What Is My Best?

 I recently read Ann Voskamp’s online comment about calendars: rather than looking at each box as a list of to dos, consider each box as a gift to open.

None of us know how many calendar boxes we have left. At 71 years of age, I have already been blessed with over 35,000. On my calendar I now place a red border on the first  empty box and write:  Each Box a Gift to Open!

Last month I read two books to help me get passed my fickle emotions:

And Not One Bird Stopped Singing: Coping with Transitions and the Losses of Aging 

by Doris Moreland Jones

Emotional Victory: How You Deal With How You Feel 

by D. Bud Calvert

Dr. Calvert wrote, “My days of serving the Lord are numbered and I need to give Him my best.” (page 190) I did not expect this to be a positive, motivating statement for me. But that’s exactly how it struck me. And I remembered David’s words, “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered- how fleeting my life is.” (Psalm 39:4)

  

Do you remember Faggin, in the musical Oliver? Knowing Bill Sykes plans to kill him and holding his cache of money and jewelry, he sings:

¯What happens when I'm seventy?
Must come a time...seventy.
When you're old, and it's cold
And who cares if you live or you die,
Your one consolation's the money
You may have put by...

...I think I'd better think it out again!

I'm reviewing the situation.¯

My mission is to encourage others through my experiences. Therefore, I’m’ setting aside my fickle emotions and using my writer’s eye, and ¯I am reviewing the situation.¯

Health issues and all, the question is not, “How many days?” It is, “What is my best?”

First, let’s agree that feelings are fickle and unreliable. Although without them, we cannot be compassionate, patient, kind, long-suffering, etc. Keeping them in the proper perspective is the key to not allowing them to overrule the heart, mind and God’s plan for the day. His calendar box to open as a gift!

Thus, the best is whatever we are capable of each day. Beginning with a positive attitude and the willingness for God to use us. Our focus must be on the do-ables and what we have vs. our losses. Easy? No, especially when not feeling well. Possible? Yes

For me- with my physical limitations- this is my BEST:

May my better moments be Yours, O Lord to do with as You may.
May my stitches be even and entwined with love.

May my writing be Your thoughts… not my opinion.

May my resting renew my strength and refresh my spirit.

May my down times provide time to ponder Your goodness to me.

May my studying and reading prepare me to glorify You, Lord.
May my teaching touch hearts and draw them nearer to You.
May my life be a reflection of Your love. 

How about you? What is your best?

Selah...

Connie

Crossroads

Confused where to go? What to do? When? Why? How?

Me, too! Politics confuses me. Technology confuses me. Business tactics confuse me.
Dwelling on the things that I do not know or wish I knew yields confusion that can spiral into depression. But we were not meant to know everything well. Each of us has knowledge, skills, and talents unique to us plus, hopefully, some commonsense.

What's the key to this dilemma of what, where, when, and how? I believe it is relationships and networking. Through the building of positive relationships we learn what people know, who we can trust and depend upon. They in turn have their network of people who know and people that can be trusted. Another term may be "word of mouth."

We are all looking for answers to simple and complicated issues: Who is honest when it comes to insurance? Who is the best doctor for you? When is the right time to buy or sell a car or a house? What school system is good or should we home-school? Which computer system will meet your needs? How to pick a tomato that will actually taste like a tomato? And on it goes...

Recently, I watched a mother teaching her young daughter how to shop for groceries. She demonstrated how to pick the good plums, explained the difference between "each" and "by the pound," when to buy brand names versus cheaper store brands, and how to have a balanced diet. Her trip to the grocery store probably took twice as long, but the benefits will last for years. We need to do more of that!

Older women need to mentor younger women, boys need to have men in their lives to look up to, teens need safe places to go where guidance isn't a threat, all of us need to become better listeners.

I know I am rambling. I am frustrated that I live in the richest country in the world, but children go to bed hungry. That politicians spend billions of dollars campaigning, but millions cannot afford health care. That people can work for 40+ years then, when they retire, they have to decide between buying medicine or food.

Are you at a crossroad? Are you looking for answers?

Here's where I am suppose to say, "Look to God, He has the answers!"

I love the Lord with all my heart. He does guide me in my decisions; He does answer prayers. But God gave man the knowledge, emotions, skills and talents needed to responsibly care for this world. Have we fulfilled that responsibility? When are we going to look away from our needs to the needs of those around us? When are we going to really listen to one another?

Selah-

Think on these things-

Each of us are at a crossroad, what choices are you going to make? What will the ripple effect of those choices be?

I am going to ask my Heavenly Father, what choices He wants me to make. I am going to ask Him for a peek at the ripple effect of my actions so I will understand that what I do can change this world.

" I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something; and what I should do and can do, by the grace of God, I will do." How about you?

Shalom, Connie