Now Is the Time!

By Cami Checketts –

I often find myself putting off important things. Tomorrow I’ll study and ponder my scriptures instead of just reading them. Tomorrow have more time for fun and I’ll play with my boys longer than five minutes. Tomorrow I won’t eat a bowl of ice cream (but I really need one tonight). Do you find yourself doing the same thing?

Let’s remember this in our brand new year: The time to get healthy and fit is right now!

Listen to all of these wise words on the subject:

“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” Thomas Jefferson

“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light ” (Romans 13: 11-12 KJV).

“I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, let me do it now; for I shall not pass this way again.” S. Grellet

“When it comes to eating right and exercising, there is no, I’ll start tomorrow. Tomorrow is disease.” V.L. Allineare

It’s great to make goals and to plan for tomorrow, but we need to live for today. I enjoy having a list of lofty goals but if I don’t focus on today I’ll never accomplish any of them. Today I will eat healthy. Today I will go visit my adopted grandma. Today I will respond with patience and love when my four-year old is flailing on the ground screaming for a donut (that only happened twice so far).

It is easy to get overwhelmed if we think we have to do everything perfectly for the rest of our lives, but if we can take it one day at a time it seems more manageable.

Today is the gift we’ve been given. For some there might not be a tomorrow. Savor today. Make it great. Accomplish the things that are important and love the ones you’re with.

Cami Checketts is a wife, mother of four boys, exercise scientist, and author. www.camicheckettsbooks.blogspot.com  www.fitnessformom.blogspot.com.

Love the One You’re With

By Cynthia Ruchti –

How long ago was that song written? Relationally a disaster in the making, the popular song said, “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.”

Not great counsel for sustaining a marriage, but good advice for contentment with other issues.

Our yard was dipped in liquid nitrogen last night. I awoke to a frosty scene. The temp isn’t bad for this time of year—twenty-two balmy degrees. But my computer’s screensaver is calling to me—a thatched hut in Tahiti with a crystal-clear infinity pool spilling over into a sun-soaked turquoise ocean.

That’s where I’d rather be. Someplace tropical. Warm. Where I could sit outside to read a book without risk of frostbite. Where I could eat seafood and a crisp salad under the stars. (Okay, technically, nothing’s stopping me from doing that here, but lettuce doesn’t fare well in a deep freeze, which is what the weatherman’s predicting for later this week).

I watch the realty—as opposed to reality—shows on HGTV and wonder what it must be like to have an outdoor room you can use year ’round. The wicker furniture on my front porch is buried under a foot of snow right now. On my porch!

The Lord was at my elbow this morning as I looked out over the white-on-white scene. “Lord, what am I going to do about the mismatch between what my world looks like and where I wish I was?”

He whispered, “Take pictures.”

Huh?

“Take pictures and send them to the young woman at church who sets up the data projection slides for worship lyric backgrounds. She’s always looking for new photography to set the stage for worship.”

Turn my heavy heart into worship? What a novel idea!

It worked. I ran outside with my camera to take advantage of my surroundings and the artistic beauty of a Creator God who thought the world would miss something if it didn’t have a place for snow and cold.

With His help, I found a way to be “content whatever my circumstances.” If I couldn’t be with the setting I loved, I could love the setting I was with—to totally butcher the song’s original lyrics.

Did I say “butcher”? Maybe “improve” is a better word. And how might that principle play out in other “hard to love” situations?

PRAYER: Lord, whether it’s an icy morning or a tough assignment or a person I’m having a hard time loving, help me find ways to love the one I’m with, to take a snapshot of the underlying beauty or the You I failed to see in the picture.

“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances,” (Philippians 4:11b NIV).

Today’s devotional is by Cynthia Ruchti, writer and producer of the radio ministry THE HEARTBEAT OF THE HOME and Professional Relations Liaison for American Christian Fiction Writers. Cynthia’s debut novel—They Almost Always Come Home—released from Abingdon Press in Spring 2010 and A Door County Christmas novella collection (Barbour Publishing) released Fall 2010. Cynthia writes stories of hope that glows in the dark. www.cynthiaruchti.com.

Intentional Love

By Cheri Cowell –

One of my favorite photos from childhood was taken Easter morning on the front steps of my grandparent’s home. My sister and I are smiling from ear to ear fashioning our new Easter dresses, hats, and gloves. Each year I looked forward to the month of February when my mother and I would travel to the fabric store to pick out the material for my new Easter dress. And of course, I couldn’t have a new dress without new shoes and a hat to match! God applies the same principle to our “new clothes” in Christ.

