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PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

At the end of the year, we tend to look back at what we have accomplished. We also look back at the negative things that have happened and think about what we have not accomplished. We evaluate ourselves to see if we have lived up to the last years, new year resolutions. We look at our present circumstances and wonder how we got to this point in our lives and wish we had done things differently. We also look towards next year and the goals we want to achieve.

There are many things that have happened that I wish I could go back and redo. Things that came out of my mouth that shouldn’t or things I could have said that I did not. My husband went through a deep two-year depression. Because of his health issues, he had to retire early from the post office and from being a preacher and elder of the church. He felt worthless, he felt like a failure. He became stuck in the past, not seeing the present opportunities and not seeing any productive future! There was one day that he said to me that there was just nothing he could do with his current health issues. Right then and there, I wrote down 100 things that he could do by sitting in his chair in front of his computer. When we become stuck in the misadventures of our past, we miss out on what is right there in front of us for today. We cannot see any good road ahead and wallow in the mire of the past failures. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:13-14, “…one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ.” It is hard to forget those things of the past that have pulled us down. But we can learn from the past. We can realize what we could have done differently, even if the circumstances were out of our control. We can live today and be the very best we possibly can. We can learn from those mistakes. In the verse above, Paul tells us to press towards the goal. What is that goal? What is it that helps us heal from the past? The realization that we can live with God in heaven, forever if we have lived our lives for Him. When we have that hope in the future ahead of us, it helps us to move forward and not get stuck in that muddy mire of past failures and miss out on present opportunities!

This last year, a big accomplishment I achieved, was to sign a contract with a publishing company to publish a lady’s bible study titled “God’s Beauty Plan.” This has been in the works for several years. I am so thankful for the gentle nudges by God to get it in the works. I have dedicated the study to my mother, who will be gone 3 yrs. the end of January. She was my editor, my researcher and my best friend. She was a huge part of this project. I think back to the past years that I could call her on the phone and get her advice. There have been many times during these three years, that I have actually reached for the phone and then realized that she is no longer here on this earth. I could become stagnant in my present life, because of those feelings of sadness. But I realize, every lesson of the study has memories of her and how she helped me and the many phone conversations we had about a particular subject. I thank God for her love and dedication to the Lord and the amazing example she set for everyone she came in contact with. She encouraged me to get it published. But I always found an excuse why not to do it. I feel so sad that she never will know that I finally did it, but I cannot live today in those feelings of sadness. All I can do, is to do the best I can today-with what I have today-in whatever situation I find myself in today.

My dad, brother and I, in the last month, went to my mother’s grave to put fresh flowers on it. My dad and brother are not as quick as they use to be and we ended up at the graveyard in the dark. My brother turned on the car lights and shown them on her tombstone so my dad could get the wire cutters and place the flowers on top of the stone. As you probably already guessed, his car lights went out. I went back, in the dark, to my brother’s car to get a flashlight. Here my brother, me and our 85-year-old dad were in the graveyard, with a flashlight trying to attach some pretty flowers on my mother’s grave! I am surprised that someone did not call the police! We had several tears remembering what this time of year meant to my mother and her traditions that we all loved so much. It would be easy to get stuck in that past and not live in the present, thereby not having a future. At our family celebration each year since she has been gone, my brother and I try to keep some of her traditions alive. But we also have started new ones. Our family has been blessed, by my granddaughter and her husband having a baby in May and also, my new grandbaby, that was born in November. I want our family gatherings for these little one and the ones to come, to be filled with memories of those who have gone before us, but also with new traditions that lead towards the future! Getting stuck in the past and that sadness, will not take the traditions that have been started today, into the future!

I have been blessed with a great-granddaughter and also a granddaughter this year. (That can happen when your oldest is ten years older than your youngest.) These new little ones, will never know, my husband, my mother, my grandparents. That is very sad to me. I know there are many hurting this time of year because of the loss of a loved one. All of those first special happenings in that first year, after they have passed, are so very hard! But our loved one’s memories can be kept alive in the present to the younger generations and will help to shape these little one’s future. Forgetting the past in the verse in Philippians, means not living and wallowing in the things of the past that we have done; thus, making us not able to see the joys and opportunities of the present. Remembering what happened in the past, can help us look forward to how we want to forge into our future!

  My mother’s favorite bible verse was Ephesians 3:20-21. It reads “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” When we have the power of God within us, giving us fuel for our future, we can do so much more than we can ever imagine! Our electricity in our homes, can go out at times. But when we have the “electricity” from God, which we plug into as our source of energy, we can do things that we never knew were possible! God helps us heal from our past regrets and the sadness of those we have lost. God can help us-we just have to reach out to Him for strength! One of my favorite verses in the bible are in Jeremiah 29:11-13. “For I know the thoughts I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” God wants us to step into our future with hope. Our hope is based on Jesus dying on the cross for us; taking all that sin and sadness upon Himself. We must lead our lives in service to Him today, because we have a future glorious home in heaven, He has promised us and has gone to prepare for us.

