Month: June 2019

BAD BREATH

I work as a receptionist at an animal hospital. One of my jobs there is to answer the phone. The only way of interaction with the person on the phone is by hearing what and how I talk to them. Even when I don’t feel good. Even when I am grumpy. Even when I would rather be doing anything else other than answering the phone, I still have to be careful what and how I talk to a potential or current customer. This is the first impression that a prospective client will get about our hospital. If I do not talk to them cheerfully and respectively, I could turn someone away from making an appointment. I called another hospital to get some information on a new client that was coming to us. The lady on the phone was rude. After I got off the phone with her, I turned to the other receptionist and told her that I knew how it felt to talk to someone who did not care how she sounded to others. I told her I was going to try to be better about my attitude while talking to someone on the phone, even though they are being the rude one.

Have you ever said something and even as you were saying it, you wished you could pull a string and get those words back in your mouth? I have had so many times in my life that I wish I could do that. Times that my mouth and my brain were not working together. Times that even after an apology, the person pulls their life away from you. The words we say can be so hurtful to others. Once those words get out of our mouth, you can never take them back. That “bad breath” lingers on.

For us to be a light to this world, we have to be careful of what and how we say things to others. We can influence someone to want to know more about God by our “light” or we can be the person who influences them to not want to know more about God, because of the words we say, “our bad breath.” Part of how we live our lives for the Lord, is by what comes out of our mouths. What comes out of our mouths tells others what our heart is like. Matthew 12:33-37 says “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”  The Bibleis just full of passages about our tongue. So that shows me that the tongue, even though it is a small part; it is a very important part of who we are and what we are portraying to others. When you finish reading my blog today, turn your Bibles to James 3 and read that chapter. Some of the words that are used here to describe the tongue are: “a fire”- “set on fire by hell”- “an unruly evil”- “full of deadly poison”- “out of the same mouth proceed blessing or cursing.” How can a person curse one minute and then the next minute try to make others think that they are trying to live for the Lord? Cursing, using the Lord’s name in vain, can only produce negative results. Have you ever listened to a couple of people talking to each other and hear a lot of cursing? It seems like they are “fueled” by each other using the Lord’s name in vain. Somehow, they feel there is power in those curse words. But that type of power is not from the Lord. I started watching a movie the other night and every other word was a curse word. Without those words, the movie might have been a good story. Instead of watching the entire thing, I changed to a different channel. If a person watches and hears cursing all the time, cursing becomes a part of their vocabulary and a part of their heart as well. It becomes easy for a word to “slip out” once and awhile. The other day, at the store, I heard a little boy, about 3 years old, saying some curse words. Where did he learn those words from? Think about! Once cursing becomes part of your life, it spreads like a wild fire to your heart. Cursing is negative. It does not help anyone or any situation.

Gossip is a part of the tongue that is so dangerous! Proverbs 16:28 says “A whisperer separates the best of friends.” Proverbs 18:8 says “the words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles, and they go down into the inmost body.” Proverbs 11:13 says “A talebearer reveals secrets, but he who is a faithful spirit conceals a matter.” And one of my favorites, Ecclesiastes 10:20 says “Do not curse the king, even in your thought; do not curse the rich in your bedroom. For a bird of the air may carry your voice, and a bird in flight may tell the matter.” My memory is not as good as it used to be. If I were to tell someone else, what I might have heard someone say, I might exaggerate or tell that gossip wrong. There was a time that someone started some gossip that was not true about me. I mentioned in another post that when my husband died, his paycheck was immediately taken out of our bank account. The church, and so many friends, helped me during that time to pay my expenses as well as the flowers for the funeral, etc. A friend came to me and said someone had started a rumor that I was giving some of that money to my daughter and her husband. None of that was true and I asked my friend to tell that person to “un-tell” that gossip because it was definitely untrue! How could someone tell such an untruth to others? That hurt my heart that someone would think that of me and in the middle of such a difficult time in my life. In the middle of shock and grief of my husband dying! Words hurt! When gossip is spoken by someone, they feel important that they know a secret. Read Romans 1:28-32. In these verses, are listed evil things. Whisperers and backbiters are listed right along with “haters of God”- “murderers”- “deceitful.” Verse 32 tells us “that those who practice such things are deserving of death.” So, you mean, that if I hear some “juicy” gossip and I tell others, that it could cause my eternal death? Yes!

