I CAN Start Over!!!
In my daily journal I have been sending letters to my sixteen-year-old self, primarily because I want to evaluate and reflect. Also because in the back of my mind I think that she will read them and not make the same mistakes I have made. I have often said I wouldn’t mind going back in time, provided I could take my current experience back with me. I don’t know if that is possible because without the mistakes how can I have the current experience?
Genesis 12:1 “leave your land, your relatives and your father’s home and go to a land I will show you.”
This verse was presented to me by Joyce Meyer in one of her video podcasts that I watch for encouragement. She stated this when she was trying to teach us the value of moving on and why we couldn’t stay with the people that in our lives. These people influence us, rightly or wrongly (my word), but they do. In the Traveler’s Guide, this fact is state over and over again. WE need to choose our circle of people who influence us, if we don’t choose them, they will choose us and we need to make sure that we are with people who are helping us not hurting us.
Exodus 40:36: “In all their travels, whenever the cloud rose from the tabernacle, the Israelites would move on. But if the cloud didn’t rise, they wouldn’t start out till the day it rose. The Lord’s cloud was over the tabernacle by day and at night there was fire in it for all Israel to see in all their traveling.”
WE must remember to include the Lord and the angels that HE sends us, in addition to listening to the HOLY SPIRIT when he shows the way. The way may mean to move or to stay but each action should be a conscious decision on our part. We determine the moves, we do have free will, but they should be a conscious decision made by each of us with the Lord.
I am participating in an online bible study called “The Best Yes by Lysa Terkeurst”. She also heads a ministry called Proverbs 31. This book is to support us in making the best decisions and that it is okay to say no. She also provides templates to help us say NO.
Unfortunately, I don’t heed the Lord when he tells me to move. There are times when I wish we didn’t have free will and were told what to do, but we aren’t. The Lord literally needs to kick me in the pants before my but moves. Moving doesn’t mean divorcing my husband and ignore my children or removing my parents and siblings from my life, just the opposite. It means prayerfully discussing everything with God.
Proverbs 4:13: “Cling to discipline and don’t let it go; keep it because it means your life.”
I treat my cancer and its side effects like I do with a bout of flu. As I went through my chemo treatments I lost weight and hair, then I became disciplined. (See where the kick in the pants came in). Now I deal with Celiac, GERD, vocal paralysis, and onset glaucoma and retina loss. My stubborn self wants to lose weight without having to do anything else. That doesn’t happen. God will help us, but only after we help ourselves.
In addition, discipline doesn’t just encompass the major illness; it encompasses the hard stuff. The every day stuff: Daily tasks; Errands; relationships; job. It is called the being a good steward of everything God gives you or puts in your path.
CONCLUSION:
Hebrews 4:1 “We should be fearful then. While we have the promise of coming to His place of rest, someone of you may have missed it.
4:7 “so he sets another day – TODAY – when long afterwards. He says in David’s words, already quoted, Today if you hear Him speak, don’t close your minds.
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