There is a woman in Julie’s office that practically bleeds drama from every pore. She currently has 3 children (all girls), ranging from 1 year to 18 years old, and another one on the way. Her second child has been taken away from her and is currently living with her dad, and is caught in the middle of a custody battle. The father of the 1 year old and the unborn child is a homeless man that the woman has a restraining order against (yet he still hangs out around their office and her house). She smoked through the entire pregnancy of the 1 year old, and is smoking her way through the current pregnancy. Yet she can’t afford to feed any of her children, except for the 1 year old because she gets WIC. She doesn’t even want the unborn child, but refuses to give it up for adoption, even though she can’t take care of it. To make matters worse, she really wants a) a boy and b) an even number of children, so she says that if she’s having twins (bringing kid count to 5) or a girl, she’s going to have to keep trying until she gets what she wants.

She blames everyone but herself for the bad things that happen to her. For example, she just got an electric bill for over $2,000 because she has been lying on her meter readings for the past 3 years. And when the electric company caught on, they sent her the bill. But she says it’s not her fault that the company charges too much. At the same time, her rent is less than $500 a month, and she’s a month and half behind on paying it. Yet she just took her children to Olive Garden and dropped $105 on a meal because “they deserve it.” Yes, they do, but they probably would have been just as excited about going to Wendy’s. (We’re still a little confused where she got the money, and what her real reason for taking them there was.)

The reason I spell all of this out is because whenever Julie tells me the daily drama, I can’t help but rejoice a little. I despise her for the horrible way she lives and treats her children, but I almost feel like she is just getting what she deserves. I have problems in my life, but this woman goes out looking for more problems, and I have an incredibly hard time feeling bad for someone that does that. However, quite often, I want to call the cops and let them know that the man she has a restraining order against is hanging out near the office. I want call the Department of Children & Families and let them know that she isn’t properly taking care of her children.

But 2 Samuel 3:30 tells about how “Joab and his brother Abishai murdered Abner because he had killed their brother Asahel in the battle of Gibeon.” Joab took revenge into his own hands, rather than leaving justice to God.

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. – Romans 12:19-20

If we love someone the way Christ loves us, we will be willing to forgive. If we have experienced God’s grace, we will want to pass it on to others. And remember, grace is an undeserved favor. – LAB

Rather than focusing my energy on wanting to destroy her already detestable life, I should focus on helping her. It is not my place to judge her or to take justice into my own hands. I may not be able to feed her and her children, stop her harming her unborn child by smoking, or adopt the child once it’s born to give it a good home. But I can pray for her and her children. When I would see her before, I would ignore her as much as possible, but I need to be nicer and portray God’s grace, so that she may find comfort in the Lord, as well.

There are some days that I take a lot from my Bible reading, and then some where I don’t. Today was the latter. Don’t get me wrong; the Bible is full of important lessons, and every time I do a reading, I do learn something. But today’s reading just doesn’t seem to apply to anything in my life at the moment. So rather than rehashing what I just read, I’m going to take a different route today.

Last weekend, I was invited to spend some time with my Pastor (Mark) and worship leader (Dan). We went to a hookah bar, which was exciting in itself since I had never smoked a hookah before. We talked for about three hours about everything from our favorite movies and music to faith and fatherhood. They are a great resource for me for the future, because when it comes to parenting, I have NO clue what I’m doing.

At one point, Dan asked me what books have inspired me in my faith, and I honestly couldn’t answer the question. I really haven’t read any books (other than parts of the Bible) about faith. Dan suggested that I read a book called “The Ragamuffin Gospel” by Brennan Manning. (This sounded vaguely familiar to me because I follow the blog and tweets of Carlos Whittaker. His blog is called RagamuffinSoul.com.) But Dan told me this book changed his life, and Mark agreed. I was so excited to read it, I went out after we left and bought it.

The thing is, I’m craving some spiritual change in my life. I know I have some big changes coming at me with a child on the way, which will be a spiritual challenge in itself as I try to console the baby to sleep at 3am while asking “why, God, why?” But as I mentioned in my last post, I want God to do something huge in my life. I feel like God is trying to lead me towards something so I can affect the lives of others. I’m still in the early phases of learning about and strengthening my own faith, so I’m not sure how much I can help people right now.

