“Just the Way I Like It”

How many of you drink coffee or tea?  Have you ever had someone make either of these beverages “just the way you like it?”  They’ve put the right amount of sugar or cream in it.  The coffee grinds or tea leaves were blended and seeped perfectly so that when you took the first sip, your brain agreed that it tasted “just the way you liked it.” You may have nodded your head, closed your eyes, and said to yourself, “hmm-um, this is good! Afterwards, you took a few moments to savor the flavor and aroma as you slowly drank its content.  It was perfect for you and you alone, no one else, just you.  However, that same cup of flawlessness when tasted by someone else may not be met with the same reaction. 

Have you ever allowed someone else to taste your coffee or tea and they exclaimed that it was too sweet, didn’t have enough honey or cream in it or, they hated the taste of coffee or that particular flavor of tea? You may have looked at them in amazement because to you its contents were perfect. So how could they possibly not like what you loved?!

Well, God has made each of us unique with our own brand of likes and dislikes.  He’s also tailored blessings that are “just the way we like them” as individuals.  Therefore, when we go through life and are enriched with good things or challenges that are specific to our growth and learning experiences, our reactions should reflect, “This has been perfectly designed just for me by God.” The question then becomes, “What am I to learn from this?”

As we begin to understand that nothing happens to us by accident and all of life’s experiences are somehow interconnected to help us increase our awareness and knowledge of God, then we will recognize that He has prepared us all for “just the way I like it” moments of learning that can last a lifetime.

Human Moments

 

Every day we have what I will call “human moments”.  It’s those times you see and interact with people you don’t even know and have a moment or more of conversation in which you share a random story, laugh, and move on with your life, never seeing that person again. It’s standing in line at the grocery store and the person behind you asks a question regarding where you found the special they had been looking for and you provide them an answer. The person smiles and a brief conversation begins and ends when your groceries are packed and you’re ready to go. It’s the people you watch holding hands as you walk to your car at lunch and each of you acknowledges how nice it is to have someone to love by giving an approval smile with no words exchanged.

Human moments can happen at any time, for any reason, and are random life experiences that you may never remember the following day unless something powerful happened to you or the other person in the exchange. I believe God gives us those in order that we can connect with others if only for a brief space of time. I heard of an extraordinary example of this the other day on the news.  It was a story in which a car had flipped off the road and down the side of a hill. The car caught on fire and the lady inside was trapped along with her mentally ill nephew. Motorists that were behind and across the road in other lanes that saw the accident didn’t pass by but got out of their cars, ran down the hill, risking their own lives to save a woman they didn’t even know. All of this was captured in photography by a photographer newsman that got there in time to see the miracle unfold. One of the helping people stopped a cement truck that had plenty of water and was able to put the fire out. Another lady happened to be a military person and helped along with firefighters pull the lady out of the car. When all was completed, the human moments all of these people had saved two lives!

Every day, when you have a human moment, take time to reflect on it a little longer. Think of what impact you may have made on the person you just spoke to or saw for only a moment or think of what impact that person had on you. Pray a blessing be brought to that person as you never know why your paths may have crossed in just that moment.

Remember:  Some people have met for what they may have thought was a moment, but turned out to be a life time together.

What’s Past is Past

Every moment you breathe is a new “present”, a new opportunity to do something better or worse than the moment before. Life doesn’t allow you to go back and take a moment from yesterday and relive it in the moment you’re in now, so, why do you let your mind stay in the past? What makes you beat yourself up continuously over things that you did or happened to you that were not to your benefit or to others? Memory is for the purpose of reflecting but if the past constantly makes you depressed or immobilized then something is wrong with your thinking!

What’s past is past! You can’t go back and physically change it. You can work to correct, learn, and move forward knowing that the next moments you live can bring new opportunities to get better, make things right, or just accept your mistakes and move on.

What good does it do to keep grudging over and over again things that continue to hurt your progression forward? Life is too short to stay in the past. Learn from the experiences that have brought you to this point. We are all forced to breath one breath at a time, and can’t bring past breathes back or forward to tomorrow. Take some time a love life where you are! Stop procrastinating and thinking you have more time to do, to be, to go, to live another moment as no specific amount of time is promised to any person. That is a sad mistake that we tell ourselves, words such as: ”I’ll see you tomorrow or I’ll take care of that tomorrow.”

Stop living in the past because it can NOT be changed. See each moment as a new opportunity for living a fuller, richer, and more beautiful life experience!

What’s past IS past!

Is Your Life Making a Difference in the Lives of Others?

Now that I’m 55 years old, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting regarding my life’s journey.  One of the things that has consistently come across my mind is wondering what impact I have made in the lives of others.  You see, when we’re young, our focus is on how we can become accomplished and have more money, a great career, wonderful family, and other things that are self-related. Not saying this type of focus is wrong because these things are important, especially in American society.  But at some point the importance of why we were born and our earthly purpose should become more important.  We should begin recognizing that our life is more than accumulating things that will be left for someone else once we die. Our life should have a deeper meaning, a purpose for which someone can truly say that we made a difference in the world or at least in one person’s life as a result of our existence.

When most people think of who has made a great contribution to society, names such as John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Steve Jobs and other well-known icons are noted. Although these people have left a positive mark on society, each of us has the same responsibility to make a “good” difference in the lives of the people we touch daily. If you have never thought about this, remember it is possible that someone is watching you and may be mimicking your lifestyle. What do they see? What difference are you making for future generations? What positive influences are you making in the lives of your family, friends, co-workers, and those in the community? What have you done over your life that others can say has truly made a difference in their life? When you are laying stretched out in a coffin, with no more life left in you, what TRUTH do you want people to say about you?

Remember, we all make the mistake of thinking that we have many years of time to live, be happy, and prosperous. However, all one needs to do is remember the tragedies that have happened where people were just going to the movies or to class and were met with their untimely death.

Each day we live is a gift with no guarantee of having another one, so, ask yourself:   Is my life making a difference in the lives of others?  If not, start to develop habits that will.

What’s the Size of Your Coffin?

We Christians that follow the life of Jesus Christ know that his ministry lasted about three years before he was crucified by age 33.  According to today’s standards, most people may agree that 33 is too young for anyone to die. However, Jesus had full knowledge of what his mission was before coming to earth and he chose to fulfill it in the time period allotted. You too have a purpose for being on earth and no matter how long you’re scheduled to stay, it is certain that even if you don’t accomplish all that you think you should, death will come for you, at a prescribed time.

We make the sad mistake of thinking that we have a lot of time to fulfill our purpose. We make excuses as to why we can’t do what our hearts have been pulling us to do. We tell ourselves that we’re too old, too young, too fat, too skinny, not the right color, don’t have enough money, etc. etc. etc. Jesus didn’t need to be 80 years old to complete his ministry. What is your excuse for not accomplishing what’s been in your heart to do for years? Just remember that whenever you stop saying no and begin living in the destiny that you were created for, life will become more rewarding.  Then, it shouldn’t matter when death will come because you’ll be busy fulfilling your purpose.

What’s the size of your coffin? Do you know? If not, start getting busy accomplishing your purpose because death waits for no one.