Our words, can be the reason we receive eternal death or eternal life! Jesus said in Matthew 12:36, “…every idle word that men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.”

On the other hand, words can be used to the glory of God. Even just listening and not saying anything, is for God’s glory. Our words can give comfort, peace, strength, joy, knowledge, laughter and so many other amazing results. Our words can lead someone to Jesus.

The “breath” that comes out of our mouths can be pure or it can cause someone to turn away from us because it is so bad.

So, the next time you open your mouth, what is going to come out? Will the words be a breath of fresh air or will they be bad breath? If it is bad breath, you might cause someone to go elsewhere in search of answers that will affect their souls!

Whew, think I will go use some mouthwash, from God’s word, after writing this. How about you?

Till next time!                                             Keela

TREASURES

My grandfather yelled, “Get to the cellar!” At 10 years old, I remember saying “Papa Judge, why?” He said look out the window. What I saw is something I will never forget! It was a “perfect” tornado coming across the field. You know the kind that was in the Wizard of Oz. It looked like a dark grey top; swirling, headed our direction. We all ran, with the wind threatening to pick us up off our feet. I remember how fast my heart was racing and how scared I was! Luckily the tornado did not destroy my grandparents’ home and country store in Victory, Oklahoma. (Actually, I am sitting at my grandparents roll top desk that was used in the store, writing this blog post.) There was another time, my brother and I went by bus to visit them and the first thing we did was go to the cellar with our suitcases in tow!

We have had a series of tornadoes in the last couple of weeks, here in Missouri.  that have changed many people’s lives; destroying their homes and businesses. In my town, the sirens have gone off telling us to take shelter. I do not have a basement, so I have to get into the bathtub for safety.

Tornadoes are a part of people’s lives, especially for those who live in Oklahoma or the Midwest, in the spring time. They have to have a plan in their minds before the sirens are blowing telling them to take cover. Is there a certain “thing” that we have in mind to grab on our way to the cellar (or the bathtub?) Of course, kids and pets are on the top of our list, but there are just some things we have that just cannot be replaced! I think of the many albums of pictures that I have of long ago departed loved ones. I think of all the treasures that I have that were my grandmothers and mothers. My mother loved Norman Rockwell. I have her collection now in a lit glass cabinet. Also, in that cabinet are Precious Moments figurines that my grandmother cherished. For several years, I gave my mother, Home Interior Victorian ladies. They are housed in that same cabinet. I also have a very special set of English cottages that my parents had purchased when my dad was stationed in England, in the Air Force. I was born there, so they are very precious to me. None of these things can be replaced! But in reality, it is all just stuff! Collections that we have to dust and position on the shelves in just the right way.  Treasures that have no value to anyone else but ourselves.

The Bible talks about treasures. Matthew 6:19-21 reads “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  What is this passage talking about? How do we get treasures in our hearts? This passage is not telling us that we are not to have “stuff” that we cherish, but rather that we are not to make that our focus for our lives. Tornadoes can demolish the things we value on this earth, but no one can cause us to lose our faith that is within our hearts; if we treasure our faith, hope and continue to love others as God loves us.