Part of the current process is learning what I need to change about myself. For example, my quick temper and foul mouth. I’m at my worst when I’m driving. Before I just got angry, cussed people out, and went about my business without a second thought, but I have to learn to control my anger when I’m behind the wheel because it doesn’t benefit anyone for me to get angry.

I’m excited for the changes that are coming, even though I don’t know what they are yet. But I ask that you pray for me as God leads me down whichever path He chooses.

At church last Sunday, Pastor Mark challenged everyone to fast on Wednesday (today). He says that we often wonder why God isn’t speaking to us when, in reality, we just aren’t listening.

Sometimes people wonder why their prayers are not answered. But if they don’t fulfill the responsibilities God has already given them, they should not be surprised when he does not give further guidance. – LAB

God doesn’t require fasting. However, by taking our eyes off the things of this world, we can more successfully turn our attention to Christ. Fasting is not a way to get God to do what we want. Fasting changes us, not God. I took the challenge, and fasted from food from last night until tonight. It was my first fast ever, and I’m honestly surprised that I lasted nearly 23 hours. I did allow myself juice, water, and tea, but no other food or liquid.

I prayed for many things during my fast, but I had two main points that I wanted to focus on. 1) Praying for Clayton Bell‘s new church that he is planting in Tampa and 2) that God would speak to me in a way I’ve never experienced.

My 2nd request hit me like a rock. I was sitting at my desk, and suddenly in my head, I thought, “I want God to plow me.” At first, I thought to myself, “Wow… that isn’t something that I should be thinking…” but then it dawned on me what it really meant. Between living in Texas for 6 years and living in Iowa for 7 years, I have a basic understanding of how farming works. When you plow a field, you prepare it for seeds… which then grows into food. So basically, you plow to prepare the field for greater things.

I seriously want God to do something huge in my life. It may not be something as big as planting a new church, but I want to have an affect on people. I want to help people find Christ. Am I the best candidate? Why not? Sure, I’ve had my share of sins. I’m not perfect, but nobody is.

How has God led you to this point? As you grow older, you will look back and see God’s involvement more clearly than you do now. – LAB

As I stated in my other blog at injekted.net:

I’ve seen what happens in my life when I pray and put my full faith in God, and also what happens when I don’t. And the latter is not a pretty sight. I have no clue what my future holds, but I believe that everything that happens in my life is happening to prepare me for greater things. God is my farmer, and I want Him to plow me.

I mentioned yesterday that Julie’s father passed away a few weeks ago (on June 4th). It didn’t come as much of a surprise. His health declined very rapidly in the past few months, although his problems really started over twenty years ago.

At one point, Julie’s father hurt his back and had surgery and began taking pain medicine, which he took for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, the medicine is one of the things that really hurt him because it gave him kidney and liver issues. Long story short, the hospital tried everything they could, but ultimately could not fight with all of the damage that was already done, and on the night of June 4th, his blood pressure just dropped and he slipped away.

Julie’s family handled his death extremely well. It was very bittersweet, because although it was painful to lose a great husband and father, it was a relief to see him not hooked up to machines fighting for his life.  We had a simple memorial for his with just close family and friends, where we celebrated his life, rather than mourning his death.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. – Psalm 116:15

“When someone we love is nearing death, we may become angry or feel abandoned. But believers (saints) are precious to God, and he carefully chooses the time when they will be called into his presence. Let this truth provide comfort when you’ve lost a loved one.” – LAB

Before he died, something happened that has impacted my life forever. He was unable to speak due to feeding and breathing tubes. Also, he didn’t seem like he was all there. He would acknowledge you by looking at you, and could raise his eyebrows when you spoke to him. But we weren’t sure if he remembered each day things that were said to him the day before.

And one night, his heart stopped for almost one minute, but the nurses were able to resuscitate him. When they were able to remove the tubes from his mouth and nose, the first words he said were, “Bright thin whispers of air.” We had no clue what this meant, but I suspected that he possibly saw angels. Later when Julie went to visit him, he asked her, “Do you know God?”  ”Yes, dad.”  ”Good, because I saw him… and he is mine!” He went on to mention having surgery (which he didn’t – at least on Earth) where a really bright tool encrusted with diamonds was used on him.

