Author: kenlassblog.net

There are certain parts of your body that you cannot see. Sometimes it frustrates me to no end. For example, a sore on the underside of your middle toe. No matter how I would contort and twist my leg and neck, I couldn’t get a look at it. Even using a hand mirror, I couldn’t quite position it to enable me to get a decent view. I had to have somebody else take a picture of it and show me.

It got me thinking there are parts of our lives that nobody sees as well. Not even those closest to us. Secrets we may take to the grave. Some thoughts and feelings are so private we’re just not comfortable sharing them with anyone. We would do well, however, to remember that there is one who sees everything.

And one day we will be accountable to Him.

Several years ago we went on vacation to Alaska. Among our stops was Nome, where we were offered the opportunity to actually pan for gold. There are real gold flecks in the soil there, and it was fun to sift them out. You are given a very small, clear plastic tube in which to save the shiny grains you collect. You can then go to the gift shop and have them weighed and assessed.

Our accumulation was valued at $40. The gift shop won’t give you cash, of course, but you can use the value toward redeeming purchases. Naturally, everything in the shop is priced high enough that they still make a profit.

We chose to just keep our gold dust. The fun memory it brings back to us is worth more than some souvenir we might have acquired. Souvenirs get put in the attic and forgotten. Memories last forever. Especially good ones.

When I was a boy the fantasy threshold when it came to financial success was one million dollars. Being a millionaire was considered the elite success, a mere pipe dream for 99 percent of Americans. Forbes magazine would publish the short list of American millionaires.

Today, anyone with any kind of skilled labor career will likely earn one million dollars over their lifetime. An annual income of $50 thousand dollars, which is moderate by today’s standards, will add up to one million in just twenty years. Now the new fantasy standard is one billion dollars. Forbes now publishes lists of American billionaires. And, with the incredible explosion in the internet and technology industries, billionaires are more common, and younger, than you think.

You will probably never catch up to your financial fantasy. And that’s okay. You have been blessed with a reality that fits you just right. Be grateful for it.

If life has got you down, and you need something to pick up your spirits, try looking at your phone. Specifically, go into all of your photos and scroll through them. You’ll probably find many you took spur of the moment that you don’t really have any use for. They are ready to be deleted.

But if you’re like me, you have hundreds of pictures, many of which you’ve completely forgotten about, that chronicle your life for the past several years. Happy times with dear friends and family. Precious grandkid shots. Inspiring vacations. Scenic shots of the beautiful world God has created. Many reminders of how you have been blessed. Seeing these photos again will make you smile. They will pick up your mood.

Try it. The answer to your depression may be right there in your pocket.

The older I get, the more important it is becoming for me to focus. I can’t tell you how many times I have gotten up to go to another room, then got distracted, and forgot what I originally wanted to do. Or times when I have gone on to the internet to find information, seen something interesting that grabbed my attention, then shut down my computer without ever finding out what I logged on for.

I need to focus more intently on the task at hand. Do it right away. Don’t give distraction a chance.

We all get derailed by life. Taken to unexpected circumstances and setbacks. It can make us forget and disrespect the people and things we love the most.

Focus on the truly important folks in your world. Don’t let disappointments take over your attitude. You may wind up in a bad place, and forgotten how you got there.

At one time or another we all get our feelings hurt. When you feel left out, or disrespected, or forgotten, it hurts. If you don’t handle it well, your feelings can fester and grow into deep resentment, even hatred, and isolation.

It’s not easy to do, but the best way to deal with hurt feelings is to get your mind off of yourself. Focus on what you can do to brighten someone else’s day. You will find that something amazing happens. Turns out, helping others to have a more enjoyable day will actually improve your mood as well.

If folks have hurt you by making you feel you don’t fit in, become the missing puzzle piece in the life of someone in need. That’s God’s plan. You fit perfectly there.

When I was a child, I had a bad case of nyctophobia. That’s fear of the dark. My two brothers are much older than me and were gone from home when I was still young. So I was all by myself in what I perceived as a cavernous upstairs, and when Mom would kiss me goodnight, turn off the lights, and go downstairs, I was terrified. My active imagination would conjure up all sorts of monsters that were just outside the windows, waiting to pounce on me. Sometimes I was so frightened I would sneak back down the stairs, hoping my parents didn’t hear me. Those old wooden steps were so creaky, they would give me away.

Sixty years later, I’m still uncomfortable in darkness. It’s hard for me to feel secure in what I cannot see. Maybe that’s why some people have so much trouble trusting in Jesus as savior, trusting in a God they cannot see.

Just a small night light usually helps me to relax in the dark. Maybe you could be somebody’s spiritual night light. You could be the one to chase away the monsters in somebody’s life.

There is a person in my life who, for some reason, has determined that he just doesn’t like me. Honestly, I have no real idea as to what I might have said to him, or done that has caused this. He is friendly and considerate of everyone else, but he never speaks to me, unless it is some sort of snide comment about something I mentioned to somebody else. It has happened too often to be coincidence. I’m not imagining this. He just doesn’t like me.

Because he is in my circle of friends, I see him often. I am struggling with how to deal with this. Mostly I just try to ignore his behavior. But it’s so hard to suppress my feelings of resentment.

Lord, give us the strength to love those who don’t love us back. The way you have loved those who have turned their back on you.

I was sitting in the bleachers watching my four year old grandson play baseball recently. His team consisted of all boys, except one brave, determined little girl. She struggled to hit the ball the entire game, until her final at bat. With the bases loaded she managed to hit a groundball and make it safely to first base. A run scored that helped her team win the game.

In the team huddle after the game, the coach presented the little girl with the game ball. She broke into a joyous smile that was bright enough to light up the world. She excitedly ran to the backstop screen to proudly show the ball to her family in the stands. She was so thrilled.

There were other players on the team that had played a better game. But the coach knew that acknowledging the little girl in this way would bring her joy. It occurred to me that’s what life should be all about. Bringing joy to others. Everybody was happy for that sweet child and broke out into applause for her.

Because joy is contagious.

The other day my young grandkids asked me if they could watch TV. I asked them what they wanted to watch, and since it was close to Halloween, they told me they wanted “Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin”. I put it on, and they watched it intensely. There were loud bursts of laughter when Charlie Brown got rocks in his trick or treat bag, when Lucy pulled the football away yet again, and when Linus was labeled as a “blockhead”.

This cartoon was made in 1966. I watched it as a kid. My children watched it when they were young, and now my grandkids are into it. It is refreshing and encouraging to know that clean, wholesome entertainment is still appealing to children. It gives you hope we can survive the moral decline in our video culture.

Good, honorable fun will never go out of style. Even a blockhead can see that.