How many of us are quick to get angry? I know that I tend to do so especially when dealing with my teenage children. Yet, I always feel so much guilt when the anger wears off. Thankfully, my children are very forgiving, but I do believe it is time for me to put a damper on my quick reaction to them when they do something wrong because I am supposed to be showing them a Godly example.

Many times in the Bible God is described as being slow to anger. A few places are: Exodus 34:6; Numbers 14:18; Nehemiah 9:17; and Psalms 86:15; 103:8; and 145:8. It is one of His major traits along with being loving, kind, and merciful. Honestly, He has every right to get angry at humanity, but He refrains from being quick-tempered. I feel that it is important to Him for us to also be slow to anger.

The world seems to be in chaos. In my opinion, it feels like up is down and down is up. Christian values are ridiculed. Sin is called good. Hypocrisy reigns, and it is hard to hear and discern anything because of all of the noise.

I never fully realized how powerful fear and anger could be. It seriously destroys rational thought, and a lot of innocent people are suffering because of the craziness that fear and anger cause. Unfortunately, those who are in power, on both sides, are not helping the situation. I guess they have forgotten the truth statement, a house divided cannot stand (Matthew 3:25).

Last month, CGI hosted a women’s retreat at beautiful Lake Texoma, Texas, which was organized by Lisa McComb. We were aware of the fact that the Coronavirus is/was still around. Therefore, we were diligent in washing hands and making sure things were clean. Thankfully, I can report that none of us who attended contracted the virus.

Well, enough about the virus. I have to say the retreat was a very welcome escape from everyday life, a time to fellowship, reflect, learn, and relax, a time to catch up with old friends, and a time to make new ones. I was blessed to be able to go with my mom and my daughter. Three generations of curly haired women getting to enjoy a retreat together.

The environment today is one of much strife. The news media feed off of it, and our politicians like to stoke it. Strife is not a good thing. In fact, “hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses” (Proverbs 10:12). I don’t know about you, but I cannot stand the environment that we find ourselves in. We need to choose to be different. We need to choose to strive to not sow discord, conflict, and strife, but instead show love by our actions and our words. We need to choose to be selfless not selfish.

It is hard not to mention the virus these days in any blog. I guess it is because we find ourselves in a situation that caught the world off guard. However, I don’t want to discuss the virus, but instead, I want to discuss something that has been on my mind for a while that has become magnified during this crisis. The issue is, more words don’t make someone look smarter and wiser.

This time we find ourselves in has disrupted a lot of people’s lives and plans. It also has shown how true and applicable God’s Word is. The first thing that I thought about as I crossed out weekend plans for the past two months was some scriptures in James:

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” 14 Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. 15 For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (Paul, 1 Corinthians 5:8).

We are in the midst of God’s set-apart Holy Days, Unleavened Bread. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I am doing a lot more Bible studying these days, which is a good thing. In my studies, I reread Paul’s words, and I decided I needed to really reflect on the words “sincerity and truth.”

I know I have used the above scripture in a lot of my blogs, but it is just such a good reminder of what we need to be meditating on daily. Plus, I feel that it is especially fitting during this time. The times that we find ourselves in are not very enjoyable, and my heart goes out to the thousands of families that have lost a loved one during this virus. These times seem very dark and bleak, but there are lots of bright “lights” that are happening despite this virus. Thus, the reason for the scripture is to remind us to focus on the positives that are happening during this trial.

For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment (2 Timothy 1:7).

I usually do not blog about what is trending, but the pandemic of fear that is going on is a cause for concern. Yesterday, I went to Sam’s, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I live 40 minutes from the store, I would have just turned around and gone back home. The store was a nightmare. I just needed to go normal grocery shopping. You would think the world was coming to an end by how full the store was with people. At least I didn’t witness anyone punching someone over toilet paper because there wasn’t any toilet paper. I did say a prayer for the employees that were definitely overwhelmed. I understand being concerned, but I am witnessing more fear than just concern. We are not to be fearful. Fear is not of God’s Spirit. Fear comes from our adversary. Satan wants us to be fearful because fear paralyzes people. It also cripples rational thought. It makes one act foolishly.

I have heard many times that there is a thing called “healthy competition” between people. Well, I believe the only “healthy competition” is when we compete with ourselves, not with other people. This type of “competition” is when we strive to do better at something than we did before, or when we are going after a goal, or ending a bad habit, etc. Basically, it is when we are competing with ourselves to become a better person than we were the day before. Now, this type of competition is only healthy when we are doing this in love and not in berating ourselves.

