Nan's Calendar

by   Nan Forehand,  Statesville, NC

Life at a crossroads is life at a point where choices are to be made - choices that involve love or hatred, justice or injustice, gossip or truth, mercy or malice, wealth or poverty, happiness or sadness, even life or death.  Author Unknown

Love, justice, truth, mercy, wealth, happiness, life; these sound much better than hatred, injustice, gossip, malice, poverty, sadness, death.  If these choices sound so much better than the alternative, why do we struggle with deciding what are the right choices to make?

We sometimes get stuck in a rut of thinking "I don't have a choice".  Friend, we always have a choice!

John Maxwell said "when it comes to change, there are three seasons of timing: people change when they hurt enough that they have to, when they learn enough that they want to, and when they receive enough that they are able to."

I've also heard that not every change is growth, just as not all movement is forward movement.  Choice and change walk hand in hand.  We always have a choice and we can always change; change our thoughts; change our habits; change our perspectives; change our feelings.

In our life-long journey, we will reach many crossroads.  I want to live my life on purpose, for a purpose and with a purpose.  My destination is Heaven.  I want to go to Heaven when I die.   I want to live deliberately focused on my destination.  I want to please God and live accordingly so that one day, I will enter Heaven and He will say to me "well done, my good and faithful servant."  I want that!  I want to live for a purpose that is greater than myself.  I want to live for you and to give you the same comfort I have been given.  My purpose in life is to be an encourager.  I want to be successful.  I want to make a difference in the world.  I want my life to matter.

I can't know until I die if I will enter Heaven.  I can't be good enough.  I can be forgiven enough.  I am deliberately focused on my destination.  I believe I am pleasing God.   Though I'm not perfect, I ask God for forgiveness when I fall short.  I am living for a purpose that is greater than myself.  I am living for you and offer comfort, faith, hope, and love.  I am an encourager.  It may be carved on my tombstone "here lies an encourager"  I truly believe I am successful, not in a self-boastful way, but in boasting for the Lord, because without Him, I am nothing and without Him, I have nothing.  With Him, I have everything in abundance.  I have all I need and more.  That is why I share with you.  I give gladly and with  a happy heart.
I am making a difference in the world.  Yes, one person can make a difference if he or she believes.  My life does matter.  Your life matters.

I'm not a preacher, teacher, Bible scholar, counselor.  I am a humble servant of the Lord and I am glad to be alive.  I've also heard it said, though I don't know who said it "as a Christian, we have two choices - we can either evangelize or fossilize."  The choice is ours.

Carefully choose your choices today so as to have no regrets later.  May the grace and love of Jesus Christ be with you this day and always.  Love, Nan