I believe to this day, and will until the day that I die, that Julie’s dad saw God and was sent back to tell us about it.

I can sit here an make excuses all night about why I have slacked off on doing my daily reading, but the truth is… I just got lazy. It started when Julie’s father passed away a few weeks ago. We weren’t at home and I wasn’t in any kind of quiet environment to focus on the Word. We then had to travel back down to Orlando for the memorial service the following weekend. Other than that, my time has been filled with other things. Things that could have and should have been put off.

I do this from time to time. I basically fall off the wagon, as they say. It starts with me slacking off from my daily reading. Then I gradually forget my nightly prayers. I make excuses to not go to church. I start cussing excessively again. It sucks. But then something drastic happens and I suddenly realize that something is missing in my life.

Today was a horrible day for completely stupid reasons. It’s not like anything really bad happened, but I just let things get to me. The climax of it was when I was extremely mad at some Best Buy employees who merely wanted to help me. I knew what I was looking for, and when they asked if I wanted help, I turned them away. They still stayed there near me, though. It really upset me, because it felt like they didn’t trust me to know what I needed. When in reality, they were just doing their job and trying to help. And, the truth is, I did need their help. I knew what I wanted, but didn’t know where to find it.

It’s almost like my quest to be more religious. I know what I want. I know how getting it will make me feel better. But I don’t want to ask anyone for help… especially the One that I know can help me.

Jesus is the gate to God’s salvation for us. [...] Some people resent that Jesus is the gate, the only way of access to God. But Jesus is God’s son – why should we seek any other way or want to customize a different approach to God? – LAB

The Bible clearly tells me the way to what I want. If you want salvation, you must go through Jesus.

The Lord remembers us and will bless us… – Psalm 115:12

Even when we feel alone or abandoned, he sees, understands, and thinks about us. And when I fall off the wagon (as, though I’m not proud of it, I’m sure will happen again), Jesus will remember me. And until then, I’ll do my best to live by the Word, keep praying, and try to keep my temper under wraps.

Today at Crossbridge Church, we watched videos of people from the church family talking about how God is on mission in their life. One girl said that she wasn’t asking for God’s guidance because she knew her life better than he did; she knew what she needed and wanted and was trying to get it. But when all the plans she was making were falling through, she quickly realized that she didn’t know what was best for her. She began praying to God for what she was supposed to do, and everything seemed to just fall into place, rather than fall apart.

One of the biggest flaws that I have is trusting the Lord in everything I do. And usually, it isn’t even that I don’t trust him. I usually just don’t ask for his guidance. But then I think about times that I was constantly asking for guidance and how my plans fell into place. For example, before moving to Tallahassee, my wife and I lived in Orlando. We went to church weekly, tithed, and prayed for God to be a part of our life. Then a job opportunity for her was presented in Tallahassee. She was a teacher, and this opportunity would allow her to affect more students than just the one’s she had in a given year. She would be helping teachers teach more effectively. We prayed about it and asked God to tell us what we needed to do.

When you pray, you may not receive the answer you want, so you refuse to even listen. And when you refuse to listen, you won’t be able to hear what Jesus is telling you. You may think the answer you are receiving isn’t what is best for you, or that you know yourself better than Jesus does.

Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. – John 8:43

Jesus tells the people around him to test him so he can prove that he is the Son of God. But the people are either unwilling to accept the challenge, or they are unwilling to believe what they discover when they do test him.

My wife took the job, but until I could get a job in Tallahassee, we decided that I would stay in Orlando, at least until our lease on our apartment was up, so I could continue to make money, and my wife would live in the house we purchased in Tallahassee.  However, one week before we signed the papers on our house, I watched the company I worked for crumble. We experienced our second buy-out in one year and people were laid off, including my boss. Then I got the news… I was also being let go.

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither, this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”

When something bad happens, don’t ask, “Why is this happening to me?” or “What did I do wrong?” Ask God to give you strength for the trial and clearer perspective on what is happening. You may be experiencing something tragic, but God is working in your life.

While losing my job could have been seen as a tragic event, it was actually a huge blessing. I was given enough severance that I could move to Tallahassee with my wife, rather than staying in Orlando alone. And within two weeks of moving to Tallahassee, I found an amazing job at the local newspaper as their web developer – a job I wouldn’t have found if I had waited in Orlando. We later found out that if my wife had stayed at her teaching job, her position would have been cut, as well.

