What’s In Your Wallet?

Scenario 1
An elderly woman turns her house upside down searching for two lost coins. Frantic to find them she is relieved when she does; these two coins are all she has to live on. She goes to church and puts them both in the offering plate.

Scenario 2
Newly divorced, single woman lives in a tiny apartment furnished with lawn chairs and a donated kitchen table. She receives a bonus of $500 from her employer. This money is needed to make ends meet. She goes to church on Sunday and puts $50 in the collection plate.

Scenario 3
A shop-aholic goes to her favorite boutique and finds a dress perfect for a party. It is on the sale rack for ten percent off the price. She does the math in her head and feels that ten percent isn’t much, but at least she can tell her husband she got it on sale, and she makes a purchase.

Out of the three scenarios, who would you guess to be the biggest loser? Let’s break this down.

Scenario 1, it was not uncommon for the elderly woman to give all she had. God blessed her by meeting her needs and she was never without food, clothing or shelter. She lived by faith.

Scenario 2, the newly divorced, single woman went shopping after church. She found a great deal on a new television and had half of the bonus money left over.

Scenario 3, the shop-aholic spied a must-have accessory. It was the ten percent difference she was saving on the dress. The dress ripped and the accessory was lost somewhere between the car and the party.

Scenario 3 comes in as the biggest loser. Selfish motives produce no blessings.

What’s in your wallet? God only asks for ten percent and he promises a great return on your investment.

Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. (Deuteronomy 15:10 NIV)

What Did You Call Me?

Daily Prompt: All About Me

Explain why you chose your blog’s title and what it means to you.

Shift From the Norm

If change is inevitable, why do we have such a hard time when it happens?

From my childhood recollection, the days were longer; my parents worked for the same company from the day I was born to the day they retired, and our family schedule was so consistent you could set your clock by our routine. But as I age, the days seem shorter, working for one company your whole career is unheard of, and nobody needs a routine because cable television has a convenient feature called DVR.

Consistency is comforting. My cats know when it’s feeding time, my spouse always returns home, and my playlists on my iPod are programmed with my favorite songs. But what happens when there is a shift from the norm?

The Pastor of my church made that shift from the norm. He wasn’t even with us for a full year before he left abruptly about two weeks ago. No good-bye party, no parting gifts, no keeping in touch; just gone from our lives due to personal reasons. We were left cold in our pews with a void in leadership. However, God has blessed my congregational family with a stand-in Pastor who led our congregation less than a year ago. He sympathizes with our heavy hearts. I believe his reassuring words today were Spirit-inspired messages from our God and Father, as they were genuine and comforting.

Change is inevitable. From my Christian perspective, our days are a gift from God, He knows us from before conception to the day we will die. Even Pastors change careers, and routines are hard to keep because the world is forever evolving. The abrupt departure may not make sense to my congregation, but we are pulling together once again because we have faith in the God we serve. He will not leave us nor will he forsake us, He will not leave us orphans as He holds us up with his righteous right hand. God is our comforting consistency.

For the Pastor that left us, the stand-in Pastor that is with us, and the Pastor that is to come, I pray these words from 2 Thessalonians 1:11
With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.

Your Wish is My Command

Daily Prompt: Writing Room
A genie has granted your wish to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like?

Just A Minute

Daily Prompt: Through the Window
Go to the nearest window. Look out for a full minute. Write about what you saw.

Celebrate Life

Daily Prompt: Dearly Departed
Write your own eulogy.

Random Thoughts

Daily Prompt: Ready, Set Go
Set a timer for ten minutes. Open a new post. Start the timer, and start writing. When the timer goes off, publish.

Bad Timing

Last night I was at my mom’s house when I saw the hearse pull up and park in the street. Two men dressed in black suits and tailored overcoats with matching black leather gloves stepped out and opened the back door of their vehicle. Perfectly orchestrated, they pulled out the coffin and wheeled it into the house and parked it in between the kitchen and dining room, just below the last professional photo of my parents when my dad was able to walk with the aid of a cane. From the corner of the living room, I continued to watch the men in the black suits open the coffin. From a distance, I could see my dad lying there.

Questions flooded my mind, but the most predominate was to know why they brought my dad from the cemetary back to the house he hadn’t resided in since December 2008. I lost track of the men in the black suits as I was focused on my dad as he sat up and said, “Hey!!!” while I exclaimed “Yay!!!” and clapped my hands like a child watching a magic trick.

My dad moved elegantly out of the coffin and stood up as I ran to give him the type of hug I would expect to give him when we met in heaven. His skin was soft and flawless and his hug was gentle and warm. I couldn’t believe he was back and I was the only person in the house that got to see him. Just as I was about to talk to him, I became distracted by a constant beeping noise. Oh the discouragement, frustration and bad timing as I realized I was only dreaming and the constant beeping noise was common during the night at my house. Our microwave is old and, for no apparent reason, will flash the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 while beeping at each number and we usually take turns getting out of bed to make it stop.

Dad, I miss you, but it was nice to see how healthy you are now. Thanks for the visit.

Matthew 28:6 (NIV)

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

Skyscraping Screams

Daily Post Prompt: 1984
You are locked in a room with your greatest fear. Describe what’s in the room.

Call Me the Word

Daily Post Prompt: Call Me Ishmael
Take the first sentence from your favorite book and make it the first sentence of your post.