It’s Monday. You really do not want to get out of bed, but you must. Your feet hit the floor as your hand hits the alarm clock to finally turn it off after a few taps on the snooze button. It is Monday.
However, you Monday does not need to be a bad one. Start the day by laughing a little to get your adrenaline flowing. One of the best ways is with the Monday Morning Laugh. Today’s Monday Morning Laugh features Tim Hawkins and a few thoughts on Christmas songs. Take a moment and enjoy.
Monday’s do not have to be all bad. Start the day laughing and renew your energy for a better day.
Well, it is time for a football post to annoy most of you. In fact, this might get me banned from the state of Alabama.
I am a WVU football fan; always have been and always will be. From the Jeff Hostetler years, through the Major Harris years, and now to 2017. I have also been part of the fan club that never appreciated the old, 3rd down draw that Don Nehlen loved to run. Oh yeah, and I never really like Pitt.
I like WVU Football because when they win, fans burn furniture. It is the best tradition in college football; hands down. The best job in the world is a furniture dealer in Morgantown, WV during a winning season.
As a WVU fan, I will say that WVU has rarely gotten the respect they deserve. From the hateful Lee Corso words in the mid-90’s to the blatant non-caring ESPN tribe today, there is a lack of respect. However, some of it is well deserved. There are games where WVU plays so well that no one could beat them; then there are others where they should have never shown up.
In all the years watching WVU play football, I have watched a few all the way through, some I have turned off the TV since they would not listen to what I was telling them. I like WVU football, but it is something in which I will not invest a lot of my faith. It is hard for me to put my faith in 18 – 22-year-olds playing a game.
I am weird I understand. I have not watched an entire football game in well over ten years now.
While being a WVU fan, I have realized the team will never win every game. In fact, they will probably lose the ones I want them to win the most and end up in some crazy Bowl Game that is all about money and less about football.
I like WVU football and I always will. I have learned many life lessons from watching them play; the most important being, it is a game.
Here is something to think about:
When your team loses, realize it is ok. The other team played better, and you got beat. It happens, and it is ok.
Look at football in its context – it is a game; nothing more, nothing less. If the outcome of a football game determines your life, you might need another hobby.
Tearing down others does not help. When your team loses, accept it. When your rival loses, accept it. Tearing down someone else for your benefit hurts everyone.
Teach your kids about football, but teach them it is a game. If you want to teach them, take them to a soup kitchen or an orphanage. Football seasons come and go, but the poor will be with us always.
Show more passion for your family than you do for football. Others can tell how much you care about something because of your passion. Do you show more passion to your family than you do a game?
Place values before a win. If you have to cheat, deceive, or violate ethics to win, then you need another hobby. Sports should be about teaching children values and values have very little to do with winning.
When your team loses, breathe; it will be ok. When your team wins; be happy.
In a few short weeks, the world will turn to look and discuss the Messiah. Every year, one day has the world looking at the cradle which would rock the world. Whether you celebrate December 25th as the birth of Christ or another holiday in the giving/receiving of gifts, the fact is, people are thinking about the baby Jesus. Most likely, your family and friends will be thinking about Jesus.
While we know that Jesus grew into a man, the Christmas season causes us to reflect on the baby Jesus. It was a humble birth that God chose to bring His Son into the world. It would not be a birth that would amaze the world as it does now, but it would be a quiet entrance of the Promised Deliverer.
The first years would be a silent reflection of the humility of His life. Common people would be His first visitors and around two years of age magi from the east would bring Him earthly, honorable gifts. As His life would be sought by a power-hungry king, His family would become refugees. Finally, returning to His homeland, His family settled in a common town.
Amazingly enough, the Messiah grew up among the people without notice. Even after He grew into adulthood and began His earthly ministry, the people still saw His as Joseph and Mary’s boy. As His fame was growing and multitudes followed Him, some still saw Him as an earthly man and others saw Him as the Messiah the nation had waited so long to see. To the latter, He was their deliverer, their Savior, their King.