Like I said before, one of my biggest flaws is not putting all of my trust in Jesus. I’m working on that, and actually praying that Jesus helps me in that department. But when I think, “How can I possibly trust Jesus do work in my life,” I just remember how much he has already done.

Two days ago, the state of California upheld Prop 8, a proposition that essentially says that gay marriage is illegal. I’m not going to go into a discussion about the definition of marriage, or what the Bible says about gay marriage. I’m not going to go into a tirade about the separation of church and state, or lack thereof.

What I want to address it the right (or, yet again, lack thereof) to judge people.

Over time, you will come to learn my story in religion and how I came to be where I am today. Long story short, if someone asks me what religion I am, I respond, “liberal Christian.” Some may argue that there’s no such thing, or that being a liberal Christian is a sin because some of my ideas go against what is written in the Bible. I understand that the Bible says, “…rebellion is like the sin of divination” (1 Samuel 15:23).

But I’m not rebelling against God by supporting gay marriage. There, I said it… I support gay marriage. And if any of my Christian friends have beef with that, then so be it. Does that mean I’m a bad Christian? No… because by supporting gay marriage, I am also following what it says in the Bible.

Let me explain. One of my favorite stories in the Bible comes from John 8.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” … But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this , those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.

Simply put, it’s not your place to judge people. Everyone has sinned, and the Bible clearly states that you can’t pass judgment on sin. That’s God’s job. Our job is to show compassion to people.

Without marriage, gay couples are not entitled to leave time from their job to care for their sick partner. They are unable to make medical decisions if their partner is unable to do so. And they can’t make decisions on the disposal of their partner’s remains should the partner pass away. Imagine what it would feel like if you couldn’t make decisions that could save a loved ones life. Imagine losing a loved one and not being able to provide them with the service they requested.

I am friends with gay people and support them in their way of life, because I like the same support in return. I have compassion for them. Do I think that homosexuality is wrong? Yes. The Bible clearly states that it’s a sin.

But who am I to judge?

So I think I need a change in format here. After re-reading my post from the past few days, I’m really just recapping what I read and applying my own thoughts to it. But it seems a bit overwhelming to recap everything. From now on, I’ll do the reading and then post a little blog about whatever comes to my mind, because sometimes I have other things going on in my life or thoughts that I need to put out there. And if it applies to the daily reading, then I’ll consider that a bonus. Today happens to be one of those bonus days.

There is a lot of discussion going on in the world (or at least the United States) about Jon and Kate Plus 8, a tv show about a family with a set of twins and a set of sextuplets. Jon (the husband) has been accused of cheating on Kate (the wife). The most recent episode was them discussing the situation, which doesn’t look pretty at all. To Kate (and a lot of viewers), it seems that Jon made a mistake and is now paying the price for it. To me, it seems that it doesn’t matter whether or not a mistake was made, the entire family is paying the price.

Clayton Bell (a Family Pastor at Every Nation Church Tallahassee) makes a lot of good points in his blog, “Family tragedy, tonight at 9.” But the basis of what he says is this: put God first, your spouse second, and your children last. He is dead on.

Go to a bookstore and look for Jon and Kate’s book, Multiple Blessings. You will most likely find it in the Religion section. Why? Well, this is the description of the book from borders.com:

Kate Gosselin tells the amazing story of how she and her husband have survived the overwhelming odds of birthing not only twins but also sextuplets in three years, and how they continue to strive every day to honor Christ while he teaches them to thrive in spite of emotional, financial, social, and physical exhaustion.

I must admit, I watch the show. At first because my wife did, but slowly I actually liked watching the silly things the kids did. I don’t claim to have seen every episode, but I have seen most of them. And you know what? I don’t recall them ever attributing any of their “multiple blessings” to Christ. Yet Kate travels around to churches to speak and Christian book stores for book signings. They put on a front that they “strive every day to honor Christ,” but they don’t lead a life that portrays it.

Bonus in reading part one: In 1 Samuel 14, Israel is at war with Phillistine, and as a last resort, Saul builds an altar to the Lord. The problem here is that Saul didn’t place his faith in God in the first place.

