Courage

What is courage? Without looking it up in the dictionary it comes to mind that courage is the ability to press on, fearlessly, in spite of obstacles, and in spite of things that could "dis-courage" a person or try to hold the person back from his/her purpose.

So where shall I find courage? Well, if I am "dis-couraged" because I feel weakened by difficult circumstances, could that mean that I am focusing on my circumstances more than on my God? Could it mean that I am believing either that change is impossible, or that I can't have joy until things change, instead of believing that the God of the impossible can and will either change things, show me how to change things, or be my joy and strength if things don't change?

So if being "dis-couraged" means my focus is faulty, I can find courage by changing my focus and re-directing where I place my trust. To do that is simply a choice - a choice to lift my eyes from the waves to the eyes of the One who called me to step out of the boat and come to Him, walking on the water. Take courage, friends!

c. 2007

Announcing My Niece's Website and Blog

I would like to invite my readers to visit my niece's new website and blog, at http://www.sunflowerschoolhouse.com/, launched yesterday. My niece, Honey, and her husband Jonah, are the parents of five children. Honey is homeschooling them, and, in the process, is developing some great resources for families and homeschoolers. She is having a May Giveaway, offering different downloadable products daily, until May 31st. You may still be able to get the products from yesterday, as they will be available until noon Pacific Time; after that you can get today's product.

While visiting the website, be sure to read Honey's post from yesterday, entitled "Happy Mother's Day", in the "My Blog" section. It is really inspirational and funny as well!

Introducing A New Blog

Hi! I have just started a new blog called "Who Are You In Christ?" Its purpose is to help us as followers of Christ to come into greater understanding and revelation from God, about how He sees us, through meditating on relevant Scriptures, asking God about them, and journaling His responses. I am planning to have enough posts on it to allow us to focus on this daily for the whole year. You can visit it here: http://whoareyouinchrist.blogspot.com/ I hope you enjoy it, and I welcome comments.

Multiplying Your Light

Hello, Readers of My Blog! Happy New Year! I hope you had a blessed Christmas season and are looking forward to what God has prepared for you in 2009. My first blog post this year is something I wrote in July, 2007. I intend to post more often in 2009, so feel free to become a "follower" of this blog if you like.

Tonight I started reading a biography of Thomas A. Edison, famous for inventing the light bulb, and so many other things. It was late in the evening when I started reading, by the light of the lamp at the end of my couch, and it occurred to me that I would not be reading by that light, had the light bulb not been invented.

That got me thinking – we have so many kinds of lights from that one invention – such as chandeliers, lights in our refrigerators and stoves, night-lights, flashlights, Christmas-tree light, lights in every kind of building, lights in mines, lights in airplanes, headlights, traffic lights, street-lights, and neon signs. Look at how much pleasure we have from being able to access light so easily! I'm sure it took a lot of perseverance to invent the light bulb, and then a lot more work to get it to the many forms in which we find it today. We couldn't count how many light bulbs have ever existed, or even exist today! What if Edison (or anyone else who worked on it) had given up? What if he (or anyone else) had said, “It will never work!” or “Aren't candles and kerosene lamps good enough?” Yes, the world would have stayed the same in many ways, but look at how much light has been brought into so many lives by his perseverance, even though Edison would not have realized how many lives would be affected, and in how many ways they would be affected!

Journal Questions to Reflect On --

1. How does my perseverance or lack of it affect others?

2. Whose lives can I brighten today -- with a prayer, with a kind word, with a helping hand, with a smile?

3. Are there goals or tasks or other areas of my life in which I have been tempted lately to give up? If so, which areas?

4. What is hindering me from persevering? Am I willing to deal with these hindrances? What steps can I take to deal with them?

5. Whose lives will be “lit” if I persevere? Will my perseverance possibly affect the lives of people I don't even know? Will I choose to persevere?