We can make the good things from the past come alive through what we do today. We can learn from the things of the past that are holding us back from enjoying and living for the Lord today. Learn from the past mistakes and release them to God and don’t dwell on them. Learn from the memories from your past. Take the little things from today to enrich your future. We have hope through the knowledge that if we reach out to Him, He will lead us to heaven one day. Use your memories of the past to enrich today, which lead into your future!

On our tombstones there is a dash in between the day we were born and the day we die. That dash represents our lives. It represents our past, our today and determines our future! We don’t know what our future holds, but we do know who holds the future!

May God bless you as you look forward and not behind! Till next time.

(I am trying to post a new article every two weeks. I am leaving January 5^th to go to Norfolk, Virginia to meet my newest granddaughter. I will be there a week, so I may not get another post out for three weeks.)

                                                                                           Keela

READ MY LIPS

“Read my lips!” Have you ever heard a parent, spouse or anyone else say to you those words? Usually when a person tells you that, they want your attention. They want you to focus on what they are about to say. In Webster’s dictionary, focus means “a center of activity, attraction, attention, clear perception or understanding.”

Let’s think about some times that we can be focused. My granddaughter, and some girls from my work, are taking college finals this week. Their focus for several days has been on what those tests might have on them and the grade they will get. If, during the test, they are focused elsewhere, they are not going to do well.        At church, we are taught that we must focus on Christ’s death, his body and blood, when we are taking communion. We are to be thinking about Jesus and his sacrifice for us and praising God for that. At church, many years ago, when my granddaughter was little, she was sitting by me. During communion, she was rolling around on the floor and being quiet, so I just left her alone. As the communion was being passed to my pew, she stood up, right in the middle of the isle, and her hair was standing straight up on her head! Do you think that I and the people sitting around us, still had that focus? No, we were looking at my precious granddaughter and looking at her little smiling face! I remember as a young mother, that during that time of the church service, there were many times that my focus was drawn to one of my kids, especially when they were little.       When a surgeon is in the middle of a surgery, does he try to focus on what he is doing? If I am the patient, I absolutely want him to focus!      When I have to be at work in the early morning, I eat toast with peanut butter & banana when I am driving into work. One day, on my first bite, I started to drop the entire thing on the floor. For a moment, my focus was not on driving but on loosing my breakfast. If I had not brought my focus back to the road and the deer that darted out in front of my car, my lack of focus would have caused an accident. Being focused is important!

There is a really good example of being focused in the Bible. Matthew 14:22-33 tells us of a time when some of Christ’s disciples were in a boat, in the middle of the sea and there came a huge storm. The boat was being “tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.” Jesus was not in the boat with them because He had stayed behind to send the multitudes of people away and then he went up to a mountain to pray. When this storm came it was dark. All of a sudden, the disciples saw something or someone walking on the water towards them. They became afraid, thinking it was a ghost and “cried out in fear.” The text tells us that immediately, Jesus spoke to them and told them “be of good cheer! It is I, do not be afraid!” (These words have helped me through many tough times. It shows me that Jesus is there by my side, immediately, when a trial comes into my life. Actually, He has never left our side! He is always there. He was by my side helping me through all the many days that I worked 12 hr. days, then went home to a depressed husband who had been in bed all day or going to the hospital where I had taken him at 4 in the morning before I even went to work. Jesus was there when we had to go through foreclosure on our home and when we had to take bankruptcy because of the huge pile of medical bills.) Jesus has told us that we will have trials but He also tells us that He is right there helping us take one step at a time, one moment at a time, one second at a time!

Then, in our text, we are told that one of the disciples, Peter, said “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” Jesus told him to “come.” I have always thought that Peter had a lot of faith to just step out of that boat and head towards Jesus in the middle of this storm. But then we see that Peter took his focus off Jesus, looking away from Jesus at the churning sea. He became afraid and started to sink. He called out to Jesus for help “and immediately, Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him.” This made me think of, after I found out my husband had died of the surgery, that we had hoped would help him live a much better life. I was sitting just staring at the hospital wall, in so much shock and heartache. All of a sudden, I felt someone hugging and wrapping around my shoulders, what felt like a shawl. I turned to see who it was and no one was there! The truth was Jesus was right there, holding me!

The reason I told this story about Peter was to remind us that God is always there for us. He is always ready to “stretch out His hand and catch us” no matter what is going on in our lives! Even when all we can do is stare at the wall in disbelief. Even when our world comes crashing down around us. Even when we feel we are all alone, He is always there. We just need to bring our focus back to Jesus! He should be on our mind and heart throughout the day. Even if there is no one else who will listen to our hearts, He is always listening. We just need to turn our focus back to Him and make Him the center of every decision, every choice, every marriage, every rough time this cruel world sends our way.