When we turn to him first, we will never have to turn to him as a last resort. – LAB

While Jon and Kate say that they are striving to honor Christ, it seems that they’re using Christ as a last resort for their problems. As Clayton Bell said, the number one priority in your family’s life is Christ. That’s not saying that if they had more Christ in the life, Jon wouldn’t have made the same mistakes he made (assuming he even made them – I’m not here to judge). But that does say that when you have a strong foundation with Christ, that will lead to a strong foundation with your spouse.

Kate mentioned in the show that she wants to do what’s best for her children. (I’ll refrain from posting a diatribe against them for even putting their children in the media spotlight in the first place.) However, if she wants what’s best for her children, she will fix what’s wrong with her marriage. And what’s wrong with her marriage is it’s lack of the foundation in Christ.

But while it’s easy to sit here and analyze the shortcomings of another family, the only thing we (as Christians) can do to help Jon, Kate, and the children is pray. Bonus in reading part two:

As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. – 1 Samuel 12:23

Besides the obvious marriage counseling, this family needs prayer. Pray for Jon and Kate to rediscover Christ in the marriage. Pray for them to provide their children with a model of a good marriage. And pray that the children will not be hurt during this difficult time in their family.

We left off in 1 Samuel with Hophni and Phinehas taking the ark of the covenant as a false idol (in a sense), which lead to their death – and ultimately the death of their father Eli and the wife of Phinehas. The ark then gets passed around a lot because people are beginning to realize that it has power, just not the kind of power that they wanted surrounding them. Everywhere it landed, the people were plagued with tumors and rats and such. After the ark of the Lord had been in Phillistine for a while, they finally decided to send it back to Israel where it came from, and to send a “guilt offering” along with it. The offering they chose to send was five gold tumors and five gold rats. Because the obvious gift to say “please spare us” is the gift of tumors and rats.

But that’s the thing… they had guilt in taking the ark and were trying to placate God, but the offering they chose was not the kind of offering God wants. What God really wanted was a ram with no imperfections sacrificed and the people hurt by your sin should be compensated for their loss, plus a twenty percent penalty. These offering rules no longer apply because Jesus died so that our sins would be forgiven, which is nice because I don’t have, nor do I know where to acquire, a ram.

Anyway, they go forth in sending the gold tumors and rats along with the ark of the Lord by way of cow to a territory called Beth Shemesh in Israel. As the cow cart rolls into town, the people of Beth Shemesh (the Beth Shemeshians?) decided to chop up the cart for wood and sacrifice the cows as an offering to the Lord. Then they took the ark and the gold gifts and put them on up on a rock. But God killed about seventy of them because they looked into the ark, which God specifically said not to do.

God did not kill the men of Beth Shemesh to be cruel. He killed them because overlooking their presumptuous sin would encourage the whole nation to ignore God. – LAB

Basically, don’t try to be all good with God and then blatantly sin, because then people will assume that it’s ok to sin if God doesn’t react to it.

For the next twenty years, the people of Israel mourned and were full of sorrow for what had happeend. But Samuel stepped up and said, “Don’t complain about your problems to God if you’re just going to refuse to do what God says.” That’s not a direct quote, but what he’s saying is: God has given us advice. If you have problems and you’re not following God’s advice, don’t complain to him. Do what God tells you to do before you accuse him of abandoning you.

I was raised as a Baptist, and attended church when my mom told me to go. Once I got older and my sense of free will strengthened, I quit going to church. It’s not that I didn’t believe in God. I just didn’t like church. But then I went to a college that taught me to “question everything.” I started to question God’s existence. Things went wrong in my life, and I said, “If there was a God, this wouldn’t be happening.” Rather than just having faith (which is what God tells you to do), I turned my back on God because I thought he turned his back on me. My mom continued to pray for me, but honestly, there was nothing she could do. It didn’t happen because she made me go to church with. She didn’t drive me away from God.

Samuel had two sons, Joel and Abijah. They didn’t follow in the footsteps of their father, and “turned aside after dishonest gain.” But nothing in the Bible suggests that Samuel was a bad parent.

