Prince Charming

By Carin LeRoy –

He caught my eye right away–the tall, lean guy with sun-bleached hair. It was love-at-first-sight for me. A mutual friend introduced us in the hallway during my first week of college.

Wow, I thought, I’d love to go out with him.

As a young girl, I had dreamy thoughts of who my Prince Charming might be and what he’d look like. Would he be tall or average height? Would he be blue or brown-eyed? What color would his hair be? Would he be handsome and funny? I had this weird idea that God would probably give me a husband, but that I’d probably not like him too much. Or that he’d be a great Christian, but he’d be ugly. God would give everyone else a great guy, but he’d give me the leftovers.

I remember the day the tall, lean guy with the sun-bleached hair sat by me in class. It was the end of my junior year in college, three years after I’d met him. (I guess it took him a while to notice me!) My heart must have skipped several beats.

“Hi,” he said calmly, “mind if I sit here?”

Are you kidding? I don’t think I absorbed too much of the lecture that day.

Yes, I married the tall, lean guy with the sun-bleached hair. He was everything I’d hoped for and far more. His devotion for God, his love and faithfulness to family, and his commitment to serve others made him my ideal choice. Marriage isn’t always perfect as you work through some of the bumps, but he’s definitely perfect for me.

What made me think that God would give me the ugly leftovers in a guy? Sometimes we have a distorted view of who God is. God loves to surprise us with the great plans He has for us–if only we’d just be patient and wait. Too many times we jump ahead of God’s plan, and then we live with that regret. So whatever place you find yourself today, remember that God does have a great plan for you, too. Be willing to wait on His timing.

PRAYER: Lord, thank You that You have great plans for me. Give me understanding and a proper view of who You are. Help me not to be impulsive and jump ahead of Your plan, but give me patience to wait for Your timing in my life.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 29: 11-14 NIV).

Living Productive

By Carin LeRoy –

Working in a mission organization, I have the privilege of seeing and talking with many people who are living and working in overseas locations. Part of my job is to do a closing interview with all of those who go on short term trips to discuss how their time went. I enjoy hearing their stories as their share about their experience. Recently while talking with a medical intern who spent six weeks in a village hospital in Papua New Guinea, I asked him “What are some of the lessons you’ve learned from your time there?”

“While living there, I saw how hard the people had to work each day just to survive. Their lives are difficult. I want to become more diligent. Rather than having a day to sit around and watch a movie or do something I like, I want my life to be productive,” he said.

In Psalms 90:12 (NET) it says, “So teach us to consider our mortality, so that we might live wisely.” It’s easy to let a day slip by us. Whether we sit around watching movies, playing video games, or spend hours with friends, we need to ask ourselves if the day could have been better spent. We can never recapture a day. Once spent, it is gone. But we can change the future and how we live each new day. A bit of prayerful planning can provide us with both the relaxation we need as well as fulfillment from our accomplishments.

God desires that we live productive lives. Don’t let time pass each day without a sense of fulfillment from a day well spent. Let’s stay focused on what God desires for us to accomplish each day and use our energy to work toward things that show diligence in our lives.

PRAYER: Lord, keep me focused on living a productive life. Give me wisdom to know the balance between relaxation and wasting time. Help me to accomplish Your purpose for each day.

“Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, because there is neither work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave, the place where you will eventually go” (Ecclesiastes 9:10 NET).

Little Jason

By Carin LeRoy –

Years ago when teaching Kindergarten, I had the cutest little boy in my class. Jason was a lovable little guy and would walk into class and say, “Mrs. LeRoy, I love you!” His smile was contagious, but he had a big problem. He couldn’t sit still. His constant wiggles and lack of attention provided many distractions for the other children in the class. Some days I needed to send him out to sit in the office so the other students could concentrate. As he would walk down the hall to sit in the office, he would turn to me and say, “But Mrs. LeRoy, I’ll be good! I’ll be good!” As hard as he tried he couldn’t sit still. He wanted to learn, but his mind wouldn’t let him.

That reminds me of our lives as believers. God commands us to live holy lives, but we stumble along trying to meet God’s standard of godly living and many times fall short. Even the apostle Paul said, “For what I do is not the good I want to do” (Romans 7: 19 NIV). He saw the sinful nature at war with our desire to please and follow God. It is a struggle we all have to face. We are much like little Jason as we continually try hard, but often fail to get it right.