Jesus told Peter to “come.” Matthew 11:28-29 tells us to come to Him. “Come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls.” We just need to turn our focus back onto our Savior and He has promised us that He will take care of us.

The next time someone says “read my lips” and they are trying to pull us away from God, put your focus back on who we should always have our focus on and who we are to always turn to when the world starts tossing us around in the sea of this life. When you feel that you are being pulled down and drowned by the struggles of this life, turn your focus back to the only one who can save us! God will help adjust our “vision” of what is swirling around us. He will help our attitude to change towards those contrary “winds” of our lives!

Stay focused on who and what really matters! The world puts focus on so many things other that Jesus. But when we put Jesus in the center of our focus, life becomes so much clearer!  He helps us to have an attitude adjustment! Thank you, God, for always being there!

May God bless your life with clearer focus! Till next time!

                                                                                                         Keela

You’re too slow-you’re too fast! You’re too old-you’re too young! You’re too fat-you’re too skinny! You’re stupid-worthless-a nobody! Sadly, these are definitions the world gives us each and every day. We might, even be told these things by a parent or grandparent. We believe them to be true-they become engraved into our hearts making us believe these lies that are told to us. Who is actually telling us these lies? Satan. He wiggles into the TV shows we are watching or the magazine covers we are looking at, that portray a woman who is flawless and perfect. Satan wiggles into our minds when we hear harsh words that we should be something else or look a certain way, which is defined by the world. Women, especially, take these visual thoughts and words to heart and let them become truth telling us that we are just a nobody in the midst of this sinful world. This world we live in tries to define the outward beauty, that we are led to believe is the truth. The world has its own beauty plan.

But the truth is: there is a much better beauty plan! God’s beauty plan! 1 Samuel 16:7b “For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.” This verse was taking about David, when Samuel was looking for a new king. The scriptures let us know that David was actually a “hunk.” But that was not what God was interested in. God saw the beauty within his heart! Yes, this does tell me that God has created outward beauty. Think about my last post with the beautiful leaves on the tree in the fall, the sunset over the ocean, a rainbow in the cloud, the magnificent eagle, the intricate details of a flower, the smile on my new grandbaby’s face. God gave us these to enjoy. God makes beautiful creations outwardly, but we make the intricate beauty of the heart! Within our hearts we choose to believe God’s viewpoint, rather than mans. Think about yourself. Ladies, when you get ready to go to bed, you take off the makeup that you have worked so hard that morning to put on; which highlights the beauty that God has already given you. Then you look at yourself in the mirror. That is the real you-the one we are alone with-the true person of the heart! Max Lucado said “A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God, that a man has to seek Him just to find her.”

God has told us, in the Bible, who we are to Him. Some of the words that God uses to define us are: chosen-precious-holy priesthood-strong-cherished-heir to the King-adored-loved-worthy-wanted-virtuous-priceless-a daughter of the King. Proverbs 31:30 says “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.”

God made you special! God made you unique! God made you loved! God made you-you! When we look in the mirror, we see broken-we see sadness-we see loss-we see ugly-we see useless-we see sinful! When God looks at us, He sees loved-He sees healed-He sees beauty-He sees joy-He sees His daughter-He sees what He has done for us by giving His only Son to die on the cross for our sins to heal all our brokenness! God’s beauty plan is for us to shine brightly from within so others can see Him. God’s beauty plan is for us to be confident -strong and to be able to stand up for Him in the midst of this chaotic world. We must realize how to feel, and put into action, the power that God wants us to have within us to fight whatever Satan tries to make us believe about ourselves.

Don’t listen to the lies of this world, no matter what you have gone through or been told about yourself! We were created to glorify God! We are to be a light into this very dark world! Many years ago, my husband, daughter and I, rode a tram into a cave. At one point, the lights were turned off. They were only off for a second or two, but I felt panic. The tour guide lit a candle. Where do you think all eyes went to? You are correct-right to that light! It made me feel safe and gave me peace! That is what God’s light shining out from us does. That light gives hope and peace in this chaotic, dark world. But in order to have that light shining from within us for others to see, we must realize how valuable we are to God. We must learn that our beauty plan, should be how God sees us, not how the world does. That true beauty plan is “God’s Beauty Plan.”

 (These thoughts were taken from my twelve-week ladies Bible class study called “God’s Beauty Plan.” It will be published the first of 2019. Some of the lessons are: “My Face in the Mirror,” “Cleanser-Forgiveness,” “Lipstick-Mouth,” “Wrinkle Cream-Worry,” “Vitamins-Depression.”)

We are still working on perfecting my blog. So please bear with us as we make changes as we go. My hope is to post a new message about every two weeks. May you find peace and comfort knowing that your God is right by your side every step of the way! God did not promise a life without trials, but rather tells us that this world is full of trial. But what He did promise, was that He will be right by our side, helping us up when we fall and help us to take one step at a time, one minute at a time and one second at a time.

God bless! Till next time!

                                                                       Keela