The Daily Devotional Blog

People who smile alot  are probably healthier. Smiling helps a lot, doesn't it? It's good for the heart spiritually and emotionally. Spiritually, because "a joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." 1 Emotionally, because a person who smiles a lot is probably a person with a more positive attitude. And a positive attitude helps us overcome challenges, because it strengthens our faith. And without faith it's impossible to please God 2 . I noticed that it helps when I either smile at someone or another person smiles at me. No matter who initiates the friendly gesture, it gets me in a particular emotional place if only for a moment, especially when my day isn't going that great. Sometimes I will smile at random people just to let them know that all is well in the world at that particular space in time. I have seen the response of those people when I surprised them with a smile and since I have no idea whose day I might br...

It's time to let it go, for yourself. Some time ago, I wrote an article on forgiveness . In that article I said we needed to forgive the person or people who did us dirty. That means if we know we have been treated a certain way by certain people, we must let it go in order to move on, in order to be whole. If anyone knows how hard that is, it's me. Yet we have to do it anyway. Another part of forgiveness involves forgiving ourselves when we have done ourselves dirty, done someone else dirty, or made mistakes so bad we will deal with the fallout for the rest of our lives. In order to help others we must take that fallout and turn it around. I'm here to tell you it can happen. We can turn things around with the help of the Lord Jesus. We have been forgiven by Him already. He took all the suffering for us. Now we have to be transparent in our mistakes, because I can assure you we are not the only ones who have screwed up. People want to know they're not alon...

Thank you, Lord. Thank you for being Lord over my life. Thank you for your protection. Thank you for all the ways you bless me. There are many. They come in many forms. Some of the things I have endured have been because of my own mistakes and yet you still brought me out better and stronger. Some of the things were the fault of others, yet you brought me out better and stronger.  What would I be without you? Who would I be without you? Where would I be without you? Only you know.  God. The Most High.  I thank you for creation. I thank you for your grace. I thank you for your favor. I thank you for your mercy.  Thank you.

We serve an awesome God I have to be honest, yet again.  I'm having a moment. I've been having these moments for at least a week now.  I'm unqualified.  I'm unqualified to be doing everything I'm doing for the Lord and I know it.  Yeah yeah yeah, I'm always writing about how God qualifies the called and doesn't call the qualified. And I for sure, believe that. Yet here lately I've been thinking just how unworthy I am to be doing this, to actually write and speak for God. Sometimes I stop in mid-sentence when I'm writing, because I begin to think, "what gives you the right to write that?" I may continue to write the original thought or write something else.  It's not what someone said or did that has me here. It's just me. It's just me thinking I will never measure up to being worthy of writing or speaking for God. In fact, I will never be worthy of doing anything for Him. I don't want to mess up, becau...

Stay out of conflict. Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? It amazes me how some people will tell me their side of a story, their perspective, and want me to form an opinion. How can I do that when I only know 50% of the story? Oh I know, I'm supposed to believe it because it was said by a particular person, right? I'm supposed to understand, because the person telling me is a "close" person in my life, correct? Well, that's not how I roll. Even before I came into Christ, I was not that person who automatically took a side. You've heard it before, there are 3 sides to a story, person A's side, person B's side, and the truth. Most of us want people to take our side of an issue, but at whose and what expense? When we think of great courtroom judges, what do they do during a conflict between two people? They usually listen intently to both sides and not interject their opinion one...

I'm serious. I'm ready. It's time. When I look at the people who lost a boatload of weight, I admire them. That's why I love watching the Biggest Loser . Although I don't watch much TV, whenever I can catch that show I'm all in.  The fact that the contestants even made it on that show is an admirable feat. And the fact that they open themselves up to our critique, analysis , and opinion, is amazing, as well. We can be a hard sell, can't we? And we have alot of nerve too, don't we? Could we do what they were brave enough to do? I doubt if I would open myself up to that type of judgment. Then again, maybe I could once I got to the point where I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. Or perhaps I would if just maybe I had enough of the same old mundane existence. Everyone has their threshold of enough . There comes a time where you just put it all out there and what anybody says about you, is their problem, not yours. You get to the point ...

Round and round we go. Round and round it goes. Where it stops, sometimes we know, sometimes we don't. The Ferris Wheel.  We see them mainly at amusement parks and fairs. They don't go forward, they don't go to the left, and they don't go to the right. They just go around and around until eventually they come to a stop. That is the case in some of our lives, isn't it? We keep going around again and again in circles. We may stop here or there then we get right back on that Ferris Wheel and start the process over. We just love that wheel. We keep going back to the same ole same ole without ever growing from our mistakes. Round and round. We somehow think things will be different if different people are involved. Round and round. How many times has that constant rotation worked for us? I can tell you right now, it hasn't worked for me. I learned lessons the hard way going down that same sad sorry road spinning out of control thinking things would...