Stage217

So as i lay in bed thoughts run rampant through my head.  Here is one.  I was thinking about Christmas Eve, tomorrow, and how i wont be able to go to church because of spending time with my family.  My family however always goes, not all together, at some point in time or another.  Since they are Catholic this is an easy task because there are tons of services to pick from.  I will be at our dad’s house on Christmas Eve so i wont be able to go to the candle light service at HOP.  I would love to be there but Ill be happy enjoying time with my family as well. 

I then thought, well what happens when either my dad, uncles or grandma asks, did you go to church?  Which who knows, they may or may not ask.  They might ask just out of being polite or wondering what time my church has service; not thinking i wont have gone. 

My reply would be no, I was at dads when my church had the service. Depending on who asked that would be a good enough answer, but on the other hand it might not be.  Next would possibly come, How could you not go to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas day?  My reponse would be something like well I dont think its necessary to go to church on a certain day or another in order to get favor from God or something of the sort. 

If you made it this far in the post congrats, because here is where the thought of the evening occured.  I would state that I have prayed and read my bible today and probably would have stopped there saying that that would be enough.  In the mind set they would be in, growing up Catholic I would know, they would have taken it at that and probably would have stopped the interagation.  Again though, being in that mindset, they would have seen it as JUST, almost as if it were just another book, reading the Bible and saying a few sentences to God.  What they would have missed is the whole relational connection that I meant but didnt say when i stated that i prayed and read my bible today.   They would have seen it as an act of doing like was seen in Matthew 7:22 and would have missed the whole part about spending time with God which is what he wants in Matthew 7:23. 

I thought up thinking how most people can read and talk to someone and ask them for things (i.e. Christmas).  I think that is how most of my family would have understood what i would have said, reading the bible and praying.  They would have totally missed the part of me meaning that in reading the Word of God and praying, I was spending time with God, getting to know Him and His ways, and communicating with him.  This would be the reason I dont find it life-altering if i do not go to church on Christmas.  Again, don’t get me wrong, i would love to be able to go to celebrate the birth of our Saviour with all my friends, but I just dont see the time working out is all. 

Make sure that what you say and what it means to you is understood by who you are telling it to because they might have their own interpretation of what you are saying.  When this happens, your words lose their impact and the person you are telling might make their own conclusions and not the ones you intended.

Just a thought…

“a promise is a strong word….” that is what my sister put as her facebook status last night.  As i read it on my phone while lying in bed, I pondered for a second and realized how correct she is.  Breaking that statement apart I notice two things.  First that the word “promise” itself is a strong word.  Usually we understand it to mean, as defined quickly by dictionary.com ”an express assurance on which expectation is to be based”.  When we promise something to someone, we are giving them a certainty that something will be done, completed, or not happen at all (i.e. I promise the Browns won’t win the super bowl this year).   The person receiving the promise is then charged with trusting the person who made the promise so that they won’t be deceived in what they have been told.  When we make a promise, its sometimes taken as a law that whatever we have proclaimed is absolute truth.  Sadly though, sometimes we “break” our promises.  We fumble the promise, let it go or forget about without realizing the pain and hurt that it has caused the person we made the promise to.  Secondly, a promise, or the statement we make as a promise is seen as such, an unbreakable word that one wouldn’t ever think of taking back or letting pass by.  Again, sometimes we forget the words we say even when we don’t use the words “I promise”.  We must be careful of the words we say to those around us and the things we say will or will not happen.  We do have a hope though!  We know that God’s word is truth and that He promises us so many great and marvelous things in His word, which is truth… John 1.  We also know that God never goes back on his word or any promise he makes Numbers 23:19.  So becareful of the strong words you speak and the promises you make.  Be integritable and keep them…

A word for myself…

So to attempt to sum up what I have learned yesterday and recently feeling the need to start writing these things down…

Every piece of a puzzle is needed to complete the whole puzzle and make complete the picture the artist intended to display.  When you put a puzzle together and you get the end and you notice a piece is missing, how do you feel; frustrated, anxious, annoyed?  That’s how I would feel. Angry because I have wasted all of this time putting something together only to, in the end, have to stop with my project unfinished!

At times I find myself thinking that what I do in not important; thinking that anyone could do what I do and probably do it better.  I have to keep attempting to exceed expectations to combat that thought. Yesterday though, I was reminded that I am needed and the work being done can’t be done with out me.  It reminded me of a puzzle.  A puzzle as bunch of pieces, all designed with different shapes, sizes, colors, edges, all come together to make the masterpiece look like just that… a masterpiece.  In our life, no matter how large everything seems to be around us, we have a job to do.  We might feel like the smallest and insignificant piece to the puzzle but the puzzle wouldn’t be complete without us.  Our job is to add to the puzzle in the way we were originally designed to since no other piece to that puzzle will fit in our place.  When that puzzle is completed, we should move on and start adding to the next puzzle we have become a part of.

Either way, every piece of the puzzle, no matter how big or small is needed for its specific purpose since no other piece fits its part.