Harvest Fields Church

Be the person to ask the lady at the drive-thru how she is doing. You might be the one she talks about when she gets home.  Be the person to tell random people you like their hair or shirt.  Be the person to thank those who you see in uniform. They give their lives so you can have yours.  Be THAT person.

Be the person to smile when you make eye contact with someone, no matter who they are. Be the person to let others know you care about them. You may be the one who keeps them going. Be THAT person. Be the person to congratulate others on their accomplishments. Be the person to forgive more. Be the person to notice the small things about others.  Encouragement makes other people feel cared about.

Be the person to go sit with those who are sitting alone.  Be the person to say “I’m sorry” first. Be the person to move over on the sidewalk, so others don’t have to walk in the grass.  Be THAT person. Too often, we get lost in ourselves, our own thoughts. We forget to think about others.     – Haley Bop

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended (laid hold of); but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.                                                                                           Philippians 3:13

Paul was writing here about the call to press on as one in a race.  Press forward, while calling us to forget that which is behind—our past fears, our past focus, and our past failures.

We are called to new faith that overcomes fear. Fears will trail you with the lying forecast that you can’t make it. Fears are today’s lies about tomorrow’s promise. Fears are denials of hope rooted in doubts about God’s power, presence, promise, and workings. God always offers us the guarantee of His presence, and that’s enough to cast fears aside. The timeless rule for every runner in every race is, don’t look back. 

Dr. Jack Hayford

Teaching children an attitude of gratitude requires helping them to look at their situations from a point of appreciation rather than lack. If they are not taught to appreciate what they have, they will never be satisfied, always wanting more.

Here are ways to help:

Say please and thank you. Help someone less fortunate.      Volunteer.  Send thank you notes.  Look for moments in the day to be thankful for.  Share gratitude at the end of the day.  Compliment others.  Write letters of thanks.  Give someone a gift anonymously.  Look for the positive.  Be generous and teach generosity.  Teach by example.

If you think about it, we make changes every day, in some form or another.  We change our clothes and what we had planned for dinner.  Yet, somehow, we resist making changes in our spiritual life.  We get comfortable and want everything to stay the way it has always been.  If we continue to go on the same path, we cannot expect things to be any different.  Our choice then, is to obey what Jesus says for us to do.  There is no way we can represent Him unless we are willing to submit our will to God and to serve others as He directs,

Scriptures tell us that God wants us to change and renew our minds, living a holy life in contrast to the ungodliness in this world. In doing so, He promises us that we will be changed. 

Moses felt very inadequate and felt like he didn’t have anything to offer to God or to others.  He was only a shepherd.  God asked him one day, “What’s in your hand?”  Moses looked at his hand and said, “A staff.”  The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses did so, and it became a snake. God told him to pick it up by the tail and it turned back into a staff. Over the next 40 years of Moses’ life, God used that simple wooden stick to deliver the Israelites from Pharaoh, to open the Red Sea, to win a battle with the Amalekites, to bring water from a rock.                                                                            So, what’s in your hand?  Think about  what He has given you. God equips people in various ways. Offer to God in faith what He has given you, no matter how simple, and God will use it — sometimes supernaturally — to do His work. You’ll have a renewed sense of meaning once you realize how God is using the skills, resources, interests, and gifts  He has given you.  Again, what’s in your hand?

Today you have a choice. You can live out loud or blend in. I love the top definition in the urban dictionary for live out loud: Living a life you are excited about, with purpose, and inspiring others to do the same. In 1 Peter 3:15, Peter says to always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope you have. You decide.

Doing something because it’s the right thing to do. We’ve all been there. We question whether we’re making a difference, but yet we continue because we made a commitment. Apostle Paul’s encouraging words from Galatians 6:9 remind us to not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Keep your hands on the plow, my friend, and focus on what’s ahead.

When you see the value in yourself, you will see the value you are to someone else.  You are not a mistake, a misfit.  God created you and there will never be another you.