I’ve often wondered where the years have taken Jason in life. By now he would be a matured adult, and those wiggles would have disappeared. In a similar way, as we mature in Christ and become sensitive to His guidance, we learn to keep those sinful desires under control.

Charles Stanley says, “Every believer is indwelt by God’s Spirit, but the extent of His rule is determined by the Christian’s freedom to comply.” It’s our choice whether we will let God have control or give in to those desires. Let’s choose to live a life that is dependent upon the power of God.

PRAYER: Lord, thank You that I have Your Spirit to guide me and prompt me as I walk through life. Thank You that I can depend on Your power to live an obedient life. Help me to learn to be sensitive to Your leading each day.

“Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8: 5, 6 NIV).

The Hope of Heaven

By Carin LeRoy –

Yesterday while driving home from running a few errands, I noticed the bad condition of the road. As I drove over potholes and patched sections, I saw its ugliness. Unsightly orange cones lined one section where road repair happened. Litter cluttered the side. My thoughts turned to what heaven’s road will look like. They sure won’t look like the scene I saw.

When scripture speaks of the New Jerusalem it says, “The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass, (Revelation 21:21 NIV). While we pave our streets with black tarmac, heaven has streets of pure gold. Earlier in the chapter, it speaks of the foundation of the city walls. There are twelve layers, each with a different precious stone – jasper, sapphire, agate, emerald, onyx, carnelion, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth, and amethyst. The twelve gates in the city are each made with a single pearl. That’s hard for me to imagine, but how beautiful that must look!

As we go through life in a fallen world with sin, sickness and pain, heaven is our hope. Not only because of its beauty, but because it is where we will spend eternity with Christ and where life’s struggles will end. I’m sure when we get to Heaven, the joys we experience will far outweigh the burdens of earthly life.

So when life gets you down, remember that Heaven awaits!

PRAYER: Lord, thank You that I have the hope of Heaven. Someday, when life’s struggles are over, thank You that I will get to enjoy the great wonders of Heaven and an eternal life with You.

QUOTE: “If you’re a Christian suffering with great pains and losses, Jesus says, “Be of good cheer,” (John 16:33 NIV). The new house is nearly ready for you. Moving day is coming. The dark winter is about to be magically transformed into spring. One day soon you will be home–for the first time. Until then, I encourage you to meditate on the Bible’s truths about Heaven. May your imagination soar and your heart rejoice,” Randy Alcorn, from Heaven.

A Facebook Society

By Carin LeRoy –

Five years ago at the prompting of a friend, I started a Facebook account and began to collect a list of social friends. It’s been a great way to connect with old college buddies, people who live in other states, and stay connected my children who live out of town. I love to see updates and photos of my family and the special events of others. I just added a great friend from my middle/high years whom I haven’t talked with in over 30 years. People that we can never actually visit, we can communicate and keep up with on Facebook.

It can become a great place to “spy,” brag or vent – not necessarily good virtues. We can post so many updates that it looks like some think their realm of friends is interested in their every move (who cares if you just bought a milkshake at Burger King?). It’s easy to see what mood some are in for the day–happy, mad, depressed, struggling, grieving–just by their posts.

Although I have several hundred friends and make comments on other’s posts, the communication is superficial. It’s a word here or a sentence there as I scroll down the home page. Communication is brief and to the point with no in-depth conversation. I see that as the sign of our busy times: Connect, comment and move on.

How dangerous it can be for us if our times with God are as brief and superficial as a Facebook post! Read a verse, pray and move on? How badly we need extended times of prayer and meditation with the Lord to hear His voice and draw on His strength for this life. Does God just get a token prayer like our friends get a one-sentence comment? With Facebook that might be enough, but it’s not enough for communicating with our Creator. Let’s remember to not let the busyness of our lives crowd out time for nourishing our spiritual life and hearing God speak.

PRAYER: Lord, keep me mindful that spending quality time with You needs to be part of my day. Help me to meditate and reflect on Your word and spend time in real communication with You.

“I recall the old days; I meditate on all You have done; I reflect on Your accomplishments. I spread my hands out to You in prayer; my soul thirsts for You in a parched land,” Psalm 143: 5-6 NET).

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