Are we healthy?

Our Riley has been sick for the last three days. I took him to the clinic last evening and he has an ear and a sinus infection. He always gets sick after the first few days of a new school year. His immune system has to get used to the germs of others around him in his classes. Once he does get used to them he usually stays well most of the rest of the school year. Just has to toughen up and get his immunity's strong.

This got me to thinking about a couple of things we as a people need to become stronger against. Things that make us sick and weak in our moral fiber. The list could probably go on forever but here are a few I thought of....

First, I believe, is the lack of preserving our Sabbath. We have so many children's sports teams that require the children to play on Sunday mornings. Also people are just choosing to stay home. Siting that this is the only morning to be together as a family. Sad thing about this choice is, that going to church, as a family, really goes along way at making the family unit stronger than ever. I know that in Mine and Rodney's life there was a time when work in our store took us away from our Sunday worship. We had a restlessness in our beings knowing that this was not putting God first. We had to work this situation out and when we did our relationship with the Heavenly Father came back into line and peace in our family returned...... 



Romans 14:6-9
The Message (MSG)


6-9 What’s important in all this is that if you keep a holy day, keep it for God’s sake; if you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God and thank God for prime rib; if you’re a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli. None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. It’s God we are answerable to—all the way from life to death and everything in between—not each other. That’s why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other.

Another thing I think that keeps us weaker is our lack of respect for human life. Abortion is up and the government and our insurance companies have started picking and choosing who gets treatment when we are ill. Which usually makes it harder for our senior adults and our special needs people to get the services they need. 

Even our children seem to not understand the importance of protecting life. There is a theory that this comes from the violence in their video games and the lack of respect for life in their favorite TV shows. I think the saying "garbage in, garbage out"  is pretty true! The scriptures are quite clear on how we should treat one another.....

Galatians 5:13-14

The Message (MSG)

13-14 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom.

God loves us so much and desires for us to have a healthy life in a world that remembers who our creator is. If we keep our priorities in the order that keeps God first and for most in our lives we will stay strong in our immunity's to the sicknesses of our world. Our morals will show who we truly follow. We will love others around us and feel the importance of life. And a peaceful healthiness that you may never have known before will settle in.   

If we all would remember and follow this scripture our land would be stronger and healthier than ever before.... 

Proverbs 14:34
The Message (MSG)


34 God-devotion makes a country strong;
God-avoidance leaves people weak.

Here's to strong immunity's in each and every one of us!

Blessings!

"I Want It Too"

I am sitting here trying to eat a little breakfast while I am blogging. I should say I am trying to eat breakfast in peace, but that is not happening.  Our two dogs are sitting here staring at me and the puppy is whining as well. It's only a breakfast bar but they think that if I have something that they should be having some of it too. Part of this is my fault because I am sitting in my favorite chair in the living room. We have them trained to be respectful and just lay down while we eat at the dining table but if we eat anywhere else they think that we are fair game.

As parents we have to be careful that we don't instill this kind of behavior in our children. "I want it too.....". We want our kids to feel like they are part of their group. We don't want them to feel different. My husband and I understand this as parents of a special needs child. We work really hard to help him feel as normal as possible. 

In this effort to have them feel normal we parents, want our kids to be involved in what others are involved in, like sports, music, dance, etc.. But we have to be real careful on how we let these things happen. God has given us the privilege to be parents. He has also given us the responsibility to watch out for their souls. To train them to be followers of our God.  When we let the things of this world come before God it sends a message that these things are more important. But what is more important than their eternal lives?

Colossians 3.......

Common English Bible (CEB)

2 Think about the things above and not things on earth.
16 The word of Christ must live in you richly. Teach and warn each other with all wisdom by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
23 Whatever you do, do it from the heart for the Lord and not for people.
24 You know that you will receive an inheritance as a reward. You serve the Lord Christ.

Yes our kids need to be active and healthy. Yes our kids need to feel normal but our kids need Christ more. I heard a preacher say this the other day. "Are you men too chicken to make church a priority in your family's life?" Of course he's a preacher and church is his profession, but he is right. 

Just like my dogs who are trained about the dining room, what if we take a stand on training our kids about putting God first. This starts with teaching them about worship. What if they felt like they wouldn't know how to act if they missed it?

What would happen if all families did this? Might be tough at first but can you think of anything better than worshiping together as a family? Sure would make this world a less stressful place to be in. I bet crime would go way down if the the struggle of wanting to do what everyone else is doing would just go away.

It's an awesome responsibility to be a parent but when God is first, we can do it and do it well!!!

Blessings!!!

So Glad To See You!

Our two dogs, Rossalynn and Breesy had to go to the kennel this last week while we were at the Methodist Annual Conference. We got home on Saturday, but after the kennel had closed and they were not open on Sunday, so I picked them up this morning. Boy were they excited to see me. They whined and cried and kept jumping up on me. Not a huge deal when the poodle puppy was doing that but when our lab decided she needed a hug, too, I was just about knocked over.  

It is wonderful to be loved like that?  Unconditionally and no worries about who sees the affection. We humans forget that sometimes and are more worried about what others think than the person that we love.

Don't you think that we hold back on loving God too?  We should be loving Him as he loves us. But we all worry about is what our families will think, what our friends will think and even what people that we don't even know will think!!

In our minds we wonder, will they be convinced that we are weird or crazy if we pray in public? Or if we set our schedules so that our kids sports and activities do not interfere with our worship time, we will be thought of as fanatical? What will they think if we choose to show affection and respect to our spouses? Will we be thought of as strange because we are ethical in our working practices? Will they think we are off our rockers if we truly treat our neighbors like we should?

 And we are especially shy about speaking of our God!!!! Wow, really "What would people think of us then"???

Mark 12:30

New International Version (NIV)

30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[a]

1 John 4:19

New International Version (NIV)

19 We love because he first loved us.

The scriptures are pretty clear...we are to love. God will not force us to love Him or anyone else, but He sure has given us a great example on how to. From creation to Calvary, He has done nothing but love us, without holding back. Why can't we try to be more like that?

Rossalynn and Breesy have followed His example. Wouldn't this world be a much better place if we all did too?

Blessings!