Monday, January 30, 2012

Count Your Blessings

Very few people have everything they want in life and in most cases they never will.  But what most people never do is take the time to identify the many blessings they do have!  Oh...we all have many things in our lives we can be thankful for!  The problem is they become so familiar that we stop looking at them as blessings...until we lose them!

No one is exempt from this blindspot in their lives.  Because of a recent disability, I've been forced to use some devises to help me walk better.  I may be a preacher but I'm human!  You can get tired of this,  but God has his ways of shocking you back to reality to see that even this can be a blessing!

One of my goals in life is to encourage people who are in difficult situations.  If you can put a smile on someone's face, you can turn a difficult situation into a light moment in a dark day.  While using my walker in downtown Cleveland, I was confronted with a young man who was using a beautiful motorized scooter to get around!  I wanted to put a smile on his face by making a little light comment.  So when I approached him, I said to him " It's not fair, that you get to use that Cadillac, while I have this little VW"!  The young man looked at me, smiled, and said "Sir, I wish I could still use that VW"!  I smiled back at him and said, "Young man you're doing great!  Just keep riding on"!   He smiled again at me and said "Have a great day sir."  So I continued to walk on my way!

But as I walked further away, God made me stop and take a look at what I was really saying!   Deep down, without me really realizing it, what I was really saying was, "I don't like having to use this little walker!  I wish I had that nice scooter to roll wherever I wanted to roll"!  What that young man reminded me was that instead of dreaming of something better or a return to my old way of life, I should just thank God that I could still walk, even using a walker, because there are young people who wish they still had the ability to walk as well as I could!  That walker was not a curse...it was a blessing from God that I took for granted!

Do you have any blessings in your life, physical, material, financial, relational that you are taking for granted, not realizing that they are all blessings to you from a loving God?  How about your wife?  Kids?  That job?  The ten dollars in your pocket that bought you a nice lunch today?

The best way you can thank God is by counting your blessings, and thanking Him for those small things that make your life worth living!  The old song says "Count your blessings...name them one by one"!  Why don't you do that today!  Why don't you end your day with a smile, and put a smile on the face of your Father in heaven as well by thanking Him for every small blessing in your life! You'll feel so much better!


Thank you Lord for my kids!  Thank you Lord for my family... including wife, mother, brother, sis, cousins, aunts, uncles, in-laws & church family!


AND THANK YOU LORD... FOR MY NEW LEGS 
SO I CAN ENJOY LIFE TOGETHER WITH THEM ALL!

God Made Me by Mississippi Mass Choir

Friday, January 20, 2012

3 Commitments for a Happy New Year



The new year is only a few weeks old, but I think it's time to take a look at the start you are off too before the year slips out of control.  Too me resolutions, without commitments are simply a recipe for failure!  Resolutions with comment can be powerful tools. 

Without the commitment to resolve, when the excitement subsides, you're back to the same old habits.  What we need are life changing commitments!  These take time and effort, but are worth it if they result in your resolution to make positive lifestyle changes!  

3 Commitments are a must:
  1. Leave behind the bad ATTITUDES!  Those negative attitudes have to go!  Commit to give the Holy Spirit control of your thought life! 
  2. Let go of the bad ASSOCIATIONS!  Some people are in your life for a reason, and some only for a season!  Commit to being the best friend you can, but don't commit to having the most friends you can!
  3. Loosen the grip of bad ACTIONS!  Don't let last year's bad actions dictate your actions for the new year!  Quit holding on to the things that have potential to destroy your relationships with family, friends, associates and primarily the Lord!  The gain is never worth the pain!
This is where it all starts, but it must start somewhere!  These commitments are more important than loosing weight and making money!  They will help you build a healthy foundation for a new life filled with good attitudes, good associations, and good actions!  It's not too late to make this year a happy new year if you make these commitments...NOW!!




Please commit to see the movie "Courageous"!