ADVICE TO MY YOUNGER SELF

1.    Slow your pace. Life’s a marathon, not a sprint.  Jesus never hurried or worried. Greet people by name.  It’s people over our projects.  People ARE our ministry, not just a means of doing it. This creates patience.

2.    Savor the moments.  “God is a light to our path, not a GPS for the journey.”  .”  Duties never conflict.  “Order my steps, in Your Word, O Lord.”

3.    Don’t be a complainer.  “Sit on the pity pot, but don’t stay there long enough to get ring-around-the-hiney.”  Nobody wants to be around a whiney-butt.            Secret:  Think thanks.  An attitude of gratitude comes from a heart focused on Jesus.  “I have learned in whatever state I am to be content.” JOY is the by-product of a thankful heart.

4.    Your story is not complete. We know how it ends. We’ve read the Book, even the last chapter!  So praise God even now, IN the storm.  People notice.  Be sure they notice HIM more than you or your trials.  Seek the kingdom FIRST and foremost.  Balance life.

5.    Keep eternity in mind.  The Sweet By and By helps us live in the Nasty Now and Now.  “Far better. . .”  Phil. 1:23 Paul was torn. “It is better to depart; it is far better to be with Christ.”  Today’s circumstances and choices will be different if we remember we are citizens of another place, only ambassadors here. God plants eternity in our hearts.

6.    Radiate Jesus, in word, in deed and continually.  “Whether you eat or drink. . .”  Don’t subdivide yourself into spiritual, secular, emotional, intellectual.  He created you, whole. Be real. “To thine own self be true.” (Shakespeare)  Just be you and let Him shine through.

7.    “Never sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the immediate.”  (Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.) Sometimes the project or the TO Do List causes us to miss HIS interruptions.  Those blasted interruptions become blessed interruptions if we allow His daily plan.

8.    Listen. REALLY listen.  They may not even need your advice.  Don’t always try to be Mr. Fix It.  Sometimes all your spouse, child or friend needs is just to be heard, seen, understood. That’s love. “Husbands, love your wives with understanding.” LIFEtime job! Hearing is not always listening,

9.    Find stillness, quietness every day.  It may be in your car before going inside.  Let go and let God.  It may be in your bed, before you open your eyes.  Breathe Him in, release yourself. Dr. Mike Gay prays before rising, “Lord, help me know You better and love You more today.”  God speaks in silence.  Be STILL and know.

10.  Embrace change.  “No one likes change except a baby with a dirty diaper, and even he will cry about it.”  Every living thing changes.  Only dead things don’t move. So don’t fear trying something new nor failing.  GROW, STRETCH, LEARN.  Everyone needs a Barnabas to encourage us and a Timothy to mentor.  So teach but remain teachable.   Be a sponge.  Soak up, then wring yourself out.

KATHY ON DEATH

KATHY ON SEX DEATH

Now that's a title absolutely no one wants to read.  I should have called it "Kathy on Sex" then everyone would at least peek.

In the last week we heard of the death of a high school classmate and a college friend, both woman.  Somehow when the obits are your contemporaries, you glance over your shoulder for the grim reaper.

In ministry we are well acquainted with funerals.  A local funeral home calls on me to play for people who have no church nor musician.  I've heard countless eulogies.  I don't fear death but I am afraid of the process.  

As I age, my body reminds me I'm moving to the front of the line into the pearly gates.  Any day above ground is a good day.  As a Christian I know that heaven is far better.

So I ponder how I want to face these years which may hold suffering, sickness eventually death.  Here are a few points that guide me:

1. God planted eternity in my heart.  So I lift my head above this world and keep heaven in view.  It changes how I face today's circumstances.  Newscasts upsetting?  "In the last days perilous times shall come. . ."  He warned us.  Look up!

2. Life is a vapor.  I am consumed with living, not dying.  I savor, cherish each day, my friends, good times, every moment as a gift.  Live life abundantly!

3. God is preparing a place for me.  He's also preparing me for that place.  So I allow my mind to imagine a new home, a grand welcoming, peace and health unending in God's glorious presence.  I also allow Him to chip away at my character, carving out His image more clearly.

4. Signs of aging speak to me.  Aching joints, loss of energy, wrinkles, gray hair. . .all remind me that I am a soul with a body, not a body with a soul.  Focus on the eternal.  Lord, deliver me from becoming a whining old lady!

You can sit on the pity pot

but don't stay there long enough to get

ring-around-the-hiney!

5. Cancer.  That's the big one we all fear.  But whatever diagnosis, accident or illness comes my way, I choose to think of it as my chariot to heaven.  Something has to take me there.  Sure I'd love to go like Enoch but that's not going to happen.  So even now I tell myself to get ready, see it as a means, not an end.  Death will be the beginning of what I was created for.

6. Hold loosely the gifts God has given me, whether things or people.  Hold tightly to the Giver.  As we declutter our home, we also declutter our lives.  I choose to focus on what's truly valuable.  

Nothing amazing in my thoughts on death but I want my thoughts and choices to be His.