Perhaps you were raised in the church but your faith hasn’t developed deeper roots as you grew up, with new, larger problems to solve. Along comes a new idea which seems to have developed into a new, deeper understanding of secret things, exciting things entrusted only to a few very special souls  It seems to add something new and exciting to the Bible, but wait! If the Bible is what it says it is, it contains all we need to know spiritually, so what entity invented these new, thrilling "truths"?

Many years ago I briefly flirted with this mind control experience, which briefly made me feel powerful but which I learned came from my enemy Satan. This new spiritual knowledge is so appealing, it draws you to spend more time and energy learning how to harness your spiritual “powers”, really for your own personal profit. I have seen in others that little by little, it replaced their prayer time.  Anyone deeply  involved may notice they have "matured" beyond the scope of their former church, which they no longer have time for. Their view turns inward, trying to develop control over their consciousness to leave and return to their physical body or commune with spirits of departed souls. But what happened to the bird who left her nest unguarded? The bird who took over in her absence enslaved her to a life of caring for strange babes.

Dear Ones, I pray you awake from your enchantment and instead hunger for the presence of God which may have been “tossed out of your nest” to make room for self centered growth of mental control over your life. Like cotton candy, it looks appealing, tastes sweet momentarily but will leave you starving. This avenue of study doesn’t nourish your spirit. It will push your relationship with your Heavenly Father out of your nest, your heart.

Like the baby birds who were pushed to their death, these false teachings bring death to your spirit. Before you open your heart’s door to a strangely different idea, check its source.

What's His Problem?

Was it something I said--whether carelessly venting because of something someone said to me earlier? Before I growl right back, I’d better hit Rewind to review my last few minutes. Maybe I was a little sharp-tongued after that almost-auto-crash scared me so—and maybe that was partially my fault. I did back out without looking first. But she should have been watching anyway; I was still rattled from that spat when my 8^th grade daughter tried to blame her detention on her boy friend. Who wouldn’t be irritable after the day I’ve had?     Ohhhhhhh! Yeah.

Okay. My bad. I’ll overlook his rude remarks this time. Guess I’m not perfect either.

Really? Do you leave home with your boxing gloves on, ready to fight anyone who rubs you the wrong way? Do you expect others to handle you with kid gloves? For way too long, I expected undeserved animosity everywhere I went. 

Maybe a spiritual chiropractic session can help you. (It sure “straightened me out” ) Or a trip to your inner eye specialist to see yourself and others more clearly. Is there something so special about your life that other people should tread lightly in dealing with you because your problems should be considered more egregious than their own?  Oh, you didn’t realize they had problems requiring their attention?

Remember the old saying that, if given the option of trading your bag of troubles with anyone else, you would very quickly beg to have your own again? Maybe if you had someone to share your problems with, it would be easier to suppress angry words, enabling you to think about others without losing patience with them. And who knows what problems your companion is dealing with?

There’s a new thing to consider and it might shock you: maybe instead of his purposely goaded you into ange, he barely noticed you; maybe you and your misery are far from his mind. Maybe you are so much less important to his day that you are just a blur he passes by. But whether others barely notice you or whatever they think or don’t think about you shouldn’t wound your ego too much. You have a Heavenly Father who always has time to listen and wants you to share your concerns with Him.