good to be home [+] Thursday E-Devotion

Lots on my plate, but I am glad to be home.  My own bed.  My own TV and remote control.  My office and pile of mail....

 

It is good to be home even if I am snowed under with so much to do.  These last 11 days have brought much joy into my life and to my family as we have connected with family and friends.  We have been blessed by many and reminded of the gifts God has given us ... life, breathe, the grandeur of earth and creation and more.

 

Life throws us all kinds of opportunities and responsibilities, and what has been on my mind the most this past week and today is one simple thought (and I know that shared this earlier this week, but I am doing it again): cherish relationships.  Make the most of them.  Connect with people.  Let your character and your love for life rub off on other people.  Let that happen.

 

But we get consumed by stuff, by the stuff that often doesn't really matter.  I have to ask myself a question most every day in the way I interact with people...do I let other people, all of them, know they are important?  I need to.  When my mind is somewhere else or on something that does not really matter, I am not making the other person feel and know they are important to God and to me.

 

Think about it:

 

Proverbs 27:17 (nlt) --- As iron sharpens iron,so a friend sharpens a friend.

 

Proverbs 18:24 (nlt) --- There are "friends" who destroy each other,but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.

 

Jude 1:20 (nlt) ---- But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit,

 

Philippians 2:3 (nlt) --- Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;

 

Randy Pausch was driven in his last lecture to do the thing he loved, lecture.  Yet all through that time he was sensitive to his wife and kids.  In his last days of life, he desired to make his hours and life count.  I am convinced that we need to make our time and our relationships count.

 

Just a thought as I close:

 

2 Peter 3:9 (nlt) --- The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

 

What is on God's heart?  People.  What does God want in Heaven?  People.  What should be most important to us?  People.