We must be careful not to blame ourselves for the sins of our children. [P]arenthood is an awesome responsibility, and nothing is more important than molding and shaping our children’s lives. [K]now that what you do and teach can profoundly affect your children and lasts a lifetime. – LAB

In John 6, Jesus continues to show his admirers that he really is the son of God by performing more miracles. First, he turns five loaves of bread and two small fish into a big enough feast to feed five thousand people. Then he walks on water out to a boat where his disciples are fighting a strong wind and guides them to safety.

After leaving my brother-in-law’s house yesterday afternoon, we ran into a huge storm. I had the windshield wipers on full speed and still couldn’t see the hood of the car. And so I prayed that God would keep us safe. I was able to stay calm and drive safely without panicking, and we made it out of the storm.  But while God kept us safe in a literal storm, the Bible tells us that trusting our lives to Christ will give us peace in any storm – physicial, emotional, or spiritual.

Today was a catch up day. For some weird reason, when I imported the reading plan into iCal, it started it on May 5. So rather than going through and changing every day’s reading all year long, I just decided to play catch up for two weeks and read double each night.

A lot of what I read tonight dealt with prayer. It’s funny because I realized today that I fell asleep last night before I prayed, and didn’t pray when I woke up. And I realized this while I was in the bathroom at work, so while I peed, I prayed. Later I questioned whether or not praying while peeing diminished the value of the prayer. But I decided that it doesn’t matter when or how you pray, as long as it comes from the heart.

In Samuel 1-2, Hannah prayed for a child because she couldn’t conceive. In her prayer, she literally promised to give her first born child to the Lord. She was that desperate. Have you ever made a promise to God?

Be careful what you promise to God in prayers because he may take you up on it.  When you pray, ask yourself, “Will I follow through on any promises I make to God if he grants my request?” God keeps his promises, and he expects you to keep yours. -LAB

God did answer Hannah’s prayer, and she gave birth to Samuel. And believe it or not, she followed through on her promise and gave him to God. Not like, killing him. But she took him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. In exchange for keeping her promise, God gave Hannah five more children.

After reading this story, I really questioned whether or not I could keep all of the promises I make in prayer, and decided that it’s better to pray for God to do his will in my life, and I will just accept it as it comes.

Samuel 3-4 talks about sin in our lives. The Lord told Samuel that he was going to judge Eli and his family for their sins. Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were sinners – so bad, in fact, that they took the ark of the covenant as a good luck charm. They worshiped the ark, rather than the source of the ark (God). Eli knew of his families sins, but chose to ignore them, which sort of made him guilty by association. The thing is, Eli was a priest… and an excellent priest at that. But he was so caught up in doing God’s work that he neglected his family. That’s not what God wants at all.

So the Israelites (including Hophni and Phinehas) attacked the Philistines, but since they had desecrated the ark of the covenant, God was with the Philistines as they fought. They defeated the Israelites, captures the ark, and in the process, killed Hophni and Phinehas. When Eli heard of his son’s deaths, he fell out of his chair (seriously, I am not making that up) and broke his neck and died. And when his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, heard of Eli’s death, and the death of her husband, she went into early labor and gave birth, but died in the process.

The moral of the story is this: when sin dominates your life, even God-given joys and pleasures seem empty.

In John 5, Jesus heals an invalid man – a man who had been crippled for thirty-eight years – and then tells him, “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” Later, Jesus tells the Jews, “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.” The thing is you have to honor Jesus, pray for forgiveness of your sins, and give thanks for your blessings. God’s forgiveness is the greatest gift you will ever receive. Psalm 106:1 says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”

The Proverb tonight didn’t seem to totally relate to the rest of the reading, but I should note that a very important lesson for me is hidden in there.

Long story short, I stopped talking to some of my friends because their political views made me angry. Today, something told me to get over it and move on. Not move on in a “forget them” sort of way. But more like I need to get over the differences and remember that they were great friends. It’s ok to have different views and opinions, but my anger just made me lose some very good friends.

Proverbs 14:29 says, “A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly.”

Anger divides people. It pushes us into hasty decisions that only cause bitterness and guilt. -LAB

One of my biggest faults is my quick temper. I get angry over little things so fast and all it does is hurt me. I read this on the day that I finally reached out to my friend Erin and asked for forgiveness. It amazes me how God works. He is working in me and helping me overcome my faults.