In 1999, my only aunt and uncle were in the middle of the Moore, Oklahoma tornado. Thank the good Lord, that they had a cellar built into the ground of their home, where they survived with several of their neighbors. When my uncle pushed open the door, what he saw was devastation all around him. Their home had been completely destroyed! They did not even have a toothbrush! The only thing standing was the wall around the bathtub and the tub itself, (guess it might have been a good place to go after all!) and a wall where a clock still hung, with the correct time, and on that same wall, a chest of drawers that had not been touched. My aunt was so terrified that it took her a while to climb out of that cellar. Several months later I had a chance to sit down and talk to her about it. I asked her if she had ever wondered why this had happened to her? She answered “why not me?” Just because she was living her life the best way she could for the Lord, did not mean that devastating things will not happen to us. All that stuff that had “blown” away was just that-stuff! God helped to spare them from being killed. She still had her faith and hope in God and in an eternal home one day. Some interesting things happened in the midst of this storm, while clean-up was happening. My uncle had a very special Bible that he had for years and that he could not find. It ended up, that several weeks later, he got a call from a farmer who had found that Bible in the middle of his cow pasture, miles away. When I visited them, last summer, he showed me that Bible. It is duck taped on the outside, underlined and circled passages on the inside. That was not a treasure to anyone else, but him. He was so blessed to have it back. Also, in their attic in a big trunk, there were many quilts that my grandmother had lovingly stitched by hand. Very special but lost forever! A couple of years ago, my second cousin-his granddaughter, just happened to go into a thrift store. There in a bundle, with ribbon tied around them, were some quilt squares. She picked them up and low and behold, there was my grandmothers name, Inez, on one of them!!! It was pieces of one of those quilts that had blown away so many years before! (Sometimes when women got together and worked together on a quilt, each woman would stitch their name somewhere on one of the squares.) My uncle thought he would never see either one of those treasures again. But thanks to some caring people, he was able to get them back in his possession.

Think about how important this stuff is when we look at the big picture. They are important to us in the here and now. But we are here only for a few short years. Then, our kids or grandkids have to go through all this stuff and either get rid of it or keep it. Many years from now, when family are going through my uncles’ things and come across that worn out, duck taped Bible, they are not going to know the importance of it to him. More than likely, it will get thrown away. Treasures from a life time ago, that no one wants to care for, in the present generation.

My daughter tells a story about when they lived in an apartment, that she looked out the window and an older woman’s things were laying out for the trash truck to come and pick up. She had evidently passed away. She had no relatives or friends to take care of all her stuff. The apartment manager had just piled all of her treasures out by the road to be taken to the trash dump. She saw people walking on pictures and not caring about any of the belongings that had been important to her. Feeling sad for the lady, my daughter went down to the pile of things and retrieved an old black and white picture of a boy about 6-8 years old. Had that been her husband or her father as a young man? Nothing written on the back, so no way of knowing, but she took it back home with her and saved it from going to the dump as a piece of garbage, instead of a treasure to that older lady.

At the end of time, every earthly treasure we own will be destroyed. We cannot take these earthly things with us when we die. We will all stand before God on the judgement day. I will not have my pictures or my mother’s Norman Rockwell collection, clutched to my chest. I will stand alone before God who does not see these earthly treasures but rather sees the things that have been treasured in our hearts and shown through our actions on this earth.

Is it wrong to collect these things? Is it wrong to feel pain and sadness when these treasures are taken away from us by a devastating tornado or some other reason? No, but it is wrong if that is our focus of our lives. That is all we are working for on this earth-to have stuff! Our main focus every day is to make money to acquire more “things.” Our treasures should be from our hearts through acts of kindness-being there for people who go through devastating storms-be there for a friend who is facing cancer-being a good example to our children & grandchildren-be joyful in the midst of pain because we know that we have the hope of eternal life with God where all of these earthly treasures mean nothing. Praising God and being obedient servants of His; those are the treasures of the heart!

So next time you are dusting off those treasures, evaluate yourself to see if you are exhibiting treasures of the heart for others to see, or are you just collecting stuff and dust! Treasures! There is nothing we can do about losing our earthly treasures to a tornado, but there is something we can do today-right now-to keep the treasures of our hearts “dusted off” and on display for others to see through us, how to live for our God and Father!

Are you storing up earthly treasures or treasures of the heart?

(The picture at the first of this blog is the lit cabinet with the treasures I have talked about in this blog. And the most important of my treasures-my little great-grandbaby, Delaney Mae! For some reason, when I am trying to post, the picture of Delaney is sideways. So, excuse me if it shows up that way after I post, good grief!)

Till next time!                                Keela