“Now that we have been cleansed…” Even if I didn’t get new shoes to go with my new Easter dress, I would have, at the very least, cleaned and polished my old shoes to likenew. As Christians we have a new spirit given to us. We have new clothes for our souls, yet many times we act as if we can continue to wear our old shoes. These old shoes have wear patterns in their soles that cause us to walk in a certain way. This scripture reminds us that we need to put on new shoes to go with our new clothes. Those new shoes are for the love-walk we are to have in our lives. Because of His Spirit of Love within us, we can love others with a sincerity that only comes from Him. Therefore, since we can love, we should love intentionally and with intensity. That is what a love walk looks like—intentional and intensely personal.

PRAYER: Thank You for cleansing me of my sins and for giving me Your Spirit of love. Help me become intentional today about loving others with an intensity that equals Your sacrifice.

“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22 NIV).

Today’s devotion is by Cheri Cowell, who writes and speaks on topics of Christian discipleship. In addition to her books and articles, you can learn about her speaking ministry and sign up to receive her daily devotional at www.CheriCowell.com

Dancing Despite Our Defects

By Peter Lundell –

I recently watched two unusual ballet dancers. The pair dances passionately, with meaning and effect. Their achievement is different from most others, though. They each had the vision and will to overcome what few of us could imagine. The woman doesn’t have an arm and the man doesn’t have a leg. Yet they have mastered ballet. I’d never before seen a crutch used so artistically.

What is your handicap? Is it a beaten-down heart? Years of being abused? Lack of ability? Failure in the past? Fear of the future? If so, you’ve got lots of company. But ask yourself: Is there anything that God has created you for that you have yet to fulfill? Something you feel called to but have held back? An obstacle you’re trying to overcome?

Too many times I’ve shrunk back from being and doing what I could because of some setback or painful experience. I didn’t fulfill the role—or dance of life if you will—that God had given me. I only wish I had. The man without a leg and woman without an arm faced their handicaps and got creative. The result has blessed millions. What could happen with you and me as we do likewise in the coming months and years?

My point is not to motivate us toward success but rather to fulfill what God has made us to be. We’ll always have obstacles. We can see them either as barriers that stop us or as hurdles to overcome—and with each one we will grow.

Who are you? Who will you be?

In this new year, what steps might you take in the dance of your own life?

PRAYER: Lord, we both know my hurts, handicaps, and obstacles. Here and now I give them to You. Do with me what You will. Show me how to turn my negatives into positives. Make my hardships the foundation of blessings.

“I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD” (Psalm 40:1–3, NIV).

Today’s devotion is by Peter Lundell, author of the award-winning book Prayer Power. A rising new voice on connecting with God, Lundell is a pastor, Bible college teacher, and conference speaker. Visit him at www.PeterLundell.com for his inspirational “Connections” and free downloads of articles, parables, short stories, and book chapters. [Go to youtube to view this beautiful dance.]

Social Graces

By Emily Parke Chase –

While talking with a friend at work, I thanked her for helping me with a project. She was delighted and hurriedly gushed, “Oh, it was no pleasure at all!”

Though I wandered away shaking my head, I decided to extend her grace. After all, “It was no trouble at all” and “It was a pleasure” are not so far apart.  Then my friend’s husband, also a co-worker, apologized for forgetting the name of a client. “You know how it is, in one ear and gone tomorrow.”

Perhaps we all need an occasional reminder to ponder our words before they flow off our tongues. We think at high speed and release a thought before it is fully processed. Our brains switch off and head out to Starbucks without warning.

This issue of mangling phrases is not a modern disease caused by watching too much MTV or texting messages on i-Pods. Anyone can slip up typing 140 characters with his thumbs. But forty years ago, long before e-mail and emoticons, my grandmother encountered a friend in the market one morning and passed along a compliment overheard the day before. Like my co-worker, my grandmother’s friend blushed and, in her excitement, replied, “Oh, thank you so much! And, Mrs. Parke, if I ever hear anything nice about you, I’ll be sure to say so.”

Can it be true that over the course of decades my grandmother’s friends had never said a kind word about her?

The problem of prattling pitfalls only gets worse when we make such errors not before an audience of one but in front of a large group. Consider, for example, the Sunday morning when one of our former pastors looked out over his congregation and noted a large number of empty seats in the worship service. He apologized to us for the meager attendance. “The crowd seems much thinner today. All our ladies are on a weekend retreat.”

Fortunately for him, his wife was among those attending the retreat. Or was it the other way around? Would she have preferred to be seated among those of us whom he considered more slender? Thankfully, if she ever heard about his comment, she too extended him grace. They are still happily married.

Maybe we should all strive to be a bit more like Moses and develop slowness of speech.

“My dear brothers and sisters, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.” (James 1:19 NLT)

(Emily Parke Chase is busy editing out mangled phrases on her webpage. Visit her at emilychase.com.)

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