The Golden Rule

This week I read that a burglary occurs every 14 seconds! Does that not just astound you? How would you like to make the world a better place? I think that we can improve on this statistic if we could see people practicing the golden rule.

Is there such a thing as the golden rule? Jesus made Himself very clear in Matthew chapter 7 that we are to treat others the same way that we would want to be treated.

MATTHEW 7:12 "Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."

Sometimes, it is not so easy to follow this golden rule, especially when someone has hurt us or mistreated us or betrayed us. It is difficult to know exactly how we should treat others in times like this. When in doubt, knowing how to treat others is as simple as looking in the mirror. Ask that person you see in the mirror how they would like to be treated - and the answer you recieve will tell you exactly how to treat others.

"The mark of a Christian is that he will walk the second mile and turn the other cheek." - JOHN MAXWELL

AT THE WELL: time is precious

You can also find me today sharing a devo from my heart over at the AT THE WELL site:

I just attended the funeral of a friend. She battled cancer for the past year and half. She leaves 3 precious, beautiful teen daughters. She was only 38 years old.


I am certain if you would have told my friend two years ago that she had such a short time left on this earth to spend with her girls, she would have not believed you. But just like a blink of an eye, our lives can change. It did for my friend. And it has changed the lives of 3 precious girls forever.

Each of us has been given an allotted time on this earth. And God has given each of us purpose with that time He has allowed. There is purpose in the... READ THE REST HERE !

THANKFUL THURSDAY... supersize it!

I just love living in America! Here in the land of the free - the bigger, the better!

We drive BIG cars!
We live in BIG houses!
We have BIG bank accounts!

With two words, we even make the small things BIG...SUPERSIZE IT! Yes that's right, we even like our french fries and drinks to be BIG!

But what about our faith? So many times I feel like "if only my faith could be BIGGER!" But the Apostles also asked that same question in Luke, they said to the Lord..."Increase our faith." and the Lord replied:

"If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mullberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you." (Luke 17:6)

So really ... is BIGGER better? Not really, God says that all we need is faith and the power is not in the size as it is in having sincere faith. God is a BIG God and He has the SUPERSIZED power that will empower us to do great BIG and mighty things.

I'm thankful for the awesomeness of His power. His SUPERSIZED power!

What are you grateful for today...join your grateful heart with ours over at Lynn's as she is hosting THANKFUL THURSDAY today. Join us right here next week as I will be hosting TT for the month of May! Happy TT!!

WEDNESDAY WEEKLY WORD...something worth cherishing

It is so easy to trade old, worn things in for something new. Take your car for example, when it starts to have trouble, the first thing we do is take it to the mechanic. Sometimes the problem can be fixed, but when the repairs begain to get expensive and it seems like our car is just too worn out to be fixed ... we trade it in. We never trade down either, we always get something that is newer, shinier, and with more bells and whistles.

The problem with our world today is that often times our relationships with each other are often treated just like this. In our marriages. In our friendships. With our places of employment.

When things start getting tough, instead of trying to work things out and fix what seems to be broken - we go for the "trade-in". We get new friends, we get a different job, we get a younger spouse.

Can you imagine if you hurt your hand, and instead of going to the doctor, you just got the sharpest knife you could find and just cut that hurt hand off! How crazy does that sound? But this is exactly what we do when it comes to broken relationships, it is easier for us to sever it than to mend it.

Paul addresses the marriage relationship in the book of Ephesians:

EPHESIANS 5:28,29 "Husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it."

In last week's YOUR OPINION MATTERS POLL, I polled the readers the following question: "What is the one thing that you cherish the most?" The top 3 answers were:

1. 46% of those voting said that they cherish their loving family the most.

2. 38% voted and said that it is their Bible that they cherish.

3. 7% responded and said they cherish something but not sure what.

I am thrilled to see that cherishing our family is number one. But only 46%? What happened to the other 54% ... have they already taken their broken relationship to the local garage and traded it in for something else?

What a difference we could make if we took Paul's advice and cherished the relationships that we have. Not just in our marriages, but can you imagine if we loved people as much as we love ourselves ... what could possibly happen? Cherishing and nourishing could be the perfect tool to fix what seems to be broken!

Our family. Our friends. Our co-workers. Our neighbors. Our church members.
The homeless. The sick. Strangers.

These are people ALL worth cherishing!

A PIECE OF MY HEART...totally revealing

Have you ever had one of those days? You know, the kind that is just horrible, terrible and just down-right bad! The kind of day that starts out bad and instantly goes downhill.

Everything goes wrong:  the alarm did not go off, you are late for work, you forgot your important sales presentation at home, your credit card is denied at the restuarant for lunch, the school calls and your son just vomited, your car blows a tire on the way to get Johnny from school, upon arrival at home - you discover you forgot to pay the utility bill and your lights have been shut off, the dog chewed up your favorite pillow shipped from Korea, and your husband calls and says he just got layed off.

Well, as bad as that may sound, In the Bible, Job could easily win in a "bad day" contest. No question! In a single day, Job lost all of his wealth, his house collapsed and fell on his children, killing all ten of them. And to top that off, Job had painful sores all over his body.

Falling to hard times can certainly be revealing about a persons character. When hardship hit her family, Job's wife did not respond very well. She totally lost sight of God, she was overwhelmed by the pain and she simply revealed what I would say was wimpy faith.

JOB 2:9,10 "[Job's] wife said to him, 'Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!' He replied, 'You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?' In all this, Job did not sin in what he said."

Job had a different kind of reaction to the same set of circumstances. He responded with integrity. He chose to trust God in the hard times just as he did the good times. God had not changed, only Job's circumstances.

What about you? In times of trouble, are you more like Job or Job's wife? Will your character remain the same as it was in the good times?

No matter what your circumstances, remember God remains the same. May our character and integrity totally reveal our faith in the good and the bad!

and that is a piece of my heart today;

Welcome Home!

It is hard to believe that a year has almost passed since we took our son to college. But here it is the final week of his freshman year. I have some things to take care of this week as I prepare for his return home for the summer. How I have looked forward to this week with great anticipation!

As much anticipation as I have for my son's return home, I can't help think that our Heavenly Father must have even more anticipation as He awaits for His children to come home.

JOHN 14:2 "In My Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you."

God's anticipation for His children to come reside with Him is so much greater than anything you or I can experience. What joy there must be as I think about the reunion that takes place when one of God's children comes home. I cannot even imagine anything sweeter than hearing the Heavenly Father say to one of His Own ... WELCOME HOME!

My son is coming home this weekend, but in order to get home, he must know the right roads to take to get here. Much like this, we, God's children, must find our way to get to our heavenly home... Do You Know The Way?

Contagious Christianity

Don't you just love people who come around you that have something contagious! Like a cold ... and they sneeze all over everything and anybody who is close enough to catch what they have. Wouldn't it be awesome if we were so excited about our faith in God that we would spread it to everyone we come in contact with - much like a sneeze.

Genuine, heartfelt Christianity is contagious. If we are enjoying a life-altering relationship with God, than shouldn't our relationship have an impact on others?

MATTHEW 10:32 "All those who stand before others and say they believe in Me, I will say before My Father in heaven that they belong to Me."

If we are to be contagious Christians, we might consider sneezing alittle bit of Jesus on someone! It's something worth spreading!