Today we all realize we should be thankful, but why?
Why should you be thankful?.
Thanksgiving ushers in the holiday season where families gather together, huge meals are prepared and served, days are filled with shopping and time is spent reflecting on the past year. It is during these times, we reflect on the blessings of our lives.
If we are honest with ourselves, we understand we are undeserving of many of our blessings. Despite our choices, we are blessed in ways we cannot imagine. As Christians, there are many reasons we should be thankful every day.
We have been made in God’s image. In the beginning, God said to Himself, “Let Us make man in Our own image, after Our likeness.” (Genesis 1.26) God made us as everlasting people. Shouldn’t we be thankful that everlasting life has been extended to us? Christians have an inheritance reserved in heaven. (1 Peter 1.4) Being made in the image of God, and by trusting in the One God sent, I can be released from the fear of death (Hebrews 2.14-15).
We have a Savior who cares for us? It is a terrible feeling to think that nobody cares, and many suffer in their loneliness. As a Christians, though we may have our moments of discouragements, we can never say, “Nobody cares about me.” Peter writes we can cast our cares on God because he cares for us (1 Peter 5.7). We are blessed to have a Savior to understands our needs (Hebrews 4.15).
We have Jesus as our justifier. In a sense, when we obeyed the gospel, Jesus no long stood as our judge, but He became our justifier. Paul said, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? … It is God who justifies.” (Romans 8:31-34)
Tomorrow, the majority of Americans will sit with family and friends around a table full of food that took hours to prepare and it will be eaten in less than twenty minutes. When many think of Thanksgiving, they think of a national holiday of turkey, stuffing/dressing, football and a long afternoon nap.
Thanksgiving goes beyond a holiday; it is a life.
Robert Louis Stevenson is credited with saying, “The person who has stopped being thankful has fallen asleep in life.” I believe Mr. Stevenson is accurate in his statement and it would do each of us good to reflect on his simple words. If one has reached a point where they are no longer thankful, in spite of circumstances, then maybe they are sleeping through life.
Among the lessons Viktor Frankl learned in the Nazi death-camp, Auschwitz, was to take time to be thankful and to count your blessings. He wrote that prisoners in the camp dreamed at night about a certain set of things more than anything else. Bread, cakes, and nice warm baths—the very things we take for granted every day.
Frankl said the prisoners around him began to appreciate beauty as never before. In one especially poignant paragraph, he wrote:
If someone had seen our faces on the journey from Auschwitz to a Bavarian camp as we beheld the mountains of Salzburg with their summits glowing in the sunset, through the little barred windows of our prison carriage, he would never have believed that those were the faces of men who had given up all hope of life and liberty. Despite that factor—or maybe because of it—we were carried away by nature’s beauty, which we had missed for so long.[1]
How can you be thankful beyond a holiday?
Step back from the present circumstance and see the beauty of the world.
Remember, your God is the controller of the universe. (Romans 8.28)
Make a list of things to be thankful and focus on one each day.
Spend time in prayer. (1 Thessalonians 5.17)
Remember, you are going to heaven. (2 Timothy 4.6-8)
Just some thoughts,
[1] Morgan, R. J. (2000). Nelson’s complete book of stories, illustrations, and quotes (electronic ed., p. 734). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
At a last installment of the Black and White Photo Challenge, I will make it simple. It is about Home.
Day #7 – Home
A home is not about brick and mortar; nor is it about the structure itself. It is about the people and the memories. The walls that hold up a house are just walls; it is the people inside who decorate them with pictures, paintings, drawings and more. It is not the stuff that makes a home, but the memories are hanging on those walls.
The house is a house, but the people make it a home. The people bring the house to life with their lives, words, and actions. Their creativity is seen in the design and the decoration. People are the life.
My family has lived in a variety of houses and each one we have made a home. Without them, no house would have been a home.
I enjoy the sounds of our home; the laughter, the jokes, the words of praise, the gripes, the whines and even the tears. Each moment grows our family closer together in our home.