My husband works in the sat-com industry. The company he works for builds satellite antennas. It is very technical, and honestly, the majority of what he does goes way above my head. However, one night when we were discussing our days, a thought came to my mind that the industry he works in actually has a Christian analogy/lesson.

Antennas are useless if they don’t connect to the correct satellite. It has to link to the correct satellite in order to send and receive information, and there are a lot of satellites out there orbiting the earth.

When you read the stories in the Bible, do some of the main characters ever appear to be like superhumans? I don’t know about you, but people like Moses, David, Elijah, Daniel, the apostles, etc., appear to be the equivalent of actual real-life superheroes. Maybe it is because that is how children’s Bible storybooks and lessons portray them. However, the truth is, they were just as human as you and me. They were imperfect people, and what is awesome when reading about most of these “greats,” God reveals their imperfections.

A little time ago, I went to one of the most beautiful memorials I have ever been to. It was for a young man who had died completely unexpectedly. He was fine one moment, and then the next he collapsed on his living room floor, gone, leaving a young wife and three young children. It is extremely heartbreaking. The death of a loved one is the most punch-in-the-gut sad life experiences that I can’t wait to finally end.

The New Year is always when many of us come up with resolutions/goals. It is a good thing to see something that you may need to improve on or change in your life. We are human; therefore, there will always be room for improvement. Unfortunately though, according to a survey by Statista, only four percent of people who made New Year’s resolutions actually kept all of them*. I am no expert, but I think maybe when the only person that we are accountable to is ourselves, we sometimes fall short.

You are valuable. Do not ever doubt it. I think that sometimes we need to remind ourselves of that. We are important to God. We are loved by the Creator of the universe, and we are so valuable to Him that “He gave His one and only Son that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). We are so valuable to Him that He wishes to spend eternity with us.

There is a lot of need for reconciliation in the world today. It seems that 99 percent of the news is about groups of people who can’t stand each other, and it is not just an American problem. I know that without Christ’s return, this problem will continue, but it is sad to see. Hatred creates more hatred. No one likes it when someone disagrees with them, but instead of debating differences, people just seem to yell at each other and call each other names. It is like watching three-year-olds throwing a temper tantrum when they don’t get their way; however, unfortunately, instead of three-year-olds they’re grown adults. Yet, as I said already, in the world these things will continue because this is Satan’s world (2 Corinthians 4:4).

What is it worth to gain the whole world but to lose your soul? I am coming to the conclusion that it is vital to ask God what His will for our lives is, even if that means we have to let go of our own goals and dreams when they do not line up to what He desires for us to do. This is not an easy thing to do, and I have yet to fully accomplish doing this. Yet, I realize that it would be so freeing to wake up every morning and say, “God what do you want me to do today? Show me what priorities/tasks that I need to accomplish today.”

My family and I had a wonderful edifying Feast of Tabernacles this year in Lake Texoma, TX. The theme of the Feast was 1st John 4:19—“We love Him because He first loved us.” I do believe love was there at the Feast. We had a mix of different types of believers, and we all, at least as far as I know, got along great. It was awesome to see different styles of worship and to fellowship with people who had different backgrounds.

I have been to two funerals in just a couple of weeks. I also know of a few more people that have unexpectedly passed away recently. Life is so fragile and short no matter how long we live. Solomon taught that “it is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart” (Ecclesiastes 7:2). I know it may sound hard, but death is a reminder of how short our lives are, which in turn should make us learn to live each day to its fullest. We never know when our final day in this lifetime will occur, and the house of mourning is a reminder of that.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it (Psalm 139:14, NLT).

Have you ever thought about how wonderfully complex our bodies are? How intricate the Designer created us? Just think of our brains for instance. A professor from Stanford University, Dr. Kwabena Boahen, stated that our brains are “actually able to do more calculations per second than even the fastest supercomputer” (https://www.livescience.com/27907-neurogrid-brain-simulator-brain-awareness-nsf.html). There is so much going on in our bodies at every given second that we do not see. We have a complete electric circuit system inside us. It is amazing to think how sophisticated the human body can be. It is full of different talented systems that have to intricately and cohesively work